(Written while listening to: "Sweet Dreams" by Marilyn Manson on YouTube)
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Laito's "starting point" of this creepy walk was furthest from the end point compared to all the remaining children. Yet now he was almost on the forefront of the "line".
Reason?
It was the plan from the beginning.
Just as he dispelled his Mind defenses, he got fully hit by the song's charm, but because he was actually an "adult with a body of a child" he managed to glitch out of it…- for the most part. On top of it just as he was dazingly exiting Cathedral doors, Font of Wisdom has hit him with additional dosage of Name Shaping to help him keep relative clarity.
As such, Laito managed to blend into the crowd without being suspicious.
All according to plan.
It wasn't an easy task: from the very back he needed to move faster than the others but not too fast so that he wouldn't be noticed by the enemy's sentries that kept eyes on the slowly moving children.
What sentries?
Flies.
Controlled by the hag and high on alert.
Normally it would be impossible to locate and avoid such small obstacles, at least for a Mundane person.
But Laito had [Keen Sight], so he did exactly just that, his eyes moving frantically around scanning the periphery.
'Faster, faster…- Faster!' He thought with frustration.
His mission was to get as close as possible to the beginning of the "line" that hag was organizing.
'Every kid I pass by is another life saved…- C'MON!' He had to slow down as another fly with hags markings on it flew into the vicinity. It buzzed here and there before moving on in a blitz.
Why does he even care about these kids' lives? It is just a Nightmare Trial, he should just keep to himself and finish the Trial as these people aren't even real. Supposedly.
But it wasn't just his style…- and also part of the enemy power that was unleashed from the Carnival resulted in the hijacking of the curse left by Shadow God.
Now instead of just dead being raised into undeath after a certain period of time…- the corpses would just be snatched by the Tree and transformed into its minions, at least those who weren't straight up eaten, so every casualty was strengthening the already powerful foe.
Of course this method was suboptimal for their plans. They preferred to capture their prey alive and carefully corrupt them, twisting their will, instead of breaking it, the resolution monsters much stronger then otherwise.
That was also one of the Carnival "events". One that was supposed to begin just in a few moments.
Laito somehow reached the forefront just at the time when the last of the children walked into the square.
Without ceasing her song the Hag, now Matron, has waved her hands at them in the likes of orchestra conductor.
In response, he felt a strong compulsion, a direct order for all of them to rearrange themselves into two lines, one for boys, the other for girls. Laito placed himself second in, just behind a boy that was slightly older than him(in a biological sense). There was a huge argument about that during the War Council, but after lots of divinations and deductions the final decision was that he just couldn't go first as that would be the point when she is the most vigilant. So someone had to be sacrificed.
Everyone hated that. Except the "Silver Soveregin", who couldn't give a fuck and was already half-way asleep at that point.
The two lines were fully formed at that point. In response to matron's continuous song that suddenly changed tune, the girl's line moved. First one started to approach the planted branch and the vile pool around it.
Laito recognized her, though they never really interacted with each other. She was a shoemaker's daughter. He sometimes saw her doing sales on the market in afternoons after civilian school hours, while he was on the move between lessons with various Knights. Normally he wouldn't register any passersby, but [Keen Sight] worked whether he liked it or not, so despite himself, he already had memorized most, if not all of the citizen's faces while he was strutting about on his errands.
She stepped into the blackish puddle. In an instant it stirred like it was alive, forming black tentacles that first grabbed her by ankles and then crawled higher trying to restrain its prey, simultaneously pulling her down into the puddle, which somehow became apparently deeper than the level of the main square. Or maybe it was instantly digesting her who knows.
After the girl's head vanished below the puddle's surface the thing calmed down for a moment…- and then a small magenta-pink coloured bud started to grow out of the branch's side.
The song's tune slightly shifted and the boy in front of Laito moved forward, but instead of going into the puddle, he stumbled into the singing Matron's direction. Without stopping her melody she reached into her cleavage and took out a maggot…- similar to those in the puddle,but bigger and fatter.
She grabbed the poor guy by his chin and slowly but decisively forced the maggot down his throat.
One could see from the look in his eyes that the moment the wriggling creature had passed through his esophagus the charm was suddenly lifted from his mind. He started choking and convulsing while falling to the ground from below which tiny root-like black tendrils started to surface pushing the Market Square's stone tiles apart.
The tendrils started to wrap around him forming a cocoon. Before the last part of him was covered Laito saw the boy's skin start to crawl like it was boiling. And then, there was just black cocoon. Silent and unmoving.
As things looked all according to her plan the matron infused her orders again and the entirety of both lines started to move forward.
And the next in line was exactly Laito who took steps to proceed with his "turn".
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[4 years left until MHA plot beginning]
[Chapter End] The story is not over yet
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Author notes:
Bruh. This chap was absolutely terrible to write...- I wonder if that means that I did a good job! Considering this is about actions of horrible a monster. I must admit though I've read worse things so who knows.
Anyways, see ya on Friday! I hope.