Oracion's POV

The painted wall seemingly opens for Argus, gradually but surely pulling us back into the Boundless. "Get him." Eden calls out. Alerting the monster beside her as he drops to all fours, thundering his paws against the ground before jumping between the floating rocks in the air as he attempts to navigate the Eden's torn up terrain.

It ends in vain though as Argus fully submerges into it, leaving only half of me to view the monster's golden eyes one last time. His towering gaze...his toothy grin almost hinting to something in the future, like he knows what happens next.

I hold my breath as I go through, unsure of what could be between.

-

But I simply fall back through, landing on my hands and face inches from the ground. Mousai grabs me, instinctively hugging me but letting go when she realises what she did. "Sorry, Argus told us to wait here for you and continue thinking of you so that the way would stay open."

I look up to see Ira and her, one clearly more happier than the other that I returned. I stand up nearly tripping over some sort of thick scale that lays along the floor, quite a few of them now that I truthfully acknowledge them within the Boundless. I hand her the necklace that Eden took. "Who was that?" She asks.

Argus remains silent, clearly not wanting to get into it anymore. "A friend? I think?" I answer, still not entirely sure.

"Of course someone that knows you, because who doesn't?" Ira comments, something that I'm actively choosing to ignore as I'm reminded of our conversation before I followed Eden in.

I walk ahead of them all, wanting more than ever to just get home now. But I'm stopped, not by something in front of me. But instead something behind me.

"Don't do this." I tell Ira, knowing he's the one grabbing Eragon's head.

"If I don't, then I'll have nothing." He explains.

"You'll have me, Requis...Freya."

"Things you have? Things we share? I finally have something I can call my own, someone to teach me how to use it and you're just trying to take it from me? Just so we can go back to our day in and day out? Fuck. You." He spits across my eye. "I wasn't born with anything besides the mistake of humanity, but now that I am something, I refuse to let it go just like that." He snatches Eragon's head from me as Mousai discretely moves to my side.

My breath steadily increases as anyone who was looking could tell I'm losing my patience, luckily for me. Ira was no longer facing me. "I'm going back to 𝘮𝘺 castle." The words themselves causing the Boundless to force a visual wall between us as Argus remains on his side, whether it be intentional or not.

Call me selfish, call me evil, call me whatever you want because I know I'm anything but a hero. But the next thing I did, felt like nothing less than pure satisfaction for me. As I acknowledged this to be the last time I see my best friend's face, I charge at him. The world feeling still as his body oh so slowly reacts to mine, his face full of fear and his hidden tears beginning to fall to the ground, something so subtle it changed my intent from kill to preserve.

Slicing his arm off and watching as Eragon's head is thrown back to our side. His eyes, shocked and wide as he holds his severed limb in pure and utter rage. "It's you. It's always been you, hasn't it?"

"What?" I ask in disgust.

"You don't even realise you're doing it. But here you are, doing everything in your power to make sure you get what you want, to get what 𝘖𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘯 wants." He glares at me, splattering his blood across the now physical wall in the Boundless as our goals divide in life.

"You can't live with the humans if you're going to be acting like a monster" I try to reason with him.

But he laughs hysterically, "Look who's talking. I was blind to it until this very moment but what kind of human can survive the falls you've fell? What kind of human can kill the things you kill? Read the things you've read? Don't you think it's funny how absolutely nobody has questioned these things about you until now!?" He shouts. "I can feel it. I can fucking feel all of them flooding back to me. My memories, my dreams, my own thoughts that I was unable to hear! All of it blocked until this key moment where we're physically separated by realities!"

"Go back to your corrupted land, tell Requis what happened to me and get the hell out of my head." His expression full of malice as he tightly grasps his arm in an attempt to heal it.

Argus walks closer to the wall in placement of him, "I was right to approach you." He says in an amusing tone. "Until we meet again." He walks along with Ira, the opposite direction.

I stand there, not knowing what to do with myself. Staring at Ira's blood atop Eragon's head and my own hands. 'Was I always like this...or was it what I went through back at the castle.' I ask myself in uncertainty but truth be told, maybe he was right.

I tie his head back to my side, continuing onward to what I've aimed to do since the beginning. 'Even if I've changed, things are easier this way. Everything would be easier overall if everyone just did what I said.' The thought makes me smile a little, knowing that what I'm doing is going to help them, save them from whatever that Beast of stars did to our home.

