Chapter 144: Faceless Nightmare

The difference between Ryteline and Renlou's engineering is simple. The birthplace of the Industrial Revolution focuses more on efficiency, while the largest and oldest empire wants to display its beauty wherever. Trains in Ryteline are private cabins, so the passengers can rest easy. Renlou's train model is quite different; to make room for its social culture, there is no bedroom on the first floor.

"Night is coming soon, so I'd better go to bed now.", Lea got up from her seat, taking The Plague Garden with her, and walked up the stairs next to the door.

"I wish you good night.", Mark waved, then he yawned, "I should get to bed soon as well."

Hensu had gone to the restroom, so she did not say goodbye to him.

She looked at her card again, searching for her bedroom.

"Ah, there it is.", her room is way in the back.

So silently, amongst the crowd that had gone up, Lea got to her bedroom. It is quite cramped, with a bed and only enough space for walking in and out.

Locking the door behind her, Lea wore her armor and Ouis Marei, unleashing her full power. Her passive ability to make everyone sleepy was in full effect.

She could hear doors closing and locking; only the rattles of the train remained.

"I'll be going out for a bit.", she said to The Plague Garden.

"Mm!", Lea interpreted that as 'good luck'.

And so, The Faceless Twilight is on the prowl. She hums, using Soul Morph to stretch herself thin, going through the crevices of the door, reforming on the other side.

Like a lullaby, she knocks on every door, checking if people are asleep. Fully committing to her act as the Boogeyman, searching for anyone who can resist the allure of slumber.

"Oh."

And it just so happens there is one near the stairs. Just walking up. It was Hensu, trying to get to his room.

"Quite the naughty person you are. Not sleeping past curfew?", to be fair, curfew doesn't exist in Renlou society; it is more of a religious concept introduced by the Church of the Three Rings.

That the Angels of the Lord would protect you in your sleep against nightmares. Lea believed in that too, until she became a night owl and her zeal was broken by the Tome of Light.

"L-let me explain...", fear overtook his sleepiness.

"You know what happens to bad children who don't sleep, right?"

Before he could scream for help, Lea dragged him into her Dream World with Sinking Rem. Reality shattered like glass around Hensu, the train corridor fragmenting into darkness before reforming as the interior of her mansion.

The Cursed Constructs writhed. Black tendrils pulsed along the walls like exposed veins, beating with golden light that synchronized with Hensu's racing heartbeat. The floor beneath him wasn't solid; it breathed, rising and falling as if he stood on the chest of some massive sleeping beast.

Welcoming back its owner and her prey.

Hensu collapsed to his knees, terror overwhelming the supernatural drowsiness that had nearly claimed him. The pressure radiating from this place was wrong. He knew instinctively he had no control here, no escape, no leverage.

When he'd been a Pathstrider, he could have been confident. Could have put on an act that might at least keep him alive.

But that power was gone.

He reached desperately into his pocket for something... His hand found nothing.

Panic flooded through him. Where was it? Had it fallen? Been taken?

A Saga... Lea observed from everywhere and nowhere at once, reading his mind like an open book... Story fragments said to be from before the Blackout, Sinclair's bullshit again...

The revelation was almost disappointing. Another pawn. Another tool.

"You have committed many sins."

Her voice didn't come from one direction. It echoed through the entire mansion, reverberating through the walls, the floor, Hensu's own bones.

She could see all. And they disgusted her.

"Raping your own brother's granddaughter then murdering her, assassinating people, assaulting men and women alike, leading the decline of Anesota, driving millions into misery for your rituals, orchestrating the destruction of four countries at the same time. Ah... so many crimes, so many misdeeds..."

Hensu immediately prostrated himself, forehead pressed to the breathing floor.

"Please, I beg you, O Faceless Twilight!!", his voice cracked, "Please let me live my life and find redemption!!"

The mansion went silent.

Then Lea manifested in front of him, towering at her full two-meter height. A crown made of twisting black and gold horns, a pitch-black mask reflecting his terrified expression.

"All life is priceless...", Lea said softly, her voice carrying whispers beneath it, "But because of that, it can pay for anything..."

Her hand reached out, fingers too long, joints bending wrong.

"Even your own sins."

Hensu tried to scream. Lea's hand touched his forehead faster.

Dream Eater activated.

Black energy erupted from her palm, pouring into Hensu's skull. His mouth opened in a soundless scream as the power invaded his mind, grabbing his consciousness.

His memories came first.

Flashing before Lea's perception. His rise through the Malediction Path, the deceit, the vileness of a Villain. Then the fall, when he was confident in his own might, facing the Chalk Princess who took away his powers permanently.

Each memory she consumed left Hensu less than he was.

His eyes began to glaze. His expression slackened. The terror drained from his face.

"What... what was I...?", he mumbled, "I... who...?"

But Lea didn't stop.

The black energy intensified, becoming visible tendrils that wrapped around Hensu's head. They pulsed, each pulse pulling more of him into Lea.

