Tonight, is a night of festivity, of the parade. But the monsters that leave their realms to join in the fun were cut down by a steel blade. The old hunter presses on through the darkness, slaying everything that gets in his way. His aim is true, every slash is fatal for the horrible monstrosity. They are the preys, they are the hunted. The man continues to make his way up the wide infinite stair to the cosmos.

“You are not who I am expecting”

The old hunter encounters a figure so pale like a walking corpse, yet he is very much alive. Wyatt Black, still human, stands far above facing with his fellow man. He wants to see the pale rider, the Stranger with crimson hair, but this is quite a pleasant surprise.

Without warning, he draws his rifle and fires. The bullet pierces through the air, going through countless monster before reaching its target.

The old hunter currently running up the stair doesn’t stop a second. He jumps and spins his body, the bullet barely scrapes his back. Not slowing down, the man runs up, carving out a bloody path made by monsters.

Wyatt shoots, the handle is cranked to load another bullet which is also fired instantly. The first is aimed to the old hunter’s left side at his heart. To dodge it in time he would need to move to the other side and there the other bullet is aimed. Just as predicted, the old hunter avoids to the right but not before stepping on a monster, jumping over the second shot.

His opponent stuck in mid-air, this is the perfect chance. Wyatt fires another bullet.

The old hunter, however, has already predicted that outcome. He stabs down into a monster flesh and propels himself to the side, landing on the ground and dodging the shot. All without slowing down to any minor degree.

Emptying his rifle, Wyatt lets out a barrage of bullets surround his opponent. But the old hunter isn’t going to hamper his progress. The man stabs a monster and sweeps it through the barrage, the bullets piercing through the creature’s flesh, their trajectories altered. None of them could land on their target.

“Now this is a pleasant surprise”

Wyatt Black was the first person ever to climb the stairway to heaven. There he encounters a power beyond all comprehension. Mankind has bested the monsters, but not the deities that created them. Behind the veil of the cosmos lies eldritch Gods. Just a glimpse, hearing a whisper or even being around their presence can cause madness. Eyes opening on ones own brain, it’s impossible to face with such beings.

But Wyatt Black had survived with his mind intact and he had climbed the stairway to heaven. Faced with hardship and eldritch power, mankind has evolved, it had produced him. Even though he knows that a human can’t ever hope to against the deities, inside, the man continues to hope. Perhaps, one day, a person who has evolved beyond his own comprehension would arrive to end the horror once and for all.

Heh, one of them anyway. There are many deities and the stairway only connected to one.

And so, Wyatt Black the Owl serves as the gatekeeper, a trial for the brave. Here he stands vigilant repealing any attempt to traverse the stairway to heaven. The cosmos preserving him, he had pushed back against countless brave souls.

There were people like the old hunter, wielding steel swords, a pair of siblings. But their blades couldn’t match his guns. Even his own people tried to climb the stair. A man married to the Black’s family, turned machine, his augmentations were formidable. But it was not enough to surpass the Owl. An army had tried once, even a proud band of Knights of old, also stuck in this realm tried to confront the deity.

But Wyatt Black had bested them all. All of them were crushed, their minds lost, and they wandered the realm as mindless killing machine. Good, even more trials. Soon enough, no one could even the stairway to begin with.

Until now that is.

Not bothering to reload his rifle, the old hunter is now close enough. Wyatt Black places his hands above his holster, this is the final trials from the fastest hand in the West. The draw of the revolver is an instant, right when the old hunter is cutting down a monster on his path. This is the end…

No, the old hunter adjusts his blade, deflecting the shot with his steel. Such a feat is possible? Truly, the person he is waiting for is here, a man whose skill transcend the Owl’s understanding. Wyatt casts his mind to the crimson hair Stranger, he wants to meet her again, to face off against the woman. The man believed she was the one. Wyatt just couldn’t believe that this day, there is another who could pass his trial.

Slamming the hammer, Wyatt Black unleased the last five shots.

The old hunter swings his sword, deflecting four of them and dodging the last. This is not the end yet, the Owl draws his other revolver with the same inhuman speed. The old hunter, finally in range, cleaves down at his target.

Human blood stained the stairway to heaven.

___

The emissary for the cosmos sits atop of the stairway. A humanoid being that is frail and small, its defining feature is its head with face replaced by an eye. With it, the creature can commune and witness the deity’s knowledge. The thing fidgets with a curious item, one that allows it to see the cosmos to begin with, a stone ring. Now that it has transcend with brain lined with eyes, the ring is no longer needed. It’s a strange item still.

