'Fuck! Fuck! It hurts-'
These weren't Lumière's thoughts any longer. Lain had emerged, and the madness encroaching on his mind had fully taken over. He had blasphemed twice, there was no avoiding it!
The pitch-black tentacles swarmed around him, engulfing his pulsating form. Each part of him shifted, as if it couldn't bear to materialise, and his eyes shuddered crazily. He grimaced, grasping at his face. Even though he sucked in water at a rapid pace, he didn't feel as if he was drowning. Only the pain that coursed through his entire body was recognised by his mind, agonising, as if he were submerged in flames. Ice-cold pain, fiery pain, aching pain, pulsing pain, cutting, stabbing, gnawing, grinding… he felt the pain of sorrow, of grief, of loss, of despair.
He felt everything and nothing at once, he was hollow and he was abundant. He saw all of his memories, and forgot all of them. He was of two states, of craziness and normalcy, and that was the most maddening of it all.
He reached out a hand towards the shimmering light above, towards the surface he could not reach, but his arm was far too short; he was distant from that hope.
Each of his fingers wavered, sprouting countless malleable spikes, which writhed before dissipating. His hands became corporeal and brilliant, made of light and of all shadows within the water. He glowed and he dimmed, and soon his hands were no longer, his body was no longer, he was no longer.
Only a monster remained in the water. The tentacles that wrapped around him belonged not to the beast of the sea, it was him.
He had no more thoughts, he was mindless.
In the depths of the abyss of his mind, Lain had vanished completely. Lumière remained, unconscious, beside Despair and the now-complete Ophelia.
"He's a coward. Still, he acts a fool." Despair suddenly spoke, touching upon the cheek of the unconscious figure.
"I don't necessarily agree. He was limited in choice, he killed off that man so he could survive." Ophelia replied coldly. This was the first time they had spoken since Lumière had formed the Mythos Garden. After all, Despair often had no mind to speak, he was only within the abyss to experience the fear that Lumière accumulated.
And up until that point, Ophelia's 'judgment' had not been complete. Only in the water a moment prior had Lumière formed his motivation, his determination, his will. Indeed, they had been quite alike the entire time.
"I think sacrifice is done out of fear. He was scared that he would lose all he worked for…"
"But there is also courage in determining it a necessity to sacrifice something important. Indeed, that persona was an important tool for Lumière Croft, and he used it as a tool should be."
"A person as a tool… how hilarious. But this was not the exact summation of 'Lain' from 'Secret of the Conductor'. That man was fearless, crazy and impulsive. When it came to the remnant persona left behind in this place, that 'Lain' was a coward. He indeed felt fear, I consumed it myself. When that Lumière Croft had intentions to be a crazed, fearless bastard in the House of Cards, it was not the case that he could do so. In the end, Lumière stole Lain's traits for himself, and left that persona with nothing. The true 'Lain' has always been Lumière, this persona a hollow shell used for blaspheming. There was never any other use for him."
"Indeed, it was Lumière Croft that has changed." Ophelia agreed wholeheartedly. "Now, that shell is dead."
Beside them, the ancient stone wall suddenly stirred. The cracks in the wall reformed themselves into the shapes of incomprehensible letters not from this world. At the same time, the red strands connected to Lumière's body from the abyss quivered. In the real world past the Labyrinth, the members of the Mythos Garden that had been contracted to Lumière felt a deathly chill rush through their body, causing them to feel faint.
The stone wall began to crack even more, several pieces of rubble falling from it, landing beside Lumière's head. Ophelia and Despair both glanced towards it, grimacing. Although he had not responded towards Lumière's inquiries after he had nearly gone mad at his mother's grave, Despair really didn't know where the ancient stone wall derived itself from.
After all, the abyss was a representation of Lumière's mental state. There should have been nothing but them and the red strands, the symbolism of the contracts he had made.
When the two personae glanced back down towards Lumière's body, it had disappeared entirely, vanishing into thin air.
Did this mean that Lumière's mental state no longer embodied 'Lumière'?
Was the strange ancient stone wall reacting to this occurrence, and had it derived itself from his transformation into a monster?
In the waters of the Labyrinth, the beast of the sea had emerged, shaken by the sudden appearance of the crazed monster, formerly Lumière. Tentacles arose from the depths, clashing with those that had formed from Lumière's body. They writhed, wrapping around each other. One tentacle tore away his, creating thick clouds of pitch-black blood within the water. It was a harsh, incomprehensible shade, far darker than the black water itself. It was a representation of pure madness.
The monster lashed out towards the beast, its cries echoing vaguely through the wavering waters. The tentacle stretched far out into the depths, clawing at the beast that settled under the water. However, unlike what it anticipated, the monster only found sand at the bottom of the sea. It glanced around with a hollow gaze, eyes blossoming from its fleshy exterior.
There were no tentacles but his.
Had the beast of the sea fallen?
This was the point where Lumière would have fallen away into the floor.
However, this time, he was not transported to the next Zone. After all, he was no longer Lumière. He was no longer a servant of the Sinner, no longer an inhabitant of the Labyrinth. There was no reason for him to be moved at all.
In the darkness of the waters, the tentacle-laden monster remained, alone next to the corpses of the fallen.
Indeed, at the cost of a sacrifice.