Chapter 6

Act II

Welcome to Purgatorium

Drip. Drip. Drip.

“Mmgh…”

Jude blinked, feeling something wet behind his ears.

“Ooh, my head...”

He crawled up with difficulty, folding upwards slowly. A drop of blood dripped onto the floor from his forehead. He coughed a few times while trying to steady himself.

“God…what the hell happened?”

Jude opened and closed his eyes a few times, trying to shake the nausea off. When he almost managed to regain his focus, his legs nearly slipped on the bathroom floor. Fortunately he was quick enough to grab the stall handle to prevent himself from falling.

When he got out of the toilet, everything was foreign to him. The once stout window of a large boutique was shattered. Twenty hundred dollars worth of clothes were strewn around like scraps. The granite floors were dusty and cracked. Darkness ruled the once bright mall, resisted only by the few emergency lights that flickered on and off.

Silence.

The Mall that was filled with people going in and out of the stores was now completely silent. Where did everyone go? Did they evacuate the place while I was out because of the earthquake?

“Makoto! Sam! Aleksandra! Anyone?”

His body shivered. The air tasted moldy and stale, and a strange chill made his hair stood on end. He took out his cell and quickly dialed Makoto’s number, without wasting a moment putting the receiver against his ear. “Come on, pick up!”

After a few seconds without answer, he punched in Sam’s.

“Sam, come on. Answer, answer!” And yet here was no answer. “Shit. Shit!”

Almost instantly he heard an electronic message. “The number you have dialed –“ his finger cut the connection before it finished speaking. He looked at the signal icon on the top right and saw that it was empty.

Jude pressed the phone onto his forehead, trying to make sense of what was happening. At the same time, he felt an itch on his right hand that he scratched gingerly.

“That’s right, the Convention Hall. They might be there.”

He turned on the flashlight function on his phone and walked forward until he saw a figure in grey clothes with Cleaning Service written on the back. The person was hunched over something.

“Excuse me, I –“

Splotch.

Jude’s feet stopped moving. Something wet and sticky was stuck onto the soles of his shoes. A strange and disgusting smell hit the back of his nose, causing him to cough. Jude pointed the flashlight on his phone to the floor and found that he was standing in a pool of dark, red liquid. Slowly, he moved the light towards the person.

Suddenly the man’s head turned a hundred and eighty degrees. Dark red blood dripped from its stiff mouth. It was chewing something. When Jude recognized what it was, he let out a muffled scream. His legs were trying to run, but the creature had already pinned him to the ground with an astounding speed.

“Hrrawarrrr!!! Harrarar!!!”

Thankfully Jude’s reflex allowed him to protect his vitals, the back of his arm pushing against the creature’s neck. His phone clattered aside and the light revealed the attacker for what it was.

“W-what the hell are you?!”

It looked human, but its skin was shriveled up as if all the blood had been drained out. The jaw filled with yellowing teeth was opening and closing repeatedly like a broken toy. And above all, it was also incredibly strong, it took Jude all of his strength to keep the monster’s teeth from sinking into his neck.

The sound of clattering teeth became louder as it was winning. Jude’s eyes darted around for a weapon when he spied a piece of bent steel rebar protruding from a broken pillar to his left.

“Gh...!” Jude gritted his teeth and used his lower body to bump and slipped his knees tight between the creature’s leg. To his surprise, despite its strength, the monster weighed like a child. With this new knowledge, Jude pushed against the creature with both his legs, dislodging him from its former position.

“RRAAARGH!!”

Taking advantage of the creature’s surprise, Jude sprinted forward and kicked the creature towards the rebar he saw beforehand. It pierced through its chest with a nasty crunch. The creature writhed and jerked for a few seconds before it finally stopped moving.

Blood dribbled from the cavity on its chest; little trickles of it. Old blood. Black and droopy and rank.

“Haah…hah…dammit. What the hell are you?” Jude groaned as he fell to his butt from the sudden fatigue that followed. I’m so rusty. Thank God I still remember what dad taught me.

