235 The Blood Knight [5] - Freedom
"Heh... But I won't do it. Not for the price you have given me." Silas shrugged.
"You don't want to save your family?"
"No, I do. But, I don't need you to do it. I've already got someone else to help me with the consequences of attacking a noble family of the Xylem kingdom. Using you instead would be overkill. Like, super overkill." Silas chuckled.
"I can destroy the Skylarks on my own. I just need to get the timing right. My family will have to hold on for a month or two. I can't afford anything going wrong." Silas' expression flashed with coldness for a moment before returning to its normal state again.
"Then, what do you want?" She asked again, repeating the age-old question.
"I want you to help me with an upcoming endevour." Silas paused, as if pondering something. He rhythmically tapped his lips with a curious expression before letting out a tiny smile and asked her with an almost transcendent tone that reverberated and rilled through the vast darkness of the hall they were in.
"Let me ask you this. Have you heard of the lost continent?" Silas asked, a single brow raised.
***
-30 Minutes later-
The vast darkness was empty, without nose or vision to fill it.
Everything stood still, as if time itself had chosen to freeze in place.
Veronica, with her slightly widened eyes, nodded.
"I understand, and I accept your terms." She said in a low tone, her heart beating in her ears with the blood she had absorbed in the past pumping through her veins.
She had been hit with a revelation that had shaken her world, and right now, she was trying her best to remain calm. Her forehead's pale skin wrinkled, a scowl forcing itself onto her face.
Even if someone decided to listen in and try to understand what Silas was talking about, there was no way they would even come close to completing his mission.
Only someone like the king of Xylem could complete it, yet even he would take several years, if not decades.
Yet, Silas spoke of the mission as if it was something on his to-do list. Something he would casually shift his focus toward after 'rescuing' his family.
"Then, I believe we have a deal." Silas smiled and placed his hands behind his back once more. His clothes wriggled and shifted, slowly morphing into a completely different outfit.
His pitch-black robes with hints of emerald turned into his casual outfit. He wore a long black coat, suit shirt, tie, and black trousers.
Veronica's gaze didn't flicker once toward his figure. It was almost like she didn't even see his clothes suddenly shift and transform into something else.
Suddenly, the vast darkness around them also began to wriggle like millions of black worms, before eventually turning murky and muddy in nature.
The black tar-like substance slowly slid off the hall's walls and moved toward the soles of Silas' feet that sucked in everything around it like a whirlpool. The shadow became everything from water to smoke, wrapping around Silas and eventually entering the soles of his feet.
In the end, the only shadows in the room left were those created by the obstruction of light, making the scene a few moments earlier feel almost like a distant dream.
"I'll take my leave me." Silas showed a small wave before eventually leaving the hall, not bothering to take the concoction he created with him.
When he left the room, his eyes scoured the area around him.
When observing that no one around him could see him, he looked at the ground and watched his shadow expand from below him before he dropped into and closed the shadow behind as if it was never there, to begin with.
***
---Demon Continent---
Liberty stood within a vast darkness, her now crimson eyes darting all around with clear fear and anxiousness within her eyes.
She didn't know where she was and could only move her eyes.
The vast darkness was filled with millions of sparkling stars, each one radiating with an otherwordly luminance that shone across galaxies.
Yet, despite their light, the only sensation they created within the girl's heart was one of coldness. As if they were all eyes, throwing scrutinizing gazes toward her as if they were trying to decipher her very existence.
Liberty's breath quickened as she felt a presence, a weighty sensation pressing upon her from all sides. It was as if the darkness itself was alive, watching, judging. Her heart raced as she struggled to comprehend her strange and unsettling environment.
"Where am I?" she whispered, her voice barely audible against the vast expanse.
No response came, only the twinkling of stars that seemed to mock her confusion. She took a cautious step forward, her surroundings stretching and shifting with each movement. She was trapped in an endless void, unable to escape or find a reference point.
Panic gnawed at her, threatening to overwhelm her senses. She tried to call out, but the void swallowed her voice, disappearing into the emptiness around her. With trembling hands, she reached out toward one of the stars, hoping to find something tangible to anchor herself to.
Her fingers brushed against the distant light, and a surge of energy coursed through her, sending shivers down her spine. It was a sensation she couldn't quite explain – a connection to something greater, something beyond her comprehension.
As she focused on the star, her vision began to blur and distort. Colors shifted and merged, forming shapes and patterns that danced before her eyes. She felt as if she was peering into a kaleidoscope of memories, emotions, and thoughts, each one a fleeting glimpse of someone else's experiences.
Fear, joy, sadness – a whirlwind of emotions engulfed her, overwhelming her senses. It was as if she was glimpsing the innermost feelings of countless beings, their hopes and fears intertwined in a tapestry of shared consciousness.
She heard the metallic ring of chains being shattered. Chains that had held down her body and soul for so long felt like she was being freed for the first time in her life.
She was being given freedom that felt much grander, giving her freedom from being enslaved. Rather, it felt like a freedom that had been taken away from her at the moment of her birth.
A curse that chained their entire kind.
The experience was both mesmerizing and terrifying. Liberty felt a deep connection to these emotions, as if they were echoing within her own heart. It was as if the darkness itself was revealing the hidden layers of existence, showing her that she was not alone, that her individuality was just a drop in the vast ocean of consciousness.
Tears welled up in her eyes as she grappled with the enormity of it all. She felt insignificant and profoundly connected, a paradox threatening to consume her sanity. She closed her eyes, trying to shut out the overwhelming sensations.
Seconds passed, yet, to her senses, it felt like a day had passed.
And then a week.
A month.
A year.
A decade.
A century.
If not for the mysterious energy keeping her sanity and mind intact, she would have gone crazy. Yet, despite everything she went through, her state of mind, thoughts, and being remained the same.
Or at least, that was until something shone on the innards of her eyelids.
A single rune that seemed to represent more than Gilea's entire existence. A rune that had power that encapsulated every single star in the vast darkness. Yet, it still felt like it was just a single rune that had been broken off from a much larger being.
An incomplete equation formed from the scraps of something greater.
The rune appeared at the palm of her hands, and when she looked down at it, a single word echoed at the back of her mind.
"Freedom."
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