His body began to wither.

Skin pulled tight against bone. Eyes sank into his skull. Hair fell out in clumps. Lea was eating what made him human, and without that essence, his body had nothing left to sustain it.

"Please... stop...", the words were barely coherent. "I... I can't..."

Lea's hand pressed harder.

The Cursed Constructs in the walls surged. Black tendrils shot from the floor, wrapping around Hensu's limbs, pulling him down into the breathing floor.

He sank slowly, inch by inch.

"You wanted redemption...", Lea whispered, almost gentle. "Consider this mercy. No more guilt. No more fear. No more you..."

Hensu's mouth opened one last time.

Just to release a final, hollow breath as the last fragment of his consciousness was ripped away. His eyes went blank. The body, now an empty shell, collapsed onto the floor. The Cursed Constructs closed over him, absorbing the husk.

Within seconds, there was no trace he had existed.

Lea stood alone, breathing heavily despite not needing to. Her hand still tingled with the taste of his mind, despair flavored with bitter regret and sour fear.

She closed her eyes, processing the stolen memories. The things he had done for power, the sense of completion from the rituals. The despair and misery he felt...

It was all so delicious...

She dismissed the Dream Realm, returning to reality. Her gaze looked down on the husk that was Hensu's body, still breathing, but without a mind to control it... he would soon die.

Using her Cursed Constructs, she created a tendril to slip into his pocket... and she could sense it, a great source of power.

"So this is the power of Legacy...", she whispered.

Ideation peered into the pocket watch. This Saga is a slasher killer, a man dressed in a bloody trench coat and wearing a white smiling mask...

'Right to Slaughter' is its name. She obviously cannot use it due to the restriction from the Path of Divinity.

But she has a great idea.

She walked past the corpse calmly, humming her lullaby, and returned to her own room.

The Plague Garden bounced excitedly, "Mm! Mm?"

"It's done...", Lea said quietly, "One less sinner in the world."

She sat on the cramped bed, staring at her hands. They looked normal, pale, delicate, human. And the pocket watch of the man she just killed...

"Come out, you guys.", she called out to her dark spirits.

The dark spirits bounced around the cramped room playfully. She held the watch up to them; the spirits floated around the object warily. But in the end, one was brave enough to touch it...

And absorb the Saga inside the watch. The black color turned slightly red, and it became slightly erratic, bouncing around with a jerk.

Lea quickly Silenced its behavior, returning it to normal. She could use it like Ouis Marei, equip it like armor, and gain its power.

With the added effect of having a plausible identity and explanation for her power...

I'm becoming very good at this. Too good...

The train rattled on through the night. One fewer passenger than when it had departed. And no one would ever know....

=0=0=

The next day, Day 7 of the First Month, when the sun peeked and brought upon a new dawn...

The Sacred Flame blared from his firepit, calling upon all the monks. Standing in front and closest to the fire pit was Abbot Robert Zysen, on his knees awaiting the Divine Message.

"For millennia She had slumbered; in a time none remember, the Executor walks the land. The other side of Justice, the Vengeance to my Righteousness."

Those who came to confront the Mist Lord have a vague feeling of who The Sacred Flame was talking about.

"The shadow of my Flame, hunting those who barred themselves from light. Hunter of the Wicked, the Executor of Evil."

Then it came, the Honorific Title.

"Malediction of the Depth;

Silence in Judgement;

Wandering Terror of Twilight."

"For those who search for personal justice, those who search for righteous fury... may The Faceless Twilight grant you strength."

And thus, the news of a returning "god" became a sensation in Rohuang. But just a piece of news that would get people talking for a time.

The upper class would try to suppress the spread of this new God of Vengeance, fearing that this god would expose their various sins, empowering the disgruntled and hateful...

Unless something big happens.

=0=0=

The train had to stop at Beius Station in Galfan due to a murder incident. The victim was identified as Hensu Astrov, the Republic of Anesota's former Minister of Defense.

From his companion, Mark Lober, he was here on vacation.

Meanwhile, Lea was playing with The Plague Garden in her room, due to her masking her presence completely with the Jester's Veil plus her own Cloak and Silence. With a subtle ward placed at the front dissuading people from approaching her.

"If only I had a mirror...", she lamented, looking at the floating dark red spirit.

She really wanted to equip it, but the situation doesn't allow it. There is a murder case going on outside. What's more, the first thing the detectives did was rule out natural death, due to his pockets having clear signs of being rumaged through.

The problem being that there was no sign of a weapon used, only injury from falling on his way up the stairs. So it was concluded as an aggravated robbery, where the robber stole from an injured person and failed to render aid.

Lea admit, being the murderer and robber, it was pretty stupid of her to do it.

"Ah, right..."

She used more Cursed Constructs to create a crystal emblem bearing her symbol, a goat skull. Along with the flaming eye she got from Novala, her identity should be clear...