All that we hold dear, can never stay forever, even people; but, what if we can keep them, forever, for our eyes to see as we bask in memories of them. It wouldn't be as satisfying as to see them standing beside you, but one; desires just that. All that is made, shall become real, even nightmares.
Chapter 1 – Turned Real
"What have I done? What can I do? My joy has been ruined. No warmth to feel, no care to give… I've, lost everything. I… want salvation… Any kind, of salvation, anything! In my accursed life that I now suffer. My work… Yes… My art… Perhaps, I can regain my life through my art…"
Life in Carne was simple yet guarded heavily, humans coexisting with creatures that would be considered, lower than them and a threat; and yet, they protect, patrol and preserve the fragile lives of all the villagers, young and elder, new-born and carers. As well as the threats guarding them, three beasts of death, interact and defend them all like great guardians; a lady with the power of mighty dragons, an enchantress of deception and a warrior of absolute darkness. These three destroyers of life could tear and spill the blood of every soul in Carne, but something else would steal souls. Merchants and wonders travel across the land to villages to sell their innocent plain products, or so it seems.
As I, Vantes Duma with my beloved Xentia and dear friend Fiadora were about to finish our patrol of the peaceful quiet village of Carne; a goblin hurried to us, usually, the goblins would come to us for advice on their tactics in battle, rationing or any improvements to their weaponry, all other worries or casual advices would be given by Lupusregina Beta of the Pledias, who was sent by my lord Ainz to spy on the village and protect certain individuals in the village. What could this lone goblin have to do with me?
"Master Duma! Come quick! A dire wolf is terrorising the village!" The goblin cried out with deep heavy breathes
I only chuckled lightly at such a random occurrence, until Fiadora tapped my shoulder and pointed at the villagers running for their lives as Xentia told Fiadora and I to listen to the loud savage snarls filling the village; suddenly, just as sudden as the goblin reported to me, a dire wolf leaped over a building, growling and snarling at the villagers. The three of us immediately ran towards the giant beast as it prepared to strike, Xentia had cast a firewall to block and counter the attack, burning the wolf as Fiadora leaped into the air and launched a drop kick down onto the back of the wolf; Lupusregina had pursued the wolf and met up with us, just before the wolf can move to attack, I created four dark vortexes and held it by its limbs then finally stab the wolf with my sword.
The wolf howled in pain then dropped motionlessly, the villagers praised the three of us while Lupusregina praised us with words of astonishment; saying that she hadn't quite believed in the strength that I possessed but now wants to see more. As the praises continued to flow, a black mist appeared from the wolf as its body slowly evaporated; the four of us watched the mist grow in the air as it darted away from us, we immediately followed the mist as it darted to an area filled with empty stalls containing many common goods. But something in this empty market caught my eyes, a painting; an empty blank painting.
I held the painting in my hands and felt something pulled it towards something, I turned to find the mist in the air; suddenly the mist darted into the painting itself, my arms shook as the mist entered the painting fully, took my shock, I gasped at the once empty blank painting being filled with an image of the wolf we had just beaten. I showed everyone the painting; they all were shocked to see the wolf in the painting, I asked Lupusregina if she had seen the person selling the painting, she didn't see the merchant but considered telling our lord of the situation.
The three of us agreed as I took the painting with me as Lupusregina left the calm the villagers, I wondered how it was possible to have something painted, become a real being of flesh.
Chapter 2 - The Horror Begins
"Wonderful. So many wonders that I have made... But, what if I hadn't recreated my wonders, I still suffer the pain. This agonising pain that fills me. But the work must go one... Wait. No... No... My god... I've ran out of ink. I need ink, but I have nothing now... No, I have plenty of ink, all for free... There, right out there."
I reported to our lord, perplexed by my report, he wanted to ensure the safety of the villagers; therefore, the security and patrol tightened but as sudden as the occurrence happened, no reports or sights of attacks were made. Lord Ainz felt that was not the last of the strangeness; only a mere two weeks after the first occurrence, reports of kidnapping and disappearances had burst into Carne. Naturally, as a ruler, our lord wanted this kidnapping to end soon; ordering the three of us to stop these kidnapping with Lupusregina's support, we obeyed and began our search.
Fear, worry and paranoia filled the air from every breathe made by the terrified villagers, walking around and continuing their lives in the melancholy air they made and breathe in; I began to feel the melancholy myself as a watched the villagers while waiting for Lupusregina to meet us as the appointed tavern in a usual human looking disguises: a black cloaked and hooded figure, a young curvy charming woman and a princely looking man. Eventually, Lupusregina arrived and we began to discuss the kidnapping incidents.
