On A Pale Chocobo

I wrote out a whole long introduction about this, and then I accidentally hit a link, so FFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUU---

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed the first two chapters of When Jeuno Fell so far!

New to the story? Want to reread? A kind of book-like pdf version of the first two chapters (and all chapters as I finish them) can be found here on my website.

I hope you're all enjoying the story! This Chapter details what should be a very simple sweep of Vana'diel, but there's one problem: Square Enix created this universe, and we all know that anything SE makes is incapable of acting as simply and smoothly as it should.

And without further delay, please, enjoy the third chapter; On A Pale Chocobo!

~~~


Day 85:

A few days at sea and I’m already bored.

Such is life, I suppose.

We decided to alter course and start off at Mhaura under the assumption that it was a relatively easy area for the town’s people to defend if the Turned and Demons had come, and that if it was taken over that we could probably contain it quite quickly simply by staying on the boats and making the enemies waltz into the water and drown themselves.

Sometimes, life is simple.

Packed into my quarters was this blank diary. I found it yesterday as I looked through my coffer of clothes.
I never was too complex with clothes. I’m kind of glad that the only garbs I have left are just variations of the same basic outfit.

The diary was wrapped in red silk, and I think the perfume that I could have sworn I smelt was more than just from memories and longings.

The more I think about her, the more sick I make myself feel over the whole situation.

I keep telling myself that every emotion will pass in due time.

I wonder if that’s good or bad?

The sword I picked out is very nice. I’ve been sparring with Cai.

It seems like I’ve just grown naturally better. Must be something to do with the fact that I killed a hell of a lot of Mamools, and a hell of a lot of them used swords. I guess that’s a plus to it.

When you’re living a crises, I suppose that any bit of good luck is amazing.

Day 86:

I've been reading through my old diary.

Before I was tortured, I didn't hear the voices of those I had slain, but I could only work my abilities when in a paniced rage.

I had thought myself different from an immortal, and seeing as how I now act more like a Blue Mage than ever, I'm not really sure how any of this fits together with previous theories. So I took my sword and tried to think and realized that I could finally remember pretty much all of what the Demon did. I think before, it was just denial.

I was so scared of what I had become, I suppose, that I was in raw denial.

And yet I know I'm different from my peers that also steal souls. They say it themselves. They can't communicate with whats inside of them. They can't eat the souls of more complex beings like Galkas. They're tormented by what they're handling.

Why aren't I?

yay chapter 3~! :D

Day 87 - Morning:

Mhaura is in sight now. We'll be able to start scoping it out in a few minutes.

Our plan is simple. If it is overrun, we massacre the town.

If it is safe, we prepare for them to open fire on us, assuming we are pirates or there to raid them, or kill them. We will send Caiyuo and Marzbarz on their own little boat with a white flag to go parley with them. If it's empty, we plunder for resources and set it up as a station.

I don't think it's empty. The hairs on the back of my neck are standing up in a way that means I'm being watched.

Whatever is there is already watching us.

I'm gripping my new weapon tightly. I have a feeling that I shall be drawing first blood with it soon.

I'll never really be ready to kill; I don't think anyone is every truly ready for it. I'm just as ready as I can be. I guess.

We lit off a flare to try and draw out any Turned.

Be back later. It's time for some blood.

Day 87 - Noon:

We were greeted with a civil war.

Half of Mhaura had felt that they should have fled a long time ago and half was saying that they would never survive unless everyone stayed put.

At first we thought the fighting was Turned and Demons before we quickly suppressed the civil uprising. It took about four minutes for the villagers to stop. By that time, two boats of Immortals had unloaded. Cai, Marz, Selim, and myself at the front of the lines.

Everyone, on both sides, had weapons drawn.

"Drop the weapons, there's no more need for them; help is here," Cai said simply.

No one dropped a weapon. If nothing else, they gripped them tighter.

I heard a single word whispered in the crowd; "scavengers," someone had said.

I heard a gun *** and looked into the crowd to see a bearded human in the back of the line had loaded up a rifle and was aiming it at Cai.

"I don't think you want to do that," I said simply, and all eyes turned to me; as did the gunman. "You won't like what would happen."

I licked my lips. It was a habit I had formed.

I picked up a seashell that was on the floor of the dock, and I had my right hand go tentacular, and I shattered it. My hand returned to normal.

"I suggest," I began, "That you all calm down and listen. You're outnumbered, you don't want to start a fight with us, and we're not here to fight you."

