It was at that moment that (superimposing on her despair and sadness), her angry and volatile personality returned to her again, seeing with bloodshot eyes and tears at the dying effigy of the boy, she managed to lift his body, (even if it was only a little) of the crushing force that held her against the floor, higher and higher, almost rising...
She was aware of her sins, (and that the rest of the world would probably never forgive her for all the evil she had done supposedly covered up by her "good deeds") but even so, in the situation she was presented with now she would never let him he felt happy to die...!
The fact of feeling happy for having resigned herself to stop living was a repulsive and abominable feeling, beyond anything for her!
She and theDeath itself were natural enemies, the dark one always willing to take away everything she loved at her whim, and Minerva (in her selfishness and guilt), would not allow anyone else to go through what she did again. same as her.
...It would be something more than an oath, more than a promise, more than a pact in itself, it would be her new will to return everything that she had taken from her life....
And as for the big-hearted idiot boy... she would take care of keeping him on the right path herself, she would hit him every time he tried to do something stupid that could hurt himself, and then she would hug him every time he tried to do something stupid, and when were if necessary to mutually compensate for their own lack of self-esteem for so many years felling alone....
...They would both strive to get out of her thoughts, and focus all of her selfishness and stubbornness on obtaining a good ending... for everyone... and above all... for both of them.
That was the promise she would make, the pact she would seal, and the contract she would sign, and even if Envy stood in her way she would not let that good-hearted idiot get to the point of smiling in anticipation of receiving final death. her. She would take him to smile with all of his friends, and if necessary, she would give every last bit of his remaining Od to get it...
Those would be her deeds... that would be her mission from now on...
- Are you willing to give everything you have to save them? Well then, Subaru Natsuki! Prepare your cheeks and face to take my blows, because you're not the only stubborn idiot who plans to face death itself for his happy ending!
- Do you just want to save them? Well.... I'll be the one who saves you!!
And with that she slowly began to sit up... she would have a lot of work to do from now on... and most of all... a lot to talk about with a certain annoying white-haired woman who was smiling mischievously at her from a distance...
(4)
Gluttony and Sloth...
At first glance you wouldn't think that these concepts share much of a relationship with each other, apart from clearly representing two of the most common capital sins in humanity...
But I repeat... that would be if you were doing it at a superficial glance... because both share the same connection link, which can make them agree on similarities in the most unlikely situations...
Both are intended to bring peace, joy, and calm to a person's body and mind in their own way.
One through the satisfaction of the bodily senses by consuming delicious or multiple food items and meals...
And the other by ceasing the extra-natural actions of the body, keeping it still in the same place, without expecting to obtain anything in return, apart from a brief or extensive rest, just for wanting to do it...
Different actions, same objective, (perhaps along with lust) are the sins that hide the most similarities between themselves by focusing on bringing some momentary pleasant bodily feeling to the human being...
....And perhaps that was the reason why none of their greatest representatives in this world had intervened in the death decision of the black-haired boy from beyond the Great Waterfall...
It's not like any of them can do anything with their abilities, beyond preventing fate from taking its course of it...
...Even if one of them was deliberately avoiding anything that could be done to help him...
*OOOOO*
For a certain woman with long purple hair, a rather unmotivated posture and act, whitish skin (and generous body proportions), the word "help" would not exactly be the word she would use to describe what she was doing in this situation.
After all... what kind of help would it be to return an innocent bystander from another world to face a beast destroying centuries-old kingdoms, a duo of ruthless assassins, and in the process confront him with the maniacal delusions of the largest user of magic of the present world?
Even faced with the option of losing Minerva as her friend, she the Witch of Sloth: Sekhmet, was not going to back down from her decision, because that was not the right thing to do in this situation.
Heh~...it was ironic that someone who was labeled a "Witch" by the world was the one who was talking about what things were right or good... the world's logic had definitely gone to hell.
Although even so...
-"(Hmm... there you go again with.. *haa*.. the same thing... you're making it harder for me to deal with this, Minerva...)"
Her internal complaints were the product of seeing (again) the aforementioned blonde witch trying to get up.
Even for the blonde's own stubbornness she should know that if Sekhmet wanted, her "Lounge Limbs" (the name of her authority) were just as immovable and firm like being buried under a rock slide, or even more so....
Now that she thought about it, she didn't remember putting in such an extra communal amount of effort like this in quite some time...
And that one time... it was precisely the last time she did while she was alive...
-"(*haa*... so tired...~)"
Frankly, his memories of her were not pleasant to him in any way.
It's not like remembering her being murdered is a pleasant memory to begin with.
In reality... she had a hard time having even minimally pleasant memories in her head about her past life...
*XXXXX*
Since the beginning of her life, (in one of the hillsides of the proud clan of the Giants), she had already been placed on a pedestal of glorification as soon as she was born by the elder chiefs of the town, since she was supposedly the one chosen to be the reincarnation of an ancient deity of the giant species.
It's not like she really cares, (she was a newborn after all), just food and having plenty of naps throughout the day should be her only priorities at the present time...
...although apparently the chiefs of her village did not seem to be on the same ideological page as her regarding her aspirations and goals....
By what standards could an individual be considered worthy of being the reincarnation vessel of a deity? She never knew it, and before she knew it she found herself in the vicinity of a forest, completely alone with the company of the icy wind of the mountainous and frozen region of Gusteko, with the beasts of the forest stalking her weak and innocent figure.
This is certainly was the perfect environment for raising a girl... of course.
Even in the face of the situation (very poor at best), she was incapable of feeling the fear or feeling of survival that ordinary people generally develop in order to protect her physical integrity (and therefore her life).
She was not like other people, since her mother's womb she had already had the little nuisance of darkness attached to her soul, hers Authority, in force since day zero within her.
Perhaps unconsciously inherited by her unknown father or mother, the truth is that from her short life she was incapable of feeling genuine or intense emotions like the rest of the babies. It even seemed that in her initial blurred memories the healers were running amok in her old home due to the little giant's lack of response, not knowing that simply the effort of getting out of her mother's fleshy walls exhausted her to the point of simply fall asleep as soon as she are born.
