Chương 95: CHAPTER 93 – What Must Not Remain

"Every single time I end up on my own!" Maliard snarled as he kicked the crystal beast emerging from the floor. A burst of air crushed it against the columns, devastating its body. A puff of smoke rose from his arm while the gems charged with multicoloured lights. He looked around, spotting more baleful limbs emerging from the violet cracks in the ground.

"I can't reach Maverick after those tremors, and my breathing is getting decidedly heavy." A blade of wind severed the creature's arms, tearing away a piece of the ceiling. In the rain of debris, a chorus of hisses rose. Maliard looked up, noting with horror a greyish film merging into the intricate architecture of the roof.

"Damn it…" He murmured, just before the entire structure collapsed, opening a colossal breach toward a sky of black filaments. A gigantic block of marble smashed into the ground at his feet, making him lose his footing and sending him plunging into darkness.

"What the hell are those two doing?!" A creature lunged at him in the fall, clawing his back. A second coiled around his leg, digging its nails into the flesh.

"Get off me, it's really not the time." The surrounding air began to heat, accelerating its motion until it became a mass of incandescent flames. With a swift gesture of his hand, the tongues of fire that erupted around him pierced both creatures. An orange glow illuminated the rubble-strewn floor. Violently, Maliard halted his fall with a jet of air. He cracked his fingers and looked around as the creatures dissolved above his head. To his eyes, the code of things seemed distorted, wrapped in grey smoke.

This is Hel? No, impossible for the breach to be open already. This is only the beginning. With every step he felt a shiver run through his flesh, while an ethereal cold clung to the metal wrapped around his arm. The hissing intensified, and what he could see with Farbern began to grow faint and distant. He pulled a silver blade from his pocket, with a violet vein running through the middle.

"The code of the world is starting to lose meaning. At this rate, my body will become infected too…" He gripped the knife, piercing the skull of the creature latched onto him. Two more threw themselves at him, only to be slashed by thin blades of icy wind. Maliard threw the blade into the air, driving his arm through the chest of the last beast. With a snap, the entire body swelled until it detonated, becoming a crystalline cloud.

"My potential output is dropping. I need to find those two immediately and get in touch with Maverick. Maybe the singularity hasn't fully spread yet." As soon as he grabbed the blade from the ground, a scream rose from ahead of him.

"Shit! That was…" He bolted forward, closing the distance instantly. The muscles in his legs and abdomen had been exponentially enhanced, allowing him those rapid strides. He leapt over the debris of one of the corridors, finding himself before a swarm of Helspawn of various shapes: some winged, others fanged, and some with limbs turned into weapons. All had gathered around a nun with chestnut hair, dirty with ash and blood. Her leg was red, just like her palms.

"Around twenty of them… What a waste of time." He landed on the one closest to her, crushing it to the ground. Before the girl could even realise what had happened, a volley of water blades pierced the creatures. Ten bodies fell and began turning to dust. None of the others backed away. On the contrary, they raised the pitch and rhythm of their hisses.

"Focus on not losing more blood. I have something to treat you with." Maliard vanished, reappearing with his fingers wrapped around another beast. He hurled it to the ground, transforming its body into a spear. The weapon immediately began to fall apart, much to Maliard's annoyance. He swung the weapon, slashing two more. He let go of the remains, slamming his heel into the ground.

"If I can't recycle them as weapons, I'll have to sweep them away!" From the ground emerged dozens of spikes, impaling most of the Helspawn. A couple of them ran through the spikes, swinging their limbs. An elbow cracked the scales on the first one's jaw, while the second lost its legs, slashed by a low, thin gust of air. All the bodies impaled on the spikes fell, and Maliard grabbed one, driving it through the last from top to bottom.

He sighed in disappointment, shaking his head while Agnes stared at him, pale, her hands instinctively pressed to her lacerated leg.

"Sorry for frightening you. Let me treat you now." Maliard approached her, cutting his palm and letting his blood flow over the wound. Suddenly, Agnes felt a warmth wrap around her flesh, comforting and tender.

