[System Call: World Tree Secret Quest –
Fruit Of Wisdom:
Climb The World Tree And Pluck A Fruit From Yggdrasil To Claim A System Reward!
Only Those Who Are Willing To Forsake Part Of Themselves Can Ascend!
The Unworthy Will Fall And Be Judged By The Midgard Serpent Jormungandr!]
"I believe that you are capable of reaching the top! Keep going!" Rita interrupts my speed reading and drags my attention back to the critical task at hand. "Don't lose focus!"
"I know!" Speedily, I accept the secret quest and continue no my way. So, this whole time...that thing in the lake was Jormungandr? I've been getting eaten by the World Serpent? The System is Norse? Or is it just borrowing human culture to create this place? Wait...stop thinking! Just climb!
"RAT! I'M COMING FOR YOU!" My ever-present pursuer hasn't given up. He chases me to the very bitter end. Each second, my hands get more and more tired, and Rita's directions begin to seem like they're coming from very far away. We are very high up. Well...by the Underworld's standards anyway. I think I can even hear a phantom wind. The overwhelming cacophony of the rumbling falls has faded away. Now it's just my breathing, Rita's voice, and this damn tree.
"Two more! Just two more branches! Keep climbing!" Rita begs me to finish the job. Even though I know success is so close, my body is just about done. I think bits of my collarbone are beginning to poke out of my skin. It hurts like hellfire every time I move.
"No...no more..." I whisper, closing my eyes. Not that it makes a difference.
"Yes! One more! Just one more! Come on, Hei! Everyone's waiting for you up there!" She guilts me into trying again. "That's it! Just do it for Sierra...and Tepis! We'll be right up there!"
"I'll...try."
Autopilot. That's all it is. Me and my dying body against this bloody tree. The last few handholds are like mountains, when I have to lift myself up, I almost let go just to stop the pain. Please...no more! No more! However, I keep going because Rita tells me the others are waiting for me. She guilt-trips me, insults me, does everything short of smacking me to get me over the top. It works.
My fingers scrabble searching for something I can use to pull myself over the top. There's one giant branch in front of me. Exhausted, I flop onto the top and lay there on my belly like a worm. A supremely hot warmth falls on my face and forearms. It's like being roasted in front of the sun. Does the Underworld have a sun?
"RAAT! HOW DID YOU KNOW THERE WAS A SECRET QUEST HERE!" The high-level moans from somewhere below as I reach the end of the World Tree. He curses profoundly, "THIS WON'T CHANGE ANYTHING! A RAT WILL ALWAYS BE A RAT! JUST WAIT TILL I GET UP THERE!"
"Where are you, Rita?" I call out with the last of my energy. "Sierra? Tepis? You...there?"
"We're all right here, Hei. You just can't see us. But you will in a second. Just finish the quest. The fruit is right in front of you." Rita insists that I do what the System wants. I shake my head. Though my eyes are gone, I think I'm crying. My face feels wet. Maybe it's blood.
"I...I can't. You guys do it. If it's that important." I let my hand drop down onto the branch. "I'm tired...I need a nap..."
"Hei. HEI! No way! You need to finish this...! Ugh, how do I...? Do you want us all to die? If not, get your hands up and take a bite of that goddamn fruit!" Rita's voice grows angrier than I've ever heard it before. I can't remember hearing her speak like that before. It must be important. Maybe...I'll listen...just this once.
I raise my hand up. There's something warm and round hanging above my head. Lifting myself off the ground with one palm, I encircle it with the fingers of my other hand. Twisting gently, my nails sink into soft, plump flesh. It feels almost like human skin. The touch of a woman, perhaps. Or maybe that's just my overactive imagination.
"Yes! YES! NOW FREAKING BITE IT ALREADY GODDAMIT!" Rita screams directly in my head and I groggily obey. Bringing the fruit to my mouth, I open my aching jaws and take as big a bite as I can manage.
*CHOMP*
*Puchi*
Congratulations!
#
[Congratulations! You Have Tasted The Fruit Of Yggdrasil!
You Have Permanently Gained 10 Intellect!
The System Reward For This Quest Is: The Eyes Of The Lonely]
*Ruuuumble*
*Creak*
The World Tree shivers like a giant is trying to shake it down. Somewhere below, the Hunter is shouting his head off as the whole Underworld begins to awaken.
"What the hell is happening!"
