“Because
I work hard, I should be given what I deserve. Because I feel right in my
beliefs, I must live the way I want. Because I want the world to improve, it
should follow my design.”
-motto
of the worshippers of the Red Serpent
Chapter 3 – Of Rights and
Control
“Declan, sir. It’s done,” a manager of the
businessman says.
“I knew it would. I paid good money
for it too. Now, enjoy the party. It’s just getting started,” Declan says while
filling his plate with food.
Much like the best influencers and
strategists, Declan executes his plans in total safety with security never too
far from him and staying in buildings that are well-protected and hard to break
into. None of the people he sends to take care of his competitors can be traced
back to him and even if they can, Declan has such a sparkling reputation that
no one would believe he would harm a fly and people call him the “delicate ruby”.
It also helps that he has many lawyers, reporters, and investigators who will
make him look innocent in the courtroom, on the news, and by erasing the evidence, if
necessary. His goal is simply to create a better world or at least a better
world for himself and those he cares for, a common goal shared by everyone in power and who
wants control over their world and life. Whether it’s through assassinations
or ruining the reputation of another, there is nothing that Declan won’t do to
get what he thinks he deserves.
“It was confirmed she was the only one,
correct?” Declan asks his manager after the buffet dinner in his limo.
“Yes, and she passed painlessly and her death seemed to have been a result of her medical condition in her sleep,
as you requested,” the manager confirms.
“Good, good.”
Unlike others, Declan is humanitarian
in dealing with his competitors, to an extent. He is one of the few aware of
the reality of his evil deeds and one of the even fewer who doesn’t call his
evil deeds excusable. Declan first tries to befriend his enemies and give them
reasons to work with them whether through bribery or extortion. If those don’t
work, then he tries to ruin their reputation. After then and only then does he
resort to hiring hitmen who will try to make their deaths appear as natural or
accidental as possible and in the most painless of ways. It costs more, but to Declan,
it’s worth it to honor his competitor. Because of his ways, when the Red
Serpent, the dragon, descends upon him and the other influencers and leaders of
the world during their secret ceremonies to receive its blessing in the secluded
mountains of the east, he hardly gets its favor.
“You, Declan, are too soft to do
what needs to be done. You must harden your heart and steel yourself if you
want to help yourself and your loved ones,” the dragon says during one of his
private prayer sessions.
“Tell me what I must do then,” he
says.
“I am not a god though I give you
blessings and you give me your devotion and sacrifices of wealth and blood. Do
what your heart tells you because you are master over yourself. Do what you
think is right and never doubt that you are.”
Declan has always been conflicted
about this advice since doing what he’s wanted has always made him feel mixed,
especially when he does evil things for his own greater good. He tries his best
to only do evil things to those he considers evil and even when he does this,
he feels empty. On his list of targets is a man who is said to be one that the
serpents particularly favor, but unfortunately for Declan, he is unable to plan
and hire an assassin before the man is able to receive the unique blessing from
the serpents. One of his spies returns to him and reports what happened.
“The man was surprised that he had
to sacrifice his family to obtain the blessing of the serpents and immediately
regretted doing so afterward because he thought he could bring them back with
his newly obtained power,” the spy says.
“Did the serpents mention that he
could have this power to bring back the dead?” Declan asks.
“No, but they said they could give
him great power and knowledge, so I’m assuming he thought he could have that. It
was also hard to think while that ceremony was going on as if every bone and
muscle in my body wanted to do as the serpents commanded. In fact, everyone who
took part in it had to be restrained besides the priests. Much of what happened
still feels like a hazy nightmare so I’m sorry that I can’t give you all the details.”
“I see. I won’t get that blessing
from them then even if they say that I’ll be forfeiting all my possessions.
What happened to him afterward?”
“He turned into a half-man, half-lizard
freak, lost his mind, killed several of the priests with his bare hands, and
then ran away. I have no idea where he is now, but we’ll find out. We won’t be
able to miss a half-lizard man with eyes like that of a snake.”
“Let me know when you find him and
tell me what he does. Make sure that he doesn’t know you’re following him and
who sent you.”
“Yes, sir.”
Some time passes and Declan gets reports
of the same man who turned half lizard tearing down shrines, sanctuaries, and
places of power for the serpents, and with every report, Declan feels as if a
chain is being removed from his mind as the influence of the serpents is
lessened on the earth. He thinks more clearly and eventually comes to the conclusion
that he should no longer serve them and do what they say but doesn’t know what
to do yet. At first, he tries to go about business as usual pretending as if he’s
still on their side, however, this grows harder and harder for him to do as the
reality of serving wicked gods weighs heavier on his mind with each act done in
their name and for their benefit. One night he secludes himself in his house,
gets on his knees, and prays out to whoever can help him. He continuously prays
like this for days until his pleas are finally answered when he least expects
it.
While he and the other leaders of influence
are in the secluded mountains to give sacrifice to the dragon and receive its
blessing, the power goes out. During the confusion, he comes across the half-lizard
man standing in his room in the shadows hardly illuminated by the moonlight. It’s
as if he manifested himself from the shadows like a ghost. Before he can say anything,
the man locks the door behind Declan and puts one hand over his mouth and
another around his throat.
“Don’t scream or make this harder
than it has to be,” the man says. Declan shakes his head to agree with him. “Good,
now-”
“I know who you are! I’ll help you
in whatever way you want. Please, just get me out of this!” Declan quickly
says.
“How do you know me?”
“I’ve had my spies watch you but
not interfere with what you were doing.”
“Really? So, I was being spied on.
These abilities are still foreign to me. Why do you want to help me?”
“Because I’m done with this life of
serving serpents and pretending to be their slave. I’m done doing both good and
evil for myself and them.” It’s then that Declan wonders if he’s done anything
good in his life and pauses to consider it and nervously struggles to think of
one truly good deed as if he is being judged in a courtroom. “Have I ever done
anything good?”
“It’s not too late. You can make up
for what you’ve done by helping me get to the top of the mountain so I can dethrone
the dragon. Now, hold still.” The man takes a needle out of his pocket and
takes some of Delcan’s blood. “Thank you. Now, you can leave.”
“What? That was it?”
“Yeah. I needed your blood for the
machine to access the top floor.”
“I know that, but shouldn’t I do
more to make up for what I’ve done?”
“I’ve thought that very thing too.
The truth is that there’s no such thing as doing enough to make up for the sins
of our past. What we must do is confess our wrongs every time we sin and
dedicate our lives to make things right.”
“So, that’s it then? Okay…okay. I
figured the cost of my redemption would be my life. I’ll distract everyone
while you head to the top.”
“Don’t get the wrong idea. I mean
that you should live the rest of your life doing the right thing.”
“What does that even mean?”
“Ask the Message. Pray to it. It’ll
show you the truth. That’s how I changed.”
“Given that you did change and that
my prayers were answered today, I’ll believe you.”
“Take care of yourself, your
family, and loved ones, and seek the messengers. May the Message fill you with
the truth.”
After letting Declan go, the man
makes his way through the darkness and panic and makes it to the top of the
mountain, which is heavily guarded. Seeing that there’s no way around the
guards, the man uses his superhuman strength to tear through them and suffers
no injury even though he is shot by their guns and stabbed by their swords. The
man then goes up to the bloodied gold dragonhead near the door to the mountaintop
that has not opened yet since it has only been lightly sprayed by blood. It is
only after the man feeds the dragonhead the blood of Declan does the door open.
