Alex had fell for an eternity and a second.
The white space vanishing as soon as he entered but existing for as long as he remembered.
Now, he stood atop a white rocky plain, bordering on the edge of a deep gorge.
In his unfeeling left hand was Silver Lining, his only source of light in the ever darkness.
Alex could not see, nor hear, nor feel nor sense anything.
He could not tell how he was standing nor the weight of the blade in his hand. He could neither see the expansive plain nor the countless decaying masses littered around it.
The Crown of Thorns remained nested atop his head, binding his messy black hair in a bladed cage of bloodied obsidian.
Alex simply existed, unaware to the world around him.
He was dead and yet alive.
His mouth hung open, but no sound escaped. He breathed but only the left side of his body expanded and contracted. His ears reverberated with sound but his brain failed to decipher them.
His eyes, which were hidden behind his mess of hair, were wide open and wandering but they saw nothing.
Silver Lining glowed intensely in his hand, its blade, a flare of ash.
A vague ember of a flame burned in his heart and guided him forward, towards his destination.
The deep gorge.
The fifth and final layer of the Abyss.
Where the dying prince awaited...
SHIFF.
Unwittingly, Alex followed the ember of the flame, his fractured mind grasping at even the frailest of threads.
He stepped forward, advancing towards the gorge. The decaying masses around him remained still, regarding him with solemn acknowledgement.
They had once been whole, once existed as living.
After all, these decaying masses were actually the remains of the brilliant few who had defied the will of the Drake and descended into the fourth layer, the Barren Land.
A land of perpetual pestilence.
TMP. TMP.
As Alex approached the gorge, the sky began to shift.
The sky which had originally been a white space of watching eyes slowly began to change, becoming a canvas of watching eyes and toothy maws.
One of the countless maws grinned, "Oh? Another visitor? Oh...how long has it been? How exciting."
The voice that resounded echoed throughout the entirety of the Barren Land but Alex did not react. However, Silver Lining did.
It glinted slightly, almost as if it were wary.
A couple of the several eyes tilted to the silver foil and narrowed, "A parasitic artifact? Or perhaps, a relic of his Aperture?"
The voice paused for a moment before muttering, "So young...how could one so young have suffered such death?"
A single eye swerved to the Crown of Thorns sitting atop his head, and then several maws grinned,
"Ah! How treacherous! What an insidious artifact! Hahaha!", it paused before continuing, its grin was all teeth, no warmth,
"You tried to defy the laws of the Beast of Conquest but failed. That insidious crown then broke your mind making you hollow. A hollow person has no drive, no desire and no will and as a result, the Beast of Conquest could not make you submit."
"And because of that, you were exiled from his sphere of influence which ultimately brought you to me."
The several maws in the white space slowly twisted into grins, all teeth, all danger.
"Ah but I must say, I am not like the Beast of Conquest. I do not enjoy elaborate schemes. They're too time-consuming, too distasteful.", it paused, its voice growing threatening.
"I am the Beast of Pestilence and the Elder of Decay. This is my province, the Barren Land...the Land that Devours itself."
Suddenly, the wounds on Alex's body began to aggravate, and countless boils began to grow from his flesh. His body slowly began to fall apart, succumbing to the harrowing power of the Elder of Decay before suddenly coming to a halt.
His wounds then gradually returned back to their usual state and the boils vanished.
"But alas! You have already endured the height of suffering, and thus, I wouldn't get the chance to hear your screams."
The Beast of Pestilence grew silent.
It's numerous eyes staring at Silver Lining before one slowly shifted to the gorge.
"You still want to descend deeper? Has your will not been eroded? Hahaha! Mind you, the Elder down there isn't as kind as I am, the great and benevolent Loimos."
Alex remained quiet, simply staring forward towards the gorge. On the other hand, Silver Lining's blade glowed faintly.
Loimos remained silent for a moment before sighing, an action which made the entire Barren Land shudder.
"If you insist then you shall descend. Do give my regards to the Elder down there, he's probably aware already but just tell him besides."
Without a second thought, Silver Lining urged Alex forth and like a stringed puppet, he moved. Taking a step forward and then jumping before plummeting down into the gorge.
Loimos watched him fall before muttering, "That wraith..."
...
Meanwhile as Alex descended into the deep gorge, space began to twist and time began to slow. It was like being pulled into a blackhole, going passed its event horizon and reaching the inevitable singularity.
His bloodied black hair stretched beyond its usual length as well as the shorn fabric of the Posh Reverie. His body began to twist as well, bending to the odd manner of the space around them.
Time did not pass throughout his bizzare descent and as a result he never fell to begin with.
He simply warped and then appeared at the end of the gorge.
Silver Lining never left his grip, its ashen glow growing much more radiant. The blade in his hand, reflected what lay at the end of the gorge.
The final layer of the Abyss.
The layer no dweller of the surface had been able to reach...
A Vast Tapestry.
An endless expanse of infinite threads connecting seamlessly with each other in the manner of a vast complicated weave.
The ground was a sort of negative space which existed as the sky in kind.
The countless threads all glowed with different colors and varying intensities. Each seemed to be alive, beating with a rhythm akin to that of a heart.
The threads seemed to be endless, timeless but that was merely a fallacy.
Because everything that had a beginning must have an end.
And as all roads led to Rome.
All the threads led to the end.
The Elder of Liberty and the Beast of Destiny.
A being of pure imperceptibility. It loomed across the entire space, and its otherworld voice regarded Alex,
"It is futile to regard the hollow as so it's pointless to delay the inevitable. Your descent was unavoidable. And so, I cannot laud nor scold thee for coming this far...but what lay beyond at the heart of the Abyss...do you wish to witness it?"
"Do you wish to witness the hideous truth?"
Alex was silent but deep within him, the fragile ember of flame trembled and so Silver Lining glowed with furious light.
"I see. You may pass."
The Elder of Liberty removed the barriers of its province and Alex, guided by Silver Lining stepped into its body of imperceptibility.
Now moving within it, Alex strode through the final stretch of the Abyss, reaching its core.
But as he approached the end of the stretch, someone spoke,
"Turn Back."
A beat later, Silver Lining, the uchigatana that had accompanied Alex throughout his several battles, pulled him from despair and guided him throughout his lonesome journey, shattered.
Deep within Alex's fractured mind, another voice heard by him alone spoke,
[Silver Lining has been lost.]