There were no links that could be made; the first being a young man near the gates, the second being an elderly woman at the bakery, and the third being a little girl near her home. Three victims of different stages in life and different locations, the kidnapper doesn't reside at one location but many it would appear; the incidents also occur at different times of the day: sunrise, morning, noon, evening, sunset and night. But they aren't the only victims, the count slowly increases throughout the days of the kidnapper's tyranny. It was clear why our lord wanted to end this madness, but the only question is how to resolve the situation.
As the sun descended into the horizon, villagers returned to their safe homes, our hunt commenced; the four of us patrolled four separate locations in Carne in hopes of capturing the kidnapper while remaining in our human disguises. Slowly loosing interest, focus and concentration throughout the night, the kidnapper remained unseen; suddenly the sound of running footsteps entered through my ears to my hollow bored mind. I flew gently in the air to track down the footsteps, eventually seeing a dark silhouette in the distance with a small motionless body in it arms; the figure began to run with the small body as it saw the figure of a floating man hovering towards it, running faster in terror as I pursued it. I finally see the kidnapper in my sight, so I dived down to the figures and tackled it, holding onto its legs as it crashes its face to the ground; seeing the face of a mature man with eyes of tensity and a little girl in his arms, I began to question the man. Why was he kidnapping people here? What was he going to do with them? He could only answer me with a sentence before closing his eyes and lay in my arms asleep, "She needs them for her work."
I made no sense of his answer as I held their bodies in my arms, taking them to the tavern where we gathered once the search would be called off; but when we all arrived, we were all surprised to see each other with someone with them. We gathered at a table to discuss these four people we had brought, we all said the exact same description; they all had attempted to kidnap someone for someone else's work. We were all perplexed by this claim, perhaps we may get more answers when the four people wake from their sleep; morning ascended, when the four people woke, they revealed to have no memory of what happened last night. No memories of what they did or why they did it, not even a clue to who 'she' is or 'her work'; but one, the man I had brought, was shocked to find that his daughter was with him after remembering that he took her to her bed.
Lupusregina immediately began questioning the man; he answered by saying that all he could remember was going back home, taking his daughter to bed then this. The man was heartbroken to see and hear that he had tried to kidnap her, it made no sense; why would a father who love and cares for his own daughter, kidnap her for some unknown purpose? We felt that Carne needed more security, but that was a big misunderstanding...
Chapter 3 - Deathly Beauty
"I have my paint, and my freshly made canvas, all dry and ready. Don't worry... You'll be with me soon, like always, beautiful and young. Your skin was so pale and soft, oh how I'd want to touch your skin once more..."
First the appearance of a wild beast, then sudden kidnappings, now horror. As Lupusregina continued her task of watching the people of Carne; Xentia, Fiadora and I had been on patrol then found it, a bloody trail. A murder, descends on the lives of Carne; I wasn't aware of any deaths in the village, this must have been a recent event, the people around us seemed to have now emotions or realisation of a death in their home, strange. I rushed to tell Lupusregina of this death, she tells me that the villagers are all peaceful people, there couldn't be any sign of violence from them; I pondered on Lupusregina's words, I know she isn't the type to lie but how could a murder occur in a village of peaceful men and women. Perhaps an adventurer may have committed this murder, I began to think of possible suspects as I sat in a tavern with Xentia and Fiadora; "Maybe we should see if anything was left behind at the trail?" Xentia broke my pondering mind as I opened my eyes to see her and Fiadora staring into my eyes.
"We could even track them down like before with the kidnappings?" Fiadora suggested, I nodded as got out of my seat and left the tavern while Xentia paid the tavern keeper our drinks; we arrived at the spot where the bloody trail was, there was nothing until we looked closer, to see a foot print near the trail. Then looked up to find a trail of the same foot steps; we followed the steps to find an old structure at the outskirts of the village, slowly entering the structure, we find something that could turn people's stomachs, completely, inside out.
The walls of structure had dashes of blood scattered on them, as something that looked like a jacket was clipped and hung on a line while we wondered further into the structure; only to find something, or someone more horrid. We passed a door within the structure to then see a completely skinless, hanging by a noose as a large container was being filled as drops of blood, dropped into the container; I moved in closer to see any evidences on this skinless body as it's eyes stared at us with life ripped out of it, touching and feeling its cold bloody corpse as I searched for anything on the corpse. I found nothing, but pots that were already filled with blood, some even mixed to change its colour; then checked the jacket again, but made the gruesome discovery, it was the corpse's skin. Fiadora then found the reminiscence the skin; it's leg skin, face, hair, hands and feet were placed in a pile at the corner; my stomach slowly turned inside out as the sight of human skin and the skinless corpse clouded my mind and vision.
