Chapter Text
Cloudless skies cast beyond the horizon. Rays of sunlight coat the buildings of the city. A nauseating feeling of cleanliness spreads across the atmosphere.
Pure , Undiluted
Flawless
A disgustingly immaculate realm, far too perfect to be true. A realm far beyond mortal understanding.
Seido, Orderrealm; Purity at its finest.
The sun will shine on forever until the unnerving end.
That until the inevitable sunset coats the realm with its true despair. Only then will the true colors of Seido show.
And the truth is, Orderrealm is nothing special.
Nothing unique nor perfect.
Nor anything that it says it is.
A realm no better than Outworld or better than the most impure and broken of them all; Chaosrealm .
Like the day, any living thing can also lose its light. Cut off its limbs of support and only then will its true colors sprout like carnations in the spring.
Like cutting off the wings of an innocent butterfly. Like driving a person to the brink of insanity until they lose touch with reality and become lost in their despair.
A fact well known when you’re the protector of a Realm.
You get to see these things first-person almost daily. How these people were shattered and torn. How all of the memories of them were gone with the wind. Knowing that someone like you could end up in the same situation.
Gone without anybody to remember you or recognize you.
Gone without ever being found again.
Suffocating and feeling claustrophobic in the walls of who knows where. Drowning in your sorrows in a realm that you swore you hated. A realm to whom you pledge war against. That realm which you swore you could bring sanctification and salvation . That very same putrescent place you’ve always despised because of its horrid complexion.
That drowning sensation when you feel the lack of control; control you should have. That distortion in your mind when you remember what life used to be out of this shit stank and remember how many times you could have avoided this outcome. That fucked up feeling deep inside your head when you know that you’ll never be free again.
Living like a lifeless shell knowing that the search team that your realm sent out days or even weeks ago will never find you. Knowing that they’ve probably given up in trying to find you and you’ll never see the pale blue-white sky of your realm again. That you’ll never be able to feel the sun rays hitting your face again.
After all, you’re just as replaceable as the rest. If you die, the next in line will take up your title, and all the memories of you will be erased from the minds of the civilians; crumbled away like dust being taken away by the wind. This is the way the cycle will continue until that person ends up in the same situation as you.
Such risks need to be taken when you’re the Commander of Seido. You’ll always be forgotten, and nobody will honor your legacy.
The mystery that remains to be answered is, just how many others have fallen as low as you have? Just how many others avoided the signs? Just how many others were stupid enough to let this happen to them? Has life played an unfair trick on you for being different? Are you the only unfortunate soul to end up in a ditch like this?
And if so, why?
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Why ?
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Why?
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A long, choked-out shout escaped the commander's throat. The Seidan’s body jerked forward, but he was pulled back by a frigid material wrapped tightly around his neck. A pulsing pain spread through his head as his vision became unblurred. The sound of chains falling to the ground became eminent, echoing through the unfamiliar place. Locks of white hair covered Hotaru’s face, how long had he been inside this shit hole again?
Days? Weeks? Months? Maybe even a year. Time didn’t matter in a shattered realm like Chaosrealm.
Hotaru couldn’t think of anything else to do; he was left hopeless in this abandoned place. Everything had happened so quickly that the past events had left his mind like a blur.
How long had it been since he had woken up?
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(The Seidan felt his skull shatter like glass at the impact of a bloodied mace.
There was something so familiar about the cracking noise his cranium had made from the impact; like the sound of snail eggs being crushed.
The commander’s sense of reality had been wrecked in a blur,
Everything sounded so distorted; ringing and echoing loudly like a flatline.
The commander felt how his knees bent until he collapsed onto the pavement below with an ominous thud.
There was something so strange about it.
Hotaru felt like any other ordinary Seidan.
He felt pathetic, weak
Paranoid)
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Everything happened just too quickly, but Hotaru knew, he remembered there was nothing out of place in the situation. It was just like any encounter he had had before with that thing . So why had the outcome been so abnormal ? Why was this time so different?
How did he end up here?
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(A sharp intruding object had been introduced into his neck; injecting a foreign liquid into his collum, forcedly being pushed into his trapezius. A pulse compared to the beat of a heart exerted from the sting.
The intruding needle was yanked off, leaving an almost invisible opening. Warm liquid oozed off of the fresh wound, staining the commander’s silver hair and shining armor.
Then a spasming feeling spread through his body, how could any of this be real? How could he have lost in such a pathetic way?)
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If only he could go back and analyze the entire fight again; if only he had seen the signs. But everything was just too absurd to be true.
But now it was all too eminent. If only he hadn’t been oblivious to the true carnage that hid behind his opponent; his true intentions. Then none of this would be happening.
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(As Hotaru’s world began to distort, he could feel an ominous entity approaching him.
The same person responsible for all of this.
The Seidan tried shouting; a stream of viscous crimson liquid trailed down his face like a river.
The bitter taste of iron stained his lips, continuing to fall into a puddle on the ground.
Hotaru tried his best to speak, shout, anything; only a strained gurgling noise escaped his throat.)
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Dumb,
Stupid.
That’s all Hotaru ever was and will be. But most of all, oblivious.
So fucking oblivious.
Oblivious to reality.
Oblivious to everything.
Now, he was nothing; just like the commanders before him. Just like any ordinary Seidan that has banished into another slouching, lifeless stain on the ground. Just like he should’ve been years ago.
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(The commander wanted to get up and fight back. He couldn’t allow this profanity to go on.
He wanted to get up and smash the creature’s face so hard against the pavement that he could never put himself together as one. He wanted to see how that stupid chaosrealmer become just another stain of carnage and splattered blood until his existence was eliminated from the history books.
Until he was gone for good .
Until true justice was served .
Until order finally won .
