Dantega:Volume 6 Chapter 2
(PART 2)
“How are we going to go about getting through this hurricane of sand? This is obviously a barrier to keep us away from the castle.” Napoleon said while staring up at the swirling mass of sand covering the castle.
The entire group had made it through the Lilitu and managed to land safely onto the desert floor; the zeppelin that took them here took off and left them immediately upon landing.
With no reason left to stay, the charter company that ran the zeppelin had no problem abandoning their passengers here alone.
As it turns out, everyone on the third level knows where the Gate is at all times and are constantly being lured here by the power of the Gatekeeper. Though Rage didn’t know the identity of the Gatekeeper at first, once he found out that it is Lillith, it all finally makes sense to him.
The consistent pull of Lillith has made it profitable for zeppelin transportation services; they are hired at an extremely high rate to take people here. The only people able to avoid this are women, and they are the ones profiting most from wealthy men who simply cannot control their urges. It has been noted that no one who has ever made the pilgrimage to the Gate has come back, and this has stricken a fear so deep in people’s minds that it is common knowledge to not go anywhere near this place if they can manage.
But naturally, there will be people who ignore the warning signs and go in spite of it, lured in by the Gatekeeper named Lilith. The company that owns the zeppelins is making a large profit off their deaths, to them it’s just like robbing a corpse, it’s not like they’re going to need that money anyways so it might as well go to them.
There are no roads for the cars to tread on and no water to power the steam engines. With temperatures ranging from freezing to 120 degrees, making the trek on foot is out of the question, despite all the modern technology of the 3rd level of Purgatory, zeppelins are the only thing capable of traversing the desert to reach the Gate.
On that note, it leaves the group in quite the predicament. The zeppelin company only drops people off at the site of the Gate; there is no ride back for them. So now they are alone and stranded in the middle of a barren desert with no way to get back.
The only way out of this mess is through the Gate and on to the next level.
That would in turn mean that they are going to have to get through this hurricane of sand, maneuver their way through the miles wide castle, and defeat the Gatekeeper Lilith.
Acknowledging that the task is daunting, they begin coming up with plans to proceed.
“The barrier of sand is going to be the easiest part of this whole mess. Now that we’re here, the Gatekeeper will allow us to enter.” Rage stated, seeming very confident in his declaration.
“How can you be so certain?”
“She let us land didn’t she?”
KKKKAAASSSSHHHHHHH!!!
A loud sound through the wind is breaking within the mass of swirling sand, prompting everyone to look up.
What they see surprises them.
A woman’s smiling face is forming in the torrent.
“No need to worry…” The tone of the woman’s voice coming from the sand seemingly dances in pitch as she speaks. “What kind of person would I be if I rewarded your efforts getting here by leaving you outside my castle to rot?”
As if her words were a trigger, the sand splits apart like the red sea and reveals what it has been hiding; the entrance to the massive black castle. The double doors that begin to slowly open are so large that if it were to fall forward, it would easily cover a hundred yard span. The size of this structure is on a scale completely different than any other building they've ever seen, it stretches as high as a skyscraper and is literally miles in width and length. To add to the size is the delicate intricacies of its design, the windows, the walls, each square foot of this entire structure is detailed. One can’t help but wonder how painstaking it must’ve been to build such a thing and put so much effort into each stone block.
Once the doors open wide, the group attempts to peer inside, they see nothing but pitch black and it makes them nervous to step foot in there. It’s as though they would be stepping into another world upon entry.
“Can’t say I’m surprised, come on let’s go.” Rage says as he throws his scythe over his shoulder and walks toward the entrance.
“Don’t be so hasty now.” The woman’s voice came echoing through the desert as if she had heard what Rage said. “The men stay outside.”
“!?”
“There’s no way we’re splitting up now!” Strauphius protests.
“You don’t have a choice in the matter.” The woman’s voice rings. The door begins shutting as she continues to speak, “Men have to go through a test before they receive anything from me. The beautiful women however, are free to enter.”
“Do you think this is some sort of trap?” asks Napoleon as he walks to Rage’s side.
Messor chimes in and answers his question, “During a fight with her she wouldn’t hesitate to take a girl’s soul and use it for her own good, but she isn’t known to play tricks on women.”
“Then what about us?” Cyrus asks.
“Well she hates men, so I doubt it’d be an easy task for you. She’ll make it impossible for all of us to enter if we insist on going in together though, it’s best that we split up for now and carry out what needs to be done.”
“But...”
“I agree.” added Trojia, she steps in front of the rest and explains, “If for whatever reason this test she is planning on giving you guys causes you trouble, then you can just tough it out until we get done with the Gatekeeper. With her gone, there is no test, and there would be nothing keeping you from joining us at the Gate and all of us can go through together.”
“You make it sound so simple.” Cyrus says, pushing up his dusty sunglasses with his middle finger.
“Isn’t it actually pretty simple? The concept of our scenario is laid out right in front of us. It shouldn’t be that difficult to decide what to do from there.”
“That all depends on what this ‘test’ is. If it’s something that we can’t easily prolong or breeze through, then it’s not going to go as smoothly as you think.” Rage replies bitterly, agitated by the prospect of what is about to happen.
Trojia’s eyebrow twitches as she blows a haughty air out of her nose, she turns to the door of the castle and begins walking towards it.
With her back turned to the others, she waves her hand and says, “Well, you’ll find out soon enough yourself.”
With Trojia walking toward the castle by herself, it prompts Niera to nervously follow her. “U-Um... Please take care of yourselves!” she said with a bow before running to Trojia’s side.
Aria is hesitant to leave her brother behind, but she couldn’t help but find herself agreeing with what Trojia had to say.
“Take care guys, you got this!”
Sora says nothing, and follows the Trojan princess towards the dark entrance of the massive castle.
“What has gotten into Trojia lately I wonder? Her personality has really changed since we left Ubica behind...” Daey asks herself with her hand on her chin.
“Forget about that for now, you should all head in before Lilith changes her mind.” Rage urges, gesturing for her to follow Trojia inside.
Once all the woman of the group make their way to the entrance, Rage stops Messor by putting his hand on her shoulder and leaves her with some parting words,
“Keep an eye on Trojia, she may be becoming too reckless for her own good.”
“I’m way ahead of you on that.” Messor replies, “I’ll be watching her closely for an entirely different reason though.”
Messor walks off and heads into the castle along with the rest, leaving the men behind.
As soon as the group of girls enter the darkness of the castle, the massive double doors immediately shut behind them, spraying a plume of dust outwards that stretches hundreds of feet into the air. A loud clicking noise is heard and reverberates through the desert ground as if a giant lock had shut behind them.
Immediately after the rumble from that noise ended, the sand that parted to reveal the entrance to the castle began to suck into two of what seems to be black holes in the middle of the castle. This whirlpool effect is sucking not just the sand from the parted hurricane, but sand from the desert floor as well. Even Rage and the others find it extremely difficult to stay grounded in this torrent of wind.
After a few moments, two massive silhouettes can be seen from around the epicenter of the whirlpools; both figures stand on each side of the door and tower above the ground over a hundred meters in height. With each passing second, the width of these silhouettes grow and the humanoid figures of two giants can be seen.
The remainder of the once hurricane of sand enters the black hole and reveals the rest of the miles wide castle behind the two massive statues.
The statues are clad in heavy armor, the gunmetal color is intimidating and it really stands out against the brown desert ground.
In the chest of these statues are the black holes that were sucking up all the sand, upon taking in the last grain of sand, a seal with some hieroglyphic markings begin shining in a pulsating light , the one on the left being red, and one on the right is blue.