Yep, the reliable Sekhmet and her lazy behavior making an appearance for the first time in the world, as would become customary throughout in her life...
*XXXXX*
-"(Wow... it seems that Minerva started to cry... *hah*... it seems that not even my own influence is able to defeat her stubborn personality...*hah*~)"
To be fair, she also didn't want to see her friend consumed by guilt and sadness, but at this point Sekhmet had to make Minerva understand that she was not some kind of deity in order to help everyone.
After all, not being able to understand that was what caused the blonde to abuse the benefits of her Authority when she was alive, and what subsequently caused her to nearly drive her spirit crazy because of all the implications what came after her.
And that was why (even though it hurt for both of them), in the end she would benefit from being able to truly mature.
It was curious that the member of the "Witches of Sin" who was laziest and most unwilling towards everything in life, also had to be the one who exercised part of the responsibility on the group, maybe that speaks volumes about how unsettled in the head they all really were.
She was also like that in a certain part of her life...
*XXXXX*
Surprisingly, luck seemed to be the only thing on little Sekhmet's side in the precarious situation, when practically out of nowhere, a caravan of merchants found her wandering on the roads surrounding the forest where she was abandoned with the her usual sleepy and lost look.
Aware of the not-so-friendly relationship between their respective species, some of them suggested letting her be at the site, but a small group of them flatly opposed that idea, and they got off the dragon-drawn float to look and talk to her.
It was a group of three people: her parents and their young pink-haired daughter, and they (despite the rest's continuous retorts), decided to take her in as their protégé, just like that.
Even though the influence of her Authority made her materially apathetic to most of the things she went through on a daily basis, the warmth and joy that overflowed from her made her smile lightly (and with a couple of small tears rolling down her cheeks).
She slept the rest of the way to her new adoptive family's house, perhaps harboring more than just a general disinterest in life itself in her heart.
It was something new and interesting for the apathetic little purple-haired girl...
So interesting... that he didn't even notice how the town they were going to was located at the foot of the mountain where their old village was located... and the fact of how the Giants treated those who dared to settle in their territories... or welcome their outcast offspring...
Especially if those who dared were humans...
*XXXXX*
-(...*Hah*... Nerva.... please don't make this harder than it already is for me... *hah*...)
Again she is trying to get up...
Sekhmet never questioned her friends in any of their actions or thoughts about the world in life, but already in death (and through their constant coexistence for four centuries), she couldn't help but wonder if some of them were missing something more than sanity in their heads.
Except for Typhon obviously... for Sekhmet the little green-haired girl was the exception for several things...
-(...* hah* ...huh?...)
Even with the visual interruption of the invisible limbs (which only she could see due to her Authority), she was able to see her friend's face, seeing how it went from melancholy and pain, to the most angry expression (at least he would have seen in his long spiritual stay with her).
You could say it was out of fear (or a new memory lazily entering her thought focus), but her overall poker expression was slightly disturbed by the murderous rage emanating from her friend's aura, and although it didn't seem to be towards her Indeed, Minerva's gaze pierced her with fervent intensity.
She was aware of that kind of look... and what kind of intentions her mind harbored accordingly.
After all she also kept it in mind, even if she couldn't know or understand the reason for it on her day...
*XXXXX*
The coexistence with the family was ephemeral, (but substantial for her) a novelty considering that generally everything was insipid, inconsequential, or boring for her.
Eight years... of a substantial coexistence in her lazy life... a true achievement accomplished indeed.
She became an "exemplary daughter" to her "parents", (or as exemplary as it was to be awake only a third of the day, and use her nascent and crudely acquired authority to help in whatever way she could ((or she wanted to?)) to her caregivers; she was a constant presence in the home, even if she was always sheltered without leaving the walls of her house.
Her adoptive sister was also a special case: outgoing and cheerful, and (in complete contrast to her) she could do a thousand and one things and still take the time to tell her everything at the end of the day...
- "That if Sekhmet wanted they could study together the next morning, that if Sekhmet wanted to help her by trying a new recipe, that she would one day become a knight of the kingdom, and that she would really like it if Sekhmet could make an extra effort, and so as she not to fall asleep during the investiture ceremony, and things like that..."
The truth is that even if her brain ended up completely scrambled by the obscene amounts of information received by a mind that only consciously processed a single action a day, she remained by her "sister's" side, smiling tiredly and trying hard at the same time. maximum to not fall asleep so she could listen to everything the lively pink-haired girl would like to say to her.
She didn't do it with anyone but herself and her parents, one thing she couldn't really do for those around her, (and even if it wasn't much to her), the rest of her family always found it endearing to see her trying to staying awake while she ate in the dinners (without dropping her head on some stew), or moving in the air next to multiple logs of wood thanks to her authority.
Again even if for her it was not much, but for them she seemed to be part of hers all of her... like a seemingly insignificant, but equally indispensable part for they...
Maybe that part was equally necessary for her, because even with her friends today she did not have those same feelings with the same intensity again...
Especially when life and the world again took it upon themselves to take everything from her... when she began to believe that she could have a better future....
*OOOOO*
Everything happened so fast that it easily ended up overwhelming Sekhmet's slow daily mental processing capacity... the only data present in her mind began with the fact that she had gone out (rarely) alone in the morning towards the forest... .
It was at her mother's request, she was going to bring more firewood to cook dinner that night, (knowing her as she was, she would probably arrive with the cut and fresh wood at that specific time) and for to help the family she walked away more than usual of the village, towards a place where her "sister" had taught her, and where the driest and firmest logs were found, perfect for bonfires at night.
But it was evident that... when she returned... (Seven Hours Later) with some carts pulled by her "additional invisible limbs"... she began to see the enormous columns of smoke pouring out from the place where they were supposed to be.
There was her village... and it was at that moment that something in her chest told her that this time that warm family bonfire would not happen...
Her movements (generally apathetic and lacking any clear energy or objective), were completely left behind when, surprisingly, she launched herself with the help of her disembodied hands and legs at dizzying speeds, (which under normal circumstances she would not have agreed to come of her own free will) with a feeling very different from the usual laziness and indifference taking root in the depths of her chest, almost to the point of not letting her breathe...
