Under the starry sky, above the bustling town. Walker stood at the peak of his rooftop, Lucille watching the town with him, only lower. The clocktower peeked into their vision, far away, its needle pointing at 9. The snow flakes a visual sign of the winter cold.
Gracious mother Serina, may your soul be at peace. Walker inwardly uttered a phrase taught to him by Noctis, the man worthy of his utmost respect.
He took a deep breath and quoted another man he respected but this time, out loud, "The round moon that resembles the cycle of fate, the compass that takes after it. Illuminate the path I walk."
Lucille took a step forward, her hands long extended clasped down, "Have you steadied your consciousness, Mr. Soliraine?"
Walker turned around and slicked his loose hair that looked like he was under a rain up and nodded, "I think so."
In his mind, Lucille was barely more than a magician who used her magic to show a trick, not completely trustworthy. It was just how he was, the last trust he truly placed was on the indifferent man who gave him the compass that he valued so much.
"Alright, place your hands against mine." She raised her hands, palms faced to Walker and the moon, her fair skin luminous from the moon.
Walker looked at his palm and clenched his fist again. She doesn't seem to have ill intentions but… even if something happens to me, that's fine. To face an enemy of excruciating danger, it's a risk worth taking. Wainder's faceless form appeared into his mind, once more he felt like staring into the abyss.
The clash against him didn't feel terrifying but now that he had to sit through with the memories, it was blood-curdling.
Walker shook off the feeling of fright and raised his palms high, his against Lucille's.
Lucille felt the hands touching her like shards of ice caressing hers but she endured, she had suspected his cold behavior reflected on him physically.
"Close your eyes." She ordered, the cold intensifying due to the ritual. Both of them now stared into darkness with their eyes closed.
"Celestial nurturer of colors, Munlearé. I seek upon the power of thee to communicate the acolyte in need of your assistance to the truth of his knowledge and the truth of his mind…" Her voice grew rasper with each word uttered. A glimmer of light grew like a seedling into a tree, a cell into flesh and fog to a town.
The light glowed blue, beneath his feet grew roots of the same color. His gaze followed the roots up, it gradually took a human form. Pale body covered in radiating white vines that grew and intertwined with the blue roots. She appeared similar to a statue.
The pale giant woman leaned against a tree that far exceeded her own size. No—her flesh, convulsed into the tree. She slept in melancholy, expressionless.
Walker's face twisted and twitched in pain as an unknown energy dug into his brain, throbbing like veins of a Blazing Salamander. A charred smell pierced into his nose, drawing a line between smoke and the spicy sweetness of a violet.
"Do you feel her Haze Of Wisdom?" Lucille's voice came into his head instead of his ears, which felt strange but nothing was stranger than the colossal woman in slumber before him, even her nails stood taller than the 1.85 meters Walker who was considered tall.
What should I do? Walker looked around, not finding an answer to his question until Lucille answered to his surprise. "Bring your hands forward the same way you did earlier."
Walker quietly listened and did as he was told, feeling nothing but the thick air until he couldn't move his hands any further, an invisible wall blocking him
"Huh?" Walker tried forcing his hand forward but it only resulted in his muscles tensing up while exerting his energy.
"Force is an arrogant way to move forward, only with wisdom can you continue." An ethereal voice echoed in the vast unknown realm, the weight of the feminine yet imposing voice was heavier than even the great fog. And no, it wasn't Lucille.
Walker immediately retracted his hands, barely feeling them from the numbness caused by the sudden shock sent through his nerves.
What kind of wisdom!? Walker continuously fluttered his hands as if he was trying to put out a fire he couldn't see.
"Conviction. That's what you need to pass." Walker considered standing down but the lower he got, the more suffocating the thick fog became.
Conviction, for what do I need that? Killing the devil who ruined my life? Or to die? You tell me, Lucille.
Lucille was taken aback, the question was like a door in the royal palace she hadn't been granted access to. She decided to discard the question and imposed a new path, "You were not chosen so you need not worry about here, cling on to what I provide."
Colored ribbons appeared, breaching through the fog from behind Walker, passing through the gap between arms and waist. Then, they wrapped around him, first his hands, then his torso, feet and head, he was akin to a colorful mummy.
