Vanangandr
"Don't you dare say that! You're not lowly, not in the slightest. Besides, you're my friend." He grit his teeth when he said that, but he said it with the same honesty and kindness as ever. He really didn't know any better. All the power he had, and he couldn't protect a single girl. His words were awkward, but he meant every breath and was ready to fight for it.
Enough of that sad look. He took a step forward, extending his hand. But whatever wish of helping he may have had, it was soon cut to naught. A voice soon echoed in the cavern, neither his or hers. A mysterious stranger, a man who almost looked familiar. He'd have welcomed him with a meal and a smile, but he instinctively understood he wasn't here to mingle. He clenched his fist and listened.
That was his first mistake. Because the moment he heard that voice...
"Wha? What are you - kh!"
Vanangandr clutched his temple in pain. He nearly knelt, forcing himself upright by sheer force of will. But the voice, that voice...
"Another failure. These bodies aren't even good for recycling, let alone my hounds. You're friggin useless for a senpai."
As the mechanical tower chewed up the meat and bones remaining, another body was rolled down the conveyor belt. From the outside, cold angels of metal and magic watched over the children of the Tower, gating them off in their glass container. Each one wore a simple white shirt, a bracelet, and a number identifying them. It was like looking at cattle.
He couldn't see any of it. It was so dark, so painful. As he wiped away tears, he could hear the different voices through the looking glass. A coarse, almost violent sneer - and a soft, melodic tune, as honeyed as a scholar's - yet with the cold disdain reserved to ash.
"No. It's their imperfection that makes them have worth. It's by hammering and breaking the materials that we can extract the ore - the essence that we will mold to pave the future.
It's for the sake of our dreams, that we cannot afford to slow down."
There was a silence. Then, the coarse voice nearly spat. "You're a sick fuck."
Crunch. Crunch. Munch. Munch. The machine ate the remains of the last test subject he'd see of his big brother. After a while, he heard another voice. A voice with strength, and something a man might attribute as focus. But to a child, it sounded like something a hero would say.
"The First Tower was the folly of Man, but this one, will be Their folly."
"Indeed! It was our eternal crusade that brought us this far, to this world teetering with life and possibility! All our sacrifices here have led us to this moment, last child." An ashen puppet stepped in, broken and battered - held together by naught but fiery strings to the tune of a cackling burning bird. Within its cracks, within the broken shell... laid the eternal abyss, and the stars. But if one were to look carefully, you'd notice it was naught but a trick of the light. He hadn't bothered to show up here.
Yet the seraph may just recognize the voice.At this moment, he didn't care.
The boy clutched his face in pain. In confusion. That broken puppet... looked... sounded like his mentor in the citadel. And yet it all felt off now. Like when he first approached him months back, to talk about the city. To tell him about that child... and the forest. And he... stabbed him then, and took something from that place. He still had no idea why! But even if he had so many questions, even if there was so much he wanted his mentor to tell him...
He moved in between them and his friend.
"I don't care about any of it! What the hell is going on!"
