Wolfram had been called a city, but that was generous - a town split by its namesake river, its people clustering along muddy shores like survivors of a shipwreck. Two thousand souls, give or take, all told. But Canales...
Canales was something else entirely.
The city rose before them like a beast of stone and iron, devouring the horizon. Narrow streets of cobblestone wound between buildings that clawed at the sky, their shadows falling like bars across the stone sidewalks. At the heart of it all, a spire stretched upward, a hundred feet if it was an inch, crowned with Hil's holy symbol gleaming in the morning light. Ten thousand souls dwelled within those walls, packed together like cattle in a pen.
You have brought us to a blessed banquet!
Tenebroso's hunger radiated through Javi's bones, an alien craving that had become disturbingly familiar over the months. What disturbed him more was how his own mouth watered in response - not for food, but for justice. Or what they called justice. The line between vengeance and cruelty had blurred so gradually he couldn't say when he'd started taking pleasure in their work.
The memory of their journey from Lugo surfaced like a corpse in still water - the moment he'd been fool enough to demand answers, to pretend his hands were cleaner than the monster who shared his skin.
"Why in the hell would someone in Canales care about a woman and child in Puente?!" The words had torn from his throat, bitter as bile. "It's more than a hundred miles away! We found the Sombra hideout - if anyone made the call, it would've been one of them."
You make it sound like such an easy task, you simple flesh bag! Tenebroso's voice had scraped against the inside of his skull. ¡Pensar! It was not just your wife and child that suffered. We killed your firebugs, yes. Made them suffer greatly for roasting the flesh of your family. Yet you wanted those responsible. They were the hardest to find, but this rabbit hole deepened when they confessed it all to me.
"Confessed?" Javi had spat the word like poison. "You snapped one's neck and broke the other's legs. Then you ripped out their hearts! Where was this confession?"
The memory of his own defiance made him wince now - not from fear, but from the hypocrisy. He'd pushed further, clinging to the lie that he was merely a passenger in their bloody work. "Even as I am forced back, I can see everything you're doing. Violence for the sake of violence. How do I even know you're taking our deal seriously?"
That had been the final straw.
You are NEVER forced back, cabrón. The words had fallen like ice into his mind. There have been times when you have chosen to sit back... but other times, YOU guided my fist. The firebugs that set your small community ablaze - it may have been my form, but it was your doing. Your vengeance. Your murder. Do not think you are innocent of any of this.
The truth of it had hit him like a physical blow. How many times had he felt that surge of satisfaction as they dealt out death? How often had he been the one urging Tenebroso toward greater cruelty? His hands might not have dealt the killing blows, but his soul was just as stained.
Before he could wrestle with this revelation, Tenebroso had spoken a name that shattered his self-reflection like glass:
Tina Mendez.
"The Sombra woman?" Javi asked, his anger guttering like a dying flame. The memory of her screams still haunted him, but what haunted him more was his own reaction to them - that dark thrill of satisfaction he'd felt watching her suffer. "What about her?"
Tina... Dile a nuestro amigo.
The pain hit like a tidal wave, not his own agony but hers - every nerve ending aflame, every moment an eternity of torment. A voice, broken and desperate, clawed through his thoughts.
I told you everything about Ignacio, monster! I don't know anymore. Please let me die! PLEASE! PLEASE JUST KILL ME!
Javi nearly fell from his horse, his body wracked with phantom torture. But worse than the physical pain was the realization - death wasn't the end of their victims' suffering. Each heart they'd taken, each life they'd ended, had just been the beginning of an eternal torment.
"...H-how is she...?"
You wanted to know where I get my information, mijo. This is how we gain their confession. Tenebroso's voice dripped with cruel satisfaction. When we bite into their heart, we take their alma into us. Then, I take care of them with loving attention. They tell me where we need to go... isn't that right, Tina?
"Let her go, Tenebroso... please..." The words dissolved into sobs, but Javi wasn't sure if he wept for Tina or for his own damnation. Every death he'd sanctioned, every heart they'd taken - he'd been condemning souls to this nightmare. "...please."
Como desées.
