Chapter 405: Curtain Call
"Levi, are you all right?"
On the road to Mount Doom, Frodo sensed something. He looked up and found Levi's gaze distant, his mind elsewhere.
"Fine. I'm fine."
Levi came back to himself and answered.
"Did something happen?"
Frodo looked worried. Sam turned to look as well.
With Levi at their side, the two of them felt safer than they had in months. Even if Sauron himself showed up, they would not be afraid.
That safety had loosened something in both of them. Sam's thoughts had already drifted to what kind of feast he would cook once they were back in the Shire.
But in truth, he was the only one here who was relaxed.
The only one.
As the Ring drew closer to Mount Doom, the place where it had been forged, its power swelled. The thing had grown heavy as a lump of iron, pressing down on Frodo until he could barely breathe. The chain had left raw marks on his neck.
"It's nothing, just…"
Levi stopped walking. He turned to Frodo.
"That little ring in your shirt has been calling my name. It won't stop. It's driving me mad."
At those words, as if compelled by something he could not name, Frodo reached into his shirt and drew the Ring out. He held it in his open palm, fully exposed for Levi to see.
"This…?"
Frodo asked, baffled by his own action.
Why did I take the Ring out?
Why did I show my Ring… my precious… to someone else?
He could not explain what had driven him to do it. But the trust he had built in Levi over a lifetime held firm, and his voice stayed gentle.
This was the figure he had grown up hearing about. The stories had been woven through his entire childhood, imprinted so deeply they could never be erased.
Sam was the same. Both hobbits looked at the familiar, beloved legend before them through a filter of absolute trust, pushed nearly to its limit.
Only… the moment the Ring appeared, the moment Levi's eyes fell on it, something shifted.
Levi stood there, staring at the Ring. He did not blink. His face showed nothing. He said nothing.
It made both hobbits uneasy.
But then they remembered Ithilien, and how they had misjudged Faramir, that noble commander of Gondor. They forced down the thoughts they could scarcely believe they were having, and waited.
Waited for Levi to say something reassuring.
What he did next only made them more afraid.
He turned and took two slow steps toward Frodo. His eyes never left the Ring.
Like everyone else they had ever seen, his hand reached out toward it.
Frodo looked up. For a moment, the figure before him seemed to blur and merge with Aragorn, with Faramir.
These great leaders of Men always looked at the Ring first, and then, at the moment I feared most, they would take my hand and tell me to put it away.
Maybe, in the next moment…
"Wait!"
While Frodo was lost in the memory, Sam shouted from behind.
Frodo turned. Levi had seized the Ring and snapped the chain from his neck in one sharp motion.
Just like that, he took it.
Frodo's mind went white.
Am I seeing things?
The broken chain slid down his neck and clinked softly against the ground. Only then did Frodo accept that this had really happened.
He stared at the broken chain. His mouth hung open. His eyes went wide. Then his brow twisted, his face contorted into something savage, and he ripped Sting from its sheath with a scream, lunging at the figure before him.
"No, Frodo, no!"
Sam threw his arms around Frodo from behind, holding on with everything he had, desperate to stop him from doing something he could never take back.
"My precious! That's my precious!"
Frodo screamed, eyes bloodshot, thrashing forward, driving his elbow hard into Sam's ribs to break free.
The look on his face was identical to Gollum's.
The corruption had gone far deeper than anyone knew. He had simply never shown it.
The Ring had been in his hands the entire journey. Sam's loyalty had been tested and proven many times over; he had no designs on it. That had kept Frodo calm, and it had let him believe he was still in control.
Along the way, he had refused to let Sam carry the Ring even briefly to share the burden. Whether that came from genuine concern, or from something darker he had not recognised in himself, was impossible to say.
Perhaps it was both.
Sam ignored every wound on his body, old and new, and held on.
In front of them, Levi showed no reaction to Frodo's sudden hostility. He stared at the small ring in his hand and murmured,
"Isn't it funny? Sauron has already been beaten, and this thing still has this much power."
As though recalling something, he studied the One Ring with genuine curiosity.
"Strange, too. Everyone who's ever held this ring ends up in terrible danger because it draws evil things to it. It does everything it can to engineer accidents, all to find its way back to its true master."
"But now its master has been defeated. Every dark thing that might have answered its call has been swept away."
"What can it do now? How can it possibly struggle?"
Levi raised the Ring before his eyes.
"Are you helpless? Are you all alone?"
In that moment, even Sam and Frodo froze. For the first time, they felt something impossible.
The Ring was afraid.
The man before them had become unreadable. The hero's glow, the legend's warmth, was fading away, layer by layer.
When all the bias was stripped back, the two hobbits finally understood what they were standing in front of, and for the first time felt what every Orc had always felt.
Total, absolute despair.
"Don't!" Frodo cried out. Sting slipped from his fingers and clattered to the ground.
Sam's eyes went wide, shock and dread fighting across his face.
Before them, Levi slowly put the Ring on.
Boom!
Mount Doom shuddered. High above Barad-dûr, the Eye of flame, still locked in its standoff with the allied army, convulsed violently, but did not turn.
The instant the Ring was worn, Sauron finally understood. His precious had been right beneath his nose the entire time, carried all the way to the very mouth of the mountain.
Ordinarily, he would have looked at once, eager to see which fool had dared to put it on.
But this time, he did not dare.
He knew the Ring was there, yet his gaze never shifted.
Whoosh.
The eight Nazgûl, already beaten back into formlessness, materialised all at once. They knelt upon the slopes of Mount Doom, heads bowed low.
Prostrate before a presence as dark and fathomless as the abyss.