Corroborating her vile predictions, when she arrived at what had once been her home for nearly a decade.... the landscape that she evilly raised before Sekhmet's gaze made her stomach turn with enormous discomfort and repulsion...
Did she vomit near a tree...?
Even if she had, she wouldn't have had enough consciousness space in her mind now to register it.
The place (being very..."optimistic") was the true portrait of a butchery: everywhere you could see you could see torn traces of people (regardless of their gender, species, and even age), with one or more limbs mutilated or brutally manipulated, leaving each recipient of the torture as a knot of crushed flesh without form and truly grotesque to look at, some of them even burned in piles of corpses intentionally stacked, as if wanting to tell the world in great detail what kind of barbarity was taking place here.
Even for her indolent ways of acting, we must not forget and overlook the fact that she at that time WAS NOTHING MORE THAN A SIMPLE KID, one who even if she could not determine the depth of her emotions due to the ever latent effects of her authority, she found herself shivering uncontrollably from a new sensation totally different from that of the stoic winter cold that usually plagued the hopeless Holy Kingdom of Gusteko:
Fear:pure and hard, striking her languid childlike figure to the core.
Even in the midst of that unpleasant sensation that had frozen her in place, her mind was able to briefly replay the memory of certain adults and young villagers with kind smiles... and of a certain outgoing and lively pink-haired girl who greeted her when she woke up the next day. After day, he bathed her and later lay down next to her, night after night, both of them sleeping after their endless accounts of their daily lives...
What... happened here?...
Her mind stiffened to the spot by the cold and the anguish over the answer to that question did not allow her to notice how multiple figures several feet in height were approaching her, carrying inhumanly large swords and hammers, with smiling faces and malicious, like those of demonic beasts waiting to tear their prey to death in the heat of a storm...
Why... would someone do something like this?...
One of them (who seemed to be the highest ranking for his heavier outfit) stood in front of her, the enormous ax held by his two hands on a stretched and plump body would have made for a funny image for some, (if it weren't for the remains of flesh and blood hanging and dripping sporadically due to the subject's arrhythmic movements) his gaze on her was charged with various shades of emotion, from the most absolute contempt and anger, to the most pyrrhic presence of late disappointment...
What had they done... to deserve this?...
- Frankly, you had quite a lot of guts to stay so close to our village when we clearly left you to die from the beginning, imposter brat - the voice of the giant subject echoed through the burning remains of the village due to its gravity and firmness, he had waited for years (as leader of the giant's sentinels) since he was notified how the false vessel of his worshiped deity had managed to survive in some way or another, and to make matters worse it had been living comfortably under his own nose... but this would finally end once and for all - ...I have to admit how those stupid humans managed to keep you so well hidden from our collection patrols... and although some of us already suspected that your miserable self still existed, we never expected that you would be so close to us... this situation is so hilarious that I even find it insulting!
Although he had said the last thing smiling, his look and tone (along with that of the rest of those close to him) showed that in reality they were barely hiding their anger for having been deceived for so long.
It was insulting in more ways than one to them, and it was a hoax made by humans! The weakest and most fearful creatures in the catalog of Mother Nature and Od Laguna... this was practically a spit in their honor to them, and evidently they would not let things be like this for a single second more.
Although... on the side of the young Sekhmet... the subject's words had no weight in his mind, since the cold that had begun to seep through his hands and feet had escalated to the point of cutting his own breathing.
It was almost as if the ice and frost in the enviroment were spreading from outside to her inside ... all while her mind and the rantings of the subject in front of her blended together like a shrill melody without rhyme or reason to consciousness for her ...
What am I supposed to... do now...?
- Although honestly it is not as if we were giving them the right to live in our territory just for that... - the subject continued explaining - it was simply entertaining to see them doing their daily nonsense while trying to survive in an environment that clearly never favored them. .. human stubbornness and idiocy was something really entertaining for us to see! - he blurted with contempt and mockery from above, the rest of his companions accompanied him with their respective mockery about the situation that caused them so much amusement - .. In fact, it was also entertaining to see how they even thought that they could try to stop us when we got here... no matter how many shiny balls and broken glass they threw at us, it was more than evident that they didn't know or had a damn idea what they were doing. It was like facing silver dragons using branches and stones, hahaha!
Their laughter again resounded rudely over the place of their massacre, which evidently some normal and ordinary townspeople would not have been able to have the opportunity to defend properly no matter how many magic users or knights they had, (which on top of that were not many), some of them they were just simple travelers who had the worst luck to pass through here at this time of misery, and the others were only provided by the kingdom to say that they were doing something to "protect their citizens" (even though the "help" were nothing more than poorly fed and paid recruits along with some of the members of their community who were forced into service to maintain the appearance of "a kingdom that watches over its people"... truly despicable...)
How was it... possible this...?
- And yet they were stupid enough to try to hold us back, almost thinking that you would turn around and run away when you saw the disaster that this trashy town became, ha!... - he exclaimed as he opened his corpulent arms to emphasize again the state of misery into which the village had fallen -... as disappointing as your own existence is... you gave us all the time in the world to come here and do what we wanted!
- You let your damn apathy towards everything around you leave those who supposedly cared for you with so much love and diligence at our mercy... ~ - he shouted when the mocking grimace he had maintained since the beginning of their conversation finally dismantled, giving way to a look of pure anger and contempt at a fundamental level - The blame for the current state of these pathetic humans and their village is nothing more than the result of your own uselessness and incompetence in everything you set out to do, be it being a familiar or a worthy sacrifice to the gods! You are useless in al you got into! - he cheered grandly, along with the rest of those who accompanied him in war cries - Through our hands... our weapons... and our ANGER you have condemned everyone around you to a destiny of doom and agony for your indisposition to do something to save them!
Almost as if it were an ultimatum he hit the ground with the ax with enormous ferocity, as if he were giving the posthumous speech of an inexorable truth.
YOU ARE THE EXISTENTIAL, TWISTED, DISGUSTING PINNACLE OF THE VERY CONCEPT OF SLOTH!
