[Blade & Soul] Snowforest Monastery
Please listen to the song that it currently playing while reading this, it gives the whole thing the right emotions
"Y-Your majesty...?" I felt "Gubong?" the dark flame, "D-Dochun... no" and a heavy fall I could not get out of, boundless weakness by thousands of shattered shards clinking over their burning image. Everything happened so quickly, the last thing I can clearly recall is the everlasting ache caused by the cursed thing of a mark and its tangling posy of dark chi running through me like an insatiable voracious beast, getting stronger with every passing moment I watched, kneeled down at my feet like countless of times before, mortified to the cold ground in the battle's midst. I couldn't do it anymore. My breaths have gotten heavy and unbearable, she brought me down and I fell with a push of the fate, left behind to it. And then? Everything went dark. Just plain dark. Pristine limbo in marvellous obscurity born to overwhelm and conquer, alas nothing prevailed; I felt myself merely drifting deeper into the opened maw of the abyss and its harrowing visage. I think... I might be coming back to my senses- "Ahh, you are awake now" The man's voice pinched me with a suddenness rekindling my languid consciousness. Eyes shoot open, promptly but lubberly nevertheless, I reach for my razor, attempting to sit up only to be paralyzed by an insuperable torment and forced back down on the cotton carpet below me. I bit my lip from the intense rush of nerve, "Where- Where Am I?" I let out a frail wheeze of dry air, indirectly staring down the man who didn't even flinch, with a long white beard and enrobed with an outfit that of monks'. "This is the Snowforest Monastery, your friends have left you here, they've hoped to say their goodbyes to you by themselves, but they were in a hurry, after all..."
I finally had the chance to recall what happened, observing and just now fully realizing my position. A temple. My hand travelled to my waist, clutching the fabric of my uniform in a firm grip. Loud buzzing, ringing which occupied my ears so far broke down into the silent serenity of the monastery's surroundings. I must've looked drained, noticing what Jinsoyun added to her creation, the monk folded his hands in behind and spoke; "Rare is the blade that could leave such a twisted wound. I've treated it as best I can, but..." I leaned up, with those lasting eyes of ethos, held down in a pool of grieving sympathy, my pitiful voice overtook the monk's evanescent halt. "Am I going to die?" Downhearted ultimately, even the old man standing in front felt misery, but my expression has already phased from one to another, blank, unaware of a reconciled notion. "I'm afraid that would be for the best. If you survived the wound, the darkness inside you would only transform you into a demon." The monk exclaimed and closed his eyes in a composed manner, the room filled a tranquilling aroma. Dim lighting inside the ancient structure was disrupted by the vivid restless flames burning down a candle the monk held, and each incense stick narcotized me in a gradual crescendo. "I... I just want to rest...-" And I did just want to get carried away by the so familiar scent of home. But the monk cuts me off almost immediately. "The Sanctum of the Eight lies just south of here. The cave is used as a place of quiet introspection. I think you will find it quite peaceful."
He continued, with his back still turned to me as he lit up few more sticks in my honor and then facing me with the most sincere sympathy in his raspy old voice. "Do not fear or regret. Think only of the lives you've touched, and the friends who will not forget you. Go in peace." I was silenced, nor could I listen to the devastating truth that was coming out of the man's mouth. He was right, very right. So with the lasting will to move, with the enduring strength, I stood up in a hunch and decided to finish my last quest. "Death comes to all things." It really does... and I don't want to trifle with it, tempting the black rose with my persistence, I would indeed rather die than fulfil that witch's role.