Suddenly the creaking sound of the door, broke my mind free from the gory sight; the three of us immediately hid in the structure as a man was dragging another dead body, the same tavern keeper, dragging a dead body. Laying the body in the middle as he equips himself with a knife, he starts to cut down the body then filleting the torso and arms; once it was finally filleted, he hung the newly filleted skin on the line with the already filleted skin as he commented on how white and smooth the skin felt and then moved onto filleting the rest of the skin. We hid and watched him finally hang the dead corpse on its noose and drip it's precious rubies into the container, we finally revealed ourselves and immediately held the tavern keeper down; he began to roar and yell like a mad wild animal, eventually, Xentia held his face then made him fall into a deep trance.
Falling into Xentia's trance, Fiadora and I carried his body back to the tavern; when he woke up, we revealed to him, his murders. The face of disgust, regret and hate for himself filled his heart and soul; Fiadora tried to calm him down as I asked calmly what he remembers of the past hours. He could only remember opening his tavern with a newly purchased painting, I asked him to show us the painting; he lead us back to the tavern and presented us to a painting of a beautiful scenery but had a small disturbing sight in the foreground, two figures, hanging but a tree. I pointed the two figures out to the tavern keeper and saw them with shock, he never noticed them until I discovered them; I told him to remove it and take it away from him because I believed that the painting had some effect.
Weeks later, after the tavern keeper took the painting away, there were no more murders; first, a wild beast from a painting, second, a series of kidnappings, now, third, two murders. Just what is happening.
Chapter 4 - Idolised Witch
"Why? We can still be together... I care not about who you are, or what my family say about you. Oh how I begged when you were with me, but now that I've found a way to bring us together again... Nothing will break our future joy... Oh, you were so special to me, how your eyes could see my soul... and desires..."
This was getting ridiculous. It's been only three weeks since the chaos started in Carne, now the streets were empty; the once calm peaceful villagers now cower in fear in their homes, as they cowered, I was busy searching in Nazarick. Taking books, scrolls and documents from the corner of knowledge in the Ashurbanipal, hoping there maybe a clue to the reason for the incidents in Carne; searching and researching throughout the day and night, in a monotonous cycle of books, scrolls and documents passing my eyes, it was paused when Xentia and Fiadora telling me and persuading me to stop and take a break; it finally stopped when they told and brought Albedo to me, ordering me to stop, after finding nothing that relates to the incidents in Carne.
Albedo had heard of the strange events in Carne, and speculated the powers of a world item; my ears flicked to the speculation and asked Albedo to explain her speculation; she explains that the first event couldn't be made by a disgusting human or any magic, the second and third event appeared to be linked to a ritual that involves sacrifices. I pieced my thoughts with Albedo's speculation, and remembered some victims talking about 'her work', could this work be a ritual? I finally left the Ashurbanipal and ventured back out to Carne, I wanted to speak to Lupusregina about any connections between Carne and any world item; I met and spoke to her then told me there weren't any connections, I could only sigh as I began a general conversation with Lupusregina to ease my hard-worked mind, but something she said made my mind tick.
She told me how she was and what the villagers were doing in their locked away state, one of the things was telling stories to each other as a form of entertainment and something to pass the time; she began to tell the most popular story that had been told, 'The Idolised Witch'. A story that supposedly based on a real event in Carne.
A young man fell in love with a young woman that turned out to be a witch, after the man's family's prejudice to the woman; despite the man's family's demands to abandon her and all the villagers calling her a monster, the man left Carne, with the witch. But his family heard what he did, in a fit of rage, they tracked down their whereabouts and murdered the witch in a fire; the witch had apparently cursed all born and call Carne home, to suffer tragedy for all their hate towards the difference between her and them.
I was captivated by the story like I was under a spell, then I wondered if the story was connected to the recent events; I asked Lupusregina if she knew if the story was actually based on something real, she didn't but told me to try the elders of the village. I thanked her and walked to the home of the elders, as they let me enter their home and asked of 'The Idolised Witch', they tell me it was something that happened when they were young; so young that they were just children but were warned, not to go near the cabin outside of the west of Carne, for the witch will take their souls. I called the claim a bluff in my mind, I thanked the elders then left their home, but as I walked out; Xentia and Fiadora were waiting for me.
