It was dark. A void. He floated in it, weightless, formless. No senses. No smell. No sight. He simply existed there, suspended in that moment between life and whatever came after.
Can't believe I died to three weak guys because of some woman with a god complex.
He brushed the thought aside. Lucid was okay with dying. He'd let go. This was probably his fourth time caught in such a state. Almost comical, really. He scoffed into the nothing. If it meant he'd died following his goal, his vengeance toward them with everything he had, then Lucid would die with the biggest smile on his face. He didn't care.
As he floated in the dark, something formed. Particles of golden light coalesced into a single thread, delicate as fabric, floating just beyond reach. It was the only luminescent thing in this emptiness. He reached for it.
His hands.
"What the..."
They were transparent. Made of fog. The same wispy substance that covered his face.
"Whoa."
He debated touching it. This thing felt odd, wrong somehow, but at the same time it was either grasp this mysterious golden thread pulsing with shadowy golden aura, or float in the endless void forever.
He took it.
What was there to lose anyway?
The moment his fingers closed around it, power so overwhelming it burned shot up his arm, traveled inside his chest, surged into his head and everywhere at once. He jerked his head back as light consumed him from the inside, making his eyes and mouth shine with brilliance.
Then white.
Then nothing.
He woke again.
The sun assaulted his eyes. He winced, blinking rapidly. The scorched smell of earth and burning papers was gone, replaced with the scent of fresh grass, wind, and a calm, serene environment. He looked around. Green grass expanded into an endless horizon. He looked up. The sky was cloudy and blue, no sun visible despite the light.
"Ah yes... heaven at last."
He paused.
"Wait. Me? Heaven?"
Lucid mumbled under his breath. As kind as he seemed sometimes, he wasn't exactly a saint. If there was a God, he thought, he would've been condemned to hell long before now.
He looked down at himself. A brown, ragged tunic. His hair was messy in the same manner it had been since he'd arrived in this world. Or the other. He couldn't remember now. The grass reached about knee height as he stood, walking forward. He touched it with his hand. It was nice. Calming.
He scanned the horizon and saw it. A tree in the distance. Singular. Massive. He walked toward it, seeking shadow.
As he got closer, his steps slowed.
He saw a figure.
She hung there, suspended against the trunk in a grotesque mimicry of crucifixion. White chains coiled around her chest like living serpents, wrapping beneath and over her breasts with such cruel tightness that they bit deep into pale flesh. The metal links disappeared into her skin, burrowing inward toward something vital. Her heart. He could see it beating through the translucent tissue of her chest, exposed and pulsing, each rhythm suppressed by the chains that constricted with every desperate thump.
A dark spear, thick as his forearm and black as midnight, pierced clean through her abdomen. It pinned her to the tree trunk, the weapon's tip jutting from the bark behind her. Blood, viscous and dark, seeped from the wound in slow rivulets, painting the wood beneath her feet.
Her spine. A chain threaded directly through it at the base of her neck, each vertebra pierced like beads on a string. The metal links ran down her back, wrapped around the tree, then coiled around her throat, digging into the soft flesh there with brutal pressure. Dark bruises bloomed where the metal strangled her. Every shallow breath she took made the whole network rattle softly.
Thin white robes, more veil than clothing, clung to her frame. They were so tattered and transparent they revealed more than they concealed. Bruises bloomed across her skin in shades of purple and black, old wounds that painted maps of suffering along her ribs, her stomach, her elegant feminine hips. Dark marks traced patterns beneath the fabric, some fresh, some faded to yellow. The veil did nothing to hide the chains digging into her chained breasts, nothing to cover the evidence of desecration written across her body.
Her hands were mutilated beyond recognition. Fingers bent at impossible angles, some missing entirely. The palms were shredded, wrapped in dry, bloodstained bandages that did little to hide the torn flesh beneath. Skin hung in strips, as though something had clawed through them repeatedly, tearing away the flesh that once offered blessings. They hung limp at her sides, useless and grotesque.
A blindfold wrapped tight around her eyes, white cloth stained with something dark. Her hair, a muddy green like moss on stone, hung in matted strands around her face. Her lips were bloody, cracked and split, stained crimson.
