The snow crunched under firm footsteps, bracing against the buffeting wind. Sprays of swirling snow slapped him in the face, but his gaze never wavered. The pinnacle of Dawn's Plummet rose into view as he stumbled up the steep hill to the overhanging cliff. Streaks of blood followed his shadow as his cloak dragged behind him. Not enough of his own.

  Never enough.

  The man fell to his knees at the edge of the calling abyss below, his hands grasped his stinging face. But it was the walls surrounding the drop that haunted him. What did he feel? Sorrow? Despair? Maybe. But-

  Burning red eyes glared out between his fingers as the glowing blue words engraved into the rock shone as brilliantly as always.

  "…Why?"

  Those [Words]. [Word] was the closest thing that could describe the way they spoke inside your mind. Closest thing that could describe why every person that witnesses these [Words] knows deep down, somewhere fundamental to their being, that it was an absolute truth. If there was any truth to this world, that was it. A promise. In darkness, there is…

  "Hope. You absolute- Why?!"

  Wind howled over the peak, but his growled words echoed louder across the canyon, and the snow underneath his feet shifted forward slightly. There was a long silence, then a friendly chime.

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  [Level Up!]

  [Eternal Hero Lvl 50!]

  [Skill Acquired!]

  [The Eternal Paradox: Any one question may be written or answered by the words of existence.]

  [Eternal Skill Acquired!]

  [Graveyard of Salvation: May those who get lost along the hero's path be found forever in memory.]

  His head fell back as he laughed a bitter and half-delirious sound.

  "[The Eternal Paradox]: Where is he? Where is that coward?"

  The walls didn't change. But he already knew that was the one question they would never answer. Hope is cruel. Heroes were made of hope and nightmares. He used to prefer hope.

  "Tch—"

  Then, he finally breathed. A cloud of fog rose to the midnight sky as he asked the stars instead.

  "How does a man that can't die meet his end?"

  Crystal blue light flooded the canyon as every word ever etched into the rock grew brighter. Reality cracks along the wall and everything he understood and could possibly conceive of, rippled. It hit him in waves and he raised his arms to shield from the searing light, but he couldn't look away. Desperately, his eyes tried to envisage the words as they carved their way into existence.

  < █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ >

  < c l o s e █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ >

  < c l o s e y o u r e █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ >

  < c l o s e y o u r e y e s a n d █ █ █ █ █ █ █ >

  It rooted into his brain, searching, searching, searching. For. The next █ █ █ █. The hero barely noticed the vibrations until the cacophony of shattering icicles rolled like thunder up from the darkness below.

  No. What is-?

  A roar pieced the night. It filled every silence and drowned out every noise across continents. It whispered in countless ears and screamed from every skill and gift from The System. The world shook with it. And in the darkest corners of that world, things began to wake. Earth shifted and groaned, and the snow started pulling the man forwards.

  The [Hero] trembled.

  No.

  His hands clenched into fists until his nails drew blood.

  It can't be-

  He laughed his first real laugh in centuries. A feeling he never thought he would forget flooded through him, and the grin on his face was wild and vicious. It never faded, even as the [Hero]'s world tilted, and the cliff's edge finally gave way beneath him. And as the [Hero] falls, his eyes never left the waiting sky.

  "I'm coming for you. Wait for me, you bastard."