Esurience - Part Two

~ ~ ~ Lights Out ~ ~ ~

The greying, dying colors vanished, being whisked away all at once as if candlelight was pinched on all sides.

And pulling the bioluminous crystal in front of his face, those colors returned by perhaps 1%, in the form of green and black.

As if looking across the horrid sight with night vision, the black and green lit itself across the contours of the cave walls.

Processing this information all at once, even his chilly breath lit itself with a faint lime before the terrifying and slender visage could come into his frame of vision.

Swallowing down his fear, swallowing down all the panic and alarm his senses were overloading him with, swallowing down the trauma from failing time and time again, and swallowing down the timeless battle raging internally between hunger and pain…

Swallowing all of that down, he braced himself as the creature’s putrid and visible breath lit itself in a familiar lime, mixing with Cobalt’s own fading exhale as the creature was now close enough to sock in the mouth.

But Cobalt had no desire to throw punches.

Instead, dropping to the floor as fast as he was able, he caught the grotesque appearance of its ashen and rotting feet, as well as the both slender and bloated calf muscles that gave such a Horror the ability to run the way it could…

Catching sight of all of this as dark hair fell in front of his eyes, he grabbed hold of its shin as fast as he could, latching on with all he had.

And just as expected…

Inertia couldn’t compensate—instead launching the slender and lanky upper form forward, well over the border between land and cliff, and well over the threshold to consider this battle won.

Is what Cobalt would have thought…

But furiously watching the creature’s plunge, Cobalt had completely neglected his own safety.

And feeling the scratch across his face at once, Cobalt processed what the beast was trying to do.

“AAAAAAAAGHGGHHHGGGHH!!!!!!”

Cobalt screamed as loud as he was able to, fighting back against the pull of inertia.

But against its own will, Cobalt’s own neck was twisted, watching the blood splash into the air in the form of black—contrasted against green and lime contours.

Latching onto anything—anything he possibly could to stop his plunge, Cobalt gnashed his crystal deep into a fragile grey rock—

But seeing black blood splash onto his face, Cobalt clenched his teeth to the point where he could almost feel his canines shatter like glass…

As the grey “rock” he had gnashed his crystal into was the putrid and rotting flesh of this horror, which now dragged his grip off the cliff, down, down, down, spiraling into the hueless crystalling water below.

Unable to grab onto anything that could possibly brace his fall, he pulled his crystal out of its flesh as he shined it against its face—and to no surprise…

Unharmed, and gripped in a sting of euphoria upon seeing its prey within his own grasp, the Horror’s yellow teeth opened up wide to show an abhorrently inhuman grin, almost as if it thought it could swallow Cobalt whole.

There was no escaping his fate at this point.

Even though the creature couldn’t devour him midair, by the time his soon-to-be corpse would smash into the rocks below, his body would be ripe to swallow up soon after.

No—Cobalt couldn’t possibly fail again.

He couldn’t.

Not like this.

Not like this!!!

That fate.

That fate, that fate.

Thatfatethatfatethatfatethatfatethatfatethatfate—
“FUCKING FAAAAAATTTEE!!!!!!!!”

As he crammed the crystal into the creature’s throat, he watched the yellow teeth gleefully swallow it all down, before light permanently disappeared from his world.

He closed his eyes as tight as he could, shunning the Horror and the impending plunge from his mind entirely.

That girl, Arabelle, had disappeared from him entirely.

The battle of hunger VS pain—in the end Cobalt had failed that too.

Failed himself, failed this God-forsaken place.

Failed Bismuth.

Even through all of that, he could hear the sniffle of a pathetic, and worthless child being flung from the world.

He could almost hear what sounded like a young boy crying, sobbing at the realization that, no matter what he does, and no matter where he goes, he’ll be powerless.

He’ll always, always…

Be completely powerless…

Was I just meant to experience this… No matter where I go?

There’s no hope for me in this after all.

Forget it. I’m done. I just want to be done.

I just want to be done…

…

"After all of that confidence, and yet this appears to be the outcome..."

The voice of someone vaguely familiar. The voice of ambiguity.

"But that being said, I do not believe either of us truly wish to see it end this way."

The voice which resonates faith with a snakelike tongue.

"So if strength is what you need, I shall simply provide you with it."

That voice, which almost seemed to lift himself up when he didn’t even want to stand anymore.

"And if courage is what you need, I shall instill it within you."

The voice which wants above all else, for reasons unknown, for Cobalt to succeed.

"And then, if you are on the ground and do not wish to move, I will help you to your feet."

Yes... That voice. It finally clicks in his mind.

"But in exchange… Once you are standing..."

That's the voice of a demon.

Suddenly, inexplicably, inconceivably, Cobalt feels his entire world change before him.

Despite those words, despite that voice, and despite any confidence, he was still terrified. Terrified to open his eyes. Terrified to face the world ever again.

But this place… These sounds… These feelings…

The Battle between Pain and Hunger ceased at once.

The sounds of the boy’s pathetic tears ceased along with them.

For in that moment, standing on both feet, only one conceivable feeling shocked through his senses, as well as his heightened nerves, as all the terror they once felt was filled with a worry of an entirely new breed.

Is that… Sand…?

Feeling the strong whips of a grainy wind against all sides of his now vertical body.

Being encompassed in this foreign world, this foreign sensation, and these foreign feelings, he couldn’t bear to keep his eyes shut anymore…

"You will move your feet towards me, yes?"

Opening his eyes to a sea of sand, yellow bricks of sandstone worked their way up, forming a complex labyrinth of sand around his vision in all angles, breathing life into a maze of sand, a world of sand, a dimension of sand, seemingly swallowing him up within them…

“Wh…What…?”

Crawling under that sea of sand in a bulge of swaying and sliding grains of yellow, a head of sorts burst up through the ground and wormed its way up, sprinkling sand all over his shaking body.

This treacherous wall, made up of orange flesh and dotted with patterns, hairs, and appendages of black, this disgusting creature sprouted from the ground, spiraling up, up, up, and up until it towered up dozens of meters above his head, morphing this Sea of Sand into a malleable playground of which Cobalt was the sole toy…

This sandbox, of subjugator and victim… Cobalt stared hopelessly up the mouth of rows of teeth dotting its oral cavity, stretching inwards to an abyssal black…

Then clapping gleefully in front of its face, two fleshy, sticky, and sharp mandibles clacked incessantly, welcoming Cobalt in to be devoured within them…

Those words of hope. His failures of the past. The spinning swirls of his hopelessly and frantic thoughts coupled with the sandy whips of wind, lashing at his blood soaked face…

“Who……?”

“SCCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”