Between cheers and exclamations from everyone present, she only heard white noise, because in the mind of the young giant she finally found the deathly silence of her incessant whirlwind of questions, when among all the oral diatribe of the evil individual, a single statement settled... in the back of her mind...
Like a huge rock falling into the depths of the abyss on her...poisonous ideas stabbing her heart....
Could she... could she really have prevented it?
If she had been present she...could she have saved them?
And the most important...
Was... all of this... somehow... her fault?
...
...
Yes... It was evident that it was.
At the end of the day... one way or another it seemed that everything bad that happened to her was directly or indirectly her fault.
She was not able to meet the expectations of her own people to bring such an important entity to them and that is why they banished her...
She would not have been able to survive in the elements if she had not been rescued shortly after her exile...
And the most important...
She wasn't able to protect the family she loved...because of her damn laziness...
In the midst of that untimely rain of reproach and mental self-hatred, she was stiff, her face was completely soaked with abundant tears, her frustration and sadness constantly oozed through the thick saline drops that oozed from her eyelids, it was as if she realized too late how her unwillingness to live in her actions had condemned so many innocent people to the abyss... watching as the entire world that her family and friends had worked so hard to build for her, collapsed when it was time for HER to keep it stable and sure.
Outside of the thoughts of the young unfortunate girl, none of the armed barbarians were willing to pity her miserable figure, the false-vessel brat had already snatched away the opportunity to demonstrate their superiority to the rest of the races, being able to be among the first to return to life to their ancestral deity, and on top of that she had had the nerve to stay - alive - in their territories, to protect them from the humans that they barely tolerated... it was intolerable.
....
...
.
You let them die...
You didn't do anything to help them...
Your mere existence is a constant nuisance...
...
...
You are a truly slothful girl, Sekhmet...
- Well brat... the elders don't pay me enough to continue making fun of you, no matter how much I like it - the subject clarified - once we have taken care of you, we can finally take care of continuing to look for a suitable container for our God... meanwhile of that...
And before continuing... a malicious smile appeared alarmingly on his face...
- ...we might have had quite a bit of fun with the other girl we captured... she looked so desperate on her face as she implored us not to hurt her little sister "Set-kei"... although to be fair... .we won't do you any further harm (besides killing you), the lovely pink virgin figure of hers is wasting every minute I spend here with you...
...so, without further delay...
And following his string of words, he wielded his ax ready to finish the job that had been entrusted to him in the first place, apparently a simple task to complete seeing the pitiful state of his victim...
...Or it would have been...if he hadn't used that little nickname that so unconsciously came out of his mouth....
Like a small burning ember falling into a mine of magic stones, Sekhmet's entire mind made a *click* in unison when he recognized the origin of it...
… (It was the affectionate nickname that her sister used to refer to her day after day, night and day throughout her life…)
Hearing that she was still alive (apparently) and what these guys were planning to do to her made something inside her... that "cyst" that had attached itself to her Od like a leech began to grow in power and intensity... when she began to exhibit more intense and erratic behavior (so different from her general apathy), along with violent breathing and bloodshot eyes, her entire mind abruptly frozen in the image of her family and her dear sister... and how she still had a chance to save her.
Although the force of the giants had enough momentum to break even the hardest rocks, the impact of the latter never made contact with its target, and (to the absolute horror of the rest of the thugs) they began to see how the figure of their commander began to to twist in impossible and disgusting ways, hearing how every bone, muscle and cartilage of his burly frame began to bend and creak on themselves, crushing each other violently...
You could even see the same terror on the bastard leader's face before, finally, that intangible force that distorted his image ended up crushing his head between his back and crotch, giving him the terrifying image of a "giant pretzel".
After that... the deplorable crushed image of him fell to the ground, (with a disgusting fleshy sound) leaving the previous towering image of him practically unrecognizable.
Although it seemed to the rest of the troop that their leader was twisted through the air to death, for the young purple-haired giant the panorama was diametrically different, since her ghostly limbs (so different from the languid and equally apathetic state that they used to reflect of her own identity) quickly became large and grotesque manifestations of hands of all shapes and sizes, some even moved away from the human effigy they usually adopted to borrow sharp and pointed shapes along with enormous claws of darkness that did not waste time, first immobilizing the aggressor, and subsequently grabbing him by any protrusion on his body in order to twist his image with the same brutality of a person crushing an egg in hands....
If any of them had tried to run instead of rushing stupidly forward blinded by rage, perhaps they would have had a minimal chance of salvation... but their pride would not allow them to do that... preferring to fall first in combat rather than accepting defeat, they ended up finding "precisely" that destiny.
Once their boss fell, the rest followed them (like a butterfly effect) in the same "pretzelization" process, even if some suspected that the latent threat was precisely in the air, they could not do much about it because their swords and maces bounced violently against them as if they were hitting the floor, walls or even firm rocks, rendering their efforts completely useless.
From Sekhmet's view she would simply watch as the erratic and disorganized blows of her captors collided with her invisible limbs without making a scratch.
Perhaps in a previous normal situation they could have easily destroyed them because of the lack of consistency she put into creating them.... but it was evident that the present situation had nothing "common" for her, therefore her own authority reached a new level peak of power and potency over their unsuspecting attackers.
(If she could stop the damn pain that new reach of her Authority exerted on her head... she might have noticed how the troop of 23 giant men was reduced in a flash to a pile of bags of flesh and crushed organs, oozing blood on the floor)...
But right now...that wasn't important to her...
-I...have to...*hah* arrive soon...! *hah*...
In response to her thought, multiple brambles of darkness were created that began to surround her image, rising above the ground, while another group of them acted as gigantic legs to mobilize her.
Again, if the pain and white noise resulting from its use had not been ringing so insistently in her ears and head, perhaps she might have noticed how her limbs began to demolish the already hopeless village she had been inhabiting, completely inconsistent with the awfulness path of destruction that she left along the way.
But she couldn't do it... the only thing she could do at that moment was hold her head tightly, just with the idea of finding the last member of her family and hoping that she was alive, (while for all that poor unfortunate who could see it, whether it was an enemy or a neighbor from the same village, they would only be able to see the image of a flying girl flying through the blackness of the night sky... before inevitably being crushed in place, without apparent explanation, as if the environment around them had simply crushed them to the ground to death).