Pulsating a few times like a heartbeat, the hieroglyphic seal twists and shines even brighter, then the two statues begin moving one colossal step at a time.
Each step shakes the ground below and kicks up a maelstrom of desert sand.
“This is my test for you disgusting men.” Lilith’s voice echoes, “If you can find a way to topple these two ‘Colossals’, the doors to my castle will open up for you and you will receive your chance to pass through the Gate…”
“We’re supposed to take down those things!?” Strauphius exclaims, doubting their chances at surviving in a fight against 100 meter giants clad in armor. “But because I am a generous woman…” Lilith’s voice echoes in the desert as if answering Strauphius’s distress. “I am obliged to tell you that pure force alone will not be enough.”
The two Colossals make their way towards the group when Lilith’s voice suddenly stops. The answer they need is right in front of them and is as singular as it gets, destroy the Colossals and enter the castle.
“Well, there is that phrase that the bigger they are the harder they fall.” Strauphius says sarcastically.
“You guys enjoy that while I step aside with the Prince. I can feel your confidence from here.” Phoenix said as he grabs Xavier’s sleeve and hurriedly walks away from the oncoming Colossals.
Phoenix has revealed himself to Rage as the Son of God, yet he has refused to get his hands dirty with anything since then. This makes Rage wonder if he’s the type who won’t lift a finger unless absolutely necessary; not a very benevolent way of doing things to say the least.
“That’s fine, you guys would just get in the way if you stick around. I’ve been meaning to test out the powers that Messor gave me, what better way to make use of the training I've been going through the last couple months.” Cyrus says as he further shoos Xavier and Phoenix away.
Napoleon takes a long hard look at the two insanely large moving objects heading their way and gets an odd lump in the back of his throat. Not someone who would normally be afraid of a fight, the prospect of this battle is making him exceedingly nervous,
A lot of it is coming from not being able to predict what these things are capable of.
If he’s fighting a human, or even a demon for that matter, he has a pretty good idea what their next move would be and can act accordingly. The two Colossals however, are supposed to be inanimate objects that are entirely too big to be mobile, there’s no way of knowing what kind of power they're hiding.
With that in mind, he tries to warn the others.
“I don’t think that------“
BBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!!
Napoleon is interrupted by two bright beams of red and blue light ripping the ground in front of them, a loud explosion accompanied by a massive blast contorts the sky above them with sand and sends a blazing heat radiating against their skin.
The men of the outside group begin coughing and can hardly see anything when they feel an overbearing presence right on top of them.
The red and blue seals of the two Colossals can be seen shining through the sand just feet in front of them, the two masses almost a hundred meters in height got in front of them so fast that they didn’t even notice. All it would take is another one of those beams of light, or even just a stomp of one of their feet and it would be more than enough to kill them.
The four combatants scatter off in different directions with no sense of where they are going in the thick blanket of sand.
Being lost and separated in a confused state causes Rage to shout to himself,
“This is definitely not going to be simple!”
Ubica opens his eyes and finds himself shirtless and tied by leather belts at four points on a large king size bed in a dark room. There is an odd red tint in this room, giving it an ominous vibe, it’s likely coming from the red sheets atop the bed he’s lying on but he gets the feeling that it is a little more sinister than something as innocent as such.
“Where are you, Asmodeus..?” Ubica inquires into the darkness surrounding him.
From what feels right beside him, a woman answers, “I must say, your sleeping face really is something else, I envy your attractiveness.”
Leaning up against the bed is the same woman from the bar that Tsubiri was having a conversation with.
Ubica turns his head and scowls at her, causing Asmodeus to chuckle.
“Oho, your angered face is enough to make me melt.”
“What are you planning?”
Asmodeus gets up and walks a few steps away, with her back turned to the bed she says, “There are quite a few things actually, but my main objective is to put you through as much despair as possible. At least that’s what Damien ordered me to do.”
Leviathan used the same modus operandi, instead of physical pain, he put Ubica through as much mental anguish as possible in an attempt to break him.
Knowing this, Ubica is beginning to feel especially nervous when thinking about what this means for Tsubiri.
As brutal as Leviathan is, Asmodeus is known to be even more ruthless; there’s no telling what she has in store for him.
Ubica’s sharp breathing is enough to prove to Asmodeus that he’s worried, and this prompts her to ask,
“I bet you’d like to know what I’m going to do you huh?”
“.....”
“My goodness, even an anxious face suits you.”
Asmodeus puts her hands out into the darkness and a bright light fills the room, a movie screen like square presents itself in the light behind her. On the screen is a scene filled with the afternoon glow that surrounds the metropolis, the focus zooms in on the streets and shows a panicked girl running throughout the city in a panic.
The sound turns on and Ubica hears his name being yelled, accompanied by some heavy breaths.
The girl all alone in the big city is none other than Tsubiri.
“I’ve taken a few pointers from Leviathan, from what I understand his technique worked brilliantly.”
Ubica’s face loses its color when he remembers what had happened to Amber and her family the last time something like this happened.
“What did you do to her!?” he shouts, his voice filled more with a helpless fear than anger.
“I haven’t done anything to your sweet little human girl, although I can control the lust in her body if I really wanted to, because she already broke my attempted spell on her earlier it wasn’t worth the effort to try again.”
Asmodeus stands in front of the screen and shrugs her shoulders.
“She’s free to do whatever she wants, and apparently that is looking for you like an idiot in a city filled with hundreds of thousands of people.”
Ubica grits his teeth and tries breaking the belts that are tying him to the bed-frame, to his surprise, he can’t move any part of his body. Breaking out of something like this should be extremely easy for him, so he quickly realizes that whatever it is that’s keeping him on this bed isn’t the physical restraints.
“!?”
“Struggling won’t do you any good, I may not be controlling the lust of that girl, but it doesn’t mean I don’t have a hold on yours. You’ve got a while before you’ll be able to move your body.”
Asmodeus walks back to the side of the bed and slides her hand across his face, she moves close to him and whispers, “Which is going to make this all the more difficult for you to watch... Being unable to do anything about what is going to happen will certainly be torture.”
“Listen, Asmodeus. I’m going to kill you if you do anything to her.”
With nothing else to leverage against her in this situation, his only defense is to threaten her.
As intimidating as his deathly serious glare was when he had said, he’s not in any position to act upon his threat. He’s more like a tiger trapped inside of a cage at the zoo, and she is a child taunting him from the outside knowing there’s nothing this caged up wild animal could possibly do to hurt her.
Standing back up to her feet and giving him space, she begins prodding at the beast trapped in the cage.
“I’m sure you’ve noticed that every man here knows exactly where the Gate is, it’s because they’re drawn to it by a force they cannot comprehend. Do you know why that is?”
Because this has nothing to do with Tsubiri, Ubica doesn’t answer and just glares at her instead.
“The Gatekeeper is Lilith.”
“!?”
“Oho so you’re familiar with the name? I was the one that tempted her into rebelling against Adam back at the Garden of Eden. Though we’re certainly different, t’s because of my temptation that we’re both quite similar. She manipulates the inner most desires of men and uses their souls to keep her body youthful, and devours the souls of women to give her strength. I, on the other hand, can use the desires of men to do my bidding and control the minds of women with ease.”
“What does she have to do with Tsubiri?”
