Having nothing else to do while he waited for Serris to return, Noth was now in Helt’s room, worriedly watching over the unconscious boy with the others. For good measure Noth had tried a few more times to wish Helt awake, and had even once tried using a demand, but nothing worked. In the end he had to accept that all he could do was wait, just like everyone else. It was frustrating, having the power to fight against waves of demons, and yet having no power at all to help one sleeping little boy. The time waiting next to Helt and hoping for his recovery felt as if it stretched on forever, and yet, after only a few minutes of waiting, a strange and mysterious feeling surrounded him. Noth's eyes looked down to his suddenly shaking hands in confusion. He looked to the others in the room to see if they were experiencing the same sensation as him, but he seemed to be the only one effected by the odd force that was inexplicably pressing down upon him. After a moment of hesitation and worry Noth opened his mouth to call out and warn everyone that something was wrong, but before he could manage even a pee, a strong wave of energy rushed into his body. Jean and Ren’s heads whipped over to his direction when they heard him loudly gag as if he were choking, while Elillith’s eyes were the only thing that turned. Noth’s hand came up to cover his mouth as he began violently coughing, but he raised his other hand to keep the children who tried to rush over to him back. It was difficult, but he managed to tell them that he wasn’t feeling well in between coughs, and assured them that he would be alright after he got some rest.
After Noth staggered out of the room he felt that the hallway was quite a bit cooler than the room filled with people he’d just left. It almost felt like all the heat in his body was slowly being sucked away, or like his body was desperately rejecting it. Noth’s teeth began to chatter, and as he pulled the hand away from his mouth, he saw small splatters of blood decorating his palm. The warm red colour contrasted the cold purpley-blue that his fingers were turning in quite an exquisite way. He looked back towards the room he’d come from with shaky eyes. Was he in danger? Should he alert his family? But what if he was just going to worry them over nothing when they were already so worried over Helt? Would they be okay with two of their family members collapsing at the same time?
Noth’s swimming gaze repeatedly looked between his bloodied and cold hand and the door to the room. His pale lips that were slowly turning blue trembled. His worry finally prevailed, and he took a single step back towards the room, but a sudden rush of heat abruptly filled his body and knocked him down to the floor. The searing, smouldering heat burned through his body. It felt as if everyone one of his blood vessels would burst and spew hot lava. He couldn’t help but writhe and claw at his clothes in agony, smearing the specks of blood from his hand across them. He wanted to scream his head off, but not a single sound would escape from his firmly clenched jaw. His wide, now bloodshot eyes desperately looked upwards as if searching for something. Even through the pain, his mind raced with a simple line of thoughts.
Where was Serris?
Why was she not here?
She said she would protect him.
She said she would never let him die.
How could she let this happen to him?
If only Serris were here.
He didn’t want to die alone like this.
His family was going to be so sad.
What were they going to do once he was gone?
Could Elillith take care of them?
Or would his father take them all in?
If only Serris were here to save him.
Serris could stop this for sure.
Ah, if only… Serris…
As his vision dimmed and blackened, he hallucinated that the angel he’d desperately been wishing for had gracefully descended to his side. Her clothes were covered in a spray of blood, and her face was covered in tears. The angel had truly come to save him, just as he’d wished. Surely she would fix all of this for him.
…What a nice last dream.
____
Kieran manor was dark.
Monster that he was, he didn’t like bright places, and so the maid and the butler kept everything dark for him.
They tried their best to take care of him.
They didn’t want to upset their master.
He was already suffering enough.
The monster sat alone in his room.
The madness was boiling inside of him again.
It demanded that he use 'it'.
It demanded that he show how strong he was.
It demanded that he killed again.
The town was already empty.
Everyone had already fled or been killed.
A monster had ravaged the town.
A murderer.
Not even the church could destroy the unstoppable fiend.
The monster didn’t want to go out.
But the madness couldn’t be stopped with just will alone.
If he didn’t want to hurt the maid and butler, he would have to satiate the madness soon.
There was a town a few hours away.
If he left now he could make it there by night, and it would be the perfect cover.
Donned in a robe, the monster made it to the town.
His long black hair that escaped the robe blended in with the darkness of the night.
He wandered the back alleys of the town, letting the shadows hide him.
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He knew no one good would ever come through here.
At least if he went fishing here then he could kill off the bad guys first.
Yes, first it would be all the bad people.
Then it would be the unlucky people.
And hopefully by then all the good people would have moved away.
If not…
Well, this is why he was a monster in the end.
~~~
A fresh victim appeared.
He was big and burly, but he was also drunk.
He’d drunkenly wandered into the alleys to relieve himself, unsuspecting of the danger.
In his inebriated state he would have never looked into the shadows.
Appeasing the monster’s madness would be no challenge today.
The monster reached out with his large hands.
A loud crunch rang out as he bent the drunk’s arms at impossible angles.
Screams and the acrid smell of urine filled the air.
And yet no one dared to check what was happening in the dark back alleys.
No one was brave enough to become the next victim.
