| Mab is a freelance author, you can support them on: | ||
 |
 |
 |
The splish-splosh of water droplets falling from stalactites into the underground lake was the only sound filling the cave, until it was interrupted by the steady, measured steps of men in white robes, walking in two columns and murmuring a strange mantra. Their torches were mostly ceremonial; the cave itself was lit by mysteriously glowing crystals embedded in the walls. As they reached the lake’s edge, the procession split in two, circling the water and revealing a gray-haired young girl, similarly dressed in white, walking among them.
She raised her head, catching sight of a small temple in the center of the lake. Made of wood and covered in moss and stalagmites, it seemed ancient and otherworldly. Taking a hesitant step into the water, she began to approach it, with one of the priests following close behind, still chanting softly. At the very end of the line was a tall man in a white coat, holding a black, rectangular voice recorder, which he occasionally spoke into as he observed the ritual.
“Log ten dash eight dash one. Experiment Deity Advent slash Possession, Subject four eight zero. Supervisors, Doctor Peter Haumann, Priest Yayoi Sugisaki. Time is six hundred hours. October fifteenth, sixteen seventy-two of the Sun calendar.”
♢♦♢♦♢
At the end of the ceremony, the priest who had followed the girl to the lake carried her out. Her body was limp, showing little sign of life, and her white robes were stained with a dark, pungent liquid that seeped from her orifices. The lake’s clear blue water had done little to cleanse her.
“I’ll take her to the cell,” the priest said with a strange accent. As he passed the doctor, the doctor stopped him and handed over a small bottle filled with pills.
“What are these?” the priest asked, frowning.
“Promoters. Two pills with each meal. They’ll help her body adapt to the Advent from the inside.”
“My apologies, Doctor, but you’re aware that Shrine Maidens must remain pure; nothing unwholesome can enter their bodies, or the Gods won’t find her a welcoming vessel. We’ve just purged her of impurities—your chemicals will only undo the ceremony.”
“Yes, I understand the procedure, and the pills meet the requirements. They’re primarily manonite crystals and flour, fitting the criteria for ‘wholesome food’ and won’t disrupt the ritual.”
“…Very well,” the priest finally conceded, taking the bottle.
♢♦♢♦♢
“Hey, Four-Eighty. Wake up, it’s meal time.” The slot in the glass window slid open, and a tray was shoved through. It held a small bun of wheat bread, a bowl of bland vegetable soup, and a couple of pills.
The girl had lost track of time in this room—a cold, three-by-two-meter box made entirely of stone, draining any warmth she could muster. There was no bedding, just the unyielding floor, and the only light came from the faintly glowing crystal beyond the glass window. Her only “luxury” was a bucket for waste, which she avoided as much as possible.
Naturally, meals were the one thing she anticipated. As the doctor had promised, they were wholesome, far better than the gritty, brown-gray slurry she used to share with the other children. She often wondered why they couldn’t feed everyone the same meal, but she didn’t dare to ask.
After finishing the bread and the sparse vegetables floating in the soup, the girl eyed the pills. She hated those pills. They left a terrible stinging sensation in her stomach and made her skin itch as though something was crawling just beneath the surface. But the one time she’d tried not to take them, the guards had forced them down her throat. Not wanting to risk that again, she grimaced and quickly swallowed the pills, washing them down with the last of the soup.
Once she’d finished, she slid the tray back through the slot. “Can’t believe these rats are eating better than us,” one of the guards muttered, kicking the door with a loud thud that made her flinch.
With the guards gone, silence filled her cell once more. Not long after, a fierce, stinging pain flared up on the right side of her stomach, forcing her to double over as she clutched her side.
“Mommy…” she whispered, barely above a breath.
She stifled her whimper, forcing herself to stay quiet. The guards always sent crybabies to the dogs, she saw it happen herself. Even as hot tears slid down her cheeks, she knew she couldn’t cry out. She would just have to endure it, like always.
♢♦♢♦♢
Today, the doctor came to check on her for the first time since the baptism. He spoke into that black device as he always did, his voice cold and disinterested as he recorded her condition. He shone a flashlight into her eyes and mouth before informing her that tonight there would be a ritual. She couldn’t tell if it was even daytime or nighttime in her cell, but she nodded, just as she’d learned to do.
As the hours dragged by, she soon realized a ritual meant no meals until then. The waiting seemed endless, her stomach gnawing with hunger.
When at last they came to escort her, she was washed and dressed in a white gown, then led to a room with a sterile medical table positioned in the middle of a circle of intricate magical symbols. The doctor and priest were already waiting, silent and stern.
As she approached, a sinking feeling hit her—she recognized the table. It was the same one where she’d made the choice to participate in these experiments, straps and all.
“Subject four eight zero, please get onto the table,” the doctor instructed, his tone devoid of warmth. She obeyed, surrendering herself to the chill of the metal as the restraints locked her in place. Only when she lay down did she notice the ceiling above, lined with ominous crystals pulsing faintly with magical light.
