Night came and went in the blink of an eye to the slumbering force of nature. Just as the sun settled, it rose happily again from the east, slowly ascending to the peak of its excellence in no more than a few moments for the stationary, resting knight; it was oddly warming. Not like the heat it radiated, but more so like the warmth you are around someone who is there for you in those moments of apprehension. The knight had woken up some time prior, but instead of getting up to start his day, he remained immobile, preferring to watch the stars fade away in the morning light as the day commences. As the daylight began to pierce the valley he had helped create, he forced himself into a sitting position.
Yawning, his arms stretched upwards to the sky, letting the pops in his back consume his ears which was followed suit by a groan of satisfaction. With said satisfaction being on the forefront of his mind, he greedily began going through various forms awaiting the inevitable cracks and pops of his bones concluding with a single groan. He remained still for a few more moments before pulling his legs in, and pushed himself up to his feet to his full towering height. The knight's head swerved in observation as he investigated his surroundings that did not seem nearly as disgusting as it had been the day prior.
For as far as the eye could see in either direction not a hint of red could be seen. The once gruesome scene of flesh, guts, and blood was now replaced by a pristine trench created as well as held together by an equally clean skeleton. It was almost disturbing how fast the desert seemed to be rid of the flesh of creatures which recently arrived in its jaws.
Long shadows were cast along the valley walls, making it almost difficult to see the carved walls. Seeing the shadows, the knight was suddenly reminded of what The Guidance had told him that something was observing him through the shadows cast by the world itself. It was unnerving, but he had nothing to hide, so it didn't really mean anything in the end. That didn't change the fact that it was creepy and an invasion of privacy. He stared blankly at the nearest shadow, not really thinking about anything until a bead of cold sweat trickled down the nape of his neck. He could've swore he saw a single large darkness-infused eye in the void of the black shadow cast by the morning sun. The sheer tangibility of the illusions' emotions nearly made the knight stagger.
'Weird…' He continued staring at that spot for a few long, tedious moments before closing his eyes, turning away from the darkness, opening them again, and began walking in the direction he believed was the exit from that godforsaken graveyard into the world beyond the large, likely unnatural plateau. With mild amounts of curiosity, he continued moving forward, leaving reasonably loud booms with every thump of his heavy feet as he began his prolonged walk to the unknown land beyond.
Time passed, yet somehow a single notable thing happened. The sun may have risen into the sky with all of its molten glory, the sky brightened into a beautiful baby blue, but those were the only real changes in scenery. It was a much needed change of pace from the previous couple of days of pure chaos, from the dead rising, to meeting death itself and then fighting a demigod. Quite the intense couple of days. After much consideration from the knight, he decided that it was in fact, a nice change of pace. From the low crunching of powdered stone beneath his feet to the light winds blowing against the man, pushing him forward.
While continuing his stride, his shoulders began to slump as a nearly tangible aura of boredom surrounding him. There wasn't much to do on his long trek towards the unknown, so he found himself extremely bored. Sure he could think more on the various bits of information he had acquired, but the vague hints from Death, and initials O.H., which he had not forgotten about, were not pieces of information to build anything off of. The various pillars of strength bound by existence itself were not something that was new information; he had met a few of them in his earlier days, but alas, even those likely didn't reach the various beasts that seemed to be so abundant on this plain of the planet. What was the only real thing that surprised him was the subjugation of his fellow immortals. Though many of them were older than the continents that he and his people had walked on during his time, they still ended up in chains– or whatever is keeping them in check which was even more alarming than anything else. How in the world can something as trivial as physical bindings or a mental hex keep the greatest creatures walking this planet incapacitated? Like the simple metal pipes that held back the necromancer, how could something so insignificant hold back a monster of that scale? It both baffled him and fascinated him at the same time. That string of thoughts brought him to a single simple question, 'What else is out there?' It was an obvious question to ask, especially in a world where there was so little remaining, and with so little to do, he began hypothesizing what type of creatures he would encounter on his journey to end his own life.
