Tears for Evil

Part 4: White strings tied with blood

Alkia sat across from the former hero unblinking as the spiral walls moved and warped around his foreign presence. It wasn't used to somebody being so deep in her domain. Behind him stood a beast of similar make to the walls. It was woven of thick obsidian threads and stood at 6ft while hunched. It had a hole where its face should've been and bladed claws that dangled near his exposed neck. Beads of sweat rolled down his face as steam from the tea hit it.

He didn't know what to do. They had been sitting in silence for an hour staring at each other since she brought him here. He didn't want to take his eyes off those deep red orbs but he couldn't just do nothing. Finally he looked down to his tea. It was still steaming with the same intense heat even now, he decided to take a sip. "Oh, so you actually do have manners." she said plainly. He almost spit it out when she spoke. "I went through all that trouble to prepare it for you darling. That was quite the show." she continued. It was. He questioned how and why he was even still alive.

He set the tea back down below him and wiped his brow. It was hot. "I. apologize." He said timidly. she only smiled back and stared at him. He took another sip, longer pondering how he got here.

-earlier-

Alto wasn't a generic adventurer or a normal person. He had always been fascinated more with his own ambitions than the gods. He became a hero not for their sake but for a way to test himself. This alone made him an outlier but what others saw as real taboo was that he repeatedly snuck into the Towerfells even after becoming a hero.

The dimension adjacent to theirs was used to test heroes and was filled with biblically accurate abominations that regularly ended even well trained groups of trainees. He had snuck in several times and was arrested after each expedition. It was solely for those in training and he had more than a year of experience under his belt already.

The space him experiment and combine techniques and, with a lot of his spilled blood, came great results. For the first time in history, unbeknown to anybody but him, he created a new focal point for the big three: mind, body, and soul. Most people practiced in a way that would unify and meld them into one but he managed to hone them all separately. In that second year, after he purposely lost his way, he separated his mind, body, and soul into three separate entities.

He chose a safe haven and took to his same regime every week with saturday and sunday being his rest days. His body would go forth and break itself against its enemies until it couldn't fight any longer. After it would come back to his abode and rest until it was healed.

His mind would invade that of the angel's dreams with the aid of magic scrolls and fight for control. They tore through imaginary lands and destroyed each other conceptually many times. The worst parts was when the victor would torture the loser and keep them alive until they woke. His soul fought to consume the weaker ones, eventually getting bolder and catching bigger prey.

It was scarring, dreadful, and he lost his sanity many times, but he had achieved something new. They were all separate and powerful, all him yet individuals, and they proved their prowess many times when fighting monsters and unfortunate travelers. That was until one "unfortunate traveler" found him.

He had been walking through the countryside when he spotted her. She had white hair and bleeding red eyes. They reflected him so clearly. His broad shoulders, his short spiky black hair, and his padded armor. She was huge as well but he had fought larger. A strange crown sat atop her head and he could feel she had some power to her. 'She looks like a challenge.' She claimed to be a traveler looking for powerful creatures, ones that could rival even the gods. That made him chuckle inside. There were definitely rumors but that information wasn't free. "I'll tell you if you spar with me. You seem powerful." He said. She looked to be contemplating the information. "I don't fight usually, more so lead. But I have a feeling that answer won't suffice for you." He shook his head. "I'm not going to force you to do anything obviously, but those are the terms." he chuckled.