Luz continued to let Belos guide her along the path. Anyone who had seen them from afar would have easily mistaken them for a father and daughter walking in the countryside. Belos continued to hold her hand in a sweet and loving way, but his grip was still very strong, preventing her from freeing herself.
Luz gritted her teeth. Belos' words continued to gnaw at her brain. She shouldn't believe him, she absolutely shouldn't: he was definitely telling lies. He just wanted to trick her, and if she started to doubt he would just play his game. She had to continue to keep a clear head and not be fooled by his words.
Eda would never lie to her, she knew it. She had never done it, not with her or with anyone else. At most it was she who had sometimes tried to lie to Eda, with the consequences she knew well. The only time she had lied to her was when she disguised herself so she could get closer to her after Belos ate her family... but that couldn't even be called a lie. Eda had only hidden herself, she hadn't lied about her identity... after all, Luz had never asked her name, or if she already knew her... no, it hadn't been a lie.
But... if she had disguised herself so she could get close to her and console her in that horrible moment in her life... what else could she have done to convince her to move on...?
No! Se shouldn't have thought about it!
But then... why was she thinking about it!?
She had to stop, she had to stop now! She was just doing what Belos wanted!
If she started to doubt...
No, she didn't even want to think about it. Eda had told her the truth, she was sure of it. She would one day be a real girl, made of flesh and blood and not of stupid wood, and she would be able to grow up with her friends and grow old with them and have a family and do all the other things real people did.
She would have become a real girl...
Right?
No! She was thinking about it again!
Why the hell couldn't her head focus on anything else!? Anything!
"Once doubt enters your mind, it's hard to get rid of it, right?" Belos asked her with a satisfied voice seeing her expression.
Luz bit her lip. "Shut up... shut up! Maybe you managed to make me doubt, but you won't bend me!"
"It was never my intention to bend you. I want to show you the truth. And the truth is that you are a puppet" Belos replied to her. "This is something that no magic, no spell, no potion can ever change"
Luz shivered a little. "No, that's not true! I... I promised Amity, and I keep my promises...!"
"It's time you stopped living in a fantasy, Luz" Belos told her in a stern voice. "See the world as it really is. She is a human, or rather, a witch... and you are a puppet. She will grow up, grow old, have her experiences, know all the pleasures of life, and finally die. You will never be able to do any of these things"
"That's not true! If that were the case Amity wouldn't waste her time with me!" Luz protested. "Amity is a smart girl, she wouldn't fall for something..."
"Your girlfriend is just experiencing the pleasures of youth. When they're young people always have the illusion of being able to change the world as they wish" Belos told her before she could even finish the sentence. "Your dear Amity will go on with her life, and you won't be able to. That's the way things are. Because you are here now, Luz, in this wonderful and miraculous world, where everything is born, grows, lives, reproduces, gets older... but even if you are here, you are not part of this world"
Luz's heart began to pound at those words. She felt sicker and sicker with each passing second. "I... am not part of it...?"
"Yes, and you know it well" Belos continued. "You are nothing more than a magical anomaly that should not exist. Even Palismen have their life cycle, but you... no. You are just a puppet, nothing more than a toy that a fairy took pity on. You know that it is so. Your very birth was nothing more than the result of a series of circumstances so rare and fortuitous that they have happened literally once as long as I can remember, and I am very old. If Eda had brought that piece of Palistrom wood to her house, you would now be divided into numerous Palismen. If it had not fallen at that very point and at that moment, you would never have ended up in Camila's hands. If Camila had waited one more day before building you, Eda would have arrived in time to retrieve that piece of wood. And if Eda had simply left instead of using her magic on you, you would never have come to life. The events that led to your birth are so unlikely that it almost seems like the universe itself has forbidden them. You, Luz... you are nothing but an accident to this world"
Luz's breathing quickened more and more. No matter how much her mind screamed at her to calm down, she couldn't; panic seemed to be tearing her soul apart. Belos' words continued to ring in her mind like a bell. Maybe under normal circumstances she would have been able to avoid listening to them... but the problem was that what Belos was telling her was exactly what she had thought many times. And now that someone was giving voice to those thoughts, they were becoming impossible to ignore. "Stop..." she whispered. "Stop talking, please!"
Belos squeezed her hand tighter, an action that normally should have been comfortable, but in that moment only seemed threatening. "Luz... you won't solve the problem by ignoring it. There is a remedy for everything... if you know who to turn to"
Luz knew she shouldn't do it, but she couldn't help herself: she instinctively squeezed Belos' hand tighter. "Can you... make me a real girl...?"
