-Chapter 9-
Confronted With Madness...Men Shall Become Monsters
"Fucking...shit." I gasped
My hand went to my heart as I felt it quicken. My whole body could not quit shaking as I felt like I Was going to have a panic attack.
"Damon!" Emilia screamed as she ran to my side. She rested her hand over my shoulder as she tried to see what was wrong.
Do not touch me…
She was being sincere. But I felt like an alien in my whole body. I glanced around, my eyes scanning through the room like a feral dog as I tried to piece together what happened. Luckily, I didn't restart all the way from zero, but now the save spots have switched.
Roswell, and the maids were staring at me. My eyes stopped on Rem, that fucking bitch! I had to contain myself, if I gave off that I knew what her plans where she may very well strike.
I took a deep breath as I got up from my chair. "I'm fine, Emilia."
"Are you sure?' She asked
I nodded my head as my gaze focused on Roswell. "You mentioned something about a reward, I know what I want now."
He cupped both of his hands as his gaze focused on me. "Anythinnng you desire...thouuugh there are limits of course."
God, his accent pisses me off. "I want money, the amount that would be required for saving the girl's life."
"Sure...but getting them from the bank will take a while, Damon. So how about you rest here for a little wh…"
I shook my head immediately, stopping him. "No... I'm leaving tonight." I commanded. I could feel Emilia staring into me.
"Are you sure?"
I nodded to Emilia, presenting my best smile. "It's fine, Emilia. Remember...I have people I have to return to."
She looked down at her lap. She did not seem like the type of girl to have that many friends, but...who cares! Why should I feel bad for leaving, Rem slaughtered me.
I could still feel it though...the pain was diminishing throughout my body but the remnants of it were still there. I wasn't an idiot; I knew that the pain was just a result of my mind and my body was perfectly okay.
So, while Roswell went to his safe to gather my reward money, I grabbed my backpack and waited at the front door.
"Leaving?"
I turned my head to the sound of the voice hearing, Puck. "Yeah, I think I need to head back home. It's a long journey and if I leave tonight with the money hopefully, I can put some good distance."
He groaned. "I was hoping for Emilia to have a new friend, but...hey, what do you do, right?"
My gaze followed my shoes. The guilt was slowly working it's way through me and beginning to slowly suffocate.
"Damon, I know you are afraid…"
My eyes widened as I stared up at the small creature. "Didn't know you could smell fear." I chuckled, damn the beast in this world are truly something else
"I can tell certain...human impulses at a glance. But I didn't need it for you." Wait I do not understand, maybe it was the look in my eyes that made him answer. "Your hands...they have been shaking."
I gazed down, my gloved hands ceasing to stop. My fingers twitching slightly, like a poorly crafted roof being hammered by a storm.
He flew closer to me. "Is something going to happen, why are you so afraid?" He asked, but I could tell that something felt off.
His tone of voice got deeper, and the air got strangely colder. I felt...like I was in danger, but it was Puck, and…
I owe Emilia for saving me from drowning, and I owe Puck for teaching me magic. Sure, my gate was defective, but he did mention going to the capitol and finding a healer. Maybe that was my next step.
I took a couple of side glances to make sure we were not being watched. "Rem...keep an eye on her. There's something not right about her."
He flew away from me, but the cold air began to go away. "I don't understand, how do you know…"
I could not tell him. He would have thought I was insane. I have to lie but lie in a way for him not to realize that I am lying.
"Puck, that girl. I have been around people like that, those sorts of people are like wolves, they act nice while you are around, but they are liars, and murderers. Be careful around her."
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath; I could tell that he seemed to be angry now. "Roswell… He told us that we would be safe here, thank you...Damon for telling us."
I quickly nodded my head as he flew away. After a string of goodbyes and avoiding eye contact with Rem, I made my way out of the mansion and back onto that dirt path. It was late at night and I did not have any carriage or horse, so I had to go.
If this were a normal journey, I would have stopped at the nearest village and restocked supplies. Or better yet I would have been walking to conserve my stamina for the long journey ahead.
Though I could not…
I could not stop running. Through the dirt road of the mansion, through the empty dark town, I just could not stop!
Even as the moon came over the horizon, even as the harsh forest was turned into green plains, even as the morning sun came, I just could not stop.
My head...replaying the images of what Rem did to me. Of her slaughtering me, the pain in my arm from what she did still there, my heart pumping like I was still fighting her. Until I just…
My body fell onto the roaring plains of growing grass. The rough and sharp grass biting into my neck as I laid down. My breathing heaving and harsh as I tried to regain my strength.
