He didn't remember the last time he'd had sleep as satisfying as this.
Hiroko was sure he was slowly dying when he shot his eyes open. He was immediately brought face-to-face with the sight of a huge, black boulder slightly pressing down on him.
It was Rocky.
"Uh…" he tried to move but then realized what was going on.
Bright rays of sunshine shone down. The heat radiated from where it scorched the onyx ground and Hiroko realized that what was Rocky Golem pressing down on him was actually Rocky Golem sheltering him from the harsh sunbeams.
Hiroko looked around as the white light continued to crawl by, Rocky's back being his only shield from being charred.
"Ah. Thanks, buddy."
He gave the golem's rocky torso a pat. But the golem didn't move an inch.
He looked back at the rays inching by in agonizing slowness and sighed. The direction was shifting again this year. This was the harshest sunbeam storm yet and he was trapped! He didn't know how long it would take to pass, nor how long he was going to stay sane in this place that was a lot like Tartarus but lonely.
You'd think a place described as nightmarish and supposed to harbor endless terrors would actually be a barren wasteland with a single man and a single monster.
He stared up at Rocky's stone chest, thinking back on the previous Glances he'd had.
There were a lot!
Those hideous orcs had made several appearances, Lancelot too.
The visions about the orcs were mostly just raging battles with the nightmarish creatures that used to exist here.
He had seen visions of Lancelot reminiscing about betraying Arthur and stealing Excalibur.
So the longsword Hiroko held in his hands was literally the fabled sword of legend, and the one back home was a very convincing fake.
The funny part of it all—Hiroko smirked as the sunbeams continued to burn the ground—was that his visions seemed to show themselves according to his emotions and leaned more on those when showing him something. So all that time while he was having emotional outbursts the past thirty-eight months since the first Lancelot vision—time flying by in his eyes—all he saw were the raging wars between orcs and beasts he was glad were extinct.
"I don't think I can handle anything bigger than you."
He pat Rocky softly, eyeing the golem with suspicion as it kept taking the heat with its backside.
"You really don't feel that? Is onyx heat proof though?"
The monster using itself as a shield didn't move or open its eyes.
Hiroko sighed in resignation. How fitting that he'd be the only one with some sort of ability to speak and he'd actually have a companion - who didn't talk!
In no time, Hiroko's mind was threatening to fall asleep again, a vision that was promising to play, hesitating out of reality as his eyelids weighed over his eyes.
"Probably nothing… important…"
He fell asleep.
Then he jerked awake. His forehead knocked against hard rock!
"Ow! Get off me, baka!"
He bashed his fist against the golem's chest and the monster's eyes snapped open, purple flames igniting like match heads.
Rocky Golem slowly crawled off his master and stood a few feet away, watching as the young man shot his glowing purple eyes around before springing to his feet.
It was night time. The clouds above were their usual violet and the only source of light around were Hiroko's sword, Hiroko's eyes and Rocky's eyes, all purple.
"That sunburn took days."
Hiroko stretched before catching sight of his hands. He examined them and noticed the purple color mixed in with his skin starting from his fingers. It was like wearing gloves that faded into his skin just before the elbows.
He glanced aside before dismissing it as beet juice stain from the lack of bathing water around. Then he turned to face Rocky, adjusting the thick leather belt around his waist.
"Sā, sassato saki ni susume. Koko de urouro shite mata taiyō no mabushisa ni yararetakunain da."
He paused and squinted.
"Damn, I sound like my father."
He felt chills shudder up his body. That old man must be stirring in his grave, he thought.
Cruel thought.
He brushed it aside and started walking off, Rocky following.
A few steps into his resumed journey, the sky suddenly lit up with a very bright blue, then a purple. Something was spat out of the blue vortex as Hiroko stood frozen with an unreadable expression. It shot down like a meteor and struck the ground hard, a whole purple mushroom cloud rising into the sky.
Hiroko cracked his neck as he rotated his head like an animatronic to look at the explosion the size of a nuclear missile hitting. He narrowed his eyes in suspicion.
"What in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki sense was that?"
The shockwave was clearly headed to him. He squinted his eyes as it rushed at him. That sort of force would have blown him halfway across the valley or blown him to bits, if it didn't filter right through him like phantom energy. Still, he couldn't help but flinch.
Hiroko blinked. Another vision. Something had dropped in Modest. Something massive.
Long, long ago.
"Rocky, we're going that way."
He started walking off. Then stopped, and turned to see the golem standing still, its eyes exuding a cool gloom.
"What's the matter with you?" he took several angry steps to it. "Sotch ni iku n da yo!" He pointed to the now desolate location in the far west.
The golem remained unresponsive for a moment before it blinked. It took a step closer to Hiroko and extended its massive hand to Hiroko's face.
The young man tilted his head at the golem, utterly confused. Did that thing want him to drag it along?
He was just raising an inquiring eyebrow when the structure of rocks crumbled and disintegrated into dust before flying up his nose.
Hiroko buckled over, his eyes shutting, pain searing through his head. He immediately straightened up despite the pain and rubbed his nose. He gagged.
"Hah! Not nice!"
He shook his head, listening to any sort of abnormalities after that. Not that inhaling dust particles of stone golems was a normal thing.
Though, anything that happened in Modest was pretty normal to him now.
"Okay, fine. I'll walk there by myself."
He'd taken a single step when his chest jerked forward. He clutched his coat, looking down with shock and a bewildered look.
The rock shot out of his chest, followed by others that almost toppled him, dragging him forward as he watched Rocky Golem's parts shooting out of his chest like manhole covers bursting off the surface of the road.
But all the bits and pieces of Rocky didn't go far. Floating around him as his knees threatened to throw him on his face, they shot back at him, and you'd imagine the kind of pain the impact of them hitting him would cause. But they just attached themselves over his body, like pieces of magical armor, the same way he used to see the Trollhunter transform in but less cool, less glowy and definitely smacking against him.
The last piece of rock flew right at his face, covering it up and throwing him far back with a lot of oomph!
He slid across the iron-hard ground, using only the rim of a tar pit to stop himself.
He raised his free hand and noticed the detailed transformation. Rocky had used itself as a literal human shield once, now it was human armor.
"You really like me."
Hiroko tried to stand up and felt as if someone was assisting him. Standing up, he saw the ground lying far below him. He stood about four meters tall, every part of his body covered in black stone. He couldn't see his longsword but he could feel it buried somewhere in Rocky's body, as was he.
"Was this necessary?" He attempted a step forward, the motion almost completely fluid. "Covering me up in rock. Does this have to do with your resurrection? You keep turning into dust and getting in my mouth like that, I'm going to accidentally swallow you."
He started walking normally, a hulk with glowing purple eyes, limbs covered in rock. The only thing that could destroy Rocky was his sword so this was basically an indestructible, walking body suit.