Dead Space: Purpose
Chapter 28: At the End of Everything
Previous ChapterNext ChapterBraeburn just kept running. He had been doing so for the last week, alongside the rest of Apploosa, being guided by the Buffalo Tribe. All he knew was that it wasn't safe anymore. It didn't matter what the subject was, it wasn't safe. Even now, running away in the desert, he wasn't safe. Nopony was. He could hear the squish and clunk of his bloody hooves as they smacked against the ground, dampened by the bloodied hooves of everypony that ran ahead of him. It didn't matter to them if they were to ruin their hooves. They've long since past caring. The only thing that the Buffalo said was "run". And that's what they did. For the longest time, he wanted to know what they were running from. He looked back once. He never did again. Everything he knew was gone. Only demons chasing them all now. This would be how he would die. This would be how everything dies. That's all he knew. And so he ran. He ran from the images of his father, from the images of his lover, from the images of the old world. All that remained for him was death. And he, like so many others, still run from it. All praying for the end. Not knowing how close it truly was.
They ran. They all ran. Until the dead ran with them. Until the dead would be all that were running.
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Gilda didn't stop flying. She felt her wings burn in agony, her feathers falling off at a rate that would alarm most Griffons, but still didn't draw enough of her attention. She didn't care about a single part of her right now. She wanted to wake up from this endless nightmare. First a cult tries to get her to kill a hatchling, then they try and kill her for abandoning fate, as they so called it. Now she was literally running from her own past. Images of those she's bullied, all beaten and bloodied enough to make her vomit on the spot. She wanted to say sorry. They didn't want to listen. Worse, still, she was flying away from her own kin. She had gone to the cemetery in her home town to try and vent by her mother's grave, and when she did, she was met with a furious undead being that made her break. Gilda afforded a look behind her, and met a clawed slash to her eye before plummeting to the ground, blood flooding her vision.
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Isaac groaned as he felt his body ache and burn inside from the battle with the Tormentor. Occasionally, a bone would crack, or a pulsating mound of flesh would burst, and startle him back into a sitting position. Every time, he fell back, time seemed to slow down.
After what felt like an eternity, his communicator rung with a familiar beeping sound, and a voice came up.
"Hello, dear Isaac. It's been far too long, you know that?"
Isaac felt his blood boil as he began to get up once again.
"Danik." He hissed, getting to his knees.
"Oh, don't worry yourself. I'm very much gone. I'm part of something bigger now. I just thought I'd congratulate you. You've brought about a convergence that will soon bring all beings in Reality itself together! I never thought we could go that far, but you Isaac... you've proven that even in our most regretful of times, we can be worthy of ascension! And now you'll get to witness the end of everything you've been goggling over for years. The end of something so trivial, it doesn't even deserve a name. It's simply the end, Isaac. Welcome to the truth."
As soon as Isaac looked towards the bar of the communicator, a massive tremor ripped through the ground, shaking the foundations of everything around him. Then, a massive black tentacle shot out from the earth, reaching up and blotting out the sky above him. It rocketed downwards and wrapped around Isaac's legs, before swinging him about, through three houses and dragged him underground. Isaac ground against massive slabs of stone layers, dirt patches, and the occasional rock to the head, feeling his armor being ripped and assaulted in every possible direction.
It all ended when Isaac received an upwards-momentum in his stomach, before being thrown out of the ground, and... onto the ground. He strained to get up from his prone position, straining every muscle in his body to push himself onto even footing. He took one look up, and felt his mouth gape. It was a massive tree made of crystals, with six different colors changing between various branches. Five massive branches extended from the tree, jutting out with enough space between them to fly through. Floating in front of each branch, however, was a familiar pony. Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, even Fluttershy, were all suspended in the air, surrounded by a pulsating rainbow of energy. In the center of the tree was Twilight, except there was a massive difference since the last time he saw her: wings.
His attention was drawn back, however, when he saw a faint shimmering behind the tree. Isaac finally managed to stand up and look at what was there. Behind the massive tree, was a spiral-like structure, that pulsated every color that could ever exist, or likely ever will. It was easily taller than the Tormentor, or even a Hive Mind. The double-helix structure pulsed brightly, illuminating the cave for a brief moment, showing its horrifying self to him. The Marker. The First Marker.
Isaac slowly backed away and stared up at the thing, before switching his attention to the six mares trapped in a stasis field of some kind. He could only look up at them in frustration as they floated.
"Are you ready to die, Isaac?" A voice asked from behind him.
Isaac turned swiftly and raised the Plasma Cutter, before lowering the lasers of the tool, and staring into the face of his last enemy.
The face of the end.
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