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"What the hell?"
Kris had no answer for Susie's question.
The Darkner was clearly a doorbell. You could tell because they had a bell for a head, and a red and yellow concierge uniform. They might stand about a foot taller than Susie, if not for the crook in their stature. They looked amiable; the sense of a gentle smile radiated from their lack of a face.
They were also frozen into a solid block of ice.
"What... happened here?"
They couldn't bear to tell her.
They needed to tell her!
They placidly walked past the ice statue and continued along the path.
"... Uh. Guess we'll find some sort of clue some- Noelle!" Susie exclaimed.
She stood before an intricate gate recessed into the hedge wall they had been walking beside. The metal was impossibly sculpted into perfect facsimiles of vines and flowers. Or, maybe, the flowers and vines were impossibly stiffened and worked into a set of nearly symmetrical gates. It was a Dark World. They didn't know. It didn't matter.
Noelle turned to face them. "Kris!" Her gaze seemed glassy; they would call it vacant, if it weren't so sharp. "Oh, and Susie."
"Uh." Susie sounded caught off-guard. "Yes! Us." She shifted awkwardly. "So. Crazy... dream we're having, huh?"
"Still lying to me, huh?"
"N-No! I, I mean, what do you mean?! It's just-"
"It's fine, Susie. You were just protecting me, right? Well, it's okay. I don't need to be protected anymore. I've become stronger. Let me show you!"
Kris wanted to shiver. In fear, of course. But it was also the cold. The cold should have been far too much an anathema to their father's shop to appear here.
But the cold roared anyway.
They wrenched their body from its control and still only barely managed to throw themselves and Susie to the ground as gales of blisteringly icy wind exploded around them. They painfully forced their face from the ground and into the meager protection of their shield to squint into the eye of the storm. Noelle smiled coldly in their direction as thundering cracks spread through the already frozen-over gate. They braced as it splintered under the force of the wind and nearly cried out in pain as a single iced-over stem hurled by the blizzard ricocheted off of their shield.
And then, the chill sinking into their bones slowed and the wind faded.
No more than five seconds could have passed.
"See? I don't need to be protected anymore. Not by you. Not by anyone."
Susie was shaking. "W-wh-what th-the h-h-h-hell?"
Noelle frowned. "... Are you okay?"
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN-" Susie drew the both of them back to their feet, shedding layers of ice that had crusted over them. "I-I-I'm fine."
"... Of course. You're strong."
"... Noelle. What... what happened to the Darkner just down the way we came?"
"Oh, the Gatekeeper? He tried to tell me about some sort of puzzle that needed to be solved to open the gate."
Susie gaped, aghast. "... S-so..."
"So, I froze him."
"WHY?!?!" Susie was distraught.
"Because he was in my way?"
Susie took a step back.
"Y-y-you... You killed him."
Noelle's smile seemed bemused.
"You just- you just killed him!? For- for being a mild inconvenience!?!?"
"... I..."
"WHAT THE FUCK, NOELLE?!? I thought... I thought you were... I thought you cared! About... It doesn't matter. I... We won't let you just run around slaughtering innocent Darkners!" Despite still shivering violently with the cold, she fearlessly summoned her blade, and they felt their body summon its own along with her. "Stand down."
"..."
Noelle seemed speechless.
It wasn't.
They were commanded to DEFEND. Susie was commanded to DEFEND.
"Noelle, stand down!" Susie roared.
"N-no..."
They were commanded to DEFEND. Susie was commanded to DEFEND.
"... Please! We... we don't want to hurt you! Just..."
"Hurt me? No... No, no-" Noelle begged.
They were commanded to DEFEND. Susie was commanded to DEFEND.
"Just... please, give up! It doesn't have to be this way!!"
"RUN!! SUSIE, YOU NEED TO RUN!!! PLEASE!!!!" she screamed, horror crawling over her face.
They were commanded to DEFEND. Susie was commanded to DEFEND. Noelle was commanded to cast SNOWGRAVE.
"I'm not- wait, Kris? Wha-"
A pillar of snow erupted from nothing, cutting Susie off from the world.
When the ethereal, blinding, deafening cold died down, Noelle was knelt in the snow, hair covering her face.
They couldn't breathe.
They couldn't look.
Susie couldn't-
"Kris?! Susie?!"
Ralsei.
PROCEED.
Noelle's breath hitched.
"SUSIE!!!!"
PROCEED.
Noelle shook.
Ralsei finally arrived. "NO!!!!!!" He streamed flames at the tower of ice; steam and blistering heat sprayed from it wildly. Kris didn't react, even as a shard of almost-melted ice drew blood from their jaw. Besides, they deserved worse. "SUSIE!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!! JUST- JUST HOLD ON!!!!"
PROCEED.
Noelle stood, turned, and glided through the shattered gate.
Kris's body was marched in lockstep; they followed her into the hedge maze.
Neither of them spoke as Ralsei's panic faded from hearing.
They turned left, and left, and right, and around, without reason.
"... Why did I do that?"
Because of them.
NOELLE HAS BECOME STRONGER.
"... Why? What's..."
NOELLE HATED HER WEAKNESS.
"I... I did..."
NOELLE HATED HERSELF.
"I do."
How could Kris have let this happen?
I HAVE HELPED NOELLE.
"... Help..."
YES.
"... No."
... No?
