Board 8 > The Notes of Cain, Topic 3 [CYOA]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Entry 20: Total Eclipse

Gray watched with a somber, almost disinterested expression as the two humans escaped through a crack in the stone work. The way they were going... well, it didn't matter too much if they got away now. They'd be dead soon. The further they went in that direction they closer they would get to the Temple of Xetni.

Instead, the Demon chose to glance behind him at his prize. There was a satisfied expression on his face now. The Church Knight had been utterly broken and was unconscious on the ground. Valter might have been regaining his confidence and power, but that had been shattered when he was yanked face first into the stone one last time.

Beyond that was the Angel. Still shackled to her Church Knight, she couldn't escape now. She was only a pale light compared to her forming beaming glory. Gray was fine with that. Taking the Angel to the altar and sacrificing her was going to be the quickest way for him to rapidly increase his power. It was only irony that had brought her here like this, bound to a human vessel, in a form where she couldn't easily escape.

As long as Gray was careful and didn't let them combine their power he would have an easy time dismantling this Angel piece by piece, while the foolish Knight could do nothing but watch. And once he had eaten his fill he would have the power needed to make this world his own. He would shape the country into a palace of his own design, become the new king of this region, and perhaps think about building his own army of fiends and demonic knights to rule over this world.

If the Formless God would stay out of his way than it would be even easier. And, as far as Gray knew, that guy was never known to appear anywhere or interact directly with mortal events. It was that sense of mystery, that eclipse of information, which had led human occultists to become so obsessed with Xetni. Also known as 'The Ending of All Things' or simply 'The End,' Xetni was more of a conceptual being than a true force which held any power. It was hard for anyone, even Gray, to say if Xetni was even real or not.

And yet his name was whispered in deep and dark places like this.

How could he be known if he wasn't real? Was he truly the product of imagination? Or was there basis in reality?

Avel de Contelard and young Lord Cainas had thought it was worth investigating. They had poured time and energy and effort and resources into this endeavor. Those two bastards had even gone as far as constructing the Stone Door in order to trap a Demon here. Gray didn't know if they meant to sacrifice him to the Formless God but they never got that chance. He used his own power to trap himself behind the Stone Door and create a stalemate between himself and the army of fiends which Cainas had bred down here in the dark.

Now that all was said and done it might be time for Gray to have his revenge.

As he went deeper into the darkest parts of the underground, into the tunnels, he dragged his prize behind him. The chained man was clanking loudly as his limp body rattled against the ground. Like all humans he was a fool. He had turned his back on power for the sake of... what? All of this stupidity? Companionship, love, friendship, even the promise of safety. It was all meaningless in the face of death.

Sooner or later The End was going to arrive for them all. Valter had only created a situation where he was defenseless and lost control of his own fate. If nothing else, these damned Xetni-obsessed cultists understood one thing... they knew how to seize their own fate. They wished to meet The End for themselves and take it as their own God.
---

Blue and green mushrooms were glowing now, lighting the way into the quietest of tunnels. But beneath these silent halls were chambers and temples that predated man itself. If Cainas had never found these tunnels, if he had never awoken what was sleeping beneath here, the mortal world might have been spared quite a good deal of trouble. Now, however, the mutters of a man... captured by madness... completely buried in his own internal world... were echoing up from somewhere below.

It was a place of worship but there was no holy vow of silence here.

There was a hissing and a clacking, a cacophony of sounds, as monsters scrambled around in the black space there. A moment later Gray felt even his lungs constrict. By the Divine Concord, had they done it? If he had a heart it might have stopped in that moment. It felt as if he was in the presence of the God of Light once more, being cast down into the shadow, as he had so many years ago.

'When was the last time I felt this much power?' Gray was thinking.

And he didn't know if faith was really his forte, but he knew there was no room for doubt; Xetni, or something else, was in that room right now. It was there with them. They had summoned... something. It had enough of a presence to give even the Demon a pause.

"What do you think, my Knight?" Mona said. "Shall we stand fast once more?"

Gray couldn't stand the sound of her voice. He hated the way she looked any everything about her. If he was a Demon who had been cast down by the God of Light, then Mona and her kind represented those who had... unjustly... unfairly... been granted that favor. This idiot had been given the choice, and the chance, to continue living in a timeless paradise.

It was hard not to burn her to ashes and disintegrate her there just now, but he knew that she needed to be alive when he brought her to the altar. If it wasn't for that he would have killed her already. He would have killed the Knight, too, but he knew that severing the chain between them would have allowed the Angel to escape.

Turning back, Gray tugged on the chain and tried to smash Valter into the ground once more.

"Silence, you beast," Gray commanded.

CLANK!

The chain grew taut, rather than snapping and going limp as before. As Gray finished turning he saw that Valter was on one knee, now. With his hand pressed into the ground he was holding himself in place. The chain was tugging on his neck, but...

His powerful back and shoulder muscles flexed as he resisted the strength of the Devil, and stood firm.

Then, Gray noticed all too late, that his eyes were gleaming with the green starlight swirl of moons and stars above. The night sky was emanating from those eyes with a determination that did not bode well. His one-winged Angel was wrapped around him now, her bloody stump feathery and pointed away as the remaining wing curled down and held Valter within her sphere of influence. These next few moments were going to be crucial.

The Devil raised his hand and summoned a spell of piercing. Something that could be carefully applied, that he could use to skewer the human without killing it, though the trick here was going to be-!!

The passage lit up with a fiery blaze as the holy Purge swept outward and forward from where the chained man was kneeling. And in that action he rose to his feet and drew a blazing sword of fire and light from somewhere out of the darkness.