"That's a damn lie!" said the man in the back with the gun.

He loaded the gun again, but this time his own people started to hiss at him to stop.

"I suggest you listen to them," I said simply.

He swung at a woman that was grabbing him.

I didn't have to give any orders; before anyone else could react, Marz had appeared behind him and with one swift blow from the knee had subdued him to the ground, his gun knocked a few feet away. She was kneeling on him and gripping him by the hair, her new katana held to his throat.

Cai was talking to the nearest two immortals and when he was done, they escorted the woman onto one of our ships.

"Who here would call themselves a leader of this location?" Cai called out. The townspeople split into two groups at that point; those who backed an elderly woman and those who backed the elvaan gunner.

Cai went over to the elderly women; Selim and I followed. "We're part of the Arch Duchy's Special Operational Team; we've returned from the East with reinforcements. Can you tell me what's happened in this area?"

She explained that they had managed to barricade themselves from the Turned and were living mostly on fish and desalinated water, but were growing restless and stir crazy. She said that there had been no contact for the last fifty days or so, when the whole thing began.

"We secured a location before we had gone for reinforcements," Cai said. "All are welcome there."

It was a fairly decent sized group. There were, I'd say, around seventy people left in tact there. "We'll be heading to Windurst next; you're people are welcome to join us or keep yourself holed up. We'll be clearing any Turned that we see," he continued.

Selim and I left at that point, allowing Cai to be the diplomatic one. Instead, we went to the group with the gunner.

"Thanks, Marz," I said, and she got off of him. He immediately scrambled for his gun. I briefly wondered why people were so damn silly. I rushed over to him as he got to it and with one fluid motion I had gripped the barrel and pointed it upwards as he fired again.

Everyone turned to face him.

"If you keep this up," I said simply to him, "I will kill you."

He scoffed. I know why; I'm just a boy, you know?

But it was wrong for him to try my patience.

I licked my lips again and this time my tentacles wrapped up the gun and to his hands.

"Gun or hand?" I asked him. "Pick one. Now."

He just looked at me, incredulously, confused.

It was at that point that I gripped him and snapped both of them.

I turned around as he howled in pain.

"Anyone else who thinks it would be wise to harm each other or one of us will find a much harsher fate."

The town grew still.

My hand returned to normal and I picked a splinter out of it from the gun.

"I'm offering you safety; all you have to do is stick with us. Any attempts to sabotage our march through Vana'diel will be met with swift and painful retribution."

The point was clear and I walked over to the bearded gunner and clutched his hand. He screamed in pain until I healed it, and then he scurried away.

"We leave for Windurst at dawn. You're either with us, or you're out of our way."

I marched back to the ship, and now I'm simply having tea with Marz. She's quite cheerful.

Where am I?! I wanna battle too! :p

Day 87 - Evening:

It all boiled over pretty quickly, largely in part due to the fact that someone heard scratching at the barricades. We had attracted Turned.

You see, that was a bit of our specialty now, and let us look like heroes.

We could fit a hundred and fifty immortals in Mhaura, and so we brought that many on shore.

Marz, ever the ninja, had a few grenades on her. We told the townspeople to whole themselves up and not come out until told.

They were eager to follow that order.

Marz blew the barricade open and it all began.

We had formed ranks before all this, of course, and had a strategy.

The Immortals had a great many tricks up their sleeves. The first we used had been a tactic they called "Diamondhide"; coating groups of themselves at a time in a magical shield. It lasted a decent bit.

The first line of offense was a group of immortals that could procure a frost breath; they had, apparently, imported raptors through the Tenshodo and had used them until they learned how to breath frigid cold.

And so when Marz blew the barricade away, the first line had started by freezing them.

There were hundreds of them. Absolutely hundreds of them, and they never got beyond the choke point that was the entrance from Buburimu.

If war could be golden, then this was mythril.

The bodies just piled up when we began the actual fighting.

By now we understood our enemy. Decapitation, combustion, brain elimination, electrocution, smashing them with giant rocks, or freezing them and shattering them; all that stuff, it worked.

I think Marz actually had the highest individual kill count, however. She was right up there in the front line, giggling in joy as she just pulled their heads right off with her new katana.

I've never seen a girl so happy. well, that's not true anymore; however, I've never seen a girl so happy over an oversize bread knife.

But hey, we all have to get our kicks somehow, don't we?

