We back.
Sorry for the big delay in chapters haha, for this and my other stories, I never got into the groove of writing more and my work schedule has been screwing me over. Now that college has started, my time for writing has been at an all-time low, so expect more chapters! Strange how that works.
I originally wanted this chapter to be longer, but I didn't really care enough to write more, so I'll just leave it at that. Reminder that this story is just something for me to write when I'm bored and don't wanna write that shit.
If you're here for ABS, yes, I'm writing it. It's just super boring lmao.
(I rewrote the first three chapters because of how against them I was, turns out, they were better than I remembered, but I still edited them.)
Entry # 12286
This world is strange. I never would've guessed that something like this existed, even if it is another world. I've been told the concepts of other worlds before, but those were fanciful tales of grandiose, not something creepy like this. I only have a few days worth of time; something about staying here permanently wouldn't sit right, I am their mother, after all. But I've still found nothing of the eyes, though I may have an idea of where they may lie.
I'll check that place tonight.
Darkness.
That's all this place is. Something that only exists with the absence of something else.
However, to wake up in such a place… It's the same as being conscious inside a dream.
Or at least, Subaru wished it was a dream.
It isn't.
Laying before me was the same place as when I met the Witch of Gluttony. Just… simple darkness. Or would it just be the color 'black'?
Just… black.
"Come on out, I know you're here, Daphne."
Subaru called out, waiting for an answer from his 'roommate'.
Didn't take long.
"E-E-Eh? Subarun? Back al-rea-dy?" The witch in question seemed to pop out of thin air, coffin and all. "This wasn't supposed to happen yet…"
"Can I level with you?"
"...Eh?"
The witch in front of Subaru seemed to blank at his words. If she didn't have her blindfold on, Subaru suspected that she might've blinked a few times.
"Listen, Daph. Can I call you Daph?" Subaru pinched the bridge of my nose and without waiting for an answer, he continued. "Listen, I got no idea what I might've said before this, about me 'wanting' this or whatever. This place is the worst. I got not a single idea how you could make a place so terrible."
"..."
"But could ya do me a solid and just send me back to the real world? I got places to be, people to see, Emilia to think about, I don't need this place anywhere near my life."
"..."
"...Daph?"
Her silence made Subaru more uneasy than when she first appeared. She didn't smile, speak, or move. Subaru couldn't even read her eyes, as she had her blindfold on. There was nothing he could latch onto.
Dead still, she opened her mouth,
"You're afraid."
Subaru started, "A-Afraid? What are yo-"
"Do not lie. I can hear your heartbeat intimately," She interrupted, her voice laced with deeper emotion. "You don't know what to do, not what needs to be done in order to leave, nor how to simply… survive."
"..." Subaru listened to her words with a dry mouth.
"Unable to do anything, you wish to flee from what is known as 'Gluttony'. Re-ga-rd-le-ss of what you want at this moment, you cannot flee, and yet you cling to that possibility. At least a cornered animal would fight with all it has to continue living." One word describes the feeling she held for him at that moment; disappointment.
Subaru looked away from her; biting his lip.
"I was wrong," Her face took on the first expression other than hunger and humor; her face was adorned with sadness. "You're not like Fluggy… Like Flugel at all."
Subaru didn't know how to take those words. He didn't see that as a bad thing in the slightest. Of what he knows about the 'Sage' Flugel, it's that he was a rat bastard. If Subaru was in front of literally any other person, he'd probably let them know his thoughts about him.
But in front of someone who seems to have some sort of deep connection with him… It's best to keep quiet.
And so, it continued like that for a while.
She had a pitiful expression on what face Subaru could see.
He probably didn't look any better, but she couldn't see him anyway.
It was probably a few minutes before she decided to open her mouth again, her voice didn't hold any sort of the same humor as last time, "What else did you want?"
"T-to leave…?" The words spilled out of Subaru's mouth, it was like the tone of a scared child that was about to receive a beating. A meaningless prayer.
"You cannot," Subaru felt his heart freeze up. "You must find your ideal hunger, though that's easy. It's more important to use my eyes. After doing so, you can escape from Gluttony."
"..."
"..."
Yeah, this is impossible.
Speaking with this girl is impossible.
Pleading with this girl is impossible.
There was nothing to be had with talking to her. There was no negative reason, nor any positive; there was nothing at all.
