The Cardinal had laughed about wounds before, he thought: "all of this for a stab?"
And surely so, Gloria realized quickly, as did Genova who shot his head so Gloria could severe it and throw it away. June and Fern burned it and for a solid minute grinded it with rocks.
The body kept on moving with atrocious bone cracking sounds, he turned around Gloria and tried to tie her down with his bandages, but he was dragged down by two hands coming from below, the mole itself had secured the body so it could get mangled by everyone else.
They paused a second, catching their breath and shadows all around moved but they remained silent.
"Don't react, that's what he wants."
Karin used the Ether to do faster what no one could at this speed, using the bandages to create a protection circle by attaching them to the trees.
"MISTAKES. DON'T. SOUNDLY. RESOLVE."
A sensory pain took the kids by the neck, as Karin realized her error of judgement.
"We are inside, now. I shouldn't have..."
It was not the Baron of Torture anymore, just pain itself, invisible and unkillable, choking them in the enclosed area. Each of them thought of what Ismael wrote for them, to believe in God individually.
The sudden prayers withdrew the pain hands and the bandages burned off slowly. Yet something still felt wrong, off. "Genova, do you hear us?"
"Signal's clear, nothing to report."
"Mateni?"
"No vibrations underground. He's not here anymore."
"June?"
"Absolutely nothing, if I didn't know better I'd say he's dead."
"Oh I hate this. I know he's here."
"I don't feel good", Mateni said out loud to receive immediate help. "When I grabbed his legs earlier, my hands..."
"What's going on, Mateni?"
"I think he's in me. In my hands."
He ran to the girls at the border of the forest and asked them to burn the palms of his hands, and in harsh screamings he made it, Faviel was no longer within him.
"That's seven. I stabbed him in the heart, Genova shot his head, I've cut it off, June and Fern burned and broke it down to ash. Then the hands we took down by praying, and when he inserted himself into Mateni, he burned himself off to exorcise the Cardinal out of his body. Stay vigilant, everybody."
Gloria looked around and analyzed every leaf and every tree, stared into the distance until her lack of sleep told her the enemy was moving between the trees. She disregarded it and instead went around looking, stumbling upon the Cardinal hanging down a tree with his legs.
"Can I take your skin?"
Gloria felt terror and shot his body, emptied the clip as her friends took charge of it when they got stopped in their tracks.
"ENOUGH. I COME BY THE WEEPING OF THE CARDINALS. THE WRITHING OF THY BRETHEREN, FAVIEL, THE FLOWERS OF THE SEASONS, THROWN INTO THE WINTER OF THEIR WEAPONS. VASISTAS? CONFLICT IN THE FOREST? FOR I AM OF THE SINS, I SHALL BRING SACRIFICE, MY VERY BEING, INTO THE SNOW OF THE SUFFERING."
"That's...the voice of Ismael..." Gloria shivered.
He appeared with an unfamiliar look, he seemed to be around twenty years old, a brand new anti-tank rifle in the back, piercing blue eyes and very long sliky blond hair, a cigarette in his mouth with a faint smile on the right side.
"Did you like the poem? I originally vouched for keeping you all out of trouble, but this cannot be done, as I've consulted the Grimoire. What I saw inside...was my future, my true goal. The reason I came to this world was for me to reach for it! And all of you will fall if you must."
"Ismael, don't hurt us, we can't..."
"I know. I won't. Stay away from the castle and you'll live. Faviel, we're leaving."
"Skin. Skin."
"You'll feed on someone else. Oh and Gloria. Tell Genova I'm not aging, so when she's around twenty years old, tell her to come and try to kill me."
Gloria fainted.
"She's waking up", Karin alerted.
"This is...Ismael's house?"
"It is."
"All of you are...adults?"
"We retreived memories and characteristics. Look who's here."
"Efalis."
"Gloria, before you say anything. I am not the one you once knew. All this time, I was looking for an escape, and Ismael showed me the way, allowing me to find closure for my long past childhood."
"You're also tall. I passed out uncounscious? It was too much, honestly I don't know how I didn't lose my mind before. So if you don't mind me asking, what's the plan now?"
"Ismael saved me, it's time for me to save him from his own insanity. Paying him back."
"How do we do that?"
"Give me your hand, you'll remember."
Gloria did and a myriad of images came to her mind, flowing rapidly. One after the other, she couldn't make up of what was happening until the connections started to make sense. After the black fog disappeared, she was adult, as she used to be.
"I remember. I remember the bench."
"Great, we don't have much time, let's..."
Gloria raised her hand to stop them in their tracks.
"I don't care about Ismael. I remember how I died. I remember Raven slicing my throat."
"The context was different, we had to be enemies for a while. We used to be weapon traffickers, that's how it is."
"Fine. You don't care. I do. I'll make it back to the castle with or without you. And I'll take care of Ismael myself."
On the other side of the castle.
"Ismael, what about your friends?*
"Theigon. You've read it too, haven't you."
"We all did."
"Then you know. You know about the truth of existence, that I was meant for this."
"No such thing as fate, a certain position needed a certain person to fill in."
"Like when the casting guy finally gets their hands on the perfect actor to play the role. But who could do it better than me?"
"Become an angel of war? Well that's why only the Lord of Sacrifice can do it. It's a specific task, which, as you know, doesn't belong to the original Cardinal Sins."
"Yes. I know. I'm always the exception, the leftover. But I could be more. I could be the main character. After all, I've brought you all here. And it has to be for a reason. It was...waiting for me."