Tears Of Scarlet, Tears Of Gold

squeeee x3

i love your stories sectum, i've read this one all the way from day one and think its fantastic. keep up the good work!

If I send you panties will you update more? lmao






(*I am so totally joking about that*)

Day 132:

It was late two days ago when she had said it.

"There's somethin' different about you; I just can't figure out what. Somethin' inside of you."

I gave a shrug, but I knew that she was right.

I should mention, I suppose, that we had an Elvaan Clergyman with us. That will come to importance in a few more paragraphs.

It was on the night between the hundred and thirtieth and the hundred and thirty-first day that it happened. I settled down to sleep, curled up with my diary.

And that was when it happened.

~~~

I opened my eyes, and I stood up.

They were all asleep around me, except for the one person keeping watch around the fire. I walked over to him. "Long night," he said, making small talk.

I gave a small laugh. "Don't worry, your shift's over," I found myself saying. It just... it was my mouth, but not my words. I began to realize what was going on as he stood up and turned, thanking me, to walk off... only to find that a moment later that I was swinging my golden scimitar clean through his neck. His body simply fell to the ground, crumbling in a heap. I tried to stop moving. I couldn't.

I wanted to toss myself into the fire and end it all, but I could not bring myself to.

No one else had woken up yet. That was good.

It was with the arts of black magic--the kind I had not performed in a while now--that I ensured that none would get away. A circumference of flames rose up around our campsite. They started to wake up now.

There were a total of fourteen people left alive.

The younger they were, the easier they were to kill. It was the old man that gave me the most trouble. And, of course, how could I kill Lion? That dear, precious, sweet object of lust. No, she'd make it out alive... for the first part of the ordeal.

It was myself verse three young adults for a few moments, and I very quickly demolished them. That was before the old man, Gilgamesh of Norg, could realize what was going on. It's not like he could have stopped me.

Eleven left now, and I let loose to the urges to feed and my left arm went to its familiar flayer styled, organic weapon of terror. Two more met my tentacles. One had jumped and perished in the flames.

Eight now, and at that point, I grabbed one and fed on him. Seven.

The next three were quickly taken care of by my breathing fire, the trick I learned from the Mamools.

Five now, these were real warriors. Three and Gilgamesh, with my dear Lion trying to fight but being told to run. It was with utmost pleasure that I sparred with the old man and his two wakizashi. Unfortunately for him, you simply cannot destroy a creature that is so damned and unfair to fight against, I'd imagine.

The next two I simply fed on, keeping them alive long enough to watch the other get eaten.

And then there was one. My dear, sweet, little Lion.

She tried to fight, but she simply wasn't able to. The heat was getting to her, the trauma of watching so many others be barely able to even land a blow to me... people just weren't used to the dirty tactics of fighting like a demon, I suppose.

I could feel Crim inside of me. I could feel him taking over, and I knew this was him. Maje had lost the urge to do this to people.

I grabbed her and slapped her across the face when she struggled. Twice. The tears started welling up from the stinging. She was fragile. More fragile than she thought.

I ripped off that ridiculous excuse for a blouse. It shredded in a single tear. She tried to pull free again and this time I forced her to the ground. Next came her skirt and that awful headband.

She screamed an awful lot. It was a bloody mess. Absolutely terrible how stained my shalwar had gotten in the whole process. But by the end of it, I got her to just take it.

She was barely a hollow husk when I finally left her, naked, beaten, and thoroughly abused, there.

Oh geez. o.o

Stop being so mean Sect! Or I will come into your story and punch you!

And then out of nowhere a giant red Mack truck was seen traversing the land and transformed into a robot and went "PEWPEW!" with his laser gun. And the world was saved.

The End.

You called?

Well that was ironic.

Day 132 - Continued:

I woke up, gasping for air.

I looked to my left.

There was no fire. There were no scorch-marks on the ground.

The man was still watching the fire.

My body was covered in sweat.

I moved my hand. It was still me.

He's coming back...

Maje was worried.

I was, too.

There was one other person awake, staring at me. The Elvaan priest.

"I know... I've seen it before..."

His words, scarcely more than a whisper.

"There are ways..."

He was clutching a miniature statue of Altana that hung on his chest from a platinum chain.

"Child, I can save you."

Could it be so simple?

I stared at him in mild shock for a moment.

Do it.

It was Maje. There was something in how he said it. Some half pause, some sort of wavering in it.

I stared at the priest.

"Tell me, Child, what is your name?" he said, slowly approaching. Trying to be fatherly.

I was scared of this priest, and I wasn't sure why.

"My name is Legion, for we are many..."

I laughed softly at my own joke, but I saw that he was aghast.

"There are so many inside of me..."

Do it.

It was Maje's voice again, and this time I understood.

"We can send them back to whence they belong," he said, sitting in front of me.

I was about to beg him to.

But I looked at my hands, and I wasn't sure why at first.

If Maje left, if my soul could be restored... then I would no longer be beyond human. Or below.

I would be human again.

And that meant that I could not save the world.

I stood up.

"I can't, sir."

Do it.

And I began to walk away. I turned back to him.

"I've got to end this all, alone. When this is all over... when it's safe to go out at night, travel alone, when the world is safe again and Jeuno is restored... tell them that they'll find my body in The North. It's time to finish the fight."

Do it!

Maje was screaming inside my head now.

DO IT!

But it was the sort of screams that someone screams when there's one bullet left in the Hellfire and all but two chambers have been tested and we're just waiting to see if the brains fall onto the table or not.

I refuse to put him, or any of the others, through that.

They can die with me. In peace.

Once more, I left, and I didn't look back. Into the night, I set out with my white chocobo.

And in my head, I felt Maje crying tears with emotions he never felt before.

Priest probably would have wanted an abjuration anyway

Day 135:

It became a game of cat and mouse now.

I could tell that Ludo and Selim were still tracking me.

This time, they had chocobos, too. They were catching up quickly, too, because I have to stop. I have to write. I have to fight the demon inside of me.

It's a slow journey North, full of soul searching. Full of trying to regain myself.

Full of pain. Full of suffering. Full of ambition. Full of desire to end.

Full of hatred.

I'm so full of hatred. I'm not even sure if that's Crim now. Is it just me? Is it just me hating the world?

That didn't matter much.

What mattered was that by the time they were catching up, I was in the Ranguemont Pass.

I could hear their voices echoing from the start of the tunnels.

Have you ever formed a plan in an instant?

There were dead bodies everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. It was a slaughterhouse here.

They were still looking for me. They were marching through piles of dead bodies to try and catch up to me. To try and save me from myself.

They wanted me back. They wanted to save me.

I found myself... angry.

Not at them. I finally understood why I was angry.

I was angry because I have become a monster. I have become so far less than human that I let my soul be taken.

I grew angry, and because of that, Crim grew strong, because Crim was feasting on my negativity.

I felt everything go a little hazy for a moment and I felt the struggle for my body begin once again.

Not this time, you son of a ***.

I was clutching my golden blade.

Not this time.

I felt my hand turn tentacular, and the fun began.

