“Alright, I'll play along,” the aspect obliged. “You mean what the guard that escorted us from Lust’s palace told us.”
Gwyn nodded while continuing. “She said that their world is just as old as ours and that the side of the sins is mostly covered in nighttime.” A wondrous smile began to grow on Gwyn’s face. “Seventy-two hours of night, followed by twelve hours of daytime. That's just unimaginably grandiose.”
“I don't get what's so special about that, little one. Does it really matter what time or date it is?” Delirias wasn’t overly engaged. “Or does that mess with your fake sense of control?” the aspect snarked at him ready to avert his gaze because he awaited a generic answer from his human partner.
“No… I guess when it really comes down to it, it doesn’t. I started so many things in my life that I didn't finish or was too scared to continue. An arbitrary time limit wouldn't have changed that, or me for that matter.”
Delirias still pretended like he wasn't listening at all even though he eagerly-awaited every word as much as the next one.
“It's just that… I finally feel free for the first time. I'm trapped in a new world with someone like you, and what I do with that is up to me.”
“Kiki, you sure you’re not just running away again? Well, not that I care,” Delirias shrugged with his shoulders. “But I appreciate that you at least try to think for yourself, for a change.”
Gwyn suddenly changed his facial expression and began to stare down his aspect.
“I know that you know more than you are willing to admit,” he suddenly said, catching the aspects interest once again.
“Maybe I do, maybe I don't. Whatever I say it will never change your conceived notion of me, right?”
“Yeah, maybe. I guess we humans, or rather I, don’t really know what it's like being close to many different individuals, but either way, I don't care.”
Delirias raised his eyebrows as he truly wasn't expecting Gwyn’s words.
“You probably don't know, but most fictional stories in the human world end on a positive note. Even some of the most tragic have hopeful sparks. I really adore those. If I could eventually walk on a path I chose for myself, I wouldn’t mind a hopeful tragedy myself.”
“Stop getting sentimental. That's the last thing we need right now. We'll get out of here somehow, and then you can still ruin your life to your heart’s content,” Delirias followed up.
“No matter what happens. I believe you are my spark…” Gwyn closed his sentence with a whisper to himself, as he not wanted to bother Delirias anymore, who was clearly uncomfortable with Gwyn speaking so openly about his feelings.
“N-NNOOOOO STOP IT. NOOOOOOO ARRRGH!” Screams were rumbling through the building as the duo pricked up their ears.
“Here we go again,” Delirias nonchalantly said, as both of them watched one of the black robes ordering their men to get someone from the cage. They opened the gate and grabbed the first person they could find. It was a young man, but all the struggle in the world wouldn't help him, as they cut off one of his fingers without warning. The sharp and painful screams were unforgettable. Though cruel, their method seemed quite successful, as any resistance stopped immediately. Every other inmate covered in fear, while Gwyn and Delirias watched the whole process.
For the first time, Gwyn caught a glimpse of where they brought the prisoners. It looked like they had built some kind of stage next to the cold stone room they were being held in. They captors slowly erected more and more candles to further illuminate the dimly lit space.
As the other black robes began whispering to each other, black flames erupted in front of them, followed by a purple spark and a slim figure emerging from within the fire. It was truly curious, as the black flames were barely visible in the candlelight, almost as if they were a different kind of flame. A presence that sucked away at the light. Gwyn wasn't even questioning something like that anymore, as he got closer to the cold iron bars only interested into getting a closer look. His fingers tightly clung to the rusty, rough feeling bars as he watched the scene unfold.
“L-lord Despair,” one of the black robes uttered immediately upon the black flame's arrival. “W-what are you doing down here? If we had known…”
The figure postured himself before the black robes as they began to bow down to the silhouette. Gleaming and ferocious purple eyes were shimmering through the darkness, striking fear in Gwyn’s heart. Though, only for but a moment it looked like the sinister eyes were looking directly at him, eventually finding their target just behind his back – Delirias.
The young man himself was too scared to avert his gaze or look behind himself, but he could've only imagined how their eyes must've met.
“I've come to meet with Malice before we start our final assault. Where is he?!” the silhouette eventually answered the black robes in a commanding voice.
“Oh yes, of course. We've prepared everything for the Festival of Sacrifices my Lord. Master Malice is in the main hall preparing the grail.”
“Good,” the one they called a Lord answered assertively. “That old bastard won't shut up about the grail and his sacrifices. We need to get this done.”
The black robes were still bowing before him, ignoring everything else, while only one of them answered the figure within the flames.
“Despair, huh?” Gwyn mumbled to himself, as he overheard their conversation.
“Sacrifice all of them. I need every last one of you to make Pride suffer. I expect Malice to join us as soon as he's finished here. I will not tolerate any delay,” he declared and every black robe answered in unison.
“YES, LORD DESPAIR! FOR YOU ARE THE SALVATION OF HOPE!”
“You all do best to remember that. We will burn them to the ground and show them that we're worthy.”
The imposing figure abruptly vanished followed by the flames with the black robes hastily dispersing afterward, as if they were worried about not being on schedule with their work.
“Don't you dare go and be impressed by that,” Delirias remarked as he sneaked up to his partner.
