AN: My many, many thanks for your patience. I know, know, that my work is suffering right now from a long hiatus. No more promises and excuses. I'll just freaking do it.
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Chapter 6: Wherein Sena dreams. Wherein the ugly truth of the Vatikan is uncovered. Wherein Shin feels something new.
"Is it natural to have rich and poor? To have hundreds and thousands barely able to live, while a vaunted few enjoy luxuries that soon seem extremely necessary to one's every day life? Is it an inevitable circumstance, the hand of God, destiny, fate, simply the way the world is and has always been, and always will be, or…
…is it conditions that have not yet been understood?
Why is it that he who gives food to the poor is called a saint, but one who asks why the poor have no food is called a deviant devil?
In the dark, the truth will whisper to you his secrets."
-Heinrich Raxm, Philosopher of Abbaddon. Rabble-rouser and Heretic, according to the Vatikan.
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It seemed as if a long length of time had passed. As if days had rolled into weeks; and weeks into months; and months into years. When Sena opened his eyes, his vision was funny. It was as if he had put on goggles that skewed the edges of his sight, and focused it only at the center of his vision.
Let us begin.
There was a woman. She smiled sweetly at him. And Sena knew somehow that this woman smiling at him was his wife.
But I never got married, he thought, somewhere in his head.
A little child runs to the woman, and she catches him, and swings him high, laughing. And Sena can feel himself thinking, in another part of his head, that this life was not perfect, but that he was happy. Because of these two.
Sena is not moving himself, but his vision suggests that he's walking to the woman and child, who are looking at him. He puts his arms around them, and for some reason, Sena knows that he, himself, is laughing, although he cannot see this from the vision.
He catches sight of himself with his wife and son in a hazy, dirty mirror, hung up on the wall of his home. And it is not Sena's face there.
It is an older man's face. Handsome and bearded. But not Sena's face. A thought floats up in Sena's head. His name was Onihei. That's right. He shouldn't get confused. Onihei. He was a respected hunter. Onihei. And he had a beautiful wife and child. In fact, he had bought his wife the hazy mirror, because he wanted her to have something to show her how beautiful she was. Especially like now, as she smiled up at him. Especially now, as she held their child in her strong arms.
Then the expression on the woman's and child's face changes. They are looking behind him. First, in confusion.
Then, finally, into masks of terror. Their expressions, frozen rictuses that changed their faces, disfigured them, and made them look unrecognizable.
Sena, the dread and horror already welling up within, turned around.
His vision was funny. The edges were all skewed lines, and the center was in focus. As if he was looking through lenses of a telescope this entire time, but focused on people.
And he saw death.
And it goes dark.
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Flashing lights appear.
Darkness.
Then the swing of beams of light, like lanterns, perhaps being swung around in the darkness.
There is a consistent motion in the lanterns. To and fro. To and fro. There and back. There and back.
Sena hears grunting.
There is a sound of flesh being torn from bone. Of teeth grinding from somewhere above him.
Chunks of meat of falling to the stony ground.
Among the chunks of meat, is a digit. A finger.
Sena thinks, with some detachment, that it is cold. Wherever he is.
But Sena does not feel the cold.
Sena is too sleepy to feel the cold.
He descends into the dark.
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How long has it been?
When Sena opened his eyes, there was that peculiar vision plaguing him once more. As if he was looking through lenses. Skewed edges, he cannot see the periphery. Merely what's right in front of him.
He was encased in a glass coffin. It was expensive, the glass. And he could see his face in it. Floating in yellowish liquid
Onihei. Right, he should not get confused. His name was Onihei. He began to struggle. He looked down, and realized that there were tubes running out of from all over his body. All over his hands, and feet, and legs. What was this? What happened to them?
Onihei began to struggle, but he could not seem to break free of the tubes in his feet and the ones on his hand had barely loosened. The tubes also hurt. They hurt. That would not stop him, however. Onihei continued to struggle, wrenching his hands left and right. He breathed in and out. And with a wrench, and a cry, he freed his hands from the tubes blood sprayed, suspending scarlet drops in the yellowish liquid.
He banged on the glass door. Let me out! He screamed, but a mask covered his face and his cries. And the yellowish liquid muffled sound.
Onihei screamed and screamed, pounding on the class door. But when he drew a ragged breath in, falling silent, his eyes finally adjusted to the dark and he made out what were the silhouettes in the shadows of the bright light outside.
They were coffins. Like his own. They were all suspended glass coffins with soft light illuminating the water. Inside were people, floating as he did, soundlessly sleeping, anonymous behind their masks. All the glass coffins seemed to be suspended from the beams above that branched from a central circular column that was incredibly bright with light.
Faintly, sound began to come through the coffin, as well. There were vibrations. Onihei could hear the faint sound of panting. And screaming. And of running. Onihei looked down and a new horror filled him. Below, surrounding the central column, were rows upon rows upon rows of large wheels that were spinning, but were held off the ground. He could see that inside the spinning wheels, people were running raggedly. Desperately, as the wheels spun around them. As if they were all being chased. Their heads were encased in some sort of helmet, with a tube coming from the back of the helmet and attached to the center of the spinning wheel. Young and old. Women and men. They all ran in desperation, some crying out, some sobbing, and Onihei, even trapped inside the yellow liquid, could see the blood spatter from their feet.
Once in a while, the wheels sparked in electricity. And the central column would glow brighter.
As if to torment him, his dream as he slept in this glass coffin came to him. He remembered.
Somewhere below in this cavern, his child and wife were running, as well, each with their own wheels and helmets. He had been making them run. With his own psychic power. He'd been giving them bad dreams so that they would endlessly, endlessly run. Till their feet blistered and bled. Till they died.
Onihei screamed once more.