The agony vanished, leaving only tears on his cheeks and a hollow pit in his stomach. Three weeks had passed since Wolfram, but the revelation haunted his every waking moment. He wasn't just a killer - he was an accomplice to something far worse. Each night since, he'd lain awake counting their victims, wondering how many souls writhed in torment within Tenebroso's grasp.
"Is she gone?" he'd asked, his voice barely a whisper.
She has been released. She now is the goddess's problem.
Now, as they approached Canales, that knowledge weighed on him like chains. But it also gave him the courage to ask what he'd been avoiding. "I have never asked this, but can you show me what you see?"
He felt something stir inside him - curiosity, perhaps, or suspicion. But beneath it all, a hunger that felt terrifyingly like his own.
Why, meat bag?
"You talk so much about the consumption of sin, but I don't understand it." Javi forced his voice to remain steady, though his insides churned. "I've seen evil. I've seen negligence, cowardice... but you see something else. Something more." He paused, tasting bile. "For this partnership to work, I need to understand. If I can see what you see, maybe we can be less aggressive towards one another."
Laughter echoed through his skull, sharp as broken glass. Each peal felt like a mockery of his attempt at nobility, at pretending this was still about justice.
Aggression? You call this aggression?! Boy, you have not seen aggression from me. You have found my pity, disgust, and annoyance... but you have not tasted my aggression.
"Listen," Javi pleaded, fighting down his growing terror at what he'd become. "I'm not trying to pick a fight. I'm trying to understand this better - for you." The lie tasted bitter. He needed to understand for himself, to know if he was truly as monstrous as the creature he harbored. "Canales is larger than anywhere we've been. More people than I can count. We have a week to find our target, but I'm not sure that's enough time."
He felt Tenebroso considering his words, like something pacing inside his skull, weighing each syllable against the sprawling city before them. Weighing his true intentions.
Fine... remember you asked for this.
"Wait, what—" The world exploded into colors, a kaleidoscope of sin that sent Javi reeling. He clutched at the horse's mane, his vision swimming. But it wasn't just his sight that changed - something fundamental shifted in his understanding of the world, of humanity itself.
Breathe, pendejo, and slowly open your eyes.
Following the command, bile rose in his throat. His mount was no longer a horse but a nightmare of rotting flesh stretched over yellowed bone - a mirror of what they truly were, monster and man fused into something unholy. Before he could retch, a sharp crack split his thoughts.
¡Mirar! ¡Prestar atención!
Forcing his gaze upward, Javi beheld Canales transformed. A mile from the stone walls, but within them flowed rivers of color like liquid sin. Each hue represented a different darkness in the human heart, and Javi could taste them all - the metallic tang of greed, the bitter ash of pride, the sweet rot of lust.
Focus! Find a color and focus on it.
Javi fixed on a brilliant blue that rivaled the sky above, trying to anchor himself in this sea of corruption. "What does the sky blue mean?"
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Narcissism, Pride, Vanity, Vainglory... The words rolled through his mind with a connoisseur's appreciation. Those souls care nothing for others, only their path to supposed greatness. Rare is the noble that isn't that particular shade of wanting.
The prevalence of that particular blue made his stomach turn. How many of those proud souls had he passed in his old life, never seeing their true nature? How many times had he bowed and scraped before them, thinking them better than himself?
"What about the reds?"
It depends. Tenebroso's voice held a teacher's patience, but beneath it lurked something darker - anticipation. Deep crimson represents Rage or even Wrath, while lighter red may represent Lust and Carnal desires. A blood red is more appealing...
"The stain of murder," Javi whispered, understanding dawning like a cold sun. The taste of copper filled his mouth as he recognized that particular shade - the same color that had surrounded them in every town, every killing. The same color he now saw bleeding from his own hands.
Exactly, mijo! Murder's sweet essence is the color of spilled blood, and from the look of Canales... murder is a sin they do not lack. A blessed banquet, indeed!
Blood red wasn't rare in Canales - the color pulsed through the streets like infected veins. As they drew closer, Javi saw people trailing these colors like smoke from dying fires, each hue marking their particular brand of corruption. But what terrified him most was how familiar they all seemed, how human. These weren't monsters or demons, just people. People like he had been, before grief and rage had led him to this path.
