Skin of the Sinless (Part 7)
Chapter 7: Reputable Amongst the Worst
The ground was slowly taken out from under Requiem’s feet before he was yanked to the ceiling. He landed hard on his back with his arms splayed out. Little by little, all the rubble from the ground below did the same. Wrath’s body fell up landing directly on Requiem with the stone foundation below soon to follow.
Each stone that fell up broke away a part of the ceiling that was keeping Requiem from falling into the unknown behind him. Wrath was pummeled by stone after stone until the ceiling under Requiem ultimately cracked. The ceiling finally gave out beneath him, sending Requiem flipping into another abyss as he watched Wrath, and the debris floating next to him. Requiem flipped and spun into another seemingly endless void until he finally leveled out.
He had no idea which direction he was facing or where he was drifting to. Requiem never gave much thought to what it would be like to be one with the stars in his centuries on the earth, but he assumed the helpless suspension that he was succumbing to is what he would expect. He drifted in loneliness next to his fallen foe for what felt like years. With that time he thought long and hard trying to remember what his life was before he donned the iron mask. Yet, the only memories he could bring to mind were filled with bloodshed and his many deaths.
Wrath’s body deconstructed, and began to merge with the debris pulling Requiem from his thoughts. The two twisted and turned as tendons wove everything together. Wrath’s muscles were torn from the bone to hold everything in place to form the little girl swinging on a tree made from his remains. She and the tree were made from what was left of the Sin and his chamber, forming a crude version of herself before Requiem. Requiem gripped his claymore in both hands to realize that he had no way to engage.
He was in a stasis. Unable to close the distance between the two, so he did what he did best. Requiem waited in silence until he would be given the opportunity to end her suffering.
The little girl spoke. “You are very persistent, aren’t you? What is it that you seek at the end of your journey?” Requiem stared blankly in her direction with both hands grasping his claymore.
The little girl spoke again. “Of course, nothing. You fail to understand I am not here to stop you from obtaining your wish. Help me help you, yes?” Requiem lowered his blade to his side as he floated before her.
The little girl and the tree began to circle around Requiem while she spoke. “Good. You do not fit in our home like the others, so your presence is quite unsettling this high in the tower. Not to mention your gift and lack of tongue make you rather difficult to deal with. Even if you had completed your journey at this point, all that you knew before entering this tower is no more.”
Apparitions of others climbing the tower appeared around him. Some stood victorious while others fell to their sins, but all were now a part of the tower. Requiem remained silent to all that was being shown to him. This frustrated the little girl greatly. Her body began to fall apart into pieces that swirled around Requiem.
“So be it! If I cannot rid you from this world, then I will bury you beneath its dirt where you belong! May you rest in disgrace as your God watches over your helpless soul.” Cursed the little girl. The rest of the little girl and tree dematerialized, collecting around his body like a fleshy, stone casket. He plummeted down through the abyss, and all Requiem could do was listen in his dark prison.
His descent through the tower was violent. Each floor he collided through shook him within until he burrowed through the foundation of the tower below. Requiem’s stone casket broke into pieces around Requiem the further he went down. All before he came to a halt leaving him with nothing but time. He closed his eyes as his lungs struggled to find air with each breath. From there, his mind went blank.
Requiem’s body was reanimated from the inside of his iron mask. His new body pushed his old corpse out of its way, then did it again and again. A torment he had known all too well. Requiem did this for decades under the forever shifting labyrinth until there was a layer of his lifeless bodies under the tower. He reanimated once more to feel the ground against his back begin to give.
He pushed up on his hands and knees as the ground above gave way in the darkness. Requiem was on his knees with half of his body sticking out of the ground filling his new lungs with air for the first time. Almost as if he had forgotten what it was like to breathe. An unfamiliar voice of an elderly gentleman rang out from the darkness catching his attention. “Oh, to be blessed with the presence of a legend.”
Requiem rose to his feet to face the direction of the voice. He held his claymore in front of him with the point in the ground, and both hands resting on the pommel giving it his undivided attention. “You stand vigorous after such a long slumber with my name on your skin. Speak child, what of you?”
Requiem’s eyes finished adjusting for them to see a bald woman with sucked in eyes. She was holding an infant with skin that had a light blue hue to it. The woman was as pale as can be, and wore nothing with the infant sucking on her breast. Her mouth was agape with the elderly gentleman’s voice projecting from it.
“Ahhh, the legend is true. The one who wears man’s sins on his flesh does not speak beneath the mask. I was beginning to think of you as a myth to keep us Sins in check.”
The woman began to circle around Requiem with her unmoving mouth projecting the elderly man’s voice. He stood still listening to the voice echoed throughout the chamber. “The tower, or that little girl rather, has been intervening with your climb since you have entered her chamber. Your cryptic nature unsettles it, and your gifts have made you a valiant, yet a disgusting foe. Let’s not forget you’re a man of God or so to speak.”
The body of the woman began to change shape. Old bones cracked and new bones formed. Her lower half extended out to the rear that stretched her skin thin while a second pair of legs grew from underneath. Requiem shifted his hand down to the grip of his claymore as the centaur continued to circle around him.