“She is the ultimate siren, the wind of this level of Purgatory is entirely made up of her power; it is so subtle that no one even notices it when they are touched by the gentle gusts, yet they are implanted with the location of the wind's source. I’m sure you know what is in a song of a siren right? With the men of this world absorbing that woman’s temptation day in and day out, what do you think they’re filled with?”
“Y-You’re saying that...”
“Oho you’re beginning to understand now. This level exists entirely in a climate of Lust courtesy of Lilith. Thanks to her I have a convenient outlet to exploit that I will use to break you down, and I’ll have it help me bring you back into the darkness where you belong.”
"....."
Asmodeus chuckles when she doesn't get a reply, but the expression on his face is more than enough for her to find pleasure in.
She points at Tsubiri on the screen and says, “Would you be able to stay silent after I get every man in this city to rape that girl? You’re going to have to watch, you know? It should be quite the spectacle.”
“!!!”
Ubica’s eyes grow large and burn with a fury that even Asmodeus has never seen.
That’s when Tsubiri’s shouting of his name halts and he can hear her say,
“Who are you people?”
On the screen, Tsubiri is surrounded by a dozen men and they all move in on her and attempt to grab her. She escapes the grasps of a couple of them and shocks the others with her electricity; after creating some space between her and them, she runs away as fast as she can.
However, her pursuers seem to multiply tenfold with each street she runs by.
Cars begin chasing her down to cut her off, and even more men abandon their workplaces, exit their homes, leave behind children and spouses, all in an attempt to grab her.
“What the hell is going on!?” Tsubiri yells as the numbers of men grow with each second.
All she can do is sprint as fast as her legs take her and electrocute whoever gets too close. Although she is fending for herself as of this moment, she can’t help but feel the intense pressure of being surrounded.
When that squeeze is felt, she begins to hyperventilate, it won’t be long until the walls close in on her and nothing can be done. When this deadly panic strikes her, she shouts the name of the only person she feels that could save her.
“Ubica!!!”
Asmodeus smiles at the scene that the two had just watched, she then turns off the screen. The room's wall takes the place of the screen and he is met with silence, this was done solely to allow Ubica’s thoughts to run rampant with the horrible images of what might be happening out of sight.
“What I am curious about is what you would do to keep her safe. Would the current Ubica kill every man in this city? Maybe you’d even fuck me if I promised to stop all this.“
“Or I could just kill you.” Ubica said with a frown.
“Ha, we both know that’s not what’s going to happen here.”
“You’re underestimating what I’m capable of.”
“Oho I think not, you’ve done a good job at keeping your true self dormant, but I imagine that being forced into killing an entire city’s worth of innocent people is just what you need for Dantega to erupt.”
“.....”
“I believe you are willing to kill many to save the life of one; your lust for her is enough to spell that out for me in bold print. If I was underestimating you then I would just kill her myself and have you hate me for it. So I am going to let you save her, you either watch her get defiled repeatedly or go out there and take some lives.”
Without a moment’s hesitation, Ubica says,
“Then let me go.”
“Just as I thought.”
With a snap of her finger, Ubica can control his body again. He immediately breaks through his restraints and gets off the bed.
Asmodeus grabs his white shirt and black hoodie and tosses them to him. “You’d better hurry, I don’t think she can last much longer.”
After putting on his clothes, he gestures for Asmodeus to hand him his sword.
Seemingly not threatened by arming him, she casually tosses it to him.
Ubica unsheathes his sword and points it at her when he says, “Before I go, I want to see your real face again. The face of the woman you’re wearing right now is only going to sway my determination to kill innocent people.”
“Oho I thought you’d like this face a lot more, I figured it’d tempt you into sleeping with me if I presented myself to you as a beauty. You always used to say I was ugly as I watched you cling to Messor, you flaunted her at me, purposely making my lust for you to grow and tormenting me with my own power.”
“You can obviously see that I'm different now.”
“You most certainly are different, Antichrist, you’ve thrown away your Idol and claim to be in love with a regular human girl after all.”
“Then indulge my curiosity so we can both find out if that’s still the case.”
“Alright then, if my physical appearance is what you need to use as motivation to break yourself, there’s no point in hiding any more.”
Asmodeus puts her hands over her face and an odd skin colored smoke clouds her head and body. After a few moments, the smoke begins to dissipate and the first thing that can be seen from it is a chain that drops just past her chin with a pendant hanging at the tip. It swings in a pendulum-like fashion until the smoke finally clears and reveals a wretched form of a girl.
Her face is tattered with piercings over her eyebrows, nose, lips, ears, and even her cheeks. The most noticeable piercing however, is the one on her tongue; a chain hangs from her tongue and falls out of her mouth, dangling over her neck.
Her white face is heavy with so much of the pale makeup she comes across almost ghoulish. Around her eyes are messy smears of black mascara that make her hazel eyes shine brightly in contrast. Her outfit is tight and full of rips and tears, the tattered white shirt is worn over a mesh top that is covered in belts and other restraints that circle around her body like snakes.
Her figure itself is perfect and if one looked beyond the ugly makeup and face defiling piercings, she’d undoubtedly be considered beautiful. However, she expresses herself through her Sin, she is the Demon of Lust and is the representative of all that is ugly in a person. She chose this appearance because that is simply who she is.
“Are you happy now? Will you still call me ugly with this new found purity of yours?” she asks, the chain hanging from her mouth swaying from side to side with each word.
Ubica takes a contemplative breath and sheaths on his sword.
“I find you more revolting now than ever before. But if it makes you feel better, it isn’t because of your appearance." He turns his back to her and says, "You’re going to pay for making her afraid.”
“Hmph, whether you’re the Antichrist or this new pathetic version of yourself, I truly do hate you. I may have a maddening yearn for your touch, but it’s because of that fact that I am really looking forward to putting you and that stupid little girlfriend of yours through as much torment as these hands can accomplish.”
Asmodeus grabs his back and pushes him away from her.
With her black painted fingernails point at him when she leaves him with some final words.
“Go on Ubica, sacrifice everything you’ve worked for in order to save her.”
She claps her hands and the next thing Ubica knows, he’s in the daylight of the outside world once more. He finds himself in the middle of the street in an eerily silent city; where there were once thousands of people walking, there is now no one here.
Every man of this city is after Tsubiri, all of them attempting to do the unthinkable to her.
Ubica doesn’t know exactly where she is, but he can sense the presence of the mass gathering of men and chooses to run towards that energy. All he can do as he rushes forward is hope that by the time he arrives, he doesn’t find Tsubiri in the middle of it all.
Trojia and the rest of the group of girls are walking in the dim light of Lilith’s massive castle. There is a resounding echo with each step they make, producing a blanket of tenseness into an already unnerving situation.
“This place is extremely creepy.” Aria points out, walking shoulder to shoulder with a frightened Niera.
Lagging behind is Daey and Sora, and leading the rest is Trojia and Messor. The two leaders of the pack seem unusually calm all things considered.
“Keep your guard up.” Trojia says, her tone befitting of a captain of a sports team. “Being scared at a time like this will only serve to distract you and make you more vulnerable.”
“W-What do you think is going to happen?” Niera nervously asks.
Messor doesn’t turn to her and answers, “There’s no way of knowing, that’s why it’s best to stay alert. As much as I hate to agree with her, Trojia’s right.”
Trojia’s eyebrow twitched in agitation when Messor said that.
She folds her arms in a combative manner and replies, “Why is agreeing with me so disagreeable to you?”
Messor side eyes Trojia when she says, “Oh? How about you take a guess?”
The two glare at each other and the rest of the girls can sense that this is not some kind of joke between friends; the malicious way in which they’re interacting feels like a sudden heatwave.
