inspire-indiana Chapter 1693: The Devil... has arrived.
Chapter 1693: The Devil... has arrived.
*What are you all doing here?* Lackey asked casually while resting the sword across his shoulder.*Did you get your revenge?*
Nobody answered.
Instead, an elderly elven man slowly stepped forward before dropping to his knees.
Thud!
Then another followed.
Then another.
Within moments, every survivor had fallen to their knees before him.
Lackey’s expression stayed unreadable as he looked into their eyes.
Their eyes contained no more excitement.
Their eyes contained no more hatred.
Their eyes contained... no more desire to continue living.
Yet hidden beneath that overwhelming lifelessness was something else entirely.
Relief and... Acceptance!
The look of people who had finally reached the end of a journey filled with nothing except suffering.
Lackey’s fingers trembled.
For the first time since massacring the Zoo, his fingers genuinely trembled.
*I-Is that really... what you all want?* he asked quietly while staring at them.
He already knew the answer.
Everyone present already knew the answer.
Yet some part of him still wanted them to deny it.
Nobody spoke.
Nobody moved.
Nobody even attempted to answer.
Because... they lost everything and became... Nobody!
They slowly raised the weapons he had given them as though returning them to their owner.
*You... can still move forward, He..Heh...* Lackey said while forcing a smile that looked... increasingly unstable.
*Your families might still be waiting for you back home. Have you ever thought about seeing them again? Ha-haha... Have you ever imagined how happy they would be after finding out that you’re still alive?*
His voice gradually became louder as a crimson spark erupted within his abyssal eyes.
*Our world changed while you were trapped here. Things are different now. We fight back. We survive... W-We have families.
We... have futures.
You can still have all of that if you just...*
The words slowly died.
Nobody reacted.
Nobody moved.
Nobody... disagreed.
And the silence itself became an answer.
This was... their true desire.
Lackey lowered his gaze.
"So that’s it..." he muttered. "That’s really it..."
At that moment, a massive Orc with dead fish eyes, scars and pulled-out flesh marks all over her body as she stepped forward from the crowd while carrying a small child in her arms.
Lackey immediately recognised the child.
It was the same child he had refused to kill earlier.
The Orc slowly knelt before him and carefully raised the broken child forward.
The child’s breathing came in weak, painful gasps while every movement seemed to cause unbearable suffering.
Slowly, the child lifted his head.
His eyes met Lackey’s and asked only one thing... that he wanted all this time.
"Kill... me..."
The words emerged with tremendous difficulty.
"P-Please... kill... me..."
Lackey stared silently.
The sword in his hand suddenly felt heavier than ever before.
Its blade had already taken countless lives today.
Zoo Visitors.
Scientists.
Researchers.
Guards.
Now the same blade was being asked to take the lives of the very people he had come here to save.
Every survivor kneeling before him had already made their decision.
They were not asking for rescue.
They were not asking for justice.
They were asking for... peace.
Could he give that to them? Taking his people’s lives?
Lackey tightened his grip around the sword while the weight of hundreds of gazes settled upon his shoulders.
Then the familiar dark voice emerged from the depths of his mind.
"Kill them. It is what they want, and more importantly, it is what they need after everything this place has done to them."
The voice sounded calm and strangely gentle, carrying none of the madness it usually possessed.
"Close your heart... Close your mind... Close every part of yourself that still wishes to hesitate, because mercy does not always look like salvation."
The words echoed through his mind while the kneeling survivors waited, and for the first time since entering the Zoo, Lackey found himself unable to decide whether the blade in his hand represented death... or the final act of kindness he could offer his people.
Lackey tightened his grip around the sword’s hilt until his knuckles turned pale beneath the blood staining his hands.
The weight of every gaze resting upon him felt heavier than mountains, yet he still raised the blade because he understood what those eyes were asking of him.
There was no hesitation left within the survivors, and there was no false hope remaining to cling to.
They had already reached the end of their suffering long before this moment arrived.
Lackey closed his eyes and drove the blade forward with every ounce of strength remaining in his body.
It’s going to be painful...
It’s going to hurt...
