The fractures of their union spread; slowly, as ever, every broken and snapped spine, bone, tendon, and nerve connected and regenerated at such a small speed it felt as if hell had frozen over and every thread in time had stopped moving.

— The First Anarchist

A bird landed on his head, nesting in-between his horizontal horns as it chirped lightly.

Soon, its friend also joined it as if they both had conspired and had mutually agreed to take a trip together.

They cheeped and nuzzled over his horns, cuddling each other before letting the other know how hungry they were.

What their logical selves told them was nothing; everything was safe...

"It is time to eat this man, my beloved!" The two real loverbirds chirped to each other, hoping the other would see it their way.

"But! That man... such a poor, hungry, cute soul..." His love replied. "He is a man of rest!" Dramatically, really. "And to disturb it is unforgivable, it would not be seen through the heavens' good eyes and graces... to do so, it would be an attack on our trust!" He said proudly. "As you too would see it, my love!"

"Oh~! You are correct! How did I not think of this, my beloved?" She shook her tiny head. "Let us eat it instead!"

The male bird threw his wings open, as he answered his beloved, "This world's is too big and harsh a world! And we cannot let it alone with a man of rest in it!"

"Yes~... If it means it will suffer less."

In perfect unison, they pecked into Zabulus' back.

...

Peck... Peck... Pe-

"The FUCK ARE YOU BIRDS DOING?! Fucking crazy..."

He stood up as he yelled.

The two birds fled.

"Ah! My love... we have failed in our mission to-"

"We cannot accept defeat! We will have our revenge, and feed on that man!"

Their angry screechings and rufflings of feathers echoed behind Zabulus.

"...Bleagh, fucking demons, birds are. Annoying."

Yaaaawn~, "That was a good rest, my head slightly hurts and my ears ache from your screaming, Boyo..." She chuckled to herself as she brought a hand to massage her cheekbone. "Tch... seems you ruined a sweet dream, y'know? There's no way this is a simple coincidence or an instance of bad luck!"

"Should've stayed still, or moved while still asleep... Now, we have to go... What's this path?" He squinted his 'eyes'. "Does it really lead straight ahead to the end goal?"

"Yeah! No curves, no splitting paths, no dangerous trees, no deathtraps... No anomalous incidents that can disrupt our path to the kingdom... no open portals that can lead us to completely different parts of the world that may or may not be infinitely far away... no erratic time fluctuations, or even extreme changes of temperature. This road is built just for a straight shot! We may get lost easily, but no! There will not be any obstacles besides the minor chance to bump into a passerby that could possibly guide us. Everything will be absolutely normal on this path!" Onofre crossed her arms, rubbing the palms of her hands over her own skin, for whatever reason. "It's simply not natural for something like a peaceful journey like this, don't you think? Or maybe I'm the one being odd and skeptical."

"Whatever the fuck you're saying doesn't sit right with me, but I'll go with it because I slept with you."

?!

Onofre was surprised to see him speak such vulgar, sarcastic and crude language.

"Y-y-you... bastard... boyo..." She snickered to herself. "Uh... you do know what that means, right? Slowing down? Slower pace?... Did you suddenly have a stroke or something when you got here that would affect your linguistic abilities as a whole or is it your age?"

"Ha ha ha. So hilarious, you know that I am two thousand years old, right? And yes, it goes without saying that sleeping together means to rest with one another. What otherworldly kind of idiot do you think I would be?"

"I know that, but—"

"Look, what is there to even worry about, isn't it just more interesting to see a certain outcome or an unusual sequence of events that only ever existed in a fiction?" He wiped his hands off against one another. "Enough with the rambles. It's clear you want me to tell you things as it is, and I do have my reasons as well. I'm willing to cooperate and see how far your honesty goes. At most, you can lose nothing, in fact, you already gave me your terms earlier. Let's start here." He sighed, feeling that this was going to turn into another ordeal of back and forths and mind games—this time, in hopes that he would truly receive his answers... He has hope, but nothing more or less. It wasn't necessary to raise his guard higher and focus his full attention on any subject pertaining his well-being.

Onofre nodded her head, "Right. Before we continue, let me explain a bit. Do you see that part of the sky? That is a remnant of an eye of The Overseer; as his name was once known, Heron. Heron is no longer a true god, as is... just the fragment left." She explained. "His fragments are all over the world ever since his core body died. However... sometimes it's said that those pieces that remain would live in the cores of the few people around. I... may have an idea who may possess it."

"...What was he like before he passed, exactly?"

