He stood and wandered up and down a quiet street filled with quaint little buildings and their cute, picturesque little gardens. On every side there was greenery—of some sort or other: bushes, ferns, trees and flowers; birds and animals... He continued to the sound of a nearby pond; birds chirping and squawking overhead, insects buzzing loudly. People sitting under shady benches and their laughter echoed all around him, couples picnicking together... He felt both disgusted and a sense of longing.

What kind of emotions were those? He tried to ignore the last thought. There wasn't any other way for this. If this world would fall to despair, to evil, to be consumed by all manner of hatred and despair, he will just make another. But at the same time, he didn't want to lose this one.

It was as if he was invisible, but how would that make sense? He had already tried it twice; both times ending the same way—someone would bump into him and realize he was standing still on the road as people were walking by. No one, and he truly meant it when he thought that no one noticed his presence, unless it came to direct contact. And when they'd see him, oh when they'd see him. Their eyes would grow wide beneath their lids, almost popping out of the sockets, and a terrified scream would rise up from their throats. As if they had seen a monster right out of legend, and when they'd have their breath stolen by fear, and turn away to scream or run—a calm would fall over their body and they'd continue on as if nothing had happened—a madness made up of him alone.

He sighed once more. And continued on. He continued his walk up the road, moving at his usual steady pace. It is a gentle breeze, and it's fresh and cool against the back of his neck as he looked upon the city once more. There was an overlook, a rocky path overlooking a clear lake with tall cliffs surrounding the area, a view of nature. No one paid him any attention. His black body didn't stand out, but that of course is because nobody could see him, at all.

He grew into a small depression, a sinking, sinking feeling like he was dying from starvation—as if his insides had gone through a hundred starvations, and now, he could not remember hunger—but that was all for nothing. All for naught, his existence felt meaningless. His soul and self-image was deformed; disfigured. As if his psyche had been mauled beyond repair and reconstitution, beyond all reason and care, into nothing, into something worse—into a facsimile, a façade of something called sanity.

If there really existed a person capable of achieving or reaching such a state, he'd say that that would be him, for now.

So it was no surprise to see the same scene unfold again; he heard an infants cries from afar, this time however, this was... different. An orange sky appeared far beyond, slowly consuming the previously bright blue one, though at first glance it seemed to have only darkened, which should be impossible. Then again, everything about this world seemed impossible.

Still, as always, this sight felt alien and out of place, a black bird flew past, with wings spread widely and circling the red sun. In a rare moment, the wind carried to him a strong breeze, he reached out and took a step forward, allowing it to pull him in further towards the setting sun. This time, it wasn't only the city before him that saw this beautiful sight, but he who saw it all in this strange perspective.

Then, the white flower on the grass in front of him began to wilt, its leaves turning a darker shade of brown by the second, as the water around it went dry.

Now was not the time to walk; he thought. So with his foot, he pushed forward, towards the now fully black flower in front. Just a couple feet and he could reach out and touch the petals. There was still something strange about his whole being, a sense he'd never had, or had at all, something not right with his body... or his soul.

The town around him was now empty as a faint static rose up through the back of his skull. The flower withered away before his very eyes. He grasped onto a black rock, the ground beneath him began to tremble and shake and—he quickly stumbled forward as he felt his spine move.

kh.... K-Ksss... a voice cut through the silence—a very different kind of voice, much lower in pitch than anything he'd ever heard before, "God of Truth, Devil of Deceit, let there be duality within you,"

A metallic taste in the back of his throat grew stronger and stronger till all he could feel was a fiery burn running through the inner walls of his body—somewhere a thousand miles away—an unheard equal was born. "Blessed be, in the name of your soul."

Before the voice was finished, it ceased completely—a mere whisper among thousands of others, all lost within the static—and from its tones a dark fog formed in his mind—a lingering echo of existence. Once again, he was not able to remain conscious for very long.

He lifted his hand in the air and waved it in the breeze. Nothing happened... the image did not fade... the sounds of the static remained constant in his ears, as did the words and syllables of the world around him—that did not happen before either—nothing made any sense. Then, he fell forward and collapsed face first onto the dirt.

..........