The darkness was split open by a blinding light at that moment.
"Ah?!" Subaru couldn't stop himself from gasping at the light that blinded the entire area.
"So it's him, huuuuh?" Daphne yawned as the entire void they were in started to fall apart.
"What's happening?!" Subaru looked down and saw his body vanishing, but felt no pain. He looked back up to the only other person with him, perhaps searching for reassurance.
"Why are you so sc-ar-ed? You're waking up, is all." She sounded bored, of this, of him. Like there was nothing else to be had from him.
"...huh? I-I'm… going back?" Subaru felt panic flood his body.
A lizardman screaming at him, a guiltylowe being consumed by an abomination, a beheaded wolgarm still trying to snap at him without its body.
He didn't want to go back to hell.
"I'd save your screaming for when you're face-to-face with the one closest to the eyes." Her own body faded with that bright white light.
Darkness was gone, replaced by light.
Even when that place was gone, I heard her voice.
Though I could no longer see her, or myself, I could understand.
"You're the first Gluttony I've seen in some time, Subarun~"
Subaru startled awake.
"What just- Eh?"
Before Subaru looked around; before even thinking about what just transpired whilst he slept, he noticed he was already standing.
No, it's more apt to say that he bound in a standing position.
"Uh-? EH?!" His arms were hoisted above his head, bound together. The tips of his toes barely met the ground and the blood in his arms have all but drained away into the lower parts of his body.
He was basically an animal that's been hung up on a tree to dry.
"Suggestion, if I may," A refined voice came to him. "Refrain from making noise."
Less a suggestion and more an order, but Subaru took it as gospel and quickly calmed his panic. Well, buried it, at least.
"You're not as stupid as you look."
Subaru looked in front of him and saw a figure sitting down on a fallen tree with a bite mark at the end. They wore a mask that covered all facial features, and a cloak that covered their entire body. Simply put, Subaru only had their voice to confirm anything about them.
They were male… and in front of him. Not the best type of information, but that's all he could gather.
"What are you going to do to me?" Subaru asked the man, trying to force all fear out of his voice.
"Depends," The man shrugged. "I only want information, really."
"...?" Subaru's brows furrowed, he doesn't have any information of value. Especially not from this hell world. "Uh… I might not be the best guy to ask that… but if I know then I'll tell you."
"Don't worry, it's just a few simple questions."
"Uh… shoot?"
"First: Why did you call Ura to that mansion?" The man sounded a little less refined than before like he was slightly angry.
Subaru didn't know what to say. "Ura?"
"You…" He raised his hand and coalesced a sword made of ice and left the tip of it on Subaru's throat.
Subaru followed his instinct and leaned as far back as he could, but his back eventually hit the trunk of the tree that he was tied to.
"I-I swear! I d-don't know what y-you're talking about!" He plead with the masked man.
"Liar."
His pleas were met with indifference. Subaru had no power in this position.
"Pathetic. If you're going to lie, at least try and make it believable. There's no way you don't know of Ura." The masked man put the slightest bit of pressure into the sword placed at Subaru's neck, causing small droplets of blood to come out.
"A-alright! I-I'm sorry for l-lying…" Subaru took the only route he could to stop the blade from entering his throat.
The pressure relieved itself. "Talk."
Subaru's mind ran at a million miles a minute. He shakily told his story with as little information as possible, "I- uh- was searching the m-mansion, and there was a- a Guiltylowe! So- I-..."
"..."
"..." Subaru shakily made a notion, like that was the end of his story.
"That's it? You summoned Ura and destroyed my mansion due to a fucking Guiltylowe?" The sword fell to their side as they huffed like a child, "I knew you were weak the moment you didn't destroy your bindings, but seriously?"
Ura must be the worm, then. Subaru gleaned an important piece of information.
"I-I'm sorry for being weak…!" Subaru's eyes started leaking tears, "I didn't know what else to do!"
"Shut up. You'll attract attention to this place, and I won't save you if they're unfriendly." He coldly said to Subaru's shaking body.
Bastard. Subaru didn't like this guy one bit, though he stopped making so much noise with his little act.
"You're weak and a child. How did you even survive this long?" The masked man asked incredulously.
"I- *Sniff* only been here *Sniff* for a day…" Subaru nasally spoke.
In the next moment, Subaru heard a quick noise, like that of a stick gliding through the air. Then the left side of his head felt wet with a sense of dull pain. "Eh?"
