Simone gingerly took the guide’s hand, everything past this point was even more uncertain than the last. Once she was on her feet she looked to the other two Simones. They were shaking their heads.

“We’re going back. We have a bad feeling and we’re only going to get in Simone’s way from this point on,” the Guide spoke as they disappeared.

The hairs on the back of Simone’s neck were standing up as she took her hand felt the goosebumps going down her arms. “So, I’m not the only one who sensed it…” It came out as a whisper. It was almost like a close secret of Simone’s.

“An alleyway is still a threshold,” Simone took a stick and drew a line in front of the guide. “Fey use thresholds as prisons without walls. To put their victims on display for more grotesque visuals. They get bored of it quickly but the most important part of the knowledge is that thresholds are doorways in their own.” She shrugged off her knowledge as if she had been a well of information since they began.

Approaching the airship door she swung it open and looked back at the Guide, “Just close though I’m not good at speed casting.” She still couldn’t decide what part of the game the Guide played in all of this.

Going into the dark abyss she lit a blue fire on the palm of her hand. There was scratching and groaning. The stench of blood and decay reached her nose and she wrinkled it. “I didn’t miss this.” The blue flame took shape into a lantern as she held it up. “Let’s see… Ah…” Her voice was calm and cold as a body came towards her with malicious intent.

She was quick to pop behind it and snap its neck but she noticed it wasn’t dead. Using the lantern of blue fire the body lit up and finally, it stopped. “Undead… Fun.” She was encroaching on someone’s territory and she could see it by the various marks. This Lewis would be fun.

A violent slam into the nearby wall had her eyesight finally adjust completely as the lantern became a bow of fire and she pulled back on the string forming an arrow. Releasing it let loose a violent explosion as corpses burned all over in front of them.

The Guide had followed her into the dark corridors of the airship, but had stayed near the door, close to the light pouring in from the other world. It was obvious that he wasn’t going to go much further in, despite his status as a guide. He knew the dangers, and was unwilling to deal with it himself.

“Good luck,” he said with a dead stare, waving. “Try not to die. Would be a shame.” It sounded as though he barely cared.

Simone’s flames lit up the darkness, revealing piles of dead bodies all around. Some of them were still moving, clawing from underneath the weight of the truly deceased. Others could be seen stumbling about in the distance. From the portholes, Simone could see a pure night sky, with a full moon off in the distance.

A shadow passed across one of the windows, and a door farther ahead slammed open and shut. A breath of fresh air met Simone before the stench of rot and death permeated the air again.

“Oh? This one’s still alive,” said a familiar voice. “Mangled. I cut the throat wrong. A painful death…” There seemed to be a hint of glee in his voice. “Do try to run…it’s amusing.” There was a cry, and then silence. “Too much noise. It’s not fun if we get caught…” A heavy sigh. “I need to cut harder and faster. No noise…that’s more efficient.”

Footsteps echoed in the dark and soon his visage appeared before Simone. “Oh? What’s this?” His eyes looked her over, and he smirked. “Another one? And you’re fresh too…” A smile appeared across his face, filling with a sadistic aura. “Maybe this time I can cut clean through the artery.”

With Simone’s dress, it was hard to navigate. She settled for burning up the skirt until she was satisfied with the outcome. Pulling up her hair she got it out of the way so she could focus on aiming true without her hair getting in the way. “It would make him sad if it got damaged,” even in a dream world like this. The arrows she released after were much timider since the groups weren’t as large. It would help conserve her energy.

Her gray eyes looked over Lewis and she tilted her head, “Well aren’t you just adorable.” She notched an arrow and aimed for Lewis. Letting it go it barely missed his cheek the heat sizzled against his skin as it hit a group of undead causing another small explosion.

“Having fun carving up all these bodies by yourself?” There was a smirk to her. “You can try to carve me up if you want to but I think you’ll find that I’m harder to keep that way~” Was she inviting him to try? It would be alright if it was him. Maybe it would be fun but the clock was also ticking.

