A/N: Still on Rui's POV

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"Crowley we're going to visit the village, okay?" Ziru spoke to the snoring adult monkey. 

Whoever formed this group really put the worse people together. It had an obnoxious rainbow-haired kid who can leap as high as the sky and shoot arrows with bare air, a hairy animal who raged and screamed banana everywhere, a blind and deaf brat who pretended to read and know every hair on your ass, and a paper blank man who can attract all the weirdos to his ass and seemed to like it.

Can this get any stranger?

The adult monkey continued to breathed loudly in his sleep and choked when a fly soared inside his mouth. Ziru and I cringed when the hanuman sat up as he coughed violently and held his neck. Once he was done choking to near death, he lied back down and turned away from Ziru before proceeding to snore like nothing happened.

"Where did the fly go?" Ziru asked.

I shrugged. "Straight into the doom of digestion probably."

Both of us got out of the shrine and left Crowley vulnerable for any monster attacks. He can handle himself; he was a capable adult monkey.

Lucian, Kox and that other weird sickly-looking guy were already gone when we woke up. Ziru kept bothering me about going to the village because he claimed that he saw something interesting to poke our noses into. 

I was only staying here because Sin commanded me to watch over his precious bed toy. I had no idea how this pesky rainbow-head got me to tag along with his annoying games. 

"There!" Ziru urgently whispered and pointed at a small tent that could fit two people. 

"What's in there?" I asked him. 

Ziru narrowed his gaze. "When we were waiting for Lucian-onii, I noticed that people kept on going inside that tent without coming back out. That tent can probably fit two to three people right?" he asked me.

"So you want to go inside?" I asked him. 

He rolled his eyes like it was the most obvious answer. "Duh."

I wasn't the one planning suicide here so why was I being talked down to like I invented stupidity?

I huffed. "I wasn't finished yet. So you want to get inside, get caught, and be part of whatever shit show these villagers have in their obviously cult-like activities?" 

I didn't care what these people were doing but there was really something bizarre going on here. There were more men than women and almost all of the women I was seeing had babies inside them. It could be coincidence so I try not to overthink it too much but it was still eldritch. How come grown-ups end up being worn down in the head?

"Are you coming or not?" Ziru asked me, hoping that I wouldn't choose the latter of the options.

"I'll just wait for you to become dead meat," I snorted causing his smile to drop. 

I had eaten children in the most part of my life so saying that I would consider eating Ziru didn't cause me any guilt. When I lived with Buck and the twins' wagon of brats, I thought it was strange to be playing with livestock. 

"Coward," he mocked me. 

"Like that's going to change my mind," I snorted before turning around to go back to the shrine. 

"We don't know where Lucian-onii is, maybe he's in there," Ziru said, causing me to pause.

Sneaky bastard.

"Why would he be there?" I asked. 

He grinned. "Well he's obviously concerned with that Saint guy and that Saint guy is up to something. You wouldn't want anything to happen to Lucian-onii do you?"

I underestimated this kid's intelligence. I'll decrease his bovine level of cognition to ninety-nine percent. If I were to make him my dinner, I'd leave the brain in fear of having my own get replaced.

"If we're going to do something that would likely end up getting caught, might as well wake up that monkey you left behind," I pointed out. 

Ziru looked up in thought and nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you're right. One more unreported move and Crowley would lose his fur. Wait here!" he told me before dashing out of the bush we were hiding in.

I only told him that so he wouldn't get in my way. I didn't want any dead-weight even if it was livestock.

I lifted my index finger and generated electricity from its tip. A strong bolt of lightning shot at the biggest tent of the village which then caused general panic. Fire broke out from the huge shelter and the villagers started to kill the growing blaze with buckets of water.

That will keep them busy. 

I stealthily sprinted towards the tent that Ziru mentioned and hid to its side when two men came out in a hurry. I peeked inside and found a passage leading downstairs. 

I was hoping I would find nothing.

I ran inside and bolted down the stairs. The flight of stairs was very lengthy. I thought it was never going to end. It was like travelling towards another village but through these pesky stairs made by pesky adults.

