Chapter Thirty-Four
BAR: MISSING
"Aghhh, my brain kinda hurts . . ."
After his first encounter, or non-encounter, with Veritas, Dionysus had a bit of a headache going for himself. Deciding that it would be better to have a headache within a familiar place, Dionysus stumbled through the front door and entered the bar.
"Heh, you been drinking from your own bar?"
The guy at the corner of the establishment made a witty remark at Dionysus, who had no time to pay attention to it. His brain was throbbing, and he wouldn't be surprised to be told by someone that there was a vein on his forehead.
'Why does my brain hurt?'
Thanks to the nature of Veritas' ability, he didn't even remember why he had a headache. To him, his memories were rewritten to where, according to his mind, what happened was that he went outside for a quick break, and a headache just randomly struck.
He still had the information that he had gained from the mind of Veritas, but he had no way to connect it to this event.
'Shit . . . sorry, boss, but I think I'm gonna . . .'
THUNK
Dionysus tripped on one of the stools in front of the counter and hit the ground face first. He could hear someone saying something, but he couldn't make it out.
'Ahhhhh, I'm so damn tired . . .'
--- SEQUENCE 2 ---
"Dionysus, hey pal, wake up."
"Huuuuh . . .?"
When he came to, he was entangled in chains, a whole lot of them. When he looked around, he saw that a very familiar lich was there.
When he actually thought about it, he realized he was in the prison dimension.
"How long have I been out and here?"
Getting to the meat of his questions, Dionysus threw these at the lich he knew all too much about. During the three decades that he and it were together, they basically gave out their whole lives to one another. Of course, some secrets were concealed, but they quite literally went over each other's lives a whole three times, just to pass the time.
"For about a few hours, so I'd say you've been out for not even two minutes out there."
Dionysus had actually forgotten about it, but now that he was back in here and reminded of it, he remembered that time passed at such a rapid pace in here that reality was similar to a sloth.
"I've been out of here for a while now, so I'm assuming you've actually been alone here for a while, huh . . ."
These were just some words that Dionysus threw out there. But, out of the corner of his eye, Dionysus could have swore he saw the lich lower its head in shame.
"Oi, I can already tell that you're hiding something from me. Unless it's information that isn't necessary, spill it."
Dionysus didn't even bother to beat around the bush, immediately throwing himself into the fray. The lich seemed to avoid his gaze even more, but Dionysus wouldn't allow it.
"We're both chained down, it's not like I'll be able to beat you down if it's something that might bother me, right?"
While he had gotten accustomed to the chains by now and could move a total of two meters away from where he was currently seated, it still wasn't enough to reach the lich, who seemed to be chained around five meters away from him.
"No, I've got nothing that I'm hiding."
'He must really be looking to keep this a secret. I suppose I'll let it slide this one time.'
Dionysus decided to just let this piece of knowledge slip past him, as he wasn't so desperate to know what it was. Since abilities were disabled in this dimension, he couldn't use his awakened ability to get the information, but he wouldn't let that bother him.
Or, he'd try to not let it bother him.
"So, did they go ahead and permanently place me in here?"
Everytime he was here, Dionysus knew that there was a chance that it would be the final time he left and entered. If he were to truly be bound here permanently, now that the Chained king is gone, he'd already resigned himself to accepting his fate if the time ever came.
'Not like I'd be able to do anything against it.'
"I wouldn't know, and neither would you. You could be here for trillions of years and still go back into reality. Or, you can be here for a second and then go back."
It was absolutely true.
"Haaaaaaaaaaaahhhh . . ."
"That's one hell of an exaggerated sigh."
"Tch, shut up."
--- SEQUENCE 3 ---
'He was able to see me, thar bartender . . .'
Off in a big, dark room, Veritas was wondering what was going on. Incidamus was currently standing over the unconscious Dionysus, who was currently laying, face-down, on the ground.
'What the hell happened to him?'
Since he and Incidamus were mentally connected, he asked him this question through that connection.
"I don't know, can I just kill him?"
'. . . Yeah, go ahead.'
Incidamus was inside of the empty bar, the only other person here being Dionysus. He had entered around half an hour ago, and all he saw was the body of Dionysus. He had fully inspected the scene, but he saw no hints as to what happened.
'I was even here right before it, inspecting the area before you, so what . . .'
Veritas may have five different information sources, along with himself, and may know many things. This, however, was not one of them.
"Alright, I'll put an end to this sorry life."
Incidamus strolled on up to Dionysus' body, which was right in front of the bar, next to a knocked down wooden stool.
'Seriously, what the hell happened here?'
While Incidamus was curious about the situation, he also didn't actually care. His job was to kill Dionysus, and it was that that he would do. He picked the unconscious Dionysus up by the scruff of his neck, and readied a fist.
"Don't hold it against me p-"
Before he let the punch go, he sensed it.
Or, sensed a lack of it.
'Hey, Veritas.'
'Yeah?'
KSHH
He wiped off the counter, which resulted in glasses and bottles hitting the ground and shattering. Dionysus' body was thrown on top of the counter, and Incidamus held his ear right next to Dionysus' chest.
'Wait, is . . . he?'
Veritas sent out a question to which there was only one answer.
"I don't know what the hell happened, but this guy's dead."