There was a sigh from Simone’s lips as she maneuvered herself using a rod in the wall to pull herself up and latch her legs to an undead’s head before taking it completely off with a good twist. “This is so bothersome…” She hadn’t forgotten about the sadistic Lewis behind her. There was no way in knowing how far he would take things.

The sadistic sin that had appeared watched Simone with interest. Her skill was something almost mesmerizing, and that brought a smile to his face. “A challenge…” He darted forward, weaving in and out of the shadows. To most common targets, it would have been nearly impossible for them to keep track of his movements. For Simone, though, it was like watching a baby try to take her first steps.

As fun as it would have been to play with a younger Lewis, Simone knew that she lacked the time to do so, and instead countered his movements, easily slamming him to the airship floor. The daggers flew out of his hands, the sounds of grating metal echoing as they fell beyond his grasp.

“The hell!?” His playful sadism quickly turned to anger as he struggled against her.

Try as he might, though, he could not toss Simone off of him. Simone was quite aware of just how experienced her Lewis was, and realized just how much of that knowledge has been imparted on to her from the resonance. For that, she was thankful.

“I see you’ve managed to disarm him,” the Guide said as he walked into view. “Crazy little bastard. I wasn’t exactly in the best of mind sets here. Killing is an art, a science. But, I can’t deny that there’s a certain…what’s the word. Pleasure? A feeling that I could never really describe. It wasn’t even happiness. Not that he would have known…”

“So are you trying to talk me to death? Or do you have a point?” Simone said, struggling against the sin.

“A glutton for death, always hungry for the kill. In a way, it’s what got us caught by Xeik. We forgot the real reason we started it.” The Guide walked over and squatted next to Simone and the Sin of Gluttony. “Tell me, Simone? Do you know why we did all of this? Why we became such a power hungry being? Why we chose to train under Lord Raith?” He looked at her with a serious glint in his eyes. “What we lost sight of, until we met him? Until we met you?”

Simone sat on the crazy Lewis once she had him all disarmed. He was frail enough that even her small weight was enough to keep him down. “I’ll break your arms if you don’t stop,” she said down to the flailing Lewis.

The angry sin of Lewis started to mouth off and she took his head and smacked it against the floor. “You wanted to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves. We’ve talked about it a little. You wanted a definite end to the problems you faced knowing that Xeik’s way was finite. You wanted to protect those most important to you. That has never changed and it still drives you.”

Her gray eyes looked down at the sin, “Because despite how fucked up your feelings were you were quite emotional. You cared a lot even though you convinced yourself you didn’t. Rather you didn’t understand what you were feeling. It wasn’t until we connected that you began to understand. That I began to teach you what each thing was. No matter how small it was.”

Lewis struggled under Simone, glaring up at her. “What the hell do you know about it!?” He struggled against her; a futile attempt in his current state of being. “The thrill of it all, can’t you see?”

The Guide sighed, sitting down. “We lost sight of it. At least for a time. The killing was too much. It was like a drug. We had seen it happen to others, but never in a thousand years would we have expected it to hit us.”

“Besides,” the crazed Lewis replied, giving up his struggle. “We had a point to prove. We had to get better. The more blood that flowed, the stronger we appeared. The stronger we were….”

“It all began with the desire to protect. But look at us,” the Guide said, sighing. “Pathetic. Weak. That’s all we were before Lord Raith. And this might have been the lowest.”

Gluttony looked to the side, almost as if ashamed. “Weak. I am weak. I couldn’t save any of them…” Lewis was holding out his hand, trying to reach for the hand of one of the dead bodies near him.

Suddenly, Simone was very aware of what was around her. The bodies were mangled corpses of what looked like women and children. Had she not noticed before? Or had Lewis subconsciously blocked the images? Suddenly, the zombies shambling about were revealed to be slavers. Some of them were recognizable, as their deaths had been publicized.

“I was too late…but I took vengeance for them,” Gluttony said, still trying to reach. “The blood flowed. And it was…euphoric.”