The scent of moldy air reached my nose and once I arrived at the bottom, a muggy environment welcomed me. The cave was huge and I felt smaller than I ever was.  Droplets of water echoed and an eerie darkness loomed at every corner.

There were luminous light blue crystals growing out from the rocky expanse of the cave and the ceiling stretched high above the ground. There was more than one route but I didn't need to trek each one of them. Only an adult would waste precious time on nonsense.

Glowing blue grass grew in fields and once I stepped on them, the same colored birds fluttered away.

Damn this. Why did I have to babysit an adult? If he can fight Sin in a one-on-one combat then he didn't need any bodyguards.

I lazily sauntered to each entrance and took a whiff of air to smell which passageway had a more interesting scent to it. This saved me from going inside and wasting time on a dead end that an adult would usually end up dead in.

Once I was down to one last route located on the far left, my body froze when I bird flew out and carried the scent of rotting flesh.

I took in a shaky breath and tried to calm myself. This was just a cave. Ta can't be the cause of the deaths here. Sin was stronger than him. He was much more powerful than him.

I can never forget every detail of how he ended Ta's life like he was just hunting an injured deer.

Shit. If I wasn't in a cave that blatant warning of nature wouldn't have gotten to my nerves. It just have to be a cave reeking of death.

My legs took me further inside and my body grew more layers of cold sweat. There were lesser crystals illuminating the area but darkness was never a problem with me.

The stench became more prevalent as I saw a more caliginous area at the end of this passage. My vision naturally adjusted to the lack of light. There was some kind of statue there and it was a gargantuan one with how I can only see its feet from the opening.

My left foot stepped inside as a sacrificial offering and it was mildly submerged into water. I always imagined that I would lose a leg when I step inside an unknown territory that reeked of blood and flesh and a whole lot of death.

The entire area was scented with pungent metal. Droplets of water continued to descend from the ceiling. There were things attached to the walls that I couldn't make out, but once the room was  illuminated with torches that suddenly lit up, dread caused the hair on my nape and arms to rise.

My eyes followed the successive flicker of torches that enlightened me of the circular structure of the area.

The decaying flesh of newborn babies were stuck to the walls that surrounded the horned statue of a soma. It had six vertebral tails with bodies of women pierced through each tip. Its form was painted with the rich color of life's essence, that can only be seen depending on how death takes you.

I stood in place, unaware of how I should perceive the gruesome display of religion around me. My eyes stared intensely at the name engraved beneath statue. The thumping in my chest became louder, that blood filled my ears and left the rest of my body chilling from the sudden drop of temperature. 

Garmir

There were more words engraved beneath his name and I walked closely to read them. 

"You shall become my blood and flesh if you offer me your own gore and child. I shall rule the world for my disciples if my disciples will let me rule in their hearts and minds. No betrayer shall outlive the follower. No follower will suffer like the betrayer. I shall be the God which their hearts and minds desire me to be. Shed the last faulty believer from your bloodline. I will be your God..."

The last words faded and I stepped back to organize my thoughts.

Shit. I can't get my thoughts in organized. 

I stared hard at my feet which were muddied with blood and jolted when a body sprang out from behind the statue and rolled to the puddle of ichor. Sobs racked the young man and once he lifted his blood-stained face, I immediately figured who he was. 

"He-hey! What happened to you?" I asked him.

 I squatted beside Saint and tried to stand him on his feet which was duck soup because of how light he was.  The guy can't even carry himself or even try to cooperate with me. He couldn't contain whatever was tearing his heart apart and I had no idea how to tell him to keep his shit together. 

Saint screamed and his scream pierced through my sensitive ears causing vibrations to enter me and flick my own heart. I held him tightly against me and bit my bottom lip. 

"Hey...what's the matter with you?"  I asked him again. 

His whole body was rigid yet shaking with apprehension. Nothing stopped him from letting out his lamentation.

"They died. They died!" He wailed.

His pained words hit me.

His scream of woe wasn't for himself, it was for all the children who couldn't do it themselves. Saint was their voice. Saint was their embodiment of protest. Saint was here to shout what they couldn't and to carry what they couldn't bear anymore. 

It was something that I would never do for someone.

"Rui, why don't you ever cry?"  Buck asked me. "Why do you act like a grown-up so much? You won't be a kid forever you know?" 

