Child of the Profane (LOTM fanfic)

Faust sat down onto the heap of rags and started up onto the midday sun. His face was peaceful, he even felt a little happy. However, his mind didn't stay in that state for long. "Shadow, where are we." He asked the angel on his shoulder. The silence was deafening but he continued. " I remembered that we slept in the Monarch's territory. These beings, are so squishy." He let out a small chuckle when he remembered how the skin of the human he had sacrificed to the Abyss felt.

He didn't even push the knife inside, it just slid in. He felt as if he could have stabbed him with his finger. The silence didn't cause him to panic, he knew that Shadow had heard him but as always he doesn't like to appear under the light.

Faust didn't mind, after settling everything and cleaning the place a little he went out. For him to act as a Serial killer, he needed to do it right. He had to find a target, one that wasn't that prominent that anyone would notice but someone that would at least be noticed in passing. Someone that people would pretend to be sad, even for a second if he or she was gone. He didn't use the door he came in. The warehouse-like building had many openings.

With slow steps, Faust walked through the streets, witnessing the many struggles of the world as he prepared to choose one lucky sufferer. One who would be freed from his suffering.

The sun moved through the sky and soon it was evening. He had found many people who fit what he was searching for, however he was waiting for something. So he continued walking, he walked until he reached an old bar. The wood was rotting and filled with mould, but it was filled with patrons. He stood at the front, a few meters from the door.

As he was watching, something caught his eye. "Shadow, they are different." He whispered to his angel. The sun was setting and he knew that Shadow would start talking. "Those are beyonders Faust." The raspy and grainy whisper sounded close to him. The small smirk he had on him slowly morphed into a smile.

"You think one of them has advanced to sequence 7?" His question was rhetorical based on the way he had started following them. Stalking came naturally to him and stalking these drunk and sloppy humans, with zero sense of situational awareness was easy. So easy in fact that in a few seconds hee found himself behind them.

One wore a brown tunic with the same color d pants. His hair was black but had clung together due to staying unwashed for some time while his skin looked pale. Like he had never been in the sun. His friend, who he was holding onto for balance was dressed in roughly the same way, except his clothes were cleaner. He had dark skin and even darker hair, that seemed to have been combed some time ago.

"Charlie, charlie I promise to leave that whore. How can she do that to me? I mean I did cheat but so did she." The pale man spoke, his drunk voice slurred at some points but he made it through the sentence. "You know," his voice paused as a deep belch escaped his mouth and as he opened his mouth to talk a stream of vomit escaped his mouth.

It flew into his friend's clothes and some onto his face. A look of disgust shadowed his face. "James, pull yourself together. Yes she may have cheated but you are different now." He called his friend. His face changed from disgust to a look of joy. "You are different, you are better than that idiot Dylan." Faust watched as the dark man tried to cheer his friend on.

As Charlie continued to talk, his friend had at some point started to nod to himself. " You are right my friend. Ha, we will rule this town and even the White Kings will have to respect us." His face morphed from a scrunch into a grin. "They will have to pay us protection money." The two reveled in their fantasies while Faust watched from the darkness. It was a small theatrical drama that nature had arranged for him.

"Do I really have to kill them? Look how happy they are, maybe they can even lead us to these White Kings." The silence that followed was his answer from Shadow. He let out a deep sigh before symbols started to form in the air, they then transformed into the shape of a hollow knife. It was a bit longer than the average one but the serrated edge was present throughout.

It seemed that the two had heard him since they went silent. 'Probably afraid that I'm someone from the White Kings.' He stepped out from the darkness and with slow steps walked towards the duo. His large and long knife lit up and took on a hazy red color, becoming hot enough to pass through flesh without any issues. A cruel smile formed on his lips as he looked at the scared men before him.

Charlie and James were enjoying their night when a voice, high and whiny resounded through the alley they were in. Looking around they didn't find anyone but in a few seconds they saw the darkness light up and a red knife appeared, as if from thin air. Fear gripped them as they also saw a small boy appear from the darkness, if he were a little bit taller he would be a short man but he now just looked like a tall child. He walked in short steps, his hair swaying slightly in the cold wind. In the sight of the child it seemed that the night had turned colder.

James was about to talk but they saw the child rush them, the knife held behind him. In a blink he appeared before them and with a wide slash the knife passed by James' hand, severing a few fingers. The sight of the two fingers slowly falling made all the alcohol in their system disappear. Their minds woke up fast, but not fast enough as Charlie watched another slash come, and this was heading towards the throat.

James was frozen in fear but Charlie acted faster and with a pull saved his friend's life. The forceful lug towards his friend awoke James from his stupor and he turned to look at his hand, which was left with two full fingers and another one which was in half. " Who are you?" His voice was filled with anger and fear which mixed together to create a special brand of bravery.

Faust didn't talk but only rushed them again, this time he wasn't that worried about the pale man as he was about the dark skinned man. As he was rushing towards them, Charlie pulled a small box from his pants which extended to form a short sword, longer than the knife but not by much.