Oh fuck. Fuck me. Fuck me, fuck me.... Gray was realizing as he felt his flesh melt away... realizing it all too late... that this really wasn't the kind of situation where he could take his time and carefully apply his magic. The Devil felt his skull smack into the rocks as he bounced off of the ceiling and went flying through the darkness into the chamber below.
---

The column of light followed him, blasting the temple of Xetni and scattering the darkness in every direction. Here there was a hooded and robed man leading a congregation. Two dead bodies lay on the altar of blood, their wounds and their life stretched out across the canvas as some kind of sick demonstration of art or sacrifice. The cultists gathered around were mockery of belief; in truth these were mindless monsters that had no concept of faith or doubt. They were only doing as they were told.

Gray smashed into one of the stone pillars and sent rocks flying in every direction as light flooded the hall.

In that moment he felt the God-like presence flee from this room.

That powerful? Really? Had Mona driven him back, or was it a coincidence? It was said that Xetni rarely and briefly appeared in the world of mortals, if at all, but Gray understood little of that. However, if that was true, then maybe it was just a coincidence that he had been driven away in that moment.

No... No. It was impossible. There was no way Mona was powerful enough, even with the aide of Valter, to vanquish a God with a single burst of her magic. Gray felt his bones shacking and the tiny rivets that had been formed in them. The impact had shattered and fractured more than a few of those. Not that it mattered. He could use his magic to move his body, and even to numb his brain so that he could ignore the pain in those bones. They were just for fashion, just for show, just to give him a form in this world of body and concept.

The situation had changed completely.

This was no longer a situation where he could act carefully and try to capture the Angel and steal her power.

Now Gray found himself in a situation where he needed to fight with all of his power and, with a sudden and swift end, make sure he killed them. Otherwise they were absolutely going to kill him first. If he hesitated again like that he was more than dead... for sure.

"...--Devil!?" The hooded man shrieked, backing away from the scene as the light dissipated and clouds of dust rose from the broken pillar. All at once the brown smoke began to settle around the room. Even as Mona's power faded, however, the light in the chamber didn't leave.

This room which had once been completely swallowed by darkness was now a well lit temple.

These beasts who scuttled around in the darkness didn't like that. They began fleeing in any direction, down into the tunnels below, and some even climbing over the cliff face and down into the chasm. It was at times like this that even their master lost complete control of them. They gave way to instinct.

"Silence, you mortal fool," Gray snapped at him. "If you speak another needless world I won't hesitate to kill you. You're only alive now because I can't afford to be distracted for even a moment." The Devil's eyes shined with a red terror, but he couldn't fix them on the human. Quite literally if he took his eyes off the entrance to the passage above, Mona could appear there in an instant and kill him before he had time to react. "If you wish to live, then you should get behind me."

"I may choose to spare you after this conflict is over." Oh like hell he'd do that. This man had a slow and painful death coming to him, for all of the time that Gray had been locked away in that prison behind the Stone Door.

"You won't be given that choice," A booming voice came from above.

Gray's heart sank. For a moment he had been holding hope that self preservation might take over here. The injured Valter and Mona, having driven him back, might have taken this chance to flee and escape back to the world above. If that happened, he wouldn't have to fight them. Now... however... "I will decide," Mona told them both, "whether he lives or dies."
---

A shining figure appeared in the doorway above. Valter's arms rippled with fury and muscle as the broken chains fell away from his form. He found himself standing up straight, to his full height and power, for the first time in some time.

And, as fearsome as he looked, he had lost a bit of his humanity during that transformation. His eyes were more cold and distant, his voice seemed less like that of a mortal man, and it was clear that the compassion had left his face. If he even recognized the dead bodies of his friends down here, below, he didn't seem to have any visible reaction to it.

Submitting his will to Mona, to that Angelic Force, meant that he lost that part of himself. It was the reason he had locked it away so long ago. But now there was no choice. He had to do what needed to be done here. Nobody understood that better than Valter himself.

Things had always turned out horribly for him no matter which way he decided. It seemed as if he never knew what choice was the right choice to make but, in truth, it seemed like every choice somehow ended up with some sense of regret and loss. There was nothing else left to do but seize the small positive moments, the happy things he had found in life, the momentary triumphs, and hold onto them for as long as he could.

That was all that could be done from here on out.

"You'll defend it?" Gray asked. "You'll defend this place, this world, this rotten world filled with rotten humans? How far are you willing to go for that?" He backed away. The Angel hadn't attacked yet. Perhaps he could keep her distracted.

"I'll risk my life if I must," Mona and Valter spoke as one now. "Though I must say my odds of surviving here are much better than yours. And once I'm done with the Devil, I'll-..." The Church Knight and his Angel turned their gaze to the now small looking man, trying to sneak away into the dark tunnels. "I'll be sure to come and delete you, as well, you old fool."

"Perhaps. Perhaps not," Gray retorted. "Putting aside whether you can do it, should you really?"

"Should I?" Mona smirked. Then there was a soft laughter of the woman, signifying her great amusement. "It's the very reason for why I was created. May as well ask a mortal if they should drink water, or breathe the air, or fall in love."

As she was talking, Valter rose his blazing sword and began to walk forward, down the narrow space that bridged the gap between the spiral shaped descending walkway above, and the flattened temple grounds below. Where was the altar from here? No! Gray couldn't let himself get distracted with ambition.

Just... just focus. Wait until they get closer. The less distance between them, the greater chance that Gray could do something before his mortal body had time to react. Even if Mona was able to intervene he might still have a chance in that case. Winning against both of them at once was near impossible but he wasn't going to give up and run now.

If Gray turned his back he'd be instantly deleted. He knew that.

"The God of Light made you just to kill?" Gray feigned a sad expression. "That doesn't sound like much of an existence. And what about me? Do you know why I was made?"

"You were a mistake," Mona told him.

"No, I wasn't a mistake." Well, he might be. Gray didn't know if he was a mistake or not. But, at least, he had his own thoughts and his own dreams and his own ambitions. Like hell he was going to let this Angel snuff him out without a fight. "I'm not all that different from you, you know?"