My dark, sightless world changes. The blank canvas in front of me brightens for what feels like the first time in a lifetime. A golden star falls from the heavens, shooting across and lighting my eternal night. Wet liquid falls across my cheeks and drips off to water the World Tree. For a moment, I'm lost in the beauty of seeing. Somehow, despite the damage to my eyes, I can still behold this...this glorious thing. The shooting star falls down from the Heavens like a celestial comet coming to Earth. It paints a smoky, white trail across the black vista and brings something to my nothing.
A flaming ball of fire descends and its path is only me. I can't look away. Can't do anything but stare. At this point, it is all that I can see. If the high-level is still coming, if the world is ending, I don't care. It just feels so good to bask in its light. It's so warm. My broken body is a withered tree, but under the nourishing glow the falling star, it begins to come back to life. For what seems several glorious lifetimes I wait for it to arrive. At the last moment I realize it's not just one falling star.
It's two.
One white, burning like the sun.
And one black hidden in the sun's shadow.
Then they hit.
*Fwoosh*
Two heavenly bodies slam into my empty eyes with all the force of the big bang. I won't lie to you. It hurts worse than you can imagine. The System is not known for its kindness. My hands go up, clutching at my streaming sockets. I know not whether I'm crying or bleeding. But I'm...seeing.
What is this?
Is this what the world was like?
No...it isn't.
Whatever vision the Eyes Of The Lonely has granted me is not the same as my mortal sight was. I have lost some of the light which once graced my night. What the System has returned to me is...different. The world is stereoscopic black and white now. The Underworld...I assume it does not look like this to normal men. Out before me is this vast dark plain, but it is no longer blank. I can see it like a roughly-sketched map painted by a sonogram. These thin white lines wiggle gently in an unseen wind and I can...see these flames in them. Those are...blades of grass?
Looking down, I take my first look at the World Tree. It's...huge. That's the only way to describe it. All the climbing was a blur to me. It blows my mind to imagine that I scaled such a colossal thing while in my condition. The branches and roots which killed me so many times, stretch out into the cavernous expanse of the Underworld like...well like roots. Each of them burns with an inner fire like a mini supernova. Fruits hang from the tree's barren, hard, limbs every which way, and their flames writhe with a barely-hidden life force. Rays of light shine out from within their fleshy skins and serve as lamps for the dark Underworld.
I...I can see again!
"You! What has the System done to you!" The Hunter dangles off a bough, below me, like a black leech. A sickly orange flame burns brightly behind his glaring eyes. It's like I can see through his flesh and the skull beyond. Into his very core. Is that what I'm seeing? His soul?
All their souls?
It seems every living thing in the Underworld has become bare before my new eyes. After biting into its refreshing flesh, my poisoned mind has been cleared. Some of the sticky cobwebs which have clouded each thought fall away. Or rather I see through them now. Things have become...clear. However, there is one thing I have forgotten in my enraptured glamour. Rita...where is she? Where is everyone?
I search for them atop the World Tree. Just a moment ago, she was shouting encouragement in my ears. And yet...now that I've found my sight again, she's nowhere to be found.
None of them are.
"Where are you?" I whisper into the empty Underworld. I'm literally on top of the world. But as I continue to search with my all-seeing eyes and find nothing, I begin to feel more and more alone. "I don't understand. You said you'd be here!" Rage seeps into my veins. It doesn't make any sense. I knew something was wrong when Rita wouldn't touch me. And Tepis and Sierra never said a thing. But I heard her voice. She was here! Guiding me! What the hell is this? Some sort of joke? A ghost?
*Kacha*
Something shatters in my pocket. I reach inside and find the System God's hand-mirror. Shards of broken glass fall down and smash onto the Hunter who is still trying to climb up.
"You little, Rat! Give me one second to get up there!" He screams as the tree continues to shake. For a moment I ignore him, just turning the broken mirror back and forth. For some reason, I thought I might see something in it. However, the screen is blank, the exposed back behind the remaining glass is pitch black, an empty space. Sorrow runs through me as I wonder if I'm going insane.
"What did you do to them. Where is Rita?" I call down to the Hunter while staring at him with my judging eyes. He takes one look at me, not too far away now, and smiles a disgusting smile. "Tell me the truth."
The strange ghostly fire behind his eyes, flickers as he thinks of what to say.
"What do you think I did to them? You really still think they're going to come back for you? You're all alone, Rat. Mine...all mine." He grins as if sharing a wonderful secret with me. "Isn't that just great? Nowhere to run up there. Can't jump...it's a long way down. I don't think you'll be lucky enough to survive a tumble down those falls. Think I see something in the water beneath this goddamn illusion. You want to try your luck and find out what it is? How did you make it all the way up with your eyes like that, anyway? God holding your hand?"