Looking back at the dead guards and his own hands, he silently prays for their
souls and that he never has to kill again. He was hoping that the chaos would
draw them away from the door and patrol the halls like the other guards, but
his previous actions of dethroning the eel and the maggot must’ve made security
extra tight around the dragon.
Leaving his regrets behind him, the
man continues to the mountaintop where the dragon is already waiting for him.
The golden light of the dragon makes the man feel as if a halo is forming
around his head. Feelings of pride and happiness begin to fill him and make
him feel like the king of the world and proud of every action he’s taken.
“All hail the greatest hero of our
times, slayer of gods, conqueror of serpents and temptations,” the dragon says.
“Shut up! I don’t want to hear your
flattery, devil!” the man says as he struggles to approach the dragon to
deliver the bronze serpent to it.
“Devil? Now, that’s a word I haven’t
heard in a while. There are no devils here. Only gods and men.”
“The only kind of gods here are
self-proclaimed and the men are slaves.”
“You are right, but you are above them
all. No one has done what you’ve done in centuries. You deserve to dictate what’s
right and wrong, how nature works, and what the fabric of reality contains like
a true god above all.”
“I deserve no such thing. I am just
a man who gives into temptation just like every man, and I strive to be better
than what I am just like every man should.”
Now the bronze serpent leaps from
the man and bites the dragon. Despite its small size, the serpent’s body seems
to stretch indefinitely and reaches the dragon in an instant. The dragon screams
in pain and the force of its scream is enough to blow the snow off the mountain
and cause an avalanche. It then tries to bite off the serpent, but only breaks
its teeth and pains itself further. Meanwhile, the serpent’s bite causes the
dragon to turn from red and gold to brown and rusty. In a desperate attempt to
get it off the dragon flies up to the sky, however, the serpent doesn’t let go
and wraps the other end of its body around the man’s arm to take him with it.
As the man flies upward, he feels
the gravity shift as if he is falling rather than ascending. He closes his eyes
as the feeling intensifies until he feels it suddenly lift. When he opens his
eyes, he sees that he’s in a golden array of clouds. In front of him, the
dragon is being brought back into the body of a towering white hydra via a part
of it taking it back in, which is strange to him since he had not seen the
white part of the hydra attached to it. Still, the two bodies connect naturally
suggesting that the part of the dragon’s body connecting it to the hydra was
always there and just invisible to his eyes and mortal mind. The man can see
the bodies of the maggot and the eel trying to reform themselves on the body of
the hydra. Additionally, he can see other serpents on the hydra such as vipers,
cobras, basilisks, nagas, worms, men becoming serpents, and many others, and a
snake at the center that is crowned with golden light.
In one voice, the serpents say, “Glory
to you, man above men. You are worthy of becoming one of us. Take your rightful
place among us and rule the world as a god.”
“No, I’m not! I am only worthy of
what the Message says I am worthy of,” the man responds as his mind is being
attacked by intense temptations.
“Who else has done what you have?
Look upon us. Every other person who has become lizard-like as you immediately bent their knee and submitted their consciousness to us. You, on
the other hand, have been defiant, and through it, victorious over the eel,
maggot, and dragon. What do you call a being that slays gods other than a
greater god? A supreme god?”
“I am no god! I am a man! I don’t have the right to decide what’s right and wrong.”
“If you join us, you will. You will have worshippers,
power over the earth, and everything you could possibly want such as a family
to keep happy.” The man breaks free his frozen legs and moves forward with the
bronze snake still on his arm. He moves his hand as if trying to control it and
make it destroy the hydra, however, it doesn’t move. “The Message won’t help you.
It’s nothing without you as it is proving now. The truth is that you are the
reason you are here. Everything you’ve done is a result of your own power and
not that of a small serpent that is inferior to us.”
“No, no, you’re wrong. I have done
nothing. Everything good I’ve done was the Message working through me.
Everything evil I’ve done is the result of my own will. Without it, I’m nothing,
and with it, I am blessed to be its tool. I am a man, not a god. You are no god
either. Behold who the true God is.”
The bronze serpent comes to life, stretches
itself, and tears through the heads of the hydra as if its head were a sharp
blade. It chops off the head of every serpent until it comes to the snake at the
center and bites its head off before vomiting it out. Once the hydra is dead,
the golden clouds become dark and disappear beneath the man. Meanwhile, the
hydra’s body decomposes and turns to ash as it falls to the ground. As the man
falls, he closes his eyes and accepts an impending death while at peace that he’s
made up for everything he’s done, however, he’s surprised to wake up on the
ground as if he were napping there this entire time.
Finding himself outside of a city,
he looks out at it and wonders what he’s supposed to do now. The bronze serpent
crawls out of the man’s bandages and points toward the city to answer his
question. He laughs and then breathes in and out.
“Okay, let’s get back to work.
There’s still more to make right. I am your messenger. Lead on and let me know
where the truth needs to be delivered next,” the man says to the serpent as it
guides him forward to his next destination.
The End
“Because my spirit is immortal, why should I care about my rotting flesh? Because all is vain, why should I care for my actions? Because all will turn to dust, why should I care for my possessions?”
-motto
of the worshippers of the Brown Serpent
Chapter 2 – Of the Spiritual
Jared was one of the richest and
most influential people, so he naturally had a large target on his back. While he
is out in the seeming middle of nowhere with his family on vacation, a large
truck barrels toward him on the narrow road. He tries to drive out of the way,
but the truck keeps aiming for him until it eventually hits his car so violently
that the impact tosses it down the nearby cliff and through the many trees
along the way. Somehow, Jared manages to survive the crash, however, his family
doesn’t. When he tries to call for help, he finds that his phone is damaged and
that there’s hardly a signal out here anyway so there’s no use in trying.
Now injured and with no way to get
help, Jared limps his way in the direction that he thinks help might be. He
travels far on foot and screams and waves at every car that passes him. No one
stops to help him, not even the hikers who travel these paths and call the
hill country their home. The only attention he draws is from criminals in the
forest who steal whatever valuables he has left with him. Still not wanting to
give up, Jared reaches an inn, but they refuse to help him unless he can pay
them, which he cannot. With nothing more to do, he reluctantly accepts that he
cannot get his dead family any proper help and so he resorts to stealing food
from the inn. In the process of raiding the kitchen and eating his fill, he is
arrested and taken to jail for his crimes of thievery and assaulting those who
got in his way of satiating his hunger and frustration.
During his time in jail, he is
given a call by his employers who let him know that he is fired and take his
house they gave him along with all the possessions within it as they don’t want
to associate with a criminal and want their stuff back to be given to the
newest higher up. Besides the singular call, no friend of his pays him a visit
nor gives him a call or letter, which forces him to spend his sentence in utter misery.
After getting out, Jared searches for any kind of job that will help him get by.
Not many jobs pay well for the hard work that they ask for and it doesn’t help
that Jared has two crimes to his public record. He gives up at this moment and
wants to end his life until he hears the words of the worshippers of the
maggot, the Brown Serpent.
“Life is suffering! Life is
meaningless. Nothing we do matters nor does the notion of good or evil. Join us
in our worship of the maggot to shun the false goods of this world and attain
true enlightenment,” the evangelist says.
