Destiny No More

Chapter 8

"I have watched you," The voice echoed around her. "And I have seen your struggles."

Pyrrha looked up to find whoever it was that was speaking, only to be met with the empty classroom as the voice seemed to slip out of her view.

"You have been a source of entertainment for quite some time."

When it became clear she wouldn't be able to find the voice she turned her attention to another concern. Looking down to her ankle she noticed a scar where the arrow had pierced her skin, but a notable lack of blood.

Flexing her ankle slightly, she gritted her teeth in preparation for a pain that never came. After a moment she shifted her body so that she could stand.

Taking a deep breath and once again readying herself for the agony she had felt on the tower, Pyrrha stood, slowly putting weight on her wounded foot as she did. Despite the fact she had been wounded not but a moment ago, she felt nothing.

Finally standing, she looked around her, once again attempting to spot wherever the voices were coming from. Hesitantly, she spoke. "Where am I?"

"Beacon Academy," The voice boomed from behind her, causing Pyrrha to turn towards where it should have been. Only, there was still nothing there. "Just as you remember it." Again it felt as if the voice was coming from directly behind her.

She resisted the urge to turn back around in panic, but only just.

"Who... are you?" Her eyes fell on the dark corner of the arena.

Despite how dark it was she thought she saw something step closer, an outline slowly becoming distinguishable from the darkness, taking the shape of a man, and while it didn't step out from the shadows entirely, it seemed to center the voice.

"I have many names, few that you can pronounce and all of which have been forgotten by humans." The Man still spoke with a voice unlike anything Pyrrha could identify, where before it had been a chorus of voices echoing around her now, with all the voices focused on one point, it sounded like hundreds of voices speaking in unison. The result was a near deafening boom that caused her to wince with every word. "Who I am is a mystery for another time, another world."

Pyrrha felt her nerves fray as she examined the outline of the figure. In spite of its vaguely humanoid shape, it shifted, like it was made of some kind of storm cloud trying to spread throughout the air, but held in place by some unseen force. "What do you want? Why are you here?"

Whatever it was she spoke to seemed amused by the question. "I am here because you are here."

Pyrrha waited for more, the seconds dragging on as it became clear the shadow would not give more. Hesitantly, she asked the next most obvious question to come to mind. "And why am I here?"

"Because, Miss Nikos, you are dead."

Those words should have been shocking, would have been, were it not for the fact she had been painfully aware of that fact already. She had died, once again, fighting against Cinder.

"I know," She would die, and she would wake back up in her bed to do it again. Only she hadn't, Instead she'd woken up here. "That's not a new occurrence, I've died before and I-"

"Incorrect," The shadow spoke quietly, its voice not hurting her ears as it continued. "You have only ever truly died once."

"That..." Pyrrha grew confused. "You don't know what you're talking about, you're wrong... I remember dying fighting Cinder be-"

"You have only truly died once." The Man stated once more. "You have relieved that moment, and the moments leading up to it, many times however." Pyrrha shook her head as she listened to the Man speak. "You died fighting the Fall Maiden, and then you came here."