"I'd say there is one fundamental difference between us," Mona responded.
---

"We were both created in the image of God." Gray now didn't have to feign sadness anymore. He felt real regret inside of him as he thought about the old days, when things used to be different. "I guess when I stopped being useful I was cast aside. Do you think..." Gray looked down at the ground, showing a moment of weakness. She might have killed him in that moment. But for some reason, she didn't. "Do you think you'll also be discarded once you stop being useful to Her?"

"I can't answer that, I can only do what I was made to do, but..." Mona showed a small hint of compassion that the Devil, or anyone else, might not have expected. "Your argument only strengths the reason why I should kill you now. If I go against my instinct, against my nature, if I fail to fulfill my purpose... then maybe I will stop being useful. Maybe I would be cast out as well."

"In that sense," Mona raised her hand slowly, a glowing palm raised in the air between Valter and Gray. "I suppose I should thank you for living the mistake. I will learn from your failures, and live a life free from Sin."

How could there be no Sin if she was a killer, though?

Gray swung his arm to the side emphatically. "No, think about it. Is that really all that separates us? You don't take pride in being a mindless drone, I know it. You're saying the only thing that separates us is that I escaped, and you remained a slave to the God of Light?!"

"That wasn't what I said," Mona told him. "I said there is one fundamental difference between us."

Valter walked forward ten extra steps that he didn't need to. It was for emphasis. It was for form. The human, very tall for a human, was still much shorter than a full sized Devil. And yet here, cast in the light, with the burning power of Mona propping up his persona and his will, his ego almost made him seem larger than the Devil... like he was towering over Gray.

It was pure hubris that had taken him this far. The burning brand was held in two hands now.

"The difference is that you are about to die, and I am not."

Gray swung his hand back the other way, projecting an aura of shadow outward from there. Trying to use Pierce on the human wasn't going to be fast enough, and all he could hope for there was a stalemate. Even if he managed to kill Valter, then Mona would just kill Gray at the same time. His only hope of winning, of really winning, was to neutralize her Angelic power and then strike in the next moment before the two had a chance to react.

An orb of shadow appeared in the space around them, all three, and began to rapidly constrict inward. Because Valter had moved so close, the Orb was smaller than it needed to be otherwise. And, because it was small already, it took less time for it to shrink to the needed time.

Like a sun rising from below the burning brand expanded and widened, cracking the horizon, splitting the ground apart with a single line of pure light. It was like, in that moment, the sun might really rise and burn Gray to pieces.

Before Valter could finish swinging the blade, however, the dark orb swallowed him and closed in on his body from all sides. The shadows wrapped around him, muting his incandescent form, shielding the Devil from harm as the sword, and its wielder, and that one-winged angel, all disappeared into the void.

It was a total eclipse.

The edges of the room, which had begun to light up, began to grow dark.

And then the darkness began to creep in from every direction.
---

The light, muted completely, couldn't even be seen inside of the shadow orb. It closed, more and more, constricting, growing smaller and smaller. Once it became small enough it would begin to crush him. The big man wouldn't have much room in there. It was easy to imagine Mona, half the giant that she was, already unable to stand at her full height. Her legs and arms were probably pressed against the inside of that shadowy orb as it was preparing to turn into a small pin sized black hole.

Once that happened, once her arms and legs broke, once her ribs were split into pieces and slashed her torso into a bloody mess, once her wings were ripped from her body and her angelic might was flattened completely, Valter would be nothing more than a man trapped in darkness.

Gray could already imagine it. That panicked look on her face as her palms were pressed against the walls. Desperately trying to hold them back but unable to do so. The light from the room faded completely and there was nothing but darkness. Gray let himself smile. He couldn't help but imagine it. Her eyes widening in terror as the small world that she knew now, the only world that she would ever know again, grew smaller and smaller.

With nowhere to go the still air would assault her nerves. Probably, even an Angel could have a panic attack in those kinds of conditions. Like being trapped inside of a prison with no room to move or even think, and knowing that soon it would all come to an end. Even if the walls hadn't been shrinking that prison was so small that she must have felt like it was getting smaller and smaller.

This was, without a doubt, Gray's most powerful magic; Claustrophobia!

At that time the room was shrouded in full blackness.

There was nothing here anymore, Xetni had long since left this temple. It was only the Devil, alone in the dark with his thoughts. In his other hand he held it ready, his secondary spell. Piece appeared in his hands, manifesting. He thought that he might skewer the Church Knight while he was trapped inside of the bubble. And he smiled a soft and sad smile to himself.

He couldn't help but imagine it; Mona's final moments. Her death and his victory.

He had to imagine it. In his mind he had to think about what that sweet sense of triumph was like.

Then, the eclipse passed, and the moon moved from view, and the sun began to shine once more. Almost with a cutting intensity that was brighter than before it had been gone. Oh, yes. Gray had no choice but to imagine it. Because, here, in reality, that victory would never come true.

"PURGE!" Valter cried out, stepping forward. His burning brand impaled the Claustrophobia magic with ease, popping the bubble from the inside. As he broke his way out he stepped into the attack fully and thrust his sword at the Devil that was still standing in front of him.

"Pierce!" Gray swung his hand down, shooting a lance of pure arcana and force down at the human, hoping to impale him with that singular strike.

Mona's wing wrapped around, covering Valter. Not only did she shield him from arm but she batted the demonic lance away with almost no effort, as simply as one might swat a fly. Baring her fangs it was clear to see that she was the one smiling now. Even as Valter was charging, one could see Mona in the air above him. Her arms were extended and her fingers curled as she moved to attack.

And, without a doubt, she meant to repay this Devil for all that he had done to her.

"Collapse!" Gray cried out. He jumped backward and clumsily swung both hands down, trying to shower the two with rocks and force -- a gravitational wave -- slamming down all of his remaining arcana on them.
---

Mona extended her arms. Her large and wide form blocked the crushing attack from above. Being much larger than her human vessel was especially useful in this purpose. And even as she grit her teeth and yelped in pain, even as blood shot out of her mouth from the force of the attack, it didn't stop the two from charging.