The creature was a human once, he was called Mark. But now, it can’t remember any of its insignificant life before transcendence. The forlorn thing curls up, it’s so lonely up here, but soon it will be among the stars, becoming one with the cosmos.

A sound is approaching, however, of footsteps going up the stairway to heaven.

Will it be a friend? A fellow forlorn? The creature turns around to see the old hunter with sword stained with red.

[Aiu l’e Mak?] The creature asked.

It’s question is met with a swift strike, the emissary is cut down. As it falls into the ground, the creature doesn’t understand what has happened. The concept of death has already escaped its mind. As it is fading away, the thing can see the cosmos as the soul is brought up to join the star.

Oh, so that man was a friend after all, here to help it transcend. Now a part of the night sky, it is bother forlorn and yet, he is not exactly being lonely.

The old hunter looks down at the corpse of the emissary. He wonders if this is one of Bruno’s friends. The man asked for all of them to be killed. Maybe they have all perished or not, the old hunter cannot tell.

He picks up the stone ring, the object that the Stranger has been searching for.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

[It allows even the vacuous to see the deity]

A voice! The old hunter turns around to see Walker… no, Father Walker. No trace of the burns he had sustained, is this an illusion? He is also cleaned from he pain, no barb wire or glass in sight. All except for a single horn of made of black stone.

[You can see me just by picking it up] The priest said.

Whether or not it is the same person he knows doesn’t matter for the old hunter. If this is the real one then that means Walker had also transcended and is no longer an ally. But if there is something the old hunter knows for sure, an acolyte never lies.

“So she needs this to see the deity?” He asked.

[Yes, and it also works for you] Father Walker answered [But unlike her, your mind is susceptible to the eldritch still, I would advise against it]

“What is she exactly?”

The priest seems to think to himself for a bit, or perhaps he is communing with something higher. Nevertheless, he soon returns to reply [I… didn’t know, back when I could still be ‘human’. Now? I still don’t know. But I can tell that she is from your world, born or created in the wasteland]

An immortal being that is not susceptible to the deities. The old hunter whether she is a human that has evolved to that point. Or is she was born that way, a different species masquerade as man, a monster.

The old hunter doesn’t care about that, there is only one question he needs answer.

“The deities, can they be slain by this” He holds up the steel blade.

[Yes] Father Walker answered without any hesitation.

“I see” The old hunter turns away, thinking.

[You are not curious why?] The priest wondered. There is no reply, he shrugs and continues anyway, a revelation [This steel use by the Blind and the Desert Ranger, they have the same source. It is harvested from another deity altogether]

“And?” The old hunter said, unimpressed by this startling reveal.

[You don’t seem surprise… can’t say that doesn’t surprise me myself]

“If it can kill my target I don’t care where it comes from” The old hunter concluded “As long as I can protect those weaker than me”

After all this time, the years he had spent walking this cruel wasteland. In that time, he had faced with horrible monstrosities both from the beyond or inherent in mankind itself. But none of that could weaken his resolve, one that he decided on when he first joined the Blind.

Father Walker couldn’t believe such a person could exist. But he could say the same for the Owl or Bruno, who somehow is still surviving. Even him is something unheard of. An acolyte surviving for so long without transcending, he himself was a miracle.

“My scar won’t protect me of I use this right?” He meant the steel implant on every Blind’s forehead to shut out the eldritch.

[Correct, it simply protect you from seeing in the first place] Father Walker answered [But this ring can bypass that, your bare mind will have to handle it]

The priest waits for that question, for the old hunter to ask if he can handle it. But it never comes, there is only one choice for such a man. Father Walker can’t help but feel a pang od sadness, the world is soon to lose a great person to the eldritch. For the short live it has anyway. But deep down, something with Father Walker still believes, he is a man of faith after all.

The old hunter has climbed the stairway and bested the only others who could achieve such a feat. He even managed it at the end of this final century as well, when the veil is the weakest and monsters flood to this realm.

Raising the stone ring, the old hunter looks through and he can see the cosmos with its eye close, sleeping, waiting.

The steel on his forehead is destroyed, knowledge floods the man’s brain, enlightening him. Father Walker watches on and he prays that the man can persevere.

[Godspeed]

The old hunter finds himself dragged up in a stream of knowledge, trying to penetrate his mind. He tries to shut them out but some leak in, about the nature of his world. The truth is laid bare to him.

That this is not the first century that has passed since the end of the world. No, the world is stuck in a pseudo cycle. That every hundred years, the stairway to heaven is opened and the cosmos acolytes are sent to grace this world. Those innocence babies that the old hunter saw played around in this realm.