"You may not understand any of what I'm about to say or who I am, but I don't intend to watch you suffer. I'm an agent for the management of the… Paranormal, to simplify things. I have an ability that lets me alter things. I can't use it in these conditions in too complex a way, but my blood can easily replace your tissues." He spoke quickly, never lowering his gaze while she looked at him, almost radiant. His features were stoic, sharp and mature, with a veil of darkened youth.

"You're like Don Orlando!" she exclaimed suddenly, confusing him while her wound closed. Her face lit up with joy, while Maliard grew increasingly confused.

"You're a nun. You shouldn't have read a work of that kind…" He looked at her, tilting his head toward his shoulder, helping her to her feet. She was limping, but at least smiling.

"I haven't been one my whole life! And you remind me exactly of that hero. Young, handsome, and kind." Maliard now grabbed her shoulders, looking her straight in the eyes.

"Are you sure you didn't also hit your head? How can you not be terrified?!" Maliard exclaimed, shaking her lightly.

"I know this world. I partly know what Abbondius is aiming for. I'm afraid of dying, I really am, but if someone like you is here, I can smile normally." Agnes laughed. Maliard shook his head and began walking into the darkness.

"If you don't mind, tell me about this Abbondius." A flame lit on his finger, and Agnes followed him, enraptured, hopping with difficulty. Her low voice echoed in his ears.

"I should have followed Jeanne…" He murmured, shaking his head, causing her face to pale. She collapsed to the ground, her neck blotched with greenish stains.

"That anaesthetic solution?! The singularity is corrupting her fast." He bent over her as he tried to stop the convulsions. Blood dripped from her nose, and her fingers were starting to blacken. Behind him, a series of hisses rose in chorus.

"Damn it…" Maliard turned slowly, spotting hundreds of pairs of violet eyes in the dark, some even anchored to the walls. The creatures had diversified even further, growing in size and horror. Maliard glanced at the black spots on his own skin, shaking his head.

"Monica and Lucas are going to hear it when we get back to Dielmon." Maliard's eyes lit up, along with the gems of Compulsion. In another cavern, lit by the white light filtering through a gigantic hole, Jeanne and Lance continued fighting. Her scythe swung through the air, slashing everything within reach, while he drove his fists into the creatures' chests.

"You've definitely improved, Jeanne!" Lance smiled, shaking the creatures off. The girl looked at him, confused, cleaning her blade.

"I don't think so… Maybe you're just saying that because it's our first time fighting together?" Lance scratched his chin, laughing, cleaning himself of dust and slime. The girl moved closer to him abruptly, looking him directly in the face.

"Are you sure you don't feel different?" She asked, leaning toward him until she almost brushed his chin. He stepped back sharply, raising his hands and shaking his head.

"Jeanne… I assure you, I'm still me." She turned away, shaking her head and sighing.

"Sorry, but I don't know what to do with you… I-I'm scared for you, Lance. It seems like you don't understand that." Jeanne looked at him, shifting her gaze slightly over her own shoulders. Lance saw her blue eyes glisten, wet, and immediately looked away.

"With Abbondius… You were about to lose yourself again." Jeanne felt her heart squeeze deep in her chest.

"Please, don't use Lachesi." She began walking, twirling the scythe before her. He followed in silence, stroking the black bracelet anchored to his flesh. He tried to murmur something when a blood-chilling scream shook the entire pit, so terrible and tormented that it seemed to shake light itself. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"ELISE!" Lance recognised the voice immediately, launching himself toward the hole above. Jeanne followed, throwing a white vine toward the edge. Both landed at the cathedral entrance: identical, but this time so immense it felt like a forest of marble columns. Lance looked around desperately, sensing a terrible smell of blood spread through the air, while Jeanne turned white the moment she raised her gaze.

"Lance… Is that the sky?" He looked up, noticing the mass of greyish filaments dancing in that horrid, alienating firmament. He immediately recognised his first time. The smell of ammonia and the icy sand beneath him.

