Chapter 15: Chapter 14

“We better get out of here.”

Olivia looked around and saw that the town was empty except for the few hundred people who had fled for their lives. They continued moving, with Rinaldo guiding the wheelchair, until they came to the edge of town.

Rinaldo looked at the chaos and devastation around them. He turned to look at Olivia. “Don't look.”

Instead, Olivia did the opposite and watched in horror as dozens of people, children and older people, lay lifeless on the street. She looked at Rinaldo and then back at the bodies.

“What's going on, Rinaldo? What is happening?”

“I don't know, Olivia. It's worse than I thought.”

The shaking had stopped, and they wandered through the streets towards the city centre. They saw more explosions in the distance. The entire landscape had blackened. The city centre was gone, and smoke covered the land.

Ash and smoke filled the air. They passed dead people who were still lying in the street. They came across more bodies, and Rinaldo felt like there were just too many for him to count. The two made their way to the outskirts of town, where a few houses were still standing.

They passed a destroyed building with a pile of ash on its doorstep. The building had several windows blown out, and rubble and broken windows were everywhere. The two continued walking as they saw more buildings destroyed.

Olivia glanced at the ruined building in the distance. “Maybe we should go to the house.”

Rinaldo could see what she was talking about. He didn't think he could bring himself to look. But as the two made their way towards the ruins, they came across a lone survivor, looking scared and dishevelled, with burns on his skin.

Rinaldo approached the man. “What is happening? What do you know?”

The man didn't answer right away. Instead, he watched the ruins, searching for anyone else. Eventually, he looked at Rinaldo, and his eyes seemed to focus on him. “It the Black Sun.”

“The what?” Rinaldo asked.

“It the Black Sun,” the man repeated. “They're attacking. They're killing everyone. I hid under a table in a bar, and I watched as they attacked the town. Then they turned on the people and killed them.”

Olivia turned to the man. “Who are they?”

“They're cultists. They worship the Black God.” He looked terrified. “They're the ones who set off the bombs that turned everything to ashes.”

“So, they're the ones that destroyed the city?”

“Yeah. I don't know why. They don't even seem to have a purpose. They just do things. They don't seem to care what happens to us. They just have this power to turn things to ashes. And they did the same thing here. I'm just glad I found my way out.”

“We have to get out of here. The Black Sun could be anywhere.”

The man shook his head. “I'm not going anywhere. They're everywhere. I think they're coming back.”

The two wheeled around and saw more bodies lying in the street. Their skin turned black, and their faces frozen in the moment of death. The cultists attack left bodies scattered around the city. The city appeared to have become an open battlefield.

Rinaldo noticed the bodies lay with no apparent order, no apparent thought of who was next to whom. However, some of them showed signs of receiving a head wound, or slash wounds, suggesting they had come under attack.

They walked through the street, which was almost empty. As they passed through the street, they saw the cultists standing and staring up at the sky. Olivia heard someone behind them. Turning around, she saw it was a cultist. They wore black robes, a blank mask, and carried a sledgehammer.

The cultist chased after them, swinging the hammer at them. Rinaldo quickly ducked, dodging the hammer. With his sword, Rinaldo landed a hit on the cultist's arm. The hammer fell to the ground, along with the cultist's arm. It was bleeding a black substance.

“Now, that is what I call disarming.” Rinaldo chuckled. The cultist did not reply, only snarling at them.

The two continued to wander through the street. There, they saw a figure kneeling in front of a building, surrounded by the bodies of dead cultists. Rinaldo recognised the figure. It was Celeste.

“Celeste!” Rinaldo shouted, approaching her.

At that moment, Rinaldo glimpsed Celeste. Gone was the aura of melancholy surrounding her—in its place was joy. She was smiling a beautiful, brilliant smile.

Most people smiled when they were happy, but sometimes, smiling could be aggressive. People feared those who smiled at inappropriate times. Seeing someone smile under clearly abnormal circumstances, or during an appaling disaster, would be an absolute nightmare.

