(Rose)
The sky has cleared itself.
I can admire the alpine landscapes in the distance, surrounding this white valley.
It really looks amazing. The mountains surpass every human-made construct by far.
Or so I thought I could say.
With Blu, we discovered an industrial site like non others I visited before, or even heard of.
Sothing like a naval shipyard, that would build cruisers. A place at least as impressive as that, but lost in the middle of the alpine lands.
It didn’t build spaceships as I first guessed. No, only machineries taller than buildings, for uses beyond my comprehension. But not space, Blu seems confident about that.
And in another of these long abandoned buildings, I found that place only described in old tales, far older than this place. A gateway to hell.
A giant well, so deep, a lit torch thrown inside did disappear in its depths before reaching its end.
A giant circular well of darkness, hidden inside a building and surrounded with machineries, pipes going everywhere, giant machines and computers around. And even lifts and staircases.
I’m in a daze looking at that. I put my hands on the handrail and looked down where I had thrown a lit torch. I really can’t see it anymore...
I’m anxious about this place. Not only because it looks ominous and plutonian; or that it looks as if Faustian scientists and technologies had dug a tunnel reaching hell itself, to study it.
R - I’ve heard of this place...
B - From your father?
R - No... From my sister...
~
A pit, almost bottomless pit. A sealed off and caved in tunnel, at the boundary between our world and the other realm, of spirits and deads.
An endless cylinder, with light and hope so far above the ground of this inverted tower, you cannot see them anymore once in the bottom of it.
An icy rain is constantly pouring inside.
And at the bottom, trapped like an animal in a hole is... her.
The well of Daiûa...
The true na, no, rather first na given, to the beings-like-her. Daiûas.
It’s the hole in the world from which they sotis might reach out the world of the livings.
R - Have you... Ever seen this place before Blu?
B - No. I know what you’re referring to, since I had to escape from that as well. But it’s not a physical place, and here it’s unrelated. It’s deep I can tell, but I don’t know what’s here and below... I do detect faint signs of life however, deep underground.
R - Soone, or sothing?
B - Probably a thing...
I swallow. I’m anxious. What lies at the other end of this gate?
Have I found the entrance to the other world? I know it’s not really the case, but it looks so much like it is... I’m still having shivers.
We built impressive machines to study this place obviously in the past. An entire complex for scientific studies... And a simple handrail here.
Cranes above us were strong enough to hang voluminous machines and lower them down there. I guess we really went down there. We sent people on the other side to study the netherworld...
B - What is it Rose? This place doesn’t strike as much as you.
R - Is this... You’re sure it’s not your world below?
B - No, I told you, my world as you call it is just nothingness; it’s not physically below the world. It’s at the sa place, only not structured with matter. So it’s ethereal, thin like air, but not below. My taphors of climbing up toward reality felt right enough to but aren’t true depiction of what I do. It’s just how I felt and would best describe it in English.
R - So... There’s no reason for this place down there to be more dangerous than the world up there?
B - That sounds right. Although there is sothing down there.
R - But just... What is this place? I can only relate to the scary legends about such deep holes into the Earth.
B - Well, should we find out? I can tell it’s important for you.
R - I... I almost lost my sister to such a place I could never reach... It was the jail of a daiûa... You rember my book?
B - I do. The one that spoke of you and . It had a few tales about beings-like- from previous centuries I rember. This place made you think of the well of daiûa right? Well, here it isn’t that old. And it doesn’t seem to be what you fear for many other reasons. It’s just a coincidence that it looks the sa.
I hold on the handrail tighter. She’s right. It just can’t be. It’s different...
Her daiûa isn’t down there. I thought I had made my peace regarding my very long late... sister. Yet...
In front of this pit that looks like hers... I want closure. I’m gritting my teeth.
R - I told you about her. The being-like-you who was fond of my sister. The one whom beca like another mber of our family. Her... I’m still scared of her... And as far as I know, she might still be at the bottom of this well, sowhere, still waiting... She’s a being-like-you, so she can’t die of old age in jail now can she?
