"How fortunate! This Evil Dream brings us blessing upon blessing!"
"To be blessed with the presence of the Princess of Sin! Such joy!"
"Princess Ithrendyl, riding the great King of the Black Dragons, Saeryon of the Abyss!"
"How many Evil Dreams have passed, and the holy saint always appeared in another Domain?"
"Don't blaspheme, fool! The Princess appears whenever she wishes and to whomever she wishes!"
The witches argued among themselves, positively or negatively, but always in relation to the great vortex that moved the very heavens above the Forest of Dead Titans. The camp had been set up, and they had deviated from the original path, heading in the opposite direction in order to reach the location equidistant between the center of the vortex and the mainland.
Tristessa was being carried in the arms of one of the largest witches. Her consciousness was fluctuating, trapped in a limbo between survival and surrender. She writhed and sweated incessantly from the pain, her forehead seething with fever and dehydration, and even then she received no mercy from her captors.
Not even the mercy of a swift Death. Daiana had been explicit in ordering her minions not to let her die.
"Are you also excited to see the Princess, lass?" the witch asked, her blindfold slipping slightly. Horrified, Tristessa could see her empty right eye socket filled with metal threads piercing it from one end to the other, hooked into her skin in an extremely painful way that the woman didn't seem to even notice.
"…"
The raven-haired girl couldn't even speak anymore. Ever since she'd overexerted herself to confront Daiana more than half an hour ago, and was interrupted by that unexpected occurrence that now pierced the heavens, she could only open her mouth to spill threads of drool onto the witch's arm.
What kept her awake and alive, despite all the suffering she carried on her shoulders, the grievous wounds throughout her body, and the excessive amount of blood she'd lost, was the mark on her chest.
Her Baptism in Ruins, ever since that dark vortex emerged, throbbed strongly and sent small shocks throughout her punished body, like small, harmless electrical shocks.
"Does that Princess of Sin have something to do with my curse...with Death and Resurrection?" she wondered, her own inner voice echoing loudly. "How does she relate to Vel'Moran and my Divinity? Is that Princess…an Angel of Chaos?"
Be that as it may, Tristessa couldn't afford to ask questions to the witch carrying her, or to those surrounding her, walking side by side through those ash-turned colossi... Inevitably, she would soon find some of the answers she was looking for.
"So, the holy Princess will appear above the Lonely Lake! Or should I call it the Lake of Murky Waters?" Daiana asked aloud, leading her retinue of witches through the hundreds of thousands of dead titans and out of the forest they comprised. "Renaming places within the Evil Dream gives me a headache! Ugh, I feel like I must...must...!"
"My Mistress! If you want, you can calm down by eating the brain inside this meat sack!" proposed the witch carrying Tristessa. "She's very close to dying, you know? Her brain will spoil, turning all gelatinous and liquid."
"That brain and the carcass that holds it inside is a gift for Lord Moebius, Lorraine, so make sure she doesn't die or it will be your brain I'll eat!" threatened the Priestess, pointing her finger at her and with no hint of grace in her voice. "Now let's continue toward the coast!"
"Damn it, I wanted to give up this silly task. My arms hurt…" sighed the witch named Lorraine, then gave Tristessa a hungry grin. "Perhaps Lady Daiana will let me eat your remaining leg, in recompense."
"…"
Surrounded by titans who had assumed positions of reverence, a great lake of black water stretched to the dark eastern horizon. Its source was a river flowing from the south, where the mountain ranges with frozen peaks were located, which, in the Evil Dream, could not be seen due to the extremely dense darkness, not even with the aid of the reddish light retained in the clouds. Its mouth lay to the west, toward a river that crossed the rest of the End-World Domain until it ended in the Onyx Sea.
The witch, Lorraine, roughly dropped Tristessa, causing her to slam her entire body against the countless flat, ash-covered stones that made up the lake's shoreline. For the girl, there was no more pain to feel, only a savage thirst increased by the sound of the dark water lapping over the stones, cleansing them and carrying the remains of ash into the depths.
