"My game is almost won."
Cronus wore a grin on its face as it bent down to pick up the quivering kid.
A claw grasped his neck, causing his hiccuping gasps to stop.
"Ghk.. ahk…"
Cronus's grip tightened on his neck, leaning close to the boy.
His eyes were shaded out and pitch black due to Cronus using dark essence. He couldn't see.
"Mmm."
'Or maybe one eye should see…'
Cronus licked its teeth as it turned its gaze to the boy's left eye.
The pitch black infusion, a black tower of flame spearing through that left eye.
It'll rip it out, to begin.
Cronus undid some of the dark essence covering the boy's left eye.
*****
My vision became clearer… as clear as it could, at least.
A blurry figure is all I could see, the right side of my vision is pitch black, like it's gone.
I'm choking. Whoever's holding me by the neck is slowly cutting off my air.
"Ghk… hck…"
My left eye's vision slowly became clearer, but whatever it was made my eye tear up heavily, making my sight even worse than before.
But, I could make out the shapes.
Horns in the shape of loose spirals on its head. Red eyes that gleamed through the blurry water in my eye. Rows and rows of sharp teeth…
'I'm going to die…'
Then, I saw it. A pointed, pitch-black claw aimed right to where my eye is. I can't make out how far the claw is from my face, but it's there…
"Hck… p-please…"
The creature's grin spread wider. I could tell.
The claw aimed at my eye seemed to get closer, and closer.
I hiccuped while holding back a scream.
…
"AH-"
'It HURTS!'
'I can't see! What's going on!?'
I felt a horrible pain shred through my left eye as my vision of it cut off.
Whatever was holding me covered my mouth with its other claw, preventing me from screaming louder.
I felt my legs shaking as it lifted me up.
Pain.
That's all that coursed through my head.
Sheer agony, pain.
Relentless amounts of it.
I felt something warm leak down from where my left eye was, and something colder leak from where my right eye was.
Then…
SHK.
The creature removes its claw from my eye socket, and I crumple to the floor as it drops me.
I'm shivering.
"A-ah… ah…."
I'm in shock, I can't move.
"Hm?"
I hear a questioning grumble from above. I lay limp, any sense of strength exiting my body.
I can't see.
I'm blind.
Nothing but pain is searing through my head, every nerve screaming at me that something's gone.
Torn.
Ripped out.
I knew what it was, too.
The creature took my left eye.
Step. Step.
Measured steps echo through the cellar. I could hear so clearly… it must be adrenaline pumping through my brain to ease the pain.
It helped only a little.
"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk."
Someone clicks their tongue, I hear it a few steps away.
"You lose."
"...!?"
I hear a shocked grunt from just above me, and a heavy step.
"What do you mean, lose?"
A chuckle response to the low, grumbling voice, "It means you've lost. The root was him, not Blondie."
'Blondie…? Uh…'
I feel my consciousness slipping.
"Uh… ugh…"
I groan and lay limp against the floor.
*****
Cronus wore a frustrated expression.
"How? Blonde was the source, not this."
It tilted its head toward the unconscious Fault.
Dozens of eyes stare back as the other being steps into the darkness.
"How is this a loss? Answer!" Cronus raised its voice.
Trinity, now hundreds of eyes seem to smile.
"Wrong. You lose." He sighs.
"With only four hours left… a pity."
Cronus's nostrils flared, its red eyes shining a bit brighter in anger.
"NOT FAIR! MY WIN!"
The eyes stop smiling. "Shut it."
Immediately, with a snap, Cronus's jaw shut.
Trinity turns his head, and hundreds of eyes toward Fault.
"Poor kid." He feigns pity.
He steps over to the unconscious boy and lifts his head.
A gaping hole is where his left eye should be, and the eye that was removed lay still on the stone, coated in blood just a couple of meters away.
Cronus snarled through its clamped jaw, "Rrghh…"
It only made Trinity chuckle as he leaned closer to the boy.
Rrriip.
He tore off a piece of his suit's fabric, a long stripe of it, and wrapped it around Fault's head. He made a makeshift sort of eyepatch around his head, covering the ugly wound.
"There we go…"
'Though, where did his infusion go?'
Trinity scanned Fault's face, and the inky black flame was nowhere to be seen.
