Sitting astride the woman on the altar, she faced me with a wide smile on her face as glowing slit eyes peeked out from the darkness.
'I know that they worship snakes, but this is too much isn't it?'
Vaguely noticing numerous red and green squiggles exiting the doors of the rooms I had passed by, I ignored the fact that there were two dozen of such rooms filled to the brim with unknown squiggles.
Adjusting myself so I was comfortable on the stone bench, she stared at me with her blindfold as I cleared my throat and got to the subject of the matter.
"Messenger?"
"Yes?"
"Can you answer a few of my questions?"
"Anything for the claimed."
"Great" I folded my hands and furrowed my brows. "First things first, could you tell me about your religion?"
"Are you willing to become the follower of the Goddess of Life?"
"No" I shook my head, although I wasn't particularly faithful to the God of Death, it didn't sit right with me to change my beliefs even if I didn't really believe in him, it was just a matter of principle.
As long as it wasn't Fun that is.
That God could lose access to videogames for all I cared.
*Bzt
I tilted my head at the unknown sound in the distance before focusing my gaze back onto the Messenger.
"I'm just curious why you are secluded on these floating islands instead of spreading your religion across the island, and from the looks of it, it isn't because you conduct human sacrifices."
Gesturing at the altar she sat on, the messenger hurriedly waved her hands.
"Oh nonononono, we don't do human sacrifices-"
"-We just tie down sinners and implant them with the seed of the Mother." She continued half a beat later.
"What."
"Do you see the children over there?"
Gesturing at the coiled pile of snakes peeking through the stone door, she continued.
"The Green children are the sinners."
'I'm starting to see why they were exiled here.'
"But because the Kingdom isn't ready to face our rituals, they exiled us to the Fractured Shrines." She let out a small sigh.
'Why are the people here much weirder than I expect.'
My gaze flickered to the outside world where undead things roamed and felt enlightened.
'Nevermind.'
"What about the red... Children?"
"Those little ones are just the normal believers who couldn't resist the influence of the malaise and turned to the blessing of the Mother Goddess."
'That explains why there's so many of them.'
"Wait-" My mind buffered for a brief moment as it finally realized the crux of her sentence. "What do you mean they couldn't resist the influence of the malaise?"
"It's as I said, those children couldn't resist the disease and was on the verge of turning into monsters if not for the ritua-"
"No, wait, I should rephrase my question."
Hurriedly running the my fingers through my hair, I stared at the Messenger in disbelief. "Are you saying that you have a way to combat the malaise?"
"Yes?"
"Well why didn't you bloody lead with that?"
"You didn't ask"
"Fair."
Shaking my head, I stared at the messenger and was set on asking why she didn't spread this ritual all across the island and then paused.
"...Yeah that wouldn't work."
"In the first place, it's a punishment for sinners, so besides their lives, they have to live as snakes from now on."
A few of the red children coiled around her arms as she scratched their chins.
"And as a side effect, their mental capacity have been reduced to that of children."
"Ah..."
'Well that method is now crossed off of the list.'
Shaking my head for what feels like the seventh time this day, I crossed my arms. "So... How does this ritual work?"
"What do you mean."
I tried to put my thoughts into proper legible sentences. "How does this... combat the malaise? How does it make sure that they become immune to the influence of this plague?"
I recalled the flying red beans with scythes hidden in their bodies. "I'm pretty sure that even small animals weren't spared by the disease."
Suddenly recalling the existence of animals other than the small ones, I added to my previous sentence. "I'm not sure what happened to the larger beasts like Bears and Deers."
"That's simple, they've been erased."
"What?"
The Messenger mulled over something before murmuring to herself. "If it's the claimed of the Gods, it should be fine..."
Rummaging through her bosom hidden by the cloth, I politely turned my gaze and only turned it back when the Messenger began to speak in a tone significantly subdued in comparison to the tone she had when speaking about the Gods.
"This... is what erased them"
"...It looks surprisingly normal."
"That's because its currently sealed."
"So what is it?"
"It would be better to just show you, I needed to reapply the seal anyways."
Shifting atop the altar, the Messenger held the golden amulet shaped like a pair of closed hands and revealed her lower body from beneath the folds of blue cloth
'What... the hell?'