"........?", ".....'s....?", "...'s 's....".

His vision faded in and out, showing scenes of the world before, until only a singular image came into his focus. The view from above. From far, far away, below him. Far below him.

'Where am I?'

"..., can 'ou 'e- 'ear me?".

'What's going on? Am I imagining it? Am I dreaming?' He tried to move his legs.

'Why aren't my legs responding?'

No. It couldn't have been a dream, because his entire being was screaming at him for an answer, an explanation, to try and put it in control again. His 'sight' came into focus. And all he could see was—is...—this... thing.

A pair of deep blue, gemstone eyes that were glowing with a yellow light. Pink-ish lips that were weirdly thin. In his peripheral, a sea of gold. A mix between skin and scales. Something like a fin.

Was this... No. It can't be, can it?

"Sea Creature?" Like the one he'd seen in his memories? A sharp intake of breath from him. That must mean... it is. It must be. His thoughts went back to when the thing started to appear. What was the last thing that happened?

Everything was blurry, his sight kept on fading out, his thoughts went hazy again—why couldn't his head just function right, even if only a bit—he started panicking a bit... Wait, can't his... tongue. His brain seemed to come back into function and started functioning normally for some reason.

There was this woman, an ocean, and him. She was staring intently into his eye sockets, and him hers. Her hair fell onto his face, and he felt its soft texture for the first time. Then... something—something—or... perhaps... 'somebody' had caused his mind to be numb once more.

She grabbed his arm and felt his pulse. Perhaps she couldn't figure if he was awake because he simply had no eyes? He thought. This is normal—

He—he didn't feel scared for once. Maybe it was just his mind getting tired. His mind kept trying to find answers to questions his brain couldn't process properly yet.

She brought her lips closer to his, he didn't understand the gesture, and continued to lie down as he thought about all sorts of possibilities, of probabilities. In reality—She was going to give him CPR. He felt her breath warm and heavy on his chest and neck—It felt very real. She then tilted her head toward his chin, his mouth, and put the tip of her nose to his. She slowly exhaled, but he couldn't even hear the sound.

The feeling of another being; so odd, yet, comforting. He wanted to do something—yet, couldn't, but somehow—that didn't matter, he was relaxed... Safe... even. It felt wonderful, to not have to fight for his sanity every second of every day—just the memory of it made him tense. Suddenly, his body jolted up from her grasp, his head moving freely towards her; she moved, and he continued upwards, right towards—towards...

Their lips met. Her eyes went wide open, and his were 'wide' in shock. "Wah!!?" She yelped.

A burning sensation. Not a bad kind, a good kind. More precisely; warm, familiar. Yet—oh god! OH GOD!!! IT FUCKING STINGS!!! He coughed and coughed as he laid on the small, golden sands. Water came flowing out. Waves. "Spit out the water!!!" she cried out as she hit his back a bunch of times.

And for the first time in forever, it felt good, normal even, to get scolded. To feel human, even for a bit, was good.

"Ok, we're good. We're good. I got him out. Oh thank God. Please—PLEASE!! Let him live. PLEASE!!! I'm sorry—I'm sorry!! A-Are you okay??" She panicked and made all sorts of weird movements. 'How odd...' He thought. Not only that, but, the fact that she can see him, her seeing him was most intriguing, why didn't this woman scream, like the others? And she touched him. What... Why did that feel so wrong? His emotions are going haywire. Is his heart pounding because the same thing could possibly repeat?

Besides his mothers embrace, he can't recall a time when someone touched him so freely... willingly, out of worry or not, and when he was 'seen' for who he really was—and that terrified him. That this woman would either abandon him like his mother, or she would grant him fear like that cadaver.

Or—he did not think of this yet—

She will pity him... The thought rang true as he looked her in the eyes and he found his lips trembling. How was he to respond? He never spoke to anyone but himself and his minds. He noticed as he thought it; all the minds were gone, leaving only one lone consciousness floating by, one that was only his.

'Of course, they would leave, of course.' His mind fell into its familiar patterns as he allowed himself a moment of vulnerability, and sadness. He simply sulked and hugged his knees as he curled into a ball in the sand.

