It's no longer just the assassin that is patiently waiting to dissect the bones of this scientist. This boy is exactly who Riley thinks he is. Imagining the intricate details of an obsession that must have been building up for the last ten years horrifies the scientist beyond belief.
Without a second ounce of hesitation, Riley J. Smith choses the demise from below, rather than punishment from above.
As the doctor let's go of the rope, Zephyr feels a drastic decrease of weight as he keeps on pulling it for a second.
"AU REVOIR!" Are the only words Riley screeches as he's falling down. After a brief moment, only the echo of his voice remains.
The young blacksmith is appalled.
He throws the rope, grabs his bags and proceeds to jump without thinking about his next course of action. The three animals follow suit, thinking of catching up with their master. Before diving with the others, Eylventh spots Zephyr's torch blade and grabs it with its mouth. Its crocodile teeth are keeping the grip tight and makes sure it cannot escape the vulture's grasp.
The only one who stays behind is Alister. He is witnessing what can only be described as madness on a scale he has never seen before.
What the hell is this scientist?
How can he attract that many nut jobs with him on his illogical expeditions? For the hunter, throwing his life away with such evanescence is nonsense and purely based on emotion.
He recognizes that he is no different. He can feel the call to jump too. It's like a thirst that thrives in his body.
With all of his determination, he decides to keep moving forward, limping even faster to the edge of the Bottomless Pit.
It has been a dozen seconds by the time he gets to jump. At this point, the target is probably so far gone it's useless. He could let his leg heal for a few days and call it quits on his career, as he comes back empty handed.
He himself is beyond reasoning. He cannot cease this suicide operation.
For Alister, there is no going back, not without seeing the doctor perish by something, anything, even if it's not him. Confirming the death of this bastard is the one good deed he believes capable of making out of this life. So, if in exchange he has to starve to death 12 feet under, then so be it. With all the desperation and determination left in his arsenal,
Alister does the inconceivable jump.
He screams in a plea to overshadow the instinctual fear that is taking over. He clenches his fists and teeth, trying to resist the pressure of the colossal fall he takes. It gets dark really fast down there. The vision of the sky and the outside world shrinks with every instance that passes. The wind wildly attacking his damaged limbs makes it worst. It's going by too fast. The adrenaline is not enough to escape.
This was a mistake. Alister convinced himself to jump to his death. The irony of an assassin dying of his own vallation, when he spent his life forcing others in an early grave, is apparent even to him.
It doesn't take long for the assassin to start feeling something bizarre in his broken leg, however.
It's a small sensation at first, like a gentle breeze caressing it. After another set of seconds, he closes his eyes and tries to ease himself into his obvious demise. Indeed, he had a massive lapse in judgement. This soft touch on his leg is perhaps a sign that the afterlife is coming to claim his soul, or that he finally succumbed to lunacy.
This sensation doesn't last much longer. It instantly grows sharper, like the leg gets stabbed by a dozen knives.
Alister screams his heart out, as his leg restructures itself out of his will. Shattered bones reattach, ligaments and muscles reconnect without his consent and in the pain comes a lack of understanding as to the situation he's in.
After all the aching, he can feel the shock still. But his leg…
His leg is fine. His leg is functional.
"ARGH! What the fuck!? What is going on!?" Exclaims the assassin, stunned by what just happened.
#
Riley is peaceful.
He's falling, his eyes closed, embracing the end of his days. The scientist is prepared to face the one who judges all in the eyes and confess to all of his crimes. He's hovering in the air, making the shape of a star while facing the sky above, sky he can no longer see with his bleak vision. True liberation is what he seeks, as he falls endlessly in the Bottomless Pit.
"I am ready. I am ready to be released from the claws of this life. Take me, God! Take me and send me wherever you feel I deserve to be sent!"
In his dramatic last performance for the lord, he can still hear faint animal noises from his companions in the distance. It's as if they took the decision to accompany Riley in heaven. How cute. How wholesome.
Until the doctor opens his eyes and sees Zephyr.
Unlike the animals who are farther, the young blacksmith followed Riley like a mad dog, being only about a meter's distance. This is enough to make out the silhouette of the young man.
This teenager chases the scientist even in death. This is not something Riley takes with a smile on his face.
"AH! Wh-Why are you here!? Why!? What could possibly be reasonable enough for you to follow me all the way down here!?"
"Answers, Riley! Lots of answers!" Retorts Zephyr.
"That's insane! You're throwing your life away for knowledge and discovery!?"
Riley takes a slight pause.
"Okay in retrospect that's very hypocritical, but I'm a scientist! It's my career and passion to secure such knowledge and-!"
"Career and passion, right!? Is kidnapping helpless victims, who didn't deserve a tenth of what you've done, a part of your amazing career and passion!?" Shouts with resentment in his voice the young blacksmith.
Zephyr embodies murder intent. Riley is agitated. The end of days bravado from earlier was for naught.
"Listen boy, you have NO idea how much I regret doing this, I swear! Besides, she's alright as far as I'm concerned! O-Of course she hasn't come back yet, but who would when the whole village has been reduced to nothing!"
The doctor laughs loudly and nervously while the young blacksmith stares at him, emotions climaxing into a breaking point. Out of fear for his life, despite having it forfeited the moment he took the fall, Riley tries his hardest to defend his actions.
Zephyr's boiling in a melting pot of suffering. He has been dreaming of snapping this doctor's neck for years, interrogating him, ask about her whereabouts, what were his motives. Due to the harsh times of recent years, he has expunged that need, this necessity, away from his life, in an attempt to help Gallows without it becoming an overbearing distraction.
That attempt was in vain.
He's face-to-face with something he's been struggling with since being a little boy. The one he perceives as the culprit, the reason for his anguish is looking at him, trying to justify his way out of a turmoil he's been in tango with for a decade.
"You! You DEVIL!" Screams Zephyr, his rage culminating into tears pouring out. "We'll see how much you regret it once we dive in hell, you and I! I'll-I'll make you regret EVERY SECOND OF IT!!"
The more the youngling yells, the more anger consumes his state of being. Saliva, foam even, leaves profusely from his mouth. As if turned unshackled by the constraint of his own body, he emanates steam. Literal vapor comes out of his pores. Nil and Urth observes, both scared at the sudden amount of heat propelling from Zephyr's skin.
The doctor is witnessing this from too close. His eyes open wide with a strange, terrifying curiosity. Zephyr's skin cracks like dried soil. The blacksmith's opened mouth and eyes glow an orange as fierce as his eyes.
The boy is now his own source of light, blinding the doctor.
"If I am going to die like this, then it was all worth it." Whispers the scientist, ecstatic.