Chapter 42: The Madness Stemming from Him
I regained the control and tranquility over my emotions as soon as I returned.
I now understood that the thing I was feeling wasn't calmness nor apathy—it was a desensitization.
For every death, I would lose sensitivity towards the matters that normally caused people to stumble and fail under their fears, allowing me to go further beyond—beyond the chains of human emotions.
"But aren't you too young to…you know, risk your life by fighting that thing?" he asked.
"Yeah. You're right." I sighed.
He craned his neck and peeked at me for a brief moment before returning to the chatter I heard from my revelation.
"The creature you've fought seemed to be stronger than you—why did you keep fighting a losing battle?"
I then spoke.
"I do not know myself." I sighed. "While fighting it, I'd seen memories of a glorious past, glorious days when we did not rule. The days of an ancient city, the dawn of a marvelous civilization."
"It was utterly beautiful."
"Look at the world outside. While billionaires live wealthy lifestyles, the so-called scum of society suffers. Homeless people, prostitutes, immigrants—they are the object of blame and scorn. They call them druggies and lazy, when really, their outcome isn't their fault."
"They have been abandoned by society. While the plebeians are in pain, the rich profits off their sufferings."
He turned around to face me, his expression indecipherable.
"Do you know how I feel, seeing the downfall of this world?" I asked, clenching my fist.
This was a gamble.
If I could make him lower his guard by acting as one with his own ideas and beliefs, it would mean my victory.
"It disgusts me."
"Our rulers do not care about us. We might as well throw our fates in the hands of someone else—someone superior, someone possessing vast knowledge—vast understandings that will bring us towards a new world, towards a new future."
"I see." he slowly nodded.
He gazed at the moon, his lips curling into a blank smile.
"His wisdom knows no bounds…" he muttered, staring at the satellite.
Ivan glanced at me as thin, dangly tentacles sprouted near his eyes.
"There's no point in hiding it. You can foresee the future."
'So He knew…!'
"…And you've seen this already, haven't you?" he pointed at me, his index finger becoming thinner and thinner, his skin gradually turning translucent.
"You are an interesting specimen. You aren't a Patron Bearer, yet you can gain future revelations inside the physical plane…"
"Even my insignificant mind can start to comprehend the reasons of His curiosity towards you…"
"…I can't shake this question from my mind, however," he narrowed his eyes.
"What are you…?"
As he talked, I thought of how to get out from this situation. Even in the best of circumstances, I only had two revelations left.
While the agony I felt upon my Fragment was greatly reduced, I didn't acquire other prophecies.
Once I lost them, it would mean game over.
I had to incapacitate him first, then interrogate him thoroughly. This would allow me to find the means to return inside the real-world.
And if I arrived right on time, I could try to stop the Ritual of Descent from there.
Ivan—or rather, the Sult'Hurni, said that He hadn't descended upon reality.
Since I stayed inside the dimension for quite a while, I thought that time passed differently there.
Therefore, He hadn't brought me there so I couldn't try to stop his ritual, but instead for other reasons bound by His curiosity.
I scoffed at his questions.
"Ask your god."
His face twisted as tentacle after tentacle emerged from his face, head and neck—all undulating towards me in what I figured to be a threatening manner.
His façade of humanity was slowly crumbling before my eyes, revealing more and more of the Sult'Hurni he was inside.
Taking a deep breath, I recalled that connection I felt between me and Selene's movements. My mind buzzed from the vast amount of visual information.
I rushed at him and swung my blade right at his throat, but just as I was about to slash it, the scepter from before manifested in his hand, allowing him to block my attack.
As we clashed, the tentacles on his face tried to pierce me, but aided by the memoir of Selene's graceful movements, I could barely dodge the attacks just by nimbly moving my neck.
Every movement pained me—awfully so.
I regained some of my energies when I entered inside this dimension and stopped engaging in fights, but it wasn't enough.
I still had to remove the glass shards from my body, and I needed urgent care for the wound on my face, as it might turn infected soon.
Most importantly, I wanted to sleep.
I wanted to lay down, to just close my eyes even for only two minutes; that's all I wanted and needed.
But I couldn't.
If I did, I would die.
And with it, the hopes of meeting Kathy—the vow I made with my mother would never come to be fulfilled.