Although the yellow liquid and his own mask rendered it silent.
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This time, there are no lanterns.
But he can hear. And for some reason, he seems to be moving.
As his eyes adjust to the darkness, Sena realizes this time, that he must be somewhere low to the ground.
But he is still off the ground.
He does not feel the ground, after all. But it's quite near.
For instance, right now, he sees more body parts.
Was that a…leg?
He's close enough to the ground to recognize them.
But not so near, that he can touch them.
Sena couldn't move his own arms, it seemed, anyway.
But why was that?
There are cries in the darkness.
His body is moving towards the sound. Although Sena is not moving this body, himself.
It seems he's along for the ride.
Eagerly, from the sound of the pitter-patter of feet.
And here there is some light.
The body pauses, and hides behind some rock.
There are silhouettes.
Sena hears the licking and smacking of the lips.
And the drool slowly dripping into the ground.
He is already so tired. Sena is.
And he drifts once more. Into a blessed abyss.
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Onihei came to consciousness once more. His wife. His child.
He crawled. With a will that could not be stopped, not by the thick glass, or the blood from his stomach being lost. He crawled on the floor on the cold metal. Each slide was punctuated by the crunch of glass on the floor from his own shattered coffin.
He could hear the whirr of the spinning wheels, and the moans from the people running in them, running away from something in dreams.
Onihei dragged himself across the cold floor. Towards the center of the room, where the large central column lay.
He was going to stop this. Stop this hell.
Bit by bit, he dragged himself to the central column.
Bit by bit, even as he lost blood, Onihei crawled.
In his dream, where he shared his mind with all the other psychics held prisoner in the glass coffins, he saw, from their own memories, from the memories of others, where he could destroy this thing.
Broken as he was, he could still destroy this thing-
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Sena felt himself being ripped apart.
And just like Onihei, he screamed, and screamed and screamed.
"SENA! SENA!"
And he opened his eyes, and in the light of the dirty lantern, he saw Shin's face, tightly pinched.
"Shin?" He said, confused. Sena felt incredibly weak. "Why are you here? What happened?"
And Shin stared down at him, looking…unsure.
Was it the devil that made him do it?
Sena wasn't sure, but he reached out and touched Shin, and looked at what Shin saw…
A monster. It looked wrong. In all ways. In the way it looked. In the way it moved. It looked like it should not have existed at all. But against all reason, it did. An infernal creature that slogged through the darkness, that opened its mouth wide, almost the top half of its head falling backward, rows and rows and rows of teeth shining. And on its stomach, the skin of its distended belly that flopped on the ground was stretching, as hands reached out, and faces pushed against the skin, mouths opening in a wordless cry. One of the faces pushing out was Sena's own…
Shin flung his hand away. "Enough!" He said roughly. "Enough." He held Sena close, "it is enough that you are alive. It is enough that I got you out."
Shocked, Sena clung to Shin. He caught sight of his hand, bloodied and raw. He had been fused to the monster. The monster who had caught him in the dark, had fused Sena to himself. Fused to the monster who was once a man named Onihei. He began to shudder uncontrollably. Shin held him tighter.
Beyond Shin's shoulder, he could see the rest of the Dӓmon and the knights in full force.
Juumonji appeared, the momentarily blocking the lantern light. "Shin, we have to go. I'm sure the noise has attracted…the other creatures. We need to find safe haven for now."
Sena felt, rather than saw Shin nod. He reached up, and touched Shin's shoulder lightly. "Shin," he said weakly.
Shin looked down at him. And Sena thought that Shin's face looked very strange. But he couldn't say why. Sena put it aside. "Shin, as soon as we find a safe place, I have to tell you all something. I have to tell you all the truth."
Shin opened his mouth, and closed it once more, looking almost…uncertain.
That was it, Sena realized. That's what was strange with Shin's face. This was the first time he had seen the knight look so helpless.
It made the entire trembling stop. For some reason, Sena felt himself become steadier. Because he realized, Shin needed him strong, too.
Shin simply nodded, and he stood. "Let's go."
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The End of Chapter 6
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MINESWEEPING GLOSSARY:
Automaton: Man-made machines that can perform complicated calculations, even human tasks. There are many, many types of Automatons, and new ones even mimic human form and motion. The Puzzle-locks are said to be regulated by Automatons.
Bombe Entschärfung Turnier: The Minesweeping Tournament. A mysterious move by the Vatikan.
Dӓmon: The secret name of the current minesweepers, or the Schergen des Gottes.
Decoder: The ones who solve the puzzle-locks.
Drachen: A military unit formed by the Vatikan. They have been ordered to join Bombe Entschärfung Turnier. Purpose yet to be revealed.
Ingenieur: Scholarly historians who have studied records of the Old City and extrapolate the presence of the Doors. They are also puzzle-lock solvers, or Decoders. Example is Yukimitsu.
Oberhaupt: Captain (Hiruma)
Um der Ritter: The White Knights, the police of Abaddon
Quelle: A mythical energy source that lies in the dark belly of the Old City, guarded by puzzle-locks that are rigged to explode if not solved properly.
Schergen des Gottes: The Hand of God, the minesweepers, originally had the nickname of Dämon. A unit of the Um der Ritter was added to them, under Hiruma's direction. Now, may have more arms from other parts of the Vatikan military that will be directly under the Vatikan, pending the Minesweeping Tournament.
Schild: The ones who protect the decoders and who act as walls or shields from explosions.
Sucher: Seeker of the Doors. Often plucked from the streets, as it is often the street children who have also explored the Old City. Finds the Doors through intuition, from previous experience. Also puzzle-lock solver or Decoder. Example is Monta.
Vater: Priest/ess (Mamori)
Vatikan: The state and the church of Abaddon
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