Chapter 9: Famine

Chapter 9
Famine

" Poison, you're poison runnin' through my veins, poison!"
-Alice Cooper

" At what point does justice become revenge? Justice is known as the action of making someone guilty pay for the crimes or wrongs they have visited upon another.Justice becomes revenge when anger is involved. Anger makes it personal. Twists it into something that it shouldn't be. A desire. A hunger that turns a virtue. Into a sin".

Jack and Jonah refused to repeat what had happened down there in the court of madness to anyone. It had turned out. Oddly. They had survvied. But. So had the glutton. After Jonah had jammed his dagger into the gullet of the Glutton, things had began to get ugly. The creature. Identifying that it was close to being defeated. Decided to escape the court. And in doing so. Embraced once more. The hunger. The building no longer supressing the powers of Gluttony. Once again, the hunger came upon him. And the disaster which followed was something that they would rather forget. Suffice to say. They all survived. A cave in seperating them from the glutton, enough it seemed to keep it back. But Jack could still sense on the outer most reaches of his tainted blood. The dark hunger that accompanied the beast. Eventually they and the archeology team had found their way out of the tunnels. A seperate leaving point that was leading out in the forest formerly known as Solvey. The crystal white trees were a welcome sight in comparison to the dark brim stone roads of the tunnels. The archeology team, the leader of pride. And the leader of fear went on their seperate ways. Jonah asked if Jack wanted to go back with him to the clans fo fear and Sloth. For some time resting. But Jack couldn't do that, there was still too much to do at the seat of Pride to take such simple rests. Simple rests.

Simpler times. In the crystal forest he sat alone as each single person departed. He had no real reasoning for why he did this, no real knowledge of what made him feel. Relaxed. There was soemthing about this place, wasn't there? A sort of mystical quality and beauty that honestly didn't really belong in a place like this. A place of primal fury and destruction. Such an area of tranquility did not belong. Black butterflies emerged from within the trees, moving about the area in seemingly random patterns. He had to wonder if these creatures were too like him. Spirits. It seemed more than likley since this was the underworld. However there were legends on Terra of non spiritual animals that had mystical qualities. Yes, something about this place that wasn't right, something about this place that was too relaxing. It was dangerous, dangerous for him to let his guard down. And yet. He couldn't help it..Some things were inevitable that way.

Memories of a dream, that book within the library. The one that told of the man who waited. A beach. A man. Drowning. Nothingness. Thats how he felt now. Tired. Exhausted. In facing the glutton he had faced death, hunger and madness. And the costs of power. Just what was it that drove the Glutton to that in the first place, to become such an abomination. A perversion of darwinism. He couldn't understand it. And yet, he could. The wanting for power. That much he could understand, but in such fervour? No. That he could not understand. To gain power was a good thing, but it was not the only thing. To be ready for power was just as important as gaining it in the first place. Without being ready for it then it was bound to corrupt. Just as it did with that creature.

Eventually however Jack did get to his feet, relaxing as this place was it couldn't be somewhere he could stay for a long time. He had goals. He had plans. And he had the seat of Pride. And ti was about time he got back there. As always, jack didn't really like flying. He prefered to walk, prefered to see for himself the chaos of the underworld. To see it so that he might know it. To know it, so that he might one day overcome it. This was how he liked it. This wasn't something that he would change for all the riches and possessions in the world. This was his home. On the edges of the Solvay forest he found himself standing in what looked like the ruins of a city, by the large hole moving in from the centre of the city. He assumed that some kind of earth quake had dislodged the ground and caused it to crumble through. It was, quite possible.

This was the city in which the court of madness had originally stood. It was strange, much like the collapsed parts beneath the ground the architecture seemed to borrow heavily from the ruins he had seen in the human realm. a city built like the ones on earth it sounded to him like that story the research team head had told him. The arch demon who had tried to bring order to the underworld. To bring them closer to humans, to trade with humans. Such an idea seemed amlmost perverse. At least in the world which existed now. Perhaps things had been different before the dawn. As he looked to the sky. Jack wondered. But knew that no one would ever really know.