"Ah. To summarize it, his story wasn't always depressing—somewhere down his life, his sanity was brought down along to rock bottom as his species was murderized right in-front of his eyes by two men. Two brothers that both embodied an aspect that his people feared. For example, the fact that these individuals were always twins, whether fraternal, identical, or simply born at the same time—does not matter, you must have understood the metaphorical weight and symbolism, no?"

"Sure, but who were they, really?"

"Bleh! Dunno!" Her face grew bright again as she shrugged in exaggeration. "Do not know... may have heard of it at least once in my entire life. A sad tale really..."

"So...?"

"Can't tell ya! Hahaha! You're so easy to mess with, boyo!"

"Urrrggghhh... -hmmm... Okay, that aside... was it at least fun while he lived? Being with him...?"

"Being with him? Oh, no no no no. Don't be mistaken. I wasn't alive when any of that happened!"

"Then-"

"Then, I know because I'm a Parahuman!" She winked and put her tongue out to the side for him.

"...Can't argue with you on that."

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"Besides... it wasn't only him. Those brothers weren't born by two different parents; rather, a set of three parents, if you would call it that. They weren't just born as 'twins', but rather, triplets. The middle sibling simply became one of those things, that's why the remaining twins did their deed. I think..."

"Alot of uncertainty riding in your voice... but, sure. Whatever you say."

"Are you okay with me calling you by name by the way?"

"Pardon? Why wouldn't I?"

"Umm... like, you didn't even hesitate or anything? A little surprising honestly."

"Well... I had no reason to call you by name really, so. Guess the conversation at hand took my mind off of the usual first introductions. Though, I'm completely past doing that unless completely necessary, otherwise I'll just kill whoever comes in front of me." He shrugged, giving her a straight face.

"Even an innocent kid?" She jokingly said with a giggle.

"Yea. No problem." He let the corners of his mouth slowly grow upwards to a slight curve, one would be mistaken to not notice the true, yet so faint glint that flashed right beside the tip of his eyes. "Hehe..."

"Creeeeepyyy..." Onofre was already doing her best impression of a lowkey freaky grin with one finger scratching a nonexistent 'scary' sound effect.

"You think so, eh?"

"Quite..."

"Either that or you're just so dang gullible to think that I'd kill a kid because of no other reason, you thought I'd be some sort of psychopathic, rampaging killer, but aren't we all in the same? ...Well..."

"What in the hell are you on about now?" She gave him a light slap on the shoulder.

To him, Alice was a paradigm of what a companion should be, yet at times, she would not get his subtle humor nor metaphors. Sometimes, she'd even use his humor back at him, though it wasn't without its humor. For example; a certain question was asked, and her reply would often relate back to the apple.

Onofre was bordering a blurry line between too perfect of a friend to his liking—and it left a heavy atmosphere where no matter what, Zabulus couldn't quite understand whether he would hate or like her, whether or not she's the one or some other made-up illusion to mock him. She was the physical image of Alice's life essence, and yet—that isn't enough, simply by design she couldn't replace Alice. He'll let it go, though—Eventually.

"Alright, time to walk, Boyo." She already had her head slightly tilted up to gaze at him, watching him be deep in his thoughts again. Her arms stretched above her head, ready to trek the journey once more; and if need be, she would find somewhere to sleep in another couple days.

With a grunt, he followed.

On the way, he wasn't thinking about the ridiculousness of how this kept happening; where he kept finding himself in forlorn and unfamiliar settings. Nor was it strange to feel a sudden onset of migraine attacks. Or his self-destructive nature that had a literal voice in the form of a pervading and annoying 'menace' that called him a puppet. Not that it mattered; it felt as if everything has been, or was, predetermined. But who knew at this point?

Rather, he was trying to figure out an explanation for the fragments and the moons, but never reached a conclusion for about 3 kilometers.

...731 Kilometers left.

"Question... actually, questions, from you. Hmm... Yesterday. Are you still-..." Zabulus cleared his throat as he noticed Onofre give him a small stare. Her hair would bob up and down while her legs moved—it looked as if she was 'dancing'.

"Ask away. I'm guessing the other was an unfinished query."

"I figured. And... yes, was."

"The 'fearless' almighty 'never stops! What may you ask your lord!?" She gave a childish, exaggerated tone as she spoke, causing him to let a 'tch' from his teeth.

"Be less edgy."

"Spice is life!"

"...Again, can I just ask... why did you come after me in the first place?"

"Do you have short-term memory loss or something? If so, that sucks, but what was the last thing I told you I was sent to do?"

"Oh... yeah. Ugh, why..."

"On top of that! You seem so damn set on living for a bit longer. And on what basis? The logic that the apple made no sense? You don't even look like you care whether you live, your movements and words are so inconsistent. You even ignored some of the stuff I've said, don't ya realize... It's kind of like, I dunno, you have more than yourself to think about, like..."