Valter's sword stung him, hitting Gray in the thigh and piercing the Devil, holding him in place, burning his flesh and his bones. His eyes flashed with green intensity as a pulse of human and angelic magic ripped through the imaginary blade and caused the bones of the Devil to shatter.

By the Divine Concord! Was this the force of their combined will?! Gray had never fought a Human and an Angel as one before. He had heard tales, but he thought they were too large to be true. Now he knew reality was even more unbelievable than the stories could ever be. If he had fought an Angel and a Human, together, like this, once before... then he would already be dead.

"I'll banish you!" Mona let out a feral cry as her arms shot forward and tried to grab the Devil. Even as Gray was stuck in place, and he tried to turn his shoulders away from the attack, she managed to grapple the Devil somehow. "Huhu... huhuhu..." Blood was running from her lips now as they cracked into a smile. Her nails dug into his shoulder and punched right through the skin.

"Ki!" Gray let out a wail and shuddered, flailing, trying to rip free from her gasp.

Valter pulled his sword free and rose it for another attack. That blade, which didn't even exist, was literally a pure manifestation of his faith. Valter 'believed' in his power, in the power of the God of Light, and in Mona's power. It was completely and utterly ridiculous that something existing only in his imagination could do this much damage. But he had abandoned the human concepts of doubt or shame.

As ridiculous as a man swinging around an imaginary sword might be, Valter believed it so fully that Mona was able to make the burning brand a real weapon. "Lunge!" Mona commanded, holding the Devil in place so that her vessel could strike forward and deal another crippling blow.

Gray shot his leg forward, trying to kick the human in the chest and knock him away.

Then, all at once, as he gave up his most vital thing -- his sense of balance -- he realized this fight had been lost long ago. Mona was smiling at him, a knowing smile, because she saw in his mind that he finally knew the truth. Gray, who had used magic to dull his sense of pain, had also slowed his thinking. Ever since then, ever since she had shattered his bones, Mona had already won the fight.

Because even though she didn't need to do that, she did it anyway. Mona had intentionally inflicted pain on him so that Gray would get sloppy, so that he wouldn't be able to think at his full speed of thought, and that his body would be forced to rely on instinct.

Then, in a moment of weakness like this, he would expose himself to utter defeat.

The burning brand didn't lunge, but, instead, it slashed. That's because, between a human vessel and his beloved Angel, there was no need for words. Someone who screams 'Lunge!' is probably only trying to draw your attention to that. In reality, Valter stepped to the side and swung his sword with a hacking motion.

Gray's leg was split in half in an instant as it was struck in the same spot where Valter had already impaled his leg, inflicting damage, and intentionally weakening his bones by shattering them. Had they planned this whole thing out, move for move, that far ahead? Or were they simply so good at adapting to the situation that they had made every single action and reaction as needed, changing their tactics as the fight evolved in order to win as decisively as possible?!
---

The Devil was filled with rage as his leg was torn out from under him and he was sent to his back. The Angel crashed down on hop of him, still grappling him, and pinned his arms from above. Now he couldn't move, act, or react. It felt so unfair that they could be this much stronger than him. He realized it was a fight that he never could have won.

Mona's dedication, foresight, and long term planning where only further enhanced by Valter's natural combat instincts, quick reflexes, and ability to adapt. That was without even getting into the fact that fighting two opponents at once in a melee who could move through each other but still strike their target with solid attacks was absolutely a nightmare in terms of combat logistics.

Then, before Gray could spend another moment doubting his abilities, or hating the situation that he had found himself in, the burning brand impaled him right between the eyes and completely burned the brain inside of his skull. He felt his mortal body collapse as only his soul was left.

Not completely unharmed, that weak fiber of spirits was blasted right out of his body and hung there... a mist... a temporary flux in the stillness of this unholy chamber.

Then, in her long-nailed hand, Mona grabbed that spirit and closed it inside of her fist. "Huhuhu..." There was a popping sound in Gray's soul, somewhere deep inside, as he felt himself waning. The moon faded more and more as the eclipse came to an end, and now there was nothing but blinding sunlight.

At first Gray thought he had been transported to some kind of cavern, some large and wet space, a subterranean lair all different, very much unlike the one he was in now. With jagged rocks jutting up from below and hanging down from above. But it felt so wet and hot that he couldn't say where he was;

Should he feel this heat, should he feel this warmth even without a body?

Had his Escape spell really worked there, at the last moment, and allowed him to get away before she could-...

No, that, too, was all wishful thinking.

Now Gray found himself inside of her mouth.

Then, with a crushing movement, the rocks stirred. And he found himself smashed to pieces by those. Mona began chewing. And the last thing Gray remembered was his soul being ripped to shreds by each engulfing bite. It was hard to say if he was still intact, if he was still a living being at all, by the time she swallowed his essence.

[aaeeiioouu]

20. huhu... huhuhu... kill the heretic.
A. delete him
B. delete him
C. delete him

.

Valter, the Chained Knight - decider

Lancer Aaron - FB
Torin Gemmason - Mana
Jamison, Inspector - maniac

Enoch the Wanderer - crazy
Owen the Coward - stan
Beastkin Zephyr - ermine [DEMORALIZED]

Leone the Cat - CPU
Jen Lowell - pk2k
Gunslinger Kidd - drak

.

Graveyard
Tristan - Punch couldn't save him.
Ignael Gades - He didn't sacrifice himself for the rest of the team because he liked them, you b-baka!
Seth, Golden Agent - Was actually pretty interesting, so I'm sorta bummed I had to kill him off. Oh well.
Punch - Punch couldn't save himself.
Matsuda - You lost.
Dismas - Decoy protag dies first.
Goetic - A fitting vessel, nothing more.
Maria - Understanding is pain.
Cata Spade - He saw it, at the end.
Fakeru - Not so lucky girl.
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C, obviously
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Gotta be C
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C
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Hmm...yeahh...

