Upon waking Souta felt the cool moonlight dancing upon his cheek, opening his eyes he looks around only to see the slaughter that occurred around him.
Seeing a lone head Souta knelt over and began to throw up anything that was left in his body.
"What the hell happened here" he questions himself
"Good job"
"What, who are you?" he yells out to the empty church
"Let's work together again soon. Okay. but for now take this gift and be gone" the voice says almost playfully
"Wait. Did I do this?" Souta asks hoping to receive an answer from the strange voice but to no avail. The church was silent.
"N-no. no no no" Souta says in utter desperation.
"I didn't kill them" he screams out
"I didn't want to. NO. I couldn't have. I'm not an evil person" Souta yells in pure desperation hoping that someone, anyone will listen to him and absolve him of his sins.
But there was no response. It was silent.
Standing up, Souta hears the sound of a door opening. Not wanting to face anyone in the scene before him he ran out the back of the church and kept running. 'What happened there' he wonders as the tears dry off his face 'last thing I remember was that guy Noel kicking my ass'
Remembering the scene of Noel lying in his own pool of blood he shudders.
'It had to have something to do with that strange voice, he said we worked together after all'
Suddenly he stopped running, looking onward in terror as he noticed that he instinctively ran all the way to the town square where he found the carnival.
"Wait..! What! The Carnival?! Where did it go?!" Soutas emotions overwhelm him; he doesn't know what he was just controlled by; all he knows is short visions of his masquerade inside the church.
"Fuck…" he mutters as he holds his head feeling pain from a throbbing headache.
Noticing the sun beginning to rise he begins to make his way back towards Scrollhaven trying to find a remedy for his returning sickness.
Due to his headache and his blurry vision it was midday by the time he finally reached the old building. Walking in he noticed Daeyr sitting behind her desk once more surrounded by open books.
"Excuse me miss Daeyr." Souta says beginning to sweat
"Yes dear" she says in her same kind tone
"Can you please help me find a book that better explains spirited" he asks, his tone slightly desperate.
Noticing that he grabbed her attention with that question he asks further
"Is there perhaps a problem?" he says, trying to hide his pain.
"No. no there isn't." Daeyr says now furrowing her brow and studying Souta a bit more closely. She quickly stood up and searched for a book, finding it much quicker than she found the first book she gave him.
Feeling as though something seemed off about Daeyrs behavior he tries harder to seem normal.
Not asking for his library card she hands him the book looking slightly suspicious of Souta before going back to look for another book. Not caring to focus too much on Daeyr he opens the book looking through its pages before coming to an interesting section.
It reads.
Becoming spirited
To become spirited one must perform a specific ritual performed by a spirited or higher the rituals differ depending on which Deity the ritual is being performed for…
'Whatever, this isn't helping me' Souta thinks before noticing an interesting section on the next page.
It reads.
Ritual interruption
In the event that a ritual to bind one to a chosen deity is interrupted or stopped the person that the ritual is being performed on will suffer adverse consequences called spiritual collapse.
'That doesn't sound very good' he thinks as he continues reading
'There are 3 stages to spiritual collapse which is where one's spirit is put under immense pressure for an extended period of time.'
'Stage 1 is the first stage in which the affected will suffer from blurry vision headaches and extreme paranoia'
'Wait ive been feeling some of those symptoms recently, this is really fucking bad' the thinks hoping that there is a way to reverse this affect
'Stage 2 is a much more serious stage where the affected will suffer bleeding from their nose, eyes, mouth, and ears as well as immense pain; this stage will only last a short time before reaching the third and final stage.'
"What's worse than stage 2?" he wonders
Stage 3 is death
"Why the hell did I need to wonder?" he thinks before noticing that there are two red circles on the page before seeing a third appear putting his hand on his nose he notices that it is bleeding.
"Oh shit" he thinks before seeing Daeyr approaching him.
Noticing his nosebleed she suddenly goes pale, dropping everything that she was holding and rushing to his side.
"Young man please tell me that you tried entering a contract with lady Shinsei" Daeyr pleads with desperation in her eyes
"Sorry" he sputters coughing up blood "when I went to their church they tried to off me" he says hoping that she won't try to do the same.
"Stay here" she demands before running off.
Falling over Souta grimaces in pain feeling as though he is being torn apart by wild beasts 'this must be the immense pain part' he thinks to himself before seeing Daeyr running back to him holding a strange contraption.
"What's that" he questions knowing that no matter what it is that she has brought he currently has no power to even hope of resisting her.
"Something that will help you my dear child. Even if I die for this I won't let the churches' strife kill another innocent who was forced into a contract with some crazy deity" she says, showing more emotion than Souta thought was possible at her advanced age.
"This will hurt greatly, but you must endure and not remove this artifact" she says before placing a strange circular claw on his chest and crushing a light green stone in her hand.
As suddenly as the pain appeared it dissipated.
And then he felt it the claw began sinking into his chest feeling as though it brought with it a torrent of molten lava that began flowing throughout his body.
Screaming in agony he began to claw at his chest easily tearing his skin open not feeling it though as he was focused on the pain within more than anything.
"Don't you dare remove that claw boy" Daeyr says sternly before standing up and heading towards the door.
"I'll be back as soon as possible," she says before exiting the library and locking the door behind herself.
"Fuck fuck fuck" Souta screams out in agony
"Please if there is any god or deity that is willing to save me please do it now I can't take this any longer" he yells writhing in pain as what feels like hours pass by.
He understands nothing that is happening, only that it hurts. Everything hurts, everything is in pain, each agonizing moment feeling like an eternity of punishment for any sin he has and will have committed.
"I truly am alone there is really no one that will save me" he cries out tears mixed with blood running down his face.
And yet all that there was to respond to Souta was the cold chilling silence of the library and his own agonizing screams.
Not even the strange being was there to respond to him.
As suddenly as she left however Daeyr was back. But this time there was another person, a familiar face.
"I'll … kill…" he tries to mutter as his vision begins to darken.
However right before passing out from the sheer pain that he endured he hears a familiar voice.
"So we meet again little ace"