With nothing better to do and
mostly agreeing with what’s said, Jared goes up to the evangelist and joins their
cause by taking part in their ceremony that involves ingesting maggots and
taking an oath to dedicate himself to the maggot. After some time of being with
them, he forgets all his world woes. He spends most of his days whipping himself,
fasting, evangelizing, and doing mediations that strengthen his connection to
the maggot. On three days out of the month, he joins with the other worshippers
in their indulgence in sin to sustain and have a reason to punish themselves. Jared
has his fill of prostitutes, drinking, and drugs to satisfy him, which are
common vices for worshippers like him to indulge in. Time feels meaningless to
him as he puts himself in a cycle of sin and penance while strangely being at
peace with it.
Today is different however as the
man with scaly skin hidden by dirty bandages and ragged clothes enters the sanctuary
where Jared is meditating. At first, Jared thinks this is another convert to
their religion until he hears the voice of the maggot tell him who the man is
and what he’s done.
“Are you back to finish what you started?”
Jared asks.
“What are you talking about?” the
man says.
“Don’t act like you don’t know. I
know who you are. The maggot has revealed it to me. You were the one who hired a
hitman to kill me.”
“I was and I regret that I did that
to you, Jared. I regret that I didn’t care if your family or anyone else got in
the way because I wanted to overtake your position for my own goals and family.
I…I’m sorry. I’m sorry a thousand times over.”
“You’re sorry? I don’t care too
much about what you did to me anymore. In fact, I ought to thank you for
showing me the folly of living the life I had because I know it was all for
nothing. The maggot has enlightened my mind to the worthlessness of my
existence, of good and of evil, and I am at peace with that truth.” The maggot
then tells Jared why the man is here. “Now another revelation tells me that
you are here to take that away from me. Do you hate me so much that you were
not satisfied in taking everything away from me and now must take my nothing or
rather my lack of anything away too?”
“I’m here to deliver a message to
the maggot.”
“And what message would that be?”
“It’s a message containing the truth.”
“Ha! What value does the truth have
when all is meaningless and worthless?”
“If everything is worthless, why care
about your beliefs? If everything is meaningless, why act as if the preachings
of your god are true? Please, Jared, let me show you the truth by giving me
your part of the key and letting me end the maggot’s reign over you.”
“Shut up! What do you know about
the reality of meaninglessness? The maggot has told me that you have stolen the
other pieces of the key from my friends and I am the only person standing
between you and it, and I will not give it up!”
Jared charges the man with a dagger
in his hand. The man shakes his head before thrusting his fist through Jared’s
chest, instantly killing him. As Jared’s body falls to the ground, maggots fall
out of it and begin to consume his body.
“I’m sorry it had to come to this,
Jared. Maybe I should’ve just taken your piece of the key without you noticing
like the others so this wouldn’t happen. I…I just really wanted to apologize to
you even though I wasn’t sure if you’d accept it,” the man says while constructing
the key with all its pieces.
Once the pieces of the key are
together, the man goes to a door behind the altar in the worship room and
descends down the many stairs until he reaches the basement. Here, the worshippers
are indulging in vices such as lust, torture, and drunkenness just to name a
few. Further in, the man finds himself in the room where people dedicate themselves
to the maggot. A giant maggot statue is in the center of the room and most of
the room has writhing living maggots in it except for the floor. The maggots in
the room sing a low droning tune that makes the man feel sick, sad, angry, and
upset.
“This is pointless for you to do. I
will come back again during your lifetime and after it,” a deep voice says.
“I don’t care. What matters is that
I erase your influence from the earth now so that others may be saved from your
corruption,” the man says.
“I offer peace. I teach wisdom. I
give a purpose to those who have nowhere to go such as Jared. Is your God so
different?”
“Yes, because the Message offers
true peace, true wisdom, and true purpose rather than your façade of these. Observe.”
A bronze serpent comes out of the
man’s bandages and crawls into the walls of maggots that begin to turn red and
then begin to fall to the ground as the sanctuary shakes and crumbles. The giant
statue of the maggot falls through a giant hole that forms under it and into a
dark abyss. As this is happening, the man escapes the building while wading through
thousands of maggots that come up from the ground and are so plentiful that the
pile of them is soon past his ankles and quickly rising. The worshippers of the
maggot are all decomposing and being eaten from the inside out by the maggots
that were inside of their bodies including the ones that didn’t go through the same
ceremony.
Maggots form to make an approximation
of the bronze serpent and say, “Look at what you’ve done. So many are suffering
a horrible end because of your actions, your truth. They would’ve happily spent
the rest of their lives if you walked away.”
The man does his best to ignore the
voices while climbing the stairs, especially since the maggots are up to his waist
at this point and attempting to pull him down. He narrowly manages to climb the
final steps and closes the door behind him to slow down the flow of maggots,
however, he finds the upstairs part of the sanctuary filled with maggots and
people being eaten from the outside by them. Taking the easiest and quickest
way out, the man jumps through a nearby window that’s in Jared’s room just in
time as the building collapses in on itself. Outside, the situation isn’t much better
as whoever participated in worship of the maggot is dying and being eaten from
the outside here as well though it isn’t as bad since the maggots aren’t
flooding the streets.
“You did this, you did this, you
did this,” the man can hear the maggots say on repeat.
It feels as if the maggots are in
the man’s ears and writhing in his head. The man silently prays for the
strength to overcome their temptations of despair while wiping away the maggots
on him, offering the pain of the temptation as penance and a prayer to use
against them, and making his way back to the hideout in the sewers. When he
gets back, Roger tries to congratulate the man and talk to him about it but is
pushed aside as the man quickly makes his way back to his shack. Roger tells
the priest what is happening and the priests and Roger pray over the man to help
him overcome his temptations until the man passes out.
“Will he be okay?” Roger asks.
“Yes, I think so,” the priest
answers, “He seems to be mostly at peace and just needs to rest.”
After the priests and Roger leave,
the man says to himself, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”
As the man dreams, he feels as if
he is being held down as maggots crawl on his bed and start to slowly eat him
alive. A bronze serpent then comes out of the man’s bandages and sprays its
blood over the man that melts the maggots and makes the rest of them go away.
The serpent then grows large enough to be bigger than the man and gently wraps
itself around him like a parent wrapping their arms around their child. Because
of this, the man can sleep peacefully and wake up the next day healthy
both in body and mind with no regrets about what he did yesterday even though he
still feels a bit saddened at the loss of so many people.
“Because
you only have one life, why not do what you want? Because you only have so
much, why not make the most of it? Because you are worth something, why not live
happily?”
-motto
of the worshipers of the Blue Serpent
Chapter 1 – Of the World
Much like the rest of the men of
the world, Parker dedicates himself to the Blue Serpent or the eel. Unlike some
religions, Parker doesn’t have to attend church services, follow a strict set
of morals, or fulfill an obligation other than to do what his heart desires and
accept the other serpents as legitimate gods to abide by. This gives him an
easy life, a profitable job, and many friends. His job allows him to indulge
himself in relaxation and hobbies of his choice. Even as he sees people being
taken advantage of and others struggling to get by in the streets, he keeps his
head down and says nothing.
“It doesn’t concern me, so I shouldn’t
bother,” he thinks to himself just like everyone else in the world when they
see similar things.
The only time that Parker bothers himself
with anything is when he sees the Messengers, worshippers of a strange deity
that is fundamentally counter to the serpents. He mocks their beliefs and laughs
at them when they are bullied on the streets or online. Other people like him
use their history to disprove their beliefs and make them look like fools, backward,
and insane. The media he consumes does much the same along with the news he
watches as most things in the world reaffirm his own beliefs. As far as he
knows, he is justified in living the way he does and is not wrong in a single
aspect of his beliefs.