The Guide shook his head, “This one’s a lost cause.” He stood up, and held out his hand to Simone. “A failure who used his blade as an escape. Even if he never understood the reason why…”

Mone listened to the tale and she looked down at the Lewis under her. “I don’t think so. At least I don’t think he’s truly a lost cause per se.” Her words came out carefully as she got up with the guide’s help. “Taking vengeance… Never actually fills the hole. You chase after the need to fill it. To make up for it. You endlessly beat yourself into a corner and no matter what… No matter how many you kill… It will never heal.” She spoke down to Lewis.

“I know that euphoric feeling and all I was left with after was emptiness. But god damn did it feel good taking that iron rod and beating that bitch’s face in. Listening to the screams of all of what he held close. They were all guilty in my eyes. None of them stopped him from what he did. So you chase that feeling you felt to make it better. The difference is that it’s spilling blood for both of us. Most people just drink.”

She got down next to gluttony and tilted her head, “If I had, had someone who cared about me as you did them maybe I wouldn’t have suffered for as long as I did. So get stronger but stop losing sight of what actually matters. The blood feels good now but the emptiness later… It’s why you always worked, isn’t it? When we first met you took so many jobs I rarely saw you. You say it was Lord Raith but… I bet you were requesting that much work on yourself too. A way to bury the pain that you couldn’t understand. You aren’t a failure as much as you are progression. You just haven’t found the answer you need yet.”

The Guide looked at Simone curiously. She had given a very strange answer, one that seemed to spark something in Gluttony. Simone was indeed something unique, and it was no wonder that Lewis had fallen in love with her.

“Maybe if I had met you sooner…” Gluttony said with a half smirk. “I just need to keep looking for the answers…” He chuckled, looked up at her. “A simple answer.” The resonance sparked in Gluttony, engulfing him in flames. It wasn’t long before he was gone entirely.

“Back we go,” the Guide said, motioning for Simone to follow. “Only a few more to go.”


—

Simone and the Guide found themselves back at the branching paths. Just like before, there were doors, but now the airship was missing. Slowly but sure, Simone was moving through the sins. Much like Lewis did with her…

“Well, get on with it,” the Guide said, almost as if annoyed by the ease of which she was proceeding. “I haven’t got all day.”

“You just have to find it first,” Simone nodded to Gluttony before he left.

Following the guide she waved her hand, “I know, I know.” She sighed and gave him a shrug, “Maybe you would feel better if you cut my leg off~” She made a joke similar to how he used to talk to her.

“There’s that feeling again…” She spoke out loud to no one as she took hold of the observatory door. Looking back at the Guide. “I think it would be wise for me to recharge for a moment.”

She got a look on her face before she started to poke the guide in the chest, “Why are you so pissed off? It’s not like you to get pissed off without an outlet.” She was backing him into a wall. “Hmm? Oh, that’s right. Before you got little me that you ripped clothes off of you had to go to that brothel. You have strange tastes in which whores you choose… I only got to see them briefly through her eyes as she ripped the hair out of the blonde’s head and the redhead got a punch to the face.”

The Guide scoffed, “What do you mean ‘outlet.’ All I need is for you to finish up here. The longer you’re here, the more work I have to do. I’m not a god damned baby sitter.” Simone wasn’t done, though. She seemed quite annoyed with the way that the Guide was acting, and so she pressed his buttons more.

“Oh? You met them? And you ripped Sarah’s hair?” That brought as smirk to his face. “She was good. But talked to much. It was purely physical and she never could understand that…” He grabbed Simone’s hand after she prodded him again. “But you act as though you’re better than them. All high and mighty…yet you fought with some whores.”

The Guide pushed her against the walls of a building, pressing his knee between her legs to force them apart. He pinned her arms above her head, his face inches from her. “Is that what you are? A substitute for a whore? Is that what he used you for?” As much as she had been pressing his buttons, he was pressing hers.

“Tell me, Simone Auclair… do your past lives give you the experience of one?”