The doctor spoke to his device “Time is twenty-four thousand hours. October twenty first. Subject four eight zero is ready for Advent.” He looked at the priest, and the priest nodded and started chanting.
Slowly, the magical symbols began to illuminate one by one, casting eerie shadows across the room. As the light intensified, an unspeakable fear took root in the girl’s heart. Every instinct screamed for her to flee, but the shackles held her fast, rendering escape impossible.
And then—
zap!
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
A blood-curdling scream tore from her lips as a bolt of lightning shot down from one of the crystals above, searing through her body with a pain that felt as if it were ripping her very soul apart. Before she could even grasp the horror of her situation—
zap!
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”
zap!
“NOOO!! MOMMY!! MOMM———!!”
zap! zap!
“HEEELP!! MO——————————————!!!!”
zap zap! zap zap zap!
zap zap zap zap zap zap zap zap zap!
zap zap zap zap zap zap zap zap zap zap zap zap zap zap zap zap!!
A torrent of lightning surged within the room, contained by the intricate magic circles etched into the floor. The priest’s chanting faltered, his voice caught in a web of disbelief and horror. This was unprecedented; he had never witnessed such a ferocious display. Two, perhaps three bolts of Turbulence Lightning had always been the maximum—anything beyond that was unthinkable.
“What have you done?” he demanded, his voice low and heavy with dread. “What did you put in those pills?!”
“Manonite crystals, harvested from previous experimental subjects,” the doctor replied with dispassionate indifference. “Theoretically, they should bring her body closer to—” His explanation was abruptly interrupted as the priest seized him by the collar, eyes ablaze with outrage.
“YOU MADE A SHRINE MAIDEN CONSUME PEOPLE?! Cannibalism is a cardinal sin! A taboo of the highest order! This is beyond sacrilege!!”
The priest shoved the doctor away, his breath heavy with frustration, trying to rein in his spiraling emotions. The doctor, in stark contrast, calmly smoothed the creases from his clothes, unfazed by the storm of chaos around him.
“…The Gods are furious,” the priest muttered, his voice shaky with despair. “There’s nothing we can do now, not until their wrath is sated. As for the girl… she’s a lost cause.”
The two men watched in stunned silence as lightning raged for several minutes, the room filled with the crackling energy of each bolt. Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, the storm ceased, leaving behind a suffocating stillness. A nauseously enticing aroma of grilled flesh lingered in the air. The girl lay motionless on the table, her body devoid of any signs of life.
“Subject four-eight-zero is confirmed to have expired during Ascension,” the doctor announced flatly. “End log.”
A whisper echoed through the air, but neither of them heard it: ‘…vzobj.’
The door swung open, and two guardsmen stepped inside. “Clean her up,” the doctor ordered, and they snapped to attention, saluting before moving toward the table.
As the doctor turned to leave, eager to return to his work, the priest raised his hands in prayer, beseeching the Gods for mercy. The guards approached the girl’s charred form, preparing to carry out their grim task. And then—
zap!
A bolt of concentrated magical energy erupted from the girl’s body, striking one of the guards and killing him instantly.
“WHAT THE F—!”
zap!
A second bolt surged forth, hitting the other guard and dropping him to the ground in a lifeless heap.
The priest’s eyes widened in disbelief, unable to comprehend the scene unfolding before him. The doctor whirled around, his mind racing with possibilities, and before their astonished eyes, the girl began to levitate, arcs of electricity dancing around her.
‘Vzobj. Vzobj. Vzobj. Vzobj. Vzobj. Vzobj.’
The unintelligible word echoed from the girl’s rigid, unmoving lips, each utterance reverberating like a chant from some unfathomable realm. The doctor stood speechless, while the priest, barely able to keep his voice steady, faltered out a question.
“Wh—who are you?! What do you want from her?!”
A response came, but it wasn’t an answer. It wasn’t even a language. It was a cascade of alien sounds, an indecipherable roar from the Great Beyond:
‘BJIIFHQKLABPXBIMBFALQQKXTQKLAFAILPOXBVKBBQKBSBPBIXJXFEPLQXPJXF.’
The energy swirling around the girl intensified, filling the room with a blinding light that forced the priest and doctor to shield their eyes. For a breathless moment, the radiance consumed everything, and then—suddenly—it vanished. As they opened their eyes, the girl fell back to the table with a thud. She was breathing, alive, as if nothing had happened.
The doctor surveyed the protective magic circles etched into the floor and found them charred black—except for the outermost layer. Without that last line of defense, he and the priest would have met the same fate as the guards.
“We…we did it,” he whispered, a note of awe creeping into his voice. “We’ve tethered a powerful Deity!”
“Or one hell of a Devil,” the priest added, his face ashen.
