Several times along their journey, the desert itself defied the laws of nature they had once known. A fallen man would walk backwards through time; plants grew, metamorphosed into men, and then turned back into plants. All around them were groans, wails, and laughter from those who had come here to fill their senses with the essence of the dream dimension. They were addicted to its hallucinations.
Throughout the entire journey, from the Eastern Forests until now, Maereth had always felt as though she was one step away from breaking. And yet, she had never seen that same weakness in Ashar. He was not particularly strong, and yet he seemed to ignore the fatigue and despair of the road. He should have been broken by now, after using the Pendulum Blade so many times. And yet he continued onward, walking the harsh path with a faint smile, as if it were the only road he loved. He was nothing like the addicts scattered across the desert.
Before long, one of them approached. It was a ragged man, with balding hair, a beard, and a stench from unwashed clothes. He stumbled forward, with little control over his movements.
"They're good shoes," the man mumbled and slurred. "Only twenty coins, and they're yours…"
"I'm sorry, but we have no money," said Maereth.
"That's okay, miss. You're very pretty. If I was younger, then maybe we could—"
"Thank you."
"I don't even know what I'm…" he trailed off.
He placed a hand over his face and groaned.
"What's your name, brother?" he asked Ashar, reaching out his hand.
Ashar stared at him in silence.
"You're a good man, brother. I can see it in your eyes. A truly good man. I used to be a handsome bastard… now look at me. Could have drunk a bit less, couldn't I?"
He nudged Ashar and laughed weakly.
"You got anything on you?" he asked. "I promise… I'll pay."
Ashar said nothing.
"Come on… just a bit. Then I'll leave you alone. I promise."
"Give me something! Come on!"
Ashar reached out and placed a hand on the man's shoulder.
"Thank you, brother. It hurts so much, you know."
Ashar drove his blade through the man's chest.
The man collapsed to the ground, leaving reality as though waking from one deep sleep into another.
"No!" Maereth screamed. "Why did you do that?"
"He is now saved."
Ashar stiffened.
"Hide us now," he said.
"Why?"
It was too late. Already, more of the addicts began to clumsily approach them, trying to check on the scene of what had taken place.
"There is no more time." Ashar said. "It seems that I must save them too."
What followed was slaughter.
All the addicts scattered across the desert of the dream dimension were cut down by Ashar. He spared no one.
It was then that Maereth realised her mistake.
From the moment she met Ashar, she had feared him. And yet she believed she understood him, at least in part, after all the battles they had shared in the forests and the Abandoned Kingdom. There had been a naive virtue within him, she thought—a misguided sense of righteousness, like a foolish knight unaware of the road he walked.
That was gone now.
Something had changed in him the moment he awoke. There was now a precise cruelty about him, an unstoppable wind of death that followed in his wake. He did not shout, nor did he glare, but with every corrupted soul they encountered in the dream dimension, he ensured their end. He killed many, and she could do nothing to stop him.
"Take a look around you," Ashar said. "See how many remain. See how many lie in suffering, waiting for salvation that will never come."
"They were innocent people."
"Perhaps. But the force that guided them was not innocent. That is why I saved their spirits, by destroying their bodies."
"Force?"
Ashar turned away from her coldly.
"There are forces that guide us through life." he said. "We are playthings of the gods. Even if the gods cannot touch reality directly, they can touch our hearts… our minds. Sophia is a force. She has brought me here for her own reasons. Gold, power, pleasure, these are forces too. Living forces."
He looked out across the desert.
"What are we before such things? They fight for our spirits every day. No one is free. It is in the moments when we believe ourselves most free that we are most enslaved.
"It was a force that led you to commit the evil you did. It was a force that took Issen away and led him to his freedom. This was a man without the desires that plague. Perhaps, in the end, he was the freest of us all."
Maereth watched the dust in the end that encompassed her.
"It is a tragedy," Maereth said, "that you ended so many lives."
"There is no greater tragedy than life itself."
They walked on.
This was the moment Maereth reflected most deeply on the choices that had brought her here. Was this the punishment she had always awaited? She had chosen this path long ago, but never expected it to find her like this.
If forces truly guided the hearts and minds of men, then what kind of force had led her to him?
Ashar stopped.
"I knew it," he said. "With Serpent's Wisdom, I can now see what I could not before."
He raised his head.
"Serpent's Wisdom! As it is above, so it is below."
Lightning split the sky, and reality itself tore open before them.
"Do you know why so many have fallen into this place?" he said. "Look for yourself."
A black hand reached through the fracture in reality.
"Here it is, Maereth. This is the creature that has enslaved these ruined people."
Beyond the crack, past the reaching hand, an empty yellow eye stared into existence.
"There it is," Ashar said. "The demon Algoth… the one who sent the corrupter Bacchus into our world."