Jude grimaced as he slowly got up, wobbling. The stench of stomach acid filled his nose as he threw up. He watched the horrible creature crumbling into black ash with horrified fascination.

“Aah...haah...”

The black-haired boy took his phone and began walking away. As he did, he felt the back of his neck shivering. Something…a few somethings were watching him.

His steps became more urgent. Then he broke to a run. He ran as far as his legs could take him, the only thing guiding him the emergency light at the edge of the buildings. He ran until he could no longer feel the gaze on him.

The black-haired boy entered a small bar and hid behind the counter. His mind raced as he fought to rationalize what he just saw.

Guts. That thing was eating a human! And that face. There is no way that’s normal!

He clasped his mouth with his hand and took a deep breath. No, no time for confusion. He remembered his father yelling at him. It’s okay to fear, that is human. What’s important is to take control of that fear.

“...I’ve got to find everyone so we can get out of this place,” Jude thought while scratching his increasingly itchy left arm. “Must be something I can use here.”

After a while he walked out with an ice pick he found inside an ice bucket filled with the long-melted ice cubes. Now that his beating heart had calmed, he could feel his senses sharpening. The crunch of small pieces of broken concrete trampled underfoot, the feel of cold wall against his palm.

“I’m so out of practice. I should’ve gone on that ‘camping trip’ Uncle Clive signed me up for.”

As he walked through the gloom, he noticed that there were patches of darkness around him that seemed to be darker than others.

He knew that darkness. He felt it before when his father took him hunting in a forest one time and he was lost. A darkness so potent and thick that you could chew it as if it was taffy; like a murky bog about to swallow you up. So cloying that you could feel it sticking onto your skin. Jude shivered.

“Aa...aa...”

Jude swiveled. His heart jumped. At the corner of a baby shop, he saw a torso moving slowly, dragging its body using its arms. Its face was damaged badly. What it did look like, however, was a mannequin. A badly made mannequin. Like a poor joke gone bad. Before the creature had seen him, he had taken his improvised weapon and bashed its head in. It took him three strikes before the monster went down.

“Oh, God,” He muttered when he realized that he heard noises coming from inside the shop. He then dashed towards the Convention Hall.

When he arrived in front of the door, he sensed something was wrong. The atmosphere was thick with danger. Every part of him wanted to run, his legs were all to happy to comply.

“Aaah!”

That voice!

“Aleksandra!”

Jude burst in. What he saw then made him question his sanity.

Beheaded bodies lay lifeless on the floor, painted deep red by the blood from their separation. The stomach-churning smell came from the half-digested contents of the guts that had spilled from the corpses whose bodies were split into two. It smelled worse than rotting garbage.

But something else was there. A large shadow that eclipsed the weak light of the emergency lighting. It stood mightily like a conqueror. On its head - instead of a head - was blue otherworldly flame, coloring the surrounding walls in violet.

“J-jude...? R-run...”

Aleksandra was flailing and kicking as she was being held aloft by the neck. The headless armor turned its attention to Jude.

“Ah, yes. Another sacrifice for our cause.”

The voice was like grating iron. Clashing swords and shield on the battlefield. “ I am Hollow the Headhunter. Knight of Nightmares. The black sun had called forth the End, and with it, our Messiah.”

Jude’s heart thumped so hard he could hear it in his ears.

No. No. What the hell is this? Is this some kind of a sick joke? This can’t be real! No. The smell is real. The dull itch in my arm is real. Shit. Shit!

Fear, confusion, anger. A myriad of emotions whirled inside Jude’s head. His head was filled with questions with no answers. He bit his lips and decided something. It was not heroism. It was stupidity. His body just followed an instinct instead of the order of his brain. Kill. Kill before you are killed.

Jude ran with the ice pick held between two hands. The black blade of the Headhunter swung sideways and he dodged underneath, sliding on the pool of blood. He jumped and used the momentum to stab the hand holding Aleksandra. At the moment of impact, he felt his hands going numb. The ice pick had managed to pierce through the back of its hand, but it did not elicit any reaction from the headless monster.

