Reo's scream continued for just a few seconds, each moment feeling like a harrowing eternity. During the whole time, the shudder and trembling of the chapel didn't cease.
Then seemingly drained out, Reo's screams finally came to a stop as he was passed out on his knees with his eyes rolled back. A long trail of tears flowed down his bloody face.
The space was still, the environment no longer distorted, and the sickening feeling emanating from the boy had suddenly disappeared.
Heavy drops of sweat formed puddles against the ground. The mage, his body still trembling uncontrollably, slowly and hesitantly raised his head, his teeth repeatedly clashing against each other.
During the episode, the black hood was blown over, revealing the scarred face of a middle-aged man. The man wasn't blessed with looks. Half of his whole face was melted off symmetrically, the other half left untouched with only a single mole underneath his right eye.
His eyes were deep, and the area around the sockets was sunk into his head. Deep wrinkles tied the skin just under his eyes, with a long crooked nose.
"...Wh-what was that?! Trying in a bid to return control of his body over to him, his lips trembled as they parted in a question.
His sunken eyes slowly started and shifted up front. The color in his left eye was greyed out. His gaze was directed at the fine altar, most accurately, the little boy on it. He slowly raised his head. He tried to move, but his body failed to respond.
Muttering a curse under his breath, he forced his trembling body up.
'That boy...,' the man thought wearily. 'he's dangerous!'
Reo had run mad. His suppressed feelings and emotions had burst open, overwhelming his mind, splitting it, and tearing it apart.
At first, it was fun to watch. The little boy watched his friend die and broke down. He cried and groveled in his tears. The cloaked man was going to take his sweet time to repeat the process and carve out his own heart, just after he had dragged the boy further into the depths of despair.
But it quickly went wrong. So wrong.
'That oppressive magic power...'
He had never seen anything like it before, and this had more significance, considering the cloaked man was a black mage. A sorcerer who dabbled in dark arts, black rituals, and witchcraft.
He had been exposed to all sorts of corrupted and twisted energy. But this was different. The Mana surrounding Reo at that moment was corruption itself.
The real deal.
The boy was a terrifying existence.
'But from what just happened, he doesn't seem to be able of controling it...'
The disgusting power only leaked out from a fracture in his mind. The power simply seeped out, the atmosphere reacted towards it. And eventually, unable to contain it, Reo passed out.
When the black mage thought of this; if that was just a residue, a splintered-off fragment, then what was the real deal like? His latent instincts reacted in opposition as he even tried to think of it.
It was common knowledge of the people of this world. One's mental and emotional state can greatly influence and affect one's perception of magic. It can create an adverse effect, the stronger and the deeper one's feelings become.
And there's a certain theory that had been banned from the knowledge of the general population.
The stronger one's negative feelings are, then 'that' happens.
If Reo couldn't control his emotions, then with the terrifying power nestling deep in the darkest and most twisted corners of his mind, he was just a walking nuke. A time bomb threatening to explode at any moment.
He had to die.
...And at the same time, this just so happened to be in favor of the black mage.
The edges of his lips curled into a crooked smile. He wiped his sweaty face with his hand.
One with as black a mind as the boy before him was bound to have as black a heart as well.
The black mage slowly lowered himself and picked up the black obsidian dagger. His eyes were intently focused on the unmoving body of Reo at the altar throughout the moment.
It was true he passed out, but after what had just happened, the black sorcerer was extremely weary. Anything could happen.
Quite frankly, he was better off just running away as soon as he could get back to his feet. Even he admits to that. But still...
Such a sacrifice like this, someone already on the path to Corruption, would bring him dozens of steps closer to his end goal.
The single suicidal thought was enough to rid his body of the fear and fight through his latent instinct.
That was just how much of a boon Reo was.
Even if at the end of it all he still failed to get the other escaped kids, Don and the rest, Reo's own heart was more than enough to make up for it.
The man gripped the dagger tightly, his chest heaving and pounding. A strange rush of adrenaline saturated throughout his body, surging joules and joules of energy through his veins.
He struggled to maintain his smile, and hesitantly, he took his first step towards the altar. It was slow and wary, but each step he took brought him a little closer to the boy. The closer he got, the faster and harder his heart beat with dark excitement.
He swallowed a forceful gulp. His hands gripping the dagger trembled subconsciously.
The thought of using a spell to subdue the kid and speed up the whole process never once crossed his mind, as one of the main conditions for making this whole ritual a success...
'To run the very blade of this dagger... through the sacrifice heart!'
With each step he took, his body would instinctively recall the feeling and oppression it felt, forcing hesitation into his next actions. The mage fought back against his instincts and pushed forward, and as if to represent this resistance, his beating heart rolled over his hearing.
He walked over the corpse of the girl, stepping into the pool of blood drawn from her carved chest. The blood was thicker, and the smell made its way into his nose but proved no problem to him.
With only a few steps left before the mage and the altar, the man stopped one final time.
He reconsidered.
'No.'
He tightened his grip on the dagger, positioning it in front of him, and prepared his body to lunge forward.
"Let me have it... your heart!" The previous hesitation gone, the man kicked off the ground, a crazed expression masking his face.
His hoarse chuckle reverberated, the black blade of the dagger drawing a straight path through the air, the tip heading for Reo's heart.
....Then a low chilling whisper came.
"Take it..." It said...
"...I dare you."