The kill count came back. Four immortals wounded; three hundred and nine Turned have been eliminated.

Fortunately, we cannot find any indication of pierced flesh. We're lucky.

They're in quarantine, none the less; each in their own holding cell with guards outside. We procured some oil; the plan is, if any of them Turn, we light them on fire and be on our merry way.

I'm cleaning this sword. It's an amazing weapon; it's long, it's not too heavy, and it just makes me feel, well, more warrior oriented.

Cai's here with the food. We march for Windurst in a few hours.

'till then.

Sweet!!!!

*giggle with delight* I'm so happy to see the new chapter up and started.

weeee a new chapter, i am sooo excited xD please please please keep it up :D:D:D:D <333 i'd love to see this completed and published X3

Another great update

Day 88 - Early Morning Pit Stop:

We only had to burn one of them. The others are still under surveillance, but they seem fine. I did it myself, because I know how hard it is to kill one of your own people.

We tasked the sailors to take the ships around to Bastok and left them with a hundred Immortals "in case of trouble."

We've headed towards Windurst for now. We're slowly marching through Buburimu's sand dune towards the Tahrongi Canyon. When we reach Windurst, we intend on taking an airship to Jeuno. If the Star Sibyll does not allow it, then we'll start the negotiations. I'm sure she'll see it my way by the end of it.

We've seen a great number of Turned. They seem to stay away from the large opened land. They congregate and eat each other on the beeches, in caves, and so on. They march over fallen allies and eat them, too, at times. They kind of just walk in circles and chase rarabs, when one hops out of hiding.

The rarabs are managing themselves just fine. The vultures are also just fine, they fly away and hide in trees when one comes.

What's hard to accept is the number of Dhalmels that are lying, half eaten. They're just there. Rotting. Dead.

We're starting to see Turned Goblins, too.

We're sweeping them clean, and we've got a system down for outside warfare.

We were supplied with a fair deal of Chocobos. We make a group of around twenty Immortals that mount up and head towards the large concentrations of Turned. They hear the Turned, start mindlessly chasing them, and then we pick them off one by one.

Sword combat is risky. Breathing fire is pretty safe.

At the same time, we're also studying the three who did not Turn. From what I have found out, the one who fell to the Plague had always dealt with sickness badly.

Could it be that the Turned grow weaker as they rot, and that as they do it becomes safer to deal with them?

That would be fortunate.

That would be fortunate indeed.

I'm hoping that the others are okay.

I'm actually sort of enjoying myself this time.

The Turned, they're rotting away on their own accord. I don't think they'll ever die, but they're slower. They're falling apart. It's becoming easier to deal with.

And more than that, I'm not hearing them inside my head when I kill them.

Slowly but surely, however, I'm feeling hunger return to me. The closer we get to returning to Jeuno, the more I feel it.

I also find that I keep licking my lips like a psychopath before any bit of my goes Flayer.

We've all got our quirks, I suppose. It's time to continue the march. We'll be in the Canyon by noon.

Day 88 - Noon:

Around half of Mhaura had decided to come with us.

We're having them camp by the outpost near the crevice that lets us enter the canyon, which is being guarded by a group of Immortals using it as a strategic choke point. We're taking a twenty minute breather.

Cai had decided to take Marz and Selim to go scout out the Canyon earlier on in the day.

The gunman from earlier has been traveling at the back of the group like a defeated dog. We're keeping an eye on him. There's the threat that we'll toss him to the Turned that keeps him in line.

Meanwhile, someone is reporting that there's some feint readings on a linkshell that they thought was previously abandoned. We've got a few of the Mhaura people waiting to hear if the voices come out again. If there are survivors, we are going to rescue them.

It will detour our plans for a little while, but that's a small price to pay. I'm more worried about Demons and survivors that want to kill us. I can deal with Turned a little easier now.

At the same time, I've got this feeling on the back of my neck that the worst is yet to come.

I keep looking back to the East. The sea is slowly leaving my sight, and I feel bitter about that.

I belong in the East. I belong in the West.

I don't even have a home to return to. What's the point?

So I just realized how sloppy this all has become. I'm gonna spend a while editing it up and fixing the inconsistencies before next update, I think. If you see one, lemme know please D:

Inconsistencies? Where?

I guess because it's written Journal style I never really noticed...

The only odd thing I saw was the last sentence of day 88 Noon. Kind of contradicts the recent self-growth of the end of chapter 2 unless I'm taking it out of context.

