Torment

Monika stood in the middle of a rather ugly looking city. It was filled with dirt and grime. Spikes were mounted on every building for some reason.

An equally filthy people inhabited such a place. From the numerous and extremely obvious prostitutes that littered the alleyways to the various peasants, knights, and the occasional outright demon that moved about around her, everyone seemed to somehow fit right in.

As it stood, with her clean and otherwise mundane appearance compared to the nonsense around her, Monika felt a bit out of place.

Before she had time to truly process the weird visuals this game was throwing at her, a voice sounded off from behind.

"Hey, you!"

She ignored it at first. The sound of a man's voice that she had never heard before. He definitely had an accent as well, but she could not quite place it. Regardless, she ignored the voice, assuming it was just some random NPC chatter in the background. She had been hearing a lot of that ever since she launched the game.

"Hey! I'm talkin' to ya!"

Once again, Monika kept her eyes locked on the path before her. She kept listening and surely enough, that voice continued trying to get someone's attention.

"Hello!?"

Suddenly, another voice spoke out in response to the first. A deeper more stern voice. "Forget it, Morte. She isn't the same woman."

"I can see that, Chief," Morte argued. "Doesn't exactly change the fact that she's still wearing the exact same outfit."

There was a brief pause before Morte shouted something else, this time confirming to Monika that it was not just random banter. "Hey! You with the white bow in your hair!"

Monika finally turned around and immediately regretted ever doing so. She was met with the curious stares of two, particularly strange individuals. The one on the right was a tall man with numerous scars all over his body. He had pale skin and his outfit mostly consisted of various bones and tattered cloth.

The other character was nothing more than a floating skull with two bulging eyes and nothing more. Together, they observed her with a strange sense of familiarity.

"Who, me," Monika inquired after a moment of silence.

"Yeah, you," the skull insisted. Monika was easily able to determine that one to be Morte given his distinct voice.

"That's a strange outfit you've got on," Morte commented. "Not gonna lie. I'm a fan of it. Especially that skirt. Although, it ain't the first time we've seen it on someone. A girl about your age waltzed on through the Hive and spoke to us a bit. You wouldn't happen to be a friend of hers would ya? Her name was... uh… Hey Chief! You remember that woman's name?"

In a stoic tone, the man replied to Morte's question. "It was exotic. Yuri, I think."

Monika's smile quickly turned sour at the mere mention of that name. "No," she quickly corrected. "I'm no friend of hers, but I do know her. Purple hair, right?"

"Yeah," Morte said with a nod. "Yuri. How could I forget her name? Loved her company. Loved every bit of her company. Again, just can't get over that skirt. Especially since if you angle yourself just right..."

Morte suddenly descended toward the ground and tilted his skull in an odd direction. Realizing what he was attempting, Monika swiftly kicked a nearby rock up into the air which managed to strike Morte on his forehead.

The skull immediately elevated himself once more and let out a defeated groan.

"Forgive my friend," the Nameless One announced. "His body clearly isn't the only thing he's lost."

Morte shot a nasty glare at him in response. "You calling' me impotent?"

The Nameless One furrowed a confused brow at his floating companion and slowly shook his head. "I was calling you brainless but that works too."

"Don't you have a journal or something to go find? Maybe make yourself useful and go find Dak'kon? Just run along and let the lady and I have some alone time."

"And don't you have a body to track down," the Nameless One retorted. "So how about we get going, hmm? The longer we stand around doing nothing, the more time it will take to find what we're looking for."

"You got me all wrong, Chief," Morte explained. "I'm not one to do nothing. I'm about to get some action. Not that you would know anything about that."

Monika quietly observed as their back and forth quickly devolved into nonsensical bickering. She took a deep breath. It had become painfully obvious that she would be here for awhile, not that she had anything better to do while she waited for her game to finish downloading.

Paul and JC quietly walked through the void. They kept a keen eye out for anything suspicious. For the most part, their exploration had proved to be quite uneventful. The Denton brothers made their way through this strange realm with no way of knowing where they would end up.

Strange letters and numbers rained down around them. At first, they thought it was nothing more than gibberish, but after so much time spent wandering around aimlessly, JC stopped his tracks. Paul did the same after realizing that his brother was no longer keeping up with his pace. He turned back to see JC studying one of the nearby lines of neon green text as it rained down from the sky in a thin stream, like a line of digital thread.

Suddenly, without uttering a word, JC darted to another line of green code, then another. He finally turned to face his brother.

"These lines of text," JC flatly remarked. "They aren't random dribble. They look like directories. Files and programs."

Paul took another look at one of these falling streams and examined the text. "You're right," he said in bewilderment. "I'm seeing file extensions and backslashes. What's going on? This landscape doesn't make any sense."

