《One Sin》Chapter Thirty-Five - Advent:1
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Liz was looking at me with a gentle gaze and then her eyes went to the black ring on my finger.
Suddenly, Liz summoned her staff from above her head.
"State your intentions Nyarlathotep!" Liz said in a battle posture. "Or face the consequences!"
The white lines on the black ring started to move and glow.
"Very well then," Liz said. "We can cooperate for now."
I didn't know what was happening anymore.
Liz knew about this devil that lived in the North Mountains? Why did I know nothing? What is going on? Am I truly the Demon Lord? Liz ordered everyone to follow her and we did. I went through the motions but my mind was a mess.
I felt like a shell of my former self as I walked with the Demons. The flock of Demon troops kept their composure around me and treated me like a king. They were walking me towards a Demon town and Liz was guiding the pack. I hung my head low and just stared at the ground. So I'm the Demon Lord? Was what I've done for nothing? Or is Liz lying to me? But why would she do that?
I moved my hand and touched the black ring to my lips.
"Did you know?..." I whispered to the ring. "Am I really?..."
"Kekeke," Nyarlathotep replied to my mind. "Yes, my lord."
"So it was true," I whispered. "I'm the Demon Lord?"
"Yes and I'll help you receive a beautiful death," Nyarlathotep said in my mind with a laugh.
I brought my hand down and twisted the ring on my finger.
I had sold my soul for nothing and I had struggled for nothing. I despaired for what the Hero had done before. Now I was in misery for what I'd become. I had promised Richard that I would live on for the sake of others who could not. Then I had brokered a deal with a devil to end my own life. How foolish was I?
Anguish filled my gut as I couldn't help but feel bitter.
What does destiny want from me? Why did my fate lead me down this terrible road? In my quest to kill the Demon Lord, I've killed many people and have come to know many horrible things. Some of those things would drive any man insane. My life would be better forfeit to those who want it. My legs started to feel numb as I lagged behind the others. The Demons stopped to look at me and then Liz appeared again.
She looked at me and smiled but I only turned my head away.
"What's wrong?" Liz said.
My gaze moved to meet hers.
"Am I a monster?" I asked.
I felt weak but looking at Liz gave me some minor strength.
"No," Liz said. "You're a savior, you're a hero, you're you, Demitri."
I scoff at her words with a snicker.
"I'm the Demon Lord," I said. "I'm the leader of Demons who are the scourge of Humanity."
Liz kept her smile at me while she parted her long blue hair.
"Life is as dear to Demons as it is to Man," Liz said. "Just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not die, so do other creatures."
My mouth was left agape at her words and Liz turned around to lead the troops again.
When did Lizzie mature so quickly? She had always been very intelligent but her wisdom had changed immensely. I couldn't call her a little wizard anymore as her height was close to mine now. She had always been strong but something about her now made her even stronger. I stared at her back until she stopped and turned her head for a moment.
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"You will come to know everything as I told you before," Liz said.
"What!? You mean you're!..."
So the voice in my head in the Wild Forests had been Liz all along. While I worried about her and thought of her, she was watching me. How foolish was I again? The Reincarnators and the Demon Lord, were they all connected? It didn't take long before we reached a small town that was in a clearing, north of the forest.
It looked rather peaceful and the architecture was something I had never seen before.
Liz had guided me to a stone brick building in the center of the town. There were random designs that littered over the walls and it looked like magical runes. Even seeing such a place and the tranquil calm of the town, I hadn't felt anything. I had become numb to the emotions and the ordeal that came over me. I didn't know why and for what I was brought here for.
I had lost my purpose in life and felt empty.
Liz entered the building and I followed after her. The doors closed behind us and I could gaze at the quaint area inside. It was a tiny room with bookcases and a desk with a table. The windows were set high and let an amount of air in from the outside. You could look out the window and see up into the sky. Liz stopped and turned around to look at me.
"Don't worry Demitri," Liz said with a smile. "This is a holy place, no one not even Nyarlathotep will bother us."
Liz's smile felt like it would melt my heart if I wasn't already wretched in my feeling. I only stared at her pathetically as I felt drained of my sensitivity. Then in a quick moment, Liz came close to me and gave me a hug. She held me tight and I could feel the warmth of her body. The smell of her hair brought me back to the nostalgic times that I had spent with her.
"Finally," Liz said. "You're here."
I cried and I shook myself off her grasp.
Still, Liz looked at me with kindness and I leaned my back against the wall. I hunched down slowly and sat on the ground. Tears still dripped from my eyes as I thought about the things I had done. The people I've killed, the things I were supposed to stop. I had become the bane of humanity and the existence of life.
"Kill me," I said looking at Liz. "I'm the enemy of existence in this world."
I felt the ring on my finger slightly burn as I knew Nyarlathotep heard my words.
"No," Liz said. "You're our savior."
My gaze moved to Liz and I saw her emerald eyes looking back at me.
"Am I not the Demon Lord?" I said.
"You are," Liz said. "But now you will know the truth that has been hidden from the world."
Liz helped me up and took me to the center of the tiny room. There she summoned her staff and started an incantation. The glowing lights of a circle surrounded by runes appeared on the floor beneath us. A dark shadow had covered the entirety of the room and only left us in place. The spell circle underneath our feet expanded larger and larger until a bright flash occurred.
I looked around me and saw that everything had disappeared but the glowing circle. Liz was nowhere to be found and I tried to talk but my words wouldn't come out. I looked down to see that my body had disappeared. I had become a floating mass of consciousness and thoughts. There were only dark shadows surrounding the spell circle until someone appeared in the middle of the circle.
