Sensory Death

For a moment, the world was still.

The weight of the Crown of Thorns slowly settling onto my head.

At first, it was simply a scratch, merely a sensation of something running along my scalp.

Then next came pain, sharp but bearable, it made me wince but only slightly.

But after that...

It was pure agony.

Mind-numbing and utterly excruciating.

It felt like a thousand ice-picks were being stabbed into my skull all at once and quite literally that was what was happening.

The countless spikes on the Crown of Thorns were slowly protruding my flesh, not merely just ripping it but piercing it. The thorns were ripping into my flesh and embedding themselves in my skull.

The pain was agonizing, it was harrowing. It made me scream, made me cry and made me claw at my head in a desperate bid to uproot the cursed crown.

But of course, it was futile.

The [Curse of the Fallen] Effect rendered all efforts to remove the crown useless and to make matters worse, my [Kinesthetic Awareness] skill forced me to feel the process on a much deeper and visceral level.

My control over the flow of World Energy fell apart, causing it to spill out wastefully while I could only weep and scream as the horrifying process continued.

I had thought this pain was dreadful but to my horror...

It wasn't even the start...

The system suddenly spoke,

[You have been affected by Effect: Burden of Fire.]

Next came strange images...

Memories.

Memories I had never seen. Stories that I had never told. Lives I had never lived.

I experienced the life of a blacksmith who smelted as he told his child stories.

I experienced the life of a swordsman who yearned for love.

I experienced the life of a woman who danced to the beats of fire.

I experienced so many lives all at once, felt their joys, pains, sorrows and laughter. I felt their breakthroughs, their downfalls and ultimately...

Their deaths.

Their numerous deaths.

I lived through the horror of being stabbed, being chewed, being ripped to shreds, being burned, being drowned, being crushed and being digested.

I lived through it all.

Through the deaths of the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Fire.

Through its fall.

I saw it all.

How the King had been vanquished by the angry red flare of Balor's eye.

How the mighty kingdom had been toppled by the Fomorians and Balor's harrowing might.

How the Fomorians had ruthlessly devoured the soldiers, the people...the men, the women and the children.

I felt their pain, their anguish, their sorrow and their cries...

Their cries to a lord long dead.

I cried too.

Not to a lord but to be saved, to be rescued from the pain.

But instead of a comforting voice, I heard a laugh.

A cruel, mocking laugh.

It laughed at my anguish, at my powerlessness and then it twisted, taking the form of words.

How does it feel? To have your hopes and dreams taken away by the hands of a ruthless monster? How does it feel to be slaughtered like cattle? How does it feel to be killed while your killer reveled in laughter?

HOW?

TELL ME!

HOW?!

In my ruin, I could not respond.

I could only beg.

Beg to be freed, to be freed from the pain.

But the voice laughed. A laugh so loud, for a moment, it drowned out my pain.

You want to be saved? Pfft! Do the world a favor and burn!

Burn in hell!! Pay for your ruthless crimes, and your sin for being born!

The voice was ruthless, unforgiving and utterly evil.

It screamed before vanishing eternally, leaving me behind with the pain.

N-no! D-don't go! COME BACK! SAVE ME! PLEASE! I BEG YOU!

SAVE ME!

D-DON'T LEAVE ME HERE!!

D-D-

Before I could continue my pathetic lament, another voice, a different one.

One much more ancient, one much colder, one much more absolute.

It slammed into me like a law.

A commandment.

One that couldn't be defied.

A command willed by the Elder of Fealty, the Hollow Drake.

"KNEEL."

It bore down on me, threatening to will my soul into submission but at the last moment, it met the insidious power of the Crown of Thorns.

The influence of the Hollow Drake threatened to chain my mind while the Crown of Thorns aimed to destroy it.

My body which was already convulsing violently on the ground began thrashing around, blood spurring forth from my wounds and amputated arm.

Meanwhile, my burning mind had slowly become a battlefield for the Hollow Drake's influence and the Crown of Thorn's Effect.

One clashed with insidious might while the other struck like an inescapable law.

The opposing influences continue to jar against each other, refusing to submit to the other while continuing to ravage my mind.

I screamed...

Till I lost my voice.

The World Energy continued to spill...

Till my Aperture grew hollow.

My body thrashed around...

Till it could no longer move.

I felt my mind split.

My vision fractured, doubling, tripling. The world twisted. My screams were no longer my own. A thousand voices echoed in my head; some mine, some not.

I saw faces, blurred and shifting, their mouths open in silent screams.

The Hollow Drake and the Crown of Thorns continued to clash, and since neither refused to succumb...

I did.

Suddenly, the world cut to black and a calming silence soon enveloped me.

I died...

A Sensory Death.

...

Alex laid at the center of the charred ballroom of the Grand Spire, sprawled across the ground like a broken marionette. He was laying in a pool of his own blood; his masterwork of an attire – the Posh Reverie – smeared with red and torn in many places.

His right stump of an arm was utterly drained of life while the arm itself laid a couple meters away, doused in a red pool of its own, still gripping onto Silver Lining.

His body meanwhile was still, deathly still.

Left behind and forgotten by both the nobles and the guards.

Elowen was nowhere to be found and so was Charles Chevalier.

Alex, the Fool, had met his end.

A shameful and destructive end.

The Hollow Drake, the Beast of Conquest and the Elder of Fealty; Eidolenhollow stirred.

It's gigantic ouroboros mass watching Alex's still body.

Eventually, it spoke, it's voice unfathomably ancient but eerily solemn,

"Chains are eternal. Freedom is a myth. The good are ugly, the bad are true. Fools are ubiquitous, ever running from chains despite being bound. Only the truly wise, would keel to control and free themselves from the myth of freedom."

It paused for a moment then continued,

"You, hollow shell, who lacks will, desire and direction are unworthy of my rule. So..."

"FALL."

And at the command of Eidolenhollow, Alex descended, vanishing from the city.

Silver Lining followed, leaving behind his mangled arm.

Eidolenhollow remained silent for a moment before saying,

"Beware the Inevitable."