The black mountain was akin to a nightmare. It's surface was rough, every movement tore the surface of his skin. Sharp irregular rocks jutted out like the teeth of a giant beast. Crevices and ridges run through the mountain at angles too steep to climb and the chill…god forbid, the chill in Liam's soul only got worse and worse.
His body screamed, arms and legs aching with every movement. His fingers scraped the hard surface of the mountain. He pushed himself up. Two hours had passed since he started his climb to the top.
In that time the land in the distance had been swallowed by the darkness once more. The rock beneath his right foot crumbled under his weight. His body jerked violently the sudden loss of the ground threatening to make him fall.
He gripped harder. Wounds worsening on his hands as sweat mixed with blood. His body that was already a canvas of pain and bruises felt heavier than it should have been.
'I'm losing strength' Liam thought to himself.
And that he truly was. It was mystery how he had managed to actually climb this far with such terrible conditions. But he couldn't stop not now, not ever.
This was the weakest Liam had ever felt but at the same time he thought it was also his strongest moment yet. With shaky arms he continued to climb everything else fading from his mind.
There were no questions, no unnecessary thought, no worries about what would happen next.
The only thing he focused on was getting to that peak.
The climb was perilous. More than once the rocks gave in to his weight, almost plunging him to his death. It felt as if the very mountain itself was trying to kill him and that wasn't the only thing. Hard winds that threatened to throw him off slapped against his back and the higher he climbed, the less oxygen there was and the harder it became to breath.
Still he persisted with only one mantra in his heart.
'Just keep climbing and climbing and climbing' his mind was almost in a tranced state. He never cared about his fatigue nor the wounds that were continuously inflicted on his body.
An unknown amount of time later…
As he threw out an arm to catch the next piece of rock above he caught nothing but the foot of a ledge.
"Huh?" he looked up, indeed there was a flat surface up ahead. Without further thought he pushed his grim and sweat covered body up.
Heave, Ho…
He almost cried out in joy when he felt his back rest upon the flat surface. He looked up to the sky with tears in his eyes. Everything hurt but he at least he could catch his breath.
'There should still be time. I can rest of a bit_'
The world had other plans. The entire mountain shook. The movement so violent it felt like it would crumble any second now.
Liam's heart leapt to his throat. The vibrations…why did they seem stronger?
With a pained groan he rose to his knees. He crawled towards the edge of the ledge he rested upon, too weak to even stand. He gasped, shock and uncertainty taking root in his heart. He had thought he at least had time…he was wrong.
There was nothing but darkness below. The land was gone, all of it swallowed by the darkness. This mountain would be next…
The realization spurred him into action. He shuffled away from the ledge and looked behind him. A path spread out steadily rising towards the peak. On either side of it broken pillars of rock stood occasionally like the ruins to an ancient site.
For some unknown reason Liam's heartbeat quickened and a cold chill ran down his spine.
'What is this feeling?' he stumbled forward, barely having the strength to keep himself upright. He followed the path. His steps feeling slow and the distance feeling infinite.
The mountain shook once more, causing him to lose his footing. He fell to the side and it hadn't been for a rock pillar he would have certainly stumbled down to the side.
'Just keep going. You are almost there Liam' he told himself as another tremor swept through the mountain. 'Hurry'
He went forward as fast as his battered, exhausted self could manage. The tremors through the mountain steadily becoming frequent and more violent.
Luckily he had made it.
As he stood on one of the three peaks that formed the crown of the mountain, the world stopped. The tremors, the violent winds, his fatigue, everything that Liam had felt and seen and touched slowly disappeared as he looked at what lay at the top of this crown.
Surrounded by the three peak crown of the mountain a deep well of nothingness lay. And before such a thing nothing felt…real.
…
The concept of nothingness was understood by a rare few. Nothing could exist in such a place. There was no thought, no heart, no world, no life, no time. There was nothing but the Void.
And as Liam stood at the top of the mountain peak unknowing staring at a sight no one ever would his mind slowly crumbled. His soul freezing over. His sense of self crumbling.
His very existence was slowly deteriorating and there was nothing he could do about it. He simply stood. His mind failing to comprehend what he was looking up. Nothing but darkness remained. And the more he stared at it the deeper that darkness got…until.
A trio of eyes peered through the veil of darkness. Each a spinning of black that someone stood out even with all the darkness around them. The eyes of what ever the creature was gazed at him, a dangerous pulse of pain rippling through his mind with such ferocity one would have thought a knife was plunged through his head.
His mind was on the verge of fragmenting and just when the first cracks took hold.
"Breath young one" A voice rang out. Ancient and demanding and part of it gentle. The invading force that had been attacking his mind vanished and he the darkness was replaced by solid ground.