"Come Mousai" I look back at her, noticing her sudden hesitation.

She doesn't respond, but instead continues to follow without question.

-

After a while more, we found our own footsteps getting louder and louder as they echo for us. The infinite repeating surroundings gradually coming to an end as polymorphic shapes of colours tear off bit by bit, gradually being replaced by a much darker space.

At first, I didn't recognise where we were. But with the sound of twisting leather, I run my hand along the old stone wall. Feeling the deep engravings inside them and reminiscing back to when I was here with Requis, Freya and Ira. "Who would of thought one of the maze like entrances in the ruins lead to the Boundless?" I think out loud.

"You've been here before?" She looks at me with a barely visible expression as a singular lit torch hangs along the wall.

I take it from its holding place, attempting to navigate this place once more, "Our people were going missing, willingly venturing to this place and either becoming lost or eaten by the things that are down here. It was further down that we met Mael, Eragon's brother."

"And I believe he was down here because he was scared of you?" Eragon questions, making me realise just how different they were. "My brother couldn't do what I was capable of but nonetheless, he was by no means weak."

"I'm supposed to know the answer to that?" I answer back, not thinking too much of it as I focus on this lingering memory of the corners we went down.

Even so, the sound of leather continues to grow louder as something begins to stomp. "Oracion, something's very clearly not right with this place." Mousai looks around, trying to make something out in the dark.

"You...again?" Ash's dangling head slightly emerges from the dark, his body now consumed and nothing but his head being preserved. Whether it be for deception or survival, it ate him at an impossibly slow rate.

"We're passing through Ash." I comment, no longer feeling that fear I once felt.

"I'd leave you alone...but we're really...really hungry. It's been months since anyone's came down here...please?" He stomps as he gets closer to us.

I sigh as I tightly turn down this last corridor, noticing the natural lights from the plants lining the top. "Ash, I don't care. I really don't."

"U-" I hear him stutter.

"Mousai." I grab her arm, forcing her to walk ahead of me. She doesn't say anything but her facial expression says she doesn't know why I did it.

"Just because I can't hear you stomping doesn't mean I don't know you're still coming here, Ash." I take the torch from Mousai, throwing it backwards and towards where his voice was coming from.

Finally revealing the true appearance of the Shadow that lingers down here, two gigantic white eyes that drag across both sides of the walls, a mouth shaped like a triangle as it stretches itself down the hall. And the fishing rod made out of flesh, dangling his silent head. I take out my sword, pointing it towards him in anticipation.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"no...no...no no no. not the same, not the same." He speaks to himself with a deep grumble. Squeezing himself back from where he emerged from.

I sheath my sword once more, kissing my teeth a little at the time we've wasted down here. As I pass Mousai I can't help but acknowledge the way she's been looking at me ever since we came back to the Veil. But I know that once we descend these steps and go past Mael's living space, we'll be out of it once more.

"Is something wrong?" I ask while she walks beside me.

"Nothing, how come you're asking?" She happily responds.

I don't answer, instead deciding it's best we just continue down into the room where I got the material for my sword. The murals of glyphs, drawings and text still here and solemnly intact.

"Bring me closer to the bigger one." Eragon demands, attempting to pull me in the direction with whatever the motion his sole head can provide. "Aluca's castle has one inside as well, but I ventured down there very few times. The room opposite where you were locked up, where Ira took you." He briefly remembers. "Clem always came back to me asking what the words at the bottom meant."

He begins to quote, "Comprised of clay, blood and soul. Here lies those with a controlling mind, within a controlled body. The ones that are enslaved by the sun but free to the moon. The Vampiric."

Mousai's gaze stands out to me as she backs up, trying to get a better image of the multiscale wings that cover the sky. "I...there's something like this in both the Underworld and the Heavens. Why would it be down here? And you're telling me there's more of them?"

"Is it important to you or something?" I eagerly ask.

"Before the gods, before anything. There had to of been something...someone to produce it all, right?" She looks excited as she explains but suddenly falls hesitant to complete her words, "There was a letter...across each of them, here!" She quickly runs up to it, using her clothes to wipe away blood. "M" she speaks out loud.

