‘I’m going to die, no please don’t let this happen! Someone, I don’t care who just please save me! I don’t want to…please I don’t want to die-’

“Remember this feeling the next time you decide to speak against father.” Kyosuke stated in a menacing tone.

His eyes were filled with rage but he let go and stepped back so Arisa could breathe, putting the knife back into the scabbard.

Her body trembled uncontrollably with a feeling as if she had become too heavy to hold up. It would be more accurate to say that her legs lost all its strength, in other words; ‘pure fear’.

“Pathetic. A parasite like you isn't worth anything towards the orders dreams, towards father’s ambitions.”

Kyosuke walked out and closed the door behind him, triggering Arisa’s knees to give out. Her body let go of a sudden tense that kept her standing.

“Huff- Hee~”

A sheer look of panic raced across her face as she tried to collect herself but there was simply no calming down after that.

“Calm down Arisa. I don’t have a lot of time so I need to move quickly. He doesn’t know…yet.”

She frantically jumped across her room from box to box and stuffed her pockets and pouch with as many pieces of paper and talismans as she could. The majority of her room were usually kept well organised and clutter free but in that instance it was the complete opposite.

Waiting alone in her room before she arrived, Kyosuke had trashed it completely in a mindless fit of rage.

The hallways were empty because the vast majority of everyone in the manner was gathered in the communal area beside the church, for Kiramaru's execution. This was the reason she needed to be hasty, she had no idea when they would figure out he was gone but it would have to be soon.

Father Demen was speaking to some of the lower disciples of the order as Arisa crept up to him from a distance. She hid behind the corner of the hallway and began scanning the area for something.

‘I don’t see Kyosuke anywhere around here… I suppose it’s now or never but even so. I’m nervous- ’

Arisa stepped out from behind the corner and casually strolled up to Demen with a forced look in her eyes.

She was trying to appear casually while speaking to him but she was a naturally nervous liar, so preforming these situations back to back really put her on edge.

Demen glanced over to Arisa slightly and after noticing her he continued with his discussion with a disciple.

She looked slightly anxious but then took a deep breath and composed herself, she let off a cold aura as she spoke up.

“Father Demen please listen to me.”

“Oh Arisa what are you doing here, please tell me you haven’t come to spout more nonsense in the demons defence?” Demen asked dispassionately.

Arisa didn’t let that remark faze her and remained cool and collected as she was before.

“I won’t waste time on something like that, you will never change. I just hope that your rage for evil makes you blind to others trying to fight it.” Arisa responded.

Her emotional retort didn’t sit well with the other members standing beside him; they felt so threatened that they seemed willing to fight her then and there.

Each of them walked up to Arisa with weapons on the ready before Demen stopped them with his command.

“Enough children. This won’t take long although it is much overdue.”

The others left unwillingly and continued to stare her down as they exited the manner but their gaze didn’t even budge her. As they slid the door closed behind them, Demen walked over to a chair at the head of the room and sat down.

“Go ahead little girl, ask me about you parents.”

“So you did know; you knew that I wanted answers. If there was more to it then why keep it from me?!” Arisa bellowed.

“Since the day I rescued you from that hell, you never once paid respect or even so much as showed your gratitude. The only thing your mind has ever been on was what happened to the place you called home. Even now I can see that is the sole question burning so deeply inside you that it is ready to burst from your eyes.”

“Tell me everything that happened that day, I want to know it all!” She commanded with a heavy heart as she stood before him.

“Very well but this story won’t make you feel any lighter.” Demen said with subtle frown.

“I’ll decide that for myself.” Arisa seemed determined and looked down on him with all her attention.

“Ten years ago when we came to your village we immediately came across the disease that plagued your lands and stole the life from your people. It was a common disease with no cure but it had already spread to every member of the village before we could arrive so there was no helping any of them.”

The disease in question is known as ‘Death Grip’ and it blackens the skin around the limbs and neck, which makes the entire body lose any form of sensation or feeling besides pain.

“Did you know that when infected you feel as if you aren’t able to breathe? The first week is the toughest because there is no sleep or eating but eventually your hands move to the neck instinctively, grabbing at full force and choking yourself out to feel any bit of breath you can…but you never do.”

Arisa stepped back in a pure petrified state as she saw a grotesque smile growing on Demen’s face. The more he spoke about it the further he found himself enjoying it until he couldn't contain himself and burst out into a fit of joyful tears.

“Don’t you see; their suffering was the key that paved our journey to where it is now? They weren't really alive- so they were the perfect tools to use as practice for our new weapons! Your people were the sacrifices that gave us the strength we have now, that is where you came from!”

“What about…about my…my m- mom…what about my mother?” Arisa’s voice trembled.

“Oh- her.” Demen seemed disenchanted as soon as Arisa mentioned her mother.

“She was actually quite healthy, I don’t even think she was infected but she had a much greater sin. To let a child be reduced to such a state was unforgivable; the only thing to redeem herself was to become a sacrifice. That woman…even after suggesting that she wouldn’t do what was right, so we did it for her.”

Arisa fell to the floor without being able to move an inch of her body; it had given in from the shock and wasn’t responding at all. Her eyes were completely blank and weren’t full of any sign of life.

Demen walked up to her and looked down on her with a menacing glare as the sun began to set and shone its final beam of light on their conversation.

“I told you didn’t I, don’t expect to feel any lighter.”