"Ugh, no matter."
"Hup!" Trinity stood back up with a little hop, and the same white grin appeared on his face.
"Alright, ugly! What shall I do with you…?"
He gets closer to the snarling goat.
"Oh, don't look at me like that, you know how we Entities play!" He laughs like a playing child.
A moment passes.
"Ah! Just the thing…"
Snap!
Trinity snaps his fingers, and Cronus's eyes instantly glaze over, a fog covering them. A moment after, he lets out a delighted laugh.
"Farewell to your sanity… and let's see how I should modify you to make things… interesting."
He begins to cackle as he glances as the discarded human remains behind the beast.
*****
Hale woke up in a rather cozy place. A fire a few steps away from him, and he's bundled up in a blanket on a pretty soft couch.
'Where…?'
His memories slip in one by one, recalling what had happened before he fell asleep.
"...!"
He jerks up and shakes himself awake, quickly glancing around the room.
Decorations of velvet red, covers over the window that match the color, a fireplace, and a desk nearby.
'Grant's study…?'
He recognized the room swiftly because he had been here a lot with his grandfather in the past.
As he leans further up, he sees someone standing in the doorway that leads to the lobby.
"W-who…?"
Hale stops himself from saying anything more, seeing that the 'person' in the doorway could hardly be called one at all.
Flickering black flame for hair, dozens, or hundreds of eyes from inside an endless void where its face should be.
It spoke, "Morning!"
It was… smiling?
It steps swiftly over to Hale.
"Nice to meet you, human! My name is Trinity."
He does a little bow in the light of the fire, his shadow dancing behind him.
"N-nice to meet you…?" Hale does a little nod back, "I'm Hale…"
He only winks one of his many eyes, "I know! Anyway, I have a little proposal for you, Blondie."
The being turns to the dark doorway he had entered through, and another one of him is dragging in something.
"...?"
Hale raised his eyebrow.
'How are there two of… nevermind. Judging by what he looks like, he could be a god…'
The thought made Hale swallow a mouthful of saliva. Anxiousness creeping in through his psyche.
Encountering a god isn't too rare in this world, but not common enough to talk about daily.
One thing every encounter has with a god, though…
…is that it never ends well.
"W-what's the proposal…?"
"I'm glad you asked, Blondie!" Trinity chuckles and the second version of him places what he was dragging on the couch next to Hale.
The sight made him gasp.
"...! Fault!"
It was Fault. He looked exhausted, even unconscious.
Hale scanned over his friend, taking in his appearance with immense worry.
Dried blood covered a good portion of his dark clothes, more on his shoes than the rest, as if he were walking in it. His face was pale, and the cloth covering the side of his face…
Blood, lots of blood was on his face, and especially the cloth covering the eye. Just beneath the cloth was so much blood that Hale couldn't even see where Fault's infusion was supposed to be. Or maybe it was gone.
"W-what happened to him…?"
Trinity only sighs and shrugs, "He got unlucky." Then, he clasps his hands together with a clap, his other self walking into him like water.
"Anyway! Here's my proposal!." Another chuckle passes through the nothingness of his head. Trinity seems to spawn a chair and flips is another way, sitting down on it.
"I have a little gift for you, a not-so-pleasant one at that." He leans closer to Hale, his voice getting lower, "If you win, I will ensure he lives, and becomes stronger than he ever could have become. But if you lose…"
Hale tensed a bit, not needing to hear the rest as he shook his head, "We both die, or worse… right?"
Trinity laughed again and nodded, rocking the chair he made back and forth, "Ding ding ding! You're a smart one, Blondie."
Hale swallowed nervously, "W-what is it…?"
Trinity looked at him and nodded, "I'm sure you've heard of the Devourer, yes?"
The question made Hale blank, 'The Devourer? Who hasn't? A dark rank stray on the level of folklore here in the outskirts of the royal domain…'
Hale nods back. Trinity continues, "Due to a little bet between me and that dumb goat, and that kid there…" He points at Fault, "...it seems he lost, and became a little pet of mine, so…"
The chair beneath him vanishes as he stands up, his arms up in the air as if he were a showman, "I wish to play one more game! One between me, you, and perhaps your sleeping friend there, Blondie."
"So, here are the conditions…"