There was no use crying. I wasn't even given the chance to be a kid anyway.

"I just don't have the tears for it."

That was always my reply to Buck's repeated question but even I know that it wasn't the answer that I really wanted to give him. 

My voice was severed a long time ago.  I was never even given one. 

In a world like this one, children were always bound to weep. Children weren't allowed to become children. There was no such privilege. 

I shoved Saint back to the puddle of blood and glared at him. "Is that all you can do? Is crying all you can muster? Shut the fuck up!" I shouted at him.

Saint looked at me wide-eyed before breaking down into sobs again. "I co-couldn't save them. I let them die. I—"

"Crying won't change anything. Stand the fuck up and man up. If you're going to be a wimp forever I might as well stick you to the wall with them!" I growled at him. 

Saint tried to stand up but fell on his knees. His tears continued to fall and I stopped myself from feeling any sympathy for him. 

His voice cracked and he continued to whimper and wither.

"I tried to save everyone. I really tried..."

I turned my back at him. "You win and you lose. That's the reality. You can't save everyone," I spat. 

"I-if I only have the strength. If only I was born strong. No one...no one had to die like this. They-they could have grown-up...not like this. Not like this."

I swallowed down the guilt in my chest and turned to look at him. 

"No one would want to grow up in a world like this one."

What I was saying was harsh.

"To live as a child you're bound to be maltreated." 

Most people would disagree.

"If you ask me, it would be better if I wasn't born at all."

But it was the truth. 

Saint's lower lip wobbled and he mustered up every strength he had left to stand up. "I'm sorry..." he whispered. "That we couldn't make the world a better place for children like you..." he murmured before a single trail of tear glided across his cheek.

It wasn't your fault. None of it was. This was just how the world works. You eat or get eaten.

I clenched my fists and clucked my tongue in an attempt to snap the thick line of heavy emotion stringing me up in agony. 

"Let's just get out of here," I told him before grabbing his arm.

Saint remained in place and gently pried my hand away.

"Leave me."

"If I'm not mistaken, they'll kill you if they find you here. Are you dumb?" I asked him.

He gave me a sad smile and shook his head. "I have to put an end to this. They need me for their ritual."

I scoffed. "What do you—"

"Shed the last faulty believer— that's what it said right?"

I looked at the words beneath Garmir's feet and understood.  

"But why?"

"If one sides with evil, don't expect them to be spared by evil. Their desires shall be their punishment," he explained to me.

Guilt and worry had stricken me into panic. "What about Lucian? He must be looking for you. You can't just do this to him!" 

Why was I even persuading this guy? If he wanted to die, I'll let him die.

He avoided my gaze and pursed his lips before bending forward to level his lips to my ears. His hands clamped on my shoulders tightly and I felt his warm and shaky breath touch the side of my face. 

"Please tell him..."

...

...

...

Fuck

Fuck

Fuck!

My tail shot up and I hung to the ceiling while watching the sheperds scurry into the passage where Garmir was. The big old man was with them. Will they really kill Saint?

Should I really care?

More energy pumped into my veins and I became even more jittery when Lucian came inside while looking around the cave. I unhooked my tail from the ceiling and dropped down in front of him.

"Konnichiwa (Hi)," he greeted before patting my head. I slapped Lucian's hand away. 

"There's no time for that. Saint is in there and they're going to kill him!" I snarled.

Lucian's eyes widened before his face fell blank and became unreadable. His body twisted into a run but the sound of eruption took place followed by the surge of powerful winds that blew us away. The crow that Lucian was taking care of soared inside and transformed into the giant man he introduced us to. He caught Lucian's body while my tail was already hooked to the wall. 

The cave crumbled and I felt myself get snatched from my place when the part where my tail was anchored to disintegrated. I found Skwak carrying me together with Lucian as he soared out of the crumbled cave and avoided any falling debris. The village collapsed and time stopped when Garmir grinned from ear-to-ear.

Lightning struck around him and hailed at his feet. His red eyes glimmered in evil and treachery.

He completed the words that I couldn't read on the plate which spoke his desires and wishes if he was ever to be revived.

"I will be your God, your demise, and your end." 

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