The girl, with her hair fluttering in the wind, face full of woe and concern, reached out her hand towards his. Gently, she wrapped her fingers around him and held her gaze at him. 'She'll look at me as if I'm broken. A husk that no longer needs to be put together; what a damn mess.'

Her touch lingered at his sight. But this time there were no negative connotations behind such thoughts. In fact, everything that had occurred seemed to take away some kind of burden, some kind of fear. "S-sir? Is... everything all right now...?...Sir...?..." The woman said. He felt something warm run down his skull. It made him shiver.

Something wet. She held her eyes at the creature—something wet? Are those tears, once more...? How strange...

All the while he never responded. As her mouth slowly began to open, as if she was about to speak or say something. He decided to respond to her, "Yes. Everything's fine. Don't worry about me," her expression morphed into one of shock, surprise, disbelief, and relief at hearing his voice.

As the words came out, he expected it to sound broken and distorted, like the thoughts. But for some reason, when he spoke it was, normal... normal like everything had been when his mother first taught him... This voice... it couldn't be his right? Then how is...

"Oh! Yes, I forgot to tell you my name... uh, I'm Alice, Alice Liyd," her face brightened. "Nice to meet you!" She smiled, even if a little strained.

For a few moments, nothing moved. "Ah... Sorry, I forgot to tell you mine, my name is—" But he could not recall it, as if his mind refused to let him tell it to Alice. So he shook his head with a smile and told her a random name to let her off the hook, "..Zabulus, a pleasure," and a wry, forced one, at that.

She simply looked away shyly. Something was wrong... if she looked away with that kind of gaze, what could be on her mind... he sighed and averted his own gaze; towards the setting sun. Where was he? Why was the sea golden? As if she read his mind, or saw where he was looking, Alice spoke in a low whisper, "Sir, uh... this is the land of Eskra... Somewhere in the Void in Blue. We aren't very far from the nearest universe that I know of but... I apologise, I don't know where you came from either... I'm sorry." She kept apologising for things she shouldn't.

"Oh... What? Alice?"

He looked back to her to find she's facing down and her lips quivering. 'Now what...?' This was the problem with him—he was never good with these types of things.

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"Um... Z-Zabulus, if you were kidnapped, you could tell me... I promise you, I'll help you!" She wiped her tears but couldn't hide how desperate she must have felt... 'desperate huh.' His thoughts strayed and so did his attention towards the dark waters of the vast gold sea that had caught his eyes once again. "Sorry but, I do not recall how I came here." And that was the truth, for no matter how hard he tried his mind could not figure out such information. One thing he noted was how light his mind—His soul, felt. This sensation had only been experienced one other time before—

"W-where did you just come from? No wait! I mean, how come you don't know where you came from...?! Nevermind..." Alice broke his chain of thought and she blabbered words, seemingly without thought a proper train of thought.

He wanted to speak to her, yet—he feared his voice... what to say, what to think, even—yet a single thought arose. This is a once in a lifetime moment. To have met such a woman who'd reach out their hand to help someone else, and to have someone reach back and do the same, she reached her hand, and helped him.

That being said, he hesitated—more than normal, before simply saying to her, in a tone one might associate with nervousness or shyness. "Where... Can we meet again? So that... uh..." Her gaze burned with curiosity as he continued, but at that point he stuttered. He could not think. His head went blank—but only a small fraction, if not at all blank, save for two simple phrases, which now... "Can I. Uhm..." His body shook as she reached forward in concern, however it stopped her from doing anything further and her grip tightened slightly. Her grip wasn't hard, nor forceful, but somehow, the idea of Alice 'grasping' him, made his whole body calm. "Can I... go with you?"

And for a few moments there were no words between either as their eyes were still locked onto their own, the silence was tense, his eye sockets widened at his words but the words didn't sound wrong either. Then Alice blinked her eyes open, a face of both curiosity, intrigue, and wariness as her left eyelid twitched every time she blinked—lame. She breathed in, "hmmm. I'm hungry." Her response brought on some kind of annoyance for how sudden the conversation's turn was.

