Chapter Text
One, two. One, two.
Avery ran, his lungs already burnt but fueled by the feeling of betrayal and worry he persevered.
One, two. One, two.
He was supposed to get gold to seal the doors, but there wasn’t any up in the tree.
One, two. One, two.
D3rlord3 lied to him, he just sent him away. He had to be hiding something.
One, two. One, two.
Why did D3rlord3 lie to him? Avery had a bad feeling about this.
One, two. One, two.
Focus, Avery, focus. He had to have a good reason.
One, two. One, two.
He wouldn’t have just betrayed him now.
One, two. One, two.
Avery sped up, he couldn’t stop now.
One, two. One, two.
Left, right. Left, right.
One, two. One, two.
His thoughts halted.
One, two. One, two.
His chest ached.
One, two. One, two.
His legs hurt.
One, two. One, two.
So close.
One, two. One-
…
Avery’s steps stopped, he made it. There stood the final gate, towering over him proudly. He took a deep breath, the cold air of the hall nicely filling his lungs. And just like he thought, D3rlord3 was nowhere in sight. He must've gone in already. Avery had no time to think this over; he had to find D3rlord3 as quickly as possible.
He took off.
One- Rustle.
He didn’t really get far. He stepped on something, a quick glance down told him that it was a book. A rather small book, it was just about as big as his palms. He picked it up and turned it over. It had no title. Distracted with it he forgot the task at hand. He looked through it. It appeared to contain some weird ramblings. His eyes quickly scanned each page, he wasn’t really paying much attention to the words that danced around the pages. And then he saw it, the weird scripture written in red ink. That seemed to be enough to get him back to reality; he swiftly read through the words, closed the book and threw it in one of the pockets of his cargo shorts. He needed to hurry up even more now.
One, two. One, two.
He made it through the gate.
|--+--|
Avery ran to what seemed to be some kind of a cathedral. His breaths were ragged and his legs were about to give out but he continued. He was determined to find D3rlord3 and to find out what happened.
He didn’t even stop in front of the entrance to appreciate the beauty of the building, he dashed right in. Something felt awfully wrong about this place, the air was icy and thick with some presence. He felt as though something was watching him really closely. Even so, his feet continued to plop through the eerily empty, massive hall.
Then he saw it, a lit up pedestal right in the middle of the opening at the end of the hall. He slowed down, letting himself catch breath once more. His legs felt like they were made from jelly - and it wasn’t because he was half-slime -, he cautiously wandered onto the pedestal.
Just seconds later the walls of the cathedral faded into black and eyes surrounded him all around as a familiar silhouette came into view.
“D3rlord?”
The knight turned around, “Avery. What are you doing here? Why aren’t you at the tree?”
“What am I doing here?” Avery spoke, his words accented with disbelief, “What are YOU doing here?”
He stepped closer to D3rlord3, his steps stern, his body visibly tense.
“You LIED to me, there was NOTHING on that tree, D3rlord!” He stared at the other man and then he looked around them, finally realising the weirdness of the place, he repeated “What are you doing here? What is this?”
“Avery, I need you to leave. Now.”
Avery stepped even closer to D3rlord3, his words daring, “I’m not leaving until you talk to me.”
The knight centered his helmeted head right on Avery, his invisible gaze piercing right through him. “I’m not talking. You have to go, now.”
“Why?”
D3rlord3 briefly sighed. “I am finishing the job, Avery. You need to get out of here.”
The half-slime raised his brows, “What do you mean finishing the job? What is this?” And after about a second just as D3rlord3 was about to speak, something seemed to click for Avery as he cut him off, “Is this about that weird book by the gate? Is this that ‘dawn’?”
D3rlord3 seemed to tense at his words, “Avery, what book?”
“You know, some weird ramblings with that one page written in red? It said something about eyes and a corroded sun and-” He was cut off as D3rlord3 quickly closed the distance between them, his hand covering Avery’s mouth.
“Do not.” His tone demanded no objections, “Avery, where did you find that book?” D3rlord3 lifted his hand off of his face letting the man speak.
“I told you, by the final gate. It was just sprawled out on the floor.” His words had a hint of annoyance because of the quick act of silencing that was just done on him. “What’s the big deal? It’s just some diary of some weirdo… I think.”
“Avery, it isn’t just some ‘diary’. And those red words aren’t just some poem for you to recite so freely” D3rlord3 groaned tiredly at the other’s words.
“Then what is it? What is it, D3rlord?!”
