10 The Escape

Versailles could not move, her limbs, as heavy as stones.

She knew.

She was not frozen in fear. The shadow was restricting her mobility, making her limbs feel heavier than lead.

Then, there was the deadly, freezing embrace of ice.

No, not ice.

Snow.

She was being buried alive in the snow.

'No! I cannot die here! Not like this!'

The second the thought flashed through her mind, white light filled her vision. The light covered her figure, spreading warmth to her frozen heart.

With its appearance, she regained control of her body.

'I can move, just like that? What was that light? It had the power to release the restraints of the shadow. It did not seem like my flame power. Could it be related to the...Oh, forget it! I need to get out of here. Now!'

Immediately, she let her power loose. Pure fiery flame coursed through her veins, gathering at her limbs.

Fire erupted from her hands. Showering the sky in a brilliance of red-orange-gold glow, they launched the faceless shadow through the air, crashing it violently into an ice mountain. With a loud crash, the mountain crumbled to pieces, rocks and rubbles flying everywhere.

Without any further delay, she took her snake form and lunged towards the stone platform. Her figure turned into a golden blur, flashing through the pure white landscape.

Once she was on the platform, Versailles built a ring of fire around her and went to start the portal. The portal was ancient and grey, made out of elemental magic. The instant she stepped on it, the ancient runes automatically started reacting, vibrating with power.

To hasten its activation process, she poured her red-gold flames into its ancient patterns. As the warm stream of fire entered the runes, they started glowing with a blinding radiance, spinning and whirling like a kaleidoscope.

Suddenly, a light flashed from the runes and entered her body, making her immobile. Then the runes swirled, transforming into more complicated patterns. After stabilizing into a giant complex pattern, it began rapidly sucking her magical powers at a greater quantity.

Boom!

At this instant, the fire shield encircling the platform violently shook. Smoky black material dropped on the fire shield and spread, enveloping its surface. Immediately, the black smudge ate at the flame shield, corroding its purity.

Perceiving the pure malice in the black smudge, Versailles knew time was running out.

The moment her fire shield broke, she'd be a goner.

But no matter how hard she struggled, she was not able to free herself from the immobility of the runes. Her heart filled with panic and trepidation.

"Come on! Move! Move! Move! Am I really going to die here? No, I cannot die here. I still need to solve the mystery of my rebirth. I cannot die here!" She screamed amidst the loud drone of magic, violently shaking shield, and her drumming heart.

She sensed her vigor seeping out. Sensed her lifeforce fading away and mind growing heavy. A sense of disorientation enveloped her.

"Come on!" She shrieked in desperation, but nothing happened.

Out of energy, drained of power, Versailles closed her eyes in resignation. Her white face grew paler and paler before turning as pallid as a corpse.

Versailles no longer struggled to free herself. Instead, she submitted herself to a realm of calm and peace, her spirit freely flowing in the white void. A strange feeling of harmony and oneness with the ancient rune appeared in her mind.

She was the rune, and the rune was her.

There wasn't any difference between them. It was as if the rune had become a part of her soul. She felt its ancient magic humming in her essence, resonating in her spirit.

At the same time, a powerful, pure-fire energy began to descend from the skies. Unobstructed, it flew into her mind one stream at a time.

As it entered, it began to perfectly harmonize with her soul, and as the energy of the world continued to pour into her being, Versailles' spirit could distinctly sense her 'soul' glowing at an accelerated rate. Her 'glowing soul' shined brightly, seeming like a miniature moon.

At the same time, her spirit was enveloped in the white brilliance from her 'glowing soul' and expanded, seeping into the depths of the icy mountains. Everything within a thousand meters could be seen in her mind.

She could even see a snow flea crawling on the ice ground.

But more importantly, she saw the rotten and corroded land of ice.

It was enveloped in a slithering and eroding black material. And from the smoky tendrils, she sensed the same darkness and vileness she perceived from the shadow.

At this instant, it was as if an obstructing veil, blocking her vision and clouding her judgment, was suddenly removed.

Cracking an opening in the dark tunnel, it brought forth a stream of light, enlightenment, and warmth.

Instantly, tears flowed down her face as understanding dawned on her.

She finally understood.

She realized the reason the shadow followed her.

A brief moment later, her spirit, enveloped in the 'glowing soul', flashed back into her physical body.

And before she could make any movement, her body disappeared from the spot.

The shadow, that had just broken through the fire shield, saw the scene of her disappearance. Howling madly and sorrowfully into the sky, it vanished into a puff of black smoke.

After five breaths, the clearing was still and silent. The ancient runes, dull and unmoving.

The only anomaly was the figure of a scarred man laying on the edge of the platform, snow slowly showering on his motionless body.

***

In a certain realm, the sky and the ground were of the same color.

Red.

They were not bright red, dazzling red, or crimson red.

No, they were just dull red.

As if the brightness of the color was drained away by the lifeforms living in the realm. As if the once abundant realm of life and magic was sucked out until nothing but an empty shell remained.

A sense of void and nothingness cloaking its flimsy carapace.

There was neither a sun nor a moon in the sky, the only source of light brought about by the raging flames in the valleys, erupting volcanos, and spreading lavas on the grounds, hills, and cliffs.

If the environment in the Sybil realm was harsh, with sparse vegetation and woods, then the environment here was hell, with fiery flames and madness.

An endless, red abyss with no way out, no end in sight, no salvation.

To survive here, beasts and demons, devils and monsters, black-winged humans and shapeshifters, elves, dwarfs, blood-sucking creatures, and magical dark beings of all species preyed on each other.

The strongest was king and ruler. The weakest, slave and meal.

At this moment, inside a valley of raining flames, countless boulders and stones tumbled down the valley side, creating an avalanche in all directions.

Without warning, the dull red sky suddenly gained a smudge of gold, as if a piece of the sun was plucked and planted, illuminating the heaven and earth in its brilliance.

The red of the sky and gold smudge danced and mixed to form a beautiful picture of red-gold radiance and transformed into a vertex. And from the vertex, a figure dropped, roughly crashing to the ground.

The figure fell into a flaming creek, fire and molten lava flowing down its' edges. Flame bugs and flies flew about, small and bright, they seemed like tiny faeries of light. Twittering cheerfully, they landed on the crouched figure.

The figure neither reacted to the flowing lava nor the flying bugs. It just laid motionless in its spot. Its form shaking.

This figure was Versailles, who had finally arrived in the Nar realm.

In the next flash, the vertex warped, deformed, and disappeared.

The golden light dispersed, the sky regaining its dull outlook.

The place returned to its original appearance as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred a while ago.

Silence filled the atmosphere, reigning over the land like a cloak, the twittering bugs the only melody of life.

Versailles laid limp on the flame ground.

Her body was trembling as tears streamed down her face. Her heart ached painfully as if someone was ripping it out. Gripped in an unimaginable and crippling despair, she felt suffocated and had difficulty breathing.

"How is this possible? How can this be possible?" She brokenly whispered.

Her mind replayed the scene of the corroding darkness she saw in the depths of the Snowy Plains.

The same darkness she saw in the shadow pursuing her. The same darkness she feared.

It was only now that she understood.

She finally understood the shadow was pursuing her not to kill, but to beseech.

It was beseeching her for redemption, for salvation.

It was seeking help.

Help to be released from a never-ending darkness that was infecting and eroding its existence.

And, it, was not the only one, but only one among many.