On the topic of religion, he
respects all other beliefs other than those concerning the Messengers and
the Message they worship. Seeing worshippers of the red serpent or the dragon
as he is better known is a common occurrence for Parker since the red serpent
is worshipped and benefits influencers the most. There are also the worshippers
of the maggot or the brown serpent. He doesn’t mind them even with their overt religiosity
that doesn’t appeal to him. Of course, he also doesn’t want to criticize or
make fun of the brown serpent worshippers as that would ostracize him from
society. Besides, the brown serpent worshippers also don’t really try to
convert him, condemn his beliefs, or live too differently.
“Different strokes for different
folks,” Parker thinks to himself while thinking about those who dedicate
themselves to other serpents.
At the age of thirty-five, Parker
adopts a dog, marries, and is now father to an infant girl. Though he is upset
that he no longer has the freedom to do as he wishes, there’s something about
having a family of his own that comforts him, and yet, upsets him at the same
time. At the very least, he is relieved to have an excuse to skip out on being
with his parents. After years of hard work, he and his wife are invited to an
extravagant party made for those like them. During the party, they have more
than their fill of expensive wines and food and have to be taken home by their
friends, however, they don’t know that Parker and his wife will die of heart
disease due to their overdrinking that night, which is a result of their lack
of self-control and wanting to show off at the party. This leaves their infant
daughter to starve to death while their dog rummages through the house desperate
to feed itself.
Soon after exhausting everything
that can be reasonably eaten in the house, the dog eats the rotting bodies of
Parker, his wife, and then eats their dead infant as well. Knowing that a new
meal is approaching, the dog readies itself near the door while barking. A man
clothed in dirty wraps and pants and a hoodie stained by ash enters the home.
The dog leaps at the man but is caught by the neck which is snapped in an instant
by the man’s strength. As he crushes the dog’s neck, the man is tempted to keep
squeezing until the dog’s head falls off its body but stops and then lays the
dead dog down on the floor.
“Taking out my anger on you won’t
fix anything,” the man says to the dead dog before going upstairs.
While upstairs, the man does his
best to ignore the blood-soaked room that once belonged to the infant and goes
into Parker’s room. He looks through his things until he finds Parker’s employee
card. The man then looks over to the bed at the bones and small bits of viscera
that the dog didn’t eat.
“I used to be like you, Parker. My
family ended up in the same condition, but in a different way that…no. I am
going to set things right. I hope at the end of your life that you regretted living it the way you did. I know I did,” the man says to what’s left of Parker
before leaving the house.
Before the man heads deeper into
the city, he makes sure his rough scaly skin is hidden by his bandages. Even
though the people in the streets are busy with their own lives and taught not
to judge at all, he still wants to be safe. The man then scrolls through his
phone that tell him the currently known status of all employees in the building
he is going to. Once he gets there, he looks up at the massive structure that
is a singular towering building surrounded by smaller but still large
buildings. All these skyscrapers are connected by hallways that lead into one another
on different floors. On the side of these buildings is the symbol of the eel, a
symbol that fills the man with hatred.
“Now, I begin to set things right,”
the man whispers to himself before heading into the building.
Heading into the building, the man
stops by the main receptionist's desk who is currently busy at her computer. He
grabs a piece of candy that he puts in his mouth before putting a pin of a seal
close to the receptionist. By the time the man is in the elevator, the
receptionist notices the pin and wants to thank whoever put it there, but since
no one is close to her that could’ve put it there, she assumes it was from a
secret admirer and adds it to her collection. Meanwhile, the man has made his
way up the largest skyscraper as far as the elevator can take him until he has
to get off and walk and enter the next elevator that takes him further up. He uses Parker’s employee card to access the
elevator and makes his way up further. Finally, near the top, he goes up to a
door that can only be unlocked with an eye scan and voice code.
Going up to the eye scanner, the computer
scans the man’s eye as he says, “Icktos.”
The security on the other side that
monitors this station is surprised by the scan and the password that is said
since only those with high authority know the password and how to say it correctly. They quickly open
the door and go to meet the man near the door and are surprised by his
appearance.
One of the head guards says, “Is
that you-”
“It’s just the result of a bad day
at work. Don’t worry about it, Roger,” the man says as he holds up his hand.
At first, the other guards are
speechless and not sure what to do. They recognize the man’s voice and the
scans never misidentify a person so they know for sure who he is but are
worried by the way he looks.
“So, I assume the ceremony didn’t
or did go as planned judging by your bandages? Do you need us to do anything
for you, sir?” Roger asks.
“I need you to sound the fire alarm
and get everyone to leave,” the man says.
“What?”
“You heard what I said.”
“We…we can’t simply do that without
good reason.”
The man punches through one of the
desks as if it were made of styrofoam.
“I gave you an order, Roger. You
know better than to question me.”
“It is true that the ceremony
worked. Something has changed in you.”
The man shakes off his impatient
anger and then says, “Roger, I didn’t mean to lose my temper to scare you.”
“No, it’s okay, but what are you going
to do? You know that if we leave, they’ll find us and punish both us and our
families.”
“Go down to the sewers underneath
the cemetery five blocks from here, find the door with the bronze serpent on
it, knock on it, and tell them I sent you.”
“Bronze serpent? You want us to go
to the messengers?”
“Trust me when I say that they’ll
help you just as they’ve helped me. I’m going to make things right, Roger. You’ll
see soon enough.”
After a few seconds of thinking,
Roger says, “Okay, boys and girls, let’s not keep our boss from his work. He’s
had our back before when the other bosses didn’t, so let’s give him our trust.”
“Thank you, Roger.”
“Thank you, sir. It’s the least I can
do for you.”
“Don’t say that and don’t call me ‘sir’
anymore. I’m not your boss.”
“Do you want me to call you by your
name then?”
“No, because I’m not the same man I
was before if you can call me a man. Just get out of here before it’s too
late. I’ll give everyone time to escape.”
“Sure thing, my friend.”
Roger sounds the fire alarm and
announces to everyone in the building through the speakers to immediately leave
the building. He and the other guards then leave the room as the man continues
up to the uppermost floor. On the top floor, he uses his personal access card to
enter a room with writhing eels in fish tanks, and a large blue eel swims around
in a tank in the center of the ceremonial room. While walking around the room,
the man hears whispers and remembers his past.
The whispers remind him, “Here is
where you first started your journey to a happy life. You dedicated yourself
and your family to your cause as did everyone else who entered here.”
“It was one of the worst mistakes I
ever made. I wish I could’ve lived and died in the streets instead,” the man admits.
“You don’t mean that. You couldn’t
bear to see your family be unhappy over anything.”
“And yet their blood and the blood
of everyone I had to step on it get to where I am still stains my hands and
haunts my mind.”
“You can get another family that will
love you just as much or even more than the previous. You can be even happier
than you were before.”
“Was I happy? Truly happy? I don’t
think so. I might’ve felt it, but I was always yearning for more and to keep it.
I never had peace of mind or heart.”
“What do you suggest you do then?
You’ve never known true happiness or peace outside of the blessings we have given
you.”
“I haven’t until the Message
reached me through his Messengers after that ceremony the serpents put me through.
Speaking about them, I have a message for you.”
A bronze serpent appears from the
man’s bandages as he reaches out his arm towards the Blue Serpent. From its
scarred body, a drop of its blood falls to the ground. Soon after, cracks start
forming in the building until it all falls.
“This isn’t over. This isn’t going
to make up for what you’ve done. We’ll be back, but before then, our brothers
will come after you,” the Blue Serpent says before the ground under it swallows
it whole.