-*hah*... More...of...I must be faster... *hah!*
So it was again, (obeying the will of her owner), the newly awakened Sloth Factor in its entirety began to generate more and more invisible limbs to help it achieve its objective, while outside the panorama was truly terrifying, as it I saw how behind the effigy of the young flying giant the rubble of earth and rocks were torn from the ground without apparent explanation (as if by a spontaneous tornado), and devastated the now non-existent village, along with the unfortunate souls of all those who were found in the pass, either buried or violently beaten by the debris that flew erratically around... or with their bodies left sunken and torn into pieces in the earth, a product of the erratic hands that sought to protect their lady above everyone and everything around her.
The situation was the same until... finally... she was able to half silence the white noise that was accumulating in her ears to look ahead and know what was happening...
(Maybe...it would have been better to have stayed that way...maybe her Authority was somehow "aware" of what she would find when she opened her eyes again, and tried to keep her in that state for her sake. Who knows?)
(The only certainty is that when he was able to do it and opened them again...the fate of many was sealed in the stone and perhaps not even they knew it...)
The first thing she was greeted with was the horrific landscape of multiple corpses of residents of her neighborhood and soldiers of the kingdom scattered throughout the surrounding area (if she had had enough brains to think about it, she would have noticed that the concentration of corpses was greater here than at any point in their town) being here probably the epicenter of the entire battle that occurred before their arrival, and who were in different states of laceration and mutilation, the most pious being the ones who simply fell dead from a devastating head-destroyer blow, (or a "pious" blow to the back with ax), and the rest of the unfortunate people who did not appear there could be found on multiple stakes in the style of a crude crucifixion, and their heads decorating wooden stakes at the edge of the dirt paths that she used to be walk... along with the rest of their limbs decorating the rest of the floor.
But even that nightmare passage of hers remained as a dream for her because of the image of her who was waiting for her at the end of the street... where her house was previously located...
...Almost completely reduced to rubble, (and what was not there was burning in flames) now being just a battered memory of all the celebrations and seasons that passed....
Her memories flooded one by one in her mind... but they didn't give her time to get used to the truly atrocious thing that awaited her...
In the fence he could barely make out the dismembered torsos of his adoptive father and mother... crowded on a crossed iron beam along with the rest of their severed limbs glued in crudely crude ways to their projections, giving them the grotesque image of being humanoid scarecrows.... with their eyes hanging out of their sockets and bathed in the dried remains of their own blood and tears of agony...
....and next to them... there was also... she...
...her siste...she was...
- *hah* ...No...
...
And finally.... "the noise" consumed Sekhmet's entire mind in darkness...
*OOOOO*
- *hah*...sigh...*hah*
Was it really worth remembering how her anger caused her to lose control of her own factor, and how she then twisted and tore off all the limbs of her village's attackers (and her own dying sister without realizing what she was doing)?
Was it really worth remembering how her newfound feelings made her responsible for the near-total annihilation of her own species just for her revenge?
...
...
Was it really worth thinking about the past to begin with?
The answer was always a resounding YES for her, after all since she buried the bodies of her first and only family she found no other remedy for her pain than to let herself be consumed again by the feelings of complete disinterest in life (and which ruined her life to begin with).
Consciously she submerged herself in melancholy and reluctance due to apathy towards everything around her, the only thing that allowed her to take a step forward or lift her head from the tablecloth were her friends who had fallen into the same misfortune (especially Typhon, reminding her so similar to that sister that life took from her).
They were really THE ONLY THING that kept her "awake" in her life, and she didn't let herself be consumed by the filth and starvation that she probably would have chosen if she had been truly alone (a "hikikomori" life, according to Echidna).
And that's why it wasn't surprising that... when she and Volcanica (the Dragon God himself) confronted each other on the edge of the world itself, with her being so close to killing him, only a single sentence from him was enough for the resurgence of those same feelings that she discovered in the dying remains of her village (and her life) will suddenly go out, and succumb to the void next to her:
- You should know this well, Witch... even if I die... the rest of the protectors of this world will hunt you down sooner or later... just as they already did with the rest of your companions...
As always and always, she was not able to notice the obvious signs that the world gave her to help those she loved, but could they expect anything from a witch who represents the sin that most incites slowness and inaction? She obviously wouldn't do it.
Se always wondered why Echidna didn't call them back to a tea party... why Minerva didn't bring Typhon for her to take care of... and why Carmilla, Satella and Daphne didn't visit her again or even write her letters... but that wasn't the point...
Together no nation would dare to confront them directly, it would be the end of it (since several of it met the end only because of one of them).
But separated...?
The answer came late (and in fact in her dead moment)... useless information... like her...
Who knows what would have happened to her if Echidna hadn't grabbed her soul from her void before leaving the world? Would she continue floating in the infinity of space, unable to die again because of that curse that resided in her Od?
She honestly couldn't care less about her.
And so as the great dragon watched her worn body fall from the edge of the world, she began to feel how the cold of outer space began to consume her again, not knowing if the cold was natural to space... or was it the same as the first time when He realized that he had lost a family and had done it again without realizing it.
And now the situation was the same...
What was she supposed to do?
Was she really doing "something" stopping Minerva?
Or... now she's the one who was stopping someone from saving a person?
...
Even if the situation was confusing (and frustrating for her) between the protruding wells of her watery eyes she could see (surprised) how Minerva was able to make a great effort to get up (perhaps she loosened her grip as she allowed herself to be consumed by the memories, or perhaps until that moment I had not really seen the strength for which Minerva was known in life).
But this time it was different (and presented almost as a reflection of herself from the past) as the gaze of the blonde witch (who was previously consumed by anger and helplessness), was replaced by the gaze of her younger self...
Hopeful and determined to move forward... and build a future for herself.
And then...
What would she do then if she wanted to help the boy? Would she continue to refuse her? Would she let her do it?
Or...
Would she let him help him?
Would she really continue to allow herself (even in death) that her laziness will cost other innocent people their lives?