"Not in the world where you live now. I already told you, you are not part of it and you never will be. Even if you ask help to that djinn friend of yours, he won't be able to actually turn you into a real person... but you already know this, right?" Belos chuckled. "But... I can make you a real girl in my new world. But first I have to create it"
Luz swallowed. "But the new world you speak of... it wouldn't be real..."
"Just like you. And so it would be the perfect place for you" Belos told her. "Give me your body, Luz. Give it to me, and in exchange, when I'll create this new world, I will make you and all your family and all your friends incarnate in it. And you... you will be a real girl"
Luz visibly trembled. She shouldn't give in... but then why was Belos' proposal starting to seem very inviting to her? Why was she suddenly feeling less and less afraid, when she should have been scared and terrified of this evil being? "But if I give you my body... you will kill and eat a lot of innocents... including the people I care about..."
"I told you, it won't be like that. Theirs will simply be a... transition" Belos replied to her. "They will pass from one plane of existence to another. They will abandon their world full of suffering, abuse and misery, and will come to a new and idyllic one. Of course, I cannot say that being eaten by me is the most inviting method to make this transition... but ultimately you can't expect everything from life"
Luz lowered her head. Yes, in fact Belos had already shown her that he knew how to imprison souls, so even if he had devoured her family and friends they would have survived... they would have... they would have ended up there, in that place, with her...
Suddenly Belos stopped, right in the shade of a large apple tree, and he pointed ahead: "Look. That's the life that awaits you"
Luz looked up and saw that before them had appeared a beautiful palace made of gold and silver, with crystal windows and a huge garden containing all kinds of flowers. There was a gazebo in that garden, and under it there was a table where a group of people were happily having lunch. They were the people she cared about. There was his mother, Vee, Eda, Amity, Willow, Gus, Hunter, King, Lilith, Matt, Edric, Emira, Boscha, Skara, Cat, Amelia, Viney, Barcus, Jerbo, Captain Salty, his crew of pirates, Raine, Derwin, Katya, Amber, Darius, and also Ghost, Flapjack, Owlbert, Mike Socks, and she could even see the old Bump's face a little in the corner. And at the head of the table, surrounded by all that happiness, was a girl with tanned skin and brown hair, who was so similar to her but wasn't she made of beautiful flesh and skin instead of wood and joints... "That... is me...?"
"It's what you could be" Belos told her. "A marvelous real girl, who lives surrounded by her affections in this wonderful new world devoid of any pain. All of this can be yours. You just have to allow me to create the world I tell you about... and for this I need your body"
Luz couldn't take her eyes off the self in front of her. The more she looked at her, the more her heart ached. That version of herself was so... real. With each passing second her desire to be like that grew inside her, and at the same time the hatred she had always had towards her wooden body increased. "How do I know that you will keep your word, and that you will not send me, my family and my friends into that hell you showed me in your intestines?" she asked with the last bit of rationality she had left.
"If I make a contract I have to keep it. It's the rules" Belos replied to her. "So, do you agree? I'll give you all of this, and in exchange you'll just have to give me your body. Come on, after all you hate that pile of wood too, don't you? You might as well get rid of it. We'll all come out as winners"
Luz inspired deeply. By now she was seriously struggling to resist. "But... you are evil..."
"I told you, Luz, you always misunderstood me. You cannot judge me by the standards of mortal morality. Mine is a plan aimed at a great end" Belos told her, and then he reached out and took an apple from the tree under which they stood; a beautiful red, juicy apple, which he handed to Luz. "Come on, stop being afraid. Take your first bite of the food of this world, and become a part of it. Have the life you've always dreamed of"
Luz remained still for a moment, and then she took the apple and held it before her eyes. The fruit smelled delicious, and it almost seemed to scream 'eat me' to her. Its smooth surface reflected the sunlight, and there Luz was able to look in the mirror and see that wooden face again, so different from the real face in flesh and blood of that version of herself who was having lunch under the gazebo...
"Don't hesitate any longer, Luz. You have no reason to" Belos told her again. "Think of how lucky you are. Through you, a new god will be born, and with it a new universe. You are the mother of this magnificent new world. One among billions, the only one who can truly bear this honor. Wait no longer... give your body to me"
Luz reflected on the surface of the apple for a moment longer, and then brought it to her mouth. She could almost taste it on her lips already. "If I eat this fruit now... if I accept to become part of this world... will I really finally have a real life?"
Belos nodded. "Yes, Luz, you will finally have it. Don't delay any longer: bite that apple, accept my offer, and come live here like a real girl, in an eternity of wonderful happiness and protection from all adversity"
Luz was already about to bite into the apple, and her teeth were almost grazing it... but suddenly she stopped. She pushed the fruit away from her mouth with a jerk, and then she said: "But... what you are proposing to me is not a real life!"
