Tears of joy fell from his eyes, There was a profound silence for almost a minute. Everything went numb for him. Trees stopped moving, Water stopped falling, birds freezed mid flight. Arthur's deep brown eyes were almost dead from dehydration and thirst.
With a deep breath Arthur jumps as high as he could,
Splash…
He moved no hands or peddled with legs, he just left himself drown in this weightless feeling. The feeling of enlightenment.
"I wonder… I wonder if this is how I felt when I was born." Arthur's thought were extremely slow. It was like honey dripping from a spoon, slow and steady.
"I wonder if this is enlightenment. Maybe enlightenment is nothing big or grand but finding something already available in abundance when you desperately search for it. Someone's enlightenment might be someone's object of boredom and satiation."
Arthur finally peddled with his legs and slowly came to the surface. The water did infact sting a bit on the wounds but nonetheless it was the most pleasant feeling Arthur felt in a while.
Hands cupped together to bring some water to dry lips. And finally now Arthur rejoiced of finding the water. He got out of the water and took off all his clothes to wash himself.
"How strange, it feels like I have felt like this before" Arthur thought to himself as he pleasantly washed his torso. Waterfall reflected soft red light of setting sun, it was like waterfall itself turned of gold.
"But how deep is this pond, where is all the water going? Normally if the pond was shallow then water would have spread over a large area, forming a shallow lake. But this pond is no larger than 20 meter in radius." Arthur was just thinking about it when a strong gust of wind came pressing down from above.
"No no!" Arthur exclaimed without even looking up. He already had an idea of what it was and what it can do.
He slowly turns his head upward and took a look. Sure enough it's the Pyrrhus from before. Descending with its royal bright red feathers.
Cold sweat broke from Arthur's head Even in the cool pond. He hurriedly took a deep breath and dived under water.
Environment turned hot as Pyrrhus's stomach swelled and his neck turned magma hot.
Woosh….
With a deep exhale fire came out of it's mouth directly hitting the water surface and evaporating the water surface in seconds. Water turned from cool to hot so fast that it didn't even give Arthur any time to think. His skin instantly started burning and gave him 3rd degree burns but Arthur didn't notice the burn and hurriedly got of the water.
As soon as Arthur got to the surface The bird lifted Arthur with his leg and flung him towards the ground.
Thud..
Arthur fell to ground face first but he didn't waste time whimpering, if he didn't get out of this place fast it would be extremely dangerous.
His whole body turned bright red and white blisters appeared on some areas because of 3rd degree burns but as Arthur tried to stand up, he noticed something strange.
"What? Where whe…where is my LEG" Arthur cried feeling The open cut section with his hand. He looks towards Pyrrhus and sees his severed leg in its beak with a flick it tossed Arthur's leg in air and swallowed it whole.
Did it smell Arthur's blood or did it come here to drink water. No one could tell and it didn't matter now anyway, what mattered now is that it's here and it doesn't look friendly.
Once again The bird took a deep breath in and this time Arthur saw it's stomach swell. This time he saw that shining magma hot neck. The neck grew brighter with passing second but Arthur's eyes didn't narrow. They could see something else. A vision of Ned burning flashed across Arthur's eyes.
Voices started echoing in Arthur's ears.
"Save me"
"Arth… my son"
"Art.. my friend"
"You are weak.."
"You are so weak"
These words were unfamiliar to Arthur but the voices weren't. They were of Ned and his mother. Cursing him, weakening him.
"It's all because of me, if only I could use magic sooner, if only I was stronger. Maybe Ned and mother wouldn't have to die." Last thoughts flashed across his mind. "I.. I killed them."
Pyrrhus was just about to release another wave of fire but water started to slowly rise from the pond revealing a gigantic snake, it body longer that Pyrrhus as whole. It was a Botita.
But this didn't stop the bird, with a screech it turned towards Botita and released a flame so hot that it even melted the rocks in the surrounding to magma.
Botia gave a sharp cry but almost immediately wrapped itself around the Pyrrhus. Both were old enemies, a single mountain couldn't hold two kings and it seems like this time Pyrrhus came to end it for good.
Arthur was nothing more than collateral damage in Pyrrhus calling out Botita for a fight. Arthur saw it's chance and he slowly dragged himself away with one arm and a leg.
His soft burnt skin tore against rough Earth's surface, pain so intense that Arthur even lost his voice to scream but he couldn't stop for if he stayed he would surely be caught up in fight of giants.
Tears mixed with blood rolled down Arthur's rough, burnt and disfigured face. But he couldn't stop and kept moving with moon as it lime light.
His eyelids grew heavy, lungs felt small as darkness slowly start to ensue him but voices of his mother and Ned howled loudly in his mind. Screaming and begging almost breaking his mind apart and not letting him even faint.
He slowly crawled back to the peak where it all started. Slowly dragging himself along the ground. The night was almost over as the first ray of sunlight hit Arthur's face but there was no hope, only despair staring menacingly at Arthur with its large hollow and spiral eyes.
"I still can't use magic. Useless useless. Nothing changed." Arthur smashed his head against ground.
bam…
Bam…
BAM…
"You killed them. Here you are living comfortably while they died. why… Why…WHY.!! WHY DIDN'T YOU DIE."
The voices howled even louder, screeching and eating Arthur's mind from inside.
Suddenly all noise jumbled and started mixing into one extremely painful cry.
"JUMP"
Arthur raises his head and looked at the cliff ahead. He crawls himself to the edge and looked down. It was all misty and foggy from two hundred meters under.
"That's right, what do I even have to lose. I can't live like this, I can't live knowing I killed Ned and mother. I can't live this purposeless life."
A dangerous thought arose in Arthur's mind.
"I can't, I can't, I can't" his heart beat increased further which was already alarmingly high.
Thump thump thump…
And with this thought he throws himself over the edge of cliff.
The gentle wind now violently passed around him. The wind was so violent that he infact felt that wind passed right through him.
The heart beat louder and louder like it was almost out of chest.
Howling of voices finally stopped in Arthur's mind and his heavy eyelids finally closed. But it was not yet peacefully, his loud heartbeat grew louder and louder.
"Please, it's so noisy so noisy"
Splat…
With a soft sound Arthur's entire body grew cold, its colour changed to light cyan colour. His heart actually ruptured under immense external and internal pressure.
Arthur was dead.
Due to cardiac rupture and blood loss.
The wind grew silent and as time slowed down. The pendant in his neck shone. Slowly releasing a blinding red light.
Lub dub lub dub…
The sound of a beating heart came from the pendant, the light slowly flowed out of the pendant and into Arthur's chest.
The light acted as catalyst and all the mana in Arthur's body started vibrating violently.
Woosh…
With a silent sound all the mana gushed out of Arthur's veins and covered Arthur in bright red flames but this time flames didn't burn Arthur. It was like they had no effect on him at all.
The immediate burst of flames stopped Arthur's descent and instead flew him upwards with incredible speed. Arthur, still unconscious, flew high even past the cliff and the low hanging tree, continuing to rise higher and higher.
His entire body shone so incredibly brightly in flames and red sunlight of sun that it emitted a blinding light that lit up whole of the forest.
It was like the sun itself descended on the forest that day. The air around grew incredibly hot and started wild fire in forest even from just radiating heat from a distance
The flames finally died down after some time as Arthur again started to fall down. But space cracked open and Gideon emerged from inside. He extended his arm and caught Arthur in both his hands.
"So this is the path you have chosen Arthur. But remember this is only the start of it. Your destiny is already chosen and so is ours."
Gideon spoke calmly as he took out another sigil from his clothes and walked back into space.