'Maybe a dragon or two?' He thought, but even he knew that dragons were far too small in this world to be considered as a true obstacle in this unknown world, the only dragon who could be considered on that level was the Elder who had once lived on the border of the kingdom of fangs, but that one had been dead for a very, very long time. Even though his feet didn't stop moving, his mind hit an abrupt wall when it came to things–or rather places that would appear on his voyage across the turbulent earthy sea, but one thing was certain: he wanted to see it all, as at the end of it all, he'd be exploring a new world after death. Sighing, he turned his attention back to the real world.
The world remained the same in his vision, just more ribcage, sunlight, various shades of gray, and the white haze signifying the distant unknown far beyond his range of sight. It was slightly deflating, seeing no difference in his environment, but a glimmer of hope did make its way to his mind, knowing that the distance towards freedom was only a days travel which once again reinvigorated him, giving him the boost in confidence to begin a sprint to the end of the trench. The large thumping steps that echoed heavily increased greatly in a few moments as he began to pick up the pace swiftly. His large frame blurred through the valley as he reached his full speed while his armor begged in protest in the form of pained groans from various points across the wary gear. If he continued at this pace for maybe a few more hours, he should be able to reach the end, and enter a new place some time after noon.
Instead of going on autopilot, he kept his mind trained only on the sight ahead, the near weightless feeling he had while bolting through the straight passage, his feet sinking into the stone floor from the force, and the gusts of winds that assaulted him through the open parts of the helmet. He could not focus on something so trivial as to how he became this fast as that would break his concentration hence losing precious speed, but that didn't stop him from plastering a short grimace on his shadowy visage. It wasn't everyday you could suddenly run twice, maybe thrice the speed you could run the prior, yet that didn't stop his grimace from morphing into an even less noticeable grin. It was glorious; being able to run this fast. It was as if he could almost touch the unknown past the inevitable titanic skull, and just as suspected, he arrived in no time at all.
Deep in the murky horizon, a blurry image of a bright crimson world held beyond the jaws of a skull the size of house from the slums he had been brought up in, before the incident. The boredom that had once been so palpable had been swiftly replaced with a burning curiosity, along with a not so subtle tsunami of relief. With the vague visage of a new land driving him, the already extremely quick pace he was sprinting at only increased with his end with sight, even if it was in the very far off distance. The explosive booms of his stomping feet clashing with the grounds grew louder with every thumping step in his marathon, and in what felt like a few short minutes of running, then, suddenly, he dug his feet into cold stone, allowing a trench to form up to calve length to stop his blisteringly fast rate in but a few short moments. Chunks of the grey stone flew everywhere, adding a new instrument to the chaotic music with the small taps of the rubble hitting the equally gray walls, until finally, the orchestra of pandemonium had subsided, leaving the small space in a hazy silence. He had found himself at the end of the open roofed tunnel, staring past the jaws of the snake into a vast, crimson treetop that stretched as far as the eye could see from his vantage point.
Removing his legs from the deep trenches he had formed in the tough stone, he shook off the hints of rubble stuck on his boots almost absent mindedly as his enthralled gaze stood fixated on the forest in front of him. There were many strange things about where and when he came from, but this is the first time he had seen something like this. Curiosity peaked, he stood up to his full height while moving forward to the edge of the plateau with a hint of suspicion until he arrived at the very edge. With a hand on Rising Tides hilt, he oversaw the sea of red beneath him with an excitement that could almost match his curiosity.
'I wonder what I will encounter here, if I even encounter anything in a forest the color of a fresh battlefield.' He tore his gaze away from the forest below and looked evenly towards the sun. It was still early in the day, so it wouldn't be completely out of the question to enter the forest below. Glancing back at the drop a hairs breath away from where he was standing, and with a resigned sigh, he crouched down slightly which lit up the harsh silence with equally harsh squeals of protest from his armor, and jumped forward towards the ruby flavored unknown beneath him. The wind pushing against him as he fell with nothing more than an annoyance as a quote in the history books from the late and great King Tomoro replayed perpetually in his mind: Death may wheeze into your ear often, but do not be discouraged. While death beckons you, life roots and anchors you. Fight for your anchor.