Chapter 377: Skyclad Observer, Part
“Please...” Through tears, he pleaded, the man begged. “Please don’t...”
I watched him there, Ria watched him – his knees planted to the dirt, arms bound behind his back by an invisible force. A book brimming with test and scriptures laid sprawled open in the grass by his side, further beyond a sword and its scabbard laid scattered, its sharp steel edge glinting bright from Ria’s glowing light.
“I-I didn’t know,” The man continued to whimper, staring up at Ria with wide eyes trembling with desperation. “I swear on the Divines, I truly, truly didn’t know!”
“Oh hush it with the Divines already, let us not pester their peaceful idyllic existence with your whines, and besides...” spoke a voice approaching from the darkness behind the man. “It is not them now that you should be swearing to.”
Another memory.
I wonder now, how many more memories are there to be unveiled here in this forest?
And just how many more are there with her present?
.....
The folded hems of her blackened gown slithering across the forest’s green, the slow almost methodical pace of her footsteps... just how long more would I be subjected to seeing the vast darkness flurrying inside her always gentle stare?
The man fell suddenly silent and it was no mystery as to why. The smile on the demon’s face, one that’s always provided me assurance and comfort, in here had been skewered and malformed to a terrifying leer before the very man’s eyes.
Looking at Ria, I saw there was a pure emptiness in her expression. An emotionless, unfeeling stare behind the slow batting of her eyelids. Her legs were crossed, swaying slowly in the air as she sat unusually still atop her stump. I think she was thinking... I think she was also slightly confused.
“Ria, my dear friend,” Terestra said politely, drawing the phoenix’s attention to the twirl of her hand presenting the trembling figure. “Do you happen to know this man?”
“No, I don’t, and I should really kill you now for purposefully exposing my home to a stranger like him,” Ria said stoically. “But I suppose now you’re gonna tell me that I should know him after all, yes?”
Terestra nodded, smiling back in clear affirmation. Wordlessly, she drew a step backward, and as she did, the man, squirming and writhing in place, was forcibly pulled forward towards the stump by the same unseen force that bound him, his exposed knees dragging into the dirt, cutting into the rocks, inching closer and closer until his expression of agony was near enough to be illuminated and seen by the crimson glow in Ria’s eyes.
“Listen here, O’ Wise Magus, and listen well,” spoke the Demon, a dark amused expression veiled beneath the shade of a looming branch. “Why don’t you tell this lovely fair maiden here how exactly you know of her?”
“But I-I don’t!” exclaimed the man in a panic, his head, his body, his every movement shaking in outright denial. “Truly, I don’t know her! I never did! I don’t know anything! I don’t know what’s happening! I swear to you! Please, I swear!”
Hovering so close and so freely, I could practically see every trivial, minute detail of every passing moment of every passing second. In here, I could so easily hear the rustle of bushes, the way the wind whistled through the trees, the crackle of warm flames, the stifled giggling beneath a branch... and even the every lie the man was continuously trying to pass as truth.
“Lies atop of lies atop of lies,” Terestra said. “I see that the Church has trained you quite well, haven’t they? I wonder just how far deep you’ve buried the truth of the matter?”
“Can we just cut the bullshit now, save me the headache?” Ria said, her flames flaring in annoyance, turning her eyes to the demon in the distance. “Who is this idiot, and why have you brought him here to me for?”
Terestra shook her head. “Oh, no, I prefer the Magus tell you himself,” then, before the wind could howl again, before the leaves could rustle once more, in a flicker – there she was sitting amidst the tall grass within mere inches of the man’s face, his chin locked in the embrace of her sharp slender fingers. “And you will, won’t you?”
The man didn’t speak, I don’t think he could even if he wanted to. From how rapidly all color had drained out from his terrified expression, he looked already on the brink of death.
Seeing the man’s consciousness begin to falter, Terestra gave a quiet sigh. “Already dying and you’ve been in my presence all but an hour... It’s truly a marvel how you were even able to do the deeds you’ve done. But please before you do go – confess. Do you not believe she deserves at least this bit of closure?”
“I didn’t...” He croaked feebly. “I don’t know... please...”
“Yes you do,” Lifting her other arm, Terestra gently placed it against the man’s chest. “And before she kills you, you will tell her everything that you’ve done.”
That’s when it happened. I couldn’t quite well hear the ambiance of the forest any longer. Not with these choking sounds filling the quiet, the desperate droning gasps for breath.
