186 A Holy Day

It began with silence. 

Silence permeated Citlai in all directions and a heavy stillness beset the people who lived in it. A shroud of gloom covered the sky and dyed it the color of bittersweet melancholy. It was as if the world itself had taken a momentary pause in abject fear. 

What could have elicited such a dramatic response? To have drawn the fright of an entire world? And for what reason? 

The world would never be permitted to know the answer but for a select few, the truth would become known to them on this fateful day.

Buried underneath Citlai's Heart, a contingent of the finest Ancient Mulian warriors to have ever lived waited in silence as they mentally prepared themselves for death. Each one of these warriors was a living legend who had participated in the war against the Infestation for millennia across an untold number of universes.

They were all demigods and demigoddesses of war, educated in the path of blood and ruin.

And yet today, they had begun making amends with death. Not of their foe's death...

But of their own. 

Leading them into battle were several familiar figures. Koyovo, The Pure Moon, Morate, The Hidden Star, and Shaali, Mother of the Sea, stood front and center behind the highest authority in Citlai — Ulbo, Father of Stars.

The Royal Armada, the Silent Fleet, and the Old Guard's finest warriors had been summoned by their respective commanders for what lay ahead. 

A sealed complex of conceptual restraints, infinite regression loops, and spatiotemporal buffers had begun to erode at their seams. It would not hold for much longer.

Beside the elders of Citlai stood their children. They, too, had been summoned to fight. Yalya, Itotia, Lu'um, and every single warrior in the royal family worth a damn had been called into service. 

Citlai's finest, totaling a mere fifty or so souls had assembled under Ulbo's orders. Together, they embodied a force that had enough firepower to tear apart an entire planet to pieces. 

A horrific, sloppy churning sound — much akin to raw meat in motion — resounded across the grand prison chamber. It was a truly repugnant thing, only rivaled by the unsettling noise of something dull breaking under stress.

Ignorant passerby would not have been able to identify what something was, but everyone in the chamber was well acquainted with that sound. 

The grotesque spheroid had grown considerably in what had seemed only a matter of seconds. Towering above the battalion, it had become a repulsive mass of writhing flesh. 

To put it precisely, it was a mockeryof life. There was no other way to describe it. 

But it was not fear that haunted them. What struck them hardest was... the overwhelming guilt.

This was a creation of their own design. Their fault. Not an ounce of the blame fell on him. 

Peals of laughter filled the silent chamber from a mixture of voices, both old and young, male and female, until a specific voice reigned in their glee.

"...Ahhhhhh, can you hear me?" asked a familiar voice in a relaxed manner. It was addressed to no one in particular, a simple question meant to clear the air.

And yet, no one responded.

"...Hello? Oh, is my form putting you off? Pardon me, it slipped my mind that you are all unfit to conceptualize me as I am now," said the cheerful voice, not realizing it had only made everyone feel even more unsettled. 

The formless abomination shuddered and then began to fold, compress, and rearrange itself until it became a pulsating spheroid wrapped in a thin veil of semi-transparent membrane that resembled skin.

Within it, a speck of something floated in suspended animation and quickly took a life of its own. In a matter of a few seconds, it expanded and took on a more refined form...

A much more familiar form.

The silhouette had grown into a recognizable shape that could not be mistaken by anyone within the prison chamber. 

And then, as if to emulate what it had mocked so thoroughly, the silhouette thrust one of its arms out of the grotesque womb it had grown inside of and clawed itself out in a barbaric manner. 

"Ugh, it's been a while since I've been in this form. It feels so goddamned restrictive, but... I guess there is some beauty in its composition. The limitations this body has does make one relish what little it can perceive with its primitive senses."

Thus said the newly born being coated in violet blood, discarded flesh, and opaque, slimy fluid. 

Reed had returned.

He extended his arms outwards and said, "So... who's going to give me my welcome back hug? Will it be you, my beloved? Or perhaps, will it be dearest grandfather instead? Ah, mayhaps it will be my mother after all."

A fragile joke. One loaded with sarcasm to the brim, evident in the speaker's twisted voice. You could practically feel the malice embedded in Reed's cheerful words akin to needles piercing one's very mind. 

Reed frowned and said, "No hug? That's pretty cold of you guys. And here I thought I was family. How cruel of you people to shun me for changing my image a little bit." He conjured a repulsive force from his body and removed all of the filth that had been clinging to him in an instant.

That was when they noticed an extremely glaring change in Reed's body, one that immediately prompted a response from Lu'um herself.

"Where is it, Ka'an?! What did you do?! Please tell me you didn't—"

Reed let out an audible sigh. "So that's the first thing you ask about. No concern about me, huh..." 

Lu'um quickly realized she had made a mistake and hurriedly said, "That's not true and you know that, beloved!" 

Reed chuckled and replied, "...Is that so? I'm touched you feel that way about me, my Ichmaitl."

Lu'um felt her blood freeze. There was no way he should have known any Mu, and yet he had...

He caressed his chest and said, "As you can see, the mark is indeed gone. But rest assured, I have not tampered with your precious little toy. Even I am not so rash as to jeopardize all of your efforts out of spite." 

It had truly disappeared. The Mark of Responsibility had seemingly vanished from where it belonged. 

"Where is it and what have you done to it, childe," said Ulbo as he mentally ordered everyone to ready themselves. In his mind, now was an opportune time to restrain Reed and subdue him while he was in a more manageable form. 

They would simply ask questions later... once they could ensure that Reed would not be able to do anything rash. The current situation was far too unpredictable and dangerous for everyone involved, including Reed. 

"Oh, you needn't worry, gramps," said Reed as he snapped a finger. "All I've done is..."

