novelnext The Stage of the Abyss
The Stage of the Abyss
After the crash of broken glass and the clash of pressures that nearly reduced the penthouse to rubble, a strange and artificial calm settled in the room."Nom, nom, nom... Do you want some?"
"No, thank you."
There, the two entities now sat face to face, engaged in a conversation that, to any outside observer, would seem friendly, even though it was built upon a minefield.
"But putting your question aside..."
The scene was a disturbing visual dissonance where the "goddess"—that monument of physical perfection born from human dreams—alternated her movements with a grotesque gestural schizophrenia.
"I want to ask you something as well."
One second, she reclined with the grace of a queen upon the remains of her chair, but in the next, the influence of the Archbishop of Greed shattered the illusion.
(Snnif... sss!)
With a hand of long fingers and perfectly manicured nails, the deity began to pick her nose with a vulgar brusqueness—an action that completely clashed with the symmetry of her face.
"Tell me, little wonder... how were you able to find me in this hole? I went to a great deal of trouble to make this corner invisible to prying eyes."
However, just an instant later, she withdrew her hand and, regaining an elegant and refined attitude, tilted her head, sketching a charming smile that would have brought entire armies to their knees, and asked with a delicacy that concealed a latent poison.
"Oh, that..."
In response, a few meters away, Melioris didn't seem to give the slightest importance to her interlocutor's repulsive duality.
"Mmm~... If I had to say~"
She was reclining in the air, suspended on her back as if floating in an invisible pool, looking lazily toward the ceiling beams where the smoke still danced.
(Crock... munch... crock!)
At the same time, she held a small paper bucket from which she took popcorn, tossing them upward to catch them in her mouth mid-flight.
"Hm... it wasn't very difficult."
And after swallowing without looking away from the ceiling, Melioris answered calmly.
"Let's just say I couldn't help but follow such an interesting rhythm. Amidst all that funereal silence out there, you sound like an out-of-tune note in a very boring song... and I adore out-of-tune notes."
At Melioris's response, the "goddess" stopped her movements.
"I see."
Then, she slowly removed the finger from her nose and, with a parsimony that was almost insulting given her outward beauty, inspected it under the dim light streaming through the broken windows.
"Ffffuuuu..."
After a few seconds of disinterested observation, she blew on her finger with boredom, like someone flicking a speck of dust off an old piece of furniture.
"Fascinating... Simply fascinating."
Then, she fixed a gaze charged with genuine fascination and curiosity upon the figure of the girl floating above her.
"So, an 'interesting rhythm,' eh? I have spent centuries perfecting the art of hiding my trace beneath the skin of perfection, and you come along to tell me I sound like an out-of-tune note."
With a fluid and careful movement, she stretched her marble fingers toward the plate that had miraculously survived the clash of pressures, picking up a small cookie with extreme delicacy, as if it were a precious jewel, before bringing it to her mouth.
"Croc! ... munch... munch..."
She proceeded to chew pensively, savoring the sweet while her calculating mind attempted to decipher Melioris's nature.
"Enough questions about me!"
However, he did not have much time to reflect.
"Now it's my turn to ask, darling."
Melioris, after tossing one last popcorn into the air and catching it with a snap of her teeth, spun on her own axis in mid-air to remain suspended upside down, swaying gently.
"Tell me... What is your true objective in being in a place like this?"
Immediately after, Melioris began to move her legs from side to side with a playful rhythm, swaying in her inverted position as the popcorn bucket floated beside her while she asked.
"What do you mean by that, little one?"
In response, the "goddess" tilted her head, arching a perfectly groomed eyebrow as she cast a look of feigned confusion, holding her empty teacup with her fingertips.
"I am but a humble traveler enjoying the... weather."
Right after, the "goddess" proclaimed that with a voice laden with artificial innocence.
"Pff~!"
Undeterred, Melioris let out a snort and began to turn from side to side in the air, rolling lazily as if the void were a feather bed, ignoring the attempt at evasion.
"Don't try to change the subject, darling. Don't speak to me as if I were a fool."
Immediately after, Melioris replied with a singsong tone.
"I would understand your presence if we were in the Holy Kingdom. Religion is predominant there, faith overflows, and your influence would be absolute... a perfect banquet for someone like you."
At that moment, Melioris stopped dead in her tracks, remaining in profile in mid-air as she pointed toward the broken window overlooking the city of volcanic stone.
"But I have been listening, learning... and this city of Flambell has no connection to any power in this world. It is an isolated place, devoted to its own flame. Your presence here makes no sense... unless you are looking for something very specific."
"... Kuhihi."
Upon hearing those words, the "goddess" fell silent for a second and then burst into a giggle that distorted her divine features.
"A wonderful deduction, truly."
After responding with those words, the "goddess" proceeded...
"BUUUUUUERP!"
