Tunnels carved pathways through the city’s underground. Droning noises echoed against brick and stone and metal frameworks that held the city aloft in its artificial island. Squalor writhed between walls and brackish waters perfumed with slum. Insects skittered against the walls, crawling and feasting upon corpses with donors unknown. Lights flickered over grime and muck, but it was when a shadow rose above all the figures of pulsating flesh that all scattered to find another grave to call home.
Beneath the luminous city of Lulucion, far beyond the deepest reaches of the towering estates, a creature stalked.
Loathsome in its appearance, it crawled over walkways deeper to a place with a foretold meeting.
Dizzying mazes stretched up and over the foundations of Lulucion. It would have been easier to waltz to the Guild beheld by sunlight and cheering masses. But evil could not be allowed to be so freely welcomed within gilded gates. Snatched from its lofty boat to the continent, it was squandered away as though an illegal package. Hands traded the merchandise in secret. Disappearing beneath hidden doors to a place less known.
Flanked at either side of this fiend were two heavily robed Knights. Their appearances shrouded in mystery as they marched beside the devil who scurried over rotting pathways and yawning chasms. Dressed in finely woven white robes, stained with heavenly red, they bore a humanly plain mask that kept their anonymity. In one hand a pike which did not end in the typical pointed edge, instead it curved so finely into a U-shape. Sharp prongs jutted from the curved metal, stretching inward to prevent whomever had their neck within the wondrous metal frame from struggling against its inevitable end. A noose for the unworthy.
A procession kept behind her. Wafting incense from a thurible to staunch the pestilence that dripped down her lips and onto the horrid tunnel ways. It rose as fog. But joined with the rest of the steam works and chemical stench, it hardly made any difference to concoction of hell that already swam in these trenches.
The group turned down another tunnel. Down another hallway of darkness that not even torchlight deigned to touch. At the end of the narrow access way was a wooden door that would lead to much more horrible things.
When they reached the door, the Knights lifted their pikes as though to harpoon her neck. She gave a whittled smile as she let her hand hang limp over the finely decorated metal handle and heavier wooden doors. In the darkness, her Inhuman Eye glowed. Barely satiated, this terrible thing, it allowed the Human part of her to open the door which creaked ominously open to a room hidden from nearly everyone who ever lived.
It was not a good thing for another to gain knowledge of this place.
He was dressed in red robes. The hat he wore shrouded his face, but Zero was sure that the Knight also wore a mask like all the rest that stood beside her. She sat at the large oak table finely dressed in her own cloth of Seregios armor that still glinted without sunlight. Its sharp scales prickling, ready to delight in blood should anyone touch her.
Not that it would do any good protecting her from these people.
She wondered who was the most Human out of all the Hunters who stood here.
“I bear tidings from Dundorma.” Zero raised her hand up holding an overly embroidered scroll case. She half-threw half-set it onto the table, not even bothering to fish the it out of its compartment. “You can look over the reports. But I have full authority to kill any Gore Magala or Frenzied Monster on this continent. With or without the permission of Lulucion’s Guild.”
The man did not shift in the slightest.
“We know.”
Zero’s lips furled into a smile.
“Then this meeting is for nothing.” She leaned back in the chair and took note of the rest of the clergy. They had pulled out all the stops to take her to this place. Touching. Prodding. Feeling. Taking a keen interest in her wasted down body which could barely stand the test of time. So unlike The Calamity of legend. “Waste of time.”
“Not so.” The man replied. His voice was lustrous, yet commanding. Appropriate for a leader with such terrible following. Necessary, but neither good nor evil. Merely what it was. What it is. Just as nature does what needs to be done. “It is for another thing we take you here.”
He raised his hand so gently in the air. It almost appeared as if the very fabric of reality itself bowed to his touch. It was caressed by soft red gloves and frilled with lace. Another member approached from the shadows and handed to him a small piece of paper.
Even if the contents were unknown to Zero, it was obvious what it was.
“We understand that you have an affliction,” the man continued. As if ritual, he placed the piece of paper so neatly folded into a perfect square on the table in front of him. He held it down softly against the oaken table with both hands. The clergy stepped forward. They encircled her throne of disease.
“That is correct.” Zero tapped a finger against the oak table. The way her gauntlets sounded against the table was strange and unnatural. The beat was off. “I manage it fine on my own. Thanks.”
She looked disinterested or bored, who was to say. But her eyes traced the Knights that stood round her with their pronged lances raised. Even if she could not see their eyes, she knew how trained they were upon her. Taking in the flesh so finely dressed. Picking her apart. Cracking the exterior of metal to finger the soft and sticky blood within. She wondered if they indulged in tasting their prey after spending so long in breaking them apart.
Zero knew she did.
“It may be so that you counteract this pestilence in your own self soothed ways.” Slowly he began to unfold the paper. It was slow. Methodical. The clergy began to close in with those pronged lances. “But we require you to take our own concoction.”
“A different poison?”