At her core, where her navel should be, substance, that of similarly to fate essence leaked like an open wound. Golden, white, liquid bled from her in steady streams, running down her thighs, puddling at the roots of the tree, soaking into the earth. It drained endlessly, her divinity flowing out drop by precious drop into nothing.
She was a revolting sight.
Yet when she spoke, her voice was enchanting.
"Lucid."
It was soft. Hopeful. Desperate. Nothing like the dismissive, mocking tone he remembered before dying. There was no arrogance now. Only longing, so raw and aching.
"You came," she whispered, and despite everything, her voice was beautiful. Like wind through bells. "I knew you would."
Lucid finally found his voice, but it was hard, edged with the memory of the dagger in his side, and another one piercing his chest. "I'm dead... because of you."
Her mutilated hand, suspended near his cheek, faltered and fell to her side. Her blooy smile faded. "I suppose so. But you rejected me, Lucid."
He shot her a confused look.
"You are brave," she said. "Compassionate. Weak. Resilient. But also overly dependent on me." Her smile returned, but it was different now. Sadder. Knowing. "You are my puppet, a puppet that think of itself as a heroic person, when you are so weak without me."
She shifted against her bonds, chains rattling. The scent of her was not pleasant. "I tried to shield you from these useless emotions. Like happiness. Empathy. Sadness. Pain. And even pleasure."
"Tch." Lucid looked away, his old defiance surfacing. "I don't feel any of that."
"Yes, you do," she insisted, her voice softening. "I could share your same sentiments, Lucid. They were intoxicating. They often made me feel... human."
"But I am not supposed to feel this way. I don't know what I am, but I know I am not human. We have a goal. And these feelings... they are distractions."
Her voice was soft, delicate, utterly enchanting. He couldn't help but be drawn to it. His heart felt loose in his chest. His stomach fluttered.
"But that is not the only reason why I turned against you." she said. Though she had no eyes behind that blindfold, he felt her gaze fix on him. "You seem to forget I have full access to your thoughts. Your feelings. The fluctuations of your body."
She paused. "You thought about sacrificing yourself. For someone you haven't even met."
Lucid's mind flashed to Frederick's desperate face, to his desperate plan. "And so?" he said defensively. "Why do you care whether I sacrifice myself or not? It's my choice."
"Is that so?" Her voice dropped to a dangerous register. "Sacrificing yourself. Or me."
She let the words hang. "If I were not here, that rift would have killed you in your unawakened state. But your plan... it would have latched onto my faith, my reserve of fate essence, instead. You could keep it occupied, in theory. But in that theory, you are sacrificing me instead."
Her tone was piercing. "So, is it yourself you are sacrificing, Lucid? Or is it me? I am not okay with you giving yourself up either. But I was hurt when I realized you thought about giving me up."
Lucid was dumbfounded. The logic, the possessiveness, the strange wounded jealousy in her words left him speechless.
"It doesn't matter now," she said, the fire fading, replaced by deep, weary sorrow. "We are dead now. I guess this is our final goodbye." Her voice broke. "Let's spend our final moments together. Come closer, please. I want to feel your face."
Lucid inched closer. Her hand lifted, the dry bandages and mutilated flesh brushing his cheek. She traced his dimples, his nose, his forehead with trembling fingers.
"I can imagine you," she whispered. "You are... exactly as I imagined. Soft features. Delicate eyes..."
"I suppose we couldn't keep our promise," she continued, voice cracking. "Of seeing each other in flesh and blood."
He gritted his teeth, shutting his eyes. It was sorrowful. Pitying.
"I feel so alone, Lucid," she whispered. "Please. Come to me."
She tried to inch her head closer, seeking what seemed like a kiss, her limp hand shallowly holding the side of his head. But the chains strangling her throat held her firm, digging deeper, making them bleed. She coughed, golden blood spattering her lips.
Lucid, seeing this, couldn't help but grit his teeth in pain and shame, perhaps guilt. He looked away. He stepped back, rationalizing.
"We shouldn't control each other," he said. "We're partners—"
"You are a mortal," she cut him off, desperate. "My little lamb—"
"Screw that! You don't even know what you are!" Lucid's voice cracked.
He looked to the side, unable to hold her sightless gaze. "What is this place?"
"A soulscape," she said softly. "A personal realm for the illuminated. I don't really know what it is. A realm for one soul, I think."
