God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.-Chapter 784: There is no Salvation in the Fog.

"Darkness is true, and despair in the truth of the world."

"Behind the veil is hidden true madness. Madness that corrupts the soul and eats at it until nothing is left."

"It comes in the name of a beast. A creature born within the fog..."

"It sees nothing."

"It knows nothing."

"It is nothing."

"The people of Borax saw it and tore at their own flesh, consuming one another until their bones hung dry underneath their dying sun."

"The Ancient Dryads saw it, and morphed into the harbingers of the Bogvine Rot that consumed entire star systems."

"The Whispers within the Lightless Abyss saw it and cowered in fear."

"Malcivian saw it, and became it."

"A being of true madness."

***

Ignorance is a blessing.

Cain had heard this saying many times, but had not truly understood it.

Maybe it was because of the special eyes he had acquired throughout his journey the {Eye of Clairvoyance}, and the {Eye of Uncertainty}.

Maybe that was why he could see it all.

At first, he had been suspicious.

What had done such terrible things to the creatures that had been unfortunately swallowed by the fog?

Had it been the foul fiends of the godless realms?

It couldn’t have been. After all, those same beings were being turned into unrecognizable masses of churning, still pulsating, living, mounds of flesh, blood, and bones.

Had it been vile, horrendous beings of true evil within the fog?

Much to his utter shock, there were no such beings within the fog.

Had it been the fog itself?

No. It was not. The fog was nothing but a garb.

A garb used to cover the eyes of those who entered the fog, making sure they wouldn’t see what was hidden within it.

But Cain...

He was not so lucky.

No, he wished he had been born blind.

He wished he could claw his cursed eyes out.

He wished he could be spared.

He wished he would be given death.

But there was no such sweet relief for him.

No, he had made a terrible decision.

"Ah... No..." The words cracked at his throat, unable to come out.

There were no words to describe what he saw.

What was within the accursed fog.

It was knowledge of something that should not be known.

And it drove him mad.

"Ahhhhh!"

He let out a guttural scream as he fell to his knees and clawed at his face.

Both his eyes lit up, one turning a piercing pale bone white, and the other dark like the very pits of the Hell Realms.

For a moment, there was nothing else in the world. Nothing existed.

Not the fog.

Not the screaming beasts around him.

Not Evangeline, not Susan, not Jenny, not Roselle.

No, there was only him and this... entity.

The origins of madness itself.

There was silence.

Cain felt it.

It stretching its arms out and reaching for his face.

He was powerless to do anything.

His eyes were forced open.

And he was forced to look.

To bear witness.

He screamed.

He cried.

He begged.

For mercy.

For salvation.

But there was none.

None at all.

He stared into its eyes.

And this, his soul was corrupted with the madness.

It spread slowly, like poison crawling through his veins and into his heart.

Cold, soft, and deadly.

And then, the world went dark.

***

"What is the world?"

"Why am I here?"

Cain watched a scene play out.

The skies were dark. Storm clouds were setting in, and the wind had turned a bit turbulent.

There was silence besides the whistling wind.

Sitting on the roots of a giant oak tree, someone stood.

She wore light chain armor. At her side was a mundane looking blade with a clear crystal embedded into its hilt.

Beside her stood a man who’s face he could not see.

However, he could see the face of the woman.

She was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen.

She was beauty itself, like a dewdrop fallen fresh fron the heavens in the form of celestial nectar.

Her eyes were hidden by a black blindfold.

The man beside her chuckled,

"What do your words mean, Mal?"

Malcivian went silent, then replied,

"Word has it that the creatures from the abyss are attacking Blaivale."

The man let out a soft chuckle,

"So that is the reason for your dilemma."

Something about the man set Cain off and filled him with a deep sense of urgency.

He tried to scream.

He tried to yell at her to get away. To run. To flee.

But he couldn’t move. He couldn’t tell. He couldn’t cry out.

He could only watch.

He could only silently observe.

Those were all his eyes were good for.

Malcivian nodded silently.

The man asked her,

"Why do you feel that way? Don’t you believe that is unfair?"

He continued without letting her answer,

"Remember. They were the ones that treated you like you were a monster. All because of the ill-fated star you were born under, Mal."