She looks towards Eragon, "Do you know what yours had?"

"I don't, as I said. I was barely down there." He responds, filling her with clear disappointment.

But it makes me think back as I certainly did see it, I just wasn't aware of it was at the time. Nevertheless, It'll come back to me in its own time. "Should we keep going?" I suggest.

She hops down from the heightened platform, deciding to follow considering the other choice is to be left behind.

"You killed him here, right?" Eragon asks.

"And I'd do it again" I walk faster, not giving him time to grieve.

But to my surprise, he doesn't. "If you expected a tear, I have none. For there's someone new to take the throne." His smile so blatantly obvious I don't even have to look at him.

"So why didn't you go and teach Ira like he asked?"

"Where's the fun in him not losing control? Maybe someday you'll have to cut him down just like you did to Mael...now that would be hysterical considering all you did to save him." He laughs with pride, uncaring of all the nerves he just hit.

Mousai skips over all the chains and dried skeletons, quickly placing her hand on the pitch black wall. "So-" She shifts all her weight to her front, anticlimactically falling face first onto the solid watery terrain.

"There's no wall by the way." I step onto it beside her, feeling the gentle drip against my bare foot as look down and tense my toes a little.

"And...what are we meant to do from here? Not to mention where even is here?" She wipes her face, believing it's wet but nothing retains to her in the first place.

"This is supposedly where the Beast of Stars emerged from, the creature that's causing my home to forget me whenever I leave the Veil. The thing that killed Adam and disappeared without a trace." I stomp a little bit, unsure of how to get the platform to elevate.

"I think you may benefit from looking down." Eragon advises, noticing the floor before me as a glimmer rises from the depths below us.

A star that begins hitting itself across the walls once again, creating three constellations that trace up throughout the giant pit. Causing the platform to rise at the moment of acknowledgement. "Convenient." I add.

"Isn't that always the case with you? That the world continues to answer to you and all?" Eragon forces a laugh.

"What's that supposed to mean? I raise my eyebrow.

"We've been so distracted, I never got the time to tell you about that book you had."

"I've read what I care for, I don't need it anymore." I try to change the subject.

He hums in interest, "I removed the blood along the stained pages, and I feel you'd be pretty interested to hear what it said." He tries to convince me.

"I won't be."

"Did you ever feel that your wife appeared out of thin air? Like she was everywhere and nowhere at once? Isn't that the slightest bit strange, Oracion?" He smirks.

"No, not at all." I lie.

"Well the person writing it sure seemed scared in those two pages, so scared that he began covering his tracks by soiling the book with his own blood." His voice gets louder the closer we get to the top.

"And what about Freya? She hasn't done anything wrong, hasn't hurt anyone or had a single malicious thought in her life. What are you accusing her of?" I feel my blood beginning to boil inside of me.

His laughter becomes insatiable as if he can't hold it in anymore, "Oh no, don't get me wrong. I'm not accusing her of anything." He stops in silence, "I'm accusing you."

"Wh-" I attempt to answer him but I look around as we reach the top. And all around me I notice Shadows, emerged from the platform but silently watching me. "Was your goal to distract me from these? So that they could kill me?" I draw my sword again, walking backwards towards the Veil.

Each step I take, they follow as if synchronized to me. "You might of picked up on Mousai staring at you from time to time. But it was when she 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘯'𝘵 staring at you...that's when her face truly showed her feelings."

"What the fuck are you saying?" I question him, my heart now racing as I try to get to safety from the hundreds that have spawned behind me.

Step by step by step by step. I get closer to the Veil, to safety.

"Oracion?" A familiar voice comes to soothe my ears, body and soul. Freya.

She places her hand along the Veil, quickly meeting it with my own as I turn away from the Shadows. And alongside her walk the other villagers, tens by tens they come out. But not a single one was filled with joy as I attempted to re-enter the Veil.

A glass bottle being tossed against my head as blood drips down and onto my hands, "HE'S BRINGING THE SHADOWS BACK, AFTER MONTHS OF PEACEFUL SILENCE!" One screams, causing me to fully zone out.

'I've been gone for months...what do you mean they've not come since I was gone? How did you all survive?' I ask myself, unable to find my words.

