Sylvester helped Claudina and Sullivan up the stone wall.
When the Inquisitor said that saints were able to live inside the Void Maze for long intervals he was right. They didn't feel hunger or thirst yet their powers weren't affected by it. However they can never be sure. This situation may be temporary. With no idea how long they had been here if they wish to get out, the only way would be to find the Inquisitor himself, defeat him and return back to reality.
"Isn't this trespassing?" Sylvester commented after putting away the rope.
"It is. But who's going to stop us? The residents of the mansion?" she asked pointing at the large square building. It had slanted rooftops with no windows and an iron door entrance. She waved her hand dismissing it. "Oh please! If they did attack a couple of animal headed people can't do a thing! Initially I thought they were beast men but they can't hold a candle to them!"
"Still…I am a bit uneasy doing this…"
"Don't be such a worrywart. We can just kill them if they attack us."
"…Miss Fairy the only vibes I am getting from you is that you want them to attack us. Do you want to pick up the loot they drop?" He added in much chipper tone, "Miss Fairy did you work in an adventurers' guild?"
"…No…?"
He giggled. "That sounds very unconvincing!"
"It doesn't matter! I am not improvised enough to work at a guild where only street rats, bastards and ruffians gather!"
Sullivan had a pensive smile. "You shouldn't say such mean things about people you don't know about..."
She smirked. "Exactly the reason I look down upon them. I don't know them and have no reason to know them. They are beneath me."
"Oh dear me~ Is even your parents something you consider as dirt?"
"Pft! Isn't that obvious?" Claudina rolled her eyes and followed Sylvester.
Had she looked back she would have seen how deeply hurt Sullivan looked. 'For someone who takes everything for granted I wonder how you would feel when everything is taken away in an instant…' He signed. "The problem with kids these days…"
The mansion was deathly quite as they passed it almost as if there was no one living inside. The well kept garden says otherwise.
The sole reason they had trespassed into someone's home was because of the cliff. After regrouping they had kept a quick steady pace and reached what they assumed the end of the north area of the Void Maze. On the right side of the cliff was dead end while on the left side was a rocky beach with a low building at the very end.
They crossed the beach, went over the premise walls and now made their way to the front iron barred gate.
Silently they crossed the threshold. So far nothing attacked them. It was when they touched the iron gate an inhuman scream rang out from the house.
They spun in hurry only to see the so called mansion coming off its hinges. Rubble of blackened earth and snowy white rocks shot off like bullets. Though they put up the barrier right in time the rocks smashed on them from the sides as they went bouncing. Overhead the mansion opened or rather unhinged its door like a wide mouth with a carpet acting as a tongue lolling out. Steel shutters ripped open from the front with blaring lights burning on the rooms inside.
The mansion monster screamed. Crooked trees and veins swayed in the air like sinister appendages. Using its newly developed limbs it grabbed a cartful of earth and hurled it at the saints.
In a desert like terrain with dark blue sand and large boulders shaped like human organs Oriane and Baron scouted the area ahead. Well hidden by a boulder that resembled a giant pulsating lung Shulia sat down on her heels with Anatole standing creating some much needed shade for her.
Shulia was quietly staring at Anatole.
"…Staring is considered rude."
"Well, I'm pretty rude so there!"
He loudly signed behind his mask.
"…Hey I have been meaning to ask this for a while but what is the real reason why you showed Claudina your face."
He signed again. "I told you already. I lost a bet with her."
"Yeah, yeah....What's the real reason? The Anatole I know won't easily show his face like that. If it really was a bet you would back out from it and refused. So what's different? What made you show someone you got to know recently to show something private whereas none of your so many ex lovers, including me, ever got to see?"
"…I am not so sure myself…" Anatole relaxed his shoulders. He briefly remembered the night he had shown her his face.
Her delicate features had lit up the moment he saw his face. She must have liked his meager appearance for she kept creasing his face with feather soft touches.
At the end when he had threatened to kill her, she provoked him to do so. What he remembered more than her provocations was how much Despair there was in her pretty eyes.
Despair of someone who had given up and forced to live just to spite someone else.
It was like staring at a different person.
It reminded him of the first day he met Sullivan.
Standing behind Lord Nyx he had been smiling like a fool but the Despair was more clear than it is now.
At first he followed Lord Nyx's request to help him but gradually it was out of his own desire. Maybe it was the same with Claudina. Wishing to help her out of her depressing episodes.
"That so? Alright but don't cheat."
He snapped his head at her. "Pardon?"
"Yeah. Don't cheat in this mission. You have someone waiting for you back home right?"
"…I don't. In fact after you I don't have anyone like that for a long time."
Shulia stretched her limbs and yawned. "Oh yeah? You should get someone special then and settle down. Just because you and I go back doesn't mean you have to suppress your own feelings like that."