She didn't know...How could she? She was always a failure in everything the world set her up to be: a chosen one, a daughter, a sister, a friend...
And even if she ignored all of that...
Could she help Subaru Natsuki not lose the ones he loved even after his unfortunate past?
She didn't have the answer...as always.
And returning to see her closest and silent companion carried by the sarcophagus beast of hers she could know that she too would not be able to give her any answers even if she were asked.
Maybe she was closer to Daphne than she thought...
(5)
Grahhhjjjh...?~
- No, thanks Cenpy... I'm not hungry~...
Grahhfgt?!
...
Even if she didn't answer her endearing beast of transportation... it was evident to her that (beneath her well-practiced poker face) her lips were threatening to twist at the magnitude of her latest statement.
Daphne....The WITCH OF GLUTTONY...just uttered it with her own lips and her mouth...Wasn't she hungry...?
Maybe the world really had gone to shit.
Or was the world always in shit?
Were they all part of that shit?
....
....
And why the hell were they talking about shit to begin with?
....
.....
...
..
What?...do you find this behavior of hers surprising?
The truth here is that beneath the facade of an innocent and extravagant young girl that the image of her gave off, was that along with Sekhmet, Daphne was possibly the most neutral (or aware of her actions) of all the witches.
It's just that she simply could never find a way to show it because of the voracious (and seemingly infinite) hunger that plagues and inundates every part of her body, keeping her from exhibiting her own feelings and real thoughts
And that's why he found the Natsuki boy just as interesting as Echidna as soon as they found him: his innocence/idiocy had its own charm for both of them, but there was a clear difference.
For her, in addition to the recurring greedy interest in Echidna (which made her so prone to treating people like her dolls from her own play) (a complete daughter of a b... a book, just Daphne), but it wasn't just that ...there was more to him...something that most people were unaware of (or simply did not care about because of the false image of "invincible hero" than the defective Authority that Satella had given him, and had imposed that image on him).
And it was like everyone had specialized in using it for her own convenience:
The half-elf girl only leaned on him for fear of loneliness.
Echidna's clown student to find (if there was) some way to revive her.
The maids were a dead end for her: the pink oni using him as her work slave, and insulting him every time she saw him, and the blue-haired oni, with the same reasons as the half-elf, although she was not as upset with her (at least except their deaths at the "hands" of his little whale and the crazy Geuse cooled his head after the anger it caused Daphne to see the boy forgiving them both so easily because... ~of course~... forgiving two people That they murdered you (without real justification) was the easiest thing to do in life, right?
And should we really emphasize real candidates? No? Great! It's good to know that there are no stupid people here who force her to repeat herself, as if she were a chatty parrot or something like that.
Ugh... no doubt not eating made her very grumpy, even if technically she hadn't eaten anything in four centuries.
But by focusing on the man in question, (and now that her hunger wasn't bothering her as much) she was able to side with the black-haired boy in this case.
After all...she was also born for the convenience of others to begin with.
*OOOOO*
She was (to put it simply) the unnatural creation of a rich, cowardly, pusillanimous little guy who (unable to accept the common nature of life) tried to "break the rules", trying to extend his life beyond the natural...
It's not necessary to emphasize how many disgusting and reprehensible things he did in pursuit of his goal, but if you wanted an example of that... just to say that Roswall could be considered a small-time spoiled bratcompared to this bastard.
But hey! You don't get anything from pulping dead people, right? And in an ironic turn of events (and when the idiot had believed that he had finally managed to create his definitive panacea) he let her go free walk around...without her chain characteristics... and then, well...
She actually had one thing to say about him: he tasted so fucking bad, that if she'd been told she'd "accidentally" eaten dried shit, she wouldn't even have noticed the difference (maybe that's why she was thinking about waste to begin with...it reminded her so much of the idiot who brought her into this world and his unwanted existence, that she started rambling about it).
Her "parents" were also there, they seemed terrified of the abomination they had created with their respective crotches, but that shock didn't last long, (or well... they didn't last long), and again when she regained consciousness, In that impressive castle there was nothing and no one else left (no people, no guards, no maids) only her and her insatiable gluttony recently discovered and acquired as her first companion in this world.
Fantastic.
It is generally said that one does not ask to come into the world when one is born, and that our destinies (despite all our choices throughout life) are usually already written to some extent, something like "freedom with lots of quotes at the end."
And if that was really true... to the girl with sharp teeth and ashy-gray hair, the boy with black hair, and the rest of the women present, it was evident that the bastard who wrote the scripts for theirs should have having a stick stuck very deep in his anus at the time so that later he would go and take it out on all of them.
She certainly couldn't find a better way to describe the situation of everyone present, they were FUCKED from their birth, without any exaggeration.
*OOOOO*
Don't worry, you're not going to read about Daphne another sad origin story with pain and suffering, since she as such really felt no real remorse for having caused a massacre at her birth, for having killed her parents, or simply for having left behind after her death in the world to millions of hostile and useless creatures that undermined the human population every time they needed to survive.
Nope! From the beginning of her life she was "broken": she was a creature that oscillated her existence between humanity and demonic beasts, without the real ability to feel any emotions other than hunger, with the sole objective of devouring everything in her path. .
That was the only thing she was "programmed" to be in her life by that fearful unfortunate man before he died.
That's why when she was finally left to fend for herself in her final hours in the Augrian Dunes she didn't even bother to feel anger, pain, or even sadness for her inevitable death (she even came to believe that she was "happy" that death had left "take away" her damn insatiable hunger once and for all).
And THAT... was also the main reason why Subaru Natsuki was so interesting to her.
A guy from absolute nowhere, so lively and outgoing (even if he was a facade so as not to be left alone), and so ambitious that his lack of knowledge about anything made him so attractive.
Perhaps for that reason it was also that she couldn't help but smile so shamelessly when the boy told her to her face (while he finished gnawing the flesh of his own arm) how HE would be the one who would destroy her superior beasts created by her, with all the security in the world.
In 400 years of miserable existence (only slightly tempered by the presence of her friends) Daphne might finally be able to feel something in her damn defective body... oblivious to the ravenous hunger that was reflected in her little pets.