To let out a long, vulgar belch that shattered all the mystique of the moment.
"Hey, you ruined my revelation! And that belch smells like... Roses?"
In response, an indignant Melioris stopped her presentation dead in its tracks, wrinkling her nose to sniff the air that had been exhaled toward her, exclaiming in surprise.
"Hahahahaha! Those are the perks of this body, brat."
In reaction, the Archbishop, within the deity's body, let out a repulsive and hoarse cackle that vibrated in the woman's marble chest, exclaiming with delight as he patted his belly.
"No matter how rotten my interior may be, this vessel processes filth and turns it into fragrance. It's the perfect container, don't you think? Everything about me seems sacred, even my gases."
In response to those words, Melioris, as if propelled by an invisible spring, leapt to her feet in mid-air.
"Pay attention!"
She immediately extended an arm dramatically, pointing an accusing finger at the "goddess" while her other hand rested on her chest.
"As a certain famous investigator used to say: when you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth!"
(Ffffff-tack!)
Thus, Melioris landed softly on her feet on the glass-strewn floor, resuming the thread of the conversation with a sudden seriousness that contrasted with her previous playfulness.
"Based on everything mentioned..."
Continuing the conversation, she walked in circles around the shattered table.
"You came here for something that you could only acquire at this precise moment and in this precise place. Something so valuable that, even with all your power and possible resources, you had no choice but to come in person."
After saying those words, Melioris stopped right in front of the "goddess," leaning forward until their noses almost touched.
"The only possible conclusion... is that what you came for is the corpse of the Priestess of the Flame, Shula!"
Proclaiming the truth, she posed dramatically, pointing at the "goddess" in a pompous manner.
"...."
"...."
The silence that followed was absolute. The water stopped dripping, the smoke stopped swirling, and the Archbishop's smile froze on the deity's face. The mention of the body of Flambell’s founder had stripped the veil from the room's final secret.
(Clap... Clap... Clap~)
At the final revelation, the "goddess" remained motionless for a second before breaking the silence with slow, rhythmic applause.
"Really..."
Her marble hands struck one another, producing a dry, elegant sound that echoed through the ruined penthouse.
"Bravo! Marvelous!"
She exclaimed this with a smile that, this time, seemed genuinely impressed.
"You are correct, little detective. You have hit the mark with terrifying precision."
In response to such a statement, Melioris, upon hearing the confirmation, was unable to contain herself.
"Ha! I knew it! Nothing escapes my brilliant deduction!"
She thus began to gloat in victory with childish enthusiasm, tilting her chin up and placing her hands on her waist with an air of absolute superiority.
"Ahahaha! What a fun brat you are!"
At that moment, the atmosphere of the place shifted to suit her theatricality. Out of nowhere, a mysterious source of light descended from above, acting as a theatrical spotlight that bathed Melioris's figure exclusively, leaving the rest of the room in an artistic penumbra.
"It seems that..."
Under that golden beam of light, Melioris began to perform theatrical bows, leaning deeply to the left and then to the right, as if she were facing an invisible audience in the room.
"Coming to this place of ashes has been worth it just for finding you. You are a treasure far more interesting than any relic."
In response to those words, Melioris, still under the spotlight, shot a mischievous look over her shoulder as she finished her final bow.
"If that is the case..."
Melioris, once her final bow was finished and still under the theatrical spotlight, straightened up with a smile that was no longer childish at all.
"How about we make a deal?"
And with her heterochromatic eyes glowing with supernatural intensity, she proposed a pact.
"Hoo~"
The "goddess" reacted instantly.
"You have captured my interest... even more than you already had."
The Archbishop's interest ignited like a flame fed by oil. Leaning her body forward, she brought her perfect face close to Melioris's until their breaths crossed in the shadows.
"If what you wish is to see something that has never been seen before..."
In response, Melioris did not back down. On the contrary, she held the gaze of the possessed creature while the night wind whistled once more through the broken glass.
"Then I propose this: no matter what happens next, if you give me total freedom without interference, I will show you something extraordinary. A performance that this world will never forget."
Before a request that could unleash unprecedented chaos...
"...."
The "goddess" remained silent.
The Archbishop—the man who in his past life had sacrificed everything: his humanity, his morals, and his soul, all to obtain ever-deeper knowledge of the depths of the abyss—stood frozen. Before him was not a simple anomaly, but a direct invitation from a being that breathed the very essence of that which he so longingly sought to understand.
"What do you say~?"
Upon receiving such an invitation from a being so intimately linked to the void, the Archbishop—a being consumed by desire and intellectual greed—was unable to refuse.
"Done."
His very nature forbade him from saying no to the promise of forbidden knowledge. He responded with a smile that was a reflection of the abyss itself.
"The stage is yours, Melioris. Do not disappoint me."