How long have I been running...not running from Rem, no I was running away from her. I guess, I had been running all this time, all throughout my life I was always running the opposite direction.
Though it was my nature, to abandon and run away. There is no fighting against that. I suppose...that was the man I was. I dropped my backpack from my shoulders, as I took in the sights all around me.
Just...plains. Rows and rows, of just green grass over the horizon. The yellow sun now piercing the earth and liberating the land.
"I did it...I survived, the night."
My knees gave way as I fell back onto the plains. My eyes focused on the grass below, and the sounds of my head, of what Rem's flail did to me.
The clanking against the floor, or how they were…
I need to stop thinking about it if I don't then I will surely go mad. The assassin, why did she not make me feel like this...maybe it was because I got my revenge.
Though...Rem. I knew that the odds were not in my favor for this fight. Rem shown a strange supernatural strength with her flail, like the assassin.
But without my guns, without a proper plan, without my divine blessing of wind. I was...powerless. I gritted my teeth together, from how useless I was as I got up and began walking.
Through the plains...until I found something. Rather I heard it first, the trickling of water. It was a stream, nearly the size of a medium sized house, pouring down into a steady river.
"Water…"
I quickly reached down as I took off my gloves. My hands cupped the crystalline water as I greedily took a drank, damn, it tasted cool and refreshing.
I heard a pair of steps coming from right behind me. "Hey bud, you thirsty...there should be enough water for me and you." I spoke to the stranger
Though I did not hear a response. It was probably just some traveler, or some carriage rider that was taking a break. God, hopefully I wasn't on someone's property.
"Buddy...did you…"
A sound of chains echoed from behind me. "No…" I felt my throat tighten as I spat out the water from my mouth. My body began to pulse and shake as I turned around.
It was her…
Wearing that maid outfit as her blue eye stared into me. My whole body felt foreign, as I tried to calm down…
No...fuck calming down! She is going to kill me again, and again, and again, and again, and again!
My breathing grew rapid...I did not want to die. I did not want to die, please god...I have suffered enough. No, if there was a god...what god would make me suffer so?
"Why...Rem?"
She shrugged her shoulders. "I am a maid, and it is my duty to eliminate any possible threats." The coldness of her voice remained unchanged, empty, and cold as ice.
"Threat…" The words came out gnashed as a chuckle came from me. "You...BITCH!" I shouted
She took a step away from me, her flail now shaking. "What...I am a threat, even after I saved Emilia from that psycho. I am a threat for what, please explain to me my crime!"
Her face contorted into one of anger. "A witch cultist, that is what you guilty of…"
Witch cult…wait that girl. Didn't she say that I had the smell of the witch on me? Yeah, she did before I left.
"I don't even know who they even are. I'm a foreigner, Rem!" I screamed so loud that Rem cupped one of her ears, I began stomping my feet and throwing my hands around like a child that was denied his toy.
"Your motivations are…"
"Please, Rem. You just want to kill me. My motivation is to eat good food, drink some good alcohol, and make love to beautiful women." I pleaded to her, hoping that I could try and convince her to let me go
She grasped onto her flail. Her eyes locking on me as a target. "I'm a threat? I left the mansion, I left you alone so I could find my place in the world." I began to sob, as the tears begin to come. "I left...I ran away. And you chased after me...who is the real threat!"
My gnashed teeth, and my voice being caught between my sobs. I could not stop; I did not want to die again...I didn't want to feel that pain again. I am afraid...I'm so scared.
I left...I ran away. I did what I did all those years ago after I came back from the war. I ran away, but she chased after me. What do I do now?
If I cannot run away...if I can't escape from Rem. Then all I can do is. The tears dried up as the madness begin to spread throughout my mind. The sobs being broken from my laugh, as I continued, the palm of my hand covering my face.
Laugh...my laugh came from me in an uncontrolled burst as I feared the worst. "If I can't atone for my sins, if I can't escape my past or my fate." I removed my hand from my face, my gaze locking on Rem.
She looked afraid. Now she was the one shaking, now she was the one that was scared. My smile stretched from ear to ear as let the madness consume me.
"Then all I can do...is use this dark diseased flame that is my soul. To burn everything and anyone that gets in my way."
Dismas Williamson - Affliction - Bloodlust/Irrational
Rem observed the boy. Until he began running, that was when she prepared her stance. She began to swing the flail, but something stopped her.
