Sand hissed under his feet, raw and bleeding from the journey. The vibrating edge rode easy in his hand, balanced and eager, but aimless. He hadn't found a reason why he felt a tug in this direction, only that whatever he was heading towards was the end of this place.
During this long walk he had time to think for once, his mind began to wonder back to the description of his weapon. "Born from their corruption…" Looking in his direction of travel the light of this world seemed to fade. "Who was born and from whose corruption?"
Anecus and his greedy mind began to grow curious. "Are all of these trials really just for us to ascend? To what end, there has to be a deeper reason." Only if he knew that there was an entire community among the Accursed who dedicate their time to study this exact question.
Naturally though, the important questions were finally being asked to late, he was nearing the end. "Tsk! How could I have been so dumb! There's no way something this complex exists just on a whim."
Anecus was slowly developing a dangerous greed for history and the answers to that greed would be found in echo streams. "I'll need to find another one after this." usually one would want nothing more than the current Echo stream they are in to end, not already planning their next. 'hehe I think I'm going mad.'
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Malice POV
"SCREEECH!!" Somewhere deep in the dunes Malice had picked up on something bright and warm. His hunt had resumed.
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Moving into the cloud of dust, Anecus faded into darkness. "You know all things considered, I thought I'd have died by now…"
"SCREECH!"
"Why did I have to say that?" Anecus darted through the darkness activating soulbleed, Emerging from a cloud of sand Anecus found a clearing that was sporadically littered with tall pillars of obsidian.
His eyes following the natural progression of the pillar's height allowed him to see what at the center, it seemed to be "a tower?" it almost looked human made, the presence it gave said otherwise, and the sheer size. Anecus didn't have much of a reference for large structures but his gut told him this was much to large for human creation.
With a heavy sigh "Dammit it." Anecus had used up almost all of his essence in the last push of soulbleed "looks like the only way is up"
Walking towards the tall structure with no reference point was odd. "Is it getting farther away?" Running faster now, "I am getting really tired of this lands trickery." Thankfully after some time Anecus started noticing more details of the tower.
"Thank goodness." It was getting closer. It was just that the tower was so much bigger than anything here that nothing was a good enough gauge. It was at this time Anecus noticed he couldn't see the top, it reached so high it passed the clouds and even past the sky beyond. "At least there's no stupid trick this time, I hope."
With the few hours bought by throwing Malice off his tail, Anecus finally reached the base of the tower; it was so wide we could look in each direction and see a wall go for miles.
It wasn't smooth either, every few inches was a blade, spike or some cluster of razor sharp rock. "Am I supposed to climb this!" fortunately or maybe not. Hearing another belch from Malice made the decision for him.
Cursing the Divine circuit "dam you!" Anecus started wrapping some vines over his hands "Lets not lose any more fingers." Grabbing onto the natural hand holds there was instant pain, not just from the bleeding hands but a resonance pain that was felt throughout the entire body.
It was as if the tower was threatening, or warning him not to climb. Breathing through the pain and surviving off of sheer spite and curiosity Anecus continued. "FFSHH haha, I can't wait to see what's up here…"
Anecus has been climbing for what felt like a day, or what it was worth in his head it had been nearly ninety thousand seconds, he nearly went mad by thirty thousand. The view help though, Looking to the horizon he could see more of the land. 'huh, being this high up feel kind of peaceful.'
"At least I know I'm actually making progress." A blessing he found was small pockets along the tower big enough for him to rest in. He was currently resting in one such hole as a low thrum hit his body and the tower itself.
Looking to his right he could see the perpetual dunes from this height, and in the location he fought the worm, something was currently jumping out of the sand. At first Anecus didn't think it was anything alive, nothing alive could be that big?' but to his morbid fascination it was a worm hundreds of times bigger. It was half the thickness of the tower and could reach to where Anecus was.
Anecus thanking the Circuit he was too small to be noticed "That must be momma…" With everything he had experienced so far here, it was not even a measure to what beings called this place home.
To Anecus it was sheer luck he hadn't run into an apex here. "Why did I have to get such an echo stream? This is just my damn introductory echo, I'm not sure if the circuit loves me or hates me...Whatever I feel the end is near one way or another."
Anecus resumed his climb, several hours later exhaustion was finally settling deep into his body. Making him slow and making errors in his steps.
He slips and grabs a loose hold and falls a few feet, but that's all it took, "Dam it!" the tip of his index finger and the web of his thumb sliced off. His legs begin to shake in pain and exhaustion.
Clinging there, blood dripping and regrets forming. 'Ah! I wanna cry so bad!' It was miraculous how composed Anecus has been ever since starting his echo stream. Partly due to his training but also this entire time Anecus has been too occupied trying to survive for his fear and pain to be noticed.
But climbing this tower was in a way calming to him if not mundane. Allowing the boy he is to take over the survivor he was.
Sniffling and hanging on to blades he let a small moment for himself to occur. "I miss my family." The feeling of longing and pain was hitting so hard he was a little confused as to why it was all hitting now.
Not knowing that the obscurity of time did not just affect the physical but the mind as well and while climbing this tower that is outside the timeline of everything.
His emotions have finally caught up to him.