The carcass Reed had emerged from stirred once more and from it came another surprise. Yet another grotesque womb had forced itself out of the enormous pile of cursed flesh. 

Reed gently forced one of his hands through the womb and said, "Moved it to another, more suitable individual than someone such as myself." 

And once he latched onto the body inside, he forcibly pulled it out with a smug smile on his face. 

The figure he had pulled out coughed viciously, as if in pain, but Reed paid no attention to the fellow's distress and whispered, "...I told you that I'd get rid of you one day, O' brother of mine."

He bore a remarkable resemblance to Reed, but there were minor differences. His hair was the silver luster of the moon and His eyes bore the golden warmth of the sun. His face had an elegance to it that distinguished it from the likes of lesser men. 

"You... cannot... do this... Please..." uttered a feeble voice in desperation.

Reed had decided to punish Him, for all that He had done to him. For all that He had made him endure.

For His sins, Reed had created for Him the ultimate punishment he thought possible.

He had given Him life... as a human — no, as a mortal.

And to top it off, Reed had also returned to Him the burden He had thrust on him, the Mark of Responsibility.

As a mortal, he would never be able to utilize it no matter how hard he desired it. In his hands, it would be a useless thing, which Reed found highly amusing.

"A worthless person and a useless thing go hand in hand together, don't you think, brother?" 

He feebly groaned, unable to even formulate a response. He was highly unaccustomed to the half-finished body he had been forced into. 

Reed bitterly smiled and said, "As you can see, your precious Mark of Responsibility is right here. So here's what I'm going to offer to you: I'll give you this idiot and you'll give me a free passage. You get to keep what you covet so much... and the monster you fear will be allowed to leave."

They'll never accept me. Not anymore. If only they could see what I have witnessed. To them, I will always be a strange, incomprehensible monster... something incompatible with their way of living. 

Reed did not hate them, despite the fact that he could feel the Anima around them turn frigid and distant like a winter wind. He pitied them, above all else. 

The world had all but stopped for Ulbo, Shaali, and the rest as they observed the man in Reed's arms with stupified expressions. All semblance of composure had left Shaali in particular, as she struggled to process the sight in front of her eyes. 

Lu'um felt as if she had been thrown in the worst hell imaginable. A nightmare world populated by all of her worst horrors. The sight of Him was enough to make her stomach churn. 

"What say you? Will you not grant this abomination the freedom it desires? You only stand to gain from this transaction. You gain a grandson and get rid of an aberration at no expense," said Reed as he observed Ulbo patiently. 

It was a complicated decision to make. Could he be trusted? What would the consequences of letting him go entail for them? How much of him was still the boy they knew and how much was something else now?

The sorrow in the boy's voice was clearly apparent, even if he had cloaked it under a layer of joviality and humorous self-deprecation. 

To feel sorrow was an indication that he was obviously not entirely different from them. Emotions were not something that Infested possessed, much less feelings of sadness for living things. 

That alone was enough for Ulbo to come to the conclusion that Reed wasn't irredeemably gone yet, though it did not clear all of his suspicions. 

Either way, they couldn't afford to lose them. Neither Reed nor Him.

Both were necessary and of equal value to Ulbo. They were both... grandchildren he had failed to protect from Fate's cruel clutches.

Reed couldn't take them as he was now, even in his unbound form. Especially not the likes of the front row, which was composed of monstrous juggernauts. Only death awaited him if he attempted to escape, hence his plan to negotiate for his release with His life.

It'd be the height of stupidity to make any rash decisions in the presence of an overwhelming opponent. Where force failed to work, diplomacy would have to suffice — a troubling problem for Reed as he was not the most skilled conversation partner to have ever lived. 

I should have paid more attention to Velvund's nagging lectures about public speaking...

"Don't speak about yourself like that, childe. You are no—" 

"Monster? That I am not. But you will always see me that way. That is why I referred to myself as one. Were I to have called myself a human, or even worse, one of you, it would have been a lie." 

The grudge the Ancient Mulians had will probably never disappear, thought Reed. It'll gnaw at them from the inside until the end of time. The fault lies squarely on them... for everything. 

"What do you intend on doing if we release you?" asked Ulbo. 

"I'm going to take care of my responsibilities, of course. I created a mess back home, so I intend on cleaning it up," said Reed and started walking forward slowly, passing through the remains of his prison with ease. He had unmade enough of it to pass through a gap he had created. 

Reed's silent footsteps betrayed his stature, now that he was as tall as Ulbo himself, far larger than his previous self. Had Velvund been presented, he would have had to look up to Reed. His figure did not possess a shadow either, for some peculiar reason...

"Unlike you lot, I will not abandon the innocent bastards you left behind on Mulia, run away from my mistakes, or... push my sins off onto another poor soul," said Reed. 

Pyschological manipulation. To be specific, guilt tripping. A method used by the petty to ensare the honorable. This was one of the few lessons from Velvund that Reed had committed to memory.

Which is why it worked so well with them. 

When Reed made it to Shaali, he offered Him to her and said, "I leave him with you, Mother of the Sea. Rejoice — your beloved son has finally returned to you. This is a holy day. A day of celebration and reconciliation." 

The moment she warily took Him into her arms, the bargain was concluded. 

Reed felt a painful relief coursed through his veins, but it swiftly passed and he felt an enormous weight fall off his shoulders. 

He moved past the battalion as he whistled a cheerful tune before stopping himself. 

"Ah, I forgot to tell you. I'm gonna be taking what's mine, so don't be shocked when you find it missing. Going to need it for some very overdue soul-searching, ya' see..." 

And then Reed faded into a faint, opaque shadow until he disappeared entirely. 

He was gone and no one would be able to stop him now.

He was free at last...