Dismas's body was slouched. His face hidden from the clumps of his black hair covering his face, but he began to slowly lift it up as he saw the chains.
He was...smiling.
Rem took a step back. Her hands now shaking, whispering about killing the witch cultist beforehand but now…
Dismas's eyes were wide open. Red from the crying, but now he was smiling. He was shaking, his whole body as he approached.
At first it was a walk, then he began to run. Though it was not normal. Everything that happened felt off. His back was slumped as he pulled out his knife. His backpack flew aimlessly from his shoulders as he discarded it like a spent torch.
Rem threw the flail with rapid fire precision. Though he...Rem's eyes opened as she saw Dismas twirl under the chains of the flail and narrowly dodge it.
"Come on maid girl, let's have at it!" He shouted, a sinister glee forming around his voice as he threw himself towards her. Rem narrowly dodged as Dismas's knife slashed through the air, a faint whizz only left behind.
He fell to the floor, heaving as he stared at her. Rem instinctively backed up, as the terror began to set in. It is like he is a dog she thought
His body was slouched, and his hands were dragging across the floor, nearly dragging along the dirt.
"What are you, a mad dog." She whispered to herself. To dodge another slash only narrowly.
His smile was still there as he tried to cut into her. His knife halfhazardly aiming for any openings. She dodged and tried to parry but it was like his speed increased.
Or it just seemed like he did not care anymore. "I'm immortal...I'm a god…" He crazily chuckled out in an insane glee
In a moment Rem was distracted. Dismas knife twirled through an opening and slashed her. Right in the center of her abdomen, she leaped away as she clutched her wound with her left arm.
He tilted his head towards her. The mania only getting worse as his bloodshot eyes locked onto Rem. "Ever seen a man bleed to death, Rem." She backed away, getting ready to use her last resort. "It's goddamn pretty."
Rem eyed his bag, containing those strange wooden tools laced in the sides, and his belt buckle which usually contained his other strange tool. She had no idea what they were or what they meant.
Though she had a bad feeling about them. "You...witch cultist are murderers!" She spat out
His eyes drooped as he rolled both of his hands into fist. Rem watched to see what was happening but was shocked…
He slammed both of his fist towards the side of his head as painful screams echoed from him. "I DIDN" T MEAN TO!" The sound of his words caused Rem to clutch both of her ears. "It was a reflex I didn't mean to, it was a reflex I didn't mean to, why were they there...why were they there...there were gunshots, they should of have known better, IT WAS AN ACCIDENT"
His voice shook from rage and sadness. Desperation for someone to understand him, but Rem did not care. She threw the flail with precision, but Dismas got lucky as he narrowly parried the blade.
Though it was only a knife, and the blade was chipped off as he plummeted onto the bare earth. Rem shot out her fist outstretched, but Dismas peered to his side and dug his fingers into the dirt.
Rem advanced getting ready to strike the final blow. Though Dismas stopped her, a mound of dirt splattered her cyan eyes as she quickly went to wipe them. Dismas quickly got up from the ground.
He pivoted his body and used all his weight. He slammed into Rem. She was still on her feet, but the flail flew out of her hands like a loose ball. Dismas, his gaze focused on Rem used his broken knife.
Three slashes made their way over Rem's body. A diagonal slash over her left breast, a horizontal slash over her right hand, and a final slash over her left eye that resulted in a failed attempt to blind her.
Rem in her fury, threw a right hook. Dismas were thrown into the lake. His body out of breath as the sudden impact from crashing into the lake, and the force of Rem's punch knocked him into the pond. She leaped onto Dismas, he tried to throw a punch using his left hand only to be stopped by a backhanded smack from Rem.
"DIE!" She screamed as she grabbed Dismas's head and forced him into the water.
He began to thrash around, his knife hand aiming anywhere and trying to slash at anything, but he would always narrowly miss. His face breached from the water to catch a quick breath, only to be once again smothered by Rem.
Though Rem felt something, a pain coursing through her body as razor blades shot up from her fingers. Only to pull as she felt the greatest pain she ever felt before. She did not feel it before when her mom and dad died, or when her sister was made hornless by her mistakes.
She reached out to see her ring finger and pinky finger gone. Now replaced with bleeding nubs, as she howled.
Dismas spat out the remains of Rem's fingers as his head resurfaced. Not missing a beat, he thrusted the broken remains of the knife into Rem's right shoulder, she howled from the pain but was stopped as Dismas's forehead crashed into her nose.
