With gritted teeth, Haruki cursed his fate. He had never felt such contempt for the masses as they surrounded him, treating his execution as mere entertainment. The poor, the rich, and even those with reddened nails had come to pelt him with stones and heckle curses at him to their heart's content.
'Why did I ever choose to serve these fools?'
"Any last words, traitorous scum?" His axe held high, the masked executioner asked mercifully.
Heeding no attention to the man's words, Haruki raised his head from the guillotine and peered through the pelters.
'Do they not smell the corruption reeking through these stone paths? Or have their minds been rusted to a mush by their bloody conscience?'
As his eyes leered at the witnesses, a sharp stone poked him in the eye. Groaning in pain his eyes squinted shut. Trying to cover his face, his arms reached forward, but the unforgiving chains around his wrists held them in place.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!" He roared, bringing the cursing and chatter to a halt.
Once again, with blood trailing down his cheeks he glared back at the fools. His mind raced with anger, not at the bystanders, but at his own miserable self. How could he have been so blind? To think, he could shepherd those doomed by ignorance, how could he make such an obvious mistake?
"YOU! YOU! YOU! YOU FOOLS!" Grunting out loud, he looked around with bloodshot eyes." HOW?! HOW?! HOW CAN YOU BE SO BLIND?! DO YOU NOT SEE WHAT THEY'VE DONE TO YOU?! HOW MUCH THEY HUNGER FOR POWER?! FOR RICHES?! AND LAND?!"
All the anguish and hatred confined deep inside his soul had begun spewing through his words, and yet as he looked around all he saw were bemused faces. Are they really that blind? Having unleashed his rage, he felt heavy in the throat. With teary eyes, his gaze fell down defeated. What was I even fighting for at this point? He wonders as his mind grows weary.
'It's not your fault my woeful warrior,' A comforting voice gently trailed into his mind, 'Your only mistake was presuming that these lost souls ever wanted to be saved.'
"What?" He whispered out loud, not realizing where the voice came from.
"Is that all traitor?" The executioner asked, seemingly unimpressed.
Filled with horror, Haruki quickly turned his head and finally recognized the executioner's presence.
"So be it." Staring Haruki dead in the eyes, he pulled the axe back over his shoulders.
"What?! Wa-" This time, however, it was the executioner who paid Haruki's words no attention.
And with a single swing of the axe, Haruki's name was forever left tainted.
Waking up from that nightmare of a memory, Haruki's eyes were dazzled by the piercing bright sunlight. The years-long confinement in the abyssal chambers had even left adverse effects on his new body. Fighting off the pain, he finally managed to keep his eyes open. With tear-strolled cheeks, he scanned the surrounding area. With his body shadowed under swaying branches, sunlight leaked onto his face from the small crevices amongst the leaves.
"Where am I?" He whimpered, his eyes tearing up again from the strain.
Laying motionless under the trees, he took in his surroundings. The gentle sounds of rustling leaves and the chirping of birds nesting right over him, it all made him wonder if everything before that moment has just been a nightmarish dream.
"Wake up now," The illusion of peace was broken by the whispering Queen of lust.
"What do you want?" He grumbled with a snarly frown.
"A few meters to your south the vessel I've prepared for you is waiting," She whispered again, her voice just as swaying as last time. "It's best we get moving before complications arise."
Her voice was the only proof of her presence, but that didn't make her company any less of a threat. Impervious to her physical absence, Haruki could still feel Asmodia's grasp around his neck. However, at the moment her words were of little importance to him. Instead, his mind wandered off assessing whether to believe the events of his dream or if to take them as another part of her trickery.
His memories were what defined who he was, and without them, he felt lost. A foreigner in his own body, or at least the body Asmodia had blessed him with. Holding his hands forward, he gave them a brief look. They seemed as frail as twigs and the rest of his body was no different.
"What's wrong with this body?" He questioned with a scowling expression.
"It's your true body, one that would never rot or age like the rest of the mortals," She proudly replied.
"You've turned me into a monster," Unimpressed by the impish look, Haruki spared no breath to share his dissent.
"Monster? Not exactly…it seems like the memory I forced back into you was not enough motivation," A hint of annoyance reflected in her voice, "How about you do as I say, fulfil your part of the deal, and I give you the rest of your memories back as well?"
'As if I have a real choice against a demon lord.' Haruki may have lost his memories, but he still knew better than to voice his boorish thoughts about her.
Reluctant Haruki picks himself up and begins making his way south. Moving through the dense forest he once again notices something odd about his body. Protruding from his lower back a slender tail swayed about playfully with each step. And as if that wasn't bizarre enough, looking down on himself he noticed the tattoo-like clothes that barely covered his privates appeared to be directly infused with his skin.
"Am I even a guy or has that changed as well?" He grunted, annoyed by the unsightly changes.
"You're one of my children now, you can be whatever you want to be warrior. Although it might be a bit harder for you to do so than the others," The longer they talked, the more annoyed he got at her voice trailing directly into his ears. Every time she spoke he could feel a strange chill fluttering up and down his spine.
"From that illusion of a dream, I remembered being a guy so I'll stick to that," Since his faith in her was near to none, being cautious of her lies was the only option he had.
Bending down to his knees by a puddle, he glared at his own reflection hoping to make sense of the senseless ordeal.
"It wasn't an illusion, they were your memories, the true ones. I just had to force-feed them back to you like the helpless child you are," As her neutral tone began to vanish her sense of urgency became quite apparent. "You're wasting your time, your memories have long been since corrupted by darkness. The only way to get them back is if you follow my orders," Despite Asmodia's promise, Haruki showed no signs of softening up to her.
"Trust a demon lord? I'd rather bite my own tongue?" He mumbled.
'After all, what reason do I have to live a life of servitude when I have no reason of my own to keep living?' He pondered, contemplating taking the easy way out.
As those thoughts crossed Haruki's mind, the grasp around his neck began to tighten. Feeling crushed under the force of her fingers, he tried clawing off the phantom hands, but as he had noticed before there was nothing to be clawed. Forced down to the ground, Haruki was left squirming as he desperately gasped for breath.
"Death…won't be the only thing that follows you into the afterlife, I'll rain down an eternity of suffering on your tainted soul," Asmodia growled before releasing her grasp.
"C-coward…W-why don't you show yourself?!" He spat out, struggling to get back on his feet.
"I wish I could teach you a lesson in person, you have no idea how much you've disappointed me already," Haruki could feel the disgust in her voice. "Where's the rage from being betrayed by your own people? I swear that glare of yours had me flowing rivers." Before Haruki could retort or even comprehend what Asmodia insinuated by the last part, a rustle through the bushes caught his attention.
"H-help…help me!" While Haruki's eyes followed the source of the voice, he could hear Asmodia chuckling to herself.
"Your vessel is here," She whispered.