i haven't noticed many inconsistencies :o :3 but yay progress

Sectum... Could I be in the story at some point... I love zombie stuff... PLZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ?!

SLAUGHTER THEM ALL! MWAHAHAHAHA... Oh sorry got caught up in the moment. This chapter is off at a great start :D

Day 88 - Sunset:

I've calmed down a little bit. I was frustrated before.

The linkshell readings were getting less feint as we went towards the Crag of Mea to set up our camp for the night.

We set up a few campfires and spared no noise.

We spent three hours on heavy surveillance, waiting for Turned to be attracted to the noise and light, and a few did come, but not many.

We found a bunch of them stuck in a ditch. Like, a few dozen of them, groaning, decaying.

Some of them had their limbs just ripped off. Some of them were twitching, no other movement.

I saw faces I recognized.

And then Cai gave the order to set them aflame, and it had been done soon after.

Cai's making this almost easy for me by saying what's hard for me to say.

I'm watching some of the villagers amuse themselves. Someone has pulled out a harp, another person a citar, and they mingle with the Immortals. There's two young Taru dancing to the music.

Cai and I think that we'll hit Windurst sooner than we know it.

Something is telling me to go to Jeuno. I voiced that with him.

"Then go," he said simply. "You feel guilty, don't you?"

"Very," I said, and it was true.

I felt guilty for enjoying a few days in the Empire, but moreso for ditching the group, essentially. For burdening them all.

But hey, I'd say I've repaid them now.

I called over for Selim and asked him if he'd like to go on a little journey with me.

He watches me from a short distance, usually. I have a feeling that Cai has told him to.

For better or for worse--who knows, really?--he's become as much a part of our crew as Alyria or Rumaha or Stikle or Cai or myself or anyone of us.

I've taken the linkpearl that's getting the feint readings, and I think I heard one familiar word come through.

"Garlaige."

It's worth a shot, isn't it?

Selim and I are going to head out in a few minutes. Cai is going to appeal to Windurst again, this time with the full backing of the Immortals.

All the same, though, there's a whispering in the back of my head that I've not heard before. It's guttural, dark sorts of speech.

I view the voices as a sort of fun little challenge now. The Galka, I wake him from time to time. The Sage Lord, I have to shut him up.

And sometimes, I can learn things from them.

The Sage Lord, I found my thoughts almost invading his own, and I could see things that he had lived.

I keep licking my lips. I can't stop that.

Will I have this hunger forever? Who knows.

At the moment though, if I have a complex fiend of sort in front of me that needs to be destroyed, well, I'm sure that I won't mind.

At least, once I stop feeling guilty over it.

And with that, our Chocobos are ready. We head for the Mountains.

yaaay moar..MOAR!

Day 90 - Noon:

Meriphataud Mountains. The land was always barren.

Not like this, though. Even the vultures are dead here.

The whole place smells like stale, decaying, feces. It's pretty nasty.

The sun has been so overbearing here that the Turned simply rotted at an extraordinary pace.

From the safety of my Chocobo, I pick off any that seem to need coercing to finally lose the rest of their life.

Selim and I are stopped for lunch. We're about halfway to Sauromuge Champaign.

It's much faster without the group.

However, it still is a brutal ride. I don't know how the Chocobos do it.

I can feel the sweat seeping into my jubbah. It must smell absolutely rancid.

Selim seems to not mind the heat. When we spoke about it, he explained that he spent enough time traveling tropical areas to not really mind; besides, he said, we were fortunate that this was dry heat and that there was no sandstorm. That would be a nuisance, to be sure.

I keep wondering what's in Garlaige, and I keep thinking that it's going to be bad. Think of it this way; so far, rotting outside in the exposed elements seems to be the best way to let the Turned just die out on their own accord. I was in Garlaige once.

It was dark. It was damp. It was creepy.

It would be the perfect place for people to flee to to try and barricade, and I've learned that no one is quite equipped to do that. Plus, there's supposedly a horrendously large scorpion in there that likes to eat people.

All it takes is one person to become infected and not realize it to destroy any hopes of safety for those who fled inside.

And I really bet they aren't rotting as fast.

It's getting a little harder to sleep at night, and I think I've realized that the worst thing I have to face is sleeping alone. It was nice to have...

A body next to me. A second heartbeat. The warmth of someone else.