He felt a force pulling him back then in the air, feeling like a leaf falling from a tree but upside down. He stayed afloat, without any movement at the end. The ribbons wrapping his body dispersed, revealing a change from fog to clouds, he was no longer in the presence of the melancholic giant woman and was now in a space of nothingness.
Tack!
A loud mechanical snap shook the air. The compass escaped Walker's wallet and took flight to the endless sky where neither moon nor sun existed but an endless darkness shrouded by dusty violet clouds.
It expanded in size the further it went up, becoming the size of a moon above. In front was the Wainwright Settlement's clock tower, its magnificent size was just as he imagined close up as he never got the chance to actually climb it.
He plummeted down in an instant, the thickness of the cloud pressing against his skin, its strange components made it feel like his skin was being ripped apart.
Suddenly it all split open, from the clouds to even air, bringing forth a light from the ground. At the center of the great round light was a deck of cards big enough to dwarf the tip of the clocktower.
A deck of cards? Strange… Walker was puzzled, the woman's size from earlier pointed towards the primordial size of humans, and he always thought cards were something invented not that long ago, it made him question his knowledge of history. Not like he was a historian anyway, all he knew was passing time and hunting.
"Mr. Soliraine, that is your starting point, your way forward. Your past, present and the future."
My way forward? Walker started to find it hard keeping himself stable in the air, fluttering his feet attune to a child with no footing on a swing, even though some unseen force kept him up.
"Indeed… spill your heart, you must. Tell the truth and you'll be ordained to a card that represents your current state."
What should I say? He thought of a few things to say. How strange the place was, something straight out of a fairy tale—a horror story, perhaps even more terrifying than the previous place with Wainder, mostly because he wasn't in as much control of his own body.
Second, the fact that Lucille, an unknown damsel, was able to shift him through dimensional realities but ultimately, he ended up relying on the same girl to get him out of this place.
"It is the place you must question, it is only yourself, they are inclusive."
Myself, huh? How boring… He exhaled a weary sigh, probing his chin while thinking. During this moment, he shifted his gaze to each monumental structure surrounding him. The compass pointed in rotation, unable to stop, much like how it acted when faced with danger but one look at himself told Walker volumes of his insignificance.
The towering clock slowly moved backwards, the needle leisurely turning left, one click at a time.
Both compass and clocktower reminded himself of a relative thing, his own chaotic past covered in mystery and losses. Each of his past companions flashing through his eyes.
Alicia, an 11 year old orphan girl whom Walker and William rescued and adopted in their group subsequent to her parents being devoured by demons.
Illyan, a former librarian in his thirties, turned mad following demonic possession who was saved by the three and shyly aided them with necessary information afterwards.
Percy, a few years younger than Walker at that time who wanted an escape from his abusive parents, joined the hunt believing that he'd eventually eliminate the demons that influenced his parents to fight among each other and abuse him to relieve their anger, but little did he know…
And finally William, the head of the pack who came from an unknown Settlement, neither his style nor the way he spoke pointed similarity to the locals. He'd been there as long as Walker remembered and he pushed him to save whoever they could save, ultimately ending up having a group of four who pushed towards righteousness.
Then one by one, all of four of their deaths appeared in Walker's mind—No, this time, it was projected into a cloud that formed before him.
I see… it's not like the other place I went through, this… this is consciousness, a place made from my memories and thoughts—my imagination. That'd explain the compass and the clocktower, but I wonder if the same applies for the cards? Lucille likely knew about it so maybe not…?
Walker mused for a second but just as the projection of his memories became clearer, he fell silent and watched.
Alicia when turned 14 went missing, their group pushed to look for her relentlessly and when found, she was met with a terrifying fate, leaving limbless and headless in the middle of a demonic ritual.
That was the first Walker lost control, his mind went blank and when he awakened, he was covered in blood, chunks of flesh, organ and robe laying on the ground, hugged by William, all the magicians present in the vicinity were likely massacred by him.
