*concept art for the vainglory
Chapter 3 – Manipulation by the
Self-Righteous Wise
For the next several days, Polline,
her circus, and I continuously put on performances that keep growing the crowd
and exorcising the evil from their hearts and the vainglory that try to ruin
our good times. In between shows, Polline and I get to know each other better,
plan out the future, and talk about our pasts. Everything seems to be advancing
nicely for us with Polline’s future being brighter and my past is filled
with good deeds and memories. One day, while we’re enjoying a day off. A song
comes to my heart and I feel it come to hers.
She starts by singing,
“Can we stay like this forever?
I'd give up everything for it
To never have you leave my arms
Or your taste to leave my lips
Let's forget about the future
Forget about the past
And live forever in the present
Just you and me”
Then together we sing,
“Leave the past behind
Leave the future ahead
We are in Heaven together at this
moment
Together as One Heart”
After that, I sing,
“You still surprise me with your
love
One that could embrace a fool like me
Forever I'll be indebted to you
Forever you'll have my heart
The future is nothing to worry
about
Act as if the past never happened
Breathe your life into mine
Make our two hearts, one”
And finally, we sing together,
“Leave the past behind
Leave the future ahead
We are in Heaven together at this
moment
Together as One Heart
Together hand in hand
Together through the pain
Together through the struggles
You and me through it all
But for now, forever starts now
And forever I will love you”
After the song, we kiss and embrace
each other.
“I really want my life to be like
this until the day I die. This is the happiest I’ve been in my entire life,”
Polline says.
“This is the happiest I’ve ever
been too,” I say without wanting to say anything else.
Even though the song we sang made
us feel even better, the silence of being with one another in each other’s arms
is better in a way that no words could describe or make better. At this moment,
it’s as if we are experiencing a taste of the true peace that’s only found in
the afterlife with the Absolute in the Land of the True. Some time passes before
we are interrupted by the news of another person from the town going missing.
People have been disappearing as of late surely because of the vainglory and
the conceited. We’ve tried to let the people who can do something about this do
their part while we do ours, but after so many disappearances that include
people from our circus, Polline and I have decided to make ourselves vulnerable
so that we can confront these kidnappers.
Sure enough, when we go to the
place the disappearance happened by ourselves, a group of people comes out. They
appear normal; however, I can see the vainglory’s hold over their hearts. These
people radiate a faint dull gold and greyish white from them. I feel a strange
cold warmth in their hearts that also gives off a light that darkens all around
them. Feeling these things makes my own heart feel cold and I can feel that
Polline feels much the same. I’m about to sing their demons away until I feel something in my throat that stops me.
“Don’t bother trying. We can negate
the effects of your Heart Absolute abilities. How do you think we took care of
everyone we kidnapped?” one of the vainglory says in a dual voice.
Looking over at Polline, I can see and
feel that she’s completely terrified and frozen in her fear. I don’t blame her
for feeling this way. My voice was the only thing keeping back and exorcising
the vainglory and our success, and if they can silence me so easily, then what’s
the use of continuing?
“Don’t let them scare you,” I tell
Polline, “We can fix this.”
“You can,” one of the possessed
conceited admits, “You can fix this by giving yourselves up to us. If you do
this, we will leave your circus and town alone. If you don’t, more people will
disappear and end up like this.”
One of our missing clowns is thrown
to the ground in front of us. His body is as white as snow and clothed in dirty
rags that appear to have dried blood on them. His eyes are completely white as
well with bits of red, which I’m sure isn’t the same color as before.
“Why are you doing this?!” Polline asks.
“Why? Because it’s the right thing
to do what’s in your nature.”
“You what?”
“Am I wrong? You people who follow
the Absolute say the same, so is it so wrong for us to do the same? The biggest
difference between us is our abilities and the tactics we use. You worship one
truth while we worship many. You have one trick to get rid of us and we have
many more we haven’t shown you. It’s better to have many gods and ways to get
rid of your enemy rather than just one solution, is it not?”
“Don’t argue with them, Polline. They’re
too foolishly full of themselves to listen,” I say.
