"My people are safe with me..." Apollon grabbed Kaori by the shoulders, his cold breath on his face.
"They are... safe..." Apollon's eyes widen every step he took, and then he stopped.
"I apologize." He turned to leave the pavilion, and Kaori followed him.
Kaori chased after him, he followed every turn Apollon took. Then he stopped, at the graveyard. The sky was gray, the wind was harsh, and Apollon stood still as he looked over at the graveyard.
"My people... are with me." Apollon sighed and looked at Kaori,
"My people are here, with me." He repeated.
He was hallucinating, forcing himself to hallucinate that is. That is what he believes is the only way to see his happy, hardworking people. He believes that if he destroyed his own mind and lied to himself, everything would go back to as it was.
"They're here... safe... with me." he keeps repeating it over and over, making himself believe the most noticeable lie. All Kaori would do at this point was stare at the crazy Numen of Aernas, who failed to protect his own people... like his own god.
"Is it already time to wake up?" Apollon said, his voice was hoarse.
"I still do not wish to face the truth... dear gods up there in the sky... let me be." He raised his hand and closed his eyes.
"They sent you here, dear Kaori." Apollon smiled at him,
"It is true, my people are no more. My own race had extinct a hundred years ago... do you know who's fault it was?" Apollon approached Kaori.
"It was me." He held a rather... uncanny smile. Then he laughed, making the clouds turn darker.
"I destroyed everything... I killed them. My own people!" Kaori took a few steps back as Apollon was loosing his mind.
"Kaori, you wanted to see this... KAORI!" Apollon yelled as Kaori started to run... Kaori had ended back at the pavilion. Hurriedly, he ran towards central town and saw the tree on golden chains again. As he touched it, he saw himself in the room filled with illustrations but this time, the illustrations were different.
"The dear Numen had chose to pluck out the petals of an innocent flower, chose to starve so that he would have eaten better at dinner."
It was genocide, caused by their own god.
"Kaori." Apollon called from the entrance.
"Kaori my dear..." Apollon smiled as he walked closer,
"You're one of my people now... you said you liked it here!" Apollon smiled more, and stopped by the tree of golden chains.
"Kaori, I know that you are aware that this is all... nothing but a game of your mind." He walked to the other side of the tree... but as he did, his appearance changed. He wasn't elegant anymore, he was monstrous. He was horrifying and bloody. His hair was messy and his eyes, bloodshot.
"Show me more of what you can do, puppet."
Then the bell rang again, and he woke up inside the cave behind the waterfall.
He held his hand out, and felt the water. It feels different now. It's colder than before.
He slowly stepped out of the cave to see a large layer of fog, covering the area. He looked around to see the Aernas he was in, was not the Aernas he entered. The land had taken away its facade, what he was seeing was the true Aernas, the aftermath of the Numen's actions.
The air was cold, the surrounding was eerie. Kaori, had a crack on his left cheek. Shaking, he stood up and left the cave, wanting to escape.
He wandered in the forest and through the ruins as the clouds cover the moon. There was no living creatures around him, but something... someone was watching him.
The bushes ruffled and Kaori was always left frozen in place, until Kaori had reached the ruins he was searching for. The ruined shrine, with a book placed on a stone lectern.
Scared of what might happen to him, Kaori hurriedly went through the pages of the book for at least a clue of how everything happened. He wanted to know so that, maybe, he would be able to escape this horrid place or even better, kill Apollon.
The feeling of being watched worsened, it was as if it was behind him. He took the book and ran towards somewhere safer, holding the book tightly. He was shaking and terrified and on the verge of death.
He opened the book again and read it.
"The Numen had been locked up for his deeds, Aernas is his prison cell. As long as he doesn't place his hand on someone's mind, he will be weakened and someday... die."
The thick book was a diary, it was the diary of the High Priestess. It was as if, she was the reason-
"I let him in, it was I... who made my land face its doom. My dear Numen, I apologize. My dear... Apollon..." and from there, this part of the book was distorted. Looks like this was all personal matter between the Numen and the High Priestess... and so Kaori sighed and groaned. Why does he have to be involved anyways?!
After a moment of being annoyed, he decided to put all the pieces together. To what he knows so far, The Numen and the High Priestess are somehow connected and she had let someone in... leading to The Numen to loose his mind and kill his people. The Numen now feeds on people's mind and that is because of what entered Aernas... he killed his people because of hunger, he has gone insane...
Kaori stood up with the book in his arms and walked towards another area, it wasn't safe staying at one place.
As he walked, the fog thickened, his vision became blurry, and the sun never showed itself. With shaky breath, he wandered deeper into Aernas as he held the book tightly. His marble body became heavier and heavier each step.