C
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wow finally ed is validated.
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I feel like I've drawn Valter and Mona enough times already but if anyone else wants to try their hand at drawing the picture of this chapter I will give you a special prize

my admiration and thanks...
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C

Frankly your best chapter yet.
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heh, glad you liked it!

https://imgur.com/1JcTsWk
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C

Very entertaining read, though I expected things to go completely different from the chapter name.
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Well I thought Gray was gonna kill us all but now I'm afraid of Valter killing us all. Just can't win sadly!

C
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FunnyBusiness posted...

Very entertaining read, though I expected things to go completely different from the chapter name.

the twist this time is that I wrote everything from the POV of the antagonist and the antagonist died in the end, instead of writing from the POV of a PC and the PC died in the end...
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C.
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Obviously C
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I enjoyed reading it from the antagonist for once actually. I liked the brief exchange of dialogue Gray had with Mona, it gave us a little bit of lore of Gray and devils in general before he bit the dust at least.

Hell yeah! Hopping on the C train. All we need is the power of faith..
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having router troubles right now, bumping this just in case I don't get stuff fixed by tomorrow and I'm too distracted to remember about bumping every single topic in the damn universe
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I gave a crack at it. Get a bit in the doodling mood!

https://imgur.com/a/7A06qSM
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haha awesome. those hairy legs are badass and you totally nailed the scar.

mona looks like she is going full escanor and summoning the sun?
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alright when I said we'd be going back to 2 updates a week I hadn't really anticipated my router crapping out, so there probably will be a short delay on the next one. maybe sunday I guess. at least I was ahead of the curve and posted something earlier this week so that probably helps.

anyway while I was without internet I went ahead and drew a picture for the first chapter

https://imgur.com/ws6heEx

coincidentally would there be any interest in me going through the rest of the chapters and doing promo images for all of them similar to the style I started doing for some of the later ones (and like this?)

something else fun to tide you guys over till the next update, some sick foreshadowing from the first chapter... Matsuda, Seth, and Dismas are sitting on the wagon chatting together:

"Here." Matsuda reached over with the bag, setting it on Dismas lap. "By the time this adventure is over I doubt the local Lord will hold much purchase over any of us. Do as you wish."

if only Matsuda knew how right he was
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I would like that, it's cool seeing all the characters drawn out like that to help get a better feel for what they look like.
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game night tonight

update tomorrow
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Bumping.
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FunnyBusiness posted...

I would like that, it's cool seeing all the characters drawn out like that to help get a better feel for what they look like.

Could also act as nice chapter starters for like a book or something
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Caught up in time for everyone yo die but Vasher.
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I like the idea of pictures to represent the chapters.
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cool. also I forgot how long it takes my creative energy to recharge after GMing so yeah from now on I'll just say no updates on saturday OR sunday lol.

will write something tomorrow though.
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I have some pretty cool ideas for the next chapter and some things I want to do, but now I'm starting to wonder if I'm willing to put in as many chapters as might be needed to explore this idea or if I'd rather just cut those materials. honestly I'm basically heavily leaning on the side of just pushing forward. the story has already ended up more massive and complex than I originally intended, the end is still in sight, I may as well make sure I comb over everything nicely rather than rushing the ending and leaving plot threads dangling in retrospect.

no idea what the point of this little rambling is, but I guess I'm saying 'hey if you enjoy this story then you might be happy to know there will likely be a few extra chapters, due to the fact that I'm unwilling to compromise and cut out the interesting stuff just to keep it short'

now if I only I could do something about updating more frequently than 1-2 times a week haha
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Woo!
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Take your time dude. And as many chapters as you feel are necessary
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More chapters is always good
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haha yeah I know you guys are fairly patient but honestly I think I do a lot better when I put more pressure on myself. anyway I've gotten some decent stuff done already. planning to go for a walk soon which is usually a great way for me to formalize ideas and spend time thinking (since there isn't much else to do while walking).

I'll probably finish writing the chapter when I get back, and post the rest later tonight.
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Entry 21: Blue Swan, Gold Swan, Red Swan

Light began to fall and fade as the scene in the entry hall came to a close. Jamison was kneeling in the bloodied remains of Lady Fakeru, who wasn't really a Lady at all, but just some serving girl. The azure pool of blood formed a perfect circle that was caught in the shining light from above -- where the ceiling had partially collapsed -- and reflected a sigil that looked like a blue moon etched into the floor.

Jamison's eyes snapped open as Aaron placed a heavy hand on his shoulder. "Hey." The armored man placed the butt of his lance on the ground and took a knee beside Jamison. "There was nothing you could have done, you know?"

He knew that. Of course he knew that. Jamison's response was almost too candid. "That's why it hurts."
If he could have done something about it then things wouldn't have ended this way. Were they going to keep being picked off one by one, faced down by the madness and ferocity of this place, until only one person was left standing?

Enoch looked over his shoulder at the two, then glanced back at the wagon where Torin was sitting. He gave the older man a weak nod. Then he glanced back over at the stairwell. Here, Gunslinger Kidd was just in the process of pulling himself down from the broken steps, with the help of Owen

Kidd had a somber expression on his face and he was going over some things in his own mind. At that time he kept thinking about how he wasn't fast enough. How he hadn't affected the flow of this battle at all. He never reached the enemy in time to even do anything. That sense of helplessness was a bit overwhelming for someone who had often been seen as a golden star among his peers.

For the most part Kidd had always excelled when dealing with any situation, and the average person looked up to him with awe. On some level he knew he probably wasn't that special but... after years of being that kind of figure, of gaining fame and renown, it was hard not to let that have an effect on his view of himself. Of his ego, and other things. Yet, now, it felt like that sense of self worth had been crushed in such an immediate fashion -- just like the girl below.

Kidd limped across the room and went to where Jamison and Aaron were now rising to their feet. In the puddle below he saw a glimmer, like that of a jewel that had fallen to the bottom of a pond. His fingers closed around the bloody amulet containing the transmutation stone. Then, looking forward, he thought of what was probably the best here.