I think though, mostly, it's the pressure I missed. The pressure of her arms around me. It gave me this sense that there was something grabbing me, anchoring me to the world, not letting me get sucked into this absolutely crazy vortex that I've become involved in.

Or the smell of her perfume. I smell it every time I unwrap this diary from the cloth it was bound in.

I asked Selim if he had a lover somewhere. He laughed, a lot, and said that he had spent too much of his life wandering around from place to place to find a lover.

I said to him that he probably should have found many. It didn't seem to bother him.

"Expect the worst, but hope for the best," he said to me, and the topic was over.

I wonder what she's doing right now. I wonder if I was just one of many that passed through in her life. I wonder if what we had was unique.

I cannot, however, let these thoughts preoccupy me. Even though the Turned are easier to deal with now, there's still a whole lot of danger.

Besides; who's to say that they can't be reanimated again? And again, and again, and again...

The gutteral talking in the back of my head is growing louder. I'm letting it.

I want to know what it has to say. I just wish I could understand it.

I died in campaign multiple times to read this!! I LOVE IT!

weeeee glutteral voice can't wait to hear it :D

Day 92 - Early Morning:

My heart.

Won't.

Stop.

It's beating like crazy.

We arrived at Garlaige. The doors were unsealed.

There were moans.

And there were shrieks.

There were people still alive in there.

Lots of people.

At first, we thought that it had been overtaken by Turned.

God damn, I wish that was the case.

We proceeded with caution, a gun in my hand and crossbow in his. Whenever I'd see something that was flammable, I'd light it up, because we needed some form of visibility.

We crept through, as silent as we could. The moans grew louder.

We passed by a doorway, and something grabbed me.

I'm not going to lie, I screamed bloody murder and jumped backwards. Selim grabbed me back and started pulling me away, firing bolts in the direction of whatever grabbed me.

He hit a pale arm and there was no scream.

We assumed Turned.

There was the rustling of feet slowly moving. I stumbled up, if you know what I mean, and we started backing slowly.

Then we heard the clanging of chains.

Then we heard marching feet, armored ones, approaching.

We turned in the directions of the march. It was a brigade of Elvaans, fully clad in battle armor.

They paused upon sighting us, and one of them at the front made a hand motion.

The next thing we knew, there were arrows flying at us.

I felt one go right through my arm.

And then things changed.

I started shooting, really, really quickly, with one arm. I was tossed backwards from the kickback and in four shots my hellfire had just flown out of my hand.

"If you come closer, I will kill you!" I remember shouting. The arrows had stopped and the Elvaans were not heeding that warning at all.

Selim was dragging himself away. I saw three arrows sticking out of him.

My left arm was bleeding freely, pretty badly. I had enough time to yank an arrow out of it as I licked my lips and reached for my sword.

My left hand exploded in tentacular goodness and my whole arm followed suit. I felt my face start to slime up, and the next thing I knew I had lunged at the closest Elvaan. I had rammed my sword through his chest and ripped off his breastplate. My left hand reached into the opening I made and started pulling stuff out.

I grabbed his halberd out of his hand as he screamed and tossed him to the side as I went for the next Elvaan as the others fled.

This one, I also impaled, but since the walls were stone I couldn't stick him into the wall. Instead, I pulled him closer.

"What's going on here?" I demanded, right up in his face.

He didn't answer.

He was still alive.

"TELL ME NOW!" I screamed at him, raising my Flayer hand to his face. I was panting. He said nothing, merely shook.

I mutilated his face and for the first time since the Mamool Ja Incident, I fed.

God, I dove right into him.

And as I did, I heard his voice screaming in my head, and I took two steps back and leaned against a wall and clutched my skull and screamed in my skull, "YOU'RE GOING TO TALK, NOW."

And he didn't talk, and so I shut my eyes and if you can fathom what this means, I invaded him with my own mind. It was like wrapping a whole new set of tentacles around him, ripping him to shreds, and taking his mind by force, and I saw everything.

The Elvaans had been driven out of their land. A set of the army had claimed Garlaige, and when refugees came, they accepted them for awhile.

Until something changed; what, I did not know. Something changed and the Elvaan believed that the Humes were all carriers of the Plague, and that one of them had to know something about it.

I dragged myself out of my own mind, fighting to not lose myself in the stream of his memories, and looked around for Selim. He was cutting the arrowheads out of his body.