However, Rinaldo wasn't like most people. He thought the smile made Celeste look like an angel. The artistic depiction of angels, at least. The actual thing was an eldritch abomination. Everyone and everything except their creator feared them.

“Where are Dorian and everyone else?”

Celeste's only answer was a shrug. It wasn't polite, but Rinaldo allowed it, seeing he wasn't being polite by interrupting Celeste's meal.

The woman continued to help herself to the flesh of fallen cultists, gorging herself on the dead. A dropped piece of meat landed on Rinaldo's foot, and he almost kicked it away. However, he didn't. Instead, he bent towards it, picking it up.

“Strange. I don't think this is real meat.” Rinaldo held the meat in his hands. “The texture is all wrong.”

Olivia looked at him, curious. “What is it, then?”

“Maybe it made of some sort of plant protein.”

He moved the meat towards Olivia, but she wheeled back. “Why would someone be making meat from plants?”

Rinaldo couldn't explain it. He hadn't given it any thought. He just couldn't fathom why anyone would want to make meat from plants. To see if it was possible, perhaps. Sometimes the question wasn't why, it was why not?

Shrugging, he looked at the meat closely for another moment and held it out towards Olivia. “What do you think?”

She backed up again. “I'm not touching that.”

He couldn't argue with that. But what else could he do? He looked down at the meat. “You want me to try it?”

Olivia shook her head. “No. You'll just get sick.”

Celeste, who was still eating, was looking over now, her face covered in blood and meat. She fixed her eyes on the meat in Rinaldo's hand.

“I think we should give it to her.”

Rinaldo, despite himself, agreed. He wasn't comfortable with the idea, but he didn't feel like denying Celeste. So, he handed the meat over to her. Celeste beamed, took the meat, and turned her attention back to the cultist's body in front of her—or what remained of it.

The body had no organs. Not a single one. A few layers of skin and muscle, some sinew, an arm or two, and that was it. That didn't bother Celeste, though. No, the meat was more than enough. Celeste picked the severed head and took a large bite out of the soft, bloody flesh.

What happened to the cultist's face? Rinaldo thought. As if the absence of bodily organs from the cultist's corpse wasn't strange enough, the lack of facial features seemed even stranger. Unmasked, they had a blank expanse of flesh where one would expect a face to be.

Celeste kept eating, finishing the piece of meat. When she looked back up at Rinaldo, she was holding a vial. She held it up to the light and then sniffed it. After a moment, she swallowed.

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“If you have some questions, please ask.” Her voice was almost like a lullaby. A gentle, hypnotic sound that whispered to the back of the listeners' minds and lulled them into a dream-like state. “I will try to answer them.”

Rinaldo didn't doubt Celeste's words. He was fairly sure Celeste would answer any questions. However, it was Olivia who asked first. “Are you… are you okay?”

Celeste nodded. “I am.”

Olivia was still not convinced. “I mean… those aren't meat.”

“It tastes like mushrooms, but I don't mind.” Celeste smiled, almost like Olivia's observation amused her. “It actually pretty delicious.”

Rinaldo was quiet while Celeste and Olivia talked. He didn't know what to ask, nor had he the desire to ask  for anything. All he wanted was to stand here and hear Celeste's voice. It was soothing and made him relax. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and listened.

Rinaldo opened his eyes. Celeste was standing in front of him. “I didn't mean to be rude. I just needed a moment to think. To gather my thoughts.”

“Go ahead. Ask me anything you want.”

“Thank you, Celeste.” Rinaldo bowed. “I'm sorry to interrupt you. But do you have any idea what going on?”

Celeste shook her head. “No. I only know one thing: Dorian is in trouble.”

That wasn't very helpful, Rinaldo thought. Dorian was always in trouble. It was like there was a celestial rule against him living a quiet, uneventful life. Rinaldo couldn't understand why.

“Where is Dorian? You should tell me. At least tell me where you think he is.”

Celeste didn't move. She looked at Rinaldo, and her eyes seemed to bore into his. “I'm sorry. I don't know.”

Rinaldo felt a chill run down his spine. “What do you mean you don't know? How could you not know where Dorian is?”

Celeste sighed. “He left. He disappeared. I don't know where he is.”

