You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
Worthy didn't know which gambler muttered those words, but he was certain they had nothing to do with an old sport he'd heard commoners in the bigger cities played. Still, those words seemed inexplicably wise to him in this moment, where he was rushing through the streets of a city that was soon to be destroyed.
He hadn't grown very accustomed to the town, unlike the Devil's Den, which had escaped his memories time and time again. As a matter of fact, for all the trouble it'd put him through, Worthy would much rather see the walls of the place crumble down and leave it all behind him. Sadly, his sense of self preservation forbade him from thinking such foolish thoughts for long.
'If those walls fall, I'm going to die. If they don't fall, I'm still going to die when those monsters make it through the wall. This is the only thing I can do that makes sense.' He was running toward the heart of the city, and he was going to do… something.
In reality, the child didn't have a single clue what he might do once he reached the middle of the city. He had no other option than to figure it out once he got there. The threat directing him toward the center of the city was certain to lead somewhere, because he was very meticulous in his direction he sought.
He didn't want to make it to the middle of the Accursed Port. He wanted to make it to the heart, the literal heart of the Prime Settlement.
Despite all his expectations, it turned out that the Prime Settlement, which had living walls, was indeed alive. The darkness within the walls proved that, and so he concocted an outlandish theory that was appearing more and more sensible the longer he thought about it.
The Prime Settlement could move.
The walls were living, and the heart of it was in the middle of the city. It would make less sense for it to be incapable of movement than anything else. Alice could make golems, and they were oftentimes not static in appearance. Worthy had seen his fair share of unexplainable designs in the woman's creations in her memories.
Sprinting past building after building, Worthy saw how various people were coping with their new reality. Some might not have been aware of the approaching calamity, but the majority certainly were. That was because the east and west wall now had their defensive artillery firing. The horde had crested, now moving toward the other sides of the wall. Pretty soon, they were going to be surrounded. There'd be no escape…
'Not like there was any escape to begin with, huh?'
Even if someone escaped out the southern gate, once Middle Town was destroyed, there was going to be nothing left to stop the horde from continuing and flooding the world. Everything was going to be assimilated, and if it could not be assimilated then it was going to be eradicated.
Only death waited for them, because there was no escape. Even if they hid away and found the safest place in the world that was not here, then they would still never find a gateway, because there were none left besides one; and even the existence of that gateway was a theory held by a hope kindled in the child's heart.
Soon, he was nearing a familiar set of ruined buildings.
He'd not been to the middle of the city personally, at least not after the fighting started. Nevertheless, he'd seen the buildings tumbling as powerhouses like Walkyr, Freya, Asterie, and others duked it out in the streets. The fighting became most chaotic in the center of the Prime Settlement, where a massive hand crushed many buildings just to eliminate two frustrating thralls.
Those men no doubt would've been valuable to the current efforts if they were still living.
Frowning, the boy continued ahead. There was no reason for him to stop and dawdle over it. He didn't know either of them, and they were trying to kill him. The information that they were thralls didn't change anything about their actions too much, because that was all the child knew them for. Maybe someone else had a deeper connection with them and would be disheartened to hear of their passing, but to him…
'I wouldn't say good riddance, but I won't be missing you chumps either. So… rest in peace, I guess.' He wasn't the one who killed them, but he had a part to play in it. He'd guided Lady Freya to their position and watched as they were flattened beneath the Stone Titan's inescapable hand.
He didn't feel guilty about it, but it still left a certain, unsatisfied taste in his mouth. It was not nauseating, but he couldn't help but ponder ulterior circumstances. If they had not died, perhaps they could've played a crucial role in the defensive effort now. Maybe they didn't need to die in the first place.
If Worthy had been enthralled sooner, he would've absorbed Furfur into his mind and then, no one would've needed to die.
He made excuses for Asterie dying, though none of that had anything to do with him whatsoever. Still, he felt accountable. The Stone Titan who'd ended her life with a harrowing kick was the same Stone Titan he'd directed to crush the problematic thralls moments earlier.
Truly, who had been a real puppeteer in all of that? The boy had practically orchestrated the deaths of every problematic thrall in one fell swoop.
Furfur had the upper hand in the end, so it was still him. The pesky Demon of the Mind somehow still haunted the boy's mind, even though he'd personally seen to his eradication and demise. Hell, he'd even been finely rewarded for slaughtering the good-for-nothing Fog Monsters.
'I'm almost there…' Worthy could tell that the distance between him and the opposite point of the thread was shrinking through some kind of innate understanding of distance between himself and his objective. Thankfully, learning that there was a heart didn't trigger some kind of automated response that flooded his mind with information, or sent an attack directly into his soul.
His soul had never been hit, so he wondered if it were possible for humans to survive such things.
'Probably not, I'd bet. The soul ought to be more vital than any organ we humans have.'
Between all of the ruined buildings, there was a structure that remained unharmed unlike all of the other locations.
Worthy slowed to a halt, eyes stopping to take in the full display of the bell tower in the middle of the city, unmarred. Someone had rung the bell back when things had become chaotic. Now that the child was observing the strange structure, he was having doubts that it'd gone down that way.
There was no way Furfur would alert his enemies of his approach. The Mind Demon would've taken full advantage of the element of surprise and enthralled as many people as possible in the midst of uncontrolled chaos. Even when people were fighting in the streets, the Prime Settlement was large enough for some of the bouts to go unnoticed.
Walkyr hadn't dove into the middle of the city to ring the bell, evidently. That man was too busy fighting for his life against a rather frustrating collection of enemies with abilities specializing in annoying their enemies to death. So, the only person who could've rung it had to have been a person that Furfur controlled…
'…or it would have rung itself.'
Worthy saw where the thread was aiming. There was a sharp curve in its direction. The thread ascended the belfry and wrapped itself tightly in a way that the boy had never seen around the bell.
Feeling an unexplainable pull in his chest, the boy felt himself drawn into the bell tower. The bell was the heart of the city… But, it didn't make sense to the child. It'd already been rung. Even before they arrived here, others had to have rung it. So, why had it suddenly gained autonomy?
Others were bound to have caught on to a mysterious bell ringing itself. Yet, at their darkest hour, it happened for the first time. It was too chaotic for anyone to even realize.
When he arrived at the tall, white door of the bell tower, Worthy experienced something new.
A shadow was cast over him. When he grabbed the handle of the door and pulled it open, a powerful draft of wind blew by, and so too did dust.
Coughing as he waved his hand in front of his face, the boy turned his head away and shut his eyes. "Agh!?"
It was like he'd unsealed a compressed vault, and was assaulted by a tempest made by the spirit of wind itself. He thought he heard voices of old times carried in the wind, but then also heard the distant sound of cannon fire and screaming, thus putting two pieces together was not difficult.
When the gale finally ceased its assault, Worthy could finally open his eyes and look into the bell tower. There, he was greeted with… darkness. Not a shadow, but instead for the first time since he'd entered the Tower, complete and utter, fear-inducing darkness before him.