He didn't see her? Or is he messing with me?
I glance down below. The tree's inner fire lights it up before these eyes of mine, but I think to him, it might as well be invisible. He's had to feel his way up every branch, painfully and slowly. His words are slowly confirming what I've come to suspect. Just in case, I try one last time.
"My friend helped me up. Didn't you see her?" I ask him without changing my expression. He just chuckles, sweat pouring off his face as he reaches for one of the last few handholds.
"What you talking about? Your friend's invisible like this bloody tree? I got news for you, Rat! You're alone down here. I'm all you got. And in ten seconds I'm going to rip you apart for all the trouble you've caused me. You know how long we've been planning this?" His smile becomes demented. "You messed with the wrong Guild."
So...she really wasn't here. No one was.
I am going insane.
Well, that makes things easier.
The next time he looks up, I have a bit of a smile on my face too. But it's not one of amusement or sarcastic wit. Someone like you...doesn't deserve to live.
"What did you do to them? Really...I'd like to know." I ask with a quiet, dead voice. He's close-enough to hear me now at any volume.
"Give me a moment. I'll show you!" Once again, he doesn't answer the question. That's enough for me.
My new black and white world grows blurry as tears find their way out. But the burning in my eyes feels good. It tells me I'm alive. When I see him all squiggly below me, he doesn't look like a high-level Hunter anymore. Before these eyes, he looks almost like a worm. Something breaks, a primordial instinct which releases the inner flame within me. My new eyes feel like they're igniting, catching fire!
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" I roar out all my frustration as I realize how crazy I was to think this man would have let the other's escape. I felt their bodies next to me back then...I should have known. But I didn't want to believe it was true. Goddamit, something has to change!
You're coming up for me?
Good.
This time...I'm not running.
I'm coming down for you!
*Ruuuumble*
"What the hell is that?!"
As rage seeps out of me, the whole World Tree begins to tremble.
You're going to pay!
#
*Clack*
*Clack*
"Ahhhk!" Suzy cried out and clutched her face as blood began to leak out from her lips and nostrils. "Damnit Insolence! How cheap was that Momento! This is why no girls like you!" She flopped down painfully onto her throne, panting heavily. Her own mirror remained untouched and she carefully held it in her cramped hands. "The connection broke at the worst time! Ugh, I used too much mana, sorry, Hei! You're on your own now..."
The exhausted girl rolled over, her crimson-dress fluttering around her like the wings of some exotic butterfly. Outside, the sepulchre began to quiet as the rustling bones and bloody mist calmed along with their master's annoyance. Eventually, she couldn't resist pulling the mirror to her bleeding face. A drop of blood spilled out of her nose and landed on its silvery surface. When she tried to rub the spot away, it smeared the reflection red. But she could still see a blurry black figure standing atop an endless tree.
Before the glowing star-fruits of Yggdrasil, one of Hei's eyes shone even brighter. It was of fire and flame, pure rage and retribution. The other was utterly black, like night and shadow, cold and empty. He no longer had those compassionate eyes which had cried when he stood outside her sepulchre and whispered for her help. Now they were bitter, foreign things in his face, inhuman and heartless. The eyes of a monster who saw the world differently.
"I...did this to you?"
What she saw terrified her. It shook her to the core and she lost her conviction. Staring ever deeper at the man in the mirror as he tore up the Underworld, she tried to hold onto the image, but then her mana ran out and she could see no more.
"Did I do the right thing? But I had to save you! They chose you in the end...didn't they? I hope those things serve you well down there until I can watch over you myself." Suzy closed her own sad eyes which had begun to tear up just thinking of what she'd done. "I'm sorry...I shouldn't have lied. At the very least, I should have told you who I was. But what would you have thought if you knew the truth? The System wouldn't have allowed it, anyways. Now what will you think of me? I promised you...you wouldn't be alone. But I can't even be there for you right now. I just...I'm the worst..."
Suzy cried all by herself in her forest of bone and blood. The acid-mist bubble expanded uncontrollably and ravens began to drop out of the sky, their feathers charred black. They squawked, desperately flapping to stay aloft. But no one could defy her curse. Their flesh soon liquified and little carcasses rained down like the black tears of a lonely goddess.
"Please...someone help me...I don't want to be alone anymore...hic...forgive me...hic...don't forget me..."