“Good because I’ll be coming for
them as well,” the man says as he exits the room.
The once structurally sound
connected skyscrapers begin to sway and fall onto one another as if they were
dying serpents. Whoever is left in the building moves even faster to leave with
the man hidden among them. By the time the authorities arrive, the man has
disappeared from the scene. Meanwhile, Roger and the other guards have made
their way to the sewers and the door with the bronze serpent on it. They mention
that the man sent them, are let in, and are surprised to see such a lively
underground community. Even though the shacks are made of discarded pieces of
metal and wood and the area seems rather dirty, people seem happier here than
on the surface. What’s even more surprising is that the guards soon find the
man joining them and expressing to them a faith that he once tried to erase
from existence.
“You’ve really changed, haven’t you?”
Roger asks the man.
“I’d like to think I have, but I have
much more work to do to prove it.”
“Well, you did go out of your way
to save everyone in the building before bringing it down and that has to count
for something. Mind telling me how you did that?”
“It’s kind of a long story.”
“Tell us then. It’s not like we have
anywhere to go.”
“I do. I have a life I need to
redeem and serpents to bring down from their thrones.”
“Oi, what did I tell you about exerting
yourself too much,” an old priestly man says as he approaches the man.
“The old man is right. You were
always constantly working so you could keep yourself, your family, and your friends happy,”
Roger adds.
“Okay, okay! I’ll take a breather
before heading back out again, but it can’t be too long. I don’t want a repeat
of what happened to Roger to happen again.”
“Roger?”
“I got his employee card since they
change people’s access to the mid-high levels. Roger died probably because he
partied too hard at his promotion party and by the time I got to him, his dog had
eaten his body, his wife’s body, and his child’s.”
“Leave their fates in the hand of
the Message. You can’t save everyone,” the priestly man says.
“Yeah…yeah. I know.”
“Hey, again I’ll point out that you
saved us and a bunch of other people. Let’s sit down and tell me about what you’ve
been up to, friend.”
“I don’t feel worthy of being
called a friend.”
“Tell me why when you tell us your
story.”
The man sits down with his past
friends and vents about his past to them. While he is talking and being
comforted by the kind words of his friends, he doesn’t feel much better but appreciates
what comfort he does feel and their concern for him. He is now more motivated
than ever to bring down the serpents of the world and bring the truth of the
Message to everyone, especially after seeing his friends become happier after
accepting the Message.
“Now, I’m truly beginning to make
things right, and hopefully, they’ll be set that way and my soul can be
completely redeemed,” the man says to himself before heading out again.
Chapter 4 – Submission
My eyes instantly look at my
reflection in a broken mirror on the floor as if forced to. When I look at myself,
I begin to feel regret because of the two extra mouths on the sides of my face,
which are so-called enhancements that I made to myself in my degenerate days
that I want to forget. I don’t dress like I used to and I’m definitely not the
same person. My name is Macula, humble servant of the Quiet and I am currently
following its silent whispers to where it wants me to go. Right now, I can hear
it every now and then in the silence leading me through the rubble that was the
Complex.
In the Business district, the Board
and other leaders of influence, politics, and companies are either hold up in
their most protected facilities or publicly tortured and beaten as the powerless
district tears itself apart. Much of the same is true in the Sense district
where junkies of drugs, sex, and alcohol fight each other for every last drop
of their addiction while the structure of the district falls apart since it lacks
the support of the red veins. As for the Fighter’s district, very few fighters
remain as most of them are hired help and human shields in the Business
district. It is said that a man possessed by the Quiet fought and died in the
Colosseum for three months until the leaders of the organization fought him. He
then killed them and freed the girl he was fighting and dying for and that was
when he finally and permanently died. I’m sure his soul is in Heaven.
It's almost unbelievable to think
that the Complex was a well-organized center of never-ending sin and corruption
if it weren’t for the people who were there when it was. Now, it’s crumbling
with its sky-high walls crumbling and revealing that it wasn’t the sky and the
real sun, moon, and stars above it. Real vegetation, vines, and trees have broken
through the ground further damaging and destroying the once thought-to-be advanced
civilization that kept it down and sought to replace it with cheap, plastic,
and mechanical machinery. More people have either turned to worship of the
Quiet or fight for power as their gods that have defined right and wrong are
exposed as being weak, unable to hold onto their power, and on the verge of
being assassinated by those below them. No one thought this would be possible a
year or even a month or two ago and now the imminent collapse of what was
the Complex is an inevitability and it looks like the Quiet is giving me the
honors of doing my part in ending it or at least that’s what I feel that I have.
While I wander through the area
that connects both districts, I search for something that the Quiet is leading
me towards. This place used to be a busy place full of business and commotion.
Today, it’s all rubble with even the largest pillars that held up its walls being
rubble as well and its empty, destroyed storefronts are dark and may be home to
dangerous predators and I’m not talking about the creatures that have entered
the ruins of the Complex from the outside. As I walk through the empty space, I
suddenly fall through a fragile part of the floor that I should’ve checked to
see if it was broken. After rubbing my head and dusting myself off, I take out
my flashlight to see that I’m in a maze of tunnels.
“Who goes there?” I hear a woman’s
voice say in the dark.
Her voice says raspy as if she’s
hurt.
“Hello? Do you need help?”
“Yes, I do. Follow the sound of my
voice.”
“Who are you?”
“No one important. At least, not
important anymore.”
“Is there anyone else down here?”
“None that I know of and those that
came down here refused to help me.”
At first, I wonder why no one
wanted to help her until I see her. She’s the Sense, the one who ran the Sense
district. Her appearance is much frailer than I expected and looks to be more
bone than skin. The Sense is unable to move from where she is as half of her
body is crushed by rubble and the rest of her is surrounded by vines and roots.
She reaches out to me and says, “Come,
let us enjoy our final moments together in ecstasy.”
“Forget it. Give yourself to the
Quiet and your soul may be saved,” I say.
“I’ve heard its whispers and know
that it put me in this situation because I hunted people to please and make me
happy. I am nothing more than a pathetic wretch with less than nothing to give.
Why would it save me now?”
“Your soul, your trust, your heart.
It allowed you to live long enough to see me and hear what I have to say. There
must be a chance for you to be saved despite your many evil deeds.”
“Is that so? Do you know what I’ve
done? You do if you can call what I’ve done evil. Have I wronged you in any
way?”
“You have, but I’ve put that behind
me now.”
“Have you now? Were you one of my pleasure
slaves? Did I sell you off to the highest bidder or made you tend to the red veins?”
“It doesn’t matter what you did to
me.”
“Why doesn’t it?”
“Because…I have forgiven you.”
“Forgiven me? Forgiven me…”
Quiet whispers in the silence and a
light tugging pull me in a direction away from the Sense. There’s no point in
talking to her anymore anyways because she seems to be mumbling to herself or
the Quiet. Continuing forward, I find a hall of mirrors with a singular large broken
mirror blocking my path forward. It takes some effort, but I manage to push it
out of my way. This causes a weird domino effect as the mirrors start falling down
and the tunnel starts to collapse. I run as fast as I can through the tunnels and
allow the Quiet to lead me forward through different paths until I eventually
make it outside of the Complex. Looking back, I see the tunnel collapsing
behind me along with the rest of the walls and ceiling of the entire Complex as
if those mirrors were the only things holding it up. Hopefully, more people
were outside of it and whoever is still in there will be able to make it out.
