>>5353792The Cord towers over you, the skyline filled with its terrible form—a living scar slashed against reality, joining earth and sky with the pain of a throbbing wound. Here, at the edge of its creeping, cancerous blight the thing feels larger than life, larger than belief itself. It spans the whole of your vision, looking for all the world like a solid wall of blackened flesh and skyscraper muscle.
It’s a stark reminder of where you are and what’s become of humanity, a noose around their collective neck. A festering thing, whose corruption’s made a mockery of the countless souls lost in pursuit of simple desperation and lofty dreams. You’re about to tread on a million lives, hoping to save a billion more.
Hope is all you have, in the end…well, hope and-
“Okay. It’s time.” You exhale, turning to your allies with a stalwart smile. “Is everyone ready?”
“For you? Always.” Gina winks just as Rath playfully punches your shoulder, adding; “Just say the word, Shu.”
“R-ready!” Julia announces pumping one heavily-armored fist into the air as Francine chuckles, giving you a firm nod by way of the affirmative.
“We’ll be the vanguard, so just stay behind us, okay?” B’ni insists, with both her, Uzu, Holly, and Jo stepping forward to serve as your shield against what’s to come.
How strange, that four of your bitterest foes would now come to stand between you and the precipice of hell…foes you now count among your closest friends. Slowly, surely, you draw closer to your journey’s inevitable end, and with every step you’ve taken to get here, you’ve accumulated more than friends or allies.
You’ve forged a family strong enough to challenge spiteful gods and would-be tyrants, and you shudder to think what this world would’ve done to any of you if you hadn’t found each other. You have them, and through your family, you have hope. One can’t exist without the other. Like an ouroboros of casualty, the two are inextricably intwined. With them at your side, a world in which you succeed feels like it grows ever closer with every step you take. And speaking of steps, it’s about time you take the plunge.
You breathe in. You breathe out…
…and when you take your first step into hell, it’s not one you take alone.
>>FIFTY-THIRD VEIN: CLOSED 