But now, justice wouldn’t prevail. It never had.)
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The irony of this made Hotaru want to laugh like a madman.
Laugh until his voice faded away; until he has lost all sense of reality.
How?
How can someone so insignificant as that thing ever win?
How could any form of chaos overpower order?
And if his endeared opponent wanted him gone, why hadn’t he killed him already?
Why hasn’t he walked up to Hotaru and beat him to death with his mace? Why isn’t he breaking every single bone in his body with every swing of that damned mace until the Seidan was nothing but a lifeless splotch?
Was the torture part of the plan?
Had that been the goal all along?
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(The commander tried getting up but his body was far too broken to stand. His failed attempts resulted in him trying to crawl away. The commander felt every scratch and graze of the pavement beneath his knees. Was this going to be the last time he saw his realm?
“You stay the fuck away from me-!” Hotaru’s voice sounded like a dead bird trying to chirp. A blood-soaked cough followed, the splatter joining the puddle of crimson liquid.
Distorted and dazed, Hotaru could still hear the entity approaching him.
His aggressor laughed mockingly with that sing-song tone, walking up to Hotaru as if he were a wounded animal.
“Usually, I’d kill you and leave it at that…”
The chaosrealmer raised his mace again. Hotaru wanted to shout at him to get away, but his mind wasn’t functioning.
“You know I can do that. You fear I will,”
The harsh blow of metal against flesh rang through the realm, terminating the loud silence.
Hotaru felt it all. How the muscle stretched and crushed. How the bone beneath his hamstrings broke and shattered to pieces. How clear it became when everything that was left was only a gelatinous mash of pulverized bone and smashed muscle.
The commander wailed, almost drowning in the gooey iron-tasting liquid spilling from his neck and cranium.
“I could be your end. You could die like the rest before you,” The chaosrealmer retrieved his mace. Bits of mashed muscle and bone stuck to the spikes.
“But, you’re different, Hotaru,”)
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The commander’s hands impacted against the floor. His entire body was shaking. Out of all of the possible outcomes, this one was the one handed to him. Life had never treated him fairly, and this is how it was all going to end?
If there even was an end to his torment.
Hotaru wished he was dead now. He’d rather be a dead man than be stuck in the middle of nowhere like a dazed fly on a spider’s web. He wanted to wake up somewhere else, to wake up in his empty home. Or never wake up again and finally rest in the so-called peace that is death.
Why him? Why couldn’t this have happened to anyone else? Why has he always been so different?
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(“You are special…”
The chaosrealmer aligned his mace to Hotaru’s back.
The cleric had been planning this for so, so long; now all of the preparation was paying off.)
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Hotaru couldn’t take this anymore. All of his life he’d been told to be strong in moments of despair. Never in his life did he picture himself breaking down. But this? This was just too much to take.
A silent sob escaped the Seidan’s throat.
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(“So special…”
Hotaru’s body had given up, he could no longer escape this fate.
Havik raised his mace with both hands.
If this was how freedom felt, then Hotaru didn’t want any of it.
“It would be unfair of me to treat you the same as the rest,”)
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Hotaru’s hands struck the pavement below. He scratched and hit, wishing this was all some lucid dream.
“Why?!”
Tears began to sprout from the Seidan’s eyes as he continued to punch the humid surface with force.
He felt like a kid.
A stupid, oblivious child breaking down and crying out inside a place where he was well aware nobody could hear him.
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(The last thing the Seidan felt was the harsh metal impacting against his spinal cord; and how the sensitive bone cracked and shattered to bits. Numbness spread through his body, he felt nothing. All that he had left was broken.
He was senseless, motionless, dead .
A chuckle emitted from the chaosrealmer.
At last, he was victorious.
“You’re so endearing…”)
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“ Fuck!-”
Hotaru continued to sob loudly.
His eyes stung, never in his life had he cried as much as now.
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(The chaosrealmer was careful in dragging Hotaru’s lifeless body to Seido’s portal room.
And while the chaosrealmer despised order and perfection, he wanted everything to be in place this time.
This needed to be perfect, just like his endearing opponent.)
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“You- you sick bastard! -”
Hotaru’s head raised, looking at a dark corner in the unfamiliar place.
A dark silhouette stood by a wooden door.
“You should’ve killed me !-”
The silhouette approached the Seidan sedately. The echo of metal clanking against the humid flooring was deafening. “Oh, there’s no reason for me to do that,”
Havik stood in front of the paranoid commander, analyzing his dear rival. As a response, Hotaru backed from him as much as he could, stopping once his back pressed against a humid wall. “ You’re special, commander.”
Hotaru wanted to lunge at the chaosrealmer and break every bone in his body, to tear his head apart with his bare hands. He wanted to leave him in a ruin and make him regret everything. “You sadistic fuck !-”
Havik knelt beside Hotaru, placing his left hand on the Seidan’s shoulder. “ Don’t you fucking touch me! -”
The chaosrealmer’s hand slid up, cupping Hotaru’s cheek.
“You’re worth so much to me… Not like anyone before you,”
Hotaru’s stomach twisted and turned, making the Seidan want to puke. All of the senses he had left shut down for a short time. This was fucking insanity. And Hotaru wasn’t sure how he hadn’t known this before.
“I won’t kill you yet,”
From what the Seidan could tell from the skin remaining on Havik’s face, the cleric was smiling.
“I want to savor each moment of your precious death,”
The cleric laughed as he reached for an object inside his pocket.
“I want this to last. For the endearing memory of you to last,”
Hotaru couldn’t do anything as another needle was introduced into his neck by force; injecting a foreign liquid into him again. The commander felt weary after the needle was yanked out, his eyelids were becoming heavier and heavier.
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“You’ll live forever, my dear …”
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