"It's like we're trapped in an alternate computer dimension," JC announced. "I can't wrap my head around..."

JC was suddenly interrupted by the distant sound of what they both assumed to be crying. The two brothers glanced at each other curiously upon hearing this rather disturbing sound. With nothing more to go on, they set out in search of the source of that unsettling crying.

The digital void was filled with a girl's morbid crying. Alice hunkered down awhile ago could not help but sob as her body flickered in and out of existence. What little assets of her game, or rather, what remnants of her Wonderland remained was quickly fading away.

A wave of pain fell upon her each time her body glitched out. A coldness followed. It was as if death had a firm grasp over her heart and was merely waiting for the right time to pull her down into the underworld.

She kept her head down. The screams from those who resided in her now shattered realm had become to difficult to hear just as their suffering had become too painful to watch; so she covered her ears and hid her eyes. It had grown quiet after a while. She was almost certain that she was the only one still alive.

A familiar voice called out to her from somewhere nearby.

"I believe we are the only ones left alive."

She lifted her gaze ever so slightly in response. Alice was at least somewhat relieved to see that she was not alone. That talking cat stared back at her with that strange and abnormal smile.

"Such a strange confrontation," the cat announced. "I sit here honestly wondering if I missed something. I cannot understand why briefly interacting with that girl would lead her to commit such a vile act of violence against you."

"I did nothing to her," Alice snapped. "Absolutely nothing! You saw the whole incident transpire! She attacked me!"

"That may be so, but I'd say you still lost," the cat explained. "Which leads to my next question. I feel death creeping up my spine. I fear our time in life has been cut short by her. Any moment now and we will both disappear into the next life. So, what exactly do you plan to do now?"

9S bolted over a dune, narrowly missing yet another bullet that nearly took of his head as he ducked for cover. He tumbled down the sandy hill all while never allowing himself to lose grip of his sword.

In frustration, he scanned the skies for any sign of 'back up.' While he had not noticed it before, he found it odd that he was the only one out here.

"Where is my damn pod," he exclaimed. He continued to search the skies for that little robot but he saw no trace of it. "It's times like this when I'm reminded about how useful those pods are. The one thing I need right now is firepower and that just so happens to be the main thing my pod offers. I got lucky the first time, but I can't close the distance again without ending up like Devola. At this rate, I might as well just try to retreat and meet up with those skeleton guys."

The more he looked up, the more he could just barely make out a series of strange green lights shimmering high overhead. It looked as if glowing threads were falling from the sky. They were too far away to make out any remarkable details, but they almost made the entire sky look semitransparent the longer he observed them.

His staring did not last long before he felt a boot hit him at full force on the right side of his head. Having been kicked in the face did prove to bring 9S' full attention back to more pressing matters such as a stranger shooting at him.

He leaped back onto his feet and charged Wyatt; all the while praying that his head would not be removed from his shoulders in the process.

Wyatt stood in place and observed his advance. As he drew closer, Wyatt took aim and fired one more round. His intention was to fire multiple, but on the second trigger pull, all he heard was a click.

He only had a microsecond before that robot kid cleared the distance between them. Before he knew it, he was once again forced to dodge a flurry of swings from the panicked android's sword.

"Drop the gun! I don't wanna fight you! You're human, I can help you," 9S pleaded as continuously swung his sword at Wyatt. None of his strikes managed to hit anything.

"Cool backstory," Wyatt complemented as he kicked 9S in the gut, causing the kid to stumble back a few crucial steps. He could not help but wince at the pain of having his foot collided with synthetic flesh and metal plating. Kicking a robot may not have been his best idea yet.

Wyatt took the opportunity to dump out the rounds and empty casings from his revolver. 9S recovered as quickly as possible only to see him reloading his weapon. He took his own chance and charged forward.

By the time he reached his opponent, that barrel was already aimed at his head. A mere inch closer and it would be poking him in the cheek. He froze upon seeing this. His sword was just barely pressed against Wyatt's chest, hovering just over his heart.

A series of clicks broke the silence. Clicks of the revolver's hammer as Wyatt cocked it. 9S did not dare move, knowing the only thing that was currently keeping him from losing his head was the positioning of his own weapon.

"Stop it," he screamed in a panic, his voice slightly cracking under the stress. "You're human! Don't make me do it!"

Wyatt only responded with a wide, sadistic grin. He seemed ultimately unfazed by the situation at hand.

"Do you wanna die," 9S shouted in a pleaded voice, all the while hoping that by some miracle, this would end peacefully.

Wyatt rolled his eyes at the distressed cyborg. "Do you?"