Charlie rushed towards Faust while James prepared a spell. They may have advanced a few days ago but they had trained. "Divine blood warrior." When they clashed, a guess appeared in Faust's mind that he mumbled out. He could feel that while he was stronger than Charlie it wasn't by much.

This didn't cause him any surprise, his pathway was more focused on corruption and desires. As the man was trying his all to push the attacker away, so that the spell being prepared by his friend could hit him, he felt the heat around him increase. Before his eyes, he saw the knife he was pushing against erupt into symbols he didn't get to see well before they exploded into a small inferno.

"Charlie." His friend screamed. His hands were dripping with light. "You bastard, I will make you pay for that." He raged as his hands pointed towards Faust. The light merged a small distance from his hands and with a huff he hurled the ball towards him a smile forming on his face.

The smile didn't last long since, he saw as the ball of light slowly rusted while in the air and when it reached Faust it was already a floating red ball of fire. James was about to try to form another ball of light, or form any semblance of resistance he suddenly saw it. From where his fingers were, dark red marks were slowly rising. At the moment he realised it, he was finally able to see that the lines had reached his chest.

"What did you do?" His question came out in a weak voice. Since once he noticed the lines, they started spreading faster and before long they invaded his heart and lungs, delivering a flaming curse to them. The man died without any understanding of how the act had happened.

Without delay, Faust walked towards the other man. He was lying in a heap of trash, his hand scorched and the sword he was carrying partly melted. Seeing Faust approaching, his face morphed with panic. As he got closer, Faust saw as the panic in his face was replaced with a devilish light.

Charlie threw the melting sword towards Faust and didn't wait to see if his attack succeeded. He started running towards the bar, there were a few of his friends who had stayed for one more drink.

'I should have stayed.' The same thought repeated again and again in his mind. He had heard of the horror of the Beyonder world but those flames were something beyond what he could have expected. The sheer heat felt like he had slipped into hell for a few seconds.

As he ran, desperation in his eyes, he felt something break underneath him. He didn't look down but continued. A few steps later a deep pain assaulted him and before he could find the cause he felt himself falling and the next moment his face met the dirty floor. He looked at his left leg and found a large piece of metal going through it.

He tried crawling but it only made the pain greater and the metal slipped deeper.

"Look at that, I guess fate favors me." The same boy, with the same knife. He stared at his face, he saw the small marks of metal. They had dug themselves into his flesh and cooled into balls. As he looked at them, he saw his skin try to heal only to rupture again as the metal was still inside. "Charlie, you wanted to burn my face. Do you know how much it hurt?"

Faust watched as the man tried to crawl away only to stop after he felt the metal in his leg slip deeper into his leg. He took a rag from some nearby trash and filled his mouth. "Don't worry, you'll get to feel it."

He said to the gagged man with a sweet smile. However, this caused the man to struggle more. Faust didn't care about him, he held the right leg and pulled the ma towards his dead friend.

All along the journey he kept trying to get free but kept upsetting his injured leg. In a few seconds of pain and struggles they reached the point of the attack and Charlie saw his friend. His face was even paler and all over his body were lines that seemed to originate from the wound on his hand which spread all over his body before they converged on his chest.

He saw this and instinctively searched himself, only to find the same lines originating from the points where he had been burnt. They were spreading but slowly.

"Now, for the fun part." The attacker muttered to himself but the words caused a shiver in his spine. He tried to talk but the rags were pushed deeper into his mouth.

Faust pulled the metal piece from Charlie's leg and started heating it. His flames corrupted the metal causing it to morph into a red black color. As he continued, the metal started dripping onto Charlie's skin. The pain assaulted him and forced him to focus on nothing but the slow dripping of the metal.

"Faust, don't forget to sacrifice their souls or else they will slip into the underworld." Shadow spoke in Faust's ear. However this time he wasn't the only one, Charlie heard it. He hears a voice, but not one that he was able to listen to. It was too loud and also too soft. Too deep and too high. Like a poorly executed orchestra that irritated the ears.

Faust paused and with a small sigh poured more of his spirituality into the metal before the nearly liquid metal was pushed through the rags into Charlie's mouth. He died the moment the corrupted liquid metal entered his stomach, his spirit split apart and he left this plane.

Faust struggled a little to pull Charlie's dead body, which had grown a little taller and more muscular with his death, closer to his friend. He arranged them as if they were crucified before carving the nine layered circle, it was filled with archaic symbols in each layer. When he pushed his spirituality into the circle, the mist acted like a hungry beast. It came and went in five seconds leaving only four items. Two crystal memory orbs and two other objects. They seemed to have a layer of rust but their original colors could still be seen.

One was a heart-like organ, past the rust was a golden shine that was being dulled by the rust. It was very detailed and even had two severed large veins at the top. The other one was a bone-like metal sword. The white of the bone was covered in rust but still showed. On the pomel however it had become a sickly yellow.

He collected the two objects and absorbed the orbs. Shadow didn't feed them into his mind, waiting until he was back in a safe place. He left the scene and disappeared into the night leaving a gastly scene for the poor soul that would find it.