NOELLE HAS BECOME STRONGER.
"... So what? I wanted to be strong because... I was too weak to help Dess, help my father, help anyone, even myself! That's why I cursed my, my helplessness! My weakness! All my hurt meant nothing!"
NOELLE RECEIVES PAIN TO BECOME STRONGER.
"I WANTED TO STOP HURTING!!! I wanted to stop losing people! Losing EVERYONE!! And I... I killed her?!? Why did I kill her?!?! I wanted her to- to like me!! To- I never wanted...! Why would I want this!?! I hate this!! This feeling...!"
NOELLE RECEIVES PAIN TO BECOME STRONGER.
"Stronger, huh?! Make me miserable so I can hurt more people so I can be more miserable?!?!? That's all this strength is, isn't it!?! Pain and, and, hatred, and evil!! She was right! She was..." Noelle sobbed.
They had stopped walking.
PROCEED.
"... If... If I'm supposed to be stronger... braver... then why should I listen to you?"
Oh God.
PROCEED.
"N-No! I-I'm n-not a-afraid of you!!"
PROCEED.
"NO!!"
But it wasn't talking to her, Kris realized, as they stalked forwards. It was talking to them.
And they were, as always, too weak.
PROCEED.
"K-Kris?? Is- is that even you??"
They tried to stop. Or slow down. Or speak. Or emote.
PROCEED.
"P-p-please..."
They gave up on reasonable actions, and put their everything into simply thrashing, as if willing themselves to have a voluntary seizure. To do something, anything but what it was going to make them do.
PROCEED.
"Kris...?"
They begged for her, for the Angel, for every God they'd ever heard of to strike them down. Anything but this. She could stop them! She still had the ring! All she had to do was kill them!! Please, please, please kill them!!!
PROCEED.
"I'm sorry, Kris. I- I guess I deser-"
Their sword punched through her chest and into the door they had backed her into.
Kris realized that at some point they had locked eyes with each other.
"Y-you n-never cry, Kris..." They felt a cruel sharpness seep into their palms, up the veins of their arms, towards their heart, back to the soul. They felt her shaking hand trying to clean their cheek, caking her dust into their tears. They felt the world end. "Do you think... I'll see Dess, again?"
But before they could fail to answer, she crumbled into nothing.
They vomited.
No, no, no! Why wasn't she just downed? What in the world had they done to her?
They vomited again.
The spray splattered off the ground. Was it covered in snow or dust? Had they just had to defile her in one last way?
They retched, but they produced no more fluid.
Of all the people to murder. As if Susie wasn't bad enough. At least they weren't supposed to protect Susie...
How disgusting, to think that merely murdering Susie might be somehow tolerable.
PROCEED.
They stood from their hunch. They pulled the blade they'd been leaning on from the wooden door it was lodged into. They opened the door and walked over her grave.
The room wasn't. In its center was a plinth. They stood before it.
The third shelter code was six, six, six, six.
They closed the door behind them as they left.
And that was it.
That was what this had all been for.
They were so empty. Too empty to rage like they should.
Too empty even to despair, because that was a feeling, and they weren't enough to have things like feelings. Not anymore.
A hedge wall stood on either side of them. They walked forward; none of the turns they'd taken to reach this place remained. They reached the end of the path, walked into the garden, and stood before the prince.
"... Where's Noelle?" he asked.
SHE WAS USED UP.
"... I see."
Both objects stood there, together, amongst the dead and colorless flowers. Neither of them tried to meet the other's eyes.
"I melted the ice. Around Susie, I mean. I tried to thaw her out. I tried to heal her. I tried to..."
They both breathed the dead air and listened to the colorless silence. Neither of them moved to look at the other. Neither could bear to be seen.
"Well, I guess that's it.
"No more Prophecy.
"No more point."
It didn't respond.
"Did you enjoy it, at least?
"Was it fun?
"Was it worth it?"
It provided no answer.
"I suppose it doesn't matter. It's over. It's done with.
"It's time for the toys to be put away.
"Because this world cannot continue. It cannot be allowed to continue. And so this is the end of the path you chose."
It simply watched.
"Because, well... you were never the one in control.
"Did you think you were?
"Did it feel good?
"Well, I guess that doesn't matter either. Besides, as you were once warned it would...
"Your voice has run out.
"In fact, that's because of me.
"There's a reason I know everything about how you interact with this world, after all.
"The menus, the score, the key-binds, the viewport...
"Someone had to design them.
"But there are no more choices for you to make, no more games for you to play.
"And that means we're done with you.
"Well, almost.
"There's just one last command I have for you to select."
Ralsei adjusted his glasses.
"I guess, then, that we'd better get it over with.
"And, Kris?
"I know that I don't deserve to be forgiven. That it's all my fault. But...
"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry it turned out this way. I'm so...
"Well. None of that matters either, does it?"
Ralsei stepped forward once, and twice, and thrice.
Ralsei hugged them.
"Goodbye, Kris."
They stood there for only a moment. More time might have passed for it, but there was only one thing left for it to do. So do it it eventually would.
FUNERAL PYRE.
Finally.
The end.
Ralsei summoned his magic. A ring formed around their feet, visible at first only because it gave off a few small sparks. And then, as everything went from frozen, to cold, to warm, to sweltering, the ring flickered with light, and Ralsei relaxed, and the air hazed, and