Fate/Parallel Colors

Chapter 19: Dimension of Unknown Sorrows

FATE/PARALLEL COLORS

Chapter 19: Dimension of Unknown Sorrows

In the endless dimension of yellow walls dotted with white plug outlets, mildew-crusted brown carpet, and humming fluorescent lights, Connla wandered around for an indeterminate period of time. Now that she was here, she wasn't worried about what was going on with Chaldea anymore. She had left her home world behind, and figured she was never going to see everyone again. Whatever their reaction would be to her disappearance, it wouldn't matter anymore; no one had the means of retrieving her from this space.

Instead, a new fear crept up on her like a spider's long sinewy legs tickling her skin. This was much more difficult to describe than fearing for her friends' lives. It was so abstract and out of this world that she couldn't put it into words. After being whisked away to what was essentially her prison, what was she supposed to do now? She wasn't confined to one little room, and had the freedom to explore wherever she wanted. The trouble was, what could she possibly look for? Being able to journey through an endless hell of monotony and silence was practically no different than sitting alone in some dungeon cell that the world had completely forgotten about.

... Then again, maybe that was the point.

This wasn't a prison in the traditional sense. This was a dimension designed to torture its victims by starving them of the usual stimuli they took for granted – people, animals, nature, entertainment, sensible infrastructure, and everything in between. With no one around to keep her sanity in check, her soul would hunger for more nostalgic times, and she would inevitably go crazy knowing that no relief for such an isolating madness would ever come. It made her think back to the fictional story that Daoloth sent her before, where she was a nameless surveyor sent to Arkham to investigate the 'blasted heath'. She recalled her fictional self's journey through an abandoned house, and how it stirred a similar sense of nostalgia within her. That depressing feeling of kenopsia was probably what this whole dimension represented.

Should she bother wasting her energy walking around aimlessly like this? Maybe she should just lie down and wait for her mana to dry up so she could return to the Throne of Heroes. Then again, she was honestly surprised that she was still alive after being fully cut off from Ritsuka and Waver's Command Spells. Maybe this dimension forced her to remain as a Rogue Servant against her will. If that was the case, maybe it would be smarter to just kill herself. She had the means to do it. She just wasn't sure if she had the will.

Connla stumbled through a huge chamber lined with hundreds of identical-looking columns, like she was in an urban mine shaft. It was certainly different from the incoherent mess of random walls and dead end corridors she had been passing by for who knew how long. Even so, having to spend hours making her way past what looked to be a billion neatly arranged pillars was going to get tedious and disorienting real quickly. Still, she didn't have anything better to do, so she went for it. Once in a while, she would lean against a column for support while she caught her breath. The opposite walls looked so tantalizingly close, yet they never came closer with each step she took.

Eventually though, the illusion started to falter. She was now approaching the walls... but something seemed a bit different. For some weird reason, she started to see other colors besides the awful browns and yellows swimming in her tired vision. She thought that maybe she was hallucinating, but the more she rubbed her eyes, the more she could discern some streaks of pink, green and blue. Her attention became more focused as she stumbled toward these refreshing new colors, hoping they would be a good sign. Once she was within range, she realized that these odd colors belonged to some party streamers wrapped around some columns closest to the wall. Although a new darkened hallway would lead her further into the maze, there was also a plain white door right in front of her, also decorated with some quaint stickers and a colorful banner that read HAPPY BIRTHDAY.