"My dear citizens! Most must have heard it already. I can see the fear in your eyes; I can hear the whispers across the streets. I am here to tell you the truth behind the mist of Silver Harbor—the unnatural fog that was recently lifted by a miracle. We faced an ancient, evil creature with the most dire intentions! He was the source of that plague!"
Aria's voice bellows across the grand plaza, echoing off the stone walls.
"He wanted to take your women—your daughters, your sisters, your mothers—and use them to plant his seed to produce an evil lineage destined to conquer the world! He did it to the women of Silver Harbor. May they rest in peace."
She pauses. What follows is clearly difficult for her to say.
"I could have suffered the same fate! This creature kidnapped me. It cast a spell on my mind so I would not feel repulsion at its horrible existence! It forced me to love it!"
Her voice breaks perfectly. Below us, the massive crowd stirs, murmuring as they realize how agonizing it is for their princess to continue.
"Your Majesty—" a maid steps forward from the shadows of the balcony, reaching out to comfort her.
"No. I can continue!" Aria waves a hand dismissively, silencing her attendants. "We would have never known that such a monster had its claws on our beloved country! In fact, it could have been our capital instead, but Silver Harbor was closer to the ocean it crawled out from! If it had been our city, nobody could have stopped it. If we are standing here right now, it is because of pure luck—because we have a hero!"
She catches her breath, her eyes sweeping over the five thousand citizens packed into the plaza.
"This hero disguised himself as a humble merchant and explorer. You saw him leave the city gates with me after I defeated Vortigen, joining my journey to understand our land and become a better ruler. This hero—Vance is his name—unraveled the scheme of the evil being. He drew up a brilliant strategy, and one by one, he slaughtered the servants of the creature, weakening it until he could face the god-beast itself!"
She raises her hand, pointing toward the sky.
"The battle was beyond anything a mortal mind could imagine! The evidence has been witnessed by my brave soldiers down there, who traveled to purge the city of the horror left behind. It suffices to say what all of you already know: The hero defeated the monster! He saved us!"
Aria bellows with a fierce, absolute faith, as if she is speaking of a God.
"What happened to the citizens of Silver Harbor? My sister lived there! Is she alright?" A young man shouts from the front lines of the crowd. He looks like the archetype of an honest workingman—charismatic, strong from hard labor, his face twisted with genuine concern.
"My dear..." Aria looks down, her voice dropping into a heavy sorrow. "I am so sorry. The monster killed the men first, twisting them into puppets, and then... it did the same to the women and children."
She intentionally cuts the explanation short. She doesn't want to think about the true fate of those children. The explanation Lilith had coldly given her behind closed doors was brief: "You don't want to know. Tell them the Elder killed them immediately."
"Captain Derrick! Show our people the corpse!" Aria commands.
"Yes, Princess!" Knight Captain Derrick bellows, signaling the royal guards keeping the perimeter.
He steps toward a massive, box-shaped object covered in thick black fabric. With a swift pull, he reveals a reinforced crystal display container. A royal mage assisting him instantly casts an amplification spell, projecting a massive, shimmering illusion of the corpse high into the air above the square.
It is, of course, merely the withered body of one of the Elder's spawned offspring. Yet, looking at the projection, my mind slips.
For a fraction of a second, I see him again. I see the Elder growing as the Abyss's maddening, discordant song fills his bloated form. Then, I see the violent wave of the Abyss's jaws snapping shut over him with a cosmic brutality and finality that defies the very concept of death. The memory of that wave is so powerful, so heavy with absolute hunger, that it vibrates through my current bones.
I take a sudden step back on the stone balcony.
"What's wrong?" Lilith whispers, tilting her head as she stands beside me. "You don't want them at your feet, adoring you like you deserve?"
I blink, forcing myself back to the present. I realize Aria is looking back at me with a subtly fearful expression, as if her own grand speech is beginning to weigh on her. I mask my expression, step forward, and join her side at the railing.
The throng roars.
"Long live the hero! Destroyer of evil!"