"…It's nothing like that.," he replied shaking his head "And what did you meant by cheating anyways?"
""Hmm? Don't tell me you didn't realize it yourself?"
"Realize what?"
She signed. "For a guy who gets around with the ladies a lot you sure are dense…The way you treat Claudina; you are awfully gentle with her. More so than any lover you had taken before."
"I don't get around and neither do I treat the Saintess any different than the rest."
She shrugged. "Even Oriane can see it but you can't."
Though his expression was hidden Shulia knew he was looking at her in disbelief.
His actions were meant to be kind because he wanted to help her.
But it seemed the other saints took it on as something entirely different. And no matter how much he said otherwise they were adamant with what they stand by.
At least there is hope for Sylvester to hear him out.
After sometime she spoke again. "Maybe it's a trait, you know?"
"What is?"
"Lord Eros the god of passion and warfare; you his Saint have numerous amorous scandals yet travel in savage battlefields."
"Is it now? Claudina first said I am rigid."
"Bits of you, yes but I think she might given you a chance. She being Claudina here."
"I don't want it. Especially from her. She seems like the type of person who would choose someone based on how much they can give her. She appears not to care for her partner's feelings and soon be bored of them if they aren't entertaining enough."
"Just like you."
"Wha?"
She continued. "How old are you again? You are a year older than Sylvester so what? 4 years? Pretty compatible if you ask me."
"Please stop. In case your forgetting in the future I am old enough to be her father."
It's in the future, brat! Live in the now!" she snapped. "Gosh!"
She signed in content "Haah…This reminds me of the first time I fell in love. When was it, 5-6 years since we met? You were all alone on the battlefield that day surrounded by smoke and spears. Your hair was as red as blood and your mask was cracked but not quit broken. When you looked over I felt my heart beating for a reason other than the thrill of a good fight…"
"…We both ended it in good terms. If there is still something you are unsatisfied about-"
"What?! No! I much prefer being friends. I am just reminiscing…"
"I don't see why you have to think about it..."
Shulia lightly laughed but to him it sounded as if she was laughing at herself. "I can see why it is sometimes discouraged for saints getting together as significant others."
He tilted his head, not quite understanding. She didn't give any explanation and continued to smile gently at him from her arms.
"wE fOUnd tHe dUcheSs!"
They turned and saw Sullivan and Claudina had also joined the two. Sylvester was lying on top of Baron's back knocked out.
Anatole ran up to them while Shulia calmly walked behind. 'Maybe I saw it wrong…It might be mere comradeship…'
He stopped short in front of them. "What happened to you?!" Claudina was leaning on to Oriane her right hand in a sling. Sullivan had a bloodied cloth wrapped around his left eye.
"Ehehe~ You could say we ran into some trouble."
"I can see that! What happened to Sylvester?" he asked. He went over and touched his back. He had scrapes all over his face as if he had been dragged on the ground by something.
Oriane sat Claudina down. "He's fine don't worry. Ow, ow, ow, ow! Easy there! Put me down gently…"
"…He's only sleeping. His Holy power healed his internal wounds so he will be fine."
"…Then what about you?"
"Me? You can see for yourself how injured I am."
"We had just finished a fight with a giant house creature when we got ambushed on the way by the Inquisitor. Somehow we were able to escape alive."
"Does your hand hurt?"
"Hm? A bit, why?"
He looked to the side. "Good."
Claudina gaped at him in shock. "The nerve of this man!"
Shulia raised her brows 'Guess it's all a misunderstanding then…' She then turned to Sullivan. "And what about you? You look like a dumpster fire."
"Ehehe~"
"Don't 'ehehe' me, jackass! What's wrong with your eye?"
"I lost my eye~ apparently I can never get it back!"
Anatole stopped rubbing Sylvester's back. "What?"
"Yeah you see...the Inquisitor put a super strong curse on me. The curse was meant to explode my head but I pulled out my eye before it could take effect."
"...Why aren't you saying the whole thing?" Claudina quietly asked. "Tell them. Go on."
"There's more?!"
"Hehe...so I think I am going to die soon. Even if I gouged my eye out again, my Holy power will continue heal it. However if I stop supplying my Holy power I will either die of blood loss or the curse as it will detonate almost immediately."
Shulia's lips trembled and said in tired tone, "Stop with your jokes. They aren't funny as you think they are…"
"It's not a joke. He really got cursed," a hoarse voice spoke up.
Sylvester struggled to get up from Baron's back. Digging his nails into his fur he sat up. His shirt had been ripped in half. The lower half hanged like limp spaghetti around his waist while the upper part had holes burned into them. White gauze covered his torso and chest.
"Sylvester!" Anatole helped him down. "Are you alright?"
He smiled wearily. "Of course I am."
"Don't lie to my face idiot."