"It's a shame the other girls aren't here to witness the miracle. At least they have your little brother to have fun with, Mistress," Lorraine said to Daiana, making Tristessa feel an unpleasant emptiness in her chest.
"Yes… I was upset about splitting up the group and having them take little Lucahn, but we couldn't move so many people together without risking attracting the attention of the beasts roaming around here, or worse, being seen by those pesky Abysswalkers," Daiana explained, arms crossed and staring contentedly into the eye of the vortex, while the strong winds hit her face but she didn't flinch. "I won't be able to split his head open, but in order to witness the glorious arrival of Princess of Sin, it's a sacrifice I'm willing to accept."
"Damn sickening women! They must all die!" Tristessa thought, her tired gaze glaring at the witches standing at the edge of the lake, and at Daiana, who noticed her and her smile grew from ear to ear.
"If looks could kill, hehe… You know, that's a curious phrase: I, too, have a deadly gaze."
Daiana pointed her left hand at Tristessa and opened it wide so that the girl could see her palm. In its center, there was a clean gash, like a scar of an old wound… A mistaken interpretation from Tristessa, since that length of damaged skin opened and it showed an eyeball inside.
A black eyeball that had a vertical, crimson slit, and it focused instantly on Tristessa's disgusted face.
"Oh no, look away girls!" one of the witches warned and, out of caution, those close enough stared at any direction instead of her Mistress.
"The Simulacrum of Lord Moebius! Our holy lord's blessing, humbly and graciously accepted!" the Priestess exclaimed, about that cursed eye in her hand. A vile machination, created by an engineer devoted to unholy practices. "Oh, my lord Moebius… Such a generous man! I was lost, and my lord offered me a hand as a guide. I was blind, and my lord gave me more eyes to see beyond the pale light!"
Tristessa felt the eye's gaze as if a veil of warmth had covered her. She expected something more, a sudden surge of immeasurable pain, even instant Death… But she felt nothing but that. Harmless warmth.
"…Oh, I'm supposed to be able to have omniscience over you, but your soul is so dark I can't see a thing. I don't know your name yet…," the woman lamented, visibly disappointed and having no choice but to close her evil eye and return her left hand to normal. "Bah, never mind! There's no reason to be sad, Princess Ithrendyl is coming to bless us with her presence now! Look!"
The black lightning flashes were more frequent around the vortex, and it was no coincidence that a new rumble from the epicenter increased the fury of the storm, made the waters of the lake become more turbulent, and made the ground tremble slightly beneath their feet.
The witches of the Coven waited expectantly, with the excitement worthy of a sect about to witness the arrival of their promised savior.
And Tristessa… She just wanted whatever appeared from the darkness of that vortex to end her life before she fell into the clutches of that Lord of Forbidden Knowledge, known by the name of Moebius.
"It's…! What?! What does this mean?!" she heard Daiana exclaim. "That's not a giant dragon, and it certainly isn't the Princess! What the fuck is going on?!"
What appeared among the swirling clouds, amidst the darkness of the center of the vortex, were massive black gears. Dozens of them, spinning rapidly on the surface of dark metal machinery that expelled gaseous Discord between pistons and valves that opened and closed non-stop.
The terror that gripped Tristessa was ineffable. Not only did she recognize that type of otherworldly architecture, but she realized that all that amalgamation of gears and machinery was connected to each other by skin. The skin of a humanoid face, half machine, half organic, which opened its eyes and wept tears of Discord that evaporated as they fell.
As it opened its mouth, two divine figures emerged from inside the mechanical head, floating slowly and wrapped in golden chains that prevented them from descending further. Two monstrous women; an angel and a demoness, the first embracing the second from behind. Both corrupted by gears, Discord, and metallic parts connected to their rotten and eldritch bodies.
Suddenly, before anyone could ever understand what was happening, the demoness let out a scream of pain so powerful it shook the souls of everyone present.
The Baptism in Ruins, for the first time since experiencing her first Death, ached in Tristessa's chest.