"Didn't you give this to her?" Kidd asked, as he pressed it into James' palm. "Maybe you should have it back."

There was no verbal reply, but that was fine. At that time the two above called down from their station.

Leone had moved to the railing, in a spot away from where it was broken. The color had already begun to return to his face. Maybe that was because he had pushed himself to his feet and prepared to fight to the end. Or maybe he had simply recovered quickly due to his own mental fortitude even after staring down death. It was hard to say.

"Perhaps it's just me, but I really get the impression these things didn't just stumble out of the dark on their own," Leone called down to the others. "Especially not with that kind of timing. Want me to have a look up ahead?"

Aaron had a bizarre expression on his face at that moment, and it didn't escape Kidd's notice. It was like he wanted to say something urgent and yet he was holding it back.
---

Then, Torin replied quickly. "No," he said firmly. "I agree there is something dangerous, and I agree it needs to be investigated. But right now we need to gather as one and make sure the entire group is safe."

Kidd didn't mind hearing that. He felt his body relax. "Good call, old man. It's been a long day..." He limped over to the wagon and touched his forehead against the wood. Leaning forward, he closed his eyes and disappeared into a mental realm of his own design.

They were playing Blue Swan, Gold Swan, Red Swan. He was supposed to be the red swan but things didn't turn out that way. For some reason he remembered his eyes gleaming gold as the red figure crumpled at his feet and began to form into a puddle. That was a memory that would be forever burned into his brain.

It felt like he never opened his eyes again after that. He remembered being offered a drink of water and falling back into a bed roll, and yet his mind never returned to the present. Kidd had a tendency to get lost in his own thoughts but that wasn't too bizarre.

And even as he saw himself as a child, in those memories, he was still tethered to the present by one thing -- the righteous pain that was burning in his fingers and his shoulder and his arm and his ribs. Hell, it would be more apt to say that most of his body hurt. Slogging through the marshy territory around the outside of the estate had made his legs quite sore as well.

The stress had created a headache which was causing pain behind his eyes.

This is what life was like away from the comfort of the city. Or... no, that wasn't true either. Weren't there people in the city who lived like this every day, as well? It felt like they should have been happy and comfortable. Food, shelter, what else did you need? Yet somehow the stress of living in a place like Hendrake had ruined their mental state and they spiraled down forever and ever without ever receiving the time needed to recover and return to a well balanced mental state.

Was he that kind of person, too? Would he know it if he was?

Birds were croaking at him now from the clothesline that hung out in the small amount of land behind his clay house. The fact that they had land at all meant he knew he was better off than most people in Hendrake. Hell, his parents were both still alive and together and they owned their own house. It might not have been the nicest place but he remembered having space to run around. He remembered the birds shrieking at him, as they did even now.

Gordy and Susal lived in an apartment building that was crammed right up against the street. Still, even when they went to the market, there were birds that followed them, and birds that always seemed to yell at him. At the time he didn't think, or didn't know, that he'd grow up to fall in love with Susal. He didn't know that Gordy would die the way that he did. But that would happen sooner rather than later.

Blue Swan. Gold Swan. Red Swan.

He was supposed to be the red swan, so why did it turn out like that? He remembered Susal clinging to him and wailing in terror as Gordy's corpse was laying there on the ground, still twitching. No, maybe not. Maybe he wasn't quite dead yet. Maybe Gordy had been laying there in pain the entire time, thinking about his life in those final moments.

Kidd didn't know it back then but he knew it now. Just how long it took a man to die, and how much a person could really survive. It was entirely possible that Gordy was still conscious even as he lay there bleeding to death with shrapnel embedded in his torso.
---

Whether it had been someone from the thieve's guild or the fisher knights, Kidd could never really say for certain. All he knew was that they were just kids playing out there in the streets, in a space out in front of the apartment -- the place for people who didn't own any land and had no where else to go. When the two groups rushed the area, fighting and fleeing all at once, the kids had backed away to the edge of the road. But the roadside wasn't safety against the explosive force of a shrapnel bomb. It was a miracle only one of them had been hit.

There was a broken red bird at his feet, and his eyes were gleaming blue and wet now. They kept shrieking at him until the moment he woke up, and he felt that his head was still pounding with pain. At this point it was hard to say if that was the pain from now or the pain from before.

Kidd rolled onto his side and stared at the wall for a solid five minutes before forcing himself to fully wake up.

At some point the wagon had been moved down into the secondary hall, and Kidd was down there sleeping with the others. He didn't even remember setting up his bed there. Or if they had woken him up during the night to move then he definitely didn't remember that, either.

There was a sizzling and a popping sound as meat and cut vegetables were burning on the nearby grill. Kidd went there and sat off to the side, waiting for others to get the chance to eat before he'd go and look for a meal. At that time, Aaron came down and sat beside him.

Aaron had black hair and gray eyes, the same as Gordy. Maybe he even looked a bit like him. Maybe not. It might have just been on Kidd's mind to begin with, since he'd been having those dreams. It was hard not to think of dark and bloody things during a time like this.

"Do you think we're going to make it home?" Kidd asked, in a moment of vulnerability to this man that he barely knew. At that time he was thinking more about Susal than Gordy, in honesty. Dwelling on the past was painful, but thinking about the future hurt far more. He didn't want to imagine what kind of reaction she was going to have if he never came back to Hendrake. And he knew that, in that case, he wouldn't be around to see it ever again.

"Some of us will," Aaron replied. His expression grew more narrow somehow, as if he was filled with a purpose. "I'm definitely going to do everything I can to make sure I survive." And for Aaron, who always thought little of others, and put himself first, he generally tried to present a different sort of face to the outside. This was itself a rare moment of candid revelation, a stripping of his natural veil, to show to a man who he barely knew.

Then, with a sudden sense of purpose and action, Aaron rose to his feet and went to the fire.

