—Damn it! Why is that woman here!?
—...Maybe because this is her house?"
One of them grabbed Gwynne's hand and felt her pulse.
Then he turned back.
—Is Frotus going to be okay on his own?
—He'll be fine, i think. Come on, Jun, we need to hide her and help Frotus after.
Jun nodded his head.
Then his head was planted to the floor along with Jamaica.
—Gk! She's here already?
—Frotus!? Is he okay!?
The two pulled themselves up and stared at the woman hiding in the darkness with a grin on her face. Then she threw what seemed to be a corpse.
Rueben's entire body was riddled with holes all over the place as blood continued to flow out of the wounds and yet his chest still rose and fell. As if it refused to die out.
[You turned yourselves into spirits?] The woman looked at the two of them, then to the cage on her other hand, to Frotus' doll.
[You wanker little shits for brains.] She softly spoke as the two wisps turned into dolls.
Bang!
The woman smiled and turned to Gwynne, who was bleeding from all holes on her face, her eyes bloodshot as her hands held the flintlock she used to shoot the woman.
She then grabbed the bullet that was suspended in the air. The bullet was then compressed before a mini blackhole formed but the woman gently tapped it, making it dissappear.
Gwynne stared at the woman as more blood fell from her face. Then she grabbed her stomach before retching a chunk of heavy iron covered in blood.
She stared at the iron then turned her eyes to the woman but that further made her throw up more blood with more iron inside the blood.
Her ears had already bursted and there was a stinging ring that continued to increase in frequency.
The woman smiled at her before turning to the man on the floor, to Rueben who was breathing roughly but healing. His skin was slowly reappearing as the God's Blood he ingested, his own blood, helped him regenerate.
Rueben's body soon dissappeared before reappearing infront of the woman.
She smiled as Rueben's eyeballs now formed and made hima able to see her but that only made him flow out diamonds from his body.
[Severely corrupted. Blood tainted to a ridiculous degree.] Then she softly raised her arms before plucking out two of Rueben's eyeballs.
She stared at his eyeballs for a moment, admiring the crimson colored pupils before throwing it away. It was sent to another plane of existence.
[HIS blood is truly powerful. Once it converges, HE may...] She grinned and turned to Gwynne before snapping her fingers.
Gwynne coughed up blood as a large hole appeared on her stomach.
The her eyes went wide for a moment as a smile formed on her lips.
The woman then grabbed to the air and Gwynne was on her hand.
[..Wonderful.]
Her eyes turned crescent moon as she stared at Gwynne with affection.
Hershey appeared behind her while holding a towel to which the woman took and wiped the blood off her mouth. Her eyes turned green as Gwynne slowly healed, nay, reverted back to before she was injured.
Then she gently held her waist and put her in Hershey's small arms to which the girl was able to hold up pretty well. Hershey turned her eyes towards the woman in confusion as the woman placed one of her arms back to her body and shooed her away.
[Go back home. Take care of her for me.]
Then she slowly dissappeared after leaving these few words.
[I'll meet her with my True Body.]
Hershey stared at her as she slowly dissappeared, into dusts. Then she softly bowed her head before turning to the veiled woman behind her.
Annatella stared at her figure before taking out a doll sized figure.
Hershey stared at it for a moment, then just sneered and dissappeared.
Annatella pursed her lips as the Hershey doll grabbed her arms.
"Mm? What is it?"
She turned to the doll and saw that it was pointing to something, she calmly looked towards where she was pointing and saw Rueben's mutilated body breathing heavily as well as the three wisps gathering around him.
Her eyebrows went up, "You turned yourselves into spirits?"
One of the wisps, Frotus, formed into a somewhat ethereal form and nodded his head.
Annatella stared at them for a moment, before sighing and soon dissappeared.
Frotus looked at her before turning to Rueben, who was still slowly healing as his limbs were continously cut off by an unforeseen force in space.
Gritting his teeth, he then turned to the two wisps before holding Rueben's stomach.
Touching it for a moment, he soon felt a gaze from the stomach.
Frotus glared at it. —Im here to make a deal.
***
Rueben opened his eyes in discomfort.
He stared at the ceiling for a moment before sitting up. Then he felt a breeze push past his hair.
Rueben stared at the beach infront of him, a dark place with its ocean blood red. He soon let out a sigh before standing up.
Looking into the distance as large eyes looked at him from behind, eyes larger than himself.
***
Rueben opened his eyes and found himself in a dilapidated room filled with stone walls. He felt the ground covered in filth and disgusting dead worms before sitting up.
He was in a cell of some kind. The cell itself really didn't keep anything from going out as the steel bars were open ajar. As if something had just forcefully put something and left it behind.