I actually hesitated at them, thinking they'll scold me for working to much and not paying them any attention; but instead, "Looking for a cabin...? West of Carne...?" Xentia asked bluntly with a heavy gaze, I could only nod as they both sighed then grabbed my arms, "Let's go together." Fiadora cheerfully spoke as she and Xentia smiled at me; I was clueless to why they were acting like this but felt their warm compassion as we walked to the cabin outside Carne, when we finally found the cabin in the middle of the woodland near Carne; we see the cabin as a rotting wooden wreck, with parts of the structure damaged and broken, we stepped on the porch of the cabin as I then held the door handle and opened the door to, a complete shock.
Chapter 5 - Step into the Cabin
As I opened the door to the cabin; myself, Xentia and Fiadora had lost our senses from the inside of the old cabin. A dark rich lavish interior towered high above us with upper floors, Fiadora rushed back and forth to seen the cabin to ensure her sanity is still with her; we all wanted to know if we still have our sanity as it felt like was bleeding out of our minds, I swiftly looked to my left and right then take a step in the cabin. All seemed perfectly fine as Xentia and Fiadora followed, we scanned the room and ventured deeper into the confusing cabin; we decided to venture different areas of the now sudden larger structure. Fiadora opened a door on the ground floor, she enters through the door, she enters a new room but when Xentia looked everywhere on the ground floor then looked at the towered floors above us, she pointed out to me that Fiadora is standing above us on the side of the wall; I flinched from the sudden sight, the same time Fiadora had closed the door and looked at the room to see us on the ground floor.
We were completely confused by the interior of the cabin, it was taller than it should and had doors to places that our minds couldn't understand; Fiadora shot her wings out to prevent her from dropping down to the ground floor, but instead of falling down, she was pulled to the wall. The wall seemed to have gravity like the ground here, Xentia walked through a different door and reappeared through the front door; I was perplexed by her sudden reappearance though the door we entered through, I wanted to use my shadow portals but something was preventing me to use it and travel to different locations here. I decided to try going through the front door, only to be dropped back to the ground floor from what appeared to be the ceiling to the structure; Xentia then took the minute to realise this was an illusion, to ensure that she tried to fly to the ceiling, only to feel an unseen force blocking her. She theorised that the illusion is producing the force blocking her from flying to the ceiling as well as the rooms above us, she tries to break the illusion with her powers but nothing happened; I wrapped my mind into a problematic situation and got Fiadora to drop down to us from her room but couldn't, she seemed to be standing in the air.
Xentia and I saw this, we had no idea how this is happening; but I began to look around the room to see anything that could suggest the significance of that room, I even tried to go through doors to enter the room beside it, only for me to fall to the ground floor. Xentia tried the room above Fiadora's room but then fall and land on the invisible floor as the ceiling to the ground floor, I rushed to the door to get into their room and as soon as I arrived, I began to wreck the room; tearing the room apart, looking for something to suggest a why this room is special. Xentia searched the furniture in the room: the bed, the chair, the desk and makeup desk and the draws; Fiadora had began to rip parts of the wall with her sharp claws as she dives and flap her wings with a part of the wall in her claws but as she rips chunks of the wall, the chunks that she ripped out, returned to their places, leaving Fiadora in a repetitive cycle.
I had taken down most of the wall, but none of us had inspected the wardrobe, I turned to it but the wardrobe doors wouldn't move; I pulled as hard as I can but they wouldn't open, Fiadora joined me and struggled to open them with me. Xentia then joined us but it still wouldn't move, Xentia tried to open the wardrobe doors with a lash from her whip, since the entire area was enchanted by a strong powerful illusion; she theorised that she could break the illusion locking the wardrobe doors because she felt the illusion was weaker there. Fiadora and I backed off from the doors as Xentia materialised her whip and strike the door in the middle; once the doors were struck by Xentia's whip, Fiadora and I attempted to open them again, this time they opened.
But as we opened them, a portal with a dark swirling spectrum of lights, sucking the three of her in; we grabbed anything that we could get a hold off to keep us in the room, but it was useless, we were sucked into the portal. Where would we arrive at?
Chapter 6 - Oblivion
I wake to find myself, laying on a waste land of grey and misery; I slowly rose up with my sword helping my strangely heavy body stand up, I don't recall injuring myself, must have been there when I fell onto the ground here. I don't remember much from that fall, but I remember not being here alone; I shoot my head and eye sight towards the dull surroundings around me, where's Xentia? Where's Fiadora? Where am I?
