Butcher's Graffiti 15 The Exile

I too am Justice.

I too fought for Peace.

I too carry the weight of the lives I've taken.

The lives I've taken for the sake of peace, for your peace.

I too...should be wors.h.i.+pped.

But why...why cannot these people understand that? Such a simple thing.

The very humans I saved, I s.h.i.+elded, I protected.

Why are you going to him instead? Gregory didn't save YOU, I did! He may have ended the war, but it was I who risked my life to carry you all to safety.

...

...

...

...these f.u.c.king monkeys.

Ungrateful wretches who don't recognize their own master, I never should have come to your aid.

I've been a Hero for far too long.

"They treat you like a machine." the man said to me.

"They think you do not yearn for recognition, for praise, for attention and reward. But I will not stand for this unfairness!"

He held my hand with both of his own, cold and stiff like a corpse.

"You're no machine! You're a hero!

Rise, my friend. Join me...and I swear to you. When all of this is over, you and I shall stand as true brothers on the New World. I will bring to you all the glory and fame that you deserve, the power you were unreasonably denied.

You will be...a G.o.d."

His words were stuck in my head, playing over and over like a broken record. Many nights pa.s.sed yet I could not sleep a wink.

Maybe he's right.

No.

I can't take it anymore.

Stop, don't listen to the voices.

Disgusting.

This isn't right.

Inferior race.

It's too loud.

Ungrateful.

Filthy.

They're here.

Behind me.

Blood.

There's...

I'll kill you all.

...no going back.

"Husband?" a feminine voice snapped Geisler back to his senses.

"...uh? W-What?"

The intersection was crowded. It was currently noon at the metropolis outside of the Inst.i.tute and people were as busy as usual. Progress was ever moving and so were the lives of the people living here, day by day attending to their specific societal roles.

Geisler and his wife, Helen, were having lunch at a fancy restaurant.

"You look tired, dear. What's wrong?" her tone was worried, an alarmed expression on her face.

"I'm okay. I just haven't been able to sleep properly...a lot of things on my mind lately."

Helen reached for his hand, caressing it as she looked into his eyes lovingly and smiled saying, "I'm here for you, Geisler. Talk to me if something's bothering you and I'm sure we'll get through it together."

u003c'Laughable.'u003e he thought, recalling the results of the investigation he had arranged regarding his wife.

u003c'This gold-digging s.l.u.t would dare cheat on me. Filthy. You're all so disgusting.'u003e

He stood with a blank expression. The food left a bitter aftertaste like bile, though he couldn't tell if it was due to the mood or if it was just him.

"D-Dear?"

Geisler walked out of the building, Helen running after him and leaving the food they'd ordered behind.

"Wait! Geisler! What is the meaning of this!?"

His thoughts started to get darker and darker as the voices started to whisper once more. Everything was colorless and dull like a dirty canvas with spilled ink.

It was unbearably noisy in his perspective, his mind fluctuating to a twisted view of the surroundings. Everything was so terribly, terribly repulsive and it made him want to puke.

The yelling, the talking, the squeals and footsteps that echoed in deafening volumes left him disoriented and confused. His head felt like it was in a vice that kept tightening as the whispers got louder and louder. He screamed from the pain and yet no voice would come out of his throat.

Soon everything went pure white. Geisler squirmed on the floor as he held his neck like he was suffocating, grasping at empty s.p.a.ce for air.

Until finally,

SNAP

something inside him, broke.

"Ahh..." he stammered, insanity vivid in his eyes as a wild smile distorted his features. Double pentagram-esque magic circles pulsed within his eyes, tears streaming down his face.

The man's words voice reverberated in his mind for one last time, offering him a red translucent stone with sparks going off within it.

"You...will be a G.o.d."

Geisler held the precious gem with great repose, clearing his thoughts of all distractions and leading him into an ultimatum.

BWOOSHH

The crowd backed away seeing a man with blaring eyes of light that soon erupted from every orifice of his body, blasting towards the sky as an orange pillar. Ominous dark clouds had gathered around the pillar as thunder began to roar.

Geisler glowed like the sun, blinding and scorching everything around him. Three giant ribbons of flames slithered around his light pillar, taking the shape of dragons as it got closer to devouring him.

This was Geisler's Phantasmal Baptism.

However, something even stranger began to happen. The Will of the World bestowed the baptism not only to find warriors, but also to eliminate possible future threats.

The flames of ribbon suddenly changed from h.e.l.lfire into violet flames, referred to as 'The Promethean Flames of Wrath', magic flames imbued with the word's intent which consumed everything it touched.

Sheer heat began to inflame the surface of the Metropolis, gla.s.s everywhere shattering whereas the ground began to boil. Geisler's skin began to peel off as intense rays of light shot out of the open wounds, steam rising out of him as he was about to receive the approaching cataclysm point blank.

DWOOMM

The western district of the Metropolis vanished in the instant of the collision, disintegrating everything within the vicinity of the crash. Containing the same amount of force as a meteor, the shockwaves leveled the nearby structures and even shook the Inst.i.tute's Barrier. A small cloud of smoke rose with lightning crackling around it over and over.

"AAAAAHHH!!!!!!!" The flames burned both Geisler's body and soul, the searing pain was unlike anything he'd ever felt before and it took him every ounce of will to swallow the stone he'd been given.

It was known as the 'Flamel's Stone of Taboo'.