He looked at the masked man, his sword slick with fresh blood. The wet feeling expanded from the side of his head to the base of his neck.
Subaru looked over,
Blood.
"Gah!?" Subaru felt panic bubble up from inside him, he struggled against his bonds.
And struggling futilely, he finally looked down at the ground.
"WUOH WAGHH?!"
His severed ear lay there, and his struggles grew ever more desperate.
His mouth opened to scream, but something filled his throat instead of air.
"Perhaps I didn't make myself clear, you are not to make a sound unless I ask you a question."
A sword filled his throat and pierced the back of it. Subaru stared; wide-eyed and truly terrified at the sword that was in his mouth, he could feel the blood from the back of his throat traveling down his esophagus.
"If I felt it, I could sever your brainstem by applying a bit of force; in this world, that'd cause the closest thing to 'death' there is."
He withdrew his sword, causing Subaru to start heaving and choking on the blood flowing down his throat.
"Now then, feel free to choke for a bit longer."
Subaru couldn't move. Nor could he stop the blood going down his throat. He couldn't breathe.
He coughed and coughed, but he was never able to take a breath. Discomfort filled his body as he felt his lungs fill with his own blood. So much blood.
The man in front of him grew hazy, as though he were shrouded in a thick fog.
He was floating, no ground in front of him. The only constant being the blood that filled his lungs to the brim, and flowed up his trachea, and finally, came out his mouth.
That crimson blood looked… enticing.
A beautiful scarlet that Subaru never had the appreciation for. Usually, his mind was clouded by pain during his deaths, so he never knew that wondrous color. This world held little pain in it, so he was able to rationally think for the first time during something like this.
It covered the ground around him, but that was a waste. Such a pretty color should be worn, such a warm scent should be palpable.
His left side was covered from his ear being cut off, so he got to work on the right side.
Blood poured forth in a neverending spew of color. Lathering his right shoulder, to his chest, to his waist. Nothing wasn't going to be red.
His pant legs were both dripping with blood, and the hungry ground drank it wholeheartedly. Subaru was feeding it.
Subaru felt a warm, happy smile come onto his face. Such a nice child deserved all the drink it deserved.
Didn't he as well?
So he drank. That rich, metallic blood filled his stomach, yet he kept drinking. He wasn't thirsty but wanted to color his insides with that same pretty color.
He felt full of scarlet warmth, yet he wanted more.
There was something about how it felt, he craved it, a wondrous feeling that multiplies every time he took a gulp.
He felt something touch his stomach, Subaru looked up with eyes he prayed were blood-stained.
"Huma."
Then his insides became outsides.
His intestines lay bare across the ground. His lungs ripped open, and the blood they held seeped into the fleshy ground.
His stomach popped, all of its red-colored digestive fluids were drank in by the fleshy ground.
His heart lay there, in someone's… hand? It was still pumping, sending that red color through his body, or it was when it was in his body.
His ribcage was opened, an empty hole lay where his organs used to be.
Air filled his lungs once again, and sanity returned to tell him of what was happening. He felt numb pain from where his chest exploded. He'd seen this use of Huma before when he was tied up in a certain cave by a certain Sin Archbishop. Rem had saved him by casting Huma on his blood.
There was something terrifying about all of this, Subaru saw his lungs, heart, all of his internal organs. Which, by itself, was terrifying. But he saw them and he was still alive, his heart still worked, his lungs still supplied oxygen, he was able to watch it all happen. There was so much blood but was still able to think coherently.
The man reached up to the wound that started all of this, the one in Subaru's throat, and spoke that word again, "Huma."
And he was healed.
"Eh?"
Subaru saw his blood run back into his body, his clothing went back to its original color.
The man took Subaru's heart and lungs and stuffed them haphazardly into his chest, "Huma."
Subaru's ribcage returned to its original position with his heart and lungs beating and breathing happily.
"..."
His intestines were placed into Subaru's body, "Huma."
And so, Subaru hung there, bound, with only the side of his head covered in blood.
The masked man huffed and sat back down on the tree, "Now you know the consequences of lying, I know of more ways that destroy someone's physche, this one was pretty mild compared to others. Lie again, and find out."
Subaru felt nothing but horror.
Terror was the man that sat in front of him.
This world is hell. And he is the devil.