~~~

A moment later, I was inside myself again.

He was everywhere. I could see his face everywhere. I could see fragments of his body crawling to piece themselves together. I could see bits of flesh forming the body of a demon. A crimson demon.

I felt Maje next to me. He was weak, and I was strong.

"It is good that two killers such as we can fight together."

I grinned as I said it and I handed him my sword. My soul, I suppose. There was something about handing him that that... it was more than an act inside my mind. It was as though I was giving him the keys to my soul, trusting him with a weapon.

My left arm burst into the tentacles just as Crim finally formed. The fight began.

There were many of him, and there were two of us, but one must realize that many of the many of him were still very much souls that hated him.

Souls that knew I was just fighting the good fight.

I watched as the main embodiment of Crim tried to command the lesser ones to attack us, and they simply froze up.

And so, the two of us, began to approach him as he realized that I was finally taking over in full this time.

Imagine, if you will, becoming the universe. Imagine that you're suddenly everywhere, everything... everyone... every particle of existence.

Crim turned, and I was there. He moved, and I was next to him. He was, and I was like a shadow. I was everywhere. I was everything. I was him. Finally he understood that, and I understood that.

In here, I was everything, and everything was me.

And I was inside him, on a physical level almost. We did not need to land a blow. His gut suddenly exploded, and I was crawling out of it. And then out from inside of him, I laughed.

"It's time you learned who's the master here."

And I shall spare the details, for you already know how I kill and how I steal souls. Just know that this time, I broke him. I broke his sentience. His will. His spirit. Everything he had, except for his memories and his knowledge. Those, I kept.