“One man’s curse is another’s blessing from what I see here. May every death be a bonding moment for us as I enjoy every second of your eternal damnation.” Condemned the Sin before Requiem.
The woman grew another set of arms under those holding the infant. One was pointed at the end while the other formed a spiked ball where the hand would be at the end of its arm. The woman reared back giving off a deathly wail that disoriented Requiem before charging in. Blood drizzled the sides of Requiem’s mask but he stood strong. He flipped his claymore around to hold it in front of him with both hands on the grip.
The woman reached over to swing the spiked ball at Requiem. He ducked under her spiked fist as her pointed arm ricochet off his iron mask. Requiem turned to face the abomination at the ready watching the woman turn on her haunches. She charged Requiem again with her spike hand raised above her head. Requiem brought his claymore straight down as she swung in his direction.
His blade severed the limb at the elbow before he brought his blade around, and caught her hind legs in the same motion. The elder’s scream echoed in the chamber while the woman’s back end dragged on the floor of the chamber. Her body shifted as it took another shape. Requiem caught the transition, and immediately engaged with his claymore at his side. The rear of the woman became bulbus. Four legs shot out from each side of her new body as the old legs were absorbed back inside.
Requiem swung his claymore, but the woman jumped onto the wall in front of them before scurrying away. Requiem watched her crawl along the wall until she jumped at him. He placed his free hand on the flat side of his blade to brace for the impact. The woman landed on him with her spider legs jabbing blindly into Requiem’s sides as he fought to keep her from crushing him. He planted his feet, then shoved her to the side. He watched the monstrosity stagger to her many feet.
He used his claymore to pin the woman’s thorax to the floor of the chamber. She looked back at him with her pitted black eyes as she pulled her thorax free, splitting it in half. The abomination let out another wail as Requiem continued his assault. She dragged her split thorax along the floor while trying to keep her distance for another transformation. She crawled back up the wall, and produced another thorax while Requiem waited for his next opportunity to strike.
The spider woman pried stones from the chamber walls with her extra limbs. She hurled them one after another at Requiem. He used his claymore to cut through them as they came, but he couldn’t catch all of them. One stone bounced off the floor of the chamber before bashing into his left knee. His knee buckled back making him drop him onto his right.
The abomination saw the advantage. She crawled across the chamber floor to the adjacent wall while using one of her legs to slice Requiem’s throat as she passed by. She watched Requiem spew blood onto his lap before launching a stone at his head to make his neck open even more.
Requiem used his free hand to keep his head from falling back while the abomination made her way to him. It took on another shape. It was of a scorpion with a stinger overhead, and her upper torso sat where the head would be. Her extra arms grew pinchers at the ends as the other two cradled the infant to her breast. Requiem’s leg finally mended itself.
He went to swing his claymore in an upward motion with his head hanging loosely on his neck. The scorpion woman halted his attack by grabbing onto his right wrist with one claw and his head with the other to keep his neck from closing. It used its stinger to repeatedly impale Requiem’s torso before driving it into the opening in his neck making a soup of his insides.
All while the infant drank from the woman’s breast watching the horror from the corner of its slightly opened eye. Requiem reached out with his free arm, and yanked the infant from the woman by its arm. The woman whipped Requiem around on the end of her stinger until he was tossed aside. She hastily made her way over to the infant scooping him back up with one of her normal arms. It latched to her breast while pointing in the direction of Requiem whose body was almost whole again.
The woman’s mouth opened with the elderly gentleman’s voice booming from within. “How dare you! I will make you mine! You will remain with Sloth until the end of time!” Requiem stood strong waiting for the next engagement.
The woman’s lower torso shifted into a shapeless mass of tentacles with her extra limbs following suit while still holding the infant close. Sloth’s mount towered over Requiem who stood before it with his claymore held in front of him. The monstrosity thrusted her tentacles at Requiem as she glided around the chamber using its walls.
Each one that he caught with his blade was matched with another that punctured holes into his flesh. All while keeping a distance from his long blade. Requiem tracked their pattern, and swung wide to part a tentacle down the middle. He let go of his claymore at the end of his swing with the rosary uncoiling behind it. The claymore pinned Sloth and its mount to the wall. Requiem’s thorned rosary was cinched around his forearm through to the bone keeping it from completely unraveling.
The tentacles flailed with Sloth’s screams echoing throughout the chamber. Requiem grabbed the monstrosity by its tentacles, and yanked it to the floor as the blade cut through Sloth and his mount with ease. Requiem pulled his claymore from the wall to end the Sin that laid before him.
He brought the flat of his blade down on Sloth and the pulsing heart of its mount, crushing them under the weight of his blade. Requiem lifted his claymore that was caked with viscera before resting the bloody blade against his shoulder. A tear fell from under Requiem’s mask as he looked up to the ceiling of the chamber.
The word ‘SLOTH’ illuminated on his body, then faded away leaving his skin rid of sin. The chamber he was in began to melt away as the garden came to be. It looked like it did when his eyes first fell upon it with the little girl sitting on a swing attached to a tree. This time he stood on the other side of the pond with no children in sight.