“Hey calm down you two, didn’t you both just say we need to keep our guard up? Fighting isn’t the way to go about doing that.” Daey interrupts their deathly glares.
Messor clicks her tongue and turns away while Trojia huffs an angered air out of her nose and does the same.
If being locked inside a massive castle doesn’t do enough to fray the nerves of the group, the dysfunction between the two leading women surely will.
After walking in an awkward silence for quite some time, the group reaches a crossroad of sorts; they find themselves on a circled platform lit by the sun from a window atop the castle hundreds of feet above them. The platform has three sets of stairs leading downward onto a candle lit pathway that stretches towards the darkness of a large door.
There’s one door straight ahead, one to the right, and one to the left; forcing them into a tough decision.
With no way of knowing just which direction would eventually lead to the Gate in such a huge structure, they face the possibility of getting lost. As far as they know, they are in a labyrinth built by the Gatekeeper, it could be that they were never supposed to reach the Gate in the first place.
While contemplating which door to walk through, the familiar voice of the woman in the sand is heard echoing through the castle as if they were surrounded by loud speakers.
“The castle walls can sense the tension between the strongest of you ladies, your interests are in conflict, and I can’t help but foresee a violent end to it.”
Messor furrows her brow and speaks as though Lillith was the castle herself, “The only interest I have is finding you and getting to the next level.”
“And how does reaching the next level serve as your benefit?” Lilith’s queries.
“Isn’t it obvious to you? You’re supposed to be able to sense the desires of women after all.”
“So you’re saying that what I see in you is my only answer?”
“It is.”
“If that’s the case, aren’t you better off killing the rest of them here?”
Messor stays silent, but the others all collectively shrink back in alarm.
Trojia on the other hand, shifts her body into a defensive posture; it’s almost as if she’s been waiting for Messor to do something like that all along. Lilith continues to speak despite the other’s reactions,
“Someone in this group has the intention to take the Antichrist from you.”
“.....”
“Wait a second!” Aria interjects. “What are you two even talking about? None of us are trying to take anything away from anybody.”
“You speak only for yourself. You don't know the people you are with as well as you think you do."
The way in which the dancing pitch of Lillith’s voice rises and falls is interpreted as antagonistic, and it does just enough to fluster the minds of the group.
“I think she’s trying to trick us into not trusting each other.” Daey says, “We’d be stupid to fall for whatever she has to say.”
“You’re wrong.” came the stern voice of Trojia, her green eyed glare fixed on Messor. “She knows exactly who we shouldn’t trust in this group.”
Messor frowns when she clicks her tongue and says, “You’re not even trying to be subtle with your threats now. I’m not one to take that lying down.”
“You two really need to cool it!” Daey shouts.
Messor removes herself from the escalating situation and begins walking toward the bridge straight away from the group. “I’m not the one starting problems here.” she replies, her back turned to the rest. “Let’s just pick a damn door and go.”
By making the decision herself, Messor assumes the others will follow her lead; she's halfway across when Lilith speaks again.
“The girl with the intention of taking Ubica… She’s just like you.”
Messor pauses upon hearing that and turns back towards Trojia, who for whatever reason is standing only a few feet behind her.
Her sudden close proximity felt like a box of heavy weights were dropped onto the ground at Messor’s feet.
The rest of the group didn’t follow Trojia’s lead, in fact, they didn’t even notice Trojia leaving their side in the first place. It’s as though Trjojia had just suddenly appeared behind Messor.
“!?”
“The blond girl’s innermost desire is dark.” Lilith says. “But her soul is truly pure, just like yours was.”
“Her soul is what?” Messor mumbles, as if realizing what the Gatekeeper meant.
It’s now that Messor can see Trojia’s eyes shifting color from green to red intermittently as though they were changing christmas lights; the young princess grimaces each time her eyes shift, it’s like she is struggling to keep herself from succumbing to a great pressure.
“She truly is quite the specimen.” Lilith said with a laugh.
Taking a cautious step back, Messor asks, “What are you trying to do, princess?”
“I just don’t trust you.” Trojia quickly replies through gritted teeth, her eyes flickered between colors as she spoke.
Lilith butts into their tension filled conversation. “It’s not only you that she distrusts.”
“Is that so?”
“That’s right.” Trojia answers, “You and Ubica are the same person, there’s no way I could trust either of you after seeing what you’ve done firsthand.”
Lilith begins to laugh again, “Hahahahaha, it is amazing that she can say that to someone like you without even flinching. I just might have fallen for this girl, I have no clue how she’ll act upon the confusion caused by the soul inside of her.”
GAAAGAAAASSHHHHHH!!!!
The platform in which they stand begins to crumble and fall into the unknown darkness below.
“But!” Lilith’s voice is still heard clearly despite the heavy rumbling noise. “I believe it’s time we see where she is heading!”
As if the bricks were sand falling off the side of a staircase, they crumble towards the bridges on each of the three doors. This prompts Sora and Niera to run towards the left door, Aria and Daey to run to the right door, and Trojia and Messor to remain by the door on the other side of the center bridge.
With a sound like multiple fireworks going off, there is no ground left to stand on and only three routes are left to take, unfortunately those routes separate them in groups of two.
“All of these doors will lead to me, the opportunity for all of you to reach me is there. It’s just a matter of getting through the obstacles that lay before you without turning on each other first... Good luck, I really do hope to see you beautiful women soon.”
The echo of Lilith’s voice fades away and leaves the large room in silence; only the clattering echo of the debris from the shattered platform and broken bridges hitting the ground below remains. The six girls all look at each other and then back at their surroundings, it’s obvious that they can’t get to each other, the space between them is too large.
It just might be possible that Trojia could use her psychokinesis, but that would be too big of a risk figuring she doesn’t have full control of her power just yet, a fall from here is certain death.
“S-So what do we do now?” asked Niera from the left bridge.
“We do what she wants, let’s go.” Trojia coldly answers, annoyed at the fact she’s found herself stuck with Messor of all people.
She walks into the darkness, leaving the rest behind without so much as a care about the other’s safety.
Messor is feeling trapped as well, and is likely the only person who could get out of this situation herself using her powers; however, she can’t just let the mystery behind Trojia’s soul be left unsolved.
She has to know what is happening with the princess.
“Once again I hate to say it, but she’s right, we need to get moving. If we can find our way to the Gate then we can all just meet there.”
She then turns and follows Trojia into the darkness of the middle door.
“I guess we don’t have a choice...” Sora says, seemingly nervous about what lies ahead.
“Let’s just get going... You guys be careful out there, we’re all going through this Gate together, you got it?” said Aria.
Her words do enough to instill them with much needed confidence, and they get a move on with a little more of a spring in their step.
Daey however, still feels an odd pressure on her chest when she thinks of Trojia and Messor.
It’s as though the two of them are proceeding down a much darker path than the others.
Rage is flying atop his black cloud while narrowly avoiding being hit by the two Colossal’s beams of red and blue energy. Each time it passes them and hits the desert ground, a massive explosion rips through the desert. The blasts repeat over and over and the dust begins to torrent around him and the rest as they figure out a way to destroy the two giants.
“Napoleon!”
BOOOOOOOOOM!!!
Another blast lands and shakes the ground.
Rage has to speak in between the incoming attacks and yells down to Napoleon during one the silent breaks in the action.
“You and I are going to go for the blue one first! Start at its feet and work your way up and I’ll start at the top and work my way down!”
“Understood!”
