I don't know how he did it, but he did. He conquered the darkness that once was Ethelberd the Mad, and he did it alone, without any assistance.
I shouldn't have been surprised, though. After all, he had the determination to change the world.
**************
"Venti? Are you here?" He turned and looked all around him, but the scintillating mists of the Forest obscured everything from sight, and he was like a blind man, if blindness was pure light instead of darkness.
Go home. Leave me here. I'm so tired...
"Venti... I know you're here. I can feel you, and I can hear your thoughts. I just can't see you. Where are you? Please come out—I'm here to take you home."
Go back. Leave me alone. Always... always alone.
"Is this what you want? To be here, by yourself, apart from those who love you?"
I want...
"Venti... I remember what you said, when we fought Ethelberd together. Do you?"
I want...
"You said... you said you had shared your heart among all those people you loved. Do you remember?"
...to be...
"And when you... when you left me, that night... that's when I realized...."
I just want to be...
"All the women I love... the things I love most about each one of them..."
...to always be...
"...are the pieces of you that you gave to them. It's you I've loved all this time, through them."
...always be...
"I love you, Venti, and if you won't come back with me, I'll stay here with you. So please, Venti, tell me. What do you want?"
I want to always be...