"Uhh... Well, where do we go then?" He asked. Then, when he looked back at her, Alice simply smiled, "I can think of a place!" Somehow, he began feeling hungry too. But he did not know that, rather, he did not understand what hunger was, so the feeling was ignored by him.

Oh. Well, he felt happy right now. As they left for that place, with nothing but a humming and a skip in her step, as she held on tightly, he let out a long sigh, this will be... different than what he's used too... he wondered—how this time was gonna go...

But he decided it was best not to overthink it and jump to conclusions.

Zabulus had a gut feeling this wouldn't be as bad as it could have been. And with that, he smiled. The kind a monster would when they think about their loved ones. He could still feel that hand that held his, grasping his hand tightly but not hard at all—he just couldn't stop being mesmerized by all that transpired, he, with her touch—it... it didn't feel wrong... at all...

His thoughts had been muddled for a good few minutes, but it was interrupted by her speaking to him.

"Hey, Zabulus? What are you?..." She... did not mean the kind, 'where are you from' kind of question, as much as... he didn't want to say the word. Zabulus tilted his head instead, acting confused.

"I mean... What race or what is it? Are you a God? An immortal? A being made of a thousand stars? You look like nothing I have ever seen!" Well... not from around here at least... Look!" She quickly realised how she might have offended Zabulus, "I mean... um, your eyes! They're just... not there, they're empty... a-and that scares me," Alice averted her gaze, but from the tone of her voice, Zabulus could feel Alice was telling the truth, which meant that she really does get scared.

He 'saw' himself through the veil of his body, it was an 'Apathetic' body; a large creature that, vaguely, took the form of a skeleton. Zabulus then gave out his honest thoughts; "I do not understand you. But, that's all right," Alice tilted her head, confused, but slightly understanding Zabulus' meaning too.

Alice was a bit perplexed with Zabulus and was slowly realising she's made another impulsive decision of letting a total stranger—though not intentionally, be hurt in the same way others had been hurt before; But she kept those feelings hidden so far away, yet they are beginning to leak out and manifest into something big, she kept it all to herself and that became something horrible that started growing out of control; her intense famine.

Still. She attempted to mask that intense hunger with a frantic conversation, and to some extent it worked. "W-what about your body?" That snapped Zabulus out of his thoughts, and she quickly noticed, with both a little excitement and fear; that his tone—was a lot different, to a certain extent, it was smooth, almost velvet-like.

"Where do I start?" Zabulus quickly snapped out of his thoughts too, as she asked her questions; "My body's a skeleton, it has no fur, has a skin, a completely smooth, chiselled bone that is darker than black, right... my four-forearms, and horns. I'm sure you have the sight to see that all. From the outside I might look like an alien, but I suppose it is true... I never came across a being like me." His tone was as monotone as ever. And yet, there was this other sense of pride within each word that was uttered by this... 'Alien'.

"Eh?" Alice stopped in her tracks for a second or two, before slowly regaining her composure. "You look just like a devil!" She spoke in surprise almost as if she only now noticed the sideway horns and

the forearms of his, his most exposing features.

"Hmm? A... devil..." Zabulus echoed the word but did not really understand what it meant. But he refused to question it as he felt a little uneducated asking such a thing. Was it a bad thing?

Well. Now he can't think of anything besides that. Great...

She looked at him and she had a solemn expression on her face that, if one took a closer look, they could see she was a little strained and hiding a feeling. It was merely the pit in her stomach growing larger and larger, as she slowly began drooling at the sight of a fellow person. A potential 'food'... she stopped, right there in the middle of the road. As she eyed Zabulus, drooling—'Wait, she was drooling now!?'

She let his hand go and her arms went limp, her back curved a little, and she turned towards the unfortunate person she's gazing at.

Slowly, tip-toeing, walking, running, sprinting and ultimately jumping toward them, aiming for their shoulder—she pounced and her eyes flared like the eyes of a cheetah—the unsuspecting person was too caught up in the moment to have even noticed the strange figure barreling into them with bloodlust.

