Bab 2: Escape.
Edward came to a conclusion.
Whoever designed this Asylum was more mad than the hollows inside it. Because no matter how much he tried to understand the reasoning behind the architecture of the asylum, he just couldn't. First of all, his own cell was just one of 5 cells in a short hallway underground that you had to use a ladder to get in and out of, and that led directly to a square opening in the building.
The people who built the asylum just decided to leave a large square opening that could have been easily used as additional space for the structure, but just...didn't?
No, they left the ground untouched and built walls around it, with one passage upstairs on the right, and one in the front. But while the one on the right was a normal-sized barred door, the one on the front was a giant wooden gate that belonged to an entrance of a throne room, or church.
And there is also a bonefire at the center? The very thing that heals and reinvigorates undead? The prisoners?
Shouldn't this be sealed up? Why is it in the open like this? One would think that having something that would profit the prisoners would be hidden or destroyed, would it not?
It just didn't make sense.
"Don't look a gifted horse in the mouth." Edward reminded himself and walked up to the Bonefire. His savior, the knight, already sitting on the ground beside it and enjoying its warmth.
Edward sat opposite to him and let a comfortable silence descend between them. The bonefire's warmth clinging to him, attracted by his undead nature, enveloping his body and...and everything felt better.
His thoughts felt a little faster, a mist around his mind that he didn't know was there reduced slightly, which allowed clearer thoughts to form. The aches all around his body that he subconsciously filtered out during his imprisonment a long time ago disappeared, allowing Edward to truly relax for the first time in a long while. But most importantly, the warmth of the pyromancy flame inside his chest was more...clear. sensible.
Dear God, has the physical hollowing gone so far that it muted the actual fire inside his heart!? That's scary.
Edward was a pyromancer. The flame of pyromancy was something intimate for him, a fundamental part of himself that only other pyromancers could understand.
It's always there for him, always available.
The thought that there existed something able to numb that link was mortifying for Edward. The undead curse was horrible, yes, but he never thought it would be bad enough to dampen a literal fire inside his chest.
He always believed that he would be a fire-wielding hollow if he gave in to the curse completely, but now? Now he wonders how many hollows in this asylum were pyromancers that are simply unable to feel their flame anymore...
"No, don't think about it." He is free! Free at last, after gods know how many years! Focusing on such depressing thoughts after acquiring his freedom wasn't right.
He should be happy now.
Freedom should be enjoyed!
...
...
...
He doesn't feel particularly happy right now.
Not that he was dissatisfied, or sad, but he couldn't bring himself to feel the same sense of joy he felt a few moments ago when the undead knight opened his cell. Those feelings faded rather quickly after he walked out of his cell.
"Is it because I'm still in the asylum?" That theory had some merit. After all, he isn't truly free if he is still within the walls of the asylum, right? He may be out of his cell, but he is still inside the prison.
Glancing back at his savior, Edward examined the knight more carefully. There was a little bit of rust on the knight's armor, but there was too little of it, most of it was still...well nobody would call it shining but it was clean.
Too clean.
Whatever metal was made to make that armor couldn't be normal, it wouldn't be so clean of rust after years without maintenance.
And then there was the weapon... Edward suddenly had more appreciation for his own broken straight sword. At least his weapon had half of the blade left on it, damaged as it may be, but the undead Knight's sword had barely a finger length worth of it! It was more hilt than blade.
"Noble knight?" The pyromancer began, his voice still sounding like as if he swallowed a handful of nails. The knight turned his head toward him. "I propose we team up. Black knights patrol these halls, as rare as it may be-" Edward himself only saw one 2 times in his stay here. "- but it's better to be safe than sorry."
Reaching for the hold of his weapon Edward offered it to his savior, small wisps of black smoke still leaving the blade with each movement.
"It's not much, but it'll serve you better than your current weapon and until you find something more suitable for combat." There was a slight pause, the undead knight simply staring at the offered item. During the brief silence, Edward began to wonder if offering a broken blade was some form of insult in whatever knightly order his savior belonged to.
It certainly sounded like an act that the "higher class people" would find some convoluted poetic or philosophical implication to get offended by. Nobility is ridiculous like that.
Thankfully, the knight reached out and accepted the blade before Edward was about to apologize for any accidental disrespect.
"I myself am a pyromancer, until I find a weapon for my own I'll assist you from range with my spell work." THAT gained the undead Knight's attention. His sunken eyes zeroed down on Edward and stared at the pyromancer intensely.
Edward felt himself cringe at the reaction.
The art of pyromancy is scoffed at by largely...everyone. Sorcerers belittle and dismiss it, Clerics cry heresy and spit at pyromancers in disgust, and the common folk fear it. It's an art that is common for being known as...let's say...unsavory.
Of course not everyone had such an opinion, otherwise nobody would practice it. No, it's just the overwhelming majority of the population that despised his kind.
And now Edward wonders if he made a mistake by giving the knight his weapon before making sure he wouldn't strike him down with it for practicing that "horrid magic".
There is a small distance between them, but if worst comes to worst Edward was sure that he could hurl a fireball faster than the knight could jump and swing at him. The pyromancy flame inside Edward stirred and flared up, probed by nothing more than the tension it felt from its wielder, ready to be let out and burn whatever Edward would aim at.
After a moment of tense silence between them, the knight gave a nod and rose to his feet. Edward himself let out a silent sigh of relief before doing the same.
Without a word, the undead knight turned toward the massive double door and walked forward, Edward following silently behind him.
They both approached the giant double door, one on each side, and pushed. Due to their malnourished hollow form, It took a herculean effort to open them just enough for the undead duo to squeeze through. And when they got to the other side...
