Found You Again

Moments ago, Korivale city’s outskirts.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The sound of wheels rolling and horses galloping on the dirt ground was the only hint of reality Ogon’s blanked mind managed to grasp—and not for long.

Once again surrounded by nothing but darkness, he was in a deep slumber—not a dreamlike state, but one that resembled a nightmare.

~~…Found you…~~

~~…Found you…~~

~~…Found you…~~

Drowning in nothingness, he began hearing whispers that echoed with undesired familiarity. Once again, his senses were torn apart.

~~Killed.. you… Argus… Killed you…~~

~~Comrades… Favor… Return…~~

Argus … V-Volgen. Ogon recalled the last thing he had seen: the arrogant, grinning face of the Seraphic Knight Argus Volgen.

~~He killed Veylen.. He shall be judged…~~

In a state that could only be called oblivion, the anonymous whispers haunted Ogon’s shattered consciousness. He slowly began recognizing that voice as the sight of a blind man, widely smiling, appeared to him in the void.

!!

“THE SINNER!”

The blasphemous word “Burn.” left the smiling man’s twitching mouth.

A flame of burning crimson glimmer appeared in the blackness, growing with an intimidating rhythm as if it fed on the very emptiness of Ogon’s blanked mind.

“I smell something burning…” The warrior riding the horse in the front noticed something.

“Jump off!—

FWOOOSH!

The gold-carved iron carriage exploded, a storm of hellish flames erupting from it. The warriors rushed outside the carriage a second before the explosion.

“RAAAAAAAGH!”

From the wreckage of the iron carriage rose a monstrosity whose presence carried the sinister stench of blasphemy.

“What on earth…” The three warriors instinctively stepped back. Devoured by fear, they stared at the hellish devil in front of them, the devil whose body was covered in ash-choked, dark-red inferno.

“Is this the reason the cathedral wants him…?” The dark-red-suited warrior questioned in confusion.

“Why would they even want this thing?” His gray-suited comrades seemed to be just as confused as he was.

The three warriors thought that it was rather reckless and irresponsible for Argus Volgen to attempt capturing an entity he did not quite understand, and even send it to the holy cathedral. They were utterly disgusted, but not in the least surprised by how far that man had gone to achieve his promotions and goals.

“Either way, our lives are on the line now. We must first survive!” were the last words the red-suited warrior pronounced before his head flew from his shoulders. The tiny bits of grass on the dirt ground were no longer green.

The two gray-suited warriors froze, their bodies quivering with tremendous fear. A ridiculous expression was plastered on their faces.

After all, their comrade’s head had flown, and the blood gushing from his neck was now spraying them. All they glimpsed was a dark red flash.

They knew what had killed their comrade, and they knew they were next.

CH-THUK!

The warrior’s flying head landed perfectly on the demonic, dark-black left horn of the devilish monstrosity.

“RUN!” The two remaining warriors hopelessly fled.

KR-R-RUNCH!

An arm went flying, followed by another, then a leg, then a head, then a torso. A bloody storm of human limbs and intestines covered the ground. The stench of boiling blood and burning flesh added a devastating fragrance to the night’s atmosphere. The two warriors—no, their remains—looked rather appetizing on the blood-soaked grass.

It was a silent massacre.

“RAAAAAAAAGHH!” The monstrosity—Ogon—was still haunted by whispers, to the point of madness, to the point of no return.

He smashed the ground beneath him, swung his claws, beat his vast wings. A tornado of inferno turned every living and unliving thing in the area into mere ash. Nothing living remained.

~~Found you… I found you… Ogon…~~

stop.

stop.

stop.

The next words to echo through Ogon’s mind acted like a symphony of beauty and war.

If you truly wish your beloved heaven… Find me…

The words were clear, as if they were a guide. In this alien world, Ogon, despite embracing a goal, had no knowledge of his destiny. Lost in fate, humans would cling to any string to find direction. Ogon, who was now, to some point, Veylen, would cling to anything to find his way.

Anything.

My… Heaven…? As if exorcised, the flames that had forged Ogon into the hellish monster he was vanished almost instantly.

“Heaven…” Ogon fell on his knees, a strangely human expression resting on his face.

The sinner’s whispers disappeared. Now, it was the absurd silence that Ogon had to tolerate—a silence so deep, the world was hollowly silent.

Due to both the insanity of the situation and his body’s human traits, Ogon was in a state of fear and doubt, but not confusion.

Favor…Argus Volgen…Heaven… He recalled the sinner’s whispers and was reminded of his comrades—Liselotte and Thaniel, who had saved him from death before.

Volgen and Thaniel were fighting, I remember. At that moment, as the word “Favor” was repetitively processed in his human mind, Ogon knew what to do. He knew he had to head back and save his comrades. After all, that was probably his only clue to finding Heaven—aside from finding the Sinner himself.

“The sinner… How did he find me…How did he reach me…?” For the first time since his arrival in this world—a mere two eventful days ago—Ogon reflected on the miraculous scenario of the body swap.

Perhaps the hope he'd found in that melancholy event—his only chance to ever seek Heaven—had blinded him to its terrifying implications. But now, thinking about it, he fell into a crisis. An existential one.

Hallucinations? It must be a delusion… After a road of doubt and thought, Ogon arrived at a settling deduction: there was simply no way for a Hell Guardian to interact with the mortal world—at least not one as low-ranked as he had been. Therefore, the Sinner, now wearing Ogon's original body, should have no way of reaching him here.

Ogon looked around him, gazing upon the disastrous state of the destroyed area. He also felt a strange sense of nostalgia at the sight of the ground. It was covered in ash, just like the outskirts of Pandemonium.

Weren’t there three warriors with me? He was concerned about the absence of the warriors, not knowing he had demolished them into pieces, then into mere ash, with his own hands.

Seconds after, his mind was refreshed with bloody, wildly violent, and grotesque memory flashes of human remains scattering all over the place.

So I was the one to kill them. As a Hell Guardian, he was used to such massacring acts. What was strange is that this realization didn't trigger his human body's morality. Therefore, he didn't deal with any wrongness.

“This loss of control caused a mess, but my clothes are unharmed. I wonder why.” Ogon pondered the strangely preserved detail.

Hellfire, despite its destructive name, was driven by will, and since Ogon had a human body now, emotions would interfere with that will. These flames burned only with their master's will and clarity of mind.

The reason Ogon’s clothes—the ones his savior Thaniel gave him—weren’t destroyed was the subconscious gratitude and care Veylen’s human body held towards them.

This purely showcased how twisted Veylen's moral perspective was—or rather, became throughout his seemingly obscure life.

“What is it that I am going through? This strange sense—more a need for responsibility, the need to be somewhere, to do something.” That "something" being helping his comrades.

Ogon stood up and gazed at the high, arched, gloomy night sky for a full minute. He began hearing strikes of thunder coming from where he had last been.

In a moment of uncertainty, lacking knowledge of his next step, Ogon followed the last tiny fragments of humanity he could access in Veylen’s shattered heart. He formed dark infernal wings, leaped into the night sky, and flew toward Oakleaf Street in Korivale city.

His dark wings resembled the nocturnal, cloudy heavens.

The thunderbolts that ripped the sky screamed loudly, though not even slightly near the loudness of the words “Found you” that roared in Ogon’s silent mind during the night flight.