"This is the realm of the Goddess, young demons." A dazzling light covered both of them, fading immediately after revealing the macabre scene: Abbondius stared at them with a smile as he drove a dark, polished, horned lance into the belly of Elise, bound to a cross with arms as sharp as blades. Her face was blindfolded, damp with tears, her mouth wet with drool and blood. Suspended in the air, her blood fell in an inexplicable cascade, pooling at his feet.

Lance stared at him, trembling, panting, grinding his teeth. Jeanne covered her mouth with her hand, tightening her grip on the scythe.

"Abbondius…" The priest stretched out his finger, digging into her belly and with joy brought the red, grimy nectar to his lips. Lance stopped moving, staring at him in silence. The priest smiled at the sight of the young man, impaling Elise once more.

"JUST DIE!" Without warning, the boy hurled himself at him. An invisible force stopped his fist in mid-air, about ten metres away. The impact sent Jeanne sliding backward, fracturing most of the surrounding columns and causing a couple to collapse. Lance was thrown back, struck by golden sparks.

"The barrier prevents access to those who are unworthy. I'm only interested in the girl. You're superfluous." Abbondius descended the steps, positioning himself at the centre. Circular walls surrounded the ritual area stretching toward the dark horizon of columns. Jeanne glared at him, turning only for an instant to see Lance slumped on the ground, mouth foaming.

"You'll die tonight, you pig." The scythe coiled upon itself, segmenting until it became a spiked whip. The priest smiled, licking his lips as he bared his doubled, veined arms.

"Come, little lamb. Become part of the Goddess too." Abbondius watched Jeanne cross the barrier without difficulty, while sparks of fire followed the serpentine blade left to caress the stairs behind her. The two stared at each other in silence as Elise panted behind him.

"Don't you have the slightest curiosity to understand?" Jeanne cracked the whip, not even deigning to move her lips. Abbondius shook his head, still smiling.

"Being taciturn is the perfect excuse to be forced into dialogue." He began to walk, moving straight up the steps with heavy strides. He slipped the tunic from his shoulders, revealing the black under-suit reinforced by various golden chains.

"You could cross the barrier because you and she share the blood of Termìe! Your eyes manifest a splendour far above the average of the people. You even have the same rage in your soul! The problem is that you are… Unclean." A growl rose from her throat, making the whip crack again.

"Having read the notes, you should know my intentions. I simply need more energy to carve away Elise's soul and make her a stable vessel, and you would be perfect for…" The whip sheared off his nose, landing behind him.

"If this goddess needs all this blood to return, are you sure she isn't a parasite?" His nose regenerated immediately, and at once his face was wrapped in an aura of rage.

"Your words come straight from the throat of that filth of a father of yours and the bitch he impregnated!" Jeanne appeared before him, kicking him full in the stomach. His feet split the ground as he tried to stay upright. He raised his gaze, and her blade immediately opened his face. A thread of red and black blood stained the floor.

"I've let you speak far too long." The girl advanced toward him, not bothering to clean the blade.

"Yes… That crimson glow proves it. You are the daughter of an Inquinatus! The red sickness runs through your veins like a plague!" Wrapped in white smoke, Abbondius's face returned to normal, and his muscles began to swell. Jeanne caught her reflection in the iron for an instant, seeing her right eye turn colour for a single moment.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU KNOW!" Jeanne's sharp, shaken voice rang through the eternal hall, covering Abbondius's laughter. Lance tried to stand, vomiting blood and continuing to writhe desperately on the ground. He spat the red foam to the side, trying to focus on the scene before him.

"Don't… listen to him." The girl aimed the blade at the priest, letting thin black drops fall from the slightly inclined tip. Abbondius stared at her intently, making heavy silver crosses appear directly from his flesh.

"In the Empire, we have a sap, a gift of the Goddess. Your father must have consumed a considerable dose, since the curse of his arrogance is reflected in his offspring." Jeanne stomped the ground, breathing loudly.

"An Inquinatus is a jest of nature, something deplorable. You and Elise are examples of it." Abbondius pointed the weapon at Elise, hanging on the cross and wrapped in a white veil stained with blood.