The other people around stared at the man on the ground now, as he tried to scream to attract the attention of others. A horrible, "Agggghgha-" barely sounded out of him when another stranger appeared before them and held out his hand, silencing him instantly, with his voice sounding clear in everyone's ears. This sort of scenario, with Alice, was nothing new. They knew of her and who she was, and they could not, despite their fears, go against her, though a little sad because she was a 'normal girl'. A normal girl like the others.

She first tore into his neck—her sharp teeth digging into his flesh easily enough, just like a knife on butter and tearing out a part of his throat as the flesh from under him gurgled, which caused his eyes to go bloodshot. Next her incisors dug further in his skull until all her teeth were gripping in him tightly. Next; his brain was swallowed—it was crushed and her tongue swept up any remaining part of the flesh within a fraction of a second as he went limp and her teeth tearing more at his flesh as if it were tofu, ripping it and shredding his chest, with bits flying out at every sharp swing.

His esophagus was swept off the same way her tongue had gotten his brains with an almost careless flick of the wrist and she, had more trouble eating off the ribs—and Alice gave an audible 'nyagh!' as she tried harder to rip it, breaking its pieces off, then smashing into it for good measure with her hand a few times more than usual, the bones went flying every which way. Her teeth had easily torn through any shreds that were left and at this point... except his lower body. She was leaving all for last and some more, like his pelvis, which was relatively harder to reach. So after a few slashes to his groin, she dug her face deeper as she went for his lower body first.

Her fingers like claws, as it ripped at his guts and pulling it all out with some difficulty; strings of muscles being torn, as they pulled back with a certain weight in it—at this point his stomach and his intestines were full to the brim, literally—and now as she pushed her head inside, her teeth snipping the last bits of flesh attached to his pelvis and in her mouth, Alice savored all the blood pouring from these sacks of flesh—before gobbling them all.

She almost choked though because it was too much to swallow, but not as much that it's beyond the scope of her gullet. Some gory parts of the meat poured out, but she paid them no heed as she resumed her onslaught by tearing bits of skin apart with her teeth, ripping off any pieces she thought she didn't want. At this point, there was nothing left to be done, so Alice let her gaze wander as she walked away with drool still falling out her lips, like a doll—a simple robot going through some complex process—which was basically, her killing anything within reach, for Alice had a 'great' reason for doing so: Her near-infinite appetite. Full of blood, her blue and white dress stained with the other person's blood, she looked around and noticed quite a crowd was watching her the whole time she ate, each staring with amusement as they begun to make 'bets' on how she'd devour the next person.

After all this, even with all that meat in her system, she still wanted, or rather, famine, gluttony—made her stomach grow restless and made the urge of going further on unquenchable and so she made her way towards another human to devour her 'first food'. However, she'd be snapped back to reality as Zabulus interrupted her carnal feast by asking her if she was all right, as if she hadn't noticed Zabulus walking up to her with a look of concern plastered upon his dark face... she'd likely have attempted to eat him too.

Yet, for some reason, this dark man called Zabulus made Alice think back to when she first learned of him. Why is he even following her? All she could say to him was how he had the smell of a corpse and she felt attracted to that stench...

'Disgusting... That is what I want,' It was horrible, but, how else could she get better? Or what was left for her to gain out of this life? It was either Zabulus dying by her hands—or—he follows her through her living hell, where she goes to feed for herself on anything she finds.

She felt herself being grabbed onto tightly with both of Zabulus hands on each side of her body. But, this guy was even colder, colder than before? In spite of this, she tried to wiggle away but when he noticed the grip she was now giving, he stopped and slowly let her free. Maybe now she was in her right mind, he thought.

He opened his mouth, his skull shape, making it a difficult feature to speak with. "Are you alright, my friend?"

His tone had this calming aura that eased the stress in her mind; even for a fraction of a moment—her gaze moved towards his empty eyes for some odd reason before she closed her own in deep thought. The next moment...

"I-I-I'm so sorry... I'm..." she moved inwards to his body—wrapped her arms around Zabulus' waist and hugged him, saying another 'I'm sorry'—burying her face into his torso as she held tighter. Zabulus didn't know how to deal with this, because he still felt a sense of disgust from what had happened earlier.

She began tearing up as she feared the worse, fearing that she was scaring him away as it was very hard, 'How do you befriend a stranger again?' she was a failure at trying to understand such feelings; why couldn't she control her self, why was she so impulsive, why was she like this?