I had to keep on fighting.
For Kathy, for Mother, and for everyone else.
We both pushed forward, trying to make the other stumble backwards, but we completely were inside a headlock.
My arms trembled and screamed with agony, but I kept on pushing, gritting my teeth with force.
He kicked me right in my stomach, breaking our clash. Immediately after, he tried to follow with a bludgeoning of his scepter.
I parried his attack, using my blade to lead his scepter to be away from his vital organs.
If my replica of Selene's movements was poor, this was even worse compared to them.
I was just about to thrust my sword into his heart—or into whatever organs the Sult'Hurni had—when I felt danger, an incredible amount of danger!
I stepped back, and not even a second later, that dust-like, golden lustered powder showered on the place where I was supposed to be!
Wooosh!
A tall flame emerged from where the powder was located, the immense heat soon spreading even where I was standing.
The ravaging flame brightened the darkened the world, casting its orange-dark light over our fierce expressions.
He emerged from the fire and pointed his scepter right at my throat, which caused me to step to the side.
A flame rushed soon after, burning my clothes—narrowly avoiding my hair.
The scepter's flame didn't stop however.
As he nimbly twisted his arm towards my new position, the flames gathered together and acted like a whip in his hands.
I rolled down, glass shards injecting even deeper inside my body, leading me to wince in pain.
I stood up as quickly as I could, the view of his enraged eyes reflecting right into my silvery ones.
He stared at me, his whip-like flame resting on the ground, burning the grass below.
"Let's see if you can come back from this." his tentacles curled upwards, forming an uncanny, uncomfortable smile.
I panted, awfully tired, holding my hip.
Blood poured out, staining my already half-burnt, half-torn clothes.
'After this one…I will have…I only will have one revelation left.'
He turned his head, gazing at the vast landscape beyond.
I did the same.
Slowly, the grass changed color, turning a bright-blue.
The abandoned buildings near us had conch-like structures overlap on them momentarily.
Not even a second later, the buildings disappeared, making way for the alien constructs.
The rabbits, the owls flying and the wolves who carefully stared at us shifted in form, becoming wrinkled, scaly skinned creatures.
The trees altered in size and in shape, becoming thinner and sharper, resembling spears of dried-up, black bamboos.
"This is how our world looked like." the Sult'Hurni said.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?"
He then raised his scepter, and with a swing of his arm, the flame cut right through half of my body, killing me.
…
I looked around.
After seeing that the landscape hadn't changed yet, and the wall of flames in front of me, I quickly understood when the revelation started, allowing me to recall his future moves.
I knew I couldn't fail anymore, for one use was all I had left.
I would turn into a completely normal human after that one, losing the power of Genesis.
I didn't know if my desensitization or my replication of Selene's movement would remain—and that made things even harder.
Since I knew the road ahead, I had to pursue it, doing the same actions and movements, only changing the mistakes I'd made.
I couldn't differ from my past itineration much, for it would mean creating a brand new future with branches of new possibilities of which I was completely unaware of.
The wall of flames in front of me swayed delicately, a hypocritical sight compared to the destructive force of the fire possessed by the Sult'Hurni.
That scepter of his seemed very durable. I doubted I could slash it in half.
I also hypothesized it was a technological weapon created by his alien race, but that idea wasn't really important towards my goal.
His tentacles weren't too fast, yet I couldn't lower my guard near them.
I could barely dodge attacks at my present condition—I was just right about to expend my last energies.
The glass shard injury worsening reduced them even more on my past itineration. I was at the point when I couldn't move at all, much less avoid his attacks.
…
Franz Kaldiri ran inside the quiet, empty streets.
The moonlight filled air had an ethereal-like quality to it. Near him, birds, lizards, cats, and even dogs slept peacefully on the side-walks and on the middle of the road.
Creating a drowsy air, capable of even making humans fall asleep—this was the power of the Sewn One.
The Nephilim with enough quintessence in their systems could avoid this lethargic effect, not feeling even the slightest hint of sleepiness.
The moon shone bright in the sky.
The tides of the world rose immensely, waves crashing against each other before dispersing, continuing their cycle of destruction and rebirth.
The news became viral in the underground.
Some oceanographers and meteorologists said it was an effect of global warming.
