Bloody turquoise eyes | JJK x OC

Canto XXIV - Il Diavolo a Due Facce

Time seemed to be passing quicker, the sudden wake and loss of blood had messed probably with the perception of his surroundings, the bright lights of the corridors hurt the corneas of his eyes as it slowly made its way down to the thirteenth floor, the luxurious wallpaper was plastered in blood and innards as was his white, torn button up shirt, pieces of the smashed doors layered and trashed beneath the soles of his shoes soaked in the red fluid. The monsters had reached the upper half of the hotel and pushed in their ceaseless hunt for sustenance, busting through every room and exterminating whoever was inside, swarming the hallways when nothing was left to feed upon. The trail of bodies he had left behind since the doors of the elevator came apart were several, both of the unfortunate civilians whom he had failed to save and the transfigured humans he had slaughtered in response as an act of meaningless vengeance. His remorse took hold of the soul as he dislodged the blade from the split skull of the last standing abomination, which fell limp to the floor without uttering a sound, as unceremoniously as killing a mosquito. Hardly he ever felt this kind of despondency, his actions were guided by a remote control rather than by a genuine attempt to move forward in his pursuit, this hopelessness that heaved so heavily on the atmosphere couldn't shake off the bad feeling he proved about the whole mission, as if the worst was yet to come.

Gabriele nudged over the fresh carcass, flipping it so that it faced the ceiling. His eyes tracked the creature's deformities, trying to picture any likeness of a human trait in its mug too far gone. The defecting exorcist found the clarity of his thoughts odd since he woke up as if he had constantly lived his life with white noise in his ears that suddenly got switched off. It was alienating, to say the least, to the limit of madness, how much her presence changed the world and he didn't even realize it. Lucia... he could still perceive her, deeply laced within his soul in her slumber, so small to the point of insignificance after using all her reserves to cure him. He wondered if even in that sorry state he could use her ability, laying his hand on the corpse, slightly taken by surprise when he felt the little speck of cursed energy course through his veins. 

Cursed siphoning, as she has called it, allowed him to subtract cursed energy from the target at a sole touch to then have it at his disposal. It became very reliable now that he understood how cursed energy functioned and the limits his body could intake. However the just acquired energy could only burn a few instants later, the blood vessels glowing brightly beneath his skin.

Gabriele frowned at the occurrence, the bond was too weak, the flow so frail that it couldn't reach her before the essence would ignite it to sparks and nothing more. Without a solid bond, he couldn't employ cursed energy without repercussion on his organism, therefore his tactics will have to converge with his old exorcist habits again, detrimental in this kind of environment with so many hostilities and limiting his possibilities of engagement down to hit-and-runs and avoid confrontations with potential world ending enemies on his own. His priority shifted now to regroup with the others and end this nightmare once it for all, and only then did he work to reestablish a firmer connection with Lucia.

A sound similar to a wild grunt caught his attention down the hallway coming from behind a door left ajar. Careful to not step over the corpse, Gabriele stealthily paced toward the room with his weapon drawn ready to strike, and positioned himself right next to the doorframe. The paladin pushed lightly the wood to peek inside the room, the sound of chewing eerily present within the closed quarters, the last thing he thought he'd see, however, was another set of eyes staring back at him. A moment of stunned shock woke him from his trance as he crossed gazes with a small child, creeping from inside the closet with a look of fear on their expression. The dark ambient did not help him distinguish much else other than the glittery dress and a small device between the short bangs, planted on the side of their head. A cochlear implant, this kid was deaf.