The rushing breeze flowing freely around me filled the air with a sweet midnight chill. Trees streaked past, like a stationary whirlwind of wood and bark, the shadows twitched and the moonlight illuminated the damp forest floor.
I'd never imagine being dragged around by angels in my second life after suffering in the complete wilderness for almost a week! Though I wouldn't say I minded it, their presence just... If I had to place a word on it, I'd say it felt like home.
Did something change?
Ever since I took a glimpse at the Boundless Sovereignty, I felt that something intrinsic about me had changed, influenced. It seems humans were not meant to be able to perceive infinity.
"Hey guys... are we there ye- Ow! Please don't throw m-" As I were reeling from the recoil of the sudden stop, my eyes dilated and my breathing quickened for a split moment.
"Huh?" A bare, confused whisper.
And never in all my days, could I have imagined my first meeting with another human being to turn out like this, nor was I ready for a sight like this.
A bloodbath. It was the only way I could describe the scenery before me.
Two dead bodies, split apart by their bowels and left spilling onto the dirt. The surrounding soil was loose and filled with dents, clear signs of struggle. That is, if you ignore the copious blood splattered around carelessly like an abstract painting.
This was clearly a display of the vilest of acts, bodies strewn around carelessly like dolls...
It was like they were butchered, like mere livestock.
But,
I did not feel right. My heart did not race, and my stomach did not retch. Nothing.
Nothing but a single question. Why?
As I looked into the empty eyes of the corpses, still stuck in that expression of agony, it rang out in my mind like the tolling of a bell, echoing as it engulfed my psyche. My emotions grew, they sought for something, an answer. I sought to resolve this, I aught to.
But why?
Looking at the macabre displays of violence, humanity captured at its most vulnerable, the curse of sentience, the blessing and curse of fear. I looked into the corpses dead eyes and saw my very own reflected brightly within the deep empty mirrors.
Did it hurt? How much anger bubbled within you? Did you fear, despair, dread? Or did you simply accept it? Did you want things to change, at that very moment?
"What a terrible expression." I said, kneeling towards the body tied up in his own entrails with morbid fascination, as if it were a sick show of ridicule and humiliation.
Nine faces of divine origin, looked on indifferently, as if they were looking at a problem already solved, like it wasn't a concern.
Was I like this when I died?
It's...
It's really cold tonight.
I just hope they won't have to wait long like I did, but I do know that they are in good hands.
The problem is, who?
"Rustle..." I hear the crunching of leaves behind me, and my neck craned to look at the source.
A man, I think. He was staring, but I couldn't see his face. I did the sensible thing and didn't move, instead opting to look at the reaction of the three pairs of hands still grabbing onto me like a lifeline. If they knew anything, it was them.
They were looking at me.
Suddenly, they strengthened their grip and I felt the weight of the world onto me as they embraced my frail form tightly, like they were trying to safeguard me?
The peculiarity of the situation dawning on me as I desperately try to make sense of... everything! As I looked into the angel strapped to my arm, I looked into its dispassionate eyes and did the only thing I could, I asked.
"Why?" A simple word, and all I was looking for was a simple answer.
They didn't say a word, but they looked.
They looked at him.
He didn't move.
In the dark, I tried to make out the figure, but I just couldn't. I knew one thing however, that he was the one I was looking for. I was foolish, I didn't think for a second that the killer would still be here! If he didn't reveal himself, I would have been killed easily.
What is he aiming for? An answer chimed into my head as I remembered the bodies.
"Are you even human?" No response, but he steps ever closer.
He steps into the moonlight, leaving the shadows and showing his grisly figure in its glow. Blood seemed to trickle from every orifice, and his hands bore no skin, showing ivory white beneath the dirt-littered flesh. A smile of glee split his pale white face, as if capturing his last visage for eternity, frozen in time and left to rot forevermore.
I was looking at a dead man.
I felt the my world crash into me as my eyes struggled to focus, I started seeing things. My heart beat against its bony cage as I felt suffocated by their air as it thickened, and the once proud and tall trees twist and bend like conniving snakes.
The morbid sight, the terrible smell, the absent sounds, the cold.
He is after me.
"Agh!" However, my angels snap me out of my trance with a stern grip.
They must be my guardian angels, heh.
Focus!
This monster won't stop me from getting what I want. However, at this very moment, what I want is to beat him down to size.
I was not looking at a man, I was looking at an animal. It owes the heavens its due, but I wonder...
Can I send him there? It is much too late for mercy, for either of us.
I am being hunted, and judging by the corpses, it was pretty good at it. I am but a boy, armed with a rod of sharpened wood, but my heart burns bright. The angel's faces gazed into mine, but I understood what it wanted to say.
My guardians promise me victory, man cannot lose to a blood-lusting animal.
It looked at me, almost in good nature. It does not fool anyone, it must not be a good liar. My atrophied muscles were taut, and I forced myself to banish escape from my mind.
Determination filled my mind, to make sure this dead beast stopped moving. God didn't intend for the dead to move, and I shall return this abomination to whence it came.