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The man wore strange clothes and looked oddly different. The area he was in looked fantastical in nature and my mind couldn't understand what surrounded him. Suddenly, I saw the man get pulled into a black vortex. He appeared in what looked like a throne room surrounded by people and a king. The man looked shocked and horrified at being there. Armed knights surrounded him until the King waved them off.
Now the scene had faded into darkness again.
"Long ago, there was a man who had come here from another world."
A voice spoke and I knew it was Liz.
"He was transported here against his own will and adapted splendidly to his surroundings."
The man appeared again but this time, he was wearing something familiar. It looked to be the luxurious robes of a great magician. People started to greet him with respect and reverence. I could sense the power he emanated. The man seemed happy and content with his life but I could see the faint signs of melancholy.
"He was a prodigy in the art of magic and he was also known as the first Hero in this world."
Was this man the Hero Gilgamesh?
"He developed a system of magic," Liz said. "One that you had become slightly familiar with."
What system of magic was Liz talking about? Gilgamesh moved his hands in the air and a blue box appeared in front of him. The words and numbers written on it were something I had never seen before. Gilgamesh quietly looked at the box and rubbed his chin.
"This system was known from a variety of games in his world."
In his world, they treat magic like a game?
"The Hero created it on a whim and decided to protect it by syncing it with his own soul."
Was the first Hero that powerful?
"The magic system connected itself to the Soul Stream and had become attuned to those of a particular soul."
Gilgamesh connected magic to the Soul Stream?
"Only souls from another world, his world, could use the magic system he made."
Don't tell me that this is…
"The world he had come from was a place called Earth."
The first Hero was from Earth as well?
Darkness draped over the first Hero again and then he reappeared back in different clothes. Gilgamesh looked to be on trial as the Church of the Veil argued with him. I couldn't hear the argument but from their faces, it must've been intense. Gilgamesh lowered his head and left the trial as the Church of the Veil pointed to him. I saw that even the King and the Pope had fear in their eyes.
"The first Hero had grown too powerful and the people in the upper echelon had become afraid. " Liz continued. "He rebelled against them, so they conspired and sought to dispose of him."
What did they do to such a powerful man?
"They didn't have the power to stop him, so instead they shamed him."
The scene changed to the Great Cathedral of Manse, the home to the Church of the Veil. Priests were gathered and they were incanting over a spell circle. They watched Gilgamesh from a viewing portal and saw him in pain. Gilgamesh toppled over and people rushed to him only to run away horrified. Gilgamesh had become a Demon with silver hair, black horns, claws, and wings.
"They called him a Demon when he wasn't and changed his appearance to look like one," Liz continued. "Even now, all his children has been cursed to the same fate."
I watched as Gilgamesh cried and tried to console himself with people only to be shunned. Most of his friends had turned their back on him and only a few people comforted him. Something burned in the eyes of Gilgamesh and he locked himself away in the North Mountains. I saw him creating something from his magic and the dark things that lived in the North Mountains had been sprung to life. Then a black blob was brought forth and it became Nyarlathotep.
"Since they called him a Demon, he wanted to be the worst of them all. He created menacing creatures from the darkest depths of his mind and remembered about a creature from his world. He summoned it from where ever it was and it came forth, ready to cause chaos."
Then I saw a look of sadness and reluctance come over Gilgamesh.
"But, Gilgamesh had a change of heart. Locking away his monsters and fleeing north."
Gilgamesh created a circle to bind Nyarlathotep and left the North Mountains. Gilgamesh was in the winter wasteland of the North and he proceeded to create the Demon Territory. A race of people developed in the north called the Demon Territory. He started to govern the people who came with him and they built an architecture that I had never see before. His populace looked rather joyful and at peace.
"Gilgamesh ruled his territory as a kind and just leader, he was known as the Great Demon Emperor."
The first Hero was the Great Demon Emperor!?
"War had broken out in the middle Kingdoms and Gilgamesh had found out. Gilgamesh, fearing that they would summon more people from his world to be used in their bidding decided to put a stop to it all. Gilgamesh found the great summoning circles and destroyed them. The only one he couldn't destroy was the one that brought him forth, so instead he tampered with it."
So the Great Holy Wars that engulfed the Kingdoms wasn't because of the Great Demon Emperor? I could see Gilgamesh going to the great holy places in which he destroyed. Only the great summoning circle in Manse was something he couldn't deal with. I watched as Gilgamesh used his magic to change the summoning circle into something else.
"What Gilgamesh didn't know was that in his righteousness to stop the summoning circle he created something else. The Church of the Veil and those people in the upper echelons of the Kingdoms did not stop in their folly. They tried and tried again to summon heroes that would do their bidding. Instead, they pulled souls from the other world into this world's soul stream. Those souls became reborn in this world with the knowledge and memories of their previous lives."
The Reincarnators are being caused from the constant faulty summoning!?
"When Gilgamesh had long died, more people were being summoned but scattered around in our Soul Stream. They reincarnated into monsters, humans, animals, elves, and whichever life they could. They were able to tap into the system of magic that Gilgamesh had created and left behind. The problem is that our world is being bombarded with souls from another and the system is being used heavily. It is creating a natural disaster that is boiling and festering."
The shadows disappeared, the light had come back and I was in the room again with Liz.
"And you must stop it Demitri," Liz said.
Liz smiled at me and had firm conviction in her eyes.
"You must save the world."
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