They run around, spreading the Runesland, more gateway for the Eldritch.

Then the people’s memories are altered, once again they believe the world has just fallen. Another century and another one pass by and the Runesland continue to spread, slowly engulfing the world. That this is the final cycle, after this everything will be completely covered.

And what is the Runesland but a way to soften our realm. To make it more appetizing, easier to digest. It is the cosmos’ saliva and when everything is coated it shall dawn on the world and gulps it down in one go. Just like that, this realm is assimilated by the cosmos, just like countless worlds and stars before it. Because mankind is alone, they yearn for knowledge to see that they are not.

The cosmos is here to grant that wish, to make sure we are not alone. Inside its belly are countless others and all the knowledge of the world. It’s unity, it’s true peac…

“That’s bullshit!”

The old hunter fights back, cleansing his mind with pure force of will. There is a reason why every century we are forced to forget, and he knows why.

“You are afraid, that we would evolve on our own!”

That the time spent facing with horror will equipped mankind enough to deny this ascension. But even with the cosmos’ interference, it is in man’s nature to evolve. The pale demon was born and he breached all the way up the stairway to heaven. Then the Blind, their effort was like a drop of water against the tide of monsters. But they continued to trudge on, pioneered like Eifreet and Francois revolutionized the way the Blind fought.

And the old hunter is the result of that evolution, a result of a collective effort. Not just from his genetic makeup, stronger and faster but in experience.

Drawing his sword, the old hunter cleaves through the stream of knowledge.

He continues to soldier on, eons of civilisations flash in front of his eyes. The memories of empires rise and falls and forgotten. They try to fill his vision, but the old hunter cut through them all. But the knowledge, they pick him apart like vulture, setting him on fire. They try to knock him down but he stands up every again and again.

They soon appear as monstrosities beyond understanding, as faces he is familiar with. The Smiling Hunter is there to face him, along with Eifreet and Francois and the Owl and countless others, even Father Walker himself. All are here except the Stranger.

These aren’t mere imitations either, no, they are the same beings reflected by the cosmos.

But none of them couldn’t stop the old hunter. He trudges past the storm of bullets and arrows, he fights past the sea of blades. The man walks a bloody path through the champions of mankind and then, those from another worlds.

This path, this hardship has backfired spectacularly. It would be more than enough to wash away anyone. But with the hunter, it pushes him even more, the man evolves even further but his will still keeps him human.

When the hunter finally comes face to face with the cosmos, he is left with nothing but a steel sword and his bare self.

Weakened, the old hunter forces out the rest of strength to swing the weapon, to end this threat once and for all. A final hunt to protect the weak.

But the cosmos simply opens its eye. The human is overwhelmed with the eldritch.

[No no no… no] Father Walker watched as the old hunter is turned in front of him.

In the end, the man is still just that, a man. His mind could not hope to match with the eldritch, with the Old God. The old hunter is now consumed, turning into an emissary, an acolyte. But he is different from the peaceful Mark. No, he will become something different, violent and forceful. The old hunter will be a plague to the world he swore to protect.

Faced with that, the man mutters a single final word “No”

Tearing from the stream, the old hunter hunts his last prey. The man plunges the blade straight into his body. As red hot blood stained the ground, the old hunter collapses to the ground. The tendrils of knowledge leave his mind alone. He will die a man.

Father Walker catches the fallen corpse. [He did it, he actually did it] In the end, the hunter had defeated the eldritch incomprehensible influence. He couldn’t slay the deity itself but his death as human is a victory to mankind.

Why exactly was he overwhelmed? Was it because his mind has been shielded by another deity? That doesn’t matter, he had won.

This has opened a new path, a new future. Just like the old hunter was to the Owl. One day, the world will produce someone that can surpass him. Perhaps then, the threat from the deities will be ended for good.

But the world doesn’t have enough time for that, this is already the final cycle.

Father Walker takes peace in knowing that human isn’t the only one fighting this front. That someone is walking the stairway to heaven this very moment. She will prevail, she will buy humanity enough time to mature. The priest can’t tell if that would actually happen or not but he believes so. That’s his job after all and it is also his duty to lay the dead to rest.

[Rest in peace]

He whispered to the fallen hunter. The cosmos reaches out to take the corpse but it remains untouched. Is it out respect? Can the deity even have emotion similar to us or something different. It doesn’t matter, Father Walker knows that the old hunter will be preserve here in the cosmos.

No it will be more than that, he will be a temple, a monument to the champion of man.