The Crimson King

XI. Did I do the right thing?

Darkness.

It was all Jake could see, constantly sinking for two days. His only entertainment the air bubbles escaping his mouth. Occasionally remembering the brief interaction he had with Zero.

Two days ago, when Jake was at the end of his will to live, Zero temporarily blinded him with her golden light. Her voice was a rare occasion that inspired respect for a Goddess in Jake.
"Can you hear me human? Giving up so easily is unlike you."
"Tch. What would you know."
Jake's lips didn't move, yet his voice echoed in his surroundings. Despite it being quite an unusual experience, Jake had so little care for anything in the world.
"I know quite a lot about you, more than you could imagine. Yet your name still escapes me."
"It's Jake."
The Goddess chuckled, a bit surprised by the fact that getting Jake's name was so easy. From everything she had learned about him, Zero expected to gain information about him to be harder.
"So what do you want? I'm at the verge of death here."
"Trust me, I know there is nothing more you would like to do right now but die. And I know that a part of you refuses to die because there are people who you love and care about that you would leave behind. So I'm here to help you live."
"Why?"
"To become the messenger of Judgment itself."
If Jake could move at this moment, he would have rolled his eyes, stuffed his hands into the pockets of his pants and walked away. However, he couldn't do that now. As well he didn't know just how intimidated his superiors were by Zero.
"Watch your tongue there Jake. I can tell you're swearing at me in your head."
"If I'm your messenger, then there is something you want me to do, what is it?"
"Oh don't worry about it, what I want you to do, you will do on your own. That's why I sought you out, you already aim to achieve what I need you to do. And in return, no matter what trouble you are in, I will come to your aid."
"Right, as if I'd ever trust a God."
Zero simply  laughed at Jake's remark, the light created by her presence slowly fading away.
"You'll learn to trust me, quite fast at that as well."
With those words the light disappeared and Jake was once again left in darkness. Sinking into the unending abyss that was his mind. Yet again plagued by his own thoughts that brought him nothing but pain.

And so he sank, until the end of the third day.
At the end of the third day, Jake finally hit the bottom. A simple white fluorescent circle surrounded by nothingness. He didn't get up right away, instead he just tried to waste away, simply just giving up on life.
Time passed slowly, Jake's eyes fixated into the abyss above him. As the saying goes, if you stare into the abyss long enough, the abyss stares back at you. To Jake, it definitely felt like it was and it scared him to the core.
What felt like an eternity later to him, Jake finally got on his feet. Well, struggled to get on his feet. When he did, the last thing he expected to see Jericho stuck in the ground. At the same time Jake was surprised, but also full of fear.
The thing that almost killed him was right there, in his mind, tormenting him with this fear that he wished to disappear.
"Jericho."
Hesitantly, Jake approached the blade. He reached his hand out, but quickly retracted it as he felt an ominous presence.
Now no long in a state of wishing to die, Jake became cautious. His gut was telling him to be on his guard and to be ready for a fight.
Footsteps started to echo from all around him. Jake knew that sound well, the sound of his father's heavy combat boots. Frantically turning around he tried to find out where the source was. That is until he heard the footsteps behind him.
Jake looked over his shoulder and standing behind him was none other but his father.
Dressed in the black trench coat of the order and everything black, Jake resembled the man stood behind him. The biggest difference was the man's short black hair and brown eyes.
"What are you doing here?"
"Is that how you greet your late father? I was expecting more tears or emotions."
"All you are is a product of my mind."
Jake paused for a moment. Reason for that was the fact that he knew that his father wasn't actually there, but there was no way he could have known.
The only explanation would be that somehow his interaction with Zero gave him that information. However, with the Leviathan Illness being a mystery as is and no real knowledge about it, there was no way Jake could actually know how he had this information.
"Well then, I guess that pesky Goddess is going to make this difficult."
"What are you on about?"
Jake's "father" rose his right arm to his side. "Come to me, Jericho." The sword that was in the middle of the two formed into water. The puddle it created quickly moved towards Nathan, moving up his body and to his hand.
Once the water was in his hand, Nathan grabbed it like a sword handle. Within seconds the water expanded outwards, taking shape of a sword and soon after taking the appearance of Jericho. Nathan quickly reached Jake, swinging the sword down at him vertically.
Jake narrowly dodged by sidestepping the attack. The quick follow up attack was a horizontal slash that he had to dodge by jumping back.