The Pit

“King, what would you do if I began to wither away?”

“Well I’d…”

What? What am I supposed to say here?

If hypothetically she were taken by the withering, and transformed into a mindless zombie only aching to kill and destroy…

I would…

Have to kill her… right?

…

…

…

“Don’t joke about that kind of thing, Eryth, there’s no way I’m going to let that happen…”

Why did I think that??

Such a horrible thought. Rational yes, but horrible nonetheless.

“I thought you’d say something like that King” She turns to me and smiles. A hint of sadness lurks behind her gaze, I can feel it.

Something just feels off, ever since we came into the witherlands.

“You said you were fine, I’m fine now too. Let’s go King, The Pit awaits us.” She walks ahead, as she normally would, like any other scenario.

Sure she’s walking now, but her attitude is way off from how it normally is.

“Are you sure you’re feeling fine?” I ask, with concern in my voice.

She stops in her tracks. And without turning around says:

“Psshhh, of course I’m fine, I’m as fine as can be… Let’s just get out of here, kay.”

~         ~         ~

She continues to stare back at the ruined village.

Reminiscent perhaps, she did only just lose her home in a similar fashion.

Like it was a bad dream, a recurring nightmare.

Things have been moving pretty fast, but the end is finally upon us.

The Pit.

The massive hole could be the size of six foot ball fields, maybe even a bit bigger. And it goes down far, the descent becomes pitch black not too far down.

It's the world’s abyss.

“Now what?” speaking up as we stare into the pit of darkness below.

“Now what? I don’t know we climb down, probably, what else is there to do?” It seems the final trek brought Eryth back to her usual self.

That’s good, she just needed some time away from the village after all.

“Climbing down that? Nah there’s gotta be a better way to get down there.” I say, shaking my head in disbelief.

“Do you see a ladder King, a pulley lift even? We have to climb down, and hey at least it's not a straight drop, we’ll probably be able to slide down for some of it I bet.”

Eryth turns to face me, shoving her smugness in my face.

“Really? After coming all this way you’re gonna give up because of a little climbing”

I let out a deep sigh:

“Yeah yeah, I get it, I get it. Guess I’ll need your great knowledge and special set of skills to help me climb down.”

“Hmph. Yes you will, come on we don’t have all day, let’s get to climbing.”

Eryth sits herself on the edge of the cliff, finding a path down the narrow side of the pit spiraling deeper into the darkness below.

“Follow my lead King, we’ll take it one step at a time.”

…

We’re here, but I feel so restless.

The Demon Lord is in the abyss below but we must hike down.

We’re here but we aren’t.

Eryth’s pathing is once again, too cautious for me. Sure we’re descending, slowly going lower and lower, but…

I have a need for speed.

I call out to her, an idea brewing in my mind.

“HEY, ERYTH, WAIT UP! I HAVE AN IDEA TO GET DOWN FASTER!”

She slows down, allowing me to catch up to her.

We stand on a narrow platform, a small piece of earth jutted out of the pit's inner walls. The hole above us to the entire world slowly has grown smaller with our descent, the light slowly dimming as well.

“Do you know what a hamster wheel is, Eryth?”

“A what wheel? No, what does whatever you just said have to do with our descent?” The word puzzles her, although she looks intrigued. Maybe she also feels that climbing down is such a hassle and a waste of time, as I see it be.

“Picture this, me and you, in a ball rolling down the edge of the pit, completely safe from harm.” I proclaim as I wave my hands around.

“Ok cool King, do you see a human sized ball around here, you idiot.” She facepalms.

“No no, you’re not getting it, the ball is right here” pointing at her heart.

“What the hell?”

“Your heart, Eryth… your magic.”

“OOOOH, I get it now. Well of course you would want to rely on my amazing [Arx, the unbreakable defense]! Heehee.”

There she goes acting smug again.

Her body begins to glow rapidly. A bubble of protective magic forming around her.

“Come on King, step close, get in on this.”