The sound of bone breaking echoed throughout the clearing. Dismas...thought he could of have won. Only to be stopped by a horn. "A demon?" he aimlessly muttered
Rem punched him, the punch skyrocketed through his brain as he was thrown back into main land. His left eye now clouded and blistering with pain.
"Damn...you got me good, maid!" Dismas shouted, coughing up blood. He poked around his eye as he went to nurse his wound. Only to feel…
"Nothing…" He gasped as he narrowly used his left thumb to see…
Dismas's left eye...was now gone. All there was where guts and blood pooling from the remains of it, Rem's punch knocked it clean out.
Dismas let out an incoherent scream of pain and he bellowed from the top of his lungs. Insanity, pain, desperation...all were here. "All this blood that I have spilled, flow free once more." He irrationally spoken through mumbles.
Rem gripped her flail as it was thrown at Dismas. His gaze focused on her and unmoving as the tears began to stream from the remains of his lost eye and his clear amber one.
"Guess what Rem…" She focused on him, as she clutched the flail. "This doesn't matter because I am immortal, and that when I die, I can just come…"
The flail made short work of Dismas. It first ripped through his chest, and his laughing ceased as he plummeted to the ground like a piece of loose paper.
She looked down at the boy…or what better yet. What remained of the bloody mess. She gazed down at herself. Her wounds, which would eventually turn into scars. Her tattered dress which lord Roswell and her sister would question her for.
Finally...her missing fingers. She gazed back into the lake, she knew that the stream would have already carried them away and it would be no use looking for them to try and repair them with magic. She hoped to get away with this, with no injuries...but she was wrong.
So, she turned away, back to her dragon carriage. Unaware...of the purple hands making their way towards her from the boys corpse.
Author Note
Hi!
This chapter came out pretty rushed and I don't really know what to think about it. It would be nice for some input, also this one was kind of rushed so I may go back and tidy it up a little bit. Thanks everyone that have read, favorited, followed, and reviewed the story I really appreciate it. Also if you have any questions put it in a review and I will try and answer it by the next chapter.
Okay, for those that want a proper explanation for what happened to Dismas read below. Thank you all for reading and have a wonderful new year!
Explanation: Remember how in episode thirteen or fifteen. After Subaru sees the aftermath of what the witch cult did to his friends...he was completely mindbroken. That was what happened to Dismas but there is a reason for the different reactions. First Dismas has a weaker mental state than Subaru, leading him from going crazy due to many factors. Elsa killing him, his anxighty over not being able to use magic, Rem killing him, his fear, his loss of the divine blessing of wind, his fear of knowing that Rem will always hunt him down and he may very well be stuck in a permanent death loop, and finally just dying in general. Also the effects of what happens, Subaru was mindbroken and in a vegetative state. In my opinion what Dismas does...is far worse than Subaru. Subaru doesn't have the skills needed to hurt others, and when he was in a state like that he didn't do anything. Dismas instead of being mindbroken is very abusive, irrational, or sometimes bloodthirsty.
This will be explored more in the story and how the others react to seeing Dismas like this. Also the reason Dismas was able to contend with Rem was because he was so bat shit insane due to his irrationality. Biting, clawing, stabbing, slashing, throwing dirt into peoples eyes...Dismas didn't want to die so he was pulling every dirty little trick.
We should be done with Rem vs Dismas in two chapters and I got plans for how it will be handled. Also after that is done best girl/main love interest will be making an early introduction, there will be a new threat after that and I got a couple of good ideas. Thanks everyone for reading!
Reviews
TheAncestor: Thanks bro I greatly appreciate it!
Guest - Dec 31: Thanks dude and have a happy new year. I am glad that I was also able to offer writing advice. Yes, Frederica is going to be the main love interest for this fic. There is going to be heartbreak and newfound love, I am going to try my hardest on the romance part of the story. Thanks again for reading and thanks for the kind words!
Guest - Dec 31: That's what Dismas believes
naufalrakha: He is quite smart and innovative. Give him...a couple more chapters and he will have an amazing plan!
Pokemonrot: Rem is awesome. But she killed Subaru, Subaru was able to forgive Rem but Dismas isn't that forgiving. Especially in this chapter where they practically maul each other to death. She will make Dismas come to terms with the man he needs to become, but he won't be able to forgive Rem. Not for a long time...but he won't particularly hate her. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!