Once and for all, the Crimson One was dead. Or so I had thought.

~~~

For when I had opened my eyes next, I realized that everything was different. It was the light that I had first realized. It was all wrong.

Colors seemed to be extreme, as though everything were black and white before this. I could see in the dark terribly well. My senses were all extremely retuned and sensitive. I wasn't sure I understood it.

But I heard their footsteps approaching.

In a moment, I had a plan.

Have you ever had a plan from nowhere? A perfect plan?

I saw a body not too unlike my own. A young man.

I dragged it to the center of the room. I put my sack on it. I left everything except one last journal and a quill. My chocobo, mind you, had been left outside Ranguemont. I didn't want it to freeze to death. It would run away sooner or later.

"I'm sorry..." I breathed, and I took my golden scimitar and wrapped the dead boy's hands around it. I pulled it through his stomach, spilling the stuff of guts to the floor.

I let out a shrill scream.

"You can die with me!"

I immediately heard them start to run.

I lit the body in a blaze that I knew would strip it down beyond the bones in just a little over half a minute.

I calmly walked away.

Now, finally, I was free.

Only one or two days left for this part.

I'm so glad day 132 P.1 was a illusion. :D

good stuff! im afking in a pt atm to read this and its well worth it, lol. Faking your death is classic

I really wish I was more talented. I can visualize that scene so much better than how I was able to write it :(

I REALLY need to remember to check this more often...lol

Don't make me rape you!

Day 142:

He explained everything to me after we fled.

I can see from what we learned from The Crimson One... and I understand. You, the races of Altana, are connected.

That was how the conversation began.

I had taken refuge in an ancient structure that was in Beaucedine. I had never been here before, but Maje knew it well.

There were many dead trees; I was burning wood from them.

Did you know that you all share a connection? I had not; I was not so important to be privileged with such knowledge.

"No," I said aloud. "I had no clue."

It makes sense, though; I should have realized when the samurai had told you about your parents. You seem to be in tune with the souls by way of the dead.

"Do I really now?"

There was a long pause. I could feel Maje thinking. It was curious.

And all the while, I could not help but stare in wonder at the world. I knew that there was almost no light besides the small fire I started in this structure, yet I could see perfectly.

"Maje, what about that? Why are my eyes wrong?"

Wrong? Child, they were wrong before, and now they are alright. Did your people not know that we see the world different?

"Well, I think we're the only human and demon that ever really struck up conversation," I said, leaning back and then just laying down on the stone floor.

Such is true. How are your other senses?

"Very sensitive. Painfully so. The snow almost blinded me, and the wind is giving me quite the headache."

It should pass, I suppose. You're simply not used to it. I do so wonder... I started the path that allowed you to transform yourself into the eastern Flayer...

He need not continue.

I experimented. With my left arm, I normally performed my tentacle trick.

But there was something telling me that that wasn't all now, and that Maje was right.

Let us see it.

I glanced at my right hand.

Shall I help you the first time?

"Please," I said. I wasn't exactly sure how to test this. Before, I simply... did it.

I felt my hand burning up and watched as the skin grew much harder. It began to turn red.

"Curious..." I said.

I had claws.

I could not wait for this fun, particularly as this occurred all the way up through my arm.

It almost ripped my shirt. I was becoming naturally muscular before; now my arm wasn't even proportionately muscular in this form. But mostly, the spines up my arm, I liked those. I liked them a lot.

It was like I was naturally wearing battle armor.

I liked this.

I liked it a lot.

"One last gift from Crim, eh?" I asked.

I would say so.

I relaxed my arm and willed it to turn normal. It would be a few more transformations until I could do it as quickly and naturally as my left arm, but I sensed great potential. Great potential indeed.

"It's going to be interesting from here on out," I said.

I would say so. We should take some time to teach you the rest of the abilities you may have inherited.

"Oh? There's more?" I inquired.

We demons have the ability to make a pact with another demon, and such our soul is shared. You know this; you and I, we have a pact, too. However, the five races, they all seem to have this bond, without a pact. I wonder if you, a mix of man and demon now... I wonder if you can see what we see.

"And what is that?"

We can see life and energy and souls. And with a pact, we can see... everything about that person. Such is how you and I share the same mind, now. You can feel what I feel; I can feel what you feel. We can share thoughts. If we so duly desired, our souls, we could become one.

"But we don't want that," I said.

We do not want that.

And I was curious now.

If it works as such, do you really want to see?

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.

He laughed. Before your little stunt, did you not realize what it would do? Your friends, your lover... they will be scarred forever. As they see it, you had been driven to suicide by a demon. Just a small boy, so frail yet so strong, and he fell to the demon.

I had not realized it, and I did not care at first.

And then I thought about Nashmeira.

How she would react when she was told that I had fallen to my own, charcoal soul.

"Well, ***."

Well, ***. He echoed.

There was not much else to say that night.

Well, ***.

Just finished reading 3 & 4 up until this point, love it n glad its still going ^^

So Crim is gone now? If so THANK GOD! He scared me =(

Don't think I'm gonna forget that line for awhile... Well, ***.

Gone? Well, depending on how you look at it, I suppose you could say that.

Day 149:

We're taking a few more days to rest, because we know we can afford it. It was a long road to get here, and it was honestly such a short time.

Five moons. A bit more, really.

Altana, I'm so tired.

So very tired.

It's been a fight, that's for sure.

I've met a lot of people, and I've killed a lot of people.

It was on this day that Maje and I finally decided to face my fears and see if I could see as two demons could see each through each other.

Not the lover, he advises. Not her first.

I had to agree to that; I was scared of what I may see.

What was my greatest fear? That she believed me dead? That she was with someone else?

The Samurai?

Caiyuo, he meant.

The Ninja?

Or maybe Rumaha.

The Hunter, the Knife Master?

Ludo, Selim.

The Mithra? The Woman Ninja? Who shall it be? The Master of Beasts?

Alyria. Marz. Stikle.

The Samurai and the Knife Master, you knew them best.

Such was true.

"Let us see... the Samurai."

I shut my eyes, and the only way I can describe what happened next was that I "willed myself to be neither here nor there."

Maje says that's pretty accurate.

