The sun beamed brightly in the silent limbo of paused time, but dimmed a little at the revelation of who, or rather what, was sitting on this seat next to him. The whole world seems to drain its rich palette of colors slightly, almost bleakly. The pause after the declaration was even longer than the one previously. From hours in moments to days in those following seconds, time continued to warp and bleed into itself indiscriminately, further confusing the knight, but he did not dare voice his confusion to the harbinger of what he could not achieve.
Directly after that declaration, the echoing voice of The Guidance reverberated quietly against walls that didn't exist, "The creature before you is one of the many stains your friend has left on my domain. All of which I'm incapable of disabusing or stopping. Yourself being one of them." Its nearly fragile voice cracked lightly behind the white veil, beginning a long pause in the demi-god's speech.
The tension only continued to blossom to the point that it was at the cusp of being palpable. A bead of sweat rolled down the knight's face behind the helmet, while his mind did gymnastics over the frightening turn of events, his posture remained lax, if not just a bit strained by the awkward choice of conversation. Breaking the silence, the knight tried to stealthily try to put his weapon at his side, but ultimately failed when the slightly raspy voice spoke slowly in its soft tone.
Not moving its face, the Guidance said, "There is no need to put your gift away; we will not be remaining here for long, I only wish to depart some words on you, young immortal." The knight did not react outwardly to the response of his actions, but he did bring his sword back to its former position, clutched in the hand dangling off the side of the intricate wooden bench they were both sitting on.
The pair of death and undying sat in the 'comfortable' silence for but a few more seconds before the knight finally mustered the courage to speak in front of the deity. His smooth voice did not share the fear, and neither did said voice portray the wide gap in time since the last time he spoke to another, with not a crack in his voice, he asked almost meekly, "Why?"
It was a simple question with a simple answer, yet the words stuck to the throat of the creator of death, stretching the silence much longer than needed, until finally, the words detached themselves, and left the mouth behind the veil in slur, "Because… well, you are the only one of them with a will of your own." Pausing for a moment to allow the knight to collect his thoughts, the scant, creaky, and echoey voice resumed.
"Between yourself, the collection of that madman's creations, and the stray demi-gods dotting the planet, you are the only one sane and or not incapacitated. Your freedom was the first of a massive chain of events to finally reinforce my laws and put these man-made monsters to rest. The abominations were created purely for the destruction of man, each designed specifically to topple cities, so that is what they did. There is not a flame of mortal human life in this vast world because of him…" The first murder said in a near-distant tone as he gazed far past the snake at something farther away, but still, one last warning wormed its way past the pristine white silk in a hushed whisper.
"Before I continue, I must warn you of something rather intricate: the shadow watches you curiously with its single eye. He is observing you and is waiting patiently for you in the depths. That is a dangerous one indeed." The voice spoke, once again reverberating against the invisible and intangible walls around them, but before even a thought could appear in the red knight's mind, the voice continued speaking.
"Watch your back, young one, and please restore these laws to the way they were before they made that deal with the fallen and corrupted fragment of Him. I would do so myself, but… He has forbidden me from interfering directly…" A moment of silence enveloped them, and then the voice returned, the strangely melancholic voice only grew more distinctly depressed.
"The souls that these horsemen of eternal life have collected and imprisoned number in the hundreds of thousands throughout the thousands of years since they came into being. All of them have a point of weakness, given to them by their master, in case he needs to dispose of them, but you, as you already know, are an outlier in that vein… I wish you well in your journey… and if we meet again… just know that there will be a great task I must ask you to do for me, even greater of a request than the one you see in front of you…" He said cryptically, then, once again, a silence befell the immortal and god-adjacent being. It wasn't as long as some of the previous pauses, and neither was it as uncomfortable, but it wasn't quite peaceful.
Hesitantly, the murky voice of the figure rang out a low string of words, "... Guilt is a torment. Its existence is meant to encumber those who had wronged or been wronged. That weight of guilt weighs heavy on your shoulders Young Immortal, but–If I may speak frankly with you– there is nothing you have done to justify such sorrow. I see everything happening around this plane of existence all in the same moment. Every life created, every life lost, and the lives of all who live and lived here. What I am telling you is that I see many things: people coming together, love, kinship, loyalty, but I also see destruction, hate, betrayals, and much, much more–Young Immortal, what happened then was not your fault… you may not understand it yet, or even ever, but you were never the catalyst. Fear was. Fear is always the beginning. Fear unravels the minds of the sane and takes the reins with little to no repercussion… perhaps I have said too much to you, Young Immortal. Thank you for your time, and may the odds be ever in your favor. " The slow string of creaky words reverberated in the room-like dimension, and with that said, the world around the pair physically cracked, revealing blinding beams of white light behind them, which only grew in luminosity as the cracks continued to envelope the pair on all sides, as their small piece of reality cracked and swiftly shattered, revealing the battlefield he had previously been massacred on.
Dazed, he stumbled for a second but swiftly regained his composure while instantly realizing his healed form had followed him into the real world. His armor, which was closer to that of a honeycomb than armor, was now completely restored from the previous condition, and even radiated some form of strength that wasn't there previously. The sword, however, had the greatest change.
The sword in hand was never damaged, but it didn't take the greatest minds of the human race to notice the difference in the longsword. It shone with an almost ethereal light in its blade was tinged in an ever so slight red hue, the most obvious of these differences was the dragon that once lay still on the blade, now exuberantly swam across the surface of the sword with an almost regal expression in its movements.
These strange occurrences confused the knight greatly, but in the end, it wasn't important, as he was still in the center of a battlefield, surrounded by eldritch horrors of all kinds, which defiled the laws of Death itself through their very obtuse master. Releasing his breath, he didn't know he was holding, he soon greedily vacuumed the cool morning breeze into his lungs, calming his slightly frizzy nerves. The sun was still eclipsed by the snake's tan body, but he could feel that it had regained its radiance once again, reaching what it had been before his meeting, along with the rest of the color returning to its former vibrant state of being.
After a moment, his eyes sharpened. With his meeting with the one who would eventually claim his soul fresh on his mind, his determination was carved even deeper into his mind. The guilt was being overshadowed in this moment by the strength of his will, which was now etched into the blackstone of death's door, akin to that of a promise that he would fulfill, but that was for later. In that moment he stared at the snake's base fiercely. He was going to kill Goliath today.