“This world is beautiful, don’t give up on us” Said Miriam Earp, those were her last words.

___

The Stranger shoots through three different gaps between the gravestones, it hits Wyatt straight at his shoulder. The man smiles, so this is what being shot is like. For someone, a human to land a hit on him. The pain stings but he doesn’t mind it at all, adrenaline serves as an adequate painkiller.

Creeping through the cemetery silently, he won’t let this go unanswered. He fires and immediately moves. The bullet flies pass the gravestone and catches the Stranger mid-dodge right at the left shin, tearing the tendon apart. Another shot comes right after from a different direction, this time catching her in the stomach.

The two are separated once again, losing track of one another.

With their speed, every encounter will result in a hit. It all depends on whoever finds the other first. Although the Stranger has an advantage seeing that she is somewhat immortal.

“It still hurts” The woman commented, trying to stop the bleeding.

Her shin will be fine, after some time being bandaged it will regenerate. The stomach is a different matter, however. The bullet remains inside and worse, it broke, the fragments embedded in her guts, causing serious internal damages. This can’t be solved with a simple bandage job but that is all she could do now.

Even though she will live, sustaining too much punishment might mean her demise later on. She will need her everything to go face a face with a deity herself.

The chase continues as the two races through the maze, revolver ready. Even though they can’t know it, they can feel it within, they are getting close to one another. A wide smile on Wyatt’s face, one that no one in Riven or the whole West had never seen. But his excitement is denied at the final moment. The pale demon? Allowed to be happy? Ridiculous.

The world shattered, shuddered as the end of its final sovereign.

From the cracks, the cosmos bridge is opened for all. Monsters stream out in drove, many from this realm themselves, most from different worlds. They pass through the two gunslingers, their eyes on the bigger price.

For these monsters, nothing is more delicious than an untainted mind, so ready to be ‘enlightened’.

Well, not all of them are seeking innocence, one and only one is after something more peculiar. A vacuous mind perhaps. The sound of siren shifts the whole of the crumbling cemetery into another dimension. The ground breaks open in chunks, they are then stretched, distorted and mashed together once again. A new twisted landscape emerges, unrecognisable if not for the many even more warped tombstones.

The sound of siren starts to become louder and louder before stopping altogether.

With complete silence, a creature emerges from the crack, one born of a certain heretical wish. It looks like a woman, a farmhand, one once known as Miriam Earp. The only difference is the face, missing. In place of that is a blinding light, focused like a search light.

“So that’s the form you are taking this time…” The Stranger commented upon seeing that form. This thing has been after her since the beginning, she sometimes killed but most of the time, avoiding it proved to be more prudent, especially in this situation.

But for it to take on that form.

“Guess I will have to put you down this time” She said coldly, the smile disappeared from her face unconsciously.

The Stranger fires at the creature, the bullet takes a chunk of its neck. From the crack, light pours out. The thing turns around, trying to shine on its target but to no avail. The Stranger is already hidden behind a gravestone.

In the endless desert, this creature is so much more menacing. But in this area so abundant with covers, it’s a trivial road bump.

Relocating she fires another shot, another part of the creature is broken off, light leaking out.

She only has one more shot, but it is enough to finish this thing off. The Stranger would have to worry about what comes next. Will she have to face with Wyatt Black without a firearm? Seeing that she won’t be able to steal his arms again, that would be the case. The woman needs to think of a strategy now.

But first, to turn down the light.

The Stranger once again fires at the creature and… misses. She misses, but how? The cemetery was broken then joined again, but it wasn’t just the physical ground that suffered. No, the dimension itself was torn apart. And even though it was reattached rather fittingly, some parts didn’t fit quite well.

Pockets of twisted dimension linger, and the Stranger has just fired into one of them.

Her position compromises, the woman relocates immediately from the safety of her cover. Yet, somehow, light dawns on her location. The creature’s light reflects of a pocket dimension. This has been a trap from the beginning, one that transcend human understanding.

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In an instant, the creature is in front of the Stranger. The woman reaches for a knife but her arms are grabbed by the creature’s owns.

The deities are benevolent if a wish could reach them, it will be fulfilled without fail.

“Dear God, I know I had made it my life goal to mock you. But I am willing to renounce my way, I only ask of you one thing” Doctor Frankenstein prayed, a man who made his own fortune, this was his first and only wish “Please end the monster that I have unleased upon this world”

Locking the Stranger down, the creature shines its’ light straight into her face.

What had gone wrong there? For her to be caught like this, how could it be. Was it the work of the cosmos? Was it because she wasn’t focusing? Was it because the creature had finally evolved enough to catch her? Was it fate?

All of the above are true. It was true this twisted dimension is made favouring the creature since the Stranger couldn’t see the pockets. But she had been through worse, it was also the truth that she had her guard down. What about the creature itself, it took this form deliberately to take her off balance.

None of that matter as the strength leaves the Stranger, her very self is being consumed.