I look forward and see the sun on
the horizon beyond the tree. The grass between my toes feels very refreshing
along with the unfiltered air. It’s as if I’ve entered a new world and, in some
ways, I have. This world isn’t controlled by the corrupt and has the potential
to be something before. After taking a deep breath in, I step forward into the
bright future ahead of me full of hope while quietly thanking the Quiet with
every action, breath, smile, and step I take.
The End
Chapter 3 – Strength and
Violence
It’s finally done. My armor, my symbol
of strength, and my continuation of my family’s legacy are complete. After fighting
and killing my parents in combat, I’ve taken their skin and bones to make a
skull helmet and sewn their skin into mine just as their parents and
grandparents did before. Included in this mixture are the bones and skin of their
most worthy foes that they have bested that also have their own mixture in
their bodies.
Looking into the mirror, I see a warrior
worthy of my family’s name. I see Vi who is not a simple knave like the rest of the people in the Fighter’s
district and who will instead become the Victor, who is the strongest person in
the district. To obtain the title of Victor is to reach the summit of life and
to lose it is death and to never reach it is tragedy. Strength and victory are
everything. To become strong and obtain victory over everyone is life’s goal. Today,
I seek to honor my family’s legacy by starting my hunt for new strength afresh
with my new enhancements.
The streets of the Fighter’s
district are soaked with blood and the people here either have guards with
them, are feared, respected, bold, or incredibly idiotic. There would be
endless fights in the streets if most people didn’t agree that a fight should only
happen when challenged. Still, some will start fights unannounced
or kill their prey in cowardly ways like they do in the Business district
through tools such as poisons, explosives, mechanical “accidents”, or overwhelming
numbers. The acquisition of strength should be through head-on fights, which seem
to be getting rarer these days, especially with all the chaos that is happening
in the other districts. Regardless, the new prey coming into the district is
perfect for the weaklings and those looking for a job. I, on the other hand, am
only looking to further my strength.
As I look for the perfect target to
practice my newfound strength on, I eventually find a group of weaklings who
are pretending to be strong just because they’re protecting a merchant of alcohol
and drugs from the Sense district. They look at me as if I’m a foolish lost
child and whisper to themselves while laughing.
“I challenge you all to a fight,” I
say to them.
“Challenge us? There’s four of us
and only one of you,” one of them says.
“I need something to test my new
enhancements and you four look like good practice.”
“Practice, huh? We accept your
challenge and you’ll see that we are more than mere practice. We’re your last
fight.”
All four guards come at me at once
as the crowd around us spreads out to give us space to fight. To clear some space
for myself, I use my blade arm to make the guards back off so I can go on the
offensive. Leaping forward, I cut one of the guards in half with my blade arm
and then immediately go to crush the next guard’s head with my large left arm.
The last two guards try cutting at my left arm and breaking it with their own
blade arms and stone-like fists and I let them try to test the strength of my
arm. Nothing happens as a result of their attacks even as they switch to attack
my face and then body, which reassures me of the quality of my newfound enhancements.
To make them stop their pathetic attempts at piercing my skin, I cut both
of them in half in one swing to end the fight.
Around me, the crowds disperse to go
see the next fight that is happening down the street with the rest of them
carrying on as if nothing happened. That fight was a bit too easy, but at least
I know I won’t have to take the skin of these lowly guards and that what I have
now is of good quality. Now I have to find a better challenge since I hardly
broke a sweat during this fight.
“Excuse me, sir,” the merchant
says.
“What is it?” I say.
“Well, since you killed my guards,
I thought I’d offer you the job to replace them. It’ll just be for a few hours,
but you’ll be paid as if you worked the entire day.”
I could use the money. My enhancements
do make me stronger, but they don’t negate the need for me to eat and drink. I
need to get those particular ones from certain mighty warriors of legend,
which is a challenge that I’ll seek when I think I’m ready.
“I’ll take it.”
“Thank you! I really appreciate it
and you won’t regret this.”
What the merchant claims seems to
be correct as I escort him to the people he deals with and encounter many
people who challenge me to a fight or try to take his life because he is either
their competition or because he’s from a different district. By the time the
merchant pays me, twenty people have been slain by my hand. Because of this
display, I get triple the amount of wealth along with the promise that he’ll
hire me again and recommend me to his friends.
“Can I hire you for one last
request for the day? It’s a small one, but it may be needed for my safety,” the
merchant says.
“What is it?” I ask.
“Could you escort me back to my
stronghold in the Sense district? Even though I’m sure that you struck fear
into everyone in this district and others will think twice about coming after
me, I still can’t be too sure, especially in this economy.”
“I accept.”
“Thank you, thank you a million
times over!”
At first, the merchant’s fears look
to be a result of paranoia and the reality of being in the Fighter’s district.
That is until we are approached by the Victor just as we are exiting the
district. Everyone moves aside as he walks towards us, his eyes on all three
heads unblinkingly staring at us and his mouth dripping fresh blood and drool. Since
he is obviously looking for a fight, I watch his blade arms, muscular legs, and
bloody stomach mouth that chomps at us as if it’s unable to control itself at
the sight of perceived prey. The other parts to note on him are the heads of
his victims that hang on a string around his neck and his crown made out of
fingers and intestines.
“Vi! You’ve been making quite the
name for yourself after defeating your parents in a duel. I would’ve let you
be, but your sudden rise in popularity has piqued my interest in dueling with
you. What do you say? You’d really make a name for yourself and your family whether
you live or die,” the Victor says.
This chance I have at becoming the strongest
in the district is so alluring that I begin to salivate and smile uncontrollably.
“I accept!” I say before leaping
into battle.
To defend himself, the Victor meets
my left fist with his blade and hand arm. When our blows collide, both the blade
and arm are broken by the force of my attack, but he keeps attacking with it as
if nothing happened and he doesn’t feel any pain. I continue my attack with my
blade arm to dismember this broken arm and then cut at his muscular legs to
stop his constant advance on me, which hardly slows him down. Using his last
arm, he tries to impale me and keeps stomping his feet down to crush my feet. I
keep backing away until I use a trick I have up my sleeve or rather on my back.
When I turn my back to the Victor, I use the spikes on my back to impale him
before turning back around and cutting through his last arm and his head.
While backing away, the Victor thrashes
around with his dismembered arms and damaged legs until I cut and beat him down
until his body is nothing more than bits and pieces. Victory is mine. The honor
of being the new Victor now belongs to me and my family is honored in that way.
I raise my arms in the air and yell out as the crowds around me either cower in
fear, plot my death, or yell out with me as tradition dictates when one Victor
is dead and another takes their place. By the time the high the victory gives
me is over, I realize that I have completely forgotten about the merchant.
He should be fine so close to the
Sense district and with everyone being distracted by the duel and my victory.
This is what I think at first until I eventually find him dead at the hands of
a warrior from the Fighter’s district. The warrior throws the body of the
merchant to the ground as if it were wet putrid trash and then looks at me with
a kind of fearlessness that takes me back a bit. He must’ve not witnessed me
win the fight or have been so focused on getting to the merchant that he didn’t
know it was going on.
“I was protecting that man,” I say
to the warrior.
“Well, your contract with him is
up. You can take your pay off his body if you want and you’re fine with dirty
money,” the warrior says.
“I had a responsibility to protect
him and I intend to avenge him because of that.”
“Are you willing to die for that
piece of trash? He had my daughter and the daughters and sons of many people
that he sells to the perverse.”
