Skin of the Sinless (Part 4)
Chapter 4: The Cry for Fairness
The violent vibrations of the wails caused a portion of the wall to crumble, revealing a passage hidden behind it. The violet viscous oozed into the neighboring area as a breeze of air hit him with a refreshing touch. Requiem rested his claymore against his shoulder to continue his journey through the labyrinth. He lurched through the sludge to the next passage that was a skywalk. There were eight windows along both sides with an iron rod gate on the other end.
Requiem walked onto the middle of the skywalk taking in the scenery. He peered over each side of the skywalk to see if the tower had moved. The sun was setting over the snowy mountains he traveled to get to the tower on both sides. A peaceful sight, yet he knew the tower was playing tricks on him.
Whenever he looked off to each side following the skywalk he saw nothing but the curvature of the tower. He wasn’t even sure if he was on the fourth level considering the route he had taken to get to where he stood. His hearing came back just in time to hear the last of Lust’s screams die out. The word ‘LUST’ illuminated on his body before fading away as a tear fell from under his iron mask.
Requiem continued across the skywalk to the iron rod gate. The gate opened up all on its own showing complete darkness inside. Requiem walked in as the gate slammed shut behind him. The space between the bars went black, void of the outside before the gate disappeared altogether. Requiem reached out in front of him to feel a stone wall, then continued to feel all around to notice the same.
It was about an arm’s distance all around. The ground began to soften under Requiem’s feet. He slowly began to sink into the ground. With his claymore, he made three slashes in the ground around him to see the ground eat the gashes he left with his blade. Requiem could feel the ground crushing his bones up to his knees ever so slowly.
Requiem stuck his claymore in the wall with the flat side of his claymore parallel to the ground to try to pull himself free. His skin stretched thin until it separated at the waist. Requiem’s pelvis dislocated from his spine before his lower half was ingested by the floor below. Shortly after his guts spilled onto the floor disappearing as well.
The wall he had stuck his claymore into started to suck in his blade. Requiem saw no other solution other than to give himself to the strange room. He closed his eyes knowing there was one of two outcomes; either he’d end up face to face with the source of this magic, or spend an eternity trapped inside the walls of the tower in pieces. To his assumption, Requiem’s crushed upper body was spit out of a ceiling.
The portion of his body dropped into a new chamber falling headfirst into the nothingness below. He fell long enough for his bones to reset and for his lower half to reanimate again. The cuts and scrapes didn’t always heal. He wasn’t sure if it was a cruel joke by the one who cursed him with the blessed items he wore, or if it was a reminder of the life that was left behind centuries ago when he was still just a man. None of that mattered as long as he reached the top of the tower.
After hours of falling, the cavern began to shrink. Jagged clusters of stone closed in from the sides until they became an obstacle of their own. Requiem turned to his body so the first thing to hit was his back. He struck a set of jagged stones with his back, splitting it open and making his body go limp again. His body struck several more objects on his way down breaking the majority of his bones before finally landing on a mountain of bodies.
He tumbled down the mountain of corpses with a formless body for an immeasurable amount of time until he hit the base of the pile. His eyes darted around to see nothing but darkness in all directions. Intense muttering was heard from around the pile of bodies, but Requiem couldn’t move his body to see what it was. Requiem’s head rolled to the side enough for him to see something draped in a long dingy cloth headed in his direction. It seemed to be moving quickly on many legs of all colors and sizes.
The end facing him was large and bulbous. Some of the legs didn’t touch the ground as they mimicked the motions of those that did. It stopped in front of Requiem with its large circular side facing him. It was a being of many faces, many bodies and many souls. It picked and prodded at Requiem’s body, examining the new addition to its collection with its many hands attached to the arms extending from two of its front torsos.
The bulbous part of the body was a honeycomb of numerous sickly, green heads that all talked amongst each other. “I wish we had its head. I wish this arm was mine. I wish we had their scars,” it muttered to itself.
The sound of Requiem’s bones snapping back in place startled the monster constructed of many, making it rear back. Its numerous torsos arched back as it raised its countless hands that wielded weapons and enchanted items from those it had already made its own. It laid waste to Requiem’s body in seconds. It pierced, bludgeoned, scorched, electrified, and froze him in unison.
The attack left little behind. Requiem was no more than skeletal remains and an iron mask lying in a crater of unstable magic in the mountain of bodies. One of the beings free hands grabbed ahold of Requiem’s iron mask. The hands attempted to place the mask on a handful of the many heads. It tried and tried until the iron mask found a child’s head. The mask fit loosely on its head as it giggled in its many voices.
The child’s head bobbed back and forth in its honeycomb compartment while the monstrosity pranced around with its new attire. That was until the child’s head burst into a ball of white flames. The being screamed in agony doing everything it could to shake out the holy flame without an end in sight. The iron mask continued to burn until it fell from the socket leaving a smoldering black crater where the child’s head previously sat.
The disgrace scurried back, hiding alongside the mountain of bodies. “Dead man hurt us. Why did he hurt me? Ugh, more pain!” Cried the many faces watching Requiem begin to reanimate from inside the iron mask.
The being crawled next to Requiem to watch the process unfold before its many sets of eyes. When Requiem was finally whole, he thrusted his claymore at the beast. His claymore pierced through one of its chests with ease. He then ripped his blade out its side, separating it from the rest of its body.
It screamed in pain as it trampled Requiem with the many feet of its lower half, breaking his body once again. The being attempted to reattach its damaged torso once it thought its intruder was immobilized. Yet, Requiem’s blade rendered it useless. It ripped the corrupted torso in half out of frustration, and that is when its eyes fell on its new replacement.
It used one of its free hands to pick him up, and place his limp body against its own. The entity held Requiem’s trampled body against theirs before he could regenerate. He could feel himself being forced to merge with the monstrosity. The entity absorbed Requiem’s body into itself until he was no more.
Requiem’s arms moved along the body until they fell in place alongside the other countless limbs. His head made its way up through the torsos until it was forced to take its place in the black crater left behind from the previous head. Requiem felt his mind start to fill with thoughts of another. “We take what I want. What I need is what we must have. Embrace Envy, and have everything you desire!”
Envy was trying to forcefully piece the torso that Requiem had severed back together with no luck. “Why does this body not work? I want it back. This isn’t fair!” The beast cried.
Requiem’s head jerked amongst the many in its new home. All the faces of Envy looked to Requiem’s head that violently seized in place. “Why? Why? WHY?” Envy exploded in frustration.
Requiem’s head came to a halt, turned into stone and crumbled inside the iron mask. Envy wailed as the iron mask tumbled to the ground. The once black crater was now covered in stone. It spread to the rest of the heads at a relentless speed.
Envy dropped whatever items it was holding in its many hands in a panic. It began ripping off the other heads trying to stop the spread. One by one, the heads were ripped out of their resting places, but it wasn’t enough to stop it from spreading.
The magic had already made its way down to the body. The front half of its many torsos were already turning into stone until the rest of the kicking abomination converted into a horrific statue. Requiem’s body reanimated from inside his iron mask like before. Just in time for him to watch the rest of Envy’s twitching mass succumb to the magic, and crumble before him. The word ‘ENVY’ illuminated all over his body, then faded away. Another tear fell from under his mask signifying his sorrowful triumph.