~~~

Flying. I was flying. By Altana, I was soaring through the air. Down towards the earth, from the clouds, because he was so far. I could see where I was passing through. Flying from the Northlands to the South, to Kuzotz, to the desert region.

I could see the ground, so far below me, in such great detail, and as I began to descend I picked up speed. It was warm. It was amazing, it felt so warm and real on my skin. I missed the warmth.

And then I slowed as I slid through the desert floor and saw the walls of a cave around me, and I was pulled through a labyrinth of stone walls. And then I stopped.

I could see Cai in front of me. He was sitting in a dark corner. I could smell the whiskey on him; there was a bottle of it knocked over to his left.

But he was different. His eyes, while I could see that they were red, it was as though they were glowing. I could feel Maje whispering somewhere far back in the North that that was because he was alive. And in his chest, I saw a beating heart. It was as though I could see the very fabrics of his skin, all moving together as he breathed. It was strange; it was as though I had never seen a body before, and now I was seeing it in such great detail.

He hiccuped and then suddenly started to cry. He placed his head in his hands and just kept shaking his head and sighing.

The tears, they were the color of blood.

I could see as Rumaha walked over to him and sat with him. Ludo was across the room with Selim. When I saw their eyes, I saw the utter despair and torment that I myself had gone through. And then, finally, someone spoke.

"We were too late. Just seconds too late..." Selim kept muttering it.

I felt bad for them. I felt horrible for what I had done. But I knew that it was for the best.

It was Rumaha who seemed to think he understood and, in some way, accepted it.

"I think he knew... there was no way he could ever be saved," he said. "I think all hope was lost when we told him about his parents..."

Cai started crying all over again. He must have felt so guilty. Cai, whom had been with me for more of the journey than anyone else. Cai, whom had never given up hope. Whom had spent so many nights keeping watch when I was hospitalized. Cai, whom could have been, to me, a father.

I was pretty stupid, and pretty selfish.

It was then that I finally saw Alyria. She was a pitiful state. She was also looking like a shattered creature.

"I should have done something, I was his leaderrr," she cried out.

Marz placed a hand on her shoulder and tried to comfort her.

I moved near Caiyuo. He turned to the general area where I was, as though he could almost but not quite sense something.

I placed a hand on his shoulder. His eyes glanced to his shoulder. Panic? Could he feel me? "Don't worry," I said, scarcely harder than a whisper. "I'm better now."

Everyone in the room turned to where my spiritual being was "standing." Someone cried out, "What in the name of Altana--?!"

"Don't worry," I repeated, smiling slightly now, understanding a bit more about all this. "It's better that it happened this way."

Day 152:

We've been, shall we say, training and planning.

We figure that the easiest way to perform this next part is to infiltrate. Espionage. Assassination.

It almost made me giddy inside.

And so we've been working on slowly practicing walking, talking, and living like a demon. Exploring the customs, their powers, and the differences between demon and human.

If all would go well, I would be able to impersonate Crim personally.

According to Maje, whom has been kindly sifting through his memories and knowledge, Crim was one of the thirteen head demons in charge of this operation.

It's really a good thing that Maje possessed me and not someone else; now that we're friends, I can see that if I had gotten some stupid demon, I would have really committed suicide just to get him out of my skull.

Their methods towards bringing their lord back are a tad bit strange to explain. They will, essentially, be using the link between thirteen higher up demons and the links between those they killed and connect the two. The "friction" between the demon and human souls, it is said, should cause a sort of reaction that would rip through a small area and allow The Shadow Lord, as they call him, to be brought forth.

It's all very fascinating, to be honest.

Our plan?

I will kill the Demons and break them on the spot, not giving them time to possess me. Maje will take any information they have on how to perform this process, and he will take their souls this time.

And when all are dead, we will "cause the friction" to occur, and we'll do what I do best.

We'll take, and break, whatever comes out, and end this once and for all.

Jolly good idea, I think.

I like the sound of this tehe.

Watching both parts of The Godfather (There was never a third, mmk?) may have influenced the next part of the story.

xD good thing i never watched the Godfather, i will be surprised with whatever happens! :D weee!

and by becoming like a demon i assume he can transform his whole body, not just his arm?

It would make sense for such to happen.

oooooOOOOOOoooo


How interesting!