"... Isn't it this place we should really be blaming?" Marichi's voice rose, a sharp intonation cutting through the tense air. Burtu looked at him, confusion blooming across his face, quickly followed by shock.
"Look, I don't know what happened that you guys ended up here…" Marichi waved his hands dismissively, his eyes darting quickly away from Burtu and Jorel before snapping back.
"But it is clear that it was Jorel's fault." He then lowered his head, a subtle smirk playing on his lips.
This bastard…
Does he want me to die?
Jorel cursed, still held by the collar in Burtu's firm, battle-worn hands.
"In reality, it's really this half-lit zone's fault…" Marichi continued, his voice echoing in the cavern.
"I could even say it's your fault." He added, looking directly at Burtu.
Burtu, as if struck, immediately tossed Jorel to the ground like a piece of trash, turning his full, bewildered attention to Marichi.
"Ahh!" Jorel grunted, rolling on the ground, pain radiating through him. He lifted his head, his eyes scornful, glaring at both of them.
"M-my… fault?" Burtu pointed at himself, his head twitching slightly to the side in disbelief.
"Half-lit zones are normally indicated on a map…" Marichi finally caught up to Burtu, his gaze locking with the older man's eyes.
"From what you said, you rode Jorel here…" His wound stung, and he pressed against it harder, a grimace flickering across his face.
"Didn't you have a map?" Marichi's voice became cool, collected, his breathing settling into a calm rhythm.
Burtu immediately backed away from Marichi, his hands beginning to fidget. He then raised them to his eyes, and suddenly felt a chilling gust of wind.
He heard an all-too-familiar sound, a faint, melancholic clunking, coming from his right. He focused his vision, straining, and saw a carriage, indistinct at first, then sharpening into clarity. It was him and Caes. It was no mere vision, but a memory, chillingly real.
A memory of the time Burtu had talked Caes into taking the shortcut, despite Caes's vigorous objections. Tears welled in Burtu's eyes, his face etched with a profound, shattering loss.
"Caes!" He screamed, trying to run, but the carriage moved farther away, bathed in an ethereal, mocking light. Then, with a blink, it vanished, revealing that nothing had been there in the first place.
"It's you that went right into a half-lit zone." Marichi leaned in closer to the shocked Burtu, his voice a low, accusatory whisper.
"Why want to take revenge when you're the one that killed Caes?" Those words from Marichi's mouth floated into Burtu's ears, reverberating, cementing themselves in his very being like a poison.
"No…"
"No!" Burtu burst into a ragged, desperate cry, his legs seemingly sinking into the ground, a futile attempt to escape the truth.
"I-I want to see Caes…" Burtu stammered, thrashing his hands around, walking forward but moving not an inch, trapped by his own grief.
You're the one that killed Caes…
Burtu's own internal voice whispered Marichi's words once more, ricocheting in his skull, a maddening echo.
Then suddenly, everything began to shift and move. The ground, the walls, even the very air itself. Burtu, Marichi, and Jorel remained fixed on that spot, but their environment twisted around them. It all moved in a tandem with Burtu's weeping, dragging like a cold wind blowing across wrinkled, decaying skin.
"Nooo!" Burtu groaned, a raw, pained sound.
"What's happening?!" Jorel coughed, still on the ground, as the earth beneath him seemed to writhe and undulate in Burtu's direction like a legion of snakes.
That smell…
He sniffed, a putrid, cloying stench colonizing the air around them, a scent of death and decay.
Marichi lost balance amidst the chaotic motion, bracing himself against the ground. His insides churned, threatening to rise, his head felt like it was twisting free from his neck. But even amidst the disarray, a wary expression settled on his face, accompanied by a subtle, triumphant smile.
Soon after, the distorted vision resolved, revealing the carriage Jorel had previously been in, now in all its shattered glory. Everything stopped moving around it, forming a macabre tableau. Burtu immediately walked out of the ground, where he had been sinking, and circled the carriage. There, he was greeted by Caes's rotting corpse, flies buzzing around his dented, rusted armor.
Burtu was utterly broken by this sight. He clutched his hands to his head once more, feeling the phantom pain, his eyes revealing the shattered fragments of his soul within.
Caes! Caes!
His own mind played cruel tricks on him, echoing the name.
Hahahaha!
He heard Lezschill's mocking laugh in his head, looking around frantically, but finding no trace of his corpse.
The injuries on Burtu's body began to bleed black blood once more, pouring from every wound, his tears even turning to viscous, dark ichor. Now, visions of all his memories---good and bad---happened at the same time, swirling all around him, as if truly present.
Receiving such overwhelming stimuli forced Burtu's mind into a catastrophic shutdown. He knelt on the ground before Caes's corpse, staring blankly at the ceiling above. Marichi, seizing the opportunity, quickly went to Jorel, helping him up and supporting his weakening body.
Jorel, now semi-conscious, saw a map beside the stagecoach, stained with dry blood. He focused on it, his eyes scanning the red markers indicating where he had been. He also noticed, with a sudden, chilling clarity, that there were no indications of half-lit zones in the area.
But… How did… he…
The realization dawned on him.
"You sick bastard…" Jorel coughed, a hoarse chuckle escaping his lips.
Liars… all of them…
"Maybe not all peasants are dumb after all…" Before he could complete his sentence, Marichi gestured with a finger to his own lips. Jorel, seeing this, scoffed but fell silent.
"But are still untrustworthy." He muttered, a note of pride in his voice that made Marichi glance at him with disgust, though he quickly brushed it off.
Didn't think that'd actually work.
See me, thinking his weakened state made him unpredictable… more dangerous.
But it was easier to prey on his mind…
Doesn't mean he's not any less dangerous yet.
I might have just delayed him…
The problem still stands… We need to get out of here!
And quick, because I might have just made him more unstable…
Marichi grunted, slowly backing away, Jorel, barely conscious, slumped against his shoulder.
Burtu continued to mumble to himself, then, with a strange reverence, he lifted Caes's corpse from the ground. He held it like a groom holding his beloved on their wedding day, oblivious to the buzzing flies that now swarmed around them.
"You don't deserve to be here…" He muttered, a hollow sound.
No… Don't go actually all like you're that good.
Burtu's own internal voice retorted, a new layer of self-loathing.
"You're right…" He said to himself, confirming his self-condemnation.
"I want to go… go away from all this." He looked around, a ripe melancholy seeping from him, but saw nothing. He blinked, and his vision flickered, showing him dying over and over again by either Marichi's, Jorel's, or Lezschill's hands.
Then, it shifted, showing him and Caes riding on the carriage, a fleeting image of peace. Marichi and a half-awake Jorel watched him in confusion. To them, Burtu seemed terrified of the very air around him, black blood dripping steadily onto the ground.
"I'm tired of staying here." He said in a low voice, looking up. As a single tear rolled from his cheek, it ascended upwards, defying gravity before it could touch the ground.
What now!
Marichi gurgled, holding the last vestiges of oxygen in his lungs. The air itself seemed to suddenly turn into a vacuum. Marichi immediately struggled for breath, falling to the ground while still supporting a now suffocating Jorel.
The earth bubbles reappeared once more, rising towards the ceiling. The stalagmites seemed to grow taller, same as the carriage, which now levitated towards the rocky ceiling.
Then all of them---everything---quickly ascended towards the ceiling, gravity shifting once more as they passed through the stone, returning back into the gaping abyss.
---The end of chapter 40---