B - No, but she might have transford into sothing else entirely, even perhaps devolving into a monster. It’s been centuries after all. But I doubt that’s the sa one here.
R - I... I want to know. I need to. Well, need may be too strong a word, but I really want to know that what is down below isn’t.... I have to see it’s not her daiûa...
B - Alright. We can find our way down. But, what if it is?
I swallow with difficulties. What if it is? If she’s there. If she remained trapped underground there, for centuries?
Rember... I need to rember sothing and it doesn’t want to co back to . I know I’m missing sothing right now.
R - I’m scarred of her... But I also dearly wanted to et her. I wanted to thank her... And as the world is today, if she hasn’t turned evil, then maybe we can free her and let her live in this world at last.
~
The lift doesn’t work anymore, and unfortunately, the stairs we found don’t go to the bottom, only a different tunnel. There are no ladder eithers.
So there’s only one way down left. Going back up later is really the more worriso part. Falling is easy.
Blu will make us float down carefully, monitoring her energy.
If we’re about to cross a point of no return mid-air, we’ll give up...
I stand on the edge of the abyss. There’s wind and an odd music coming from down there. My heartbeat increases.
It will be falling, only in utter darkness... Not from the sky, but from the ground, into another world devoid of light.
I trust Blu with my entire life again. I’ve lost count. My heart is still beating quite fast. What lies below could be anything. The chances it is related to or my family are negligible. It’s just a coincidence... But I want to see that I’m wrong. That my feelings are mistaken.
I’m curious and anxious.
I jump ahead. I fall into nothingness, endless nothingness, my heart hurting. I disappear quickly inside the darkness of this gigantic pit.
~
The wind brushed against strongly along my fall. Aside that, I can’t tell a thing. I’m blind and deaf. I can only trust Blu and wait while trying to keep my nerves under control.
I’m falling... I see no end and only fear surrounding .
Is this how Blu’s world feels like? Just endless void, nothing to reach or see... Just falling to nihilus in fear and cold wind, as if floating in the middle of nowhere?
What was this place for, when humankind used it before the end?
I can’t fathom.
I suddenly hear Blu warning that we’re about to land.
The gravity of my weight suddenly hits as my feet reach the ground under her control. I can’t tell how long this fall lasted.
My feet are trembling but now holding my weight, on rocks and unsteady ground. A pile of wreck and rubble.
How deep are we?
B - About 120 tres down below.
R - Only a hundred?
B - Yes. It’s quite deep already.
Blu tries to make my eyes able to see in the dark like she did in the past, but it doesn’t seem to work here. All I see is grey.
R - Sothing wrong?
B - Light doesn’t behave like it should in here. We’ll try the old way instead.
A spark appears. The torch I had thrown down burns again, but the fla is a deep red instead of a bright yellow. I can see a little my surrounding at least.
The fla looks very surreal without its brighter and warr colours.
It’s also freezing cold down there.
The cave with machines still looks like a giant factory of so sort, down there too. It has a tunnel heading away In two opposite directions. Left or right?
An enormous chanical construct takes most of the tunnel’s space. A kind of pipeline I guess? It has nothing to do with daiûas. That’s European steelwork down here.
I head into the tunnel. It’s oppressive for . The sounds are muffled and the light is weak.
Blu is restless, she’s becoming afraid too.
I begin to fear what lies further as well. It can’t be what I dreamt anyway. This place has nothing to do with or my past at all, now I see it.
Sothing creeps toward us. Blu slides out from my clothes and strikes ahead without a word of warning.
I lost balance and dropped the torch. I step back as the thing shrieks loudly just a few steps ahead of . The echoing loud noise numbs my hearing.
I try to run away in the dark but quickly hurt myself against the wall and fall. Blu’s ribbons fly like arrows against the thing again. It’s hurt again and screams even louder.
I feel blood dripping on . I’m scarred but I know that feeling, and what this blood ans.