“What about us!?” Strauphius yells as he runs next to Cyrus.
Napoleon, who isn’t too far from them, is able to give them orders without having to yell too loudly. “We’re going to need you two distract the red Colossal while we destroy the blue one. All you have to do is keep it busy until we can all focus on one objective.”
“Are you crazy!? It’s only a matter of time before that thing steps on us or blows us to shit!”
Struaphius adamantly voiced his displeasure upon being confronted by the command of what seems to be an impossible task.
“Then avoid that by getting off the ground.”
“Hah?”
Napoleon faintly smiles and bumps his fists together.
“Be sure to hang on.” he says, and then slams his open palms onto the ground.
The ground under the feet of Strauphius and Cyrus splinters in a ten by ten foot square; it suddenly rises upwards at such a speed that it topples the two onto their backs. The rapid wind pounding against their faces is noticeable enough evidence that they’ve found themselves zooming up towards the sky.
“WHAAAAAAA!?!?!?”
“!!!!!!!”
Cyrus isn’t one to yell out in terror but Strauphius’ screech can be heard as loud as the constant barrage of explosions below on the ground. Not only are they going up towards the sky on an object that’s not meant to fly, they are zooming towards the knee area of the red chested Colossal.
Their danger-meters triple in a flash when all the sudden the block of solid land abruptly stops and flings them into the giant like a catapult.
They land on the armor just above its shin guard of the red Colossal and begin their free-fall until they instinctively latch on to whatever they can.
“What in the shit was that??” Strauphius yells in surprise.
“So that’s Napoleon’s new power...”
“He could’ve at least told us what he was doing!”
Cyrus looks up and sees that the red chested Colossal they’re hanging onto is still fully fixated on the movements of Napoleon and Rage, they’ve managed to latch onto this massive beast without it noticing.
“We don’t have time to think about that. If we’re to distract this thing, we’d better do it before it’s too late.”
He then begins to do something borderline crazy.
He starts climbing.
With an exasperated sigh, Strauphius begins to climb as well. Even though he has no clue what Cyrus is planning on doing, he knows that this is what must be done. Although he often acts like a child, even he can be serious when the situation calls for it.
Rage looks on in amazement at what Napoleon had just done and says, “I’m glad to see you have so much command over your new power.”
“It would seem that I can manipulate land. Things like trees, rocks, and even the ground itself are things I can bend. It’s surprisingly natural for me to do it.”
“It looks like Messor gave you some of her own power personally... It’s a long story, but she was born from the Earth whilst Ubica was born from the sea. Their main powers are those two elements.”
“Maybe that would explain why my powers are quite a bit stronger than the others...” Napoleon ponders aloud to himself.
The two are still running along the desert ground toward the blue Colossal, and continuing their conversation as if the danger level has dropped drastically.
Their comfort is in large part due to their comrade’s successful attempts at distracting the red Colossal.
Strauphius and Cyrus are climbing up its body and narrowly avoiding the massive hands of the Colossal as it attempts to crush them.
“This is good.” Rage says as he twirls his scythe, “Your power will be just what we need to execute my plan.”
“What do you have in mind?” Napoleon asks.
Rage lifts his scythe over his head and out comes a stunning white light so bright it temporarily blinds Napoleon.
“I think I know what these Colossals are.” Rage says as he maneuvers the light in the direction of the blue Colossal. “If I’m right, it won’t be hard for us to win this battle. I’m going to need you to use your power to keep that thing’s legs from moving, even ten seconds should be more than enough time for me to end this.”
“Understood.”
Without a moment’s hesitation, Napoleon slams his hands on the ground and what seems to be vines of rock begins to swirl up the Colossal’s feet. Rising quickly up its shins, it reaches its thighs about fifty yards up and seems to solidify itself; causing its movement to halt immediately.
As if on cue, Rage jumps to the forefront and points his scythe at the chest of the Colossal.
That odd white light manifests itself into a beam and shoots toward it like a massive laser.
The resulting flash was so bright and so loud it temporarily halted the six senses of everyone near the blast. As soon as one’s eyes adjusted and what’s around them can be seen once again, they are able to see the sight of Rage’s light encircling the blue crest on the chest of the Colossal.
The Colossal stops struggling to get out of Napoleon’s hold on its legs and soon after, its head droops and its body falls limp. The blue crest in its chest begins twisting as if it was a soda bottle being opened and even more light begins to exit out of it in brilliant flashes.
After a few seconds of this, the blue crest loses its color, fades to black, and then pops off and falls over three hundred feet to the ground, landing a loud crash.
After the crest fell, the giant hole in the Colossal’s chest once again becomes illuminated; this time however, a torrent of different colored orbs of light come screaming out of it and into the sky.
“What are those things?” Napoleon asks in bewilderment.
“It’s just as I thought, these giants are given power by the souls of the men Lilith has collected. She’s using the men to protect her long after their original lives ended.”
“So are you saying that once these souls escape, the Colossals can’t harm us?”
“Not necessarily, these souls are still programed with the instinct of protecting this castle, if they aren’t taken care of we’re not out of danger just yet.”
Rage then holds his scythe back up and begins muttering something into the collar of his thick black coat; his black cloud grows larger from under his feet and sends him soaring into the air alongside the countless number of souls.
With a swing of his scythe, the souls begin rushing into his cloud as if they were being sucked by some kind of vacuum.
This is not too dissimilar to what Satan did at the castle of Troy, the only difference is that Rage is reaping these souls to free them from captivity, whereas Satan sacrificed them to raise a portion of his army.
Reaping every last one of these souls is child’s play for him; although there are tens of thousands of separate souls, it’s almost trivial compared to the numbers he’s reaped through the countless times of human tragedy back on Earth.
It only took a few short seconds and it was over.
The Colossal loses its form and crumbles bit by bit to the ground, each large piece landing sends a plume of sand spraying into the surrounding area.
Avoiding these large objects falling from above is Napoleon, who looks up to the triumphant Angel of Death as he descends and asks, “How did you know?”
“It was easy, the encryption on their chests are written in Hebrew, it’s an ancient language that you’ve likely never heard of... It stated ‘The Flask of Loyal Men’, it was quite obvious actually. I don’t think she knows that it is me who is trying to get into the castle.”
Rage doubts Lilith knew just who she was dealing with when she kept the men outside to fend off against her guards.
Every Demon of Hell knows that Rage is traveling through Purgatory at the moment, but the Gatekeepers have no clue. She now knows that Messor is in her castle, but until Rage enters, as far as she knows he’s just another man lured in by her charm.
“So can you do that with the other one too? I’d like to get into the castle and join the women as fast as possible.”
“Yeah, it should be an easy task.”
Rage readies to repeat the same feat against the red Colossal, but is shocked when he shifts his attention in its direction and is met with the sting of a searing wave of heat.
The massive giant is engulfed in a flame that easily rises five times its height; the red crest is separated from its chest and lies black on the desert ground. The souls kept inside of it are swirling all over, each of which is on fire. The sight is similar to molecules vibrating and flying about when they are heated to an extreme temperature.
It’s almost as if they’re screaming in agony as one by one, the souls turn black, turn to ash and fade off into the sky.
“!?”
The Colossal begins to break apart from its head downwards and send shards of flaming debris landing like meteors from above.
Standing completely calm in the middle of all this is none other than Phoenix, he’s holding his hand upwards to the sky as he watches the fire he created burn everything in his sight.
Looking closely, Rage can see that Cyrus, Xavier, and Strauphius are at a safe distance away from the torrent of flame. They must have hightailed it out of there as soon as Phoenix started burning the giant.