"In her veins the sickness is even stronger, but she inherited the genes of the goddess! If the foul form she carries were consumed… The goddess will return." Their blades collided, joining sparks to blood. Despite his size, the girl's slender body pushed him back.

"Will she return? If she left once, why should she come back? Can't you live with the idea that your own actions brought about her abandonment?" The three irons clashed again, exchanging a rapid, violent flurry of strikes. From afar, Lance could only see the sparks and the two blurred bodies moving beyond the strange veil of Frequency.

"Your words are empty. You speak only because you do not know." His arms were bound by a white thread, and before he could realise it, his head had begun rolling down the steps, a smile stamped on its lips. She immediately cleaned the blood from the scythe, covering her whitish lips. Her body was starting to feel Hel's weight. The priest's body began to fall when suddenly he stomped violently on the ground, fracturing it. Jeanne spun around, stopping the slash with the shaft.

"I received the Holy Blessings decades ago, and now the Goddess has granted me the gift of serving her forever." Black chains emerged from the severed tissues, fully rebuilding bones, muscles, tendons, joints, vessels, brain, eyes, and mucous membranes. The first thing he did with his new skull was smile. He let go of the cross, driving it violently into the ground at his feet. Jeanne stopped gripping the scythe with both hands, preparing one to answer the impact.

Laughing, Abbondius met Jeanne's knuckles in a single punch that echoed through the entire hall.

"Incredible. You truly are the fruit of rage and heresy." The priest stared at his arm, torn open with shards of bone protruding from the skin. Her face was stricken with rage, and the flicker of her red eyes only confirmed it. The arm immediately sprouted black chains, strengthening and rebuilding itself. He raised his arm for a second punch. Her scythe cut his arm in two, stopping just past the elbow. She had no time to withdraw it before his flesh regenerated around the blade.

The priest smiled, striking Jeanne violently in the chest. The scythe tore free from him, reopening the wound for a few moments.

"I can still…" Jeanne tried to get up, but as soon as she managed to put a little strength into her knees, her eyes sprayed blood. She immediately felt weak, an incessant laugh echoing deep in her ears. Her eyes turned dark red, almost black, but with no light behind them.

"Did you think you could endure the realm of the Goddess? As we speak, we are drawing closer to the heart of this new world." Abbondius appeared before her despite his size, grabbing her by the hair. Jeanne coughed blood before being violently hurled against one of the columns. The marble cracked, falling onto her shoulder and legs.

"JEANNE!" Lance spat the foam from his throat, trying in every way to get back up. Blood and sweat made him slip on the polished ground, pitiful as a child. Abbondius materialised beside her, raising the silver cross. In that moment, Lance felt his heart stop. Everything became greyish and slower. But his body was light and free of pain.

"I cannot let you fall here. You are still needed… Still needed by this world." Pointed at his face was a walking stick held by a greenish shadow, which Lance had never seen. Its features were impossible to decipher because of the strange mass of clocks floating around its face. Lance didn't even ask who it was, so swift was its disappearance.

"Jeanne…" He took a single step, noticing he was trapped in that static time, unable to escape that small imaginary perimeter where he had been lying. He tried to jump, only to find himself still in the middle of that pool of blood. His eyes were fossilised on the silver cross.

"What do I do? Will it move? Is it moving? I can't escape, can I? Jeanne is there…" A strange sense of cold pervaded the air beside him, while a faint whistle caressed his eardrums." Oh, dear Lady, give me the tools to carve my way back to you… And I will show you how my flowers grew" The shadows above him vomited an entity wrapped in an elegant black suit. Its face was invisible and shrouded in darkness.

"If only I could, I would have never forgotten you, so please don't cry. So please don't cry!" The shadow landed before him, awakening in him a strange joy.

"My Faiiiirrr Ladyy." Lance smiled, watching the man's coat sway as if moved by the evening wind. His stature, bearing, and presence led him to whisper that name.

"Tux…" The figure turned, raising its thumb as the mist on its face twisted to form a smile.

"I've missed that name. I've come to thank you for giving it to me." A tear escaped the boy's face as he clenched his fists until they trembled.