Then Percy, who could no longer work with the group, was traumatized, unable to forget the sight no matter how much he tried and decided to return home. But unfortunately, the same home took his life. Angered by his absence of three years, his parents gave in and brutally took their son's life and tried to hide their crime, offering his chopped body to a vengeful devil but not even they were spared by said devil and later found by the Blazehearts.
Then Illyan, who could no longer bear the pain, the fear, took his own life. Each subsequent death pushed Walker into deeper solitary, leaving only him and William.
Right then did Walker question something that would change his outlook on life and exactly what pushed him to keep living until this moment.
"If death is inevitable, why do we try so hard to live everyday, isn't it easier to just die and get everything over with?" He was conflicted, no matter how much he tried, he could not feel pain, sorrow or happiness any longer, his heart still remaining beatless like it was made of stone.
William at that time bumped his fist on Walker's chest and turned his gaze onto himself and stood up, Walker's eyes following every move he made stoically.
"It's easier to just die, you're right." Then William looked Walker right in the eyes, his resolve burning like the fire of the sun. "But we've been given lives so why not try to see it to the end? I bet something good can happen at least once."
At that time, those words felt like his saving grace however, on that fateful day, when William battled against Wainder alone, pushing Walker back to save him and sacrifice himself instead is when Walker lost all faith in his best friend's words.
The faceless demon who dealt the finishing blow vanished before Walker could attempt anything and right as the final scene of William being dragged into what seemed like hell, his body lifeless, the cloud dispersed in the air, leaving Walker with twisted feelings.
The entire time Walker reflected on his past, the compass pointed west and finally pointed North as words began forming in his mind. The clock also began to work properly, advancing one second at a time with its smallest needle out of the three. As if they were waiting for him.
Walker's lips parted, silence the only thing to escape for a few seconds. Lucille who could only speak and sense him could not tell what happened but she did see glimpses of his past.
"Mister, are you… alright?"
Yeah… worry not. Walker's face rose up, his gaze down to the giant deck of cards, his hand extended forward with his palm facing the faraway ground.
"To live is to survive, to hunt is to find reason." He uttered the Hunter's slogan said by Alexander Beaumont who founded the mightiest Guild Of Hunters to battle the unknown, primarily known as Devil Purifiers, now a research group rivaling the Erfinders called The Beaumont.
"My sole purpose is to cleanse this world of Echoes, Demons or anything that pesters humanity and brings pain, suffering and loss. Actually no…"
Walker shook his head, clenching his fists, "I wish my goal was as grand… in truth, I only wish to be rid of fear, every time I'm in the presence of the unknown, I am reminded of what I am. A pathetic loser who has no right to survive this long, I did not even have a past like them, I clung onto them hoping that today will be a pleasant memory for tomorrow yet every passing second makes my life worse than it was."
"Right…" He sighed, regaining his composure. "What I seek isn't a luxurious life of any sort, in life I am insignificant, in death I shall be more. I seek a life that's power I can expend so that there can be a glimmer of satisfaction within me when I'm gone. Alicia, Illyan, Percy and William died without getting to see their goals accomplished, so in order to return what I owe them, I'll accomplish what they wanted and keep hunting, even if it's the last thing I do."
All fell into silence, not even the noise of wind that constantly blared through the lavender fog.
Seconds passed, the sound of the needle raged once more and the clock's needle spun beyond help. And at last the cards shuffled, its sound was somewhat soothing, calming the tensed Walker who watched with his brows furrowed.
Almost a minute later, the cards halted, inviting the silence back for a second. In an instant, the cards remaining on top floated in the air and shot up. Passing by Walker from his left, right, front and back, pushing him into a blocking pose without knowledge if he was safe from the strikes.
The King, Queen and Jack of all suits passed by him, then counting down from eleven, all of them flew and eventually, even the aces.
Having played some games himself either at bars or outside, of course without betting, he was too poor to risk anything, Walker knew a thing or two. He had seen all the useful cards fly past him, making him question what the point of the cards even were before he released his guard.
His arms gradually returned to their positions as Walker felt himself being pulled down, but this time, gently.
What he saw below left him puzzled. The only card left from the deck was The Jester.
Ah, a Jester. What a surprise.