Religious groups around the world said that the world was about to end.
Others said it was a punishment from their God.
Many came close to the truth, yet nobody was close enough to grasp it.
Franz Kaldiri reached the location where a God would descend. He silently opened the door, fearful of what might stare back at him.
The reason of why he wore his blindfold was because his sight allowed him to see beyond what no other could.
And since the world was full of mysteries not meant to be gazed at, he couldn't roam around without any protections.
His special blindfold would greatly weaken his power…
But not fully.
Because of this, if Sin had truly descended, he would die upon gazing at him.
But.
This was a necessary step to take!
If mistaken, he simply couldn't let Him awaken because of his fears!
He entered Mnemosyne's Antiques after taking a deep breath.
Many vintage furniture, libraries, and jewelry were cluttered all around the wooden floor, sharp glass shards sticking near them.
Moonlight filled the air, rows of torches shining bright. The walls were covered by crescent-shapes holes.
Inside them, unknown colors, unnatural hues forgotten by human conception vibrated with their uncanny lights, becoming portals to the realms beyond our own.
The Multi-Faced Avatar knelt down in front of Franz, its back-muscles twisting and turning. A muscular arm was now sticking right out of it, its wrinkly hand placed into a claw-like position.
Heek!
Blood spurted from Franz Kaldiri's eyes, mouth and nose, thick surges of liquid streaming down his face.
Franz looked at Selene's unconscious body as his face darkened.
'Selene…I thought you wouldn't go through such lengths. Gray is dead. Are you happy because of it?'
'You've killed him at the cost of forsaking every single human life!'
He slowly raised his cotton, flower patterned shirt. He exposed a syringe pouch attached to his leather pants.
Six syringes were empty while only three were filled. A thick, black liquid flowed inside them.
'The only means for his descent to fail…' Franz thought. 'We had to fight the The Herald of the Half-Moon at full power, yet this measly amount was all we could gain without dying.'
'Most of the Avatar's power is focused on summoning Him, yet, will this work?'
'She almost caused Him to descend years ago. Fortunately, I could disrupt it—but it was only because I there with her, having the means of disruption ready in hand…!'
In the First Decline, the stages of Descent, the Avatar would get summoned by Selene, even without her knowledge.
In this first stage, the Avatar would protect her from external harm, so He could come.
In the Second Decline, small parts of reality started to overlap with The Eternal Landscape of the Begotten Self.
In the Third Decline, the Avatar would focus every single ounce of its power to let Him pass through.
In this phase, catastrophic amounts of reality spanning kilometers wide would get replaced by the dream dimension itself, bringing the Moon God Sin inside the real world!
Since the Multi-Headed being had stopped its defensive actions over Selene, this meant that right now, they were one step inside the Third Decline!
Franz grabbed one syringe and slowly walked towards the multi-faced avatar, his body trembling.
Every step and every breath was atrocious, weakening his body even further.
Raising his arm with the syringe in hand, he strenuously pierced the Multi-Headed's back with it, the oozing liquid entering inside its body.
Normally…
The Avatar would retract inside Selene.
But now…
Only silence was present inside Mnemosyne's Antiques.
Franz's face darkened even further.
…To think that humanity had been doomed at the cost of one minor, insignificant life.
…
As the Sult-Hurni emerged from the flames, his body being unharmed by them, he raised his scepter and pointed it towards my throat, waves of flames pouring right out of it.
I dodged it by moving my body sideways like before. As he used the flames as a whip, I slid on my knees. The flames above me crackled, almost burning my face.
I turned around and stood up, readying myself for one of his attacks.
He stared at me with a fierce expression.
This time however, he didn't utter any single word. This was unlike my past itineration.
The world morphed near me, returning to the ancient city I'd seen in the memoirs of Sin.
He didn't even bother on looking at his old, dead world.
He instead raised his scepter and in a horizontal, slashing motion, the flames shot right at me.
I leaped out of his attack's reach and ran towards him.
Since his scepter was in his whip-like mode, where his flames remained stagnant, it caused his moves to become slower at the cost of more destructive power.
And since it just wasn't meant to be a close-ranged weapon—by decreasing the distance between us—I would gain the upper hand!
Now he was at a crossroad!