“What, I can't get my own ball?”

“Nope, I can only keep one shield up at a time… I guess two if you count the reinforcements for my body.”

I pause for a moment, I’ll have to be standing so close to Eryth…

“Come on King, I can’t hold this up all day!” her hand reaching for mine.

“Right!”

Joining her hand in hand, the bubble reforms around the two of us.

“I guess we just have to roll out now…”

“I guess we do…”

“Ok on the count of three.”

“1”

“2”

“Wait, I'm not ready to start rolling.”

“3!”

Eryth steps forward off the ledge, her unbreakable shield falling along with us.

FWHOOOSH–

We plummet a bit until hitting a slope, the ball stuck for a moment until it started tilting.

“THIS IS GONNA GET DIZZY!!”

We run but we cannot keep up with the speed of the ball as it rolls down the near vertical slopes.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

BONK–

OUCH–

OOF–

By some miracle Eryth manages to hold the barrier strong, with every slam down into the ground we only are hit by the gravity forcing us into the walls of our container, which are surprisingly quite cushiony.

KAPOOF–

We manage to steer our bubble to fall upon a large pile of ash, a ledge still within the light of the sun. Eryth drops the shield for a moment to catch our breath.

“Huff puff… How–much more is there.” I say trying to breathe after that bombardment of tumbles and rolls.

Eryth looks up toward the sky, the hole we entered now much smaller, about the size of an open hand. She then looks over the edge, straight pitch black darkness below.

“Who knows… But your idea helped us get this far, we might as well go the rest of the way.”

“Right– let me just– take– a second– to breathe–huff-huff–oh–oh no I think I’m gonna be sick”

The absolute mess that was spinning in a hamster ball down a steep cliff was not my brightest idea. How do hamsters do it?

I fall to my hands and knees, trying to calm my stomach.

“We could climb down the rest of the way if you’re feeling that bad.”

I look over to Eryth, she’s completely unfazed by the wobbling events that just happened.

“How can you be so fine right now..? We were shaking like crazy in that thing.”

“That thing has a name, name boy, it's my [Arx, my unbreakable defense] and I’m a doll remember, no stomach to throw up, it was actually pretty fun for me. teehee.”

“Sigh, right I forgot, and yes your Arx, my bad.”

“[Arx, my unbreakable defense], full names man.”

“Sorry…”

I slump over the dizziness really getting to me. But slowly curing itself.

“A short rest is all I need, that’ll get my stamina back”

I lay there staring up at the sky, the last light of this world.

Eryth looks over the edge, into the abyss, the eternal consuming darkness below.

With some quick breathing exercises I feel in tip top condition ready to plummet another couple football fields of distance.

Standing alongside Eryth, she looks at me with an ‘I told you so’ look on her face.

“Go time take two, King.”

“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Yes, that's the spirit!”

There’s nothing below us, just pitch black nothingness. The ride might not be so bumpy this time. But who knows how long we’ll fall.

“On 3!”

“1-2-3!”

“WEEEEEEEE”

“AHHHHHHH”

My screams of fear and her cries of joy sound off as her [Arx, her unbreakable defense] plummet into the abyss.

Our yells go quiet after some time of falling.

…

And falling.

…

And more falling.

…

And even more falling.

…

And even some more falling.

If you could even believe all that…

We both look at each other expecting the other to say something about how deep this pit goes.

The light of the sun disappears, so that all that remains is the yellow glow of her [Arx, her unbreakable defense].

Until–

THUD–

The ball of light lands.

A black field of blindness, who knows how far it goes, how deep we’ve gone.

There is no right way to go.

No way of knowing which way is forward and which is back.

A darkness unyielding, undefying, it consumes the world.

Even with my eyes open, I’d see the same with them closed.

At least with Eryth’s light we can see each other. But it's very dim.

“I guess we should start walking, King.”

We look at each other again, with a mixture of fear and nervousness.

We must press ahead.

CHAPTER 13 END