That man's power was bottomless. Under the direct command of the One Ring's new bearer, even the Nazgûl had been greatly strengthened, nearly capable of affecting the mortal world without physical form at all.
Frodo and Sam stumbled backward, unable to look at him.
Gandalf's head snapped toward Mount Doom. His blood ran cold.
Across Middle-earth, every Elf felt it. Every Wizard felt it.
Including Saruman.
"What did I tell you?!"
Saruman screamed.
It's over. It's all over.
Is this the end?
On the mountainside, Levi waved a hand. The Nazgûl dissolved, banished back to the world of the dead.
He walked toward Frodo.
This time, it was Sam who drew his sword and pointed it at Levi.
Tears streamed down his face. His whole body trembled. His teeth chattered. But he planted himself between Levi and Frodo and refused to move.
Thinner now, worn down by everything they had endured, Sam stared at Levi and spoke in a breaking voice.
"I don't believe it. I will never believe it…"
Under the hobbits' despairing gaze, Levi reached out his hand.
Only then did Sam realise he had never truly possessed the courage to strike.
All he could do was stand there, placing himself between Levi and Frodo.
"No, Sam!"
Frodo finally understood. He threw himself forward, arms spread wide in front of Sam, eyes squeezed shut.
Tap.
But the blow never came.
Two warm hands rested gently on the hobbits' heads, one on each. The touch was slightly stiff, as though their owner was trying his absolute best to appear gentle and harmless.
Then he turned and walked away.
Frodo and Sam stared after him in a daze.
They looked at each other, drew a deep breath, set their jaws, and followed.
…
[Corruption: 50%]
Visions flooded his sight. Seductive voices whispered without end.
From this day forward, Middle-earth will have a true emperor. A ruler who unites the entire world. He will be called the Lord of Middle-earth. Every Man, Dwarf, Elf, and Orc will obey his command. None may defy his will.
Wherever people dwell, his name will be spoken, his deeds sung. His will shall never be defied. His domain shall spread without limit. The entire world shall wear a single colour.
"And the people of Middle-earth?"
The vision shifted.
All peoples knelt before a dark figure, worshipping him as the supreme being, carrying out his will with pious devotion. They revered him as a god. Nothing he spoke went unfulfilled. He did what he wished, whenever he wished, with no restriction, no one to stop him, everything arranged for his benefit above all else…
Levi shook his head, unmoved.
As if sensing the revulsion buried deep in his heart, the visions shattered.
But new ones rose immediately to take their place.
A magnificent world full of wonders. A world where every soul was kind. A world of boundless prosperity, and a great king who would never fall… Vision after vision, each straining to show him every possible future the world could hold.
None of it slowed his steps toward Mount Doom.
Not by a single beat.
Those steps were slow and steady, the same as every step he had taken across these eighty-odd years.
He was no longer the young adventurer he had once been.
Every joy and sorrow, every meeting and parting, every hollow ache left behind when the people he loved moved on… all of it had shaped the man standing here today.
Looking back, there was more than just a grand world. There were the people beside him, one by one, generation after generation, their quiet companionship.
Even though most of them were gone.
What is power and wealth, measured against home and the people you love? How could any of it compare to true harmony, and the world's infinite possibility?
The One Ring trembled. The Black Speech inscription on its surface began to glow. Under immense pressure, it dug deeper and deeper into its own reserves, until even the great Eye of flame atop the dark tower snapped shut. A current of dark will surged across the distance and joined the assault.
"To live out a quiet century in this little world… are you truly content with that? Truly willing to be so 'ordinary'?"
Levi's stride slowed, just slightly.
As if it had found the thread it was looking for, the visions returned like a flood, fiercer than before, reaching into places nothing had reached before.
This time, they touched something genuinely private, buried at the very bottom of Levi's heart.
[Corruption: 80%]
"March on Valinor. Seize the Halls of Mandos."
"There, you can see your friends and familiar faces once more. Never again will you suffer the grief of watching them leave. Every life in this world, whether it lives or dies, whether it stays or departs, the destination of its soul will be yours to decide."
"Do you not wish to hold that power?"
"You can do it. Become our ally. With your abilities, destroying this world would take no time at all…"
Tap.
Another step forward. Another inch closer.
"Dragons! Those dragons hold enormous potential. I can help you study them. I promise that the next time you encounter dragonkind, something new will emerge!"
The steps did not stop.
"No, not just dragons. Beyond the borders of this world wanders the true Dark Lord, Morgoth. He is 'the mightiest power beneath Ilúvatar.' Even the steward of Arda, the greatest of the Valar, Manwë, is lesser than he. When he returns from beyond the world, the Endless will come with him. Then the world will be yours. Everything, yours to command."
"With power on that scale, what could possibly frighten you?"
Levi's gaze went distant.
For a disorienting instant, his hearing vanished, his vision darkened, and his awareness rose beyond the stars, past the walls of the world, across distances beyond reckoning. He saw things beyond counting.
Future. Past. Present.
The One Ring's power was merging with his own, spiralling upward together, seemingly without limit.
The pressure of it could be felt even in the Blessed Realm beyond Arda.
[Corruption: 99.9%]
Almost! Almost there!
In the Crack of Doom, Sauron's great forge, the chamber at the very heart of the dark realm, the One Ring poured out everything it had, clawing at that final 0.1%.
The bar would not move.
Awareness sank downward.
"No."
Levi smiled faintly and shook his head.
"There are things in this world more important than power."
He let the Ring fall.
This was a bright movement in the music.
No regret. No parting. No collapse, no despair.
The melody ended in joy and reunion.
Levi had passed his test.
And at last, the curtain came down.
(End of Chapter)