The room which Luca woke up in was nothing special
It contained a bed, and not much else
There were no closets to store clothes, nor any chairs for guests
Luca knew that this meant they were not here to stay
As he lay in bed looking at the wall deep in thought, the door suddenly opened
"Wake up, Luca! Wake up!" Elias had run into his room
"I'm up."
"Thalare told me to tell you to meet her at the practice grounds again."
"The practice gr- … oh, you mean the dungeon. Did she say why?"
"…no"
"Yeah, okay, I will go; just give me a moment t—"
The transportation circles he had seen before once again appeared underneath him
"Ah… okay, this… this is not fine."
Just as he said that Thalare appeared before him
"You know, you really should wear some clothes when visiting an old woman
"You were the one who sent me here!"
"You do like your excuses."
As she put up her staff, clothes appeared on Luca's body. He was suddenly covered in a big white robe, carrying the symbol of a lit candle
"What is this?"
"It is what our followers must wear; it was your idea. You believed that a well-placed candle would cast no shade. And as such, we should strive to be those candles illuminating the world."
"Yeah… well… we saw what happened there."
"Nevertheless, you will act according to the methodology of your creation. Be the light and remove the dark. Only when you are done will your sentence be complete."
"The guide said that I cannot die until my sentence is complete. Does that mean my life will end when it is finished?"
"Yes. Though we have tried to keep that knowledge from all of you, it is true."
She straightened as she locked eyes with Luca and continued
"You are sins that do not belong in this world; your very souls are at one with sins, which is why we were able to bring you back in the first place. You never really left."
The air seemed to have left the room, only allowing Luca shallow breaths
"What do you mean I never left?"
"You met yourself earlier, at the cave. Did you not feel his eyes on you?"
"I… I didn't feel anything."
Luca thought back to that paradise island, infected with a darkness so corruptive, no light seemed safe from its touch.
But he could not remember ever feeling as though there was another entity there
"Hm… maybe Luna blocked him from interfering."
"Luna?"
"Yes, Luna. She is like that after all."
"Who is Luna?"
"Hasn't she told you her name yet?" Now I understand why she insisted on being called a guide."
"Wait, so the woman in my head is Luna? And why would she block him?"
"You really should ask her these questions, but I guess it was to avoid corruption."
Corruption?
"He and you are the same, or rather, you were created as a copy of him. This is why you do not have most of his memories, only what was recorded long before the order was created."
A sense of falling was soon replaced by a jolt as he hit the ground. Shallow breaths had turned to gasping. He felt as though he could not get enough oxygen into his lungs as his vision began to waver and dizziness spread.
Thalare seemed to have noticed his reaction through his pale skin and conjured up a bag.
Luca took the bag expecting medicine to be inside, but to no luck
"Breath into it."
"What? How would I do that? Why would I do that?"
"Just do as I say."
Luca then placed the bag into his face and started breathing
Within seconds the dizziness faded as his vision stabilized
He realized that it must be a magic bag and likely an important piece, and so gave it back to Thalare who then sent it away
"Do you feel better now?"
"Yeah, I do."
"Then let us continue."
She then started telling him a story
"""
After you died, you never went away.
Staying at the island, you fought for the corruption of light as did the light fight for your salvation.
This was the case for decades—until someone else made it to the island.
A young boy who just wanted to be saved from the slaughter of his people and was transported here by me in an instance of pure instinct.
This is the only place in which I am strong enough to both observe and cast summoning circles accurately at such a long distance.
I had no choice, is what I'd like to say, but that's not really true
I could have transported myself there and fought, and probably lost
I could… should have transported him to the house right away, but yeah
He was just a boy, crying for his parents
And I wanted to comfort him, I did, but you just got there before me
The boy made his wish to a false god
He just wanted it all to stop
And stop it did
The very air in the battlefield he had just come from refused to move into their lungs
Thousands of people fell to the ground, grasping their throats
Some scratched their necks trying to get air to go through in a desperate attempt to live
None of them survived
And the boy who had cried the entire time stopped
His eyes wide as his pupils drifted apart
His face went from a pained expression to one that could only be described as too relaxed
Then, after about an hour, unmoving
The boy smiled
"""
The same expression on the boy's face was now reflected in Luca, yet no smile came at the end
"You still look a bit sick; do you need the bag again?"
"No, I'm… okay."
While Luca was shaken, he had expected that something like this had happened. He was referred to as the original sinner, and they had called Elias a victim, so the connection was clear.
"After Elias broke, he decided to keep using his powers to end wars. For a long while there were no wars, only death. That was until he decided to tell others of this place, of you."
"That is how the others gained their sins then? They all took the trip here to see me?"
"Yes, all the other five gained it that way."
"Five? Weren't there seven, including me? So who is the other one?"
"I would rather keep that information to myself; it's the one who killed you before you know. So you better not as again."
"That's... fine, okay, but what about the others?"
"They all had similar stories: meeting you, gaining a wish. Then they went on their way. If they only went quietly, then it would all be fine, but they didn't. They chose to grant wishes under your name."
"What? How?"
"They could not grant sins like you can with your creation ability; however, they could create fragments of their own sins to pass on."
Luca realized what this meant. Fragments of sins, which in turn become fragments of fragments, and so on.
So, I was the one who released sin upon this world
"You are now severely weakened, as you know, and as long as you are weakened, so too are the others. You are to reclaim the fragments. You will begin with the first fragment given out by the young boy, the fragment of ignorance."
The sin of ignorance was one that could relocate your entire identity to the tip of your tongue, then push it off, ensuring that it was never remembered again.