They encased her neck within that beautiful pronged lance. It held her still. Tied her to the spot that she sat within. Should she move then they would slice her neck clean off. And no one would bother to care for her death. Maybe.
“Poison. Inoculation. Deliverance.” He continued to unfold the paper. “It is whatever you wish it to be. But it is our only requirement.”
There was a scraping noise. Metal against metal. Chains ringing in her ears. Leather against leather. Those sharp prongs pressed up the back of her neck as they forced her to sit completely upright.
She had half a mind to test her luck. But Zero was no fool.
A shrill laughter rang out. It echoed against the walls. Her shoulders shuddered against the lances. The Seregios armor scraping against the prongs. Fingers furled into her hair. Petting her gently as though to soothe a dog which was scared. They counted every one of her strands. Observing how strange and unnatural her colored hair was. Searching for the humanity in her. Even if the touch was with adoration and love, it was completely unlike the love and affection she was used to receiving.
“Did you give my brother… this?” She gestured to the medicine now presented so heavenly in front of her. Upon the altar was one pill. It was innocent. But even innocent, it felt more evil than the thing inside of her.
“That, we cannot say.” With two hands, he pushed the edges of the paper towards her. The pill grew close. “Perhaps we did. Or perhaps we did not.” Another Knight approached her. They carried no lance upon them. Their robes were pristine white and embroidered with intricate designs strewn over their body. “I am sure it would have helped him.”
A Knight picked up the pill and faced Zero.
Metal clattered against her ear. She felt as those hands moved over her face. Touching her cheeks. Prodding the burns. Caressing her chin and holding her still. The grasp was rough and gentle all the same. She was used to people wanting to understand her. Reaching beneath her skin and attempt to unravel her. Fingertips felt under her skin and ran over her muscles. Tracing the way her skull formed beneath all that flesh that made her appear so Humanly. But there was only one or two who could find that that.
She sat still with that same smile.
“Do you accept the terms?”
She felt as fingers found their way into her mouth. Measuring how Human were teeth were as they rubbed over every molar and incisor. Then, when satisfied, they took sample of her saliva. Normal looking, but shaded so softly in that Frenzy. They pushed further down her throat. Teasing the way her tongue would lap at the fingers that drew further into her body. Elbow length deep, it touched her chest and the thing that grew inside of her. The cell that would eventually turn her into a horrible thing. With measuring tapes they took account of the length of her life. How much she had left to live.
They never told her the results.
The metal became louder.
She felt the leather over her face. A metal brindle came into view as another person from behind lifted it to her mouth. The bit was metal and not made for Humans. They pushed the coldness against her lips, working its way into her mouth and teeth. Her tongue played with the bit. Her teeth gnawed on the metal. They all watched as her saliva coated with Frenzy dripped down the sides of her mouth and onto the table she and the man sat at. She felt how the leather that kept the bridle fastened to her face was tightened so harshly against her body. How they began to shackle the rest of her in chains. Over her wrists. Over her ankles. Pushing her tighter and tighter together.
It felt raw. It felt too tight as they constricted so much it made her stop breathing.
But the tighter they pulled, the more the Frenzy bubbled.
They touched it. Prodded at it. Watched as it swam down her armor and fogged up the room.
The Knight who held the pill held out such a beautiful collar for her. It was embroidered so wonderfully with designs of all types. She was not sure of the origin, but it reminded Nicole of home.
“Do I have a choice?” Zero spoke with that same smile on her face.
There was no answer, for the answer was obvious in the way their leader shifted so slightly against the darkness.
The Knight placed the pill on her tongue.
Everyone watched as she swallowed. Saw how it traveled down her throat. Mixing into her stomach. Becoming apart of her flesh and body. Molding into her. Those hands pushed into her body. Those leather bindings tightened against her body.
The collar looked so pretty on her.
But Zero saw how the man sat in front of her kept the leash. How his knuckles had likely turned white with how hard he wrapped the leather around his hand. His satin glove, so lovingly taken care of like the rest of his holy body, stretched against how much he flexed those perfect muscles. And Zero saw the soft trembling against the leather leash. His so perfectly kept body shuddering in fear for this creature sat in front of him. So lovingly bound and leashed Zero had been presented before him, and he still feared her teeth beneath all metal chains and leather.
She wondered how he would look beneath her touch. How he would tremble against her fingertips. Oozing his beautiful blood over her body. How he would taste when she ripped apart his seams.
Even if Zero could not see his face. The fear was obvious.
It felt good.
“Excellent.” He stood and gestured to the door behind him. “I will show you to your apartment.”
Zero stood.
She paused at the door and stared at their leader. Her smile so wide and welcoming.
A hand raised to greet his beautiful face. Fingertips skimming over his mask. Tracing those perfectly molded lips. The leader slightly drew back in surprise at the touch.
It would have been an insane gesture for anyone to take. Dangerous. Near suicidal.
But for Zero, it made the game all the sweeter to play.
“Good boy.”
The chains rattled against her as she pulled the entirety of her body through the door and up the stairs to heaven.
It was a high price to pay to be able to walk amongst angels.