Realizing that he was still at a disadvantage, 9S gave up on reason. He plunged the sword forward with all his available strength. The sword ran straight through Wyatt's sternum and out the back of his spine, impaling his heart in the process.

In response to the pain, Wyatt squeezed the trigger, blasting 9S' head off. Blood spewed in either direction as the two combatants fell backward.

As quickly as the violence had started. It was already over.

Monika followed that floating skull and nameless man to a, particularly spiky building. She read a sign posted at the front entrance before following them in. The sign read, 'Smoldering Corpse.'

She shrugged at the odd name before venturing forth. Upon entering, she was immediately greeted by an unusual setting. Her attention was drawn to the center of the bar. There was a large grate in the floor. Above it was what appeared to be a man suspended in midair and engulfed in flames.

Naturally, she felt compelled to inquire about that.

"Uh, so what's up with that guy?"

The Nameless One and Morte both glanced back to her. A microsecond had passed before either of them were able to figure out who she was asking about.

"Oh," Morte carelessly replied. "That's just Ignus. Ignore him. He's crazy."

"Attention: Morte," an almost automated voice sounded off from up ahead.

The floating skull appeared visibly disgruntled by the mere sound of that voice. He let out a long, pained sigh before averting his eyes in the direction of that horrid voice. Monika followed his gaze and eventually spotted the source of the disturbance.

She had a hard time describing what she was seeing. It looked like a television screen with some odd face manifested on the monitor. The mechanized creature had four arms and a pair of legs. It was the most bizarre little robot she had ever seen. Not that she had encountered many robots in her day, to begin with.

"What," Morte asked in a somewhat defeated tone. "What are you even doing here you little..."

"Morte," the creature interjected. "I have an inquiry regarding our previous conversation. Specifically, I would like to clarify when and how you will attempt to mate with both Annah and Fall-from-Grace this time."

"Not again," another voice sounded off in the direction of a nearby table. This time, the voice was relatively feminine. Whoever was speaking definitely had an accent. One that Monika guessed was Scottish, but she could not tell for certain.

Morte stared at the little machine in utter contempt. He floated there for a while before mustering up a response. He let out another annoyed sigh and addressed the creature's curiosity.

"Why do I bother telling you anything?"

"Attempting to answer my question with another question is not recommended," the machine informed. "To avoid further confusion..."

"Shut up, already," Morte interjected. "Come on, Nordom. Don't ya see we have a guest? You're gonna scare her off before I have a chance to get to know her."

Morte floated toward Monika, giving her a sly look with his googly eyes that seemed to just barely be clinging to his sockets. "Ignore the freak-show. Just stay close to me and I'll keep ya safe. Feel free to hold onto me if ya want."

Monika quickly leaned away from the floating skull. As she contemplated whether or not she should get her revolver involved in the discussion or not, she noticed two equally bizarre figures approaching the group.

Both were women. One of them had blonde hair and a pair of large demonic wings. The other was a redhead, but instead of having wings, she had a tail. Monika's left eye twitched at the sight of them. She was beginning to think entering this game was nothing more than a terrible mistake.

"Well, who might this be," the winged woman asked in an oddly serene tone that contradicted her horrifying wings.

"Ain't you that girl we met earlier," the redhead inquired, scratching her head at Monika's appearance which was apparently familiar to her.

"She bears no resemblance to Yuri apart from the attire," the other woman retorted calmly. She then shifted her gaze back to Monika and smiled politely. "My name is Fall-from-Grace, and this here is Annah. It's a pleasure to meet you..."

"I can introduce myself, succubus," Annah snapped. "Why don't ya go back to the depths, already?"

"I would prefer to linger so long as my presence does not prove a bother to the others," Fall-from-Grace said with an almost proud nod. "Besides, with how many times I have had the privilege to save you from your own rash habits; I feel as though I would not be able to sleep well knowing that you would be carrying on without my guidance."

"Slimy wench," Annah hissed. "Keep at it and I'll make ya regret followin' us."

"Oh, come on, ladies," Morte interrupted. His cocky grin only earned him a glare from both women. Annah's being particularly sharp. "Why fight in a time like this? Of course, I understand what this is all about. How many times do I have to say it? There's plenty of me to go around. No need to have a cat fight every time I enter the room."

"You understand nothin' but yer own delusions, skull," Annah argued. "Just butt out."

As the argument became all-encompassing, Monika decided to pick an empty seat and silently watch the constant bickering over something. She honestly had no idea what they were all fighting over.

Regardless, Monika had nothing better to do. She remembered how slow her download was coming along. It would be awhile before a fresh copy of her own game would be fully operational. In the meantime, she decided to kick back and watch the mayhem.

All the while, she kept wondering how long it would take for this argument to turn violent.