If he remained with his whip-like ability, he would die.
The flames would follow soon, attacking me just right after I cut him down!
The other choice was just to give up the flames altogether, returning to his normal scepter form, allowing him to defend himself by using its sheer durability!
Just as I expected, the flames on the scepter suddenly cascaded on the bluish-grass below, scorching it completely.
As I swung with my blade, he raised his scepter, intending to parry my attack.
What he couldn't expect was that, instead of attacking him—I feinted and aimed for the arm holding the scepter, cutting through it completely, a stream of blood flowing from his wound!
He wailed in pain, clutching his stumped wound.
I kicked his stomach, causing him to stumble and fall to the floor right next to his arm.
I pointed my weapon right for his throat and asked, stifling my weary breaths to keep up this all-powerful persona,
"Tell me how to get out!"
Tentacles upon tentacles flashed from his face.
I simply backpedaled, slashing right through every single tentacle of his, making him emit one of his wails.
"I won't tell you again!" I roared. "Tell me how to escape from here."
As his cries weakened, he stared at the moon.
"You cannot leave this place!" he laughed. "And even if you did, what would you see? Do you really think that the world on the other side will be like you expect?"
"Everything you know—everyone you ever loved will die!"
He looked at me and grinned.
"You have someone there, don't you? You desperately want to go back for their safety, don't you?!"
My eyes twitched.
Earlier I was worried to become someone who would destroy human lives egoistically, only for my benefits.
But now…
I had the confirmation he wasn't a human.
Emotions such as fear, happiness, love…
They all were beyond him.
Deep down I was glad.
I really was.
This allowed me to treat him as someone below me, lower than even the most pitiful of animals.
As I stared at his zealous face, rage bubbled up.
I wanted to destroy it.
As I stared at his inhumanity, I wanted him to feel the most humane emotion a being could feel.
Fear.
I silently allowed the urge I felt to take ahold of me.
…
The bluish grass was filled with blood, tentacled body parts scattered all across the place.
I firstly started with his hands, slicing them for every time he avoided answering to my questions.
Yet, he didn't waver—he only shrieked in pain.
Even the alien animals ran away in fear after hearing his cries.
Truthfully, such silence was impressive.
I started with his only remaining arm, but he still didn't budge.
Had I known methods capable of evoking even more pain from him, I would've pursued them without a second thought.
He had no tears left by the time I cut off both of his legs.
I stared at his stumped body.
His head was the only thing that remained, but for obvious reasons, I couldn't ruin it.
For every moment of his torture, his gaze was fixed upon the full-moon.
Since it was likely that it was the only thing keeping him sane, I decided to get rid of his only object of solace.
As I sat on his torso, I couldn't help but recall of how Selene had done the same with me.
I quickly shook my head.
'We are completely different.' I said to myself.
My actions had a purpose. This was the only method I had to make him talk and the only method that would allow me to save lives.
He tried to move his limb-less body, to forbid me from removing his only means of salvation, but I simply held him down.
As I brought my hand towards his right eye, he stared at me, his eyes bloodshot, begging and pleading for me to stop.
Yet I still ignored him.
He never felt compassion in his life, why would I be so merciful in his regard?
As Casanova once did, I gouged his eye with the same method.
He wailed and wailed. But since I couldn't cut his vocal cords—I had to deal with it.
"Talk or the other goes."
I gazed at his other eye.
He didn't utter a word.
My brows furrowed.
"I see."
Not much after, I went for the other eye too.
Maybe after dying inside my revelations so many times I had lost something inside of me.
Since Desensitization had a countless amount of pros, I figured this would be the price to pay.
Deep down, however, I hoped that Mother hadn't seen my actions.
…
As he silently laid on the ground, broken; I was unsure of what to do.
Even though time flew differently here, if I couldn't escape, the descent would happen regardless.
I was right about to question him again when the Sult'Hurni suddenly muttered with a reverent voice.
"He spoke to me…"
'What?'
He smiled in solace.
"He said you're at your limits…"
The Sult-Hurni slowly raised his head to 'look' at me, his empty eye sockets staring back at me.
"Do you know what happens when a being sleeps…?" he asked.
'…What is he talking about?'
"Do you know what stands between mirrors and reality…?"
