Page 73 of The Last Guardian
The Void engulfed me entirely, swirling in a storm of darkness, burning with shadows and abysses, in a place where I had neither beginning nor end. Nothing. I was nothing.
This way…
This way…
This way…
This way…
This way…
This way…
A voice whispered to me to follow, leading me, urging me, to a garden of stars floating and dancing in the dark, glinting like silver points on the canvas of night.
They called, pleading for me to reach toward the stars.
So I did.
PAIN SHATTERED MY soul into a thousand pieces. The wildest pain I had ever felt. A cry broke in the back of my throat.
My back against the cold, hard soil, dampening my clothes even in the recesses of my own soul. How real and alive the Anchor was—it took my breath away.
Lifting my body up, my palm wide on the ground, moistness clinging to my skin, I frowned. My body froze as my eyes looked up, not to the mesmerizing lake I faced the last time, but to a dark forest, with gigantic trees surrounding me. Gray trees—devoid of life.
My hand reached to touch the trunk; my skin brushed against the knots—spongy with rot. Like the woods in Vallen, the one where the wolf attacked me.
A light lit up the path, coming from the end of this dark forest, where a wild labyrinth opened, fashioned from stone and lush trees, with endless passages intertwined like veins.
Not my Anchor. Not the Void. Where was I?
This way…
This way…
A voice called again, coming from the labyrinth.
This way…
This way…
My body moved on its own, walking in the direction of the labyrinth, leaving behind the dark forest to welcome the light, listening to the command.
For what felt like hours, my feet followed the voice down different paths, turning right, left, changing direction again and again. The voice urged again, but felt even farther away than before.
My heart raced in my ribcage, my legs numb at each step as the path formed cobblestones under my feet. In a gentle welcome, a light flared. The light shifted, forming into a majestic statue.
Standing in front of me, carved in moonstone, was the most exquisite woman I had ever met.
My eyes held the statue’s face; her eyes shone in a bright, crystal hue. Her joined hands held strings crafted with sparkling stars.
The statue moved—jumped on me. A cry escaped my throat as I stumbled backward, my heart skipping a beat.
Seven Hells, what was happening?
My mind couldn’t process more as the statue kneeled before me, a soft smile curling her lips. And with all the reverence possible, she offered me her hands, urging me to reach for… the ropes of crafted stars.
What?