Malcivian let out a sigh,

"But I am not a monster."

She clenched her fists. Her voice was rough, a bit rugged.

However, it was also soft and light, like a gently breeze.

The man chuckled, his white robes fluttering in the wild wind.

"But you are."

Malcivian fell silent.

Cain struggled harder.

The man continued, a playful tone in his voice,

"You are a monsters, Mal. A murderous one too. Monsters are dangerous, Mal. You are dangerous."

Malcivian shook her head. However, there was a slight bit of hesitancy,

"I can’t be a monster. I have saved countless lives by defeating the beings of the abyss. I have slain countless Devils. How could I be a monster?"

The man was silent, almost as though he was contemplating his next words.

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When he spoke, Cain felt a dark shiver run down his spine,

"You are a being born of evil. A soul with the ability to perceive the world as it truly is. A rather rare specimen. Something that should not exist. You are, by very definition— A monster."

Malcivian fell silent.

The man sighed, "Look at what you’ve done."

The scene changed in the blink of an eye.

This time, the storm had come.

However, it was unable to wash the rivers of blood away.

An entire city was silent in the dead of night, illuminated by the shadows. The sound of rain hitting the roofs and cobblestone streets were the only sounds that existed.

Cain felt his heart come to a stop.

He found breathing difficult. And yet, he couldn’t close his eyes.

It was not carnage.

It was not slaughter.

It was a summoning.

It was an offering, a ritual.

A bloody rite of passage.

For an eldritch evil. Something that could scare even nightmares away.

Malcivian stared at the rivers of blood mixed in with rain water beneath her feet in silence.

The man in white robes stared down with her.

When he spoke again, his voice had turned deeper, darker, malevolent. Evil...

"This was your doing, Malcivian. The world was right. You are truly a monster."

Then he spread his hands wide.

The sleeves of his arms rolled down to reveal arms of pitch black nothing surrounded by a deep sense of wrongness.

"Monsters are rejected by the world. So they in turn reject the world."

He tu ned to face Malcivian,

"Tell me, Mal. Do you wish to see even more? Do you wish to become even more monstrous?"

With every word this strange, evil being uttered, the more dark and wicked its voice became, becoming deeper and darker until it was an amalgamation of strange sounds that were still somehow incredibly clear.

Like the primal rumblings of a dark universe.

The rain continued to splatter.

The corpses that lined the streets.

Millions upon millions, stretching in all directions, each one more brutalized and butchered the closer they were to her.

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It was obvious what had happened here.

They had all been killed.

By the heroic monster of the lands,

The beautiful, sword wielding anomaly,

Malcivian of Terras.

Those she had considered friends were beneath her boots, their body parts mixed in with portion of unknown individuals, their corpses no different from minced flesh.

The entire City had been turned into a graveyard.

And she was the sole cause.

"Why did you kill them, Mal?" The being asked.

Malcivian answered calmly,

"Because they are blind. Because they cannot see what I see."

The soft voice was completely gone.

And its place, was a voice filled with insanity. A cold, unfeeling madness that had no place coming from the mouth of a living being.

Her every word was spat out like a curse.

Cain felt tears streak down his face.

It was truly heartbreaking to witness.

He wished this was not the fate that had befallen her.

He wished that he didn’t have to watch this.

Malcivian’s voice rose,

"I curse them! I curse their rotting corpses! For making me endure this for so long!"

The being nodded its head,

"Good. If that is the case, then..."

Malcivian nodded.

Her wet blindfolds were soaked in rainwater. She pulled them off and threw them to the ground.

Because they were facing the other side, Cain could only see their backs, their countenance and faces hidden from his sight.

Cain felt himself going mad.

The back of his eyeballs itched so bad!

He wanted to scratch them!

They burned!

He wanted to pull them out!

The dark being turned around.

Cain knew he had never seen anything so evil.

So maleficent.

Yet so righteous.

The perfect picture.

It was maddening.

Gazing upon his countenance, was like peering at forbidden knowledge. Knowledge that could corrupt— no, destroy the soul.

It looked past the veil, and stared right at him.

Right into the essence of what he was,

"Open your eyes."