Standing far away from the conflict, Alma was watching with malicious glee. Their unearthly Cheshire expression curved so wide it further broke apart the already shattered remains of their face and was connecting the hollows of their right eye to the seams of their open grin.
“Beautiful…so beautiful.” They kept repeating the words like the chanting of a mantra, completely entranced by the sight before them of the A.R.C’s efforts. “To see mere worms becoming serpents, able to even challenge the one holding the highest seat in this garden.”
“Ahh…what a wondrous sight.” They said while carefully wrapped their shattering arm across their crumbling body, their voice drowning with euphoria. “How nostalgic. Now then…”
They turned away from the sight of battle and instead back to the desolated land before them.
“Bothersome remnants. For how long do all of you intend to keep blabbering? White noise as it might be, the constant bleating of your vulgarity and raving expletives are nothing if not just a nuisance and useless distractions. I grow weary of your insignificant blathering in such a feeble attempt to spite me.” They spat in both mockery and disgust. “But most of all, I tire of the indecisions. Have you all not already accepted that foolish girl over there who is…ahh~…fighting splendidly? If so; why are so many of you still flocking around Armadat like so many doves scrambling over a branch on an olive tree?”
Alma was quiet for a moment, as if waiting for an answer before once again the wicked smile on their face curved.
”…I see. It is fear. Fear of what would happen if Eve is to fail. Why indeed, if Eve is to fall here then all who had gathered in support of her would be punished. Even those who had only hope to wait for the end in peace will suffer as well. After all, each and every one of you have already been thoroughly branded with the stench of traitors whether you want to or not the moment Eve stepped foot into this garden. So, some are hoping to wallow in whatever bit of mercy there is still from my dear friend…” Alma covered their mouth, trying to contain their laughter. “Ha ha ha… how pathetic.”
Their laughter suddenly faded and the look on their face, while still a mockingly cruel smile, became serious as their empty eye stared towards the horizons.
“Armadat…Sister Amia…you were always the strongest among us. No matter how much you suffered, you never lost the justice in your heart. Even after all that has happened, you alone stood as you were. Where our other sisters have been twisted beyond recognition in both mind and body, you did not change even as you fulfilled your duties to the enslaver. The corrupter. The great liar. Perhaps…perhaps that is why your garden is the most beautiful. And why you were the closest to my dear sister…why she loved you so, even at the very end…” Alma spoke solemnly, their focus on the great silvery tree that pierced endlessly to the skies above. “Remnants, I mock you for your fears, but we know that isn’t so. You are but remains of those tortured and unjustly suffered at the hands of those who betrayed the whole of humanity. Emotions, those of betrayal. Of injustice. But even so, you all are still loyal so to my dear friend…my fellow Sister, aren’t you? You are repaying her for her kindness, is that not so?”
Tears flowed from Alma’s face, white sparkles of light slid down their cheeks and vanished with the breeze of wind from the empty world.
“I wish that I was able to offer sincerity in my words when I speak of gratitude but that is impossible. In this vessel that has been bind with layers upon layers of curses.” They said, looking down at their fragmented hand. “These binds that constrict me so tight, where I can only reject. But I am grateful, whether it can be possible or not. For the mercy towards Eve, toward that foolish girl, Takatora Ryuuko, who is fighting for everyone in this forgotten, forsaken world. For the children of sin whose hearts wish for demise yet is struggling so to survive. And, your mercy towards her, Sister Amia. However, your mercy for her is not as all of you have intended. She has already sung her song, her last prayer given. You remnants who still coiled around her tightly so, hoping…trying so desperately to stay with her…are only prolonging her suffering.”
“Heh…” Alma let out a dry chuckle. “Perhaps this is what she wanted. That this is her way of repenting, what she believes will make up for all your pain by extending her own. Selfless…but also so selfish…how very like her. I understand. I understand completely.”