Even if it was the mocking feeling of an immature and traumatized child with the heroism that he would be able to do something that neither the Sage, nor the dragon, nor the Sword God were able to do in all of existence.
It was something so absurd in itself... but it made her feel so fun and *full*, and at the same time so empty and languid inside her... that it made her hungry and wanted to abstain, from temptation and restlessness. ...
They were those kinds of feelings... those that only Subaru Natsuki would be able to provoke in a witch, (her friend Stella was the most obvious) but seeing the faces of the rest of her companions was more than enough to make her understand. ...very soon... those new sensations of hunger and withdrawal would not end soon, and that she could also share them with them.
-...No, Cenpy... it's not that I lost my appetite... I just exchanged it for something much more, delicious instead ~Tsu...
~Ghahhf?~
Yep, the new form of anger on Mila's face... the impeccable, machiavellian smile on Tyon and Edna's respective faces were signs of something new and different... something that would fill her in a way she never would have. could feel until that moment...
Something she couldn't have experienced without the delightful presence of Subaru Natsuki.
- So fascinating... and full of "It"...-Tsu~
Turning to face her lazy friend, she thought she could see almost a mirror of herself in her face: confusion and indecision overwhelmed them both, (even if one was born of guilt and despair, and the other of a fervent emotion that had nothing to do with the simple act of eating) no one knew what to do to cope with the situation.
One not knowing what to ask...
And the other one without knowing what to answer...
It was so infuriating (and so deliciously extravagant at the same time) and again produced just by the boy's mere existence... a new kind of way of looking at gluttony and slothfulness for both of them...
-Was I always so similar to Setky-tsu?
(Maybe they're not as similar as I previously said after all).
(6)
- Let me take your burdens... You just need to rest...
And she slowly brought her lips to his (even if it wasn't who he really expected to be hers) she wanted to take some of her unfair burden, and give him that rest and peace that he truly deserved...
*XXXXX*
For someone who had taken upon herself the mantle of Witch of Lust:Carmilla really didn't really understand the concept of it, or the true nature of love at the very least...
It's not like her life was really a good exponent of it.
There was a time when she was not very different from you or me as a person, being that (with the exception of her unusual introverted and soulless behavior) she was really a rather average person in any aspect other than her beauty which (according to the rumors that she heard recurrently) would easily rival all the female deities known, posed, and imaginable to us as insignificant human beings, they literally said that.
Not that she really gave credit to the words she heard, in fact there was so much insistence on the same topic over and over again that, finally (in an effort not to be reminded) she voluntarily decided to hide her entire bodily form in her thick, plush pastel-colored coats, but even after doing it nothing was resolved in the end, because people kept putting her on a pedestal that she didn't want.
And that was because (after having made the decision to cover up her supposed "heavenly feminine forms") the compliments were immediately redirected, and were distorted into the image of a young princess, who should be protected as the most important thing in the world.... no matter what...
Obviously if someone had bothered to ASK HER DIRECTLY (instead of thinking about what "she supposedly wanted"), they would have noticed the uninteresting and annoyed tone in her voice due to the suffocating care and pampering that she never asked for.
(She even believed that they would take away the luxury of breathing freely at her expense if she allowed them).
Although not everything was so completely unpleasant... because at some point in her life she came to believe that she had known the feeling that so many people supposedly professed towards her.
...
Maybe...she had discovered the feeling of love.
This feeling was caused by the appearance on the scene of a young boy from a region close to where she lived: he was a construction worker by profession and had an energetic and happy attitude, he was charming beyond not actually being a "handsome" man.
He was the only one who (looking above her ways and behavior, and for what everyone really loved her for), was able to look below the superficial gaze of her followers, (rather cultists) and genuinely care about her.
Not as "The Divine Princess", or the "Woman Among Women", but simply as
Well, for him, "apparently" it was not like that.
They were quite happy within what was possible for their status, he was quite attentive and seemed to enjoy her company without the need to remind her "divine position" that people had attached to her image (and that she remembered with annoyance about her own name).
And she was happy to spend time with someone who simply saw her as just another woman in the world, and yet she was unique in his eyes.
And she liked the feeling... it was so familiar... so close and specially... so different at the same time from the love of family (or the cult that persecuted her) that in fact, with her new discovery of this feeling at the door of her understanding , she was able to really think about what the concept of non-familial and non-religious love was for her:
"Love between two people only occurs when both are willing to show themselves as themselves, and how both manage to see through that supposed social image and find the individual-person that is hidden behind that name or image that they show to the world as it is (even if the person themselves is not able to see it)."
The knowledge of that attractive form of love which seemed so unknown until that moment to her, turned out to be so extravagant and peculiar that she (unfortunately) could not notice in time how the behaviors of her lover gradually changed...
From relaxing company... to almost obsessive possession-veneration over her image...
But she quickly dismissed that thought, after all he was different from the others, why would she think that she would become like the rest of the people who simply offered her suffocating, hollow, and above all completely one-sided treatment?
They were "them", and the world was the world... nothing that happened in it could affect them as long as they had and loved each other...
Maybe it wasn't a "they" as she believed, but rather a "you and me", or "you more than me" or also... "I will do anything for you in fact" and that was confirmed when... "That nobleman" arrived at her very soon fractured home...
There wasn't much to comment on that nobleman really:
He had been the only begotten successor of a long line of feudal lords who had directed and maintained the territories in which Carmilla's family had cohabited for so many generations.
He was quite young (and of pleasant shapes to look at) although in character he was rather heavy and petulant (you know... like the prospect of a medieval generic nobleman).
She would not have exchanged two words with such a person in her life if she could have avoided it, but her "divine importance" made her recognized even beyond the walls of her insignificant village, so it would not be surprising to expect that (in a of his many outings with his fiancé) the noble boy will finally inevitably meet the young couple.
For Carmilla (even without being the smartest of many women in her town) it did not take her more than two minutes to know the man's intentions, so in the very arduous task of his "courtship" she simply "disconnected" her brain from the reality that surrounded him.
It was an action that he rather had to learn when dealing with his family and his entourage, and it's not that he despised them or anything like that... but it's that after the 35th flattering comment anyone would end up getting bored on a fundamental level of listening to them.