"...but people can't be defined by just a myriad of sins," he said, his voice thick with the horror of recognition. Every killer they'd punished, every heart they'd taken - they'd all started as ordinary people too.
Humans are the creators of sin in all its wretched forms. Tenebroso's voice held something almost like affection. The colors you see define the most egregious. When we get closer, some will bear more than just one. Some will even bear many different ones that bleed together into one.
"Then what does that look like?" Javi asked, though part of him dreaded the answer. He already knew - had seen it in their victims' eyes in their final moments.
Pure darkness. Not just black, but an absence of color. Sus almas, they swallow all colors into their hearts. A fruit so dark and sweet, it is nothing but evil. The hunger in Tenebroso's voice made Javi's mouth water against his will. This place bears a wretched orchard that is ripe for the picking.
"Was..." Javi swallowed hard, forcing himself to face the question that had haunted him since Wolfram. "Was Tina Mendez a dark soul?"
She was. The words held no mercy, but something else lurked beneath - satisfaction. She coveted, she murdered, she tortured. She cared only for herself and her reputation. Her soul was beyond redemption, and she paid the price for her sins. Hopefully, she will do so in the next existence unless the goddess feels charitable.
Javi remembered Tina's screams, remembered feeling righteous as they ended her. But now he wondered - how many of her sins had been born of circumstance? How many choices had led her down that dark path, just as his own choices had led him here?
"Then we'll need to spend time tracking Ignacio de la Cruz," he said, trying to focus on their purpose, to ignore the growing fear that he was becoming what they hunted.
What if he is not the last one?
Javi pulled back on the reins, the rotting horse beneath him creaking like old leather. "What are you talking about?"
This has been a rabbit hole. From those who set the fire, their contact, the money man, and the organizer - how do we know if this will be your last man? Each word fell like a stone into the pit of Javi's stomach. Every soul we have taken has not confessed why they did this or were involved. What if he leads us to someone else and perhaps another?
A pause, heavy with possibility. You have already avenged your wife and baby, as far as I am concerned. We could stop this now and focus on actual work, a new bargain. Tenebroso's voice grew eager, almost seductive. ¡Mirar! This place needs justice... it cries out for it! Imagine what we could do here.
The offer hung in the air like smoke, tempting in its simplicity. But something in Tenebroso's eagerness raised a warning flag in Javi's mind. The creature had never before suggested abandoning their original purpose. Why now?
Javi sat silent atop his mount, the weight of Tenebroso's words settling like lead in his gut. The creature's sudden willingness to abandon their path nagged at him - they had spilled too much blood, consumed too many souls to simply change course. Unless...
"We find the person responsible, and they are given justice; you and I will be free from one another." He chose his words carefully, like placing his feet on treacherous ground. "That is unless we strike another deal. However, let me ask you this - what happens if you fail to uphold your end of the bargain?"
Shock and anger radiated through his chest, but beneath those emotions, Javi felt something he'd never sensed from Tenebroso before - fear.
A thought crystallized in his mind, sharp and clear as broken glass. "What happens if we fail to consume the dark souls related to our bargain?"
A deep sigh echoed through his skull, followed by telling silence. The quiet confirmed his suspicion more than any words could have.
The memory of that first night surfaced - it felt like a lifetime ago, but only months had passed. He'd been a different man then, drowning in grief and rage, too drunk on the promise of vengeance to ask the right questions. Fausto had acted as intermediary, his face half-melted into that terrible skull, offering power wrapped in darkness. Despite the deal's nature, Javi knew he hadn't been misled. But there were questions he'd failed to ask, implications he'd been too blind to see.
Now, he felt Tenebroso's reluctance like a physical thing, coiling through his thoughts. Each moment of silence was a confession.
When the answer finally came, it carried the sullen tone of a child caught in deception.
If I fail to uphold our bargain, you are free... and I will be released but bound to earth, wherever we are. I will be stuck there until I find another who craves what I have to offer.
