Cross Effects > Areas
The Slums
Umbra of Chaos:
Uria
They swayed back and forth with a confused look on their face. "Fiiiiine." But they turned their attention to the masses with a stern look. "Okay, you all can't stay here anymore. I'm gonna help Lubei so you should all go stay in the mountains! Mother has a plan for you there."
They issued their orders and the masses obeyed, unquestioningly.
YOLF:
Lubei
As the numerous beings clambered off, a rumbling breath escaped between the demon's lips. Lubei nodded at last once they were out of sight, and made his way down with eerily light steps, his coat fluttering behind. On his search for the unfortunates to lay to rest, he only spared a glance to make sure Uria was following.
6:00 AM
There wasn't much to recover of the bodies, but Lubei couldn't make up his mind whether it was an inconvenience or a blessing. If it was his people, nothing down to their bones would have been wasted, but here he had no assets or person to entrust with those gifts.
Yet, a pyre had been made. Rather than wood, he had mostly procured the pieces of the torn husks for fuel, and stacked them upon a skeleton of planks from shattered furniture, resting around and over the withered corpses. The heads alone he had separated and buried at the foot of the nearest trees, in their own coffins of ice, while he left Uria to start the fire. It took a time to take, but it burned with faint smell and dense smoke. Lubei crouched inches from it, laying out the basic offerings. He spilled a sliver of his blood into a cracked bowl, and on the heat flushing his face, he had cooked two rudimentary "cakes" from the meat of a passing bird.
The demon king brought his palms together for a single god, and asked mercy and certainty from the kings of death, before letting two of the three offerings join the pyre. When Lubei finally walked away, he tore the remaining cake in two, and dropped half on Uria's hands. The other half disappeared into his mouth with a slight crunch and a gulp.
"Your Mother has a plan for those you transformed, you said?" He asked, looking to the retreating gloom on the horizon.
Umbra of Chaos:
Uria
Nexus Time 6:00 AM
"Yep yep! I bet it's going to be something really, really fun too. I'm kinda jealous they get to go run around when I don't. But there's something important happening soon." They turned around, facing the place that they had originally come from. The forest where Lubei had found them was not directly visible but they faced it nonetheless. "The thing at the forest is going to be born soon. Do you want to go see?"
YOLF:
Lubei
The demon king's closest hand wrapped around the hilt of Three Poisons, remembering its weight on his belt. He stared at Uria's guiless, excited face. What would be born in that spillage of invasive divinity that even this little monster would take note of? He couldn't guess, but he didn't have to. He needed information, and almost as important, he couldn't let Uria out of his sight again.
"Let's go."
Kotomine_Rin:
? ? ? ?
NEXUS TIME 6:15
Was I too late...?
Wow wow wow! Holy jesus macaroni, this is bad. I think you scared all the cute ladies out of here.
The ashen man's eyes narrowed, but he suddenly let out a small gasp and had to grip his cane harder than he liked. The cracks on his face were deeper than this morning...he was truly running out of time. But this meant nothing, as long as the spider succeeded in his mission.
He touched one of the cold coffins of ice and closed his eyes. Was this ambition, or complacency? Such coldness, it was all the result of an empty life. He could sympathize with trying to bring it meaning. His other half would probably scoff at the idea and just break the icy prison out of pity. Instead the Ashen man tried to give it some of his own life to save the trapped soul within... to no avail.
But this... he didn't wish for it to end like this. The fact of the matter was he could have stopped this. But that child's power... he had only seen it once. He wouldn't have been able to stop it even if he tried. The least he could do was evacuate the others. And yet-
You wanted to see it for herself, huh? I guess we've never changed even after all that time. You can't even cry over the loss of life anymore eh? The nightmare in his mindscape almost cackled, taking the form of a bird of flame and avarice. First Sakura, now this... even he had to smile at the way the detestable bird kept this all up.
But there was no malice in this laughter. No, it was the hollow laughter of a man who'd rather force a smile than cry again. "She is dangeorous." He stopped smiling, resolute. Hmmmmm? To who I wonder? The people, or your dream?
The crumbling man of ash and paper's eyes glared. No, it was more like they were focusing on his true intent.
A man of metal and broken dreams approached them. As if expecting him. After all, they were dear old friends, weren't they?
Van
He came as soon as he read the letter. By chance, he came to stumble on a lion of shade. His suspicions were only confirmed once he read the letter it brought him. A cry for help, an ominous omen. But more than anything, it addressed him by name. Could it have been somebody from the Citadel of the Sky? He had no way of knowing, he was still lost in this strange place.
And following the ebon beast, he only found his suspicions confirmed. Frightened people, hiding and cowering as if to run from some great evil.
And then he saw it. The pyre, the frozen graves. But even more frightnening was the silence. These parts of the city were not exactly filled with life, but he felt not a single living soul here.
Except one man, sitting in the middle of the graves atop a stone... reading a book. The knight's eyes widened, and he marched forward in anger. Outrage. Sorrow at the lives that had been snuffed from... this.
"You... did you do this?" He walked forward, and nearly roared if it weren't for his restraint. "Answer me."
He soon wished he hadn't. For when that man lowered his book, he saw him. To call him pale as ash would be an understatement. That man had not a single shred of life in his body. And that body was crumbling, cracking like porcelain to reveal a blackened interior. He couldn't explain it, but he had a strange feeling from that sight. It's as if he had seen it before.
It felt abhorrent. Wrong. But something told him it wasn't malicious. The lion only confirmed this sentiment, as it approached the man and rubbed its ebon sheen by its side. But to think such a pallid man would have survived this place.
"I tried to stop it, I'm afraid. But their power... it was too frightening. It was as if two evil stars had aligned. I..." That man was crumbling. Slowly, but surely. He couldn't just let him blame himself like this.
"It's alright. Were you the one who sent that call?" He approached the man, and felt a deep sorrow and regret coming from his words. Only when it nodded, did he realize. No, a compulsion in his head or perhaps some kind of instinct told him that he had probably tried to do something. He must have fought somewhat, else why would he look so hurt?
Van's eyes narrowed.
"Who are you?"
And so these two unlikely men met once more. For this was the will of the world.
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