Rage takes an inner sigh of relief at their safety before frowning and walking towards Phoenix.
“Just what the hell are you doing!?” he shouts.
Phoenix slowly turns his head to him and replies, “I’m getting rid of this giant, what else would I be doing?”
“You’re destroying the souls of countless innocence!” he yells, emphasizing the severity of Phoenix’s actions.
Earlier, Rage had sucked in all the souls of the blue Colossal with the intention of releasing them in the near future, this would give them a chance to go where they rightfully belong; be that Heaven or Hell, or even back to Earth. What Phoenix is doing is completely erasing their existence, once the human soul is gone, so is the essence of that person.
“Am I now?” The priest asks with an almost crooked look on his face. “These people were enticed by the Gatekeeper because of their sin, they are hardly innocent.”
“That’s not for you to decide!”
“Then whose decision is it? You? Don’t make me laugh, I have more of a right to decide than anyone else here don’t you think?”
“.....”
“These people... You would have released their souls and they would have been damned to Hell. You know that, I know that. So how is this not merciful?”
“There’s no way of knowing that...”
“My flame, it is the same flame that nearly destroyed Dantega. Even after a thousand years, this flame will never stop until the evil of its target is completely destroyed. Whichever souls are still shining after being burnt are the ones not completely tainted by sin and won’t be sent to Hell.”
Upon hearing that explanation, Rage understands what he is trying to do. Phoenix got his flame from Michael, and Michael had three different techniques that altered the way his fire burned.
One of which is to burn his target, no matter what it is, all the way until the target is destroyed.
This technique is certainly the strongest, and unfortunately for the Archangel, Ubica tricked him into using it on the two people he cared about the most. The second: is the fire that never stops burning no matter what.
It is said that when Hell was created, this fire was used to form its landscape. The same fire continues to expand Hell each and every day; working just like the universe, it is constantly pushing its way outwards and forging a new path for others to follow. The reason why Hell's sky always has an orange and red tint is the leftover radiation of the forever expanding flame.
The third: is the fire that burns away the evil of its target until said evil is obliterated.
This attack was primarily used against people who are possessed, or consumed by only one sin. Once the fire burned out and the evil was gone, the body of the man containing that evil was still left intact.
Similar to a very extreme version of a baptism, this flame is what was used on Ubica in the eternal lake, it was expected that this fire would need to burn forever to fully destroy Dantega.
This is what Phoenix is using on these souls; whatever survives this flame has the right to move on to the next world.
But so far, nothing has escaped the fire.
Watching the souls burn for a little bit longer, the smoke begins to clear and one simple light drops helplessly down like a falling feather. The little purple light falls into the palm of Phoenix’s hand and he smiles.
“Just one...” he says, and begins squeezing on the orb. “Only one person lived any kind of life worthy of Heaven’s acceptance.”
He sighs and squeezes the orb until it seems to pop, its light flickers all over and fades into nowhere.
“It would seem that no matter what world I travel to, there is no man truly capable of surviving the burden he was born with.” Hiding his face, he says softly under his breath. “Has my faith in humanity really been misplaced this entire time? Or is it something else entirely?”
“What did you do with that soul?” Rage asks.
Phoenix takes another sigh, this one is pointedly disappointed. “I sent him to Heaven... Although I’ve traded my benevolence for fire, I can still do certain things that you can’t. Would you like to know the story of that soul?”
“..?”
“It was a little boy... He had no desire to come to the Gate, but his father lost himself in Lilith’s song and threw away everything in order to come here. The father sold his home, left his wife, and dragged his son to this very castle where he in turn sacrificed the child to gain the favor of Lillith.”
Rage stays silent; he doesn’t quite know how to respond to something like that.
“I’m sure you can guess how that turned out. That story sounds familiar don’t you think? A father throwing away his son to gain the favor of someone who only intends to devour him...”
The shine in Phoenix’s eyes begin to fade as he zones out on the hand that had just sent the little soul to Heaven.
Rage can see this and a cold sweat runs down the side of his brow; he knows that the story the priest is talking about is his own.
Phoenix's father sacrificed him for the sake of mankind, and it was only a couple thousand years later that it became painfully evident that it was all for naught.
“The burden of man… I am forced to wonder if it was intended to be so difficult to overcome… If it was truly intentional, now I am forced to wonder why it has always been that way.”
Now it’s obvious that the words of Phoenix have shifted from the story of the little boy to the story of himself, but those words are no longer past-tense. He is talking about the current situation he has found himself in, and what’s even more chilling, is that he is talking about the current situation between him and God.
Something has happened in the past that caused a severe change in the Messiah’s personality, it is almost certain that Ubica the Antichrist caused this change, Phoenix has even said so himself. But now however, there is a course of actions between Phoenix and God that no one other than the two of them know about.
This burden, or whatever it may be to him, is beginning to break something inside of Phoenix.
To an onlooker like Rage, the wound it has inflicted on the priest has presented itself clearly.
GGAAAAGAAASSHHH!
The sound of the double doors of the castle opening can be heard, despite the means in which they did it, they've successfully passed Lilith's test.
The Gate is ever so close, but Rage pays no mind to this at all, he pretty much hasn't noticed the fact that the castle door is open wide and inviting them in. All he can do is stare at Phoenix as the crooked look on the priest's face twists even more.
Rage’s eyes grow wide, and the words almost drip out of his mouth when he asks,
“Is there something wrong with you?”
Ubica finally reaches Tsubiri’s location, though he can’t see her from within the countless number of men under Asmodeus’s spell that are desperately trying to get at her. Like zombies, they push and pull at each other, climb over one another unconsciously as they move forward despite any obstacle in their way.
She’s been shocking whoever she can to keep herself safe, that much is clear by dozens of men unconscious on the ground at her feet, but she can’t shock them all. Exerting this much effort to create her electricity has fatigued her, and it’s only a matter of time before she runs out of strength, becomes defenseless and is viciously swarmed on.
“S-Stay back!” she shouts as she electrocutes an encroaching man.
Just hearing her frantic voice from within the crowd sends Ubica into a panicked state, it’s as if there was a switch that just flipped inside of him that made his body hot with an angst that he immediately acts upon.
He pulls out his sword and begins rushing toward the outer rim of men packed in a frenzied crowd trying to get to where Tsubiri is.
He readies to slash through whoever it takes to get to her with his sword, but not before gaining his composure and flipping the dull side of his blade upwards at the last moment. From there, he starts knocking people away and one by one forges a path towards Tsubiri through the throng of thousands of bodies.
(I don’t have to kill them.) He thinks to himself as the thunk noise of each man he hits with the dull side of his sword reaches his ears. (All I need to do is get her and run away!)
Although he is thinking calmly as he methodically makes his way through the mass of men, he’s actually quite anxious, the feeling of wanting to get to her is so great it’s as though the weight in his legs have disappeared.
(Almost there!)
After swinging through the last line of men blocking his path, he reaches his hand out through the gaps of men and shouts,
“Tsubiri!!!”
“Ubica!”
Her voice hits his ears like a crashing wave of relief, just hearing her call out to him means that she’s safe and there is still hope that they’ll escape this mess unharmed. If he can just grab her hand, the two can even make it through this without having to harm others.
Expecting to feel the warmth of her hand as he reaches out, he is surprised to be met with the pressure of the slender hands of someone cold grabbing him instead. He is then pulled through the gaps of men and is met with a sight that obliterates all the hope he had built up in a flash.