I barely manage to find the energy to take Eragon's head from my side, only to find his grinning face causing my stomach to drop in pure disgust and rage. "Fix. Them." I chant.

"I said this once and I'll say it again, what ever influence they were under is stronger than me...far stronger than me." His head sways from side to side as his uncontrollable laughter adds to the crowd.

"Fix...them...make them remember me."

His laughter satiates as he looks me dead in eyes, "I don't think you understand what I'm saying. The way they are now, the way they don't even remember you. They. Are. Fixed. This is how it's meant to be. The man who suppressed his own memories, the man who had not a single parent but was born into this world. Who even is your brother?" I drop his head as I fall to my knees, even so he continues ranting. "You who's existence nobody questions until you leave this world you've created for yourself inside the Veil. Adam was the first human, that was the man we all knew and remembered. So...where did 𝘺𝘰𝘶 come from."

"Oracion..." Mousai tries to approach me but again, her eyes aren't fixated on me.

"Tell him Mousai, tell this man the shadow that you see. O'god who can see and command the souls of others. Tell 𝘶𝘴 what's hiding in this creature's shadow that you've been staring at for quite sometime now."

"...Stars." She whispers.

"HAHA! You're human alright, both on the inside and the outside. So how is it that you've dictated the countless years of the people inside this place? Summoned armies to attack yourself and make a reason for you to stay here, forced them to forget someone as important as Adam?"

"It's...not me." I whisper.

"The man who wrote that book knew but he couldn't say it because of her!" He looks up at Freya. "She doesn't even realise she's doing it because you've utterly fucked her mind up so much, as it goes with both Ira and Requis! Three that were able to leave the Veil and even still retain the memories of you. LOOK AT ME!" He wraps strands of blood around my neck, forcing me to look down at him.

"You're scarier than a god for the sole reason nobody knows what the fuck you are, and I bet even you still don't know who you are. But deep down its there...listening, creating more problems for yourself so that you can go around like the good guy and have an entertaining life at the cost of others."

He continues, cutting into me with words...more and more and more..."It's. You. It's always and will forever be. You."

And throughout this entire time I could feel it inside me, two heartbeats that thud just barely out of sync.

𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘱

His voice gets quieter.

𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘱

The hate in his face doesn't dissipate.

𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘱

I can feel something inside me bubbling, at first I thought it was my blood...but it's my stomach. And it doesn't take a god to know...that I'm just so damn hungry.

I'm not sure what caused it, but Eragon's face changes. He went from angry and hateful to one of fear. I've never been the best at reading lips but I can certainly make out, "No" for whatever he was saying "No" to, I'm unsure.

But I gently place my hands under his head, feeling my jaw open, close, open, close, open, close. And each time he just seemed...a little bit less alive? Until there was nothing but some hair leftover, gracefully falling from my mouth and to the floor.

I stand back up, hearing the silence feel me with such joy I've never felt before. Each of the humans looking at me like I'm not even one of them, when I am, I'm one of them. 'I could choose to be mad...but really, it just means I'm free...no longer having to do what these things ask of me...free to go wherever I want.' I think to myself.

"If none of you remember me, then allow me to give you a memory to stick by." I look back at the Shadows, clicking my fingers with a singular command. The words feeling so familiar to me it's almost like I've said them before...long...long ago. "Kill the ones I no longer care for."

I stick my hand up at Freya, trying my best to express something sympathetic but my face won't allow it anymore, "I'll be back. I promise you." I tell her, seeing her face light up a bit even despite the carnage behind her.

And so they charge in, avoiding those particular people. "Oracion! Oracion please!" Requis shouts, running out of the Veil and beside me, appearing smaller than before and making me notice that my size has increased yet again. "Where's Ira!? Please tell me at least that!" She begs, hurting my heart a little bit.

"I'm sorry, but he returned to the castle." I answer her.

But she steps away from me, riddled with fear and confusion as she looks deep into my eyes. "If you're so sorry...then why are you smiling?" I clamp my face together with my hands, and sure enough feeling a smile, but she doesn't wait for an answer. Instead running the opposite direction of the Shadows as they ignore her and she ventures into a path of suicide trying to get to Ira.

"Each to their own, right Mousai?" I look around, unable to find her anywhere.

"Mousai?" I repeat once more to nobody in particular.