He talks about killing himself.
Funny, isn't it? Does he not realize he's already dead?
That's the thing I really like about this place.
On Earth, if you even thought about doing something like this, laws and regulations would swarm you like predators. But here? Here, the divine decides power. And in this little corner of mine, I am the divine.
Cedric hung on the cross thoroughly drenched in blood and sweat. His body twitched from time to time as if the pain was constantly hitting him without break.
His head sagged forward, hair mushed with sweat and blood, his lips were swollen and cracked. It was the shell of a man who once thought of himself as untouchable.
I tilted my head, watching him in silence for a few seconds. Then I clapped once. It was loud enough to echo through the void.
"Oi, Cedric," I said with a dismay on my face. "Don't tell me you fell asleep on me already. You're not one of those guys who doze off during the fun part, are you?"
I stepped closer, staring at his half-shut eyes. "Or maybe…" My grin widened and my cheeks flushed. "…did you just faint from anticipation? Sheesh."
I let my gaze look a bit lower, pausing between his legs deliberately.
"Now then… since you've had your little nap, let's wake you up properly. Shall we move on to something a little more… sensitive?"
I raised my hand, and in my palm appeared a tiny knight-shaped toy. It wore heavy shining armor and had a red cape flaring from its back similar to Cedric. Its metal body clinked as it saluted me. It had hollow eyes which glowed faintly since it was alive. With a blade in his hand imitating a sword, he walked in circles.
In my other hand, a jar with damp moss appeared, wriggled with spores.
Cedric's eyes widened weakly. His voice cracked. "W-What… what are you doing…?"
I crouched down to let him see every detail. "This one's called Spore Implantation. It's an old method. Not much talked about in your glorious songs, huh?"
The toy knight hopped down from my hand, landing on Cedric's thigh. Its sword looked unnaturally sharp.
"Don't worry," I said in a lighter tone. "This isn't fantasy. They really did this. Sixteenth century in Eastern Europe. Captured soldiers, traitors, and sometimes even slaves. They'd open the flesh, pack it with fungus. Candida, cordyceps, or even just moss with rot. Within days, the victim's body would start showing the results."
Removing the piece of cloth from his waist, the toy knight slashed his tiny sword, opening small incisions along Cedric's shaft and scrotum. His flesh peeled open and started bleeding through the raw cut. Cedric wriggled against the ropes his neck filled with bulging veins.
I pushed the moss in with my own fingers deliberately. The spores squelched as they sank into the wet tissue. Then I bound the wounds tightly with strips of dark cloth.
"There we go. Perfect little greenhouse."
Cedric sobbed with his chest heaving, "P-Please… please stop…"
I smiled trying to ease his worries like a doctor does before injecting a syringe. "Oh no, no, don't worry. We'll speed things up for you."
I snapped my fingers. For an instant, a transparent cubicle covered Cedric.
The clock hand in my earring started its ticking.
Hours passed by for Cedric but for me it was just a few seconds. The skin around his groin swelled turning red and slowly blistering. His body convulsed as his charred ankles were quivering in pain.
I snapped once again turning the clock even faster. Days passed by in mere seconds. White threads gushed out of his wounds, fungal wax forcing their way through his flesh. Pus oozed out of his scrotum, dripping down his thighs. The stench was thick and unbearably rotting.
Cedric's face twisted beyond recognition, his eyes rolled back, his jaw was hanging dead with his tongue out. His lips cracked and he was drooling all over the place. He tried to scream but all that left his throat was a rasp, a hiss of air. His voice was almost gone.
I leaned against the cross casually, like we were two brothers drinking in the bar again.
"Fascinating thing, fungi. The Japanese army in World War II used spores on prisoners, tested how infections spread. And in the west, they said it was the perfect punishment for deserters. No use of blade, no need for fire, just letting the body rot itself from the inside."
Cedric wasn't responding anymore but he was still conscious. The fungus had spread up his abdomen now. His skin was entirely blackened, parasitic colonies eating him alive. His face was sagging like wax melting under heat.
His sweat and tears were completely indistinguishable from the pus that was dripping out.
"See? You're not extraordinary. History's full of men like you, Cedric. Men who thought they were gods. All of them…ended up like this."
The knight toy stood on Cedric's chest, saluting me as if the work was done.
Heh. Not going to lie, it looked kinda cute even though it's design imitated Cedric.
I brushed a fleck of fungus from my sleeve. "Now… let's see how much longer you last."
After around five to ten minutes, Cedric's body was ruined. His head slumped downward, breath shallow, and his eyes were half-dead. There was no more strength left to scream.
I snapped my fingers. The transparent cubicle around Cedric disappeared stopping the fast forwarding of time.
"Umm, hello? Are you there, handsome?"
I snapped my finger once again.
One by one, figures began stepping out. Not men, not women, just shapes that carried faces he would never forget. Faces he destroyed. Faces he had taken fore granted.
The young woman he violated.
The widow he forced.
The boy he beat to death.
The beastmen he burned alive.
The mother who dragged her son's corpse.
And dozens of others.
Their eyes were hollow glowing faintly. Their lips were stretched into eerie, unnatural smiles.
Cedric's broken voice croaked for the last time, "N-No… no… it wasn't… like that…"
They didn't answer. They didn't need to.
The boy climbed his leg, his small mouth began eating out Cedric's ribs until the bone cracked.
The widow reached between his legs, tearing at the rotting scrotum until blood burst down in streams.
The beastmen chained together wrapped their arms around him, choking his face while one of them pouring acid in his eyes.
More and more joined in. Slowly and gradually, his soul was disseminating.
Cedric thrashed weakly, but there was nothing left.
The hollow crowd swarmed him, ripping his flesh apart piece by piece. Their laughter and cries were not sound, I could only hear the endless whimper of pain in their hearts.
I walked through them, and they stepped aside like obedient ghosts.
"You kept running your mouth about ceremonies, didn't you?" I said softly. "About the Hall of Heroes, about how you'd be remembered."
I placed my hand on his chest.
He shivered for a moment but then-
POP!
Like a balloon torn apart, his entire body exploded. Flesh, bone, blood, everything splattered across the void, covering my face with fresh bloodstains.
The illusions slowly faded away as they bowed their heads to me.
I dragged my hand across my face, smearing the blood into my hands, and let out a light chuckle.
"Ceremony complete."