"Ahaha…sorry…"
"So is there any way to reverse it? The curse I mean"
Claudina suddenly stood up. "We'll talk but first we need to move away from here."
Oriane tilted her head in confusion. "What's wrong with being here?"
Sylvester pointed to the lung boulder behind them. "That. That is the problem."
"I don't get. It's just a strange stone…"
But Sylvester, Claudina and Sullivan were already rearing to get away from the horrors that stone can and would produce if they stayed any longer.
Conjuring up wooden horses with a branch Shulia helped the others to get on the horses. Since they were in such a hurry might as well leave faster.
Far away from the desert in the tall silver brick tower, Rosalinda waited in the dimly lit room alone. The light source of the room came from the strip of moth winged pattern membrane round the walls. Over head the ceiling was blanketed in layers of cobwebs made by those blue spiders with human faces.
Strangely enough the webs were inhabited by small bright red butterflies and the spiders themselves were in cocooned in silk. Now and then a red butterfly would swop down and land on one of the spider. After a few seconds there would be nothing inside the silk cage.
Those spiders may have made the home for hunting prey but in the end they became prey for what the trap was laid for.
Upon asking about those butterflies were the Inquisitor said they lived far longer than the gods and probably even before. That they flocked together in a hive, were able to live in the Void as well as the human realm, notoriously displayed humanlike intelligence and hostile to any and every thing if they bothered the hive. They smaller they are the more dangerous. As for what they were he had no clue but he stated he hated their predatory nature of first pretending to be prey before starting a blood bath.
Rosalind smirked to herself when he left.
The Inquisitor had been right about these butterflies to live long before the gods but what he didn't know was there had been a person who once controlled the butterflies. Someone who first made an enemy out of the Celestial Heavens when creation had just begun.
Someone who first started the Taboo; going against the rules set up by Celestial Heavens and to take their place as the one true master of all by stealing the Elphinay the key to universe.
History had shrouded that person for who would ever want to know the name of the first traitor among human. No one knew their age, gender, or name nothing. Everything about them was gone as if they never existed expect for their two Grimoires and the oral teachings they left to their followers. And among these followers they were known as the Progenitor.
Despite the notes were never written down, the teachings of the Progenitor continued through the ages. The people of Taboo never forgot the parting words; 'When a worthy human vessel is found among my children, I shall once more appear inside the noble vessel and reclaim the Celestial Heavens.'
Though she was considered the very best even among adults Rosalinda who was taught everything about the Taboo failed to show the totality-something only the Progenitor possessed-required to wield Forbidden magic completely.
Later on when she joined the Resonance she continued to learn it in depths.
Growing her mind was indoctrinated that whatever they were doing was right and she needed to find out more about the Progenitor. Because she also believed the Progenitor was out there somewhere still alive waiting for the moment to strike and take over the Celestial Heavens.
If it meant to swear her alliance with a group with ambiguous ideals and strange request so be it. She didn't even knew what they wanted despite being a high ranking member. If they only wanted her to use her Grimoire to summon demons she would do so in exchange of more information about Taboo.
If the Progenitor is not in her than it will be in the next generation and she would leave as much clues as she could.
And now she found the very weapon the Progenitor created, the first insult to the Celestial Heavens; that whatever they created is nothing and will be devoured by their superior creations.
The followers had been looking all over the world and were not able to find them.
Until now.
If there was problem of her dropping dead once she left the Void Maze she could prolong her life using her Forbidden Grimoire. No matter what she would leave this place with the red butterflies. If she had to, she would forsake her feelings for Lucas and kill Claudina next time.
But first she had to convince she was indeed an ally.
Lifting one hand up she stretched her graceful fingers and beckoned one of them to come sit on her open palm.
On cue a small swarm flew down and flocked around her in curiosity. The smallest of the bunch landed directly on the tip of her index fluttering it's blood red wings as a greeting.
She smiled with all her teeth. "Hello there! I hope you recognize this scent." She lifted her other hand where a bright shimmer made a rose blossom out of her clenched hand.
An intoxicating smell of pink grapefruit, black licorice and peppermint spread through the circular room and up the cobwebs. The spiders instantly stared to gnaw out of their silk prisons and started to kill one another as if they lost their minds. Meanwhile the butterflies swooped down in a red cloud and clustered around her.
She smiled again and the rose wilted down and so had the perfume but the red butterflies obediently stayed down with her. The one on her index beat it's wings so fast it nearly toppled off.
Caressing it gently she let out a quite chuckle before unleashing a mad laughter that promised hate.
Hate that overpowered the love she had for Lucas to swear vengeance against Claudina Annabelle Von Crowley that she would kill her once and for all or die trying.
The red butterflies flew in frenzy as if resonating with her inner most desire.
The hive has found a new queen to coronate.