By the time the screams abruptly stopped, the drunk's body had been thoroughly mangled.
His head, arms, and legs were at horrific angles.
A foot and some fingers had gone flying off a few feet away.
The darkness of the alley was interrupted by a few splashes of red.
The shadows would keep hold of the swiftly cooling body until the morning.
But the monster wasn’t satisfied.
This had been too easy.
This man would not be enough.
His madness would not be sated by something so miniscule.
How could the world see his power with such an easy kill?
The madness demanded more death.
He could hear a group of people pass by the alley.
They seemed to call out for the drunk who would never return.
Perhaps such a large crowd would pose enough of a challenge to quell the madness.
If he killed them all at once without letting a single person escape, then maybe that would finally be enough.
Noth Kellen’s [Gift] could only be happy with this for so long, however.
It would only be a matter of time until it made him kill this town, too.
____
Noth could hear the voices of Jean and Ren. They were talking quietly, but they were close enough that he could make out their words quite easily. His mind reeled with the dream he’d just seen, but his brain refused to work. His eyelids trembled as they tried to open, but his body refused to move. Any attempts to make noise only came out as heavy breaths. He could only lay there and quietly listen.
“-hope it’s not because of the demons. Do you think they hurt him somehow?”
“No, Elillith said he didn’t have any wounds on his body when she checked.”
“Then… Do you think it’s because he used too much power or something? Like how Helt was overusing his [Gift] before he collapsed?”
“We don’t know that he collapsed because he was using his [Gift], Ren. …Although I hate to admit that that’s probably what did it. Helt always was in a lot of pain from it…”
“Yeah! I wouldn’t know, but don’t people usually get sick or whatever when they overuse their [Gift]? Otherwise some people would be unstoppable, right?”
“Well, Noth’s [Gift] doesn’t seem to work like most others, but… Yes, the God-dess probably wouldn’t let someone so amazingly strong have no limits or anything. He did say this was supposed to be the last day fighting the demons, but he came home so early… Maybe you’re right. Maybe he did use too much power. He might have done it so he could rush home to Helt… I hope that’s not what happened. …This idiot…”
“You don’t mean that Jean. You love Noth just like the rest of us.”
“Hah, yeah… But that’s why he’s an idiot. What an unreliable big brother.”
“Hehe, but we’d never replace him.”
“It’s annoying but I can’t say you’re wrong.”
“Haha… ha… Hey, Jean?”
“Yeah?”
“Do… Do you like me?”
“What?”
“Do you like me even though I’m like this? Would you replace me?”
“Huh? What do you even mean, ‘like this’?! Why would I ever replace you?!”
“Well, I mean, I don’t have a [Gift], and I’m pretty… useless. You and Helt help out all the time, but I… only make things worse.”
“...I can’t believe you’d even say that. First of all, you do have a [Gift]! Keep talking like that and the God-dess is gonna smite you! That is if Noth doesn’t wake up and do it first.”
“But-”
“And second, we all love you! You being a late bloomer isn’t going to make us somehow hate you or whatever! You’re our precious youngest sister and it’s going to stay like that. You just have to keep doing your best every day like you have been!”
“... But I’m 2 months older than you…”
“Yeah? But I’m more mature than you.”
“I… ok. You’re right. …Thank you Jean.”
“Mhmm.”
“...Jean?”
“What is it this time?”
“Could… Could you tell me what it’s like to have a [Gift]?”
“Huh? Well it’s… Uh… Honestly I don’t know what to tell you. It’s just always there, it’d be like if you asked me to tell you what it’s like to see, or hear, or breathe.”
“Um… Well then could you tell me why Helt still uses his [Gift] even though it hurts him?”
“Oh. Well yeah, it’s… Ok, this is going to sound like a really unfair comparison, but I guess it’s the same reason I sometimes used mine even though I used to hate it?”
“Ah yeah, I remember. You still don’t really like to use it much now either, right? Helt said that.”
“...Yeah. I read about it a lot once we started living with Noth, ‘cause I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t just me being weird, you know? Apparently everyone is compelled to use their [Gift] even if they don’t like it for some reason. The church believes that it’s because it’s the one true path that’s been set for us by the God-dess, and that we have a natural wish to use our [Gift] because it leads us towards the will of fate. But there are some people who believe that the God-dess made it feel good for us to use our [Gift] so that we wouldn’t go against its will. See, every time you use your [Gift], you feel like you’re doing something right. Even if you’re using it to do bad things, or you hated it for some reason like I did, it still feels really great. I’ve even read a book where they compared the feeling with how people who drink, do drugs, or gamble feel.”
“But… But it hurts Helt to use it!”
“Yes, but it also feels good. Eating too many sweets is bad for you, but you still eat a bunch til you feel sick, right?”
“Eek! Um… Well…”
“See?”
“Urgh… Yeah. I- I’ve been trying to eat less, though…”
“Heehee, but I wouldn’t mind a chubby Ren for a little sister, you know?”
“Noooo!”