Suddenly the man’s binds broke loose, and just as sudden, he raised both hands to his throat, his wide eyes threatening to bulge out of his sockets. In his struggle, he toppled sideways to the ground, where he stayed immobile and retching, spewing a rancid mixture of saliva and vomit to trickle down his chin.
Ria listened and watched the man writhe and squirm from her stump, her gaze maintaining an indifference to his suffering. “I’ve never seen that kind of magic before.”
“Ah, it’s a simple spell in concept,” Terestra explained, staring down at the Magus in mild amusement. “His mind is merely deluded into thinking he’s lost his breath and is now desperately trying to claim it all back. Except he is still breathing quite fine, and he knows it all too well... except his body can’t help but to think otherwise. A harmless agony, he won’t die – but I understand from all the flailing and gagging, it has to be pure torture.”
“Brillant,” Ria stated drearily. “And just what do you hope to get from strangling a man, exactly?”
“The truth, hopefully, if he ever wishes for me to put a stop to it that is,” Terestra replied cheerily, playfully cupping her mouth with both hands. “Now then, Sir Magus, let’s have some context for your bizarre introduction, please? Firstly can you give us your name bestowed upon you by the Church?”
It was with a brutal scream, and his shirt torn and his bare chest red and raw from deep grooves and scratches, he spoke, “O-occi... Sor!”
Terestra nodded in approval. Ria simply stared bewildered.
“Now please, the true name you were given upon your birth?”
From a mouthful of dirt emerged his next frantic words. “C-Caim... Kles!”
I barely understood anything through his muffled hoarse scream. The way his voice would fluctuate with his wild spastic movement made it hard to deduce anything. But it seems that now I was alone in sharing that uncertainty.
Ria’s aloofness immediately faltered. Like a crack in a fragile shell, a torrent of emotions began to seep into the Phoenix’s unblinking eyes. it was a violent flood of shock, confusion, and familiarity all crashing into one another with no signs of ever stopping.
Seeing Ria’s expression, Terestra continued on with a smile wider than ever. “Following the aftermath of Prestes, what was the task delegated to you and your many ancestors before you?”
Fingernails burrowing deep into the dirt, cracking, splintering. “To... swiftly hunt d-down... a-and eradicate... every living Phoenix... in the realm!”
At once, the air was plunged thick with a sweltering miasma of heat gradually growing hotter.
“Thank you,” Terestra bowed sincerely, then spurring suddenly into a leisurely stroll around the man’s body. “If you don’t mind divulging the information, spanning across your entire bloodline, how many Phoenixes in total have you all slain in cold blood?”
“O-official body count... as stated b-by the Seven Churches,” Caim struggled to sputter through his frothing and drooling. “S-six thousand... four hundred... and forty-four!”
“Six thousand four hundred and forty-four,” The demon repeated, her hands in a jovial applause. “The exact number of every living phoenix with the sole exception of one, of course. A genocide thousands of years in the making that ended in a resounding success... with you.”
There was that smile again, that sweet, tender smile on her face as she spoke again. “Caim Kles, you’ve honored your family’s thousand-year legacy. I am sure you’ve done them proud. Moving on, if you still feel like sharing – how many did you yourself personally slew in the name of the Divines?”
“N-nine...”
Ria’s shoulders tensed.
“Nine!” Terestra proclaimed aloud. “In your lifetime alone. Men could live double that amount of lifetimes and never attain a chance to even see one, let alone nine! Tell me, did you slaughter them all individually?”
There were no answers, just the vigorous, almost neck-breaking shake of his head.
The demon raised a brow. “Together?”
Caim nodded.
The air grew hotter.
“Are you able to still name them all for us?” Terestra’s eyes slowly peered over to the sudden harsh glow atop the stump. “For her?”
A deep droning drawl sounded, a deep breath he couldn’t take.
“Para... Jena... Lent... Kara... Gemina... Fiora... Kris... Alistra...”
On impulse, his head snapped a sharp left, and he found himself blinded by the light that met his bulging eyes. I could see from the tears shimmering, the unbridled fear glimmering that he wanted desperately to say no more, but he couldn’t stop, the pain wouldn’t let him stop, Terestra wouldn’t.
With one last attempt to breathe in a breath that wouldn’t come, he uttered out the final name.
“Latrissa.”
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