And it’s going to be....
Chuckkk...
Chuckkkk!
Chucckkkk!
Chucckkkk!
Chucckkkk!
Chucckkkk!
Chucckkkk!
Chucckkkkkkkk!
Chuuuucccckkkkk!
Chuucckkkkk!
The Zoo fell into an eerie silence.
No screams echoed across the Zoo.
No cries of fear followed the blade.
No desperate struggles erupted among the survivors.
Only the sound of metal passing through flesh repeatedly echoed through the air while blood splashed across the ruined ground beneath their feet.
The rhythm continued for nearly an entire minute.
Each swing ended a life.
Each step carried him toward another waiting survivor.
Each drop of blood painted the earth a deeper shade of crimson.... in his heart!
Nobody attempted to resist.
They simply waited their turn with expressions that seemed strangely... peaceful?
And... no more suffering!
Wasn’t it wonderful?
When it was finally over, silence reclaimed the Zoo once more.
A lone figure stood amidst a sea of bodies.
Children.
Men.
Women.
Elders.
Warriors.
Every race.
Every survivor who had endured years of torture, experimentation, and unimaginable suffering now rested motionless around him.
Blood covered the ground so completely that the earth itself had vanished beneath a crimson layer stretching in every direction.
Lackey’s foot stood submerged within the spreading bloody pool while fresh blood slowly dripped from the edge of his sword and disappeared into the scarlet surface below.
Drip... Drip...
Took his people’s lives and... covered them in their blood.
THUNDER!
Then thunder rolled across the heavens.
Dark clouds gathered above the Zoo as though the sky itself had grown unwilling to witness what had transpired beneath it.
Yet Lackey did not move.
He did not flinch.
He did not react.
He stood completely still within the centre of the massacre while looking less like a living man and more like a statue carved from grief itself.
He didn’t even breathe... as if he were dead!
The blood-covered sword remained hanging at his side while crimson droplets continued falling from its edge one after another.
He had given them the cleanest death he could manage.
He had done everything possible to spare them pain during their final moments.
As painlessly as possible... as painlessly as he could.
That mercy had been for them.
And perhaps, in some small way.... it had also been for himself!
Thud!
Then his legs finally gave out.
With a heavy thud, his knees struck the blood-soaked ground.
The impact sent ripples spreading across the crimson pool surrounding him while his body slowly slumped forward.
The burden he had been carrying finally crashed down upon him all at once, and for the first time since entering the Zoo, it felt impossible to remain standing beneath its weight.
His gaze drifted across the countless faces surrounding him.
The sight made his chest tighten.
There was no terror frozen upon their features.
There was no agony.
There was no resentment.
Instead, many of them looked peaceful.
As though the nightmare that had consumed their lives had finally ended.
As though they had finally found the rest that had been denied to them for so many years.
Several bodies even carried faint smiles upon their lips.
Those smiles remained visible despite the lifeless eyes staring toward the darkened sky, and for a brief moment, Lackey found himself wondering whether this was the first genuine peace they had experienced since arriving at this cursed place.
The thought hurt far more than any blade ever could.
What... What was he supposed to do now?
Lackey remained kneeling within the sea of blood while countless bodies surrounded him from every direction, and for the first time since arriving at the Zoo, he found himself completely lost.
Every face he looked upon carried peace, yet that peace had only arrived because his own hands had delivered it.
"Let it go," the Dark Voice whispered from the depths of his mind, speaking with a strangely gentle tone that sounded more comforting than sinister.
"You carried their suffering, their despair, and their final wishes upon your shoulders. There is no reason to keep holding everything inside any longer.
Let it all out now... Boy... Let it all out!"
Blood continued dripping from Lackey’s forehead before sliding down his darkened face and falling into the crimson pool beneath him.
Tang!
His fingers loosened around the sword’s hilt, and the sword fell into the blood pool.
He slowly lowered his gaze toward his hands, and the sight before him made his chest feel unbearably heavy because every inch of his skin had been stained by the blood of his own people.
His people.
Not enemies.
Not monsters.
Just... his suffered people.
