God Rising: The Cult of Ainz
Written by: AtheistBasementDragon
Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots
Chapter 189: Down to Earth
AN: Onward! LOTS of character development along the way as we race to the end. Incidentally... I was probably wrong about 200 chapters, might be 205. Anyway, enjoy and let me know what you think! :)
...Kami Miyako...The Slaughter...
Seno heard the killing before he saw it. In a manor that large, it was no surprise to hear noises from a distance, the walls allowed sound to carry very easily. His scrawny form, weak from great hunger, gained a sudden surge of strength and vigor as panic took hold. Beside him, his sister Misu looked equally fearful. For a moment they both froze, they recognized the sound of someone dying, all too well. Memory rose of the day of their capture, when the soldiers of the Theocracy swept over their town and dragged them into a nightmare, a hundred and twenty years earlier when they were already a hundred years old.
"I don't know what's happening, but something is and it isn't good, we've got to move!" Seno whispered to her and grabbed her hand, they ran, as fast as they could they sprinted through the master's house, the sound of killing was growing closer. "What do we do?" Misu whimpered as tears started to roll down her face, and down the length of her exposed body. "Where can we hide?" She choked out as Seno pulled her along.
"There is one place that we might make it... just hold on." He said as they sprinted, heedless of the sound of feet, since that and the sound of screams were reaching a fever pitch like some tempest yanked from hell's deepest pits.
He tightened his grip as sweat made his entire naked body go slick, he prayed to the gods he'd given up on that no stray drop of sweat would give away their path, and took her to the library. "There's a bookshelf, I found a small old air shaft through the wall when cleaning behind it, we might be able to crawl out through there..." He said breathlessly as they entered the huge room. Books lined the walls, and offered only inches of space, but for the waifish, thin siblings, it was sufficient.
The enormous round room had a few tables near the center, chairs interspersed about, a table with a tea set ready to make tea that nobody had anymore of, sat idle but had no dust upon it. The cleanliness of the unused set spoke of the thoroughness of the slaves who cared for every inch of the manor, and the terror their master inspired in them that they not slack off even that much on something rendered useless by the nation's circumstances.
Seno looked around before his eyes found hers, still holding his twin sister's hand, their eyes held one another for a moment, and their stiff, barely clean golden strands of hair, the only covering of their bodies other than the collars they wore, they each looked to the other for comfort and hope, and found none. He broke his gaze and resumed his search as memory was meddled with by the panic that caused his heart to pound within his breast. "Here!" He exclaimed as the memory was snatched from the darkness of his fears, and he moved the bookshelf away from the wall and jabbed his finger down at the vent, it was large enough to crawl through. The sound of killing was more distant, cries and pleas that went unanswered by men or gods but by more death, still echoed all the way to where the siblings were standing. "You go first." Seno whispered.
Misu shook her head, fear etched on very line of her face, he grabbed her cheeks and brought her to an inch from his own, "Yes, you have to go, just trust me, you'll make it, just stay hidden until it is safe. I'll follow. I promise." He whispered as he brought his forehead closer and touched hers. She let out a tiny whimper that reminded of him of when they were children, and she'd gotten in trouble for taking a tart from their parents' table. He felt the urge to laugh in spite of himself, his response then... eat all the tarts on the table so that she wouldn't get in trouble for eating one.
"You promise?" She asked in a small, trembling voice that was exactly the same as back then.
"I do." He said sincerely, barely parting his lips enough to get the words out, and she went behind the shelf, then inched her way feet first into the small shaft.
The sound of killing ended, but he could hear very distant footfalls and marching feet. His breathing picked up, and he looked down at his sister, all that was visible now was her head, "I'm... sorry, I'm afraid I lied just this once, please, forgive me!" He said in an agonized tone, "Someone has to put the shelf back or they'll know..." Her mouth fell open as she, transfixed with horror, saw him disappear as he went to the other side of the shelf and push it back to the wall into its proper place.
"Seno!" She cried out fearfully.
"Hush, just stay quiet, I'm going out the window." He said, and rushed to a wall, he pushed a table beneath it, and Misu felt herself relax when she heard the sound of breaking glass.
She tried to wiggle further, then froze, voices carried from outside into the shaft. Male, and not at all disturbed by the sounds they must have heard within. 'They're part of it... I can't go out... yet.' Misu thought and remained still, she heard the sound of Seno climbing, and then felt the horrible dawning realization that he was running into a trap. She opened her mouth to scream, but heard his grunt as he heaved himself out... then a cry of terror and a scream of pain as Seno was cut down by the men waiting outside.