At that time Owen was rising to his feet. He turned as he saw Aaron approaching him. His hands rose slowly and he touched the side of his frames, adjusting his glasses. It wasn't as if he should have had any idea of what was about to happen. It was only after he'd been grabbed this his expression widened into one of shock.

Aaron grabbed him roughly. Then, before Owen could open his mouth or blurt anything out, Aaron placed his hand over Owen's mouth and silenced him. Efficiently and quickly he spun the short, chubby man around and twisted his arms behind his back. Then he knocked Owen's legs out from under him by kicking him in the back of the knees.
---

Within an instant Owen was face first on the ground. Aaron pushed against the back of Owen's skull, grinding his eyes into the stone floor, and flexed his powerful arms as he held him in place.

"Before we begin I want you to understand something," Aaron said with a level tone. "My fingers are pressed against the back of your brain already. If I punch forward with just a bit of force I'll kill or severely main you, crippling your mind permanently and leaving you an empty shell."

"So if you're thinking about doing anything extreme, even if that would only take a few seconds to enact..." Aaron's mouth twisted into a scowl. "Don't. It's not worth the risk. I can kill you faster."

"I know I can." That might have been a bluff but Aaron sounded very certain and very confident.

While this was happening, everyone had already risen to their feet. Well, everyone except for Leone. Leone was sitting there seemingly unaffected, prodding at a piece of sausage with the fork that he was awkwardly trying to wield in one hand. Then, once he skewered it, he looked up at the two. "Well, this is a bizarre turn of events," the catlike rogue muttered.

Zephyr's tail was swaying. He stood there perched on the top of the wagon, an arrow drawn. It was hard to say if that was pointed at Aaron or at Owen right now. It was hard to say if even Zephyr himself knew the answer to that.

Enoch moved into a position to get closer to Aaron. But he wasn't holding his weapon and he kept his arms to the side and with his palms facing forward. "Do you mind telling us what you're doing, Aaron?" Enoch asked. "I can't imagine that you're attacking this guy for no reason."

Jamison adjusted his broken frames, with the lenses now missing, and said nothing. He squinted at the situation unfolding before him.

"Before I begin," Aaron said, "let me tell you a bit about myself."

"I was born in Pelengreer and drafted into the army at a very young age. Spent years staying in supply camps or sleeping in ditches on the edge of battlefields. I remember a few that went into stalemate for months, and we never got to get out of those ditches until the siege broke. It's pretty fair to say I'm a tenacious bastard. But I'm also well trained and I don't often make mistakes. I would have died long ago if that was the case."

Make mistakes? What did that have to do with anything? Kidd just moved his eyebrow slightly, made a weird expression with his mouth, he was sure (Susal would have told him how foolish he looked right now), and he kept watching. It was clear that Aaron was working his way toward some kind of point.

"And I can tell you right now that based on what I saw yesterday, there's a good chance this guy might be our enemy." Aaron shook his head. "No, it's more fitting to say... if I take my hand off the back of his skull, he will likely kill us all instantly."

"That's a bold claim to make," Leone noted.

"I know I'm not the only one who saw it," Aaron went on. "Those things came out of his head, right? And the enemy seemed to be getting affected by whatever he was doing. Do you think that kind of power is natural? How different do you think it is from what we're going to find down in this pit below us?"

Leone twiddled the fork in his hand, practicing on balancing it and twirling it between his fingers. It was relatively clumsy compared to how Leone carried himself, but it seemed naturally dexterous as compared to the average person with no training.

"But that's not all," Kidd concluded. "You're saying that you don't make mistakes, right? So this is based on something you've seen before?"
---

"Well, we used to call them Psionics before. I've seen a few, heard stories of a few more, and I can say that I don't know of any case where they were on our side." Aaron shook his head. "Servants of the Blight King, they had the power to destroy men with a simple thought. One of the most dangerous enemies you could encounter on the field."

It was Blue Swan, Gold Swan, Red Swan all over again. The blue and gold swan needed to find each other and team up to kill the red swan, but nobody knew who could trust anyone else. What Aaron was doing now would be considered 'child's play.' That term was quite literal when it came to this game, because it was played by children but it was also played by adults.

The conspiracy of birds could have more than three members when adults played, and they often employed more advanced rules and strategies. One thing that Kidd had learned once he got a little older was that the Swan who spoke up first, trying to reveal his position, often caused the most drama and uncertainty in the game. If your intention was to proclaim that you were a good bird, but you couldn't definitively prove that, it just as easily looked like the empty claims of a red swan.

Gordy had still died when he was fairly young, and had never learned how to advance his strategy beyond such child's play. It was oddly fitting that Aaron, who reminded him of Gordy, was using such basic and direct methods to suss out what he thought was a traitor.

Aaron shifted, rubbing the downed Owen roughly against the floor and likely scraping him up a bit. "What do you think? At some point this guy probably came into contact with some kind of a moth or a slug, and it turned him into whatever he is now. That's what I would say is most likely. And I think if we want to survive this place then we should give serious consideration toward putting him down before he-"

It was Torin Gemmason, the old man, who grabbed Aaron by the arm. "No," he said firmly, interrupting the former soldier. The old man was definitely smaller and weaker than Aaron and yet there was a sense of authority that he had gained while working in the mines. There had been men bigger than him and stronger than him and younger than him back then, too. Yet at times it was needed to project that kind of persona -- the aura of a Leader -- and keep them in check.

It was the only way to prevent young people from making foolish mistakes due to their own lack of experience. "Has he done anything to harm us before this? If anything, you've made the situation worse by forcing all of us into this position where you've agitated a deadly force and given it reason to lash out against us. That's not fair to us, and it certainly wasn't fair to Owen."

"You'd be thanking me if you saw the other reality," Aaron said, gritting his teeth. However, he didn't throw the grip of the old man away from his arm. And he was starting to speak in a more leveled tone. "The one where this guy turns us all into paste at the most inopportune moment."