For several long seconds, he simply stared at them, as though he hoped they would somehow become clean if he looked long enough.
Then something inside him shattered.
"AAAARRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!HEHEHEHEHEEHEHEHEEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHHHHHHHHHHH"
The scream exploded from the deepest corner of his soul.
It carried grief.
It carried rage.
It carried... guilt!
It carried every ounce of pain that he had forced himself to suppress until now.
The sound tore through the Zoo and echoed across every ruined structure, every blood-covered pathway, and every corpse lying beneath the darkened sky.
At that moment, it sounded less like a human scream and more like the cry of a broken soul mourning everything it had lost.
THUNDERRRRR!!!
Thunder erupted across the heavens almost immediately, and the sky itself seemed to roar alongside him as violent clouds gathered overhead and lightning illuminated the bloody field in flashes of pale white light.
The winds grew stronger.
The darkness deepened.
The heavens trembled.
Yet Lackey continued screaming.
His voice gradually grew hoarse, but the pain pouring from his soul showed no signs of stopping.
***
Your (Vision) POV slowly rose above the battlefield.
The perspective drifted away from the kneeling figure surrounded by corpses and continued climbing higher into the sky until the entirety of the Zoo became visible beneath you. The broken facility looked insignificant from this height, yet the tragedy hidden within its walls carried enough weight to shake Empire.
Beyond the barrier, dozens upon dozens of advanced mech suits arrived while swarms of military drones continuously attacked the massive barrier.
Brilliant flashes of energy illuminated the night as soldiers and machines worked together to break through the defensive field surrounding the Zoo.
The perspective continued moving.
Faster....shh... Farther.... sssshhh..... Higher.
The city gradually entered view.
Towering glass skyscrapers reflected the lights of countless buildings as night settled across the horizon.
Your Vision accelerated through the cityscape before eventually slowing near one of the tallest buildings.
Upon its rooftop stood a lone figure dressed entirely in white.
A woman clothed entirely in white stood upon the rooftop with a slight forty-five-degree hunch to her posture. A staff rested within her hand while her eyes remained locked upon the distant Zoo far beyond the districts.
Despite the incredible distance separating her from the Zoo, her gaze remained fixed upon that location as though she were personally witnessing every event unfolding there.
*Sorry... child,* she whispered softly.
Her voice carried an unmistakable melancholy.
It sounded like the voice of someone who had already seen the outcome long before it arrived.
[+100 AP]
*Before a line can be straightened,* she continued while staring toward the distant horizon,
*it must first be twisted beyond recognition.*
THUNDER!!!!
At that exact moment, lightning split the heavens.
The brilliant flash illuminated the night.
And for a single instant...
She saw it.
Far above the Zoo, towering over the battlefield like a nightmare given shape, an enormous shadow hovered within the storm clouds.
A gigantic horned skull with a huge wide grin!!
Its presence eclipsed the surrounding darkness.
Its empty eye sockets gazed downward as it grinned... getting wider and wider as if it enjoyed something.
Its shape looked like the shadow cast by an existence that should never have entered the world.
Like a shadow of someone.
A dark shadow of someone inside the Bloody Zoo!
An omen of disaster!!
It disappeared instantly.
Twitch...
The Prophetess’s hand suddenly trembled.
The fingers wrapped around her staff tightened involuntarily as a rare emotion surfaced within her eyes.
Fear?
A Pure Fear!
That shook her hands!!
She lowered her gaze toward her trembling hand before slowly placing her other hand over it, forcing the movement to stop through sheer will.
*The Devil... has arrived.*
The words escaped her lips almost soundlessly.
For several moments, she continued staring toward the distant Zoo.
Then she finally turned away.
Her eyes shifted toward a destination hidden far beyond the city.
*I need to find it... before it becomes too late.*
Brilliant white light erupted around her body.
The rooftop became engulfed in radiance.
The surrounding air was distorted.
The wind surged violently around her.
Ssshh~
Then, within a single heartbeat, the Prophetess vanished completely, leaving behind nothing but a gentle breeze that drifted across the empty rooftop beneath the storm-filled sky.