Out of everyone that ever knew her... he was the only one not afraid of her and her 'monstrous appetite'.

It just... didn't... make sense for Zabulus—there is some way... She simply had not understood this concept: What she did to him did not cause him fear, rather... he saw her as another stranger he just happened to come across; this stranger who, for some odd reason, reached out and grabbed his hand. Alice didn't even know who he was and here she was; like a true angel, embracing him once again, a thousand year old feeling. This hug felt the same... A single action meant so much to her, and him. And she continued.

Why didn't it matter to Zabulus that he was hugged by a girl with an inhuman appetite? Was it because he was worse than her? His impulses... why weren't they—what? Was he worried about that now? What kind of 'worrying' man was he... Zabulus kept these thoughts aside and began paying more attention to Alice, instead.

Alice let the other emotions take over as she began to feel relieved, she'd realize she could finally have this sensation of relief that she had once held, that it felt amazing to hug someone without fear of hurting them with her inhuman strength. She finally... finally... had someone she cared for.

As soon as she came back to reality, a couple of people were looking their way; a lot more of these strange people—with very questionable eyes were pointing and staring at them now, probably making bets on how Zabulus would die...

He cared not about this... "Look at these fools." He said coldly.

She looked up at Zabulus expression. His awful, spiky grin made Alice shudder inside; but she thought no further. His thoughts were merely for his own, and he gave her a gentle, if not pained smile when he down upon her again and whispered.

"Don't worry..." She understood and let go of him. Footsteps that were his grew closer and closer to one of the men; who only grinned a sadistic smile that said 'you-re-next'. He ignored this man's smirks—their... existence, "Farewell," Zabulus said, as he touched the mans skull. He had begun feeling faint as something else took over his mind. Rather; his memories were being consumed by something very dark and—and then as the faintness gradually disappeared, everything—or almost everything in this world was gone for him. The next moment—one other human man started to fall down and scream from the top of their lungs, to which people looked up with glee.

They saw Zabulus as a threat, so they had gathered all the knives from their pockets, somehow—some men had taken out hunting rifles from a pouch that rested on their back with a cloth strap hanging off it; whilst one man threw a glass bottle at the man in front of him—which exploded on contact.

He burns. Oh he burns, but perhaps as a trick to reality and the world surrounding, this 'fire' did not hurt nor ignited Zabulus, as Zabulus was made to become stronger at any means necessary.

Alice felt her strength slipping away—in her mind she felt—horrified at what she's just witnessed. The man she'd cared for was being killed in front of her sight.

'What a disgusting, repulsive—monstrous waste of...' Her mind began to trail away with these words that seemed to appear one moment... but the next, she was actually running toward the others in a rather mad manner... even if her hunger was not there. Even if she grew weaker by the second, she pounced from man to man, woman to woman.

To those that could not get close fast enough, they fell—with their skulls torn open at an inhuman pace—screaming in sheer agony as she tore their flesh to tiny ribbons that danced into the air for all to see.

It was an absolute massacre; everyone turned on each other until a few of the remaining men realized what they had done; to turn against another friend. These last two or three stopped fighting and instead attempted to flee the chaos, when Alice caught them from the air, and to their surprise—their 'survival instincts kicked in'. Alice was made to take them all down. To massacre her peers before her, her strength gave her this surge of adrenaline she couldn't stop in mid-massacre. She enjoyed what she'd been given, with each piece of flesh she tore to bits, with every drop of blood that spilled from them, their bones cracked into pieces at her fist's strength. It's such a horrible feeling, really, being forced to take so much, then having your insides feel as though they're constantly at an unending fire—with everything inside yourself feeling like it's burning itself off... or what does it mean when it feels as though your whole body is dissolving while also burning at the same time? Not that she cared to answer herself.

Zabulus heard an ominous whisper that warned him, "you are a plague,"—a voice that seemed to be both far away yet somehow within the confines of his mind. It didn't make sense how that worked, but if anything was telling him off, he wouldn't listen anyways. He had one goal in mind now, therefore, he would do anything to achieve it.