Misu was alone. She fainted before she could even cry for him. When she came to, she had no idea how long it had been, the shaft was cold and her body felt stiff and sore, a very small crack in between the bookshelves let her see out into the center of the room, and there, her golden eye beheld the master of the house. Cardinal Yvon Jasna Dracrowa stood in the light, speaking to the heavens, seeming to her the embodiment of a divine evil. She watched, and began to understand the reason hell had descended even deeper into the nightmare that it was. She trembled as she watched him embrace the sunlight that surrounded him in a circle made by the dome overhead, her breath low and inaudible, but to her it sounded like she was screaming. She snatched her hair and shoved it into her own mouth, gagging herself to keep any stray sound at bay.
It was all she could do to watch, until her heartbeat and breathing became so frantic that she fainted again.
...Yvon's Estate...Dining Hall...
Preparing all the meat took hours, but if the soldiers that sat around the table as the few remaining human servants ladled the stew into bowls or served slices of meat and blood pudding onto plates, minded that, well they gave no sign.
When they'd eaten their fill, such that they felt their stomachs were going to burst with both meat and joy at having eaten well at last, and they leaned back in their seats, Yvon stood up. "Follow me, and you will not go hungry again. I will harvest the work camps, and feed the soldiers and this city. Continue to follow Dominic, and both you and all your comrades will starve for want of food, while some of our remaining supplies go to feed mere beasts. What will it be?"
As one, the fifty stood up so fast that their chairs flew back and slid across the floor, their swords came out and they lay the flats of their blades against the center of their faces. "I'll take that as a sign that you're with me." Yvon said with a grin spreading over his thin face, seeming even larger for his withered body.
"Sir! Yes Sir!" They shouted in unison.
"Good, then my first order, get all the meat and stew gathered up, and have it taken to your unit, and any leftovers to all surrounding units, when you run out, spread the word that I will feed every soldier who presents themselves here by the time the sun is at its apex tomorrow." Yvon remarked, "As long as they swear to obey me, that is. For now, you are dismissed."
The humans of his house moved like zombies, bodies empty of souls. Step after trudging step, they made their exit as they sought a longed for respite that would be forever plagued by nightmares.
...Raymond's Home...
"Solution, take Illal to my bed, would you... and... please don't kill her? I'm sure she'll have questions, a use, and it sounds like His Majesty wanted her protected." Raymond wearily asked as Nua wept on her knees and in a mindless daze, caressed the ruined meat on the floor that had once been a living elf.
"Fine." She said passively and picked the woman up at the waist, she draped Illal over her shoulder, but before she walked out, she glanced at Raymond, "Just out of curiosity, why is it such a big deal for... you know, 'humans' to eat elves? But not for me to eat... anyone at all?"
Raymond's response came quick, like he expected the question. "Because you're a maid demon, we wouldn't think anything of a lion eating a person because that's just what a lion naturally does. It is its nature, that's yours. But for us... we are violating our nature to turn on others like ourselves. The gods abhor those who turn on their own, or so we've always been taught. If you were a human, instead of just looking like one, it would be different."
"Oh. I guess it's a human thing." Solution turned up her nose a little, as if to express her preference for her nature over his. Each shrugged off the other's answer, and for the moment, that left Raymond and Nua alone.
"I'm so sorry..." He said in a soft voice as he drew her face into his chest and gently disengaged her from the remains.
"Are you? Are you really?" She said in a broken voice, she let him draw her away, but the eye farthest from his chest still looked at the little pile of fluid soaked, chewed up and half digested meat that had been one of her people. "Are humans capable of that...? How can you be, if you're part of the same people who did such a thing?"
"I would never..." He murmured, then stopped as her hand came up to his lips.
She pushed slightly away from him, her eyes were mirrors to his own, and though her voice was rough from all she'd let out, it was forceful and for the first time since he'd known her, commanding. "You share the gods who said that is all I am good for. For six hundred years your people have prayed to them, for hundreds of years we have been used as your beasts of burden, your chattels, your slaves, abiding because of the dictates of your divinities. For all your life, you knelt to them, prayed to them, served them, became a priest and a Cardinal. All while knowing what 'they' had chosen for us, these 'gods' of humanity." She stopped, and the commanding air was gone, leaving her spirit with the return of her mewling tears of anger. "I called you the first, the only, good human I'd met. Take a good look, Raymond." She raised her head high, lifting her throat where the heavy collar still rested and still choked against her, as she'd yet to remove it. She then pointed to the pile of chewed up elf meat Illal had 'left behind'.