The evil eyes of Asmodeus meet his, and with her left hand she squeezes at his wrist, her opposite hand is clasped onto the neck of Tsubiri.
She has intercepted their reunion and has arrived as their most dangerous threat.
“Uuaaahhhh, noooo~~ Ubica! This is so disappointing!”
“Tsubi------“
KSHKSHKSHKSHKSH!!!
Before Ubica could even finish shouting her name, he is electrocuted so violently it causes blood to come spraying out of his nose before his body stiffens up and falls limply to the ground.
Asmodeus still keeps her grip firmly on the two when she says, “This girl’s trying to shock me to protect you, how cute.” She turns to Tsubiri and continues, “I eat the energy of women and make it my own, I suggest you stop unless hurting your boyfriend is something you’re into.”
Tsubiri grits her teeth and stops struggling, she can hardly breath as it is, and this desperate attempt at using electricity to free them both from Asmodeus has sapped the last bit of strength she had left. There is nothing she can possibly do in this situation.
With that interruption settled, Asmodeus then lifts Ubica up by his arm and pulls him close. “Did you really think that you were going to get out of this without getting your hands dirty?”
“.....”
It's likely that Ubica can't talk due to the temporary effects of Tsubiri's lighting, but he still has enough strength to send Asmodeus a deathly glare. He looks at his foe with the glare of someone who believes that he can still win this fight. This isn’t lost on Asmodeus, who can’t help but find this feigned display of confidence amusing.
“Oho my sweet sweet Ubica, you really are something else… It’s amazing how naive the current version of yourself is. You don’t have the luxury of time to keep searching for a way out of this pinch.” She twitches her head as if gesturing to the men who have formed a circle around the three. “These men aren’t going to stop unless they’re dead.”
The men all rush in and start grabbing at Tsubiri, tearing her clothes, tugging on her hair, yanking her arms and pulling her in every which direction. She can’t even scream because of the tight grip on her neck, all she can do is plead to Ubica with eyes full of tears.
“I’m sure I don’t need to tell you what’s gonna happen if you don’t get on with the killing.” The thin smile stretches up her face as she lets go of Ubica’s arm.
Watching Tsubiri get grabbed on by the men while held in place in Asmodeus’s grip has brought him to the point of desperation; it’s just as Asmodeus say, there isn’t any more time to waver in his convictions.
He and Tsubiri are trapped unless he does something about it now.
He grits his teeth and stands to his feet, flips the blade of the sword around and prepares to rush in to save her.
Asmodeus laughs, the piercing in her tongue that hangs to the top of her chest swings as she releases her hold on Tsubiri’s neck and jumps out of the way. Landing on top of a nearby street light, she delights in watching the show from above as she shouts, “Don’t you dare let me down this time Ubica~~ I’m going to get so much pleasure watching you do what you do best!”
Ubica ignores her and hones in on his first target; it is a man who looks to be in his mid 40’s whose face is only inches away from Tsubiri’s. The man sticks his tongue out grotesquely and leans in to lick her cheek.
As he inches closer to her, time seems to slow down to the point where he can think clearly. Frozen in this waking instant, he is reminded of the promise he made to Tsubiri earlier.
He said that he’d do anything for her, even if it’s something he doesn’t want to do.
This may not be as innocent as taking a drink of some strong alcohol, but that gesture applies to this exact moment.
In order to fulfill that promise, he’s going to have to sacrifice the lives of many to save just one.
Watching the man’s tongue inch closer and closer to her face, he’s willing to take on the consequences of whatever action he must take to ensure her safety.
He’s willing to completely eliminate any immediate remorse and resort to violence.
Ubica’s determined eyes shift to the man’s neck, and with a mighty recoil back, he swings the sharp end of his sword.
It happened so fast that it couldn’t be seen with the naked eye.
The man’s head is sent flying.
The bloodbath has begun.
Alone in the dimly lit hallway of the massive castle is Messor and Trojia; not more than a word has been spoken between the two. The thick and heavy atmosphere surrounding the two isn’t coming from the damp darkness of the castle they’re navigating, but instead it serves as an incubator for their increasing animosity.
Messor’s glare beats on Trojia’s back, she’s found herself feeling almost offended at the fact that the Princess in front of her can so casually lead the False Prophet despite knowing full well who she is.
She can’t stand the fearlessly smug air coming from someone she feels is stealing the affection of the other half of herself.
(I really do despise this girl...) she thinks to herself, her gold eyes beginning to glow bright. (It’s her fault that he’s become so distant in the first place.)
Messor’s wild thoughts feel extremely out of control, it is very likely that Lilith is manipulating her mind through the walls of the castle, she doesn’t notice that this is happening but it is likely that she wouldn’t care even if she did know. It’s like she is drunk, when people drink they tend to make a big deal out of nothing and their passive thoughts bleed into emotions that eventually become an action carried out by the body.
It’s that very emotion that’s steadily causing her body to move, her hand is held towards Trojia’s back and her fingers prepare to snap.
(With a simple snap of my finger, she’ll be gone...)
Even though she knows she could dispose of her in an instant, there’s still something deep inside of her that refuses to commit such a shameless act. She still holds honest intentions, and she couldn’t possibly throw away her commitment to Ubica to protect his friends so haphazardly. She shivers to think of how much such an action would hurt him, and hurting him is the last thing she’d ever intentionally do.
She bites her lip and reluctantly puts her tense hand back down to her side.
“Is there something wrong?” Trojia asks, not even turning to acknowledge Messor’s presence.
Agitated by the fact that Trojia could sense the energy exuded by her inner conflict, she remembers the very alarming warning Lillith presented to her back on the bridge.
“There might be.” she answers.
“And what do you think that is?”
“Hey princess…” Messor says after a brief pause, her glare is intense when she asks, “I would like to know about your true thoughts on Ubica after seeing what you saw. ”
“You mean how I spent three years of my life watching the two of you destroy the world?”
“Spare me your sanctimony, I couldn't care less about how you feel about that.”
“Tch.”
“I want to know what it is you intend to do about Ubica going forward. When you woke up you told me you thought he was awful, but there’s been a lot of time since then for you to really interpret your feelings. Since you’ve seen firsthand what Dantega is capable of, what will you do now that you know what we really are?”
Trojia stays silent for a moment, she seems to really be contemplating this question. She still doesn’t turn to Messor when she sternly answers, “If it comes down to it, I’ll do whatever it takes to protect the people I care about.”
“Do you actually think that he’d harm you or the others? That’s ridiculous.” Messor replies.
The two keep walking through the hallway and reach a large black door, Trojia opens it and the moment she enters, hundreds of candles instantly light up and reveal the room they’ve found themselves in.
The large room is shaped in a rectangular fashion, with another large black door on the other side about a hundred meters ahead. Hanging on the walls in between the two doors are many different weapons ranging from spears to longswords; they all look brand new and light from the candles reflects off them as though they were mirrors.
Paying no mind to her new surroundings, Trojia continues her walk toward the other door and says, “It’s not so much that I think he’d hurt them with his own two hands, but If he loses control, who’s to say they won’t be collateral damage? What if something snaps inside of him and he decides to do what he did a thousand years ago? I won’t allow that to happen.”
“Hahahahaha.” Messor immediately laughed upon hearing that.
This prompts Trojia to turn around and glare at her quizzically.
Messor’s laugh is almost more relieved than amused.
”And here I was worrying about what Lillith said about your soul. There’s no threat of you taking my place after all, in the end, you’re no different than any other person stupid enough to try and hurt Ubica becasue they’re afraid of what he may or may not do. You must’ve learned such a weak trait from that bodyguard I killed.”