I was less tentacular now, and less slimy, and bloody and filthy. I grabbed my Hellfire.

"Selim, we're in a bit of a mess," I said simply as I ripped some clothes from the tunic under the armor of one of the fallen Elvaans off and wrapped it around his arm.

We looked back to where he shot the crossbow bolt before and saw the hand was still there.

It was slowly starting to dawn on me.

I slowly walked forward, facing the doorway this time, and took a look in.

There were at least a dozen Humes all chained together in this one room. They were mostly naked, pale, and I could see their ribs sticking out.

But their eyes gave it away; they all had a faraway look.

A faraway look I once had, I think.

One of them was mumbling under his breath, a blonde hume that was fairly young.

His whole back was whipped, and around his ankles and wrists were lacerations.

They weren't Turned; they had just been shattered.

Tortured.

Tortured so hard that they snapped.

I reloaded my Hellfire and we crept deeper into Garlaige.

This time, I had one thought on my mind: killing anything in my way.

Damn racist Elvaans!

Day 92 - Early Morning - Part Two:

We heard Elvaan voices coming from below, and so we climbed a half broken flight of stairs that ended up winding down towards a basement.

We saw two Elvaan guards standing post.

I went to fire, but Selim stopped me. He started treading so softly that I couldn't hear his footsteps.

And then he stuck a knife in one of their backs.

As the other turned he pulled the knife out and almost immediately tossed it into his throat.

I was amazed, and a little scared, but moreso amused.

We crept in the shadows. We heard screams getting louder as we traveled deeper in.

And then we saw it.

A group of Elvaan headed by Prince Trion himself were hovering over a hume that was tied to a chain on each limb.

Trion would say something, the Hume would say something, and then each chain would be pulled at once, a little further each time.

It was sickening.

This time, Selim let me aim the gun as he aimed his crossbow.

"Save Trion for last," I said, and he agreed.

And then we opened fire.

Two Elvaans went down immediately, and then Selim shot another one right in the throat before they scattered.

They ran further in, and I dove over to the gasping Hume as I reloaded and then untied his bonds.

"What's going on?" I asked him, shaking him before he could go into shock.

"Torturing! They think we did it!"

"Where are the others?" I asked, and he pointed a shaky arm in the same direction that the Elvaans fled.

"The coast is clear to get out," I said, and left him to his fate. I have no idea where he went, or if he's alive.

What I do know is that Selim and I reloaded again and started going deeper in. And what we saw...

Piles of children. Dead.

Pale. Bloody. Emaciated. Totally dehumanized. Naked.

I recognized the signs that they had been tortured.

And after the piles of children were walls upon walls of what I assumed to be the parents. They were chained to the walls, rotting away.

Dear Altana, what the heck were the Elvaans thinking?

We caught up with Trion as he and his chumps tried to get passed a Banishing Gate. We saw it open and heard them rush towards it, and we jumped in before they could see us.

And we waited.

The moment Trion entered the gate, I slammed into him as my hand once more went slimy and into its tentacle form, and I wrapped my tentacles around his throat.

Selim shot the two other guards dead.

"Selim, do we have any rope?" I found myself asking.

He rummaged through a bag and found some rope.

"Good," I said.

And then two tentacles came and ripped his eyeballs out, and we tied him up and have been dragging him ever since.

We found a group of seven people still alive, and the Elvaans quickly gave up when they saw what we did to Trion.

I took my scimitar and I cut open his clothes, in front of all the other Elvaans.

"Someone, start talking, now; otherwise..." I grabbed his hand. "One finger at a time. And then one joint at a time. And then, who knows?" I said.

I licked my lips.

I was enjoying this?

Trion would say nothing, simply stayed where he was. He wasn't even crying out in pain.

An Elvaan came forth and said that Trion had found proof that the Plague was being spread by human black mages and had ordered a witch hunt to figure out who amongst the Humes had been responsible. They had tortured, to death or to the point of being worse off than Turned, those who did not cooperate.

Those who died...

Whatever could be salvaged off them, had been. And I don't mean clothes or supplies.

I pulled his hair up and placed my scimitar over his neck.

And then I saw it.

There was a symbol carved on his neck that looked half as though it were burned in and half as though it were made from blood. The symbol, the rune, I couldn't tell what it was exactly, but it was clearly some very black magic.

That was the point where the guttural voice in my head started screaming full force.