He looked at her. She couldn't see. Couldn't feel, perhaps. But her skin was soft and delicate beneath the scars. Her eyes were blindfolded. Her hair a muddy green. Her lips bloody. Her spine pierced by chains. Chains wrapping around her exposed heart.
He stepped forward and hugged her despite all of these conditions.
"I can't place my faith in you," he said, voice low. "I can't submit to you. But... I can come to like the person you are. And the person you'll become."
He bit his tongue.
What he was about to say felt like the most dangerous thing he was about to say.
"I love you."
Silence
"You do?" Alice sounded earnest. Hopeful.
Lucid hugged her despite her bloody, rotting state.
"Yes. I do."
".... I love you so much..."
She sounded relieved. Happy. He felt her bloodied hand rise and touch his back in an embrace. She cried, tears soaking through her blindfold.
She was silent, as if she was shocked for a moment.
"This is not submission nor devotion..." she smiled warmly, "but love is a form of acceptence and devotion.... my... Lucid...."
"M..y... I am... so relieved... I love you too Lucid... I have always loved you.."
"A god and a mortal... it's forbidden... but it is a sin im willing to indulge in." She whispered into his ear.
She gripped him even tighter digging her bloody fingers into his back.
Lucid started to break into tears, gripping her close, muttering.
"I don't want to die..."
"I have so much to do!"
"Shhh," she soothed. "It's okay. We're together now. A deity and a mortal in their final moments."
"I don't...want to die... no.. not lke this." he sobbed.
Alice hugged him tighter, feeling guilty. She'd caused his death. But despite that, she'd given him so much good.
"There's one thing I can do," she whispered. "Unwrap my chains. It will bleed. It will hurt. But... I'll manage. Take the spear near my abdomen and pull it."
What followed was pain.
He found his hands around her breasts, pulling the chains where they dug inside. Blood came, but it was shining blood, golden substance that burned his fingers. She screamed, Lucid grunted in pain. She yelled. Lucid gritted his teeth and focused on the task at hand.
Finally, her chest lay bare before him. The chains dangled to the ground. Her throat was free as well, though the chains were still connected to her torso, they fell limply to the ground.
Next was the spear. He took it with both hands and pulled.
She screamed in pain as he edged it out, inch by agonizing inch. Finally, she fell from the tree. He braced her, holding her body to his shoulder, putting his hand on her back.
He whispered, "It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. I'm here."
The veil did little to cover her bruised and exposed bare body. The flowing fate essence from her navel still continued to spill down. Her eyes were blindfolded, but gold blood seemed to spill from beneath the cloth. She was still bound in places, but he had done the worst part of freeing them.
The spear. The short chains from her throat. They flowed into him.
Bright light enveloped them both.
"It will carry a huge backlash," she gasped, voice fading. "However... I can't bare to see you die against your wishes..."
Lucid started to feel light, refreshed, whole. She looked at him through the blindfold, from the ground as if she could see. Her face were briefly over come with longing, joy and then saddnes. Tears mixed with the golden blood started to fall down.
Lucid saw her on the ground, a twisted sorrowful broken form. He approached her bending down, he focused on her face. Bruised, damp with tears, painfully tragically beutiful, bruised lips. She slowly held her hands against his cheeks and started to pull closer for a kiss. Lucid leaned in her lips brushing against his cheek and envlopped her in a firm hug.
"Wow... so impatient..." he whispered
Her lips parted as if remembering a promise, she exhaled.
"When... I get my old form back," she whispered, "why don't we stay together? Forever?"
Behind his closed eyes, Lucid focused. His lips curved into a smile. He slowly opened his eyes.
His dead eyes.
He'd won.
He spoke softly, his voice cold and if anything devoid of the sadness from before.
"Forever doesn't sound like a bad idea."
The world broke away into white light as dark letters formed.
***
You have obtained [ The Pierced Spine ] [ The Silenced Throat ]
Recalibrating Rank
[ The Chain of Heart ] F >>>> E
[ The Pierced Spine ] F
[ The Silenced Throat ] F
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Enlightened Title: The Divine Maiden
Name: Alice
Rank: Primordial
Fate Essence: ∞
Trait: [The Chain of Heart] [The Pierced Spine] [The Silenced Throat]█████▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
Description: Lost in time and space... Error... Error... This message cannot be revealed further.
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