"I am either this," she touched her collar and winced from the sudden pain, "or I am that, according to your gods. You may have turned on your nation to save your people, you may have saved us to atone for the many wrongs of your country, and of yourself, but you can't say that you wouldn't have either end for me, as long as you serve gods who say otherwise."
She clenched her jaw as she held her fingers lightly under his chin, and saw her reflection mirrored in his eyes. "If you're going to continue that... then I'd rather you just kill me in my sleep tonight, so I can die thinking that I knew a good human, for once in my life."
She stood up, leaving the cardinal silent on the floor, "Wait..." he said urgently, "your... the collar, let me..."
She shook her head violently and she jerked back away from him. "No. I'm going to go get something to clean up what is left of this poor soul, and bury what I can of whoever that was. Then I'm going to my little space beneath the stairs and sleep. I can't bear anything more of the day... I can't. And if you're still a follower of your gods in the morning, don't let me wake up, because I don't want to be in a world where the only good human I know, follows gods that keep me in this, or like that... even one more day. Finish me quickly in my sleep, let me dream forever, take my collar off then, when I'm free of life, fear, everything, including my delusion that a human could be good. Then may your gods keep you, and welcome you into the afterlife you long for, one day."
She stormed out of the room, then returned with a towel and cleaned up the remains, she wrapped them carefully, kneeling reverentially, placing one bit at a time slowly into the center of the towel, then wrapping them as if one had a newborn babe, and not the fluid soaked mess of dead elf flesh. She then walked out, clutching it to her breast without looking at Raymond even once as he remained, kneeling on the floor, lost in his own thoughts.
That was how he still was when Solution returned to him. She ignored his lost expression, the blank staring into nothing the glassy eyes as he descended deeper and deeper into his own confusion and a convoluted mess of tangled thoughts. "Raymond?" She asked. "Hey Raymond, Nazarick to Raymond, hello, anybody home?" She badgered, leaning over in front of him and waving her hand in front of his eyes.
Annoyed, she put her hand to his cheek, and started dissolving some of his flesh, slowly. He shouted in pain as he snapped back to reality and leaped several feet away and directly into a perfect combat stance with his fists prepared to hammer her.
She grinned widely, "There you are, I'd say sorry about that but... you taste pretty good." She tittered.
He touched his cheek and relaxed as she went on, "It was the only way to get your attention, listen, I wanted to bring this up before, but with the new girl... anyway, we were followed back here."
"Followed?" Raymond asked, his body relaxed but his expression turned grim, his lips turned down in a frown and his chin wrinkled beneath his slowly growing beard. "Any idea by whom?"
Solution shook her head, "I don't know, it smelled like an elf though, so I didn't think anything of it, nothing in this city is a threat to me, but he seemed to focus his interest on Nua, and he was hostile. Obviously he glanced at me, but... he was definitely centered on her, and I could taste his hate. He followed us here, and then disappeared.
Raymond stroked his beard thoughtfully, "I'll have to ask her about this tomorrow."
"Not planning on killing her then?" Solution asked with obvious sincerity.
"Why would I..." He started to say, only for her to cut him off.
"I heard everything, obviously. She wasn't joking." Solution held out one hand, and one of her fingers became long, thin, and wiggled like a worm on a hook. "I can make it quick and painless for her, if you like. The brain feels no pain of its own, I can just ease this through her ear, wrap it around her brain, and destroy it. She won't have a mark on her, she won't feel a thing, and that will be it."
Raymond looked as blank as the store mannequins that he'd seen being used to show off fashionable clothing in the most upscale shops. His face didn't even quiver.
Solution sauntered over, close enough that her breasts were pressed to his chest, "Come on," she whispered duskily, the wiggling finger stroking around his beard, "It's what your gods want for nonhumans that aren't slaves, and you'd get your wish, that she not suffer anymore. You'd keep your promise too, to not let anyone get her. You can bury her remains in the back with dignity, I won't even eat her corpse, and I'll help you dig the hole. Best of both worlds, isn't it?" She put her lips close to his ear.
"Come on, demon, obey your gods will, isn't that what you humans do, obey, obey, obey the gods, submit like sheep even when you think it's wrong. I'll kill her for you, you don't have to do anything, your hands will be clean, just say the word, and I'll carry out the will of your gods, as your instrument." Her other hand went around his body, he stood stiff as a board, unmoving as she played up her sensuality, her perfect maid outfit didn't even wrinkle as she moved it against him, he felt her hot breath in his ear, but couldn't speak.