And this time, I let it scream and I accepted the scream in all it was worth, and I dove into my own mind to figure out what it was.

The Demon had finally decided to talk, and talk it did.

Damn, this chapter is intense!

...wwwwOOOOOOOOOwwww....


You're getting better at this, Sectum

Day 92 - Early Morning - Part Three:

It was like falling into a pond of lukewarm slime.

Or rather, being pulled in by the ankle.

I felt like I was drowning this time. Selim says I started screaming like a demon--if only he knew at that moment, he'd have thought it was the perfect time for a pun-- and that everyone paniced until he grabbed my gun and shot it in the air to get them to stop grabbing weapons.

Trion started screaming too, or so they say.

And then I fell into myself, per say.

Down into the slime of my own mind I went, as I screamed all the way apparently. Down, so far down, that I saw my own memories flashing through my mind.

I was going backwards.

Flashes of riding on the Chocobo through the sandy plains, of the fight in Mhaura. The boat to get there. Leaving Al Zabi. A woman on my bed. The memories lingered there for a moment.

Raiding treasures. Recovery. Killing the Sage Lord. Transforming myself into a Soul Flayer. Eating a Mamool Ja Lizardman. Battles in Zabi. The Fight with the Immortals in the Palace. Recovery, again. Operating table.

Cryogenics. Selim. Blowing up the vial of pain. Murdering The Galka. Blood, all over my walls, writing in it with my fingers. Torture Cell. Torturing.

The journey South. Marzbarz. The Sibyl, crying, because she was worthless. My clothing being pried off in suspicion. Xicu. Pulling the scimitar out of a demon I just cut the head off of.

That's when it all stopped.

The guttural scream turned to mild laughing.

I looked down in my own memories at the head that was not laughing and I saw the blood dripping over me.

The memory stopped being a memory now as I felt the guttural laughing stop as I stared at the head in my hand that I held from the horn.

The eyes were alive. The head licked its lips.

I dropped it and it rolled back to the body. The body picked it up and placed it back on its head.

"It is good that killers such as we meet in the struggle of life."

I had scarcely any clue what to say.

And then I realized he wasn't even speaking the language of the races of Altana. No, it was that this time, I could understand what he said.

So I said the only thing I could think of at the time.

"How come I can understand you?"

He let out that same laugh.

"When killers such as we meet such as we are meeting, you become as me as I become as you. Come, and you will see."

He started walking through my shop.

The hell?

But I followed.

We went into the back where I slept and stood in front of my mirror.

And then I understood quite clearly. As I raised my hand, a demon in the mirror raised his hand. As I placed it down, the demon next to me licked his lips, and a mirror image of myself licked its lips.

"What do you want from me?" I asked.

The laugh again. "I wanted to be as you, with you not as me. However, you had almost beaten me, but I have beaten you as much, and so we both are victors over the losers. You have shattered my body. I have shattered your soul. I want the body. You want the soul. I have given you gifts, and you have taken them."

Gifts?

As I thought it, the arm on the mirror image of myself exploded tentacularly.

"I have made you strong."

And then everything made sense.

"I have made you strong. You have made me strong. We have both been made strong, and we have both lost as much as gained. Killers such as we lose much in life, as much as we take away. You know this now, as a killer such as we."

He was talking about me taking souls.

"I will give such as that what you desire if you can give me such as what I desire."

"What would killers such as we desire?"

He laughed, but differently, as though he was succeeding.

"Killers such as we desire our endings. We will destroy what torments you if we destroy what torments me."

"What torments you?" I asked him. He laughed.

"It's me, isn't it?" I asked after a moment.

"You torment me, and I torment you. You can destroy me, but I cannot destroy you. I can shatter your soul, but you cannot shatter my soul."

In some way, I understood, but I felt like we were keeping things on a need to know basis.

"You need me to save your world, and I need you to destroy me," he said. "I will help you, if you will help me."

I was making a pact with a demon. Great.

Absolutely joyous.

"How did you do this?" I asked.

Another laugh. "I entered you, but you entered me more and won our first fight."

The world around us started to fade.

"I will help you if you will help me," he said.

The world around us was turning black.

"I will help you if you will help me," I said.

And then I was back in the real world, screaming still.

I stopped screaming, looked at Trion, and looked at the rune again.

There was a whisper in the back of my head.

Burn it off.

And so I did, and this time, Trion started screaming.

Epic