“He said something about an attack and making Pride suffer,” Gwyn was thinking to himself.
“So what?”
“So what?!” the young man repeated in shock. “If their city lies in ruin we cannot find any answers!”
“Are you sure you aren't just saying that out of convenience? Fufuf,” Delirias remarked, stopping Gwyn in his tracks.
“Maybe…” he mumbled. “But we should at least warn them or something. Someone who's named Despair will surely not let us walk right into his newly conquered city.”
“Calm down. I know you're not grasping at straws, but for now, we're trapped here. Do you even have a plan, little man?”
“Kill every last one of them,” Gwyn calmly answered.
Delirias eyes began to widen with excitement and anticipation, as he almost wasn't sure that Gwyn would really say that out loud.
“HEY, YOU THERE!” A black robe spoke to Gwyn who was still in the front row of the iron bars. “You're next. Prepare yourself! We don't have time for any resistance. You saw what happened to the last guy.”
“Just try to take him from me, and my eyes will be the last thing you see before I will choke you to death with your own two arms,” Delirias threatened the robed man while his glowing eyes were staring from the cage.
“Oh yeah?” The man got closer to the cage. “I know what you are,” he spit in Delirias’ face. “A fuckin' lowly aspect. That's what you are. Do you think we didn't notice? We will take that worm over there, and there is nothing you can do because if you do cause any trouble, we will kill him first,” he pointed at Gwyn, while the aspect and the man stared each other down. “I'm not afraid of you, you damn parasite.”
“Oh my dear, but you should be…” Delirias answered, his eyes looking like they were gobbling up his opponent whole.
“It's alright, Delirias, I'll find a way,” Gwyn said as the cage was being opened and three r
obed men came in to take him away. They blindfolded him and left Delirias on his own. Leaving him, seemingly calm while sitting on the floor.
“Pah, that's what I thought. Just another worthless aspect,” the guy from before said, as he waved the others through to take Gwyn further up the stage.
As the young man walked along with his captors, he noticed that they were still treading on cold stone as they moved. He didn't know where he was going, but he could feel his hairs standing up, as every step they took screeched on the old stone plates on the ground. Each sound echoed through the halls, as the robed men all seemed to mumble something to themselves like a form of mantra.
“The Salvation of Hope. The absence of hope which is the ultimate freedom. May we flourish in the depths of despair, gaining a new meaning within our existence.”
As Gwyn had his own opinion about their mantras and how ridiculous they were, he was still haunted by Despair, or rather the deep purple eyes, that were eyeing him up.
It was as if a virus injected itself into his veins, blocking his blood flow, paralyzing his body and forcing him to submit. A terror that was unlike the creatures from before. Unlike what he felt when he was around Delirias. Something that was far beyond the usual 'evil' he had declared to be someone or something else before.
His body started to sweat heavily with each step. Wanting to pause at every moment he was kicked forward again by one of the men surrounding him. Even though he was happy to have arrived here, this might be the end for him.
As he was ready to beg for his life, trying to gulp down his fear, the situation changed.
The blindfold was taken off of him, and a bright light blinded him like a golden spear that pierced through his eyes, freeing him from the darkness, yet blinding him again.
“W-why are we stopping?” Gwyn stuttered, afraid that his end was near.
“Shut your mouth and enjoy the show. We want your meat to be as rotten as it possibly can be, and this is quite the convenient way to achieve that.”
“W-what are you talking about?!” Gwyn asked them, not even sure he wanted to know the answer.
“Haha, have you not seen what happens to livestock that is slaughtered when it still feels the terror of the butcher and his knife above it? Well, we actually like it that way. A human like yourself should understand that quite easily.”
He couldn't believe what he had just heard, as he witnessed not only the three men that brought him here but many others in black robes, sitting down in front of a huge stage that almost looked like a theater. Everything was neatly put into place. Purple curtains and bright lights were built-on, with a bell on the side, as one of them ran up to it and started to make noise at which the crowd got quiet.
“Sit your ass down, you human piece of shit, and watch,” the men forced Gwyn on down on his knees, far enough to the side where they could still see everything that was going on onstage. Their whole attention was gathered at the tribune.
“What the hell is going o-” Gwyn stopped himself as he saw another participant walking on the stage, covering his face as well.
“Dear brothers and sisters, it warms my heart that all of you have gathered to be a part of this spectacular event. Master Malice is still in the main hall, but he welcomes all believers equally. Of course, every last one of you is invited to celebrate the main event with us after our little play captured your hearts. Upfront, I want to wish all of you a great festival, and please enjoy our reimagining of our drama 'The Perfect Being.' A heartbreaking tale that only our dearest believers and followers are allowed to see. The ones who see and understand the truth,” he declared, followed by a bow and just as quickly as he appeared he was gone behind the silk curtains.
“Delirias was right…” Gwyn whispered to himself before receiving a smack on the back of the head.
