The corridor was covered by the pitch black darkness. A tight space with no beginning or end through which Ego had to squeeze through. Several meters in and he had already begun to feel claustrophobic, caught in a trap with no way out. He looked everywhere, but there was nothing to be seen.
A feminine giggle echoed its way to Ego. Distant, repeating itself over and over like a broken record. It was so familiar though. A memory itching to click and reveal itself to him. "Raven?" he told himself. There was both sorrow and anger building up in his heart. That moment of hesitation would cost him dearly, he thought to himself. With a single squeeze of the trigger he let go of a bullet in the direction he last heard the sound come from.
Its muzzle flash lightened up the corridor, letting him see for a brief moment ahead of him. The trap indeed had an end, so he kept shooting. Five more shots, five more moments in which he could see the path laid before him. There was a sudden drive to press on. Stay and do nothing, be nothing. Or push on and do what he was meant to do.
A sensation of wonder washed upon Ego. A door presented in front of him, and with a gentle push a bright light shined upon him. The corridor opened up into an altair. Shattered shards floating elegantly in the middle of it, surrounded by figures weaved in what seemed to be a layer of spider web from the top to bottom, yet tendrils fell down, slithering across the ground. The shards were so high up he could not have reached them even if he tried. He hoped there was a mechanism to lower them, but to his disappointment there was none. Everything was static, unmoving.
One entity in particular stood in the far reaches of the altair, mimicking Ego's every movement to the letter. The two noticed eachother after getting closer to the towering pillar which held the shards so high. That was when the mirror broke, and the two approached one another faster than before. The entity was floating above the ground, almost motionless if it weren't for the limbs flowing against the wind which blew from above. Ego, however, was hesitant. He loaded six rounds in his gun's chamber, one by one as he approached the entity then raised it slowly against It.
"We were expecting Vincent, not his repulsive creation."
The entity spoke with many voices resonating almost at unison. Small orange and blue lights across its torso lit up as it addressed the one before it. Ego could only reply with silence as he stared upwards at the being towering over him. It was almost twice his size.
"You have not come to wear the face of a quiet sellsword. There is no money for you to gain here. There is nothing for you to gain at all. So do us all a favor, and return to your own decrepit reality, or we will--"
The entity paused just before Ego had begun to speak as a means to show its dominance over what it knows. He spoke with an almost defeated voice, stuttering at first before it could lay his thoughts bare towards the unknown. His gun thrown aside, and his helmet slowly fading away like dust blown off a table.
"I-...I-...don't want to. I don't want to go out there anymore. It hurts. It hurts so much!"
His words turned into pleads for forgiveness. A futile attempt to make himself look innocent, desperate in front a being that saw through his very eyes from the start of his putrid existence. He caused endless suffering where there was no need in his crusade against the Nomads who had wronged his creator, and now wanted an easy way out of the mess he created.
"Of course it hurts. It hurts to feel your mind crumble into pieces until there is nothing left, does it? It hurts to see everyone cast you away, because you are utterly inept of feeling anything but anger against a force you cannot defeat. Your fate has been sealed long ago. Yours, and Vincent's.
You came back, because the Harbinger told you to. He told you to become whole, but can you? There are three sides, and in order to achieve that you must sacrifice two.
But you already know which one must rise, do you?"
Ego's heart sank as he looked down upon himself. His neck grew stiff as he lifted his head back to the corridor he had come through. It was clear as day now, aimed at the one unmoving sun which stared back at him. The unblinking eye of the Observer overseeing this world as He does many others.
"T-There has to be another way-"
He was cut off the same way he interrupted the entity he conversed with. It spoke the only truth there was.
"There isn't."
"Test the sharpness of your sword against another. And when that is not enough, unsheathe your cunning as the hidden dagger that ends the fight."
![[Image: T4TKdqu.png?1]](https://i.imgur.com/T4TKdqu.png?1)