"Why??" The area was another empty room with an exact copy of the same giant doors on the opposite side! Granted, this one had a stone pavement instead of grass, but it still didn't make sense! Why in the name of izalith was this designed like this? What is the reason behind it other than confusing people!?
"Wait was it made intentionally confusing so any potential escapees would get lost in it?"
Before Edward could dwell on his theory further, he was snapped out of his thoughts by his companion's armored hand roughly pulling him back by the shoulder. The next thing he knew was that the ground shook, something hitting it with such force that the tremors caused by the collision made him sway and lose balance.
Locating the cause of this wasn't hard. Standing before them was a giant demon made of green, thick skin a disproportionate body, and a face that not even its own mother could love.
Its lower body was significantly larger than it's top-half, oversized in every meaning of the word. The skin of the monster, thick in some places and thinner in others, made it hard to distinguish if it was mostly fat or muscle, the bulging veins visible on it not helping in making it any easier to identify.
Its upper body was...comically small honestly. Its chest was majorly smaller than its belly. It had short and thin arms (by its body standard) that looked way too fragile for lifting the giant warhammer it currently held but held it effortlessly anyway. Its head was small with a face set into a constant snarl, the top of it decorated by what looked like straight bone-like horns that sprouted around its skull, imitating a crown.
It was an abomination.
Where they were previously standing, before the undead knight jumped back and dragged Edward with him, was now a giant mass of...wood? Ah. Its the head of a wooden warhammer that the demon wielded.
It most likely tried to kill them both with a plunging attack.
Fire erupted from Edward's hands long before he could even process what happened, manifesting out of his body and flaring up to life, driven solely by Edward's instinct.
Edward took aim, cocked his arm back, and threw a fireball straight at the demon's face.
Funnily enough, before the fireball could connect, another projectile reached the demon. The undead knight threw his straight sword hilt, the lesser of his current weapons, in a way that managed to sink whatever was left of the blade straight into the demon's left eye.
One second after losing its depth perception, Edward's fireball connected with its target, engulfing the head of the monster in scorching hot flames.
Needless to say, the demon wasn't pleased. It screeched and threw itself backward, both of its hands raised to pat away the flames that currently ate at its face...thus disregarding its only weapon.
A weapon made entirely of wood.
While Edward put his palms on the demon's warhammer, the knight grabbed the broken straight sword in both his hands and charged at the panicking monster! He ran up to one of the demon's legs and used all his momentum and strength to stab the broken blade into one of the bulging veins located on its ankle.
The dullness of the blade Edward lent him made it no easy thing to do, but unfortunately, it's what he had to work with.
Tearing out the blade, the knight quickly stepped away from the demon, avoiding its attempt to crush him under its feet. It roared angrily finally managing to put the fire on its face out and glared with its remaining eye at the undead knight.
It didn't glare for long, however, as another fireball connected to the side of its face and began to burn it anew. This time the demon didn't panic, it brought its hand up to once again put out the flames trying to melt its skin, taking big steps back to make distance between himself and the undead knight.
Then another fireball connected.
And suddenly the hand that the demon was using to pat the flames away was also on fire.
Then another fireball exploded on its back near the left hip, the undead knight swiftly pierced at its veins two more times, purposefully tearing the weapon out harshly to make a larger gash.
Another fireball, then two more stabs, and then two more fireballs to its thigh.
The demon was being overwhelmed by the undead duo, continually stabbed and set on fire by pyromancies that clung and slowly spread through its body.
Then with a roar, the beast threw itself at the ground and began to trash around! Whether to put out the flames, or in an attempt to kill them, or both...well, does it matter? The undead knight began to make distance as soon as he noticed the demon's movement, and Edward was nowhere near it to begin with since he acted as range support.
The demon flailed wildly, hitting the ground with its limbs, roaring and screeching while it did so, now completely engulfed in fire. The stab wounds on its legs were already seared shut, but if one were to look closely, they would notice black tendril-like traces that spread around the wounds.
The undead duo did nothing, simply watching the beast tantrum while keeping to the edges of the room.
A demon, a spawn of Izalith, dying to two undead without being able to put up a fight.
How pathetic.
And as if it wasn't enough, as if the Gods themselves wanted to add insult to injury, the ground around the beast collapsed underneath it.
The fall wasn't long considering how quickly the THUD sounded after its descent.
...
"That was easy." Edward thought. "Now I feel stupid for overthinking..." The pyromancer glanced at the demon's warhammer. Burning brightly with hot flames.
Edward thought it would be wise to set it on fire so it would be unusable for the demon. What's the use of a weapon that scorches your hands when you hold it? Not only that, but the fire would quickly cause it to become too brittle since it's...well...wood.
Another roar sounded from the hole.
Edward and the undead knight approached it wearily and looked down, and what greeted their eyes was...
"Another one!?" Edward exclaimed as he stared at a exact replica of the demon they just felled, standing beside its fallen brother and glaring upwards at them.
Both of them tensed as they saw it prepare to jump.
And when It did, when it leaped up, both of them prepared for another battle! Edward cursed as he formed another fireball, not sure how many more he could cast before he'd need to let his pyromancy flame rest to not exhaust himself.
Fortunately for them, and unfortunately for the demon #2, its jump amounted to nothing. Its effort didn't bring it up even to halfway up the needed distance.
Edward looked at the undead knight.
The undead knight looked at Edward.
Both nodded as they established a silent agreement.
That demon could rot down there for all they cared, there was no benefit for them to go down there and fight it.
Ignoring the roars coming from the hole, and the hole itself, the duo walked up to the giant gate doors and tried to push it open like they did with the previous one.
It refused to budge.
"Alright, guess we'll have to wait..."
Turning his head to Edward, the undead knight saw the pyromancer aim a surge of flames at the doors until it caught fire.
After all, they're made out of wood.
— Bab baru akan segera rilis — Tulis ulasan
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