The words confirmed what Javi had begun to suspect - Tenebroso wasn't just bound by their bargain, it was trapped by it. But there was more to uncover.
"And if I were to break the bargain, I know I will die. That's what Fausto told me." Javi pressed harder, feeling the creature squirm within his mind. "What he didn't say - what I don't think he knew or cared to know - was what happens to you. I assume if I die, you become free. Will you still be bound to the earth?"
Minutes stretched like years before Tenebroso spoke again, each second heavy with ancient dread.
The last time it happened was more than 600 years ago. The words emerged reluctantly, like secrets pried from a dying man. I was bound to the land for more than a decade. My host at the time broke his bargain and paid the price. However, as fate would have it, he broke it at the crossroads.
Tenebroso's voice grew distant, as if lost in the memory. There I was, left bound to the crossroads. Dozens upon dozens, if not hundreds of souls, passed through me daily. None of them were able to hear me. I was unable to touch anything or anyone. It was hell.
The creature's fear leaked through their connection like ice water. None could listen to me except on the three nights of darkness. It was only then that I was able to be seen, to be heard. Finding someone willing to listen and take the bargain took a decade.
Javi nodded, understanding blooming like a dark flower in his mind. The mighty Tenebroso, devourer of sins, was as much a prisoner of their bargain as he was. Perhaps more so.
Why do you ask these things... Javier?
The use of his name - not "meat bag" or "flesh sack" or "pendejo" - told him everything. For the first time since their unholy union began, Tenebroso was truly afraid.
A smile ghosted across Javi's lips, sharp as a knife's edge. "You're right. My wife and child have been avenged. I've killed those directly responsible for their deaths, but you said it yourself - none of them confessed why this happened. And it wasn't just my wife and child." The names of the other victims rose in his mind, a litany of the dead he'd almost forgotten in his personal quest for vengeance. "Thirty-eight people died in their homes when those fires were set. I still need to know why. Not just for me, but for them. I will see this through... no, WE will see this through."
He pulled the horse to a halt again, its bones creaking beneath him like a chorus of the damned. "See that grassy mound over there?" He pointed to a raised tuft of earth fifty yards from the road, unremarkable save for its isolation. In its very ordinariness lay its power - a perfect prison, far from any crossroads where desperate souls might hear Tenebroso's honeyed whispers.
"I'm only going to say this once." His voice was soft, but each word carried the weight of iron chains. "Canales may be tempting, but we struck a bargain to see this through to the end. I wanted answers and justice, not just for my family but for everyone who burned that night."
He drew a deep breath, tasting dust and decay on his tongue. "If I feel this place becomes too much, too distracting for you, I will ride here again. I'll come to that mound the day before there is no moon in the sky and stare at Canales. And I will sit there and break our deal."
The words fell between them like hammer blows on a coffin nail. "Then I will die, and my body will rot away. But you..." He let the threat hang for a moment, feeling Tenebroso's ancient fear pulse through their shared consciousness. "You'll be bound here forever, watching everything you want and crave just out of reach. A thousand sins and pangs of hunger all untasted. We'll be so far off the road that no one will find you - no one to listen to your honeyed words of power and vengeance. No one to feed the hunger of your... justice."
Anger radiated through him like fever, but beneath it writhed that primal fear. The balance of power had shifted - the monster and the man now truly understood each other. They were bound not just by their bargain, but by mutual destruction.
They rode the rest of the way in silence, the colors of sin painting the world around them in hellish hues. At the outer gate of Canales, a line of mounts and wagons waited for inspection. Greed and pride bled off the guards like pus from a wound, while fear and anger rose from the waiting travelers like steam. The silvery white of innocence, rare as diamonds, drifted from a few children and infants.
Javi let the colors wash over him, no longer fighting the sight. Each shade represented not just sin, but choice - the small decisions that led good people down dark paths. He wondered what colors he himself trailed now, what shadows marked his own soul.
"You're next, flaco!" called an inspector, his aura swirling with the mixed colors of greed and cowardice, the hues bleeding together like watercolors in rain.
Javi urged his mount forward, his voice barely a whisper. "Remember... we will see this through."
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