“I had a responsibility and that is
it. I hope you felt better after killing him because that is the last thing you
will do.”
As I fight the warrior, I begin to
see two of him. What kind of trick is this? Am I tired from all of today’s fighting?
Did he or the previous Victor poison me somehow during the fight? I don’t feel
anything, and yet, the secondary phantom of him persists and results in me
getting thrown off and hit and slashed several times. Now I’m hearing a quiet voice
distracting me. It’s audible and not. It’s outside of my head and not. What’s
going on? All these inescapable distractions give the edge to the warrior leading
to my skull helmet being smashed off my face and my getting knocked out by him.
Waking up sometime later, I find
myself tied up in chains and laying in some kind of soft green bed. At first, I
think I’m dead because no one fights another in this district without killing
their opponent. After realizing that I’m still alive, I struggle to get out of
it thinking that the soft green things are like the drugs that the people in
the Sense district use. A few minutes pass and it’s obvious that I’m too weak from
the fight to move at all. It’s then that the warrior walks into the circular room
that I’m in.
“It’s good to see you’re awake,”
the warrior says before sitting on a chair.
“Good? Why’s that? Why didn’t you
kill me?” I ask.
“Because I had the feeling to. It
was probably the Quiet, blessed be the holy silence.”
“The Quiet? That must’ve been what
was distracting me. I should’ve known.”
“Did it now? What makes you say
that?”
“While we were fighting, I heard an
inaudible voice. I also saw an afterimage of you as if there were two of you
fighting against me at the same time.”
“I did silently pray for help from
the Quiet. I didn’t expect it to help me that much. Again, blessed be the holy
silence. May it be blessed and honored until the end of days and beyond it.”
“Well, if it made you spare me for
whatever reason, I struggle to think of the reason. Because my reign as the
Victor was cut short, I am an embarrassment in the eyes of everyone in the
Fighter’s district, the Complex, my family, and myself.”
“You want to die because I embarrassed
you? Trust me when I say that being feared and honored in this world doesn’t
mean a thing.”
“Then what does?”
“Living and dying in the right way
for love and truth.”
“Pfft. What a ridiculous goal in
life. What use is love and truth without power and strength? What even is truth?
What is love? I’ll tell you what it is. It’s what the strongest person defines
it as.”
“You sound like the young man who blew
up the main generator in the Business district and was hanging while still alive. Did you know that he was taken down recently and said to have been
influenced by the Quiet? It’s said that his body was removed because he had a
weird peace to him that was infecting whoever looked at him. The bodies of his
parents do much the same to whoever goes near their graves and his parents were
said to have been influenced by the Quiet as well.”
“Well, I won’t end up like him in
fate or in mindset.”
“I thought that way too when I was younger,
but the Quiet can change that faster than you think. I should get going. Like I
said, my daughter was being sold by that merchant, so I’ll be back with her.”
“Do you really think you can do
that? You have a target on your back as the new Victor and will face many lust-obsessed slavers.”
“I beat you in a fight, didn’t I?
If the Quiet allowed me to do that, then I have high hopes that I’ll be allowed
to rescue my daughter. Goodbye, for now.”
As the new Victor leaves, I
struggle to get out of my chains until I realize the reality of what I said
before. Since I was defeated, I am an embarrassment, a pathetic waste of life
that doesn’t deserve to live anymore for bringing shame to my family and my
name. I should let whatever calm from this greenery overtake me and hopefully
end my suffering. Again, I pass out, hope I have died, and instead wake up
feeling better. The Victor walks into the room with fruits, vegetables, and
water on a tray and sits on the same chair as before.
“Did you find your daughter?” I
ask.
“I did and thankfully I was able to
get to her before she could be raped. She’s kept her purity, but since she
fought against them, they beat and dosed her with their drugs. It may take a
while for her to wake up,” the Victor says.
“Speaking of drugs, what is this
green plant that you have me laying in?”
“It’s no drug or artificial plant.
It’s just plain soft grass. I know it may seem strange to you since everything natural was expunged from the Complex though true nature still exists beyond
these walls, hallways, and impossibly high ceilings. Did you really think that
from the beginning of time that the world was always one man-made building?”
“It’s not something that I’ve cared
to think about though I have heard that schools in the Business district teach
that.”
“Here, taste these. This is what
true nature tastes like.”
The Victor carefully feeds me an apple
as if I’ll bite his hand off. When I taste the apple, I find that it tastes
better than I expected.
“This tastes good. Where did you get
it?”
“I found it growing from the ground.
It’s better than what the plastic, artificial plants can grow, isn’t it?”
“It is.”
I am fed and given drinks by the
Victor until he has nothing left to give me. The strangeness of the situation hasn’t
hit me until now.
“Why are you doing this for me?” I
ask.
“Because the Quiet has influenced
me to do so and who I am to argue?” he says.
“It’s a mystery to me as to why
that is.”
“That’s the way the truth is. While
I was in the Sense district, I heard that the woman who burned the red veils
over there was influenced by the Quiet and is being tortured by the Sense. The
Sense loves to play with her food, but it seems like this woman is driving the
Sense insane with her resistance to the point where she’s nearly given up on
breaking her and now rarely visits her. I’ve heard whispers of a plan to get
that woman out of her predicament. It’s a wonder to me how both the young
man and woman were able to put up with being tortured and somehow holding on. The
Quiet must truly be with them and has blessed them tremendously.”
“I’d hardly call being tortured day
in and out a blessing.”
“Oh, but it is, in a way. To suffer
for true love is an honor above all honors. It’s said that in true suffering
you can sense the Quiet the most and have a taste of what real peace
and Heaven feels like.”
“Ha! Then Heaven must be a Hell
just like this world is.”
“Boy, I have a lot to explain to
you about how reality truly is.”
For the next week or so, the Victor
tells me about the Quiet and nature of truth and love. He also tells me his
real name and tells me not to refer to him as the Victor anymore. I was never
one for philosophy and deep thought. Instead, my mind has always been centered
around the ways of the fist, blade, and strength, and yet, Semper does pique my
interest in what we talk about a lot of which is a lot for me to take in. What I
remember most from our conversations is his past as a bodyguard for a wealthy
family in the Business district. He used to work for the Board before his conscience
was influenced by the Quiet. After which, the Board saw no use for him and
tried to kill him, but he somehow survived, got married to a woman from the
Sense district that he converted, and started his family here in this
underground section between the Fighter’s and Sense district.
“It’s still surprising to me that I
was able to change my wife’s way of living and thinking. People over there don’t
get married or like relationships that aren’t one-sided,” Semper says.
“Where is she now?” I ask.
“Unfortunately, she died protecting
our daughter. I was too slow and weak to protect either of them that day and…no.
There’s no reason to regret it now. I did what she wanted me to do.”
Semper wipes his face as if he were
wiping away invisible tears. Some time passes and he begins to loosen my chains
and take them off one day at a time until they’re all off. He backs off a bit with
his fists clenched to see if I’ll do anything.
“You can trust me. I have no reason
to fight or kill you,” I say.
“You never know who you can trust
these days. Everyone is out for themselves more than ever before. You should know
by now that even the blunt warriors in the Fighter’s district even trade in lies
and rise through the ranks by using underhanded means,” Semper says.
“It’s a symptom of being the last
district that hasn’t been adversely affected like the other districts.”
“I know. That’s why I need you to
sharpen your skills. I have a feeling that the Quiet is going to inspire
someone to do something radical here to change it just like the other
districts. Spar with me and let’s get your skills back up to snuff.”