And that was what was happening now: she let her body respond automatically with monosyllables and short answers while she was stuck in her head, waiting for the meeting or event to end so she could go to sleep (or escape with her lover, once again).
Although it was the latter who did not seem to adhere to the routine that she tacitly believed that both of them had created, since apparently he already had other plans... not pleasant ones... and that had already been put into motion...
She only came out of that state of self-imposed mental block when she was shaken (literally) out of it by one of her neighbors while she told her through tears and hysteria to stop the filth show that was shown in front of her (so blatantly) and which she apparently witnessed in a silence of enjoyment:
That show... was vilely starred by the the boy she loved most, using her worked arms of the trade on the noble young man (who probably only knew raising glasses and eating excellent food as his only exercise routines), both of them being in a fierce fight (although it was obvious who actually had the upper hand in the situation).
Only when representatives of both sides subdued their respective opponents could the result of the fight be seen, along with Carmilla's sobbing face, it was the only thing they had to witness about the situation of her loved one.
Some people even heard insults and curses from the painful boy of nobility, and about what the repercussions that this fight would have for her community...
…Although with what would happen later... the words would pass like a drop of water in the middle of the storm, and much more...
Anyone would think that its effect would be slow but constant (like a poisoning) ... but nothing could be further from the truth.
When the people (shocked) asked about the pitiful state of their divine maiden to her closest (and at the same time recognized suitor) she did not have the slightest qualms in clarifying the supposed disrespect for her image in the midst of the courtship of the high-born bastard, and why it was seen that way, being the byproduct of the same outrage
(Had he been just as dishonest in her previous conversations?)
Practically after he had made his statements, the resulting butterfly effect was as violent and as out of proportion as leaving a bag of fire stones on the hustle and bustle of a moving carriage.
A group of men from her town (both young and some older) made up an expeditionary hunting-capture group that would go after the abrupt departure of the rich young man.
The poor unfortunate man did not see it coming that the first resting place on the way back to his family's protected territory would also be his grave, when the legionary group found him... and subsequently dismembered him... only to later feed with his unfortunate remains to the beasts of the night.
For her part, was not able to fix her melancholic and decomposed image in the days after the macabre event, without fully understanding if it was because such an inconsequential courtship ended in such a crude barabaric representation towards her, or because of the fact that she knew that It was precisely her beloved fiancé who spearheaded both the mission and the subsequent brutalization of the remains.
She didn't care either... just remembering the details that the people around her said so happily hoping for her approval only made her stomach sour (to the point of vomiting).
But she would never tell others, after all... show weakness that was not what a divine princess would do... right?
With that whole "situation" going on, one would think that the murdered boy's family would take revenge immediately (and just as brutally), but surprisingly they was kept this in a strict secret of feudal rule by the same family.
You may wonder:why?
Well, in reality... the parents were always against their son's visit considering his unfamiliar or respectful character, and this being that he would go to a community that had the bad reputation of being an organized cult of adoration towards the pink-haired girl...
It was a matter that had every chance of going wrong... just as it did.
When they later learned of their heir's fatal fate, instead of being saddened or enraged, they were terrified to levels they had never experienced before.
After all... if a group of peasants and townspeople could so easily attack the direct descendant of the family that owned the region without hesitation...
What more extreme and sadistic things would they do if they seriously attacked their precious protégé?
They for their part would not have been in a position to lead an expedition against a group that seemed to have such a "supernatural" impulse to action... and that would probably have been best for everyone, if no one has thought to intervene...
I repeat: if NO ONE had thought to do something about it...
*OOOOO*
Carmilla couldn't tell you exactly when she went from having a tight group of followers only in his village, to having hundreds of regiments, mercenaries, and trained soldiers who would kill (and die), only for defend her name.
Perhaps it was because of her lack of curiosity to leave her place of origin that precisely her "influence"(not then known to her Authority) continued to expand more than it should for the common good... or for the fact of that one of the minor houses of the affected family flatly refused to tolerate the event and simply ignore it, alerting nearby communities of how truly dangerous Carmilla's followers were.
The truth at the end of the day was that this was just the "starting spark" for the entire mine of bomb stones to explode, because her people were threatened (and above all: HER being threatened), and the real madness began...
Her fiancé and the others who followed him in her first barbarism would later command (and eradicate) the aforementioned nobles who made the call to fight (without much effort in the process).
Many outsiders thought of them as implacable demons, who would mercilessly destroy anyone who interfered, or even looked unkindly on their "Goddess".
And she just watched them act selfishly and superficially....doing things she never asked for, and then having the nerve to say it was all for her own good.
-"I would have been better off drinking tea and reading a book at home... not witnessing the eradication of an entire family for "my entertainment..."- she thought without bothering to get out of her bed for answer.
Seeing themselves outmatched (and obviously not knowing what the hell they had really gotten themselves into) the nobles of that community (in their own cowardice) had the impeccable idea of suggesting that they had been sent by the family of the noble boy murdered in retaliation, and that they were not It was his intention to make them angry.
She did not know if her followers really believed it, probably if they did, because after having made a "bloody scene" similar to the remains of the captured family, they decided to march directly to the property of the first nobles with very obvious and not at all friendly intentions....
The last thing she would see would be an elderly man and his wife with their faces of horror and despair, when the two of them were charred next to their mansion and its servants (and their family legacy) in the middle of the dark evening...
For her followers and her fiancé it was a great victory in her arduous journey.
For her... a new nightmare and gray memory that would be with her forever in her head (and that would not let her sleep peacefully for the next year).
The time after that actually flew by, (and despite the obvious danger that Carmilla represented for the world), the ruling empire of that time took too long to respond vehemently to the dangerous situation that was presented to them...
...and consequently, her fiancé and her followers focused on spreading her image and that of her entourage through it, with the intention that the unforeseen of her Authority would exercise the full scope of power over the population in general.
It was thus that Carmilla's initial militia force (organized by some workers and adepts from the previously massacred territory) was joined by forces of knights and magicians who had betrayed the Kingdom, while house after noble house were killed (or annexed) to her expanding cult