EXP:1014

" I don't know why I'm starting this thing, perhaps its that old way in which future kings or rulers leave behind momentos of what they used to be. Perhaps this is just my way of putting down thoughts on paper. So many questions, so few answers. So much happening. Not enough time to register all of it. Perhaps. Like that Oni in the researchers story, this is my way of attempting to bring some kind of order to the chaos that is currently the present state of my mind. Events began with the rise of madness. Ceila's awakening so to speak. For whatever reason that girl seems to be at the centre of everything right now. Whether she is the sun that drives the universal events within my life in barathum ragnum, or merely the epicentre of an explosion, a disaster. I can't really tell. Perhaps thats another part of the madness. Perhaps shes trying to drive me to madness. Regardless of reason, thought or drive. Everything started with her. I had until the day I met her been living as an advocate. A follower of the previous leader of Pride. Jowan. I'd always had my ambitions but. Things never really began to burn till that day we met. Till I started having dreams of that library. A place of madness. A place of secrets. A place where a pride demon doesn't belong.

When she faked her death, events began to escalate, began to get worse. Thats when I discovered Jowans secrets. When I started to gain power at a much faster rate than before. I slew the clan of desire. Took Jowans secrets for myself. And then, began my systematic take over of the Seat of Pride. Killing each one of my kin to do so. Yes, I killed them. Killed them all. Kinslayer am I. For I judged none of them would follow me, to proud to break their vows to Jowan. So. I killed them. Fearing they would all turn on me if I challenged Jowan in their presence. I murdered them. And took the seat for myself. Then only to be attacked by traitors of fear and sloth. Twas then Ceila revealed that she still lived. That she had been watching, manipulating from the backdrop. Her tool of revenge on Jowan. Perhaps that was I. But she has other plans. For she has haunted me ever since. "

EXP: 432

"In between all this there is of course the points of my own. Upon discovering Jowans secret family thoughts of one that I may have started begant o creep in. Perhaps it was fear that I'd fall for the same weakness as Jowan, end up following in the same path. End up falling in the same pit fall. That man loved his family, in the end thats what got him. Me, any potiental child I had, I only had two ideas for. Use as a tool. Or kill it. End the weakness there. There was no love. I have no room in my heart for that. I can't. Have any room in my heart for that. With that creeping fear in mind, a day came when a visitor stumbled upon the Seat of Pride. A curious thing for the norm was that other demons avoided this place of power. We fed on the weaker ones who came close. Azazel normally making a lovely meal. Cannibalism it may be, but then when most of them appeared to be beasts, you could never really tell. Nor diid it matter.

It was at this stage, I met the demon Iskra. One who had...potiental. I saw the potiental in her, and agreed to teach her the powers of dark magic. In exchange, she would hunt in the human world for any kin I may have spawned. A task to which she agreed. And set off to. I however could not merely leave it in her hands, going to the human world to search myself. In the meantime of being there. Getting myself involved in a quest of folly. Meeting Iskra again along with a follower she seemed to have picked up. Regardless. I found no evidence of any spawn. Returning.here. Only to discover things of darker import. The appearance of a glutton demon. Whether or not Iskra will have much luck whilst my hands are tied here. I do not know. I do hope that she finds nothing, it will allow me to cut all ties with that previous life of mine. Well, most ties. There is still that woman. If she yet lives. She knows me, knows my weaknesses. Thankfully. Such a thing remains a secret of myself. "

EXP:386

" And then we come to the Glutton, the discovery of such a creture actually still walking the plains of hell without attracting my attention earlier was. Troubling. It seemed that the leaders of fear and sloth shared my concerns. We three, uniting in an effort to bring this abomination down. After all such was our duty as creatures who would be eternally tainted by this creatures touch upon the soil and brimstone. We who fed upon the psyche would be shovelled into a group with this creature, others not understanding that even mong us, such a thing was considered a monster. Especially among us. With the leader of fear I travelled into the tunels below the underworld. Braved terrors and. Faced this monster. The details of the encounter, I think is something that should be left out of written word, such things are better not spoken, particularly when it concerns a possible weakness for both myself. And Jonah. In the end, thats what brings me here. The ruins of this city. In a crumbling building I find these pages, a pot of ink and a quill. Things to write with, and an urge to do so. Almost as if someone had laid them out specifically for me to do this.

I know, I'm probably better off burning these pages after writing them. My thoughts are my own and should stay in my head, even if writing them out like this has helped me put some order to things. And yet, I can't bring myself to do it. I look to the ruined fire place and, although I know that its the smartest thing to do. Theres a feeling of...repulsion? At the idea of it. I'll lay down this quill now. Hide these pages somewhere in this ruin. Dead memories in a dead city. Appropriate.

-Jack Wiseman."

EXP:336