“You want me to fight with you?”
“I need you to help me protect my
daughter. I have a feeling that’s one of the reasons why the Quiet made me
spare you.”
“Okay. It’s not like I have another
purpose to live anyway.”
Three weeks pass of training and
more talking with Semper. His daughter feels better by the second week and I’m
even allowed to see her for the first time. She’s a petite young woman with
short brown hair draped in a colorless grayish-brown shirt and a long skirt. Her
name is Usha and she is looking at me as if she’s trying to figure me out. We
make small talk and nothing happens for the last few days of the three weeks.
The next week comes and I am introduced
to the underground community full of runaways who didn’t want to live on the surface
anymore. Not many people here have enhancements on their bodies and some even seem
to have mutilated themselves to remove them. The buildings here are made of
wood and scrap metal and the area is lit up with torches and basic lights. This
place has a simple feel to it in contrast to the Complex above. To be honest,
it’s not bad and feels quite refreshing. I help the citizens of this place by carrying
around heavy things, helping them create weapons, and teaching them how to
fight properly.
One day, we are attacked by the
people on the surface. They come from holes formed from explosions and
entrances we thought were secret making it obvious we were sold out by someone.
I can’t worry about who it was now as I fight back the hordes of assassins and kidnappers
while trying to keep an eye on Usha and Semper. As our enemies’ numbers begin
to overwhelm us, they separate us to pick us off faster. Eventually, Semper
gets overwhelmed and Usha gets taken away.
“Save my daughter!” Semper says
before dying.
That was strange. I could swear
that I heard two voices in Semper’s at that moment. The second voice was quiet
and weirdly sounded like the Quiet itself. Shaking off the distracting
thought, I tear my way through my enemies while making my way to Usha. I cut
and crush my way to her and carry her in my arm and leave my blade arm free so I
can defend us and push forward.
“Where’s my dad?! What happened to
him?!” Usha says.
“He’s dead. I’m sorry,” I say.
“What?! You’re lying take me back to
where he is and let me fight!”
Usha struggles in my arms and
because I’m already struggling to fight while holding her, she slips out of my
hands and begins to fight with me. She fights like her father and looks like
she is fighting with an afterimage of herself fighting with her, but not as
well. Even with her help, we can’t make much headway either way and I am eventually
stabbed and beaten down by the overwhelming numbers. For some reason, I want to
keep on fighting and can feel something within myself still kicking. There’s a
quiet voice telling me to fight and continue on. Is that Semper’s voice or the
Quiet’s? Why can’t I tell the difference? Following the voice’s advice, I fight
in the darkness of my unconsciousness until I wake up in a cell.
My body is completely repaired with
the patchwork of different pieces of strong skin that I don’t remember putting
on myself. I am chained in a bloodstained cell that has pieces of skin on the floor
and corners of the room. A couple of guards are outside my cell, one of which goes
away once noticing that I’m awake. This guard brings several guards along with
a warrior clothed in the heads and fingers of several people similar to the
previous Victor to my cell.
“We were debating whether or not to
beat you until you woke up, so it’s a good thing you’ve woken up on your own,”
the warrior says.
“What do you want? Where’s the young
girl I was with?” I ask.
“She’s safe and well taken care of,
at the moment, but her safety depends on your answer to my question. Will you
fight and die for her?”
“I will.”
“Oh, don’t answer so quickly now. Don’t
think that you’ll be fighting to an end. You’ll be fighting endless waves of
every knave, warrior, and guard that I can hire in the district and beyond. You
will die and be rebuilt as you are now and given the choice again and again for
my entertainment and the entertainment of my spectators.”
“My answer is the same. I have an obligation
to keep, so I’ll play your sick game.”
“Haha! I like your grit. I guess it’s
to be expected from a former Victor. It’s the whole reason why I’ve let you
live and given you this choice. If you choose to let the girl go, I’ll give her
to the perverts in the Sense district and you can become one of my guards. A
life of comfort and honor awaits you by my side. Again, I’ll ask you. What is
your choice?”
“Again, my choice remains the same.”
“Ha, we’ll see after you die a few
times.”
The guards unlock a few of my
chains and don’t unlock the rest until they’re behind a gate and I’m in the
center of a colosseum. I’ve visited colosseums like this in the district with
my family to see knaves and warriors fight to the death. Up in the most luxurious
seats is the warrior who I just talked to and next to him is Usha who is
chained in a cage. She looks at me with hatred in her eyes though this hatred
is probably not for me.
As the first wave of knaves enters
the Colosseum, Usha screams, “Kill them all, Vi!”
After nodding at her, I plug myself
into battle. At first, the knaves and warriors that are sent to fight me are
simple to take care of, but as time goes on and as the challenge grows, I grow
weaker and sloppier until I suffer my first death. Again, the warrior from
before gives me his offer, and again, I reject it. I fight and die several
times over with Usha cheering me on and praying for me each day. It feels like
I’m living one continuous day with no breaks and feeling of relief or release
even in death.
Despite this, I feel something giving
me the strength to continue on. There’s that quiet voice again that I hear in
Usha’s voice now that I can hear even amid battle. In this quiet, I
can vaguely hear Semper’s voice giving me advice and cheering me on with his
daughter. Around me, the crowds of the Colosseum cheer me on as well for
various reasons. Many come to see me fight until I die a gory death and bet
money on how many I kill and how long I survive. The people who are betting on
my death take great pleasure in seeing me suffer as shown by the expression on
their faces. This is especially true of the warrior who controls all of this as
he profits the most from my battles and has seemingly nothing to lose.
After one of my deaths and coming to
see me again, he asks, “Tell me, why do you continue on like this? Few have
gone through as many deaths as you have and still chose to continue fighting.”
It takes me a second to think about
it, but when it’s clear to me, I say, “For truth and love.”
When I say my answer, I can feel
and hear the quiet voice that’s been speaking through the silence, Usha, and
Semper. The Quiet is now a part of me now that I’ve accepted it.
“Ha! What are those things but
tools used by the powerful to exert their will and become gods?”
“They are…a person.”
“Now you’ve really lost your mind.
Maybe something went wrong during the surgery. Your next death should clear
your mind.”
Today’s another day to fight and die
for Usha. As I look up at her, I notice that she’s sad and crying. To raise her
spirits, I raise my fist in the air and scream.
“Usha, today, I offer you my life,
blood, and suffering and will continue to until your chains are broken and you
are freed from your cage. I
promise you that you will be free and that they will run out of slaves to throw
at me before they break my will,” I proclaim.
The crowds are really excited now.
Usha’s sadness is gone as she smiles and continues her prayers for me. In addition,
the warrior who runs this and his supporters seem more interested than ever.
During today’s battle, I take out more warriors, knaves, and guards than ever before
and am even still standing after both of my arms are cut off. For the remainder
of this wave, I have to fight with my teeth, legs, and head, and somehow manage
to get by. Everyone in the crowds is wilder than before including the supervisors
of the Colosseum that are arguing among themselves.
I can see the next wave ahead
of me running away in fear as the guards chase after them to get them to fight
me. Looking back up at Usha, I see that she’s more hopeful now than before. Now
I know the peace of the Quiet and why Semper and others dedicated their lives
to it. Even as I stand bleeding and in pain, I am strangely at peace. The
guards eventually manage to force some knaves, slaves, and people from the
crowds to enter the Colosseum to fight me. With my head held high and my body
ready to fight, I give my life in service to love and truth, the most tremendous honor
a man can do.