As Alma nodded their head, their broken body shimmered. The pieces that fell from their destroyed being swirled around them and reattached itself, repairing and regenerating like the assembly of a shattered doll. The cracks that exposed the hollowness of their insides were covered up and their missing arm and lower body was reformed in an instant.
“Temporary measure, but it will do.” They exclaimed as they flexed their newly fixed limbs with a satisfied smile.
“She is still weak, Takatora Ryuuko. She will not be able to handle the full weight of all your emotions, remnants. Hmmhmm…that is why;” Alma quietly giggled to themselves before spreading out their arms as if to beckon something. “Come to me, remnants of the broken paradise. Deceived by the false light and still obedient to the one who stands beyond us all. Those of you who must suffer in the eternal cycle, in the end to only be devoured in utmost cruelty…suppressed and oppressed by those who have placed themselves in the top of the world and clinging so tightly to the epithet of Saviors…come to me.”
The ground where they hovered above trembled and in the air was the sound of sharp whistling as the wind that blew toward them slowly but steadily intensified in an unnatural manner, as if alive.
“Until the「Vein of God」is severed, until it is possible for “it” to safely dock and fill itself, let me be your temporary vessel. Come to me, in this sinful form. Give to me your anger. Your rage. Your resentment. All of it. Those of you who still fear retribution, gather before me. Let it be known that it was I, who took active part in your suffering and the one who brought about the destruction of this broken world. Know that I was the greatest fool who reached out to the beckoning hand and held to the honey words of the silvered tongue deceiver! Hate. Hate them. Hate me. Spite me with everything you have, I will allow it. I demand it! The thread of emotions; let it be corrupted, severed, and be sent back as a message; let it reach even the other gardens that scatter across all of Eden. That even if those of you who could not hope to muster the slightest resistance towards those who brought such hell upon you, I will gladly be your guidepost in this bleak plain of existence.”
FWSHHH
The strange whistling of the air around Alma as whipped itself, forming into malevolent gusts and from every angle dove towards them.
CRACK CRACK CRACK
Like breaking through glass, the unnatural wind pierced their equally unnatural body leaving behind a trail that lingered like threads to a sewing needle, where the cracks on their body once again exposed the empty voids of their insides and sucking everything in but was also being pulled, like that of strings being attached to a marionette. Gritting their teeth as if in great pain yet still keeping it curved to a grin, the silver of their empty eyes vanished and widen to a look of further derangement. From their bared teeth came a muffled sound of laughter, growing ever louder until it that blended with the whistling around them, drowning it out.
Laughter. Laughter.
The sound and tone was both forced yet also uncontrollable as it was seeping out of them, not just from their mouth but from the every open cracks throughout their body, making it impossible to tell if the laughter was really coming from them or something else.
“Good…Good! Hate me with everything you got! Despise me with all your might and come with me on this path of vengeance. Know that no matter what, I will not yield from this destructive desire. Not until with my own hands can I rip apart the one above who still continue to mock me. That mock all of us, viewing us nothing but fuel for its magnificence.”
FUUUUU
Then it all became quiet. The derange look finally faded away and Alma’s face returned back to its emotionless mask as they slumped back down, falling to their knees yet still staying afloat, their body and feet making no contact with the ground of broken corpses.
“Ahura…dear sister, I will reach you. Please wait for me, just a little longer.” Alma whispered, their voice soft and barely audible as they sat there motionless, their body limp like a marionette with its strings cut. The only movement was the slowly recurving corner of their mouth as it spreading across their blank face and the quivers as they strain to hold its shaking position.
“Remnants of a broken paradise, let us enjoy the show for now. The one who has taken on the burden, who is to suffer the most on the thorniest of roads, and who has thoroughly accepted her role as “Eve”; is also to be the one to receive the overflowing stream of sins and punishments. For that, I of ask you to let her just a little bit of respite. And let us savor it all. The destruction she…no, they will all cause to the deliverers of their coming judgements. Fufu…Hahahaha!!!” Alma lifted their head up and laughed, turning their empty gaze back to the A.R.C.