“How do you know he even left?”

“He didn't say anything. He just left. And he never came back.”

That was good to hear—the didn't say anything part, of course, not the never came back one. It was proof that Dorian didn't leave to join the cult. Rinaldo supposed it meant Dorian was still himself, not brainwashed and crazy.

“Well, it doesn't matter. We'll find him. I'm sure of it.”

“Before we leave, let do something about that leg.” Celeste turned to Olivia, offering her an arm—her own arm. “Bite me.”

Olivia hesitated for a moment before she shook her head. “I don't want to bite you.”

“Even if it can make you able to walk again?”

“Fine, but just once.”

Olivia leaned in, putting her entire mouth around Celeste's hand. She planted her teeth into the woman's flesh, biting it down. Celeste held still until Olivia pulled away. She stepped back, smiling. Then Olivia stood up, slowly.

She looked at Celeste's arms and noticed the bite marks were gone. The skin was white and flawless, alabaster-like—almost as if the cultists had never wounded it at all.

“Can you walk now?”

“Yeah. I can't believe that worked.”

“It always does.” Rinaldo watched Olivia walk off. “So, can we get out of here now?”

They began walking, leaving the wheelchair behind, but there wasn't much to see around them. Everything they passed was empty or covered with the dead. They wandered around for several more hours, looking for any sign of Dorian, but found none.

Rinaldo walked far ahead, looking everywhere for any sign of Dorian while Olivia stayed behind, watching him. She could tell he was worried about Dorian. It showed on his face. It made her worry, too. She didn't know what she could do to help Rinaldo, but she was determined to do something.

Olivia pointed forward. “Rinaldo, there are cultists ahead.”

Rinaldo nodded, following her lead. He and Olivia soon saw the cultists standing ahead, many of them, blocking their path. At their sides were two large black cannons. The cannons were smoking, the black smoke billowing upwards. There were even more cultists standing by the cannons.

The cultists stood as one, watching the three of them approach. Their blank masks showed no emotion. Rinaldo saw there were two red dots on their masks. What were they? Before long, the cultists had their weapons drawn and pointed at Olivia and Rinaldo. They raised their weapons and charged forward.

“I don't remember giving you permission to attack us.”

Rinaldo raised his sword, ready to fight. He sensed Olivia behind her, ready to defend herself using the sword she looted from Celeste's dinner. Rinaldo then realised the sword was too heavy for her to use.

A cultist raised a hammer and swung it at them. Rinaldo dodged, but it hit Olivia in the shoulder instead. Olivia stumbled back and then fell to the ground. The cultist raised the hammer again. Rinaldo lunged at the cultist, stabbing him through the heart.

He hurried to her side. “Olivia, are you okay?”

“… I'm fine…” Olivia looked up. The cultists were coming closer. Rinaldo examined Olivia's wound. He noticed the blood, but she didn't look badly hurt—it wasn't hers. It was from a cultist. Or, rather, pieces of a cultist.

“Don't mind me. I like my dinner cold.”

Rinaldo looked up. Celeste was approaching. She held an ice dagger in her hand. The cultists were almost upon her. “Watch out!”

Celeste turned around and stabbed one cultist, cutting through his mask. The cultist screamed, dropping to the ground. Celeste stabbed another cultist, blood spurting from the cultist's neck. She then stabbed another, then another.

Meanwhile, Rinaldo and Olivia were fighting off two cultists. One swung his sword as Olivia dodged it, then Rinaldo stabbed him. The cultist toppled over. Olivia stood her ground and slashed the remaining cultists, but they just kept coming.

Suddenly, the cultists began screaming in pain. There were screams of agony and bloodcurdling screams.

Olivia looked at the dying cultists with a morbid interest. “What's happening?”

Celeste stopped stabbing, then turned around and looked at them. The cultists were convulsing on the ground. Their arms and legs were twitching, their bodies jerking. A black substance was flowing out of their bodies, filling the streets.

Rinaldo understood what was happening. The cultists were dying. Their bodies were breaking down at the break of dawn.

“The sun happened.”