"Go on... order your 'servant' to kill the one you care about, with all mercy and kindness, and she'll never know the choice you made." She giggled as she felt his stomach roll in his body, "She'll die beautiful and peaceful, and you can embody all the 'virtues' of your gods, from human rule, to the place of elves and other nonhumans, even down to their mercy as you had it done without pain. Isn't that all the 'virtue' you humans love so much?"
Raymond closed his eyes slowly as he quieted his heart. Solution went behind his back and whispered into his other ear, placing her hands on his shoulders, "Go on, give the order, keep faith with your gods like they say you should, and let her rot in the ground where they say she belongs. Let her die, dreaming of her freedom and a life beyond these walls, I can even try to stimulate some pleasure centers in her brain, so she'll enjoy her death as I eat her from the inside of her skull."
Raymond finally managed to muster out a few words, spitting them out in bitterness as his body shook with rage, "Do you enjoy this?" He asked.
"Enjoy what?" She giggled as she pretended her ignorance.
"Torturing me?" He asked through gritted teeth as his fists clenched.
"Very much so." She giggled insanely, before throwing back her head and letting a full blown deep belly laugh come from within. "You humans, especially the ones of you who are just demons in a different skin, you make everything harder on yourselves, how can I not love to play with you so much?"
"So you're just... throwing it all in my face, because it pleases you to see me forced to shred everything one way or another?" He asked again.
"You have no idea how much so. My master, my god, values 'all' of us, he'd never throw any of us away. Higher and lower is just accountability and responsibility, but he loves 'all' of us as the children of his friends. Yours hate so many, that even when you actually like one, you're supposed to put them in collars, kill them, enslave them, eat them, anything but treasure them. And now because of that, I get to watch you rip yourself apart trying to decide between your conscience and your gods. It's..." She touched a finger to her eye as if to wipe away a mocking tear, "so beautiful, for someone like me."
"I'll tell you what, Raymond... I'll make the choice for you. Just go to sleep tonight like you always do, and in the morning, I'll bring her body out back for you to bury her. I'm a maid after all, I'm supposed to help the master of any house I serve." She gave a broad, mocking grin that he 'felt' from behind him even though he couldn't see it.
"Unless... you'd like to stop me?" She stepped away from him, "Go ahead, talk to your gods while I go to the door, I'll keep her company until she sleeps, then finish it off. Maybe ask your gods to change their minds, maybe they'll talk to you, maybe they'll talk to me, or... maybe I can walk out and leave you here, and the only thing that will change is that you'll bury her tomorrow."
"See you later, Raymond." She grinned as she tittered, her ample breasts shaking as she walked away to leave the room.
She managed a step. "Don't." He whispered.
"What?" She asked with an exaggerated tone and a very phony look of surprise. "Shouldn't I execute the will of your gods, isn't that what your faith says?" She teased him as he snatched her wrist in his hand. She felt his grip tighten. At the same time, she felt no hostility coming from him.
"Don't." He said again, looking down at the floor, a slight stain still present where the meat had laid not long before. "Please." He added hesitantly.
"Are you choosing livestock over your gods? Isn't she just an animal born to serve, that's what your priests have said for centuries, isn't it?" She asked him with her huge, monster mocking smile fairly daring him to argue.
"They're wrong." He said coldly.
"But they got their words from your gods." She grinned, "Doesn't that make it right for her to wear a collar and obey? Or to walk meekly toward a knife that will bleed her dry so she can be made into a meal?"
"Then... the gods are wrong... do you want to force me to say it?" Raymond ground out, unable to tear his face away from where his eyes were focused.
"Yes, I can feel all the agony in your grip, I can hear the rapid beating of your heart, your pain is so beautiful... my sisters, the ones who share my nature at least, will revel in the story of torturing a Cardinal out of his 'faith'." She laughed again, slowly, low, and almost inaudibly.
But he gave a low, grim nod, "I abjure them, reject and detest their teachings, I am no longer their man. These teachings are wrong, their words are wrong, their beliefs are wrong, and they are mine no longer. Please, leave her alone. No more half measures, no more hypocrisy, I promise." He released his hold on her wrist and fell to his knees, still staring at the stain.
"There are a lot of ways to break a man, looks like the demoness was right about how pleasurable it is to break them without an ounce of pain. I'll have to get her a souvenir or something from here to thank her." Solution remarked with sudden casualness. "If it helps though, Raymond, I believe I've probably done the best favor for you than anyone ever has." She winked down at the broken shell of a Cardinal.
"Forgive me if I don't feel the urge to thank you." He said in the husk of his formerly commanding voice.
"Forgiven, we are 'friends' after all. And what good are friends if they don't forgive? I'll be heading out now, I'd like to track down where the little 'spy' wandered off to." She said with a wink as she walked out the door.