He stood quiet as the sun glazed onto her neck. Her voice, her words—every and each action seemed to be intentionally aimed to have her have an overwhelmingly imposing role over him. It wouldn't surprise him if she was secretly Vadim, or that wretched corpse.

"Boyo. Listen, this might not be what you want, but let's break that mindset of yours. Why do you continue on? Without meaning, living is... basically, wrong. Remember that and everything will make sense."

"You don't mean to say that living is..."

"Yes. Not to sound preachy or anything, but you seem to be that person that has some purpose behind why they're alive in the first place. The other times you had so-called friends, even if it wasn't directly that which made you believe there was some goal to reach, you didn't simply just try to live. Living is so meaningless and pathetic and it just leads you to nothing or more and more crap. Y'know?"

"What are you saying, exactly?"

"Huh? Nothing really, I'm just messing around with you! We have a lotta time to waste, c'mon Boyo! Tell me about yourself and that apple, but just in the normal manner without too much mystery. In a way that I can understand, yeah?"

...

After another few kilometers, Zabulus spoke of half of his story across the void in blue to Onofre, who studied his every word and sentence as if it were some test of her will and humanity. He recalled the first words he ever learned how to speak. The first friend he ever met, Alice, he made on a shore. Though he left a major chunk of his memories on the faraway sands of time and lost light, the sand could only be retained by the cultists who thought him to be an object of worship by this point.

"That's kinda creepy, so what does it have to do with that 'apple'?"

"It's because I can't die."

"Right... but how do they correlate? There's gotta be an invisible thread that connects 'em, no?"

"Put it this way, it's like I've lived two separate lives at two points in time. You're looking at the one, but have no understanding of the other. However, there's no going back. There are no strings to tug on to draw those two worlds closer. All is, and that can be... is just all that will exist, at least, from the perspective of the life that takes priority. The other just spectates and holds what is not able to exist here."

She nodded. (She did not understand a single thing.)

"...Sorry, it's a lot to understand." He wiped sweat off his cheek. "You could see me change into someone else sooner or later, maybe. It depends on how long we walk together and how much I 'live'."

"How... very confusing." She stared at the grass under her feet.

"Yeah. It really is. Perhaps I could demonstrate it when we get to settle somewhere proper."

"Sure~! By the way, I think we should focus on our... current predicament. Rather than worrying about who, or what, that was."

"Predicament?"

"...That."

Looking ahead of him lay an extraordinarily massive stretch of living corpses. Hundreds of bodies were all huddled over themselves and had dug out the soil to form a tunnel leading towards the center. With how they were acting, it appeared as if they were forming one of those famous earthwork fortresses. They acted in such a disciplined manner as they picked up the bodies and earth and worked until they were nothing but meat pikes—covered entirely by soil. They resembled soldiers working on a construction sight, as the layer of the soil and dirt kept piling up higher and higher...

In such an organized motion and on a seemingly mechanical cycle that the living and dead were alternated every ten meters, not a single drop of blood flowed from those who were still intact.

One would assume they are mindlessly driven zombies who know not the concepts of order or fear of death, rather, their eyes were clear, human, and the blankness of their skin were merely a sign of natural aging. However, no matter how many corpses were piled, the tunnel never ceased from the ends—neither would there ever be a blockage or the ceasing of the tunneling. It's not as if this was the only stretch, no; similar tunnels were throughout the landscape for thousands of kilometers, intertwining with one another to the point that this section of the land became its own sea of black flesh and blood—if a soldier stopped, his skin would tear itself apart and fall off into clumps of brown and yellow meat, the rest of the body would simply be gone to be replaced by another, who was also one of the people.

It went like this, continuously and tirelessly; from one world... and into the next, that they endlessly created the spherical hell that encased an infinite loop between two, overlapping, infinite planes. The circle in itself could be observed in a mere few seconds, however, even that amount of time was unacceptable. Even if the two were to come into the middle point of the tunnel, to reach an end was something that neither the soldiers or the two who are there, are fated to see. The layers upon the layers of bodies and the construction could take hours upon hours for no progress.

"What... is this." Zabulus was perturbed to such a level where he fell to the ground, not caring about whether the blue sky and its eternal flow was above him. "Where, did that come from?"

"From the dead."

"Why- What do you mean?"

"Sinners from hell... I heard the world of hell and any world may create a connection and those that have been exiled may escape, even though Hell should never allow that to happen—Those people were taken from Hell and return to the living plane... Well, really, they never really returned, since their psyche is stuck back in hell, just that their soul and body have returned. It is... an Impossible event, one that has just occured."