“We told you to shut up, human,” they barked at him, as the play seemingly began to start. Gwyn’s eyes started to twitch, wanting to escape their eye sockets, cramping with shock as he witnessed what happened before him. The crowd roared as small silk threads, hanging from the ceiling of the stage, moved a human-like puppet into the spotlight. With unsound footing and machine-like movements, it presented itself before the audience with a voice narrating in the background. Gwyn was traumatized as the crowd applauded the puppet as it crooked with every movement, plastered with scars that held the different body parts into place. He finally began to understand what monstrosity they've had brought to life.
Its lips were sewn together, just like the rest of the body, which looked like it was made up of many different bodies of Personas that were amateurishly stitched together with wires and strings. The hands alone were made up of at least seven different Personas. His nausea hit a new high as Gwyn followed the structure of the arm, where a small wrist led into a muscular upper arm with a different skin tone.
Thanks to the janky movements of the puppeteer, the being started to lose drops of blood at the places of the incisions.
The cultists were ecstatic as the puppet melancholically performed its stunts. Lifeless and lost it stared into the darkness with its two different eyeballs. Gwyn’s mouth was dry and his breathing heavy, as every breath he took was more painful than the last. His thoughts were in disarray, upon being faced with the cruel truth this world also had to offer, he started to second guess himself. Dizziness overcame him as he almost collapsed next to his captors.
“T-tyr… Mum… Dad… D-delirias… w-where are you?” he uttered in his helplessness.
The puppet continued the play with a heavy heart for the amusement of the cultists, just as the man from before took over the stage.
“What a lovely clump of flesh, don't you think so? It's adorable. You can really feel the resentment from that one. But worry not, we still have a lot more to offer, please brothers and sisters, follow me!” he yelled, and the crowd was thrown into a chaos of ecstasy.
Gwyn was roughly brought back onto his feet, completely devoid of life, like the puppet he just had watched.
“Move your ass! We still have something planned for you. They will finally accept us as one of their own, and you should be happy to be a part of that,” one of them bragged as he kicked Gwyn forwards.
“The glorious era of the old Lords will be soon gone, and you humans will wither with them,” he said as the three of them disappeared with Gwyn into the dark of the endless stone corridors.
Chapter 12 – Ember
Meanwhile, through the wide and empty halls of the building, Gwyn wasn't the only human close to losing it all. Loud shouting could be heard nearly everywhere throughout the dark corridors, but one quarrel was quite different from the others. An argument had started between three people in black robes, while the followers watched with intrigue. The shouts weren't of pain, happiness, or grief. Instead, they were raging with ignorance and anger, while its recipient could only watch as it unfolded. It went the way it had always done, noise after noise banging down on a poor soul that didn't know how to express itself. The pitiful soul that was the young woman named Olivia, who was by the side of her recently met companion Emily, who protectively stood in front of her.
“I really don't understand how someone as useless as you are is allowed to even be here,” a female cultist furiously proclaimed as she gathered the attention of her fellow cultists in their uniform dress code.
“There are a lot of things you don't understand,” Emily said, seemingly getting more agitated by her accusations.
“How dare you. I will tear you and your girlfriend a new one,” the cultist clenched her fist, ready to have a go at it.
“Do it!” Emily said with an expression unlike any before. It wasn't the look of someone who had nothing to lose or someone who was out for revenge. Rather it looked like she was ready to protect Olivia at all cost.
“Insult my friend one more time, and it will be the last time you've ever insulted someone with that face of yours,” she answered. As soon as she replied, another pair of gleaming eyes paired
up with her, staring at their aggressor.
The cultist stopped her aggression, as her fellow disciples were backing off as well. “You're not worth it anyway…” she chose as her parting words and the black robes left the room altogether.
Emily helped Olivia to get back on her feet, as the black haired girl apologized over and over, while Emily soothed her.
“This is not the time attract that much attention,” Gieldan scolded them as he stood next to her with his usual pose – his muscular arms folded together, and a condescending gaze.
“The same thing goes for you, Ansia,” he added. “Don’t think that I didn’t notice, that you were about to blow our cover.”
“Anyone who hurts other people should be prepared to live with the consequences,” Emily said and folded her arms as well in a spiteful manner, with Ansia nodding in agreement behind her.
“Chachaha, that’s the first time this little brat said something I can agree with,” Ansia followed up. “Nobody is allowed to treat my dear Olivia this way.”
Gieldan sighed and shook his head in disbelief as if he was tired of playing the voice of reason since his efforts were seemingly naught anyway. In the meantime, Olivia tried to reconcile the two by changing the topic, yet she wasn't able to think of something she would actually allow herself to say out loud. She struggled quite a bit until she finally found something noteworthy.
“W-we are friends?” she asked with her soft voice as she adjusted her glasses.
“Well, at least that's what I want us to become,” Emily stopped arguing and smiled. “I truly believe that we are stronger when we work together. Which means we are twice as likely to find an exit as well.”
Even Ansia had nothing to say to that, while Gieldan could only add yet another sigh.
“B-but w-we don't know each other,” Olivia mustered all her courage when it came to such a topic.
“That doesn't bother me.” Emily put her arm around the young woman. “As long as we try to think in the shoes of the other and continue to work on ourselves, we will manage everything life throws at us.” She paused and laughed. “At least that's what my mother always used to tell me.”
My Insanity (The Insanity Series Book 1) Page 15