"So we should punish him for what he theoretically might do?" Torin answered. "In that case, you'll want to kill me as well. After all, there's always a chance that I could betray you all. And there's no way to know for sure if I'm a secret agent of the enemy or not. Right?" He gave Aaron a serious look. "So go ahead."

"No, I trust you," Aaron said.

"And I trust him," Torin replied quickly and seriously.

Owen was laying there, his eyes wide, staring at the floor. He hadn't said anything, or hadn't tried too, even if it had been possible. He looked scared, not angry. It made Kidd feel like he could be trusted too.
---

Enoch was the one who finished coming over and took a knee beside the downed man. He looked up at Torin and gave him a nod, then back down to Owen. "Let me ask you a question, are you planning to kill us as soon as this guy lets go of you?"

The pressure on Owen was released slightly. He gave a quick and thankful release of air. Then he looked up at Enoch by craning his neck, while still forced into the prone position. "N-No..." At that time, honestly, he was feeling like he had been forced pretty far. Maybe almost forced too far.

Owen somehow knew there was a part of himself that would have lashed out if Aaron had kept driving him into a corner. And yet now that the pressure had been relieved, he felt his timid self returning. The one who felt like, even if he wanted to reply something like 'If you throw me to the ground like that again you're going to get hurt,' instead he found himself unable to make that kind of bold threat. "I don't want to hurt anyone. I don't even know how, r-really."

"But is it true what he said?" Enoch asked. "Did you see something? Some kind of... creature? Did it give you these powers?"

"There was a moth, yes," Owen answered after some slight hesitation. It gave that power to Punch, and Punch had given it to him and Tristan. But now Owen was the only one left. He knew that if he told them this, they'd begin to suspect who else might have been infected. In order to keep things simple, he fudged the details a bit. "I got this power from the moth."

"I'm not sure if we can trust the bug, but it's not here right now either," Enoch concluded, looking back up at the boss. "As for this guy... he doesn't seem to me like he's lying."

Aaron scowled. "I really don't think this is a good idea."

The birds truly never stopped shrieking when Kidd was around.

"It wasn't a good idea for you to press the situation like that without warning," Kidd noted, sounding agitated. Whether that was with Aaron or with the sounds in his head, he couldn't say. But he did snap. "But here we are." It almost annoyed him that he thought Aaron might be right. They might be about to die in just a few moments. But, in the end, that was only going to happen because Aaron had attacked this guy first.

Intend to go back alive? What kind of stupid plan was this? All he'd done is take an unneeded risk that might have gotten them all killed.

Kidd wanted to close his eyes and think about Susal before he died. At the same time, he wanted them open in case something did happen. Maybe he'd be able to draw his gun fast enough to do something about it. Unlikely, but maybe. Throwing away his only means of defense seemed ludicrous in a situation with this much tension.

There was a crunching sound as Leone chewed on some fried vegetables. Then he looked back at the others, who had all gathered around the captured Owen. "Honestly... Aaron, wasn't it?" Leone waited for an affirming nod. "This isn't Pelengreer anymore. Sorry to say it but we do things differently here. And I don't know anything about this Blight King or these Psionics, but I can say for sure that I've never seen Owen do anything suspicious yet."

"It's entirely possible that his power, and his motives, are different from what you know," Torin concluded, adding to that. "You're in a different place now. The war is over."

Aaron knew that, too.

The field was empty now. All those corpses, all that death, and the fighting had just stopped.

Then why did he sometimes feel like the fighting was still going on...?
---

Why did every enemy, and sometimes his friends, remind him of the enemy agents? Why did every loud sound give him that same feeling as the horns of the blighted army? Why did every bed still feel like a ditch somewhere, no matter how warm and dry, feeling wet and cold instead?

Why couldn't he ever place much value on anyone beside himself...?

Aaron released his grip very slowly, and then he stood up.

There was a quiet moment of tension as Owen was let go. Owen glared up at the man who had just threatened his life. He thought about making Aaron's brain explode. His skull was shuddering already with pain and irritation, and the natural instinct to retaliate against the person who had attacked him.

Then he thought about the body in the entry hall. They already had one red swan. They didn't need another. Owen let out a sigh and pulled himself to his feet.

[End]

21. Who does Zephyr trust?
A. Aaron
B. Owen

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Valter, the Chained Knight - decider

Lancer Aaron - FB
Torin Gemmason - Mana
Jamison, Inspector - maniac

Enoch the Wanderer - crazy
Owen the Coward - stan
Beastkin Zephyr - ermine [DEMORALIZED]

Leone the Cat - CPU
Jen Lowell - pk2k
Gunslinger Kidd - drak
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B
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B
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I wonder if we'll ever see Susal

oh and I definitely didn't forget that you guys voted to go after the guy who has been running the research hall up here. torin/leone's exchange early on was a nod to that. just a matter of needing to resolve this situation first and requiring a full chapter to do it -- hence my statement about needing more chapters. otherwise I'd need to leave the moth powers as simply a thing like 'this is what they do, it doesn't really matter where they came from or what the implications are.' and to me this is a lot more interesting to have it tie into some meta narrative, world building, and relate to events from other character backstories.

btw fun little trivia every time it says End or The End, this indicates that Xetni was watching the party during the events of that chapter. not all chapters have them, but you can be sure that The God of The End will always be there when things come to a close.
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oh and today's fun foreshadowing bit

Only one had stayed back with him, the girl Fakeru, whose lady had recently perished on the wagon trail. Jamison felt a bit bad for her but wasn't sure what to say. However, at that time, he noticed the Honeyflower growing on the side of the dirt road. It was odd. Fascinating. Curious. This place had not been tended to for many months, but the flower was still growing on its own -- a perfect defiance of the darkness which had swallowed these lands.

Jamison finds the first signs that the estate was still being tended to, signifying that there was still someone living here and taking care of things. however, despite his detective background, he somehow missed the significance of this important detail at the time.

this was as early as chapter 2!
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Will go with Zig's choice for him

21.B
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