Staring wide eyed, the Messenger's lower body uncoiled its glistening red scales as they slithered across the ground.
Several hundreds of joints being moved by thick strands of muscle, a snake like lower body revealed itself from underneath the Messenger as a small smile appeared on her face.
"Surprised? This is the blessing of the Mother Goddess that you can receive if you just believe in her starting now."
Feeling as if this was a business pitch from those door to door salesmen that were a bit to eager, I shook my head in denial.
And I've been granted the chance to see several of such snake people trying to hunt me down so it wasn't as surprising as it would've been.
In hindsight, even without foreknowledge on those snake people I don't think I would've been surprised.
Whether that was due to how people were turned into snakes or the fact that there were monsters roaming was up to debate.
"Your loss."
Raising her upper body, the blue cloth which seemed ill fitting before seemed to finally fit its wearer as it slowly draped across the entire length of her risen snake body.
*Hissssss
The symphony of snakes hissing reached my ears as red and green wriggles slowly piled onto the Messengers body
Coiling around her waist and... legs, they reached her arms and formed a mountain of living squiggling lines.
Holding the pair of clasped hands in front of her, the golden amulet clicked slowly as every one of its fingers snapped outwards, revealing what was hidden within.
'What the...'
Everything seemed to lose focus in front of this... Cell as something akin to the heat waves created from high temperatures seemed to shake the air in front of my eyes.
Much like the blue cells with a blue core, this strange thing was much bigger than their tiny ping pong ball sized counterparts, being the size of a fist.
Crackling with orange lightning within its a red membrane, a dark purple core shook at the core as darkness seemed to seep out of the core.
But that very same core seemed... broken, incomplete as a semi circular pink dot existed in the purple core.
Now bearing a serious look on her face, the Messenger slowly untied her blindfold.
Blindfold drifting downwards in a spiral, my body froze unwittingly as a pair of azure blue slit eyes glared at the red Cell in front of her.
I wasn't even the direct recipient of the gaze, but I could feel chills going down my spine.
"..." Whispering something, the golden sunlight which streamed down from the ceiling seemed to be consumed by the numerous snake shadows that had appeared out of nowhere.
Coiling around the Messenger, the shadowy snakes of all sizes opened their jaws wide, revealing their fangs as they bit down on the Messenger- No, the item that the messenger was holding.
And just as swiftly as the shadows had appeared, it all disappeared as swift as a breeze.
"..."
"..."
Closing her eyes, before I knew it, the red cell was contained in the two clasped golden hands that were now shining a subtle blue red glow.
"What... What was that?"
Feeling the goosebumps which had appeared on my arm, the Messenger answered.
"That, Claimed of the Undertaker, was the Boss Stem Cell."
Taking the blindfold that had fallen on the ground, she wrapped the white cloth around her now closed eyes.
"And it's a concentrated collection of one tenth of the entire islands supply of malaise."
"I'm sorry what?"
"It is a concentrated collection of one twelfth of the entire islands supply of malaise,."
"..."
The messenger let out a tired sigh as the numerous red and green squiggles left her bod, revealing the sweat soaked blue cloth underneath.
"...I know what type of look your giving me, it's the look that says I'm crazy right?"
Silently nodding my head, although she didn't physically see it with her two eyes, the Messenger seemed to have her ways.
"Well I wouldn't worry, the past was an even worse place then the present we have now."
I raised my eyebrows in silent questioning.
"He he he" She giggled. "You must be wondering how this island could be even worse than it currently is right?"
"That's simple, the Boss stem cell, besides being a collection of one twelfth of the entire islands malaise, it is also a key of time."
"A key of time that locks the entire island's future in a state of perpetual stasis."
Her back rested against the altar.
"Have you ever wondered why this island only replays this month?"
"Not really, but when you put it that way, I guess it is pretty weird how its only this month and this month specifically.
"Well that's because there is no future to play in."
"What?"
She balanced her head on the palm of her hand.
"It's just as I said" Fiddling with the golden amulet in her hands she continued
"We sealed the future into these Boss Stem Cells thus damning the entire island into a loop of forever repeating their previous actions."
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