The raw energy of the world flowing through the flames was ravaging the very fiber of the man's being. The Will of the World had rejected Geisler and thus was executing him as it saw fit, death by fire for one who flew too close to the Sun.

When suddenly...

THUMP-THUMP

...a change had occurred.

A human's body is a vessel designed to house only one soul, any more than that and the amount of strain to the container will either lead to it's destruction or the expulsion of other souls who aren't recognized as the body's owner.

Flamel's Taboo is the crystallized form of millions of souls compressed and converted into pure energy. When Geisler swallowed the stone, he allowed for the stone vessel to break and have the energy of those vengeful souls a.s.similate into his own.

His soul merged and consumed millions of others. Besides the unbelievable strain this had on his mind, there was still the fact that he was getting influenced by all these personalities trapped within the stone and they washed over him like a flood.

The endless violent screams of depravity and despair fought for dominance over the new vessel.

"SHUT. UP." he uttered, siphoning energy from all the souls into his own. "YOU'RE MINE NOW."

With the unprecedented magnitude of Life Force from the souls he'd just absorbed, Geisler's body began to rebuild itself regardless of the roaring flames engulfing him still. A vortex replaced a part of his Mana Nucleoun as half of it became unstable due to the amount of energy he was sponging up, even devouring the flames around him just to find a state of balance within his being.

And at last, the transformation was complete.

There were now bony spines running along his back, down to a long and thick crimson-colored tail covered in a feathery exterior. More red marks ran all over his body like tatoos painting his skin including the new horns, growing out of his temples and looked like those of a ram's.

Geisler's eyes were now purple with a shade of green and had widely reptilian characteristics. Information flowed inside his brain as he instantly learned how to control his newly bestowed powers, evil showing in his grisly smile.

The Exile; Mephistopheles

.

[A few minutes before Geisler's Baptism]

"You want the Hovarin Kingdom's territory all to yourselves!?"

"The spoils of war goes to the victor." Amira declared.

The other leaders had an expression of disbelief, all looking at the empress with contempt and loathing.

"Outrageous! If this doesn't prove your involvement with the summoning of the Swarm then I don't care if we go to war once more." Aflheim stood from his throne and yelled.

"Oh? War is it you say? I don't think your baseless pride can handle defeat from a foolish half-blood with an army thrice the size of yours."

"Hah! Mere p.a.w.ns stand naught before true royalty."

"I couldn't agree more! Now sit down, p.a.w.n, and bow before the queen."

The Elf King grunted at the witty remark.

"Please, everyone!" Gregory interrupted the dispute before it got any worse.

"What would it take for you people to show even a modic.u.m of respect inside my home? Do you all not understand how dire the situation is?"

The discussion hasn't been going well into the favor of unity so far, most of the attending lords instigating past grudges instead of the main agenda. The professor was losing patience with how small-minded and immature his guests were being, though he couldn't blame them.

Gregory sighed. Many of those who survived from the war lost someone important and struggled just to live through the mania.

"We're wasting precious time that we could instead be using as an edge against the enemy out there. Why don't we give the endless bickering a rest and focus on the matter at hand, that way you wouldn't have to spend any more time together and I wouldn't have to endure being the referee. Agreed?"

An awkward silence replaced the tense atmosphere in an instant after the brief lecture, then Phillis raised his hand.

"Yes? What is it?"

"What's a referee?"

"..."

"..."

Gregory's face crumpled into a sour visage before sighing. "Nothing important, just some slang." he answered.

"Now, another thing as to why I decided to support the Church's endeavor for this Summit to happen is correlated to the tragedy that befell the human kingdom. Though not linked by blood, those victims are still my brethren and it pains me to see them reduced into the status of a lower race."

He had thought of this decision over a hundred times and his compa.s.sion couldn't bear to see his people suffer. After all, humans are weak individuals and ranks close to lowest in the food chain, yet they stand proud together as a family and become a force to be reckoned with.

"From this day forth, I, Gregory Augustus Mistainn, declare The Great Inst.i.tute of Mistainn as a nation. A new home to restore the human race to it's former glory."

A few glances were exchanged, the leaders were uncertain whether this was good news to their own sovereigns or not. The Inst.i.tute was a prominent power silently considered to be its very own nation long before, even without official recognition.

"I should warn you." the Empress spoke up. "It seemed a bit peculiar to me that they attacked only Hovarin. When with all things considered that Ghoul Swarm would've probably done considerable damage to any of the other sovereigns, given there's the element of surprise."

"What are you trying to say?" Gregory was a bit puzzled by the suggestion.

"What I mean is, maybe their targeting humans specifically and the swarm attacking my Empire was just a diversion to mislead—"

BWOOSHH

A bright flash radiated in the distance, a pillar of light shooting up into the heavens as Promethean Flames of Wrath taking a serpentine form of three slithered towards the western district.

Everybody was stunned by the sudden development. The device's illusionary hologram received some interference and disrupted the images, glitching the call.

"That's Phantasmal Baptism. Someone is awakening." Amira reported as she used her Clairvoyance to observe the happenings.

"A baptism right during the intended date of gathering. I'm afraid we're gonna have to cut short this summit, Professor Mistainn."

"Yes, I believe so. This is too suspicious to be a coincidence."

DWOOMM

The earth shook as the violet dragon heads crashed, obliterating the surroundings.

"Who could it be...?"

.