“You call us fools, but you’re on
the verge of defeat. We’re being kind in offering you a way to end or continue
this on your own terms and know the strength of your enemy and how easily we
can beat you when before, you knew nothing about us and could do nothing to
stop us.”
“You can talk about how wise and
strategic you are somewhere else. Just leave us alone.”
“We’ll leave you alone to make your
decision. You have an hour to decide. If you want to give yourselves up for the
sake of everyone, then go to the hill that’s not too far north of this spot. It’s
about an hour’s walk away.”
“Sure. Now, leave us alone.”
“We will, but first, let me leave
you with these thoughts to help you hasten your decision. We know who you
really are, Nixon. You can’t hide behind your façade any longer. You were once
the king that had the world on its knees and after your disgraceful defeat, you
disgraced yourself even further with your dedication to the Absolute. It’s
honestly fitting that you made yourself into a clown.”
Don’t let them get to you. Don’t
let them get to you!
“You, Polline, remember that no
matter what, conflict and hard times will find you as they do now and nothing
can stop them. If you were like us, then you could’ve done something about it,
but you decided to be like this fool and didn’t give up your worthless circus.
With that said, we hope to see what you decide soon.”
Soon after that, the conceited walk
away and leave us alone. Polline immediately falls to her knees and starts to
cry, and I embrace her to numb her pain. The feeling in my throat disappears
allowing me to sing again, but there’s no use for it now.
“I’m sorry for not being able to do
anything. I’m also sorry that you had to finally hear my true name and what I did,”
I say.
After Polline is calmed down, she
says, “I don’t care about that. I’ve never heard your real name before nor does
it matter. Think about what could happen if we do or don’t go to them. Will we
be able to fight them without your singing? Will they stay true to their word
if we do go to them?”
I guess I shouldn’t have expected
the reveal of my real name to provoke any real reaction to her. No one knew I was
ruling a conceited kingdom because I kept myself in the shadows and my ability
to manipulate people with my words a secret to all but my inner circle.
“Thinking about that isn’t going to
help. We have to stay focused on the present and what we’re going to do now
that we know that my singing won’t work on them.”
Suddenly, the man given back to us
wakes up startling both of us.
“I’m sorry about that. They did
something to me that made me go to sleep and continuously suffer while I was
asleep. It was horrible,” the man says.
That’s an ability I’m far too
familiar with and I am almost tempted to think that one of the conceited was a
friend that I knew, but after remembering their faces, I’m glad that none of
them were him.
I shake off the flashes of what I did
to my friend and how I used him to torture people for me, and then say, “I’m
glad you’re still alive.”
“I overheard what you said about
your ability not working. One of them can seize up parts of your body. They can’t
actually negate the effects of your Heart Absolute ability.”
“The truth of it doesn’t really
matter if I can’t use it. They told us that we had to go to them or everyone
will continue to suffer.”
“I’ve seen what they’ve done and it
also shows on me, but don’t let it scare you. We can still find a way to stop
them. There has to be a way. The Absolute wouldn’t abandon us.”
“That’s right, but we have to do something
now while we have the chance. I think we should meet them. Polline?”
“…I guess it’s our only option. It’d
be better for us to sacrifice ourselves for everyone to keep them safe.”
“If you guys are going, then I am
too.”
The injured man tries to stand but
finds it hard to.
“You need to go back and get yourself
some help.”
“No, I can’t just let you do this.
The pain they’ll inflict on you will make you feel like you chose the wrong
option and regret giving yourself up. That’s what they made me feel like even
though I didn’t want to give into despair. You two are the pillars of our
family and an inspiration for those who come to the circus. You show people
that there’s real value in the truth and true love. Without you, I don’t know
what we’ll do.”
“How about this. You go back, get
help, and tell everyone what’s going on so that they can come and help us.”
“I don’t know if that’s the best-”
“There’s no time to disagree! Go!”
“Okay, okay! Be safe you two!”
The man heads off as best he can
back to town leaving Polline and me alone. After a few seconds, I get up and
help Polline stand up.
“You ready for this?” I ask her.
She kisses, embraces me, and breathes
out before saying, “Now, I am. As ready as I can be at least.”
Together, Polline and I head off while
holding each other’s hand to the meeting spot hoping for the best and bracing
for the worst.
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