“People called you the pale rider” Miriam giggled “I expected you to be… whiter…”

The first to be eaten is her memories, what makes her truly immortal. Her life is filled with holes, they keep getting bigger and bigger. Soon she will truly be a shell, an immortal shell but still an empty one regardless. Then what happens next is not the creature of light’s business, it will have already fulfilled the wish. Perhaps her body will be consumed whole by the cosmos, there would no regeneration if there is nothing to regenerate.

The Stranger stops struggling and accepts her fate. There is no fighting back, at least she will reunite with Miriam again, inside the creature’s belly.

The light weakens, however, as more is leaked out. The creature recoils back as its back is being cut open. It lets the Stranger go as she tumbles to the ground. Her body impossibly malnourishes, the woman could barely move. It’s not like she can right now, anyway. All of her memories, all of them, enough to fill several people, come back all at once.

Her mind casts back to that day, shortly before the light took something from her forever.

“You are leaving soon, I can tell” Commented Miriam out of the blue, patting her sleeping daughter’s head “This home will always be opened for you to return. You are not alone, never forget that”

Mustering all of her strength, the Stranger tries to stand up. She can see a familiar friend, her revolver by her legs, still loaded with two bullets. Grunting, the woman raises the gun and fires at the creature, the recoils snaps her arm. She is knocked back onto the ground.

It is a direct hit, with a final siren call, the creature explodes in a shower of light. One day, it will return but not today, not now.

The Stranger crawls at her saviour, the one to come to her rescue.

“I could have won…” Siobhan coughed “If not for this” She clutched her chest, the part broken by the champion.

The hunter was shone upon by the creature’s light. She was protected by the steel which shield her inside, her mind but it wasn’t enough. Siobhan lies on the ground, all of her items, except the steel bolt tips and sword, all gone. Her skin is also taken, she is once again left exposed. It was pure agony to be flayed alive but now the pain is all gone. All that is left is nothingness and it is so cold.

The shivering stops as she is wrapped by something, a duster. Siobhan looks up the person she has chased after all her life.

“You look thinner than I remember, quite a diet there” She said weakly “Come on, that was a joke, you are supposed to laugh at it. Come on, smile for me”

The Stranger complies and laughs for the dying woman. She looks at herself which is only skin on bones. She doesn’t have enough to regenerate in time for the final fight. But Siobhan has an idea, she always does, a hunter is always crafty.

“Come on, there are plenty to eat for a monster like you, it’s a treat, I promise you. One of a kind” The Smiling Hunter smiles for the last time.

“Guess I will dig in then”

The Stranger points the gun at Siobhan’s head and pulls the trigger.

___

Through one of the cracks, the Strange steps out. She fixes her white shirt up, it’s a bit tight now actually. Looking around, the woman finds herself in a set of stairs. Walking up, she opens a hatch to emerge onto a crumbled castle.

In the corner is a Walker, resting with the bottom part of his body, missing.

“What happened to you?” The Stranger asked with a smile on her face.

“We found the host of the cosmos, I got hit” The man answered “The hunter has gone after him… Hm, I don’t think anything can stop that guy”

He will be fine here, as an acolyte, if there is no steel around. None of the monsters would bother him either. Walker doesn’t intend to just sit still, however.

“The cosmos really doesn’t want you to reach its acolyte” He said.

“I wonder why” The Stranger said, giggling gently.

The man can see the deity’s influence somewhat. He has confirmed it, that the cosmos is actively hindering her progress. And yet, she is still here somehow. Either the Stranger is a match to the deity or the force invading belongs to something else, a powerful acolyte from another dimension perhaps.

“Don’t worry, I can provide a safe passage, just for you” Walker said “It’s simple, the cosmos is connected to everything, including Azu. All I need to do is wish it”

“Are you sure you want to finally start doing that?” The Stranger asked.

“Well, there is a first time for everything”

As he finishes speaking, blood spills out from the ground, forming a circle. It then turns solid, a portal made of black stone. The wish isn’t without repercussion, however, it compromises Walker’s position to what’s behind the veil. And with the cosmos around them, reaching out is a simple task.

The man still has something left, an item he took from the host of the cosmos.

“I managed to get this”

He throws to the Stranger the item which is the bullet. Too bad he couldn’t get the stone circle, her real objective. But it’s never that easy anyway. Walker can feel something reaching out to him, ready to fully enlighten the acolyte. He still has something to ask though.

“Hey, why did you decide to do this in the first place, this… this quest?”

The Stranger pauses for thought before answering “Because this world is beautiful” She answered but then laughed it off “Just kidding, I just feel like it”

“I see”

Walker smiles bitterly, in the end he couldn’t finish his own journey. From the shadow, a being of black stones reaches out. The man is dragged away into an unknown realm, perhaps when the cosmos ever returns, he will be among the monsters invading. Or maybe not.

Still with a smile on her face, the Stranger prepares to step through the portal. But there is one last encounter before she takes the plunge.