The Last Circle-Chapter 24: Fallen From Grace

Tumultuous roars of the searing brilliance cleansed the passages of any life indiscriminate, and Nameless remained as still as a tree. Whatever life remained in hiding, their cries were but a shadow of the fire's, a whisper in the blazing hurricane.

He stared at the white-fiery tsuba and handle, watching the impaling blade let his raging flames pour forth as he thought:

'What a waste of time...'

Perhaps it was, for he knew what he did. If he was going to die, then it would be by his own hands, and not by the behemoths, hellbound beasts, envoy imps, or another Weaver of the Sky. At least, this way, he could ensure that he experienced as little of the one thing he'd been dreading: pain.

Death would not be permanent, but he'd still suffer the pain of dying, and he'd have to wake up again, only to keep roaming Hell for eternity. He closed his eyes as he began ripping the fiery blade out of his frame, hoping that would invite death faster; that it would stop the pain, even just a little.

Instead, the ring of a bell exploded in his ears, dwarfing the sounds of the fire into distant murmur that faded back to an eerie silence. Nameless opened his eyes, drawing his brows together as he felt oddly calm, finding his ruinous flames extinguished, staring at his frenzied blade.

He expected to appear in some void again, or at least, transported back to the very beginning of his journey.

'I'm still here?' he asked himself, looking around as he felt disturbed by the silence... and the inexplicable lack of pain. 'How?'

The already black pillars of rocks now remained as nothing more than a landfill of ash and soot, dusting the charred around in its warm and smoky embrace, save for the few that miraculously stood to his left. Their once tall, imposing, and jagged figures now an echo of their former glory in the form falling ash that twirled and danced in the still air.

He forced the shimmering panel open, hoping he'd find an explanation there, which he did.

"Damn it," he muttered, letting out a heavy sigh and ignoring the ring of the bell as he stared at the display, reading the many lines along it:

[For your act of suicide, your Sin has increased by one-thousand.]

[In accordance to your [Lightless Creature] attribute, your accrued sins have been doubled. You have gained two-thousand sins.]

[Your health has been restored.]

[Your attempt at suicide has not gone unnoticed.]

"What a waste of all that effort," he said, shaking his head, lips curling up ever so slightly, and chuckling to himself. He felt his sanity swirling and churning, as though his brain were being ground into paste.

But that last line made sure to rope him back to his sanity, for whatever it entailed, he assumed it was nothing good—if accruing two-thousand sins wasn't already enough of a tell, that is. He even felt goosebumps sprawl across his body, his breathing pattern changed into smaller and faster ones without him even realizing, and he gulped as he stared at the screen.

"So what's new?" he asked the panel, trying to take his mind off the matter of suicide, looking at the previous notifications, of which, hundreds of the exact same four filled the space, reading:

[You have slain one of the Nephilim!]

[You have acquired a Fragment of Divinity!]

[For your act of murder, your Sin has increased by twenty-five.]

[In accordance to your [Lightless Creature] attribute, your accrued sins have been doubled. You have gained fifty sins.]

"Huh?" Nameless raised a brow, jaw slackened, awkwardly blinking, and dumbfounded as he scrolled through the many same group of notifications, counting them up. "Murder? Who? Were there jinns around here? That would explain the voices then... but that's not my fault! But more importantly..."

He rubbed his chin as his eyes narrowed, staring at the line:

[You have a slain one of the Nephilim!]

He shuddered, recognizing that name from the tier system for the attributes. "Those are Nephilim? So what's their rank?"

He navigated to his bestiary in search of some entry that could give even the slightest hint about them. After all, knowledge was power, and in a realm of completely new concepts and creatures, Nameless was powerless. He needed to figure out how to deal with the Nephilim effectively, lest he come across them again and have another... interesting experience.

But he ended up only frowning and wearing a sneer as he yelled:

"Where in the Hell is their data entry!?"

This was new for him. So far, every unique creature he'd slain had appeared in the bestiary, and for whatever reason, the Nephilim were not a part of it.

'Come to think of it,' he retired to his thoughts as he held his chin and looked down, 'they don't even have a rank... Why don't they have a rank?'

This content is taken from fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm.

Feeling a grinding pain in his knees, dug into the piles of ash, Nameless stood and first pondered on where to go, now that he was no longer being chased.

Behind, the path to the black structure.

Ahead, the path back to the beginning.

But there was one more way that caught his attention in this ashen wasteland, tainting the air in its rain of ash, making it night impossible to breathe. Nameless looked left, straight at the few black pillars that stood huddled together. He hadn't noticed it before, but now that the land was open, the dim light above revealed an archway in the stone that led into pure darkness, about as tall as the Nephilim.

He weighed the options, knowing that he could simply continue onward, or he could go in search of some artifacts.

'No, I shouldn't,' he told himself, staring into the dark archway, before walking off towards the black structure. 'In any case,' he sighed, 'I should try avoiding the Nephilim from now on. I don't know what they are, nor how I can effectively kill them... Curses, not even my gaze works now.'

But he froze in his tracks at the ring of a bell, feeling his heart drop as he wondered if "curses" was now being considered profanity. He opened the panel immediately, intending to see the transcript and confirm his suspicions true, which he considered utterly unfair, but he wasn't met with anything he expected.

"What the Hell is this?" he asked himself, reading through a compact display with eyes widened and raised brows. Interestingly, the display took on an elaborate formatting, making use of varying font sizes and spacing, unlike the plain and, as he would put it, "lazy" design.

[QUEST: FALLEN FROM GRACE]

[STATUS: INITIATED, ONGOING]

[TYPE: REDEMPTION—SUICIDE]

[Quest Details: Destroy the Nephilim and slay the Father to earn redemption.

Long ago, fallen giants stood as tyrants amidst the growing numbers of man. They would indulge in magic and every manner of sin—worst of all, they would dare brand themselves as an enemy of God.

Forfeiting or deviating from the quest entirely will result in loss of artifacts, Fragments of Divinity, Seeds of Corruption, and you will be sent back to the beginning of the Ninth Circle of Hell.]

Nameless sunk to his knees, quickly rubbing his eyes and taking a look the screen once more as his heartbeat picked up the pace. His eyes trembled in their sockets as he read the dreaded words "destroy the Nephilim". He couldn't do it with ease when opting to do so voluntarily, but now, he was forced into a mandatory quest against them.

"N-no... what!?"