Chapter 211 - Path of Demise

Argus placed the palm of his hand against a blackened doorway, gently brushing away the thick layer of soot to reveal the runic inscriptions concealed beneath them.

“This is it.” Argus said.

The lantern in his left hand billowed with smoke, its ghostly blue light casting long shadows across the ruins of the royal castle. The elegant, curved stone architecture was burnt and crusted with ashes from the cataclysmic inferno that destroyed the nation a thousand years prior. The metal adornments and fixtures that once decorated this extravagant castle now remained twisted and half melted. The heads of the blackened lampposts that lined the walkways bowed down upon their wilted stems in eternal mourning.

Behind Argus, the massive crystal that once shone like a beacon over the land loomed above, marred with a giant fissure that split the monument nearly in two.

After a day of wandering around the ruins, Argus had finally found the doors to the royal library. During this time Pix had not provided any assistance or guidance to Argus, but constantly teased and questioned his memories and motives for coming to this place.

Throughout this time he often wondered why she was following and pestering him. Didn’t an angel of chaos have better things to do than follow him around this desolate place? He tried to think of a reason why she would stick around, but was coming up blank. If she wanted to kill him, eat him, or subject him to some other nasty fate, surely she had already had ample opportunity to do so. If she wanted to stop him from his goal of finding the library, she absolutely had the power to do so.

Yet despite not doing anything to stop him directly, it was clear that she didn’t want him to find this place.

The fact that he couldn’t read her mind at all added to his discomfort. Pix was the first and only person in his memory whose thoughts remained hidden from him.

On the other hand, through various hints and verbal slips, Argus realized that Pix knew him very well. Not from his current ‘life’ as the owner of the import shops in Noga, but from his forgotten past. Whenever he tried to bring the matter up, though, she would change the topic and avoid the question entirely.

This only added to the mystery.

There was one other thing that Argus noticed. The closer they got to the library, the more quiet Pix became.

Because of this, Argus came to a conclusion.

There was something in the library that Pix didn’t want Argus to find. Something that perhaps only Argus could access. And then, once that secret was unraveled… She would reveal her true colours.

Thinking about it… She is known as the Trickster. Perhaps she hasn’t been trying to dissuade me at all. What if it was all a ruse? What if this whole time she secretly was guiding me here, looking for the same thing which I am seeking? Argus frowned as he held his hand against the stone door. Perhaps I have walked straight to my doom… But what choice do I have?

Now, standing in front of the library doors, Pix was eerily silent. Her large almond shaped eyes watched him like a hawk.

Just as he was about to push open the door, she reached out and grabbed his arm.

“Don’t.” She said, so quietly that it was almost a whisper.

“What’s behind this door?” Argus asked with a critical glare in his eyes, “You’ve been trying to dissuade me from coming here this whole time. Or perhaps it’s that you want me to go in? Is this just the final ruse of a game you’ve been playing?”

Her expression darkened as her lips pressed tightly together, “If you don’t remember what’s behind this door, why go looking for it?”

“It’s because I don’t remember that I must look for it.” Argus insisted.

“Why?!” Pix yelled as her eyes flashed with anger at Argus’ words. She dug her claws into his arm and threw him across the hallway. He hit the wall opposite the door, causing a cloud of soot to rain down around him. She stepped in front of the doorway, looking down at him with her teeth bared, “Why can’t you just leave these things alone?”

“If you’re going to kill me, kill me, but I will uncover what’s in that room.” Argus coughed. His arm burned with pain where she had clutched at him, a dark patch of blood blooming on his sleeve. He held onto his injured arm as he rose to his feet. “I am a Keeper, I cannot leave without uncovering the truth.”

“Once you open that door, you can’t go back.” Pix’s voice trembled, “Your peaceful life in NianXing will be over.”

“Peaceful? You call years of mental agony peaceful?” Argus scoffed.

“It’s what you wanted!” Pix’s entire body tensed up as she let out an ear-splitting screech.

Argus cried out in pain as he clutched at his ears, the demigod’s screech felt like his brain was being pierced with daggers. Black blood poured out of his ears and nose. He fell to the ground, curling into a ball instinctively as he was incapacitated by the terrible pain.

After a few moments the ringing in his ears wore off.

He slowly uncurled, pushing himself off the ash-covered floor. His vision was still blurry as he looked around for the demigirl, but she was nowhere in sight. As far as he could tell, she was gone.

He propped himself up to a kneel with his good arm, taking his time to recover.

He looked around the empty hallway, staring into the deep shadows cast by his lantern which lay on its side in the ashes. A grey fog still sputtered out of the lantern as it continued to emit a dim bluish white light.

“It’s what I wanted…” Argus repeated softly, wiping the blood off his upper lip with the back of his hand.

The words triggered a memory, one that was hazy and scattered. He tried to grasp onto it but it was like trying to hold onto the fleeting fragments of dream upon waking.

“She called me a friend…” Argus murmured quietly to himself, “Rather than trying to harm me… could it be that Pix was watching over me?”

The ritual must be completed, for your sake. Ezra’s words from his memories back in Huan echoed in his mind. The Angel of Fate had appeared to be helping him to split his soul, telling him that that ritual in Huan was the ‘last time’.

Argus had long guessed that this royal library in Ying Chu was yet another soul-splitting ritual site. His eyes focused as he pushed himself to his feet, looking solemnly at the blackened, rune-engraved doorway in front of him.

“It’s what I wanted…” Argus repeated once more, letting the words settle in. “All this time, I thought that some enemy of mine had torn my soul apart, that they were punishing me, or taking revenge for some ancient slight against them…”

“Could it be that that ‘enemy’ of mine, was me all along?”

“All the pain, all the suffering, a result of my own actions. The pieces of my soul hidden from me by an Angel of Fate and an Angel of Chaos, at my behest?”

“To what end?”

Argus stared at the door with a dark expression as he continued to talk to himself.

“If so, then what Pix said is true. Once I open that door and merge with the soul shard behind it, I will remember why it is that I split my soul to begin with. Whatever terrible reason that caused me to go down this awful path will come to light.”

“…And this time, the option of splitting my soul is no longer available. I no longer have the resources or assistance required to perform the rituals. Will I really be able to continue on? It appears that if I enter this library, I really can’t go back.”

He frowned, continuing to hesitate, “If… If I brought Yuzu here… Would she be able to tell me the fate that awaits me behind this door?”

His thoughts turned to the teenage girl who he had only recently met. This girl who, despite not knowing him at all, swallowed her fear and followed him into the dark recesses of a dead God’s tomb. This girl who was the first and only friend that he’d made in the last thousand years.

A small smile formed on his lips as he closed his eyes and nodded.

“That’s right. Didn’t I originally start this journey looking for an answer to her illness? I really am an awful friend, forgetting the purpose the moment I get wind of something personal.”

He chuckled softly to himself then sighed, “But in the end it worked out, didn’t it? Beyond this door lie answers. I regained so much knowledge when I merged with my last soul shard. Surely this time I will learn the knowledge necessary to help her.”

“If I can repay what Yuzu has done for me, even a little, it will be worth it.” His eyes turned serious as he stepped forward decisively and pressed his hand against the library door, “Even if this path leads to my demise.”