In a realm of unending void and pitch‑black silence, two glittering golden eyes flickered open.
"Hostility confirmed… Target: Sebastian ** ***** Circe." The voice that sliced through the emptiness was metallic and unfeeling. "Crime activation: attempted murder of host. Punishment: death."
Sebastian's attention slid back to the forest he'd fled from. In its heart a spiraling black hole hovered, its surface rippling with frantic purple energy waves that bled into the surrounding darkness. The vortex contracted and expanded in a slow, relentless rhythm—an eldritch heartbeat devouring any light it touched.
"Ch‑tch… What are they doing?" he rasped, his voice barely audible over the hum of the black hole. "My bride better not be enjoying him alone." Resentment flared hot within him—he'd never imagined another man could share a night with his wife, even if she already carried the seed of chaos. He didn't know whether his wife and child had also been controlled, but he suspected it. Who knew that the monster here wasn't a monster, but a forbidden mage, he sighed. "Forbidden mages are really unpredictable" He murmured. He still clung to a strange tenderness toward her despite the darkness he had poured into the world.
The black hole pulsed again, its gravity warping reality. A crack!—a sound like glass shattering split the silence. Spider‑webs of light stretched across the forest, filaments that shimmered with an unnatural hue. The webs seemed to fracture reality itself; shards of the world flashed a pale white glow before snapping back together and reconstituting the twisted canopy.
The trees—monstrous, purple‑stained sentinels—resonated with him as they swayed in the wind. Sebastian's hand felt heavier than it should, the weight of every life he'd taken settling on his shoulders like a living curse. He saw James squatting at the base of the forest, eyes glowing bright gold.
"I hate dying," James muttered, shifting his gaze toward Sebastian. "I have one question."
James' golden hair fell in loose strands over his shoulders; his golden hair glowed like molten metal. A finger hovered near his lips as a sharp, golden energy surged through his body—an aura that crackled with unspoken curses.
"How many innocents did you kill to achieve this?" James asked, eyes flickering between the charred Sebastian and the jagged reality of the spider‑web world.
Sebastian rose from beneath the black hole's glow, a surge of black energy coiling around him. Creatures that looked like semi‑transparent versions of himself—full‑black bodies with fangs, claws, and whispering curses—surrounded him. Their presence felt like an omen: they were the very resentment James had gathered in the dead corners of the forest.
James sighed in exasperation as he watched Sebastian's hand feel heavier than it should. The weight pressed down on his soul like a living stone. A shiver ran through Sebastian, spine trembling as he closed his mouth. He tried to speak; words slipped away in hollow rasping.
The files lay open before him—pages listing James' abilities as unknown because no one had survived an encounter with him. Only a priest and assassin, with the strange combination of religion and killing, could exist without turning into a "black priest." Sebastian felt the chill that would keep him from processing anything—a force that scanned his mind, scanning his soul.
James placed a finger on his lips, a sharp gold energy coursing through his veins, urging an aura around his body. He had asked about how many innocents he'd killed to achieve this, and it seemed almost impossible for the higher powers not to know. How could they not be aware of James' capacity to kill without being becoming corrupted as a priest?
Sebastian recalled that within the black hole's depths, the resentment of criminals was diluted by their own accumulated hate from other people—so the very weight of the seed of chaos was nullified by their own bitterness. Thus, he moved on to murderers, rapists, corrupt officers and common people—an unending cycle of bloodshed.
He had been meticulous: frame a man, steal his wife or daughter (sometimes son), rape them in front of him, cut open their innards while they still lived, absorb curses, eat the body. He had to do this while keeping an eye on the Notnobu Guild—an organization that would never notice a handful of commoner crimes.
James watched Sebastian with concealed fury as he kicked, flipped and hurled him through the trees. The impact sent Sebastian crashing into bark, splintering under the force of the blow. As Sebastian struggled to his feet, James stared at him, eyes gleaming with a mix of triumph and pity—each word echoing through the dark forest as if even the very roots were listening.
Sebastian realized that the reason he had just rationalized his past deeds was because of James' influence. The cold darkness he'd summoned had taken hold of him in turn—an entity that fed on humanity's despair, devouring him.
"I see," James breathed, standing over the wounded man. "You've become what you feared." His voice was a mixture of triumph and pity, each word echoing through the darkened forest as if the very trees were listening. The air grew colder, the shadows lengthening until even the faint glow of the black hole seemed to dim in reverence.
Sebastian stared at James, his mind racing with dread. He could feel the weight of every life he'd taken settle on his shoulders like a living curse. The surrounding forest breathed with an eldritch rhythm—leaves rustling as if whispering secrets of forgotten gods. Every crack in the ground seemed to pulse with unseen horror.
At that moment, the world felt suffocatingly small and infinitely cruel: the very place where Sebastian's ambition had taken root now became his prison. The darkness he'd summoned was no longer a tool—it had become an entity that fed on the remnants of humanity's despair, devouring him in turn.