'…Mirrors? Casanova forbid me to look at them while lucid dreaming.'
"Do you know where the veil of reality and dreams ends?"
"…Where are you trying to get with this?"
I demanded to know.
He smiled softly.
"Do you know that His real name is Hodesh?"
SCREECH!
I stepped backwards, gripping my hands against my head.
My head spun, my vision turned hazy, and my ears rang.
Ravings and old, forgotten deliriums instantly shattered my eardrums.
Yet I could still hear them inside my head, leading me to go even further into madness, further into hysteria.
They spoke of things I couldn't understand—unfathomable knowledge unraveling inside the confines of my mind.
A primal, terrified scream tore out from the pits of my vocal cords.
A resonant, illusory cracking noise came from the heavens above, splitting the moon's face in two.
Slowly, the crack gaped, revealing rows on top of rows of jagged, fragmented teeth.
There, even reality started to distort, creating non-euclidian shapes, non-linear patterns and lines, infinite yet non-existent distances where light itself couldn't pass, instead getting trapped right inside.
His voice then whispered to me, his words biting at my brain like a lion in front of a carcass, destroying my sanity with his vibrating voice.
"You are more 'fitting.'"
As the chaos ravaged inside my mind, I stood up, stumbling, falling back on the alien world.
Cacophony upon cacophony of noises, hums, and resonances, ravaged against my mind, shattering the walls of my Ego, causing me to turn slower, and slower, and slower…
As the last bits of my sanity weakened, I grabbed my sword with my trembling hands and thrust it inside my heart…!
"Fear not."
Hodesh spoke, yet my consciousness had already faded.
"With your power, death is not the end."
…
I wailed in pain, grasping my head as I fell on the floor.
The 'noise' had stopped.
As I slowly raised my head, I found the tentacled Sult'Hurni stare back at me, his mutilated, disfigured body still as it was before.
"Do you know where the veil of reality and dreams ends?"
As he smiled, my eyes widened, turning bloodshot.
"Do you know that His name is—"
I shrieked with pure terror.
I grabbed my golden sword with my trembling hands, thrusting it right inside his throat, interrupting the Sult'Hurni's words.
As he choked on his own blood, he suddenly laughed, gurgles of blood rising from his mouth.
With one of his stumped arms, he wrote an alien phrase with his blood.
I somehow could understand its meaning.
How much I wished I hadn't.
"By staring at Him, by listening to His soothing Voice, He could place his mark on you."
I gazed at the sky, afraid—utterly, impossibly afraid.
Whenever Genesis showed me a revelation, the outcome of it would reverse, allowing my consciousness to return seconds or even a minute before the events I'd seen.
His mark hadn't reversed.
With His unfathomable powers, He could mark me from a future that hadn't fulfilled yet, allowing Him to influence the past.
Was this the power of a Divinity?
The full moon extended from one corner of the sky to the other.
I could see every crater where eons ago, meteorites had crashed into it; ancient basalt lakes where molten lava streamed; and old valleys where the Sult'Hurni lived.
As I stared at it, I knew He was staring back at me.
Panic soon washed over me, causing every fiber of my being to tremble uncontrollably.
I had no more prophecies left.
I was going to die.
But that wasn't the outcome I feared the most.
It was what would happen before my eventual demise.
Casanova's words resounded in my head.
"In the Nephilim World, Death is a fate that many cannot hope to obtain."
In front of omnipotence, I was utterly powerless.
My movements soon began to be dictated by His will, my fingers intertwining in mudra-like hand signs of which I myself was completely unaware of their meanings.
Although my eyes were wide-open, my vision started to fade.
Although my ears were working, I found every sound weaken.
Although my body was warm, everything gradually turned colder and colder, as if the arms of death were grabbing me.
I felt my Ego slowly wash away from my body, as if being discarded by Him, regarded as useless.
I was about to take my last breath—the last breath I could do inside a body that didn't belong to me anymore…
When a cowl made by shadowy amalgamations, where existence itself didn't exist, encompassed the entire moon.
It disappeared just as soon as it manifested.
Only an unintelligible, deafening roar was the remainder of His presence.
The sky was now empty.
There were no satellites, no planets in the night sky, no stars nor galaxies.
Only the darkness 'He' brought was present.