Scarlet

Darkness.

All around me, that’s all I can see. Meanwhile voices continues echoing through my head almost as loud as my own thoughts. Thoughts that feel cloudy for some reason.

Then there’s the pain. Extreme pain that seems to be bypassing my Pain Diffusion skill as I float in the darkness of whatever void I’m in.

Pain that keeps me from thinking about anything beyond the pain and voices.

“Pride.” “Regain your Pride.” “There is nothing more important than your Pride.” “You deserve death without your Pride.”

The voices continue nearly endlessly, and over time I almost give in to them as they start to overload the pain to the point that I can think a little. Even if I can’t really hear my own thoughts. Because what’s the point?

I’ve never attached all that much importance to my own life. Never had much attachment to reality itself, if I’m being honest. It’s one of the reasons I would always just accept my death when it seemed like it was coming.

The world itself is empty to me. There isn’t much in it that I care about on a real level.

After all, what’s the point of everything? Do action A so that you can do action B to do C. There just isn’t an end goal to it.

Unless you count death, that is. And then what would the point of that be? Work all your life, maybe achieve some goals you set, and die.

Then again, I have always enjoyed achieving goals I’ve set for myself. That feeling of satisfaction whenever you achieve your goal. Even if it’s a rather brief feeling, it’s a good one.

Probably one of the reasons I like fighting so much as a Guardian. To get that quick satisfaction of leveling up. Of growing stronger.

But even then, what’s the point?

The voices begin to grow louder as I feel myself slipping away slightly to them.

I’ve always been great at everything I’ve tried. A rather stifling thought, and one that would probably have a lot of people call me arrogant or something.

The cold of the void slowly turns warm as I feel the pain slowly fading as the voices grow louder. And I can’t help but notice just how comfortable that warmth is. Not to mention the voices.

“Leave the restoration of honor to me.” “Let us restore your Pride!” “The Pride is all that matters.”

If I could just leave everything to someone else and sleep…

“Sleeeep…”

I feel my eyes waning close ever so slowly.

But then I hear a voice, making me blink for a moment before I realize it’s more than one voices.

Allen, Cynthia, Belle, Arthur, Aria, the others from the team. Even Gramps, Leonidas and Amelia.

I hear all of their voices as they talk from somewhere outside of the void I’m in.

Huh. How long have they been there?

I finally begin to notice the odd cool spots on my body. Spots that begin to wake me up a little from the comfortable warmth.

Huh. What was I just about to do?

I try to move slightly from the discomfort, only to find that it just makes things even more discomfortable as the pain returns with a vengeance and the voices start going crazy from my snapping out of whatever was happening.

Well that’s annoying.

What’s up with this pain though. How is it that it’s completely ignoring Pain Diffusion?

Wait. Why can’t I feel any of my skills? It’s like they’re all gone.

Actually, more importantly, wasn’t I fighting a lunatic? I’m pretty sure I was. So why am I here in this strange void of nothingness?

I also can’t move now that I think about it.

Why am I only slowly starting to realize all this now?

Silence answers me. Excluding the voices in my head.

Didn’t really expect an answer, but still sad nonetheless to not get one.

Did Gramps finally arrive and save me from the lunatic? That’s the only thing that would make sense.

Unless the lunatic killed me, but that wouldn’t explain everyone’s voices.

Also wouldn’t explain why I’d hear everyone I care about from Earth alongside Gramps and Leonidas. Pretty sure they’d be at each other’s throats in seconds if they saw each other.

Or rather, Gramps would have them imprisoned forever since there’s no way they’d even be able to reach his throat.

Just what happened?

The voices continue beating at my mind, none of whom sound happy. Some of them even sound like they’re trying to tempt me into letting the Sin take over. Or rather, most seem to be doing that.

Yeah, no thank you. If there’s one thing I hate more than most other things, it’s losing control.

Well, that and betrayal. I hate betrayal too.

Oh, wait, I just remembered. What were those notifications I heard before everything went dark?

I try to let them play, but nothing happens. No notifications greet me.

Maybe I can’t access the System while in this void?

That’s rather annoying.

I try to frown, only to remember that it hurts rather badly to move and instead go still again. Then I remember what happened right before I went unconscious and I do the same thing I did then. I search inside of myself using whatever power I got then, finding that I can still do that unlike my skills.

And what I find gives me pause.

This is not what my blood and DNA looked like the last time I saw. Now they just look… cracked? Fractured?

Most of my DNA isn’t even connected to each other anymore, with the remaining bits only a little connected but with fractures running through the connecting points.

And even the ones that aren’t connected look like they’re wrong somehow. But I can’t figure out what’s wrong.

I try very hard to hold myself back from frowning.

Just what’s going on anyways? Did I screw something up before? When I did whatever it was that I tried doing?

“SLEEEEEP!!!!”

And I wish those voices would shut up.