There was no sign or life here, and yet, I feel a presence here with me; I searched everywhere, but I then heard and see a small figure rising from the ground. It looked like a human baby with claws, but it wasn't alone, tens and thousands of them rose up as the first baby screamed and cries out like a normal human baby crying, calling a pack of them; all ready to attack and take a life, mine. The babies crawled their way to me as I took my stance as my sword begins to burn, I swipe the first baby dead with my sword but it didn't weaken them at all as they continued to jump and try to cling onto me; I flung them away with my wings, and still they continue to attack. I tried to fly away but my wings got deeply clawed and wounded by those babies as they surround me and leaped onto my back, I had shaken them off but the damage was done, I couldn't fly anymore; as they all began to cling onto my body, their number growing from tens to hundreds, climbing on me, trying to drag me down; I cleaved a path with me sword releasing a dark flamed wall from the ground, I ran down that path before the parted path closes with the babies on my body holding onto me as I ran, dropping them onto the ground behind me.
Soon enough, they started to claw and scratch my legs as I ran; small cuts became deep wounds as they sliced random areas of my legs, I began to lose feelings in my legs as I ran, eventually collapsing on to the ground as I neared what appeared to be a cave in front of the endless of the stream of marauding infants; I crawled my way for the rest of the path to the cave, the babies began to dig their tiny claws into my flesh as I was just a hand away from the cave. I managed to enter the cave and strangely, the pack of killing infants retreated, even those that were on my back rushed off me to join the others; I took a moment to regain my energy as a small grey girl in a small fancy dress with a little rabbit doll in her arms like she was hugging it, I had briefly closed my eyes but shot them back open as the figure leaned over to stare at me.
I flung my injured body away from the strange figure with my sword pointing at her, the girl began to weep in front of me; I regained my composure as I lowered my sword while trying to stop the girl crying, "Shh, shh, shh... It's OK. I'm sorry. Look, my swords gone. See?" I stretched my arms away from my body while my sword was in it's sheath, the girl gradually stopped crying as I tried to pat her head but my hand went straight though, she is a ghost or spirit. The girl then repeated a sentence that almost made me want to cry, "I wanna go home. Mummy, Daddy... Where are you? I'm scared..." she moaned with great sadness and dread, it almost made me cry as tears rolled out in her ghostly grey sad eyes. I moved closer to her as I slowly stood up, promising that I will help her find her family while I hope to find the others.
Who is this girl? And if they aren't with me, where did Xentia and Fiadora go?
Chapter 7 - Propensity
Smoke and flames entered my nose, waking me from my unexpected slumber; but as I open my eyes, I see strangers burning a woman, yelling and screaming words of hate. The woman struggles to break free as the flames constantly licked her feet, the villainous laughs and cheers of these people got louder but were silenced by a blood-curdling scream from a nearby house; I had rushed over before the people came, to see the sight of a bloody gory murder. A woman's body lays in a dark bloody puddle with a rope around her neck and multiple stab wounds on her body; the people didn't seem to realise I was standing right in front of them, a succubus like myself, would have been the number one suspect but they can't see me. I was perplexed by this as I looked around the house to see a window opened, then found foot prints leading to the burning woman.
I followed the foot prints to see the woman gone and the fire extinguished, I could think of how the flames died out but something, no, someone, approached me; the murdered woman. She stared at me with dead lifeless eyes then slowly pointed towards the woods, she began to walk into the woods; I followed her as the people behind me, reacted and treated the dead woman at the house. I looked back at the woman in front of me, then began to think, is this the ghost of the recent murder victim? And how do the people not see me? I could only continue to walk and follow the 'spirit' in front of me; as I followed her, the trees began to moan. I thought it was the wind, but it was a still night; the 'spirit' let out a ghostly shriek as the tree in front of her opened it's jaws, releasing a hungry roar. I fired a fireball at the tree, burning it as the 'spirit' began to run deeper into the woods; I quickly followed her but the other trees began to open their jagged wooden jaws as their trunks turn to claws, swiping at us in order to satisfy their appetite.
The 'spirit' began to repeat the same sentence as she ran with her arms over her head, "Please. Stop. I know I'm wrong. Please... stop." I pondered on what she meant, as the trees roared and snapped their jaws at us; I wondered if these trees respond to noise or movement, but one just acted with nothing triggering it. The trees even began to move, closing the gap around us; then I tried a little theory I thought of, I let the trees surround me as they gathered like predators after the one prey. I stood my ground and watched trees striking their claws at me, dodging them as if I was in a dance or a waltz, they moved in closer around me; letting their jaws munch and bite on me, chewing and swallowing me, as I walked away from the cannibal trees, fooling them into eating an illusion.
I caught up with the 'spirit' who stood in front of the cabin I was in with Vantes and Fiadora; I knew they weren't with me all this time but somehow I could sense them, the 'spirit' enticed me to enter the cabin by turning her head to me and pointing at the cabin. I opened the door to find a dark corridor, I followed down the corridor, not knowing, what I'll find at the end.