Trojia’s shoulders jolted and her eyes widened to an alarming size. Those last words hit her like an arrow shot right into her heart.
“...What did you just say?”
“I said you sound just like your bodyguard Niomyo did... When I killed her.”
As if the most important cog in the machinery of Trojia had broken, her head tilts to the side and her eyebrow twitches; any evidence of life in her eyes fades and is replaced by a broken glare.
As far as Trojia knew, Niomyo was in the midst of Ubica and Mammon’s fight back on the Second Level. She had no reason to think otherwise due the thousands of casualties caused by Mammon's balls of antimatter.
But putting the pieces together from that horrible night, it really does make sense that Nyomio met her end in a different manner; she had no external wounds to speak of other than her crushed hand, which Trojia had found suspicious at first but had brushed it off to allow herself to grieve.
So hearing this sudden confession has come as a gut wrenching confirmation of a quiescant suspicion that she can now place upon Messor’s head.
“...Huh?” she mutters, that same dead look still evident on her face.
“She threatened to kill Ubica in the name of your safety. He was unconscious on the ground and she held a knife to his throat; if I hadn’t been there he’d surely be dead. That look in her eyes, her tone of voice, it’s the same as you.”
Trojia’s stiffened gaze doesn’t soften for even a moment as Messor explains.
“People like you are far more villainous than any demon; the way Ubica is now, he’d sooner accept death before he’d ever defend himself against someone he cares about. You see yourself as righteous, but the truth is that you’re sinister enough to make an enemy out of someone who has shown you nothing but kindness for something as selfish as to make yourself feel safe.”
The words that are leaving Messor’s lips are surely venomous, in any normal situation Trojia would at least be affected by them. However, the flickering red ring around Trojia’s green eyes is evidence of her lack of empathy.
The mental state she’s in is also due to the effect of Lillith’s power inebriating her senses, she simply can not separate herself from the emotion of standing mere feet away from her best friend's murderer.
“As the False Prophet, how could I continue to allow such a threat to exist? I especially can’t allow the powers I’ve given to you to be used against him.” Messor again holds her steady hand up and presents it to the princess. “All it’s going to take is a snap of my finger and your heart will explode from within, you’ll die just like your bodyguard.”
‘Snap’
Messor snaps her finger and fully expects to see blood scream out of every opening in Trojia’s face.
She has taken back the power she gave her and as a result, taken her life along with it.
Messor can’t help but smile in anticipation of seeing the death of this girl in front of her.
A few moments pass and Messor is shocked to find that Trojia is still just standing there glaring forward with her flickering gaze. There’s no way it should have taken this long for her to collapse to the ground; she impatiently snaps her fingers once again and is met with overwhelming confusion upon seeing that nothing has changed.
“!?”
Trojia takes a step forward and blankly states, “You…”
The circle around her green eyes glows a bright red, taking on the form of a solar eclipse as she takes a menacing step forward.
“Why isn’t this working!?” Messor shouts, losing her cool completely.
That’s when Messor feels something intense push at her stomach and pull at her back, the wind instantly gets sucked out of her and she spits up blood.
BOMMM!
A thick base noise is heard in front of the False Prophet and as if she has been hit by a truck, she is sent flying backwards at an incomprehensible speed. The jolt was so great that it tore her loosely worn plaid shirt right off her shoulders.
WHAAAAACKKK!!!
Her body crashes into the stone wall of the castle so hard it leaves an indent a couple feet deep into the solid mass of brick. The whiplash alone causes Messor to feel like she has broken every bone in her body at once.
“Kaaaaah!?”
The back of her throat yelps through the blood that has accumulated in her mouth.
Her body slides off the wall and falls limply onto the ground, she can barely move; she has never been hit like that in her entire life.
The power from that attack was far greater than anything she could ever have imagined.
She may be the False Prophet and can heal incredibly fast with the aid of Dantega, but she doesn’t have the almost indestructible body of the Antichrist, her frame is just as frail as any other girl, it’s very likely that a few bones have been shattered.
Trojia takes slow steps towards her downed foe, each one inviting more malice than the last.
Her expression seems as though all human emotion has been abandoned and is replaced by an empty shell of some kind of robot. The red light that was encircling her eyes now engulfs the irises that were once a beautiful green and shines fully in the color of blood red.
A pressure surrounds her, so strong that it breaks off pieces of the roof above her head. The sound of bricks falling to the ground crack and add solidity to the rumbling bass noise of the room shaking the area around her.
Messor’s eyes grow wide as she stares at a girl so imposing it even strikes a deep sense of fear inside of her.
“This... Is impossible, you can’t be this strong!” she shouts.
With whatever strength she has left, she begins forming butterflies all around her to protect herself, it’s become quite apparent that the only way out of this is to fight her way out of it. Forming her own power and analyzing Trojia’s, it finally strikes her as to why this Princess’s presence is so overwhelming.
She instantly flashes back to what Damien did to her on the boat back in the Second Level of Purgatory; he didn’t just show her Ubica’s past in order to turn her against him, he sent her soul into the past by connecting it with the residual energy left behind by Dantega. An energy that strong never ceases to exist no matter how many years go by, somewhere within the frame of spacetime, all energy continuously exists.
The massive amount of energy that Dantega has spread into the universe is present in the same way the cosmic microwave background can be viewed all the way back to the big bang; theoretically, the current universe filled with carbon based life coexists with the very moment all physical matter came to be billions of years in the past. Somehow, Damien has managed to send Trojia's soul directly into the thick of of Dantega's microwave background that was left implanted into the fabric of reality 1000 years earlier.
Disregarding how something like that is even possible for Damien to pull off, the more surprising aspect of it is just how in the world Trojia's soul survived being put through something like that.
No normal human should be able to survive within that environment, and certainly not for the entire three years of that environment's existence where it radiated it's most potent energy.
So how is it that Trojia is now standing here in front of Messor as such an imposing foe harboring such incredible strength?
Again, Messor comes back to what Lillith said about Trojia’s pure soul.
(Her soul is truly pure, just like yours was…)
It makes perfect sense to her now, but this newfound clarity doesn't bring her any comfort.
“Hmph! I see, you’ve fallen right into Damien’s hands…”
Messor stands to her feet abruptly, despite feeling her bones crack under the pressure of her own weight, she somehow finds the strength to smile.
"You are his trump card if I'm unable to fulfill my end of the bargain. He must take me for some kind of fool."
The two stare each other down intensely when Lilith’s voice rings from above them.
“Perfection! It’s just what I thought would happen between you two!”
THUNK! THUNK!
The two doors on each side of the room shut rather loudly and are followed by a loud clicking noise as if someone has turned the deadbolts.
“These doors won’t open until one of you has been defeated. So entertain me my beautiful Trojia, I’ll only meet you once you prove to me that you have the strongest soul!”
Lilith’s voice fades away and the situation becomes even more dire, there’s no way the both of them will come out of this alive. The animosity flowing between the False Prophet and the Trojan princess is enough to make the core of the massive castle shake.
Trojia takes a step to the right and calmly grabs a weapon off of the wall, she takes two twin blades and holds them in front of her. The miniature katanas are a gunmetal color, but gloss in the candlelight.
She twirls them around as if she has had years of experience with the weapons and holds them to her side in a battle posture.
Staring at Messor, her mouth faintly moves and her monotonous voice exits.
“Messor... I'm going to kill you.”
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