“It’s…” The knight’s head dropped with a sigh, “It doesn’t matter, you need to get out of here.”
“I told you! I’m not leaving until you talk!”
“I’ll explain this to you later, now you need to leave. We’ll talk after it’s finished.” His gaze lifted once more onto the person before him, his posture visibly tired, “I promise I’ll tell you, now leave. Please, Avery. If you stay here it won’t work.”
“I don’t believe you. And what won’t work? Why can’t you just tell me?!”
“Avery, please.” His tone became borderline pleading. “If you stay here we’ll both die.”
“And if I leave? What will happen to you, huh?”
“I- I don’t know. I just know that I have to do it, I’ll get rid of the King once and for all.”
“I’m staying, this can’t be the only way.” Avery huffed out.
“Avery! Are you listening to me? You have to leave!” D3rlord3 pushed the slime-man in vexation.
“I’m not leaving! I owe it to you!” Avery shouted.
“No you do not! You don’t even know me, Avery!” D3rlord3 turned his head away.
Avery just stood there silently for a moment, observing the knight before he reached for one of the pockets of his cargo shorts. The book appeared in his hand, the paper barely rustled as he swiftly found the weird page.
He inhaled quickly before reading “I stand and give my eyes to you,” D3rlord flinched and turned around at the words, Avery noticed that and sped up “one by one, shadowed shore, far undone.”
“Avery.” The knight was staring daggers at him now.
“To you I pour corroded sun,” Avery spoke those words as though he was challenging D3rlord3.
“STOP THAT!” D3rlord started rushing toward him.
“Wake me,” He sped up even more, the knight was now at arm's length, “as one!”
D3rlord3 tackled him to the ground, but he did so too late. A giant eye appeared right behind them.
“You’ve come, my vessel.” It spoke, the words felt icy, Avery realised what presence he felt back in the hall.
“What have you done…” D3rlord’s voice sounded weak above him.
Avery just stared wide-eyed at the eye as it talked, “Finally the time has come, for your efforts to protect it from me were in vain. You may have limited my strength but you failed to do what mattered most.”
The eye started to fall apart as D3rlord3 hissed in pain, “You may have taken my physical form, but you led a brand new vessel right to me. For that I am thankful, my knight.”
D3rlord3 stayed silent dumbfounded for a moment longer before he seemed to regain his senses, he quickly got off of Avery and extended a hand to help him up. “You may try to run but know that I will always be there, you can’t outrun me for I am beyond it” the words echoed as the last of the eye disappeared. Avery accepted the hand and let himself be lifted up to his feet.
“Quickly! We need to move, Avery!” He dragged him by his slimy hand. They jumped off of the pedestal just as it started to fall. D3rlord3’s cape waved as they fell down, Avery could’ve sworn they were about to die, but then they hit the ground, faster than he even had proper time to realise that D3rlord3 had just in fact pushed them down. They were fine, mostly. Avery’s head started to ache, his thoughts were getting kind of foggy, his vision blurry. He wobbled as they landed, stabilising himself with his hands that were now both free.
They landed right back by the final gate, except the giant hallway was now different, all the doors seemed to be closed, except for the first ones - the ones that they came here through in the first place. The bridges were different too, they weren’t connecting all the gates in pairs. Now there was a single bridge that was going from the first one straight to the last one. And to top all that off, everything seemed to be decaying all around them. They had a clear path to cross.
“Come on!” D3rlord3 yelled, helping Avery up, urging them to run.
They sprinted, the end of the hallway wasn’t that far but the decay seemed to be catching up to them. Avery’s vision got more and more blurry, his head felt like it was about to explode and his legs were rapidly losing speed and strength.
“What was-” Avery tripped, his head hit the ground, the decay was closing in and D3rlord3 was not about to let them get consumed by it.
“Get up!” The knight stopped by his side, nervously looking behind them. And just as he watched Avery’s sluggish attempts to get up he made a quick decision. “We don’t have time for this!” He picked the man up and threw him on his shoulder, which earned him a surprised yelp, and then he resumed the escape, faster than before since he didn’t need to match the tired slime’s pace.
Avery was laying limp in D3rlord3’s grasp when he felt himself slipping out of consciousness. The world was spinning, he barely could see anything, his body didn’t feel like his anymore, but D3rlord3 was so close to getting them out of there.
Avery couldn’t take it anymore, the exhaustion was filling him completely so he let it. He gave in and decided to close his eyes, the last thing he remembered was feeling D3rlord3’s careful hold as he panted out in desperation, “Come on, just a little longer, we’re so close.”