He stood up and cautiously searched himself before finding nothing on him. Then he found out that he was shirtless and only had a torn off pants all the way to his knees.
Rueben then turned around to search the cell but found nothing. Well if you count the dead worms and filth everywhere, there wasn't any item he could use.
The entire room was also dark but thanks to his eyesight, he could somewhat see clearly in the dark but something was obstructing his vision, making him only see a few meters infront of him.
He checked the cell once more but really found nothing so he turned to the steel bars locking the cell and cautiously looked out. He surveyed the surroundings for a moment and found that nothing dangerous was near him did he go outside.
He stood on a hall lightened up by candles on the corners of the hall. He walked for a while and searched the cells he came across.
The cells contained the same as his cell, nothing but except of dead worms and filth, most of them were filled with beds, blood stains and even flesh of something.
The entire place reeked of death and torment, even more so as Rueben continued to walk.
He could also feel that the gloomy atmosphere affected him a little, well, maybe losing Gwynne was one of the factors, maybe it really was the reason but Rueben supressed his emotions.
He softly muttered Gwynne's name but stopped himself. He didn't know her current situation but last he remembered was coughin up blood as well as some kind of rock.
He was worried about her but what was the use of worrying in this current situation?
He didn't know why he woke up in that cell, he had an inkling that it was that monstrous being that put him in that cell but another question arose, who healed him?
Who took all of his weapons?
At this moments, Rueben really wanted his guns, Adam and Eve back in his hands just so he could kill anything in his way.
He lost them a while back, no, more like threw them away because he didn't have any bullets left. There was also the factor that there weren't any bullets compatible with the gun so he abandoned them so that it wouldn't hinder his progress.
Rueben looked at the darkness and gritted his teeth before breathing softly.
Although he didn't know where he was, he felt he was near the end. The end of the labyrinth.
Gwynne's face appeared in his head once more as well as his promise.
Rueben looked at the darkness, before clutching his hair and punched the wall, then he kneeled infront of it and stayed still for a moment as the candles burnt ever so slowly.
He kneeled still for a few moments, trying to calm himself down and trying to stop himself from getting too out of control of his own emotions.
Rueben opened his eyes and stood up, before continuing to explore the tunnel of cells.
***
Hershey stood behind the woman, who was sitting on a chair while black goo like liquid grabbed a moutful of Axerilites from a stash and gently placed them on her lips.
She then bit down as the Axerilites grew from the force enacted upon it but the woman didn't mind as she continued chewing.
[How is she?] The woman asked, her voice loud for Hershey.
Hershey looked towards the woman and nodded her head, "The woman is okay."
[Excellent.] She smiled and then turned to bite another group of Axerilites.
Hershey felt a stinging ring from her ear but didn't mind it, she compelled herself to not mind it and look at it as if it was normal and ignored her bleeding ears.
She was in awe at the woman's power, her voice capable of even hurting someone else. Even her appearance itself could drive the most insane men to even deeper insanity.
When she first met her, it was just a Visage of her, a trace of her power. And even then, the Motherling was capable of killing them multiple times before they got her attention.
Even then with just her form, they turned into metallic ores the moment they saw her, even when they heard her voice, they went crazy from the repeated memories playing in their heads.
Hershey had utmost respect to this woman, whom she calls Mother as that was what the woman liked to be called. Saying that being called Mother was a way for her to insult a certain someone.
She didn't know who this certain someone was but Hershey already had a growing hate for that person.
Hershey loved and respected this figure so much, that is why she didn't understand why she would suddenly save a woman from the outside world who was stuck in the very same realm she created.
What was she for? And why does that woman have the right to see her True Body, in which Hershey alone was the only one capable of somewhat withstanding its horror?
What qualifications does that woman have that she can immediately meet the True Body of her Mother?
Hershey suppressed her thoughts.
Whatever Mother planned was not her business anyway, she was adopted to be her child, and children should listen to whatever their parents told them and follow their orders unconditionally.
"Mother, if i may ask. Why is it that you wish to meet that woman?"
But she couldn't stop herself from asking her Mother's decision.
The woman turned her head to look at Hershey and smiled, that smile had already ruptured Hershey's insides but she didn't mind it.
The woman then stood up as Hershey bowed down.
[A successor.]
Hershey flinched.
[I have found something capable of inheriting my "Concept"]
A bright smile formed from her face as Hershey looked down, hiding her face twisting in anger as she gnashed her teeth with her lips to the point it bled.
The woman smiled before it dissappeared as she looked down at Hershey, she was about to kill her when she stopped.
Then she smiled, her hands covering her grinning face.
[No, maybe this path is better for my successor.] She muttered silently and sat back down.
Hershey glared at the floor while trembling in anger. She then stood up, mustered whatever false mask she could to bow before leaving.