I hear my heartbeat a last ti, and then everything fades. And I feel like I wake up sowhat, though it’s different.
I grab my sword at my waist and stand up suddenly. A part of just shut another that was cowering in despair. I attack. Rough instincts spur and I feel ready to rip it apart myself. The blade pierces it.
Blood pours and covers my hands. I rip the flesh and skin aside in a larger cut, wounding it deep.
Blu and I step back as it does too. I feel weird, but I hold my weapon tight enough to break my fingers on it.
It steps further back, wounded. We leave.
Blu controlled my legs and helps run through the dark. A whistle could be heard behind us suddenly. It was coming to strike back before we escape.
We reached the cave. I kept running. Blu guessing what I had in mind, I kept running at full speed toward the wall ahead.
Ti to fly away.
This place is only the lair of a beast or dragon. I have therefore my sad and expected answer. It’s not what I feared.
I reach the wall and step on it in a jump. Blood rushes to my head and I feel like I’m passing out as I jump into the air.
The blood and power that Blu manipulates pulses through my flesh much more rapidly than usual. It hurts.
I’m in mid-air, and I still see nothing. My feet touch the wall I think. I try to run on it, vertically, but it doesn’t work as I’m weightless. I jump. I hear the beast behind us, not that far.
I beg Blu to bring us up. She seems to have troubles doing it. We only float sowhere above the ground.
And I hear the monster growling right before us. My heart is about to explode.
Alright...
I yell to Blu to create light. She complies. She obeys and follows my lead. Light flashes around us, blinding us all. Then a disc of light appears above or around us.
I can see. Blu is failing. We fall. But I manage to keep my balance, and the sword I still hold in my hand.
I fall and land blade first onto the monster, piercing its body deep.
I can’t manage to hold onto the weapon as I continue my fall to the ground below, but it’s wounded bad.
I hurt myself against the hard ground. I overco the dizziness and vertigo and stand up, to discover the face of the monster while so glow still lingers.
One last ti, I expected to see her face. And it’s not her. This place looking like sothing I heard of is definitely just a coincidence.
The monster cos at , while my sword is still buried on top of its shoulder.
Blu is as confused and shocked as I am, while I clench my fists.
Blu’s ribbons attempt another jump at it and strike it again. The gigantic insect, if it is one, is stopped by these new arrows. It shrieks again. It bleeds more.
I take hold of a ribbon as if it was a sword and Blu follows my thought. I slash the tummy of the beast open, continuing the previous cut I did. I open it flooding the place with flesh. Other ribbons are going for the neck and the kill.
The head falls, loud. Blood is sprayed on . It slls like dust, not flesh. The head is still looking at . It suddenly spits sothing. I barely have the ti to cover my eyes with my left arm. A few drops reached my face and my eye.
I scream as it hurts as if it was sulphuric acid sprayed on . My sleeve is falling apart and my skin might follow. My face does too. I’m accidentally ripping my own eye out in panic as the acid is lting my face.
I passed out in pain.
And I still stand there though. I still see. I barely feel what’s happening however. I’m now seeing this through Blu’s mind in a dream.
She took over my body as I passed out. I see myself looking around and the ribbons inspecting my wounds. A fissured rib, but mostly a dire chemical burn on my left arm and face. One eye lost, just like that.
Acid burnt it and my nails scratched the lted part off when trying to brush the acid away.
I’m disfigured. Blu doesn’t seem to care about that. She just cleans the wound without showing much emotions about it.
She looks at the dead monster. Its inside shells are filled with bones. Its bones were very likely human skeletons, glued into composites. As for the head, she breaks it apart with a foot stomp. Flesh is splattered.
My whims were costly again...
Blu seems to look for sothing inside the crushed head and dead body. She doesn’t seem to find what she’s looking for.
She picks up my sword. It rusted. Maybe we’ll be able to repair it I hear her think, so she keeps it nonetheless.
I’m fading into proper sleep as she begins climbing away from this terrible place.
~
User Comments
0 comments from readers