Belos was taken aback by that reaction. "Huh? What are you saying?"
"A real life is not an eternal, happy, adversity-free life! That life... exists only in fiction! It's just as fake as I am now! It's not what I want!" Luz said, and her voice grew more confident with each word. "A real life... means that you have to face change. It means always having to try to improve yourself, to become something different. It means making your own choices. It's true, sometimes those choices are wrong, and they bring pain... but It is precisely through those mistakes that it is possible to improve! Not by repeating the mistakes of the past, but by accepting that you have made mistakes and trying not to make any more mistakes!"
"But that life you say is full of insecurities and problems!" Belos answered her. "I'm giving you a peaceful life..."
"A peaceful life isn't automatically a happy life! And it isn't a real life!" Luz exclaimed interrupting him. "It's true, I have often made mistakes in my life, and even today I regret those mistakes. But it is precisely thanks to those mistakes that I have grown as a person! It is thanks to the mistakes I have made and from which I have learned that I have become that who I am now! That's how I earned the love of my mother, Vee, my friends, Eda, Amity! Just because I made a lot of mistakes, and I learned from them! And even though I regret some things now, and I wish my life had gone differently in some ways, I don't regret having lived it at all! Because that life lived by me, a pathetic puppet, was much more real than the one you are now proposing to me, which is nothing more than a theater in your head!"
Belos no longer spoke, and he no longer smiled. His face had become expressionless, and he was looking at her with empty eyes devoid of any light. It was impossible to understand what he was thinking.
But it mattered little, because Luz paid no attention to that. "You don't have the faintest idea what a real life means!" she continued to say, looking at him with challenge. "And if you don't know, then how do you know whether or not I can become a real girl? Everything you told me so far was just lies! I don't believe you, I believe Eda! So here's my answer!" and having said this she threw the apple on the ground and trampled it with her feet. "No! I don't want to be part of this idyllic world of yours, because it's just a fake, and I don't want to live in an illusion! I'd rather spend the rest of my life imprisoned in this wooden body than live like this! So I tell you again what I already told you: I will never help you! You can keep asking me as much as you want, but you will never have my body!"
And with that last scream she stared Belos straight in the eyes; she was panting from speaking too quickly, but despite her heavy breathing she didn't lose the determination in her eyes at all. Belos stared back, staring at her impassively.
And then a roar boomed around them like thunder.
"YOU MISERABLE LITTLE SHIT! HOW DARE YOU REFUSE MY GIFT!?"
Belos disappeared before her, turning to dust, and immediately the grass, flowers, and trees withered and the sky turned black; the sun transformed into a giant blue eye and so did the clouds, the dried trunks of the trees became tentacles and the ground began to shake as if shaken by an earthquake. "You think you have any decision-making power in this, you pathetic puppet!?" Belos roared in fury. "Who do you think you are!? Do you have any idea of the effort I put into creating the most suitable world for you, and this is your thanks!? You need to GROW!"
The tentacles grabbed Luz and pinned her down by her feet and hands; the puppet struggled to free herself, but she failed. It was as if she were blocked by marble chains. More tentacles reached before her eyes and opened into several sharp, spinning blades. "I wanted to do this together" Belos hissed. "But it seems you really are a silly undisciplined bad girl, so I'll have to teach you good manners the hard way! And when I'm done, you'll be begging me to let you eat that apple!"
Luz trembled as she saw those monstrous blades coming towards her; even though none of them had yet touched her, she was sure that as soon as they did they would cause her a pain greater than any she had ever suffered. One of them came very close to her eyes...
But just at that moment, everything stopped.
The tentacles stopped flailing, the blades stopped spinning, and anything that moved became completely static. And then Belos' voice rang out again.
"WHAT!? WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOU STUPID WITCH!?"
Belos: "Ah, no! This time you can't deny it anymore!"
Author: "What? What's so terrible?"
Belos: "Are you kidding me? It's a fucking tree and an apple in a garden!"
Author: "Eeeeh, what a fuss. Coincidences"
Belos: "Coincidences, of course! And what do we do if the Church or the Christian associations come to threaten us with denunciation?"
Author: "Oh, come on, they let Hazbin Hotel pass, after that we can put all the Christian symbols we want and nobody says anything"
Belos: "Yes, but have you any idea about the mess that will happen on social media? And then why would she accept the deal by eating the apple? Who is she, Persephone? Which mythology are we in?"
Author: "Look, do you want to get paid?"
Belos: "Of course yes"
Author: "Then stop asking these questions and get back to work"
Belos: "Tsk. What the fuck. And then they accuse me of being a heretic..."