The sheer volume of their voices, the radiant sparks of their blind faith, the crushing weight of their desperate hope trying to counter their despair—I can almost taste it in the air. A cold pity touches my mind. I am not the savior they think I am. I devoured them. I consumed the broken dolls of the Elder, the survivors, those poor, hollowed-out souls. And I don't regret it. I don't feel a single ounce of remorse. They were weak. They served me far better as fuel.
All that is weak... I mutter internally.
"How did you defeat it—" someone starts to shout.
[WARNING!]
By the time the system interface flashes red, my eyes are already darting toward the sky.
The heavy rain clouds suddenly part with unnatural, sterile perfection. A golden radiance erupts from the heavens, so blindingly bright that it nearly eclipses the midday sun. A magnificent figure begins a slow, weightless descent.
[PSYCHIC INFLUENCE DETECTED: ACTIVATING BASTION OF COHERENCE]
A sharp, sudden headache strikes the center of my skull, like the frostbite of eating something frozen too fast. A forced foreign vision attempts to tear through my consciousness, but it shatters against my mental defenses.
[THE INFLUENCE HAS RETREATED BEFORE DESTRUCTION.] [KEEPING VISION OF HEAVEN AS REQUESTED.]
Through the brief mental clash, my 200 Perception catches a fleeting glimpse of the invader's origin. I see ivory towers floating over a pristine realm of endless green and blinding light. I see flawless, geometric angels flying harmoniously in every direction. I hear a chorus echoing through the ether—a beautiful, terrifying chant of forced ecstasy praising the Lord of Heaven.
Then, my sight drops to the endless fields of grass below the palaces. There are people there. Millions of them. They are trapped on their knees, shedding endless tears with completely hollow, glassy stares, repeating the very chants that feed the radiance of the deity ruling over them. For days, months, years, for all eternity... these people are locked in a cage of forced adoration, stripped of free will, unable to ever stop. And the horror is that their broken minds no longer even want to stop.
I see the absolute religious fanaticism etched into their faces—the mad, unmoving smiles as tears of "happiness" roll down their cheeks. Some have been stationary for so long that holy flowers have literally taken root and grown out of their flesh, but they notice nothing. Only the light.
It is a beautiful slaughterhouse. A vision of Heaven.
[BASTION OF COHERENCE BACKLASH DETECTED: CLEANSING TARGET.]
I blink, returning to the balcony. Below, the transformation is instantaneous. The uneducated masses, overwhelmed by the radiant aura, drop to their knees by the thousands.
"All hail the Lord of Heaven!" they begin to chant in a trance.
"All hail the light!"
[MEASURING LEVEL OF THREAT...] [LEVEL OF THREAT: VERY DANGEROUS.]
Lilith fiercely grips the fabric of my shirt, ducking slightly behind my shoulder like a terrified child.
[THE ENTITY IS ACTIVELY ATTACKING THE PSYCHE OF YOUR DEMONESS.] [BASTION OF COHERENCE IS PROTECTING HER COMPLETELY.]
The radiant being hovers in the air before our balcony. He is a male, draped in flawless white robes, his bare feet hovering precisely three inches above the stone, refusing to touch the profane ground of mortals. Four wings of crystalline geometry drift lazily behind him.
"Don't even think about it," I warn him, my voice carrying the low, rumbling resonance of the Temple. "This is not your heaven. Your rules do not apply here."
The angel stiffens, his expression shifting from detached divinity to sudden, sharp offense.
"I am here to cleanse this land of the demon hiding behind you, hero. The heavens sent me to bring you to our side, and to—Arrrghhh!"
Suddenly, the angel cuts off, letting out a horrific, choked scream. He grips his head with both hands, his perfect geometry warping as his weightless grace fails. He plummets out of the air, crashing hard onto the stone balcony. Aria reacts instantly, stepping back to avoid the impact, her guards scrambling.
[BASTION OF COHERENCE'S COUNTER-ATTACK HAS TRAPPED THE AGGRESSOR.]