Despair

     With the goddess’s permission, Siti and I moved into a separate room where we could speak in private, though I was sure the goddess could listen in on any conversation in her own temple.

     Still, it was at least nice to sit in a clean, orderly room. The walls, floor and ceiling were all marble white and adorned with various golden ornaments that seemed related to the goddess’s authorities. Depictions of punishments, of atonement, and of redemption appeared in engraved murals and small golden plates around the room.

     Siti and I sat on white wooden chairs across from one another as her gaze continued to fall to the ground. I’d wanted to wait patiently until she was ready to speak, but after hearing her proclamation, I couldn’t contain my curiosity any longer.

“Did you really mean what you said? That going to Earth might be impossible.”

She nodded and let out a quiet, “Mhm.”

“Why do you say that?”

“A Demon God,” she started, “Not Caedes, a Demon King, but the Demon God above him. They’re likely the one behind the abductions. I’d thought it strange for a King to be using such powerful magic as inter-realm abductions without the God that they serve noticing. They were likely doing it under orders, working together.”

“Are the Demon Gods that powerful? That it’s impossible?”

Siti leaned back in her chair, placating herself by weaving her fingers and rubbing her palms together, “Fighting against a King was already unreasonable, like trying to fight the sun. Fighting a Demon God? That’d be like fighting all the stars in the sky. You’ve heard mention of the Great Realms before. When it was just Libero and I traveling, we’d heard that the Demon Gods managed to invade one of them and devoured it. All the stars, all the worlds, everything. How do we even fight something that can do that?”

     I sat back in my chair as well. Right, Sero did say something like that, that they’d devour the Hidden Realm and take over the Demon Realm. But that was when we were talking about a King that hadn’t succeeded yet, but now a God that already has? But then what are we supposed to do? Just sit back and do nothing? Keep growing stronger until we can challenge them? How long would that take? Would they just sit around and let us grow stronger? Doing nothing or running away would only delay the problem. We have to stop them, but how?

“D-do you think the goddess-”

“If the whole Divine Realm was involved, possibly. But one Divinity? It’s help, but if she was pulled down here, she’s no match for a Demon God.”

     I clenched my fists as I tried to wrack my brains with all that I knew. Is there really no chance? Are we just supposed to wait to die?

     Then a terrible feeling gripped my heart. It felt as if an intense weight was pressing down on my body and a hand was attempting to pull my heart out of my chest. It was different from the feeling I had in the presence of the goddess, this wasn’t guilt, it was more akin to fear, to terror. Something was here.

“Found you.”

     The voice, though calm, caused the walls to crack and the room to tremble, and it felt like the air had been knocked out of my lungs. As I clutched my chest, I looked up towards Siti to see she was having a similar reaction. She opened her mouth, attempting to speak, but no voice would come out.

The oppressive feeling was alleviated somewhat as the voice of the goddess cracked through the air above the temple, “Demon King Caedes! So you’ve shown yourself!”

“You make it sound as if I’ve been hiding. I simply had no need to come here. Arx ought to have been enough, for the likes of you, but it seems he’s occupied at this time.”

Caedes! He’s here! And all he needs to do IS be here to suppress us! Is the difference really so great!? And he’s only a King!?!

“I’d heard from a vile trickster that Sero had turned traitor. Sure enough, he was not at his settlement, his territory is diminished, and he’s hiding here under the wing of a Divinity. Repulsive. You can loathe him, for I would not have come here if not for him. Instead, your precious sanctum shall be laid to waste.”

     The walls began to collapse and the roof caved in. I leaped over to Siti’s side to shield her from the falling rubble before I could look up to the direction of Caedes’s voice.

     There I saw a maelstrom of blood as every angel and demon residing on the temple grounds attempted to attack the one at the center, yet before they could even get close, they were reduced to severed chunks of limbs. Fingers separated from hands separated from forearms separated from upper arms separated from torsos separated from heads and legs.

     At the center of it all hovered what felt like a mass of pure malevolence. He was the most human-like demon that I’d seen, with reddened flesh flesh and normal musculature and shape with only sharp nails on his fingers and toes, yet his muscles were exposed as every part of his skin was flayed open, twisted and wrapped around him as if they were accessories. Exposed organs only barely held inside his body, sharp eyes without lids, and every part of him was incessantly dripping with blood. Four horns crowned his head, curved and sharpened as if each one was a blade. As I gazed upon him, there was just a moment when his eyes locked onto mine.

[Massacre]

“JAMES!!!”

     Siti jumped between our gazes and, in an instant, she was reduced to the same pile of body parts as the others, as well as every angel and demon in the temple all at once. Tendrils quickly shot out from Siti’s various parts as she pulled her body back together.

“Ah, the Green Plague. I’ve heard of you. Pleased to meet you, but you’re in the way.”

“VENIA!!! GET JAMES OUT OF HERE!!!”

     Caedes outstretched his hand with glowing symbols beginning to form in the air in front of him. The lines, circles and symbols spread out as the spell they formed became more and more complex. Siti quickly grew more of her bodies, walls of wood, and a sea of vines, all converging towards Caedes while also forming a barrier between him and us, all while I was too stunned to even understand what all was happening.

Venia’s voice echoed in my mind as light began to congregate around me, “I am sorry human. I would have preferred your cooperation, but I cannot wait for your consent.” Then a flood of images began to fill my head. Visions of people, faithful believers and followers of Venia. I felt her power flowing through me in a way that was nothing like the false skin atop my body. This power came from within me, as did the goddess’s thoughts and feelings, her desperation, urgency, and remorse. It felt like my veins were searing and my eyes might explode out of their sockets and I could feel the demon suit writhing, squirming in agony as both divinity and demons occupied my body.

     I dropped to my knees, paralyzed with pain and overwhelming thoughts, feelings, and memories coursing through my mind, but I could still see, and I could feel the ground cracking and crumbling beneath me.

“Traitorous Sero, await your punishment at your territory once you pull yourself back together.”

[Genocide Flare]

     All of Siti’s defenses were breached in an instant as a scorching blood red light incinerated the plant life that Siti had created to shield us. Her body doubles physically piled upon me, shielding me, burning away and regenerating as quickly as they could, but slowly giving way to the impending death. But, as they delayed that light, the ground collapsed beneath us, turning to dust as Venia’s temple began to vanish. Deeper down, even the ground beneath her temple began to crumble. That hardened ground composed of piles of dead demons crumbled and was torn open by huge wooden roots that had been lurking below.

     Those roots rose up, attempting to block that red light, but quickly burning away as did all the others. I continued to fall deeper and deeper without end with that pile of Sitis still trying to protect me. However, without their roots to nourish them, they too were depleting quickly.

She looked at me, those faintly-glowing amber irises locking onto me and, in spite of the ensuing death, smiled warmly, “Stay alive James. As long as you’re alive, I’ll find you again. Until then...try not to miss me too much~”

     I still couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, couldn’t reach out as she pushed off from me into that consuming light. No matter how much I tried to reach out, no matter how much I tried to scream, all I could do was watch as her visage was burned away and that murderous red light began to fade into the distance. Its malicious light was swallowed by the absolute darkness that encroached upon me from all sides as I fell deeper and deeper and deeper into an abyss that I couldn’t even turn my head to look into.