Hollow’s free hand grabbed Jude by the wrist and threw him onto a wall.

“Gagh!!” Jude coughed as the wind was knocked out of him.

The headless warrior pulled out the ice pick nonchalantly and burned it with a violet flame it conjured from its hand.

He then…sniggered. No, it must be a trick of the light. There is no way something without a head could snigger, could it?

“Commendable effort. Better than the feeble attempts of the ones under your feet. But not enough!” He threw Aleksandra away and plunged his hand into the fire burning on his supposed neck and pulled up a magnificent sword that burned with violet flame.

“These sacrifices were not worth my sword. A swing of my flame was enough to sever their heads. But you seemed a tougher prey. Show me how you struggle!”

The tip of the sword caught the light coming from its owner. Jude managed to crane his neck sideways as it dug into the concrete. He rolled away as the sword chased him, making holes on the floor like it was biscuit. As the knight drew back the sword, Jude grabbed a lampstand from the stage and attacked. The impact bent the stand forty five degrees but the knight didn’t even flich.

Though Jude understood how futile his resistance, he also understood that stopping means death. While he struggled to stand his ground, he noticed a wisp of white fog came out everytime he breathe. He shivered as a chilly wind crept from below, turning the red pool glassy.

“What is this?”

Noticing the abnormality of his prey, the knight turned. The flame on his head became a mere kindle and his back was frozen. The temperature dropped several degrees in one go. The half dead girl emitted cold wind like Cocytus, turning everything into ice.

“Amusing,” he said, as the flame on it neck burned brighter and melted the ice forming on his body like the sun melting an ice cube. “I did not expect this.”

He turned again, now entirely uninterested with Jude. The tip of the sword was trained at the girl wreathed in cold vapour. As he swiveled, Jude could see a rugged coat bearing a crude red cross similar to the one he saw in the history books once. A templar’s standard.

Ignoring the pain on his chest, Jude crawled to her side and brandished the broken stand.

“I won’t let you kill her!”

“A final desperate struggle. Very well, make peace with your death!”

The black blade’s ominous shine glinted like a guillotine. If he swung the sword down, there would be no doubt that it would cut him in two, bones and all. Fear. He felt a cold, deathly fear that made his breathing stop.

Then he heard voices. Again. This time louder and angrier than ever.

Kill

Kill

KILL

Devour! Crush! Hate! Destroy! Purge!

Take out your fang. That blade! The blade that devours and slays!

Jude raised his left arm.

The blade swung down.

“GAH!”

The shock of the impact shook every part of Jude’s body. His bones screamed in pain and he coughed up blood from the pressure. But what surprised him wasn’t the pain. It was the fact that he was still in one piece. And alive. “I’m...not dead?”

But that happiness was short lived. A jolt of pain sent Jude sprawling onto the ground.

“AAAGH!!” Jude screamed. Cracks appeared on his left arm. They extended all over his forearm with incredible speed. The skin then broke apart and a new skin appeared from underneath.

No, it was not right to call it skin, it was something like an insect’s carapace. It was as if Jude’s arm was molting. His skin and flesh replaced with with something cold and inhuman.

The knight drew back. Its flame dimmed slightly. Its expression, if fire could show emotion, was one of bewilderment. “That thing…that weapon...”

When the pain finally subsided, Jude looked at his left arm. His arm was replaced with a bronze gauntlet decorated with intricate and otherworldly reliefs. A sinister blade, sharp with jagged teeth on the back, slid out from between his middle and fore fingers.

“The Gauntlet of Impure King. Impossible! That weapon should have been swallowed by the abyss when ‘he’ met ‘his’ end! But here it is, wielded by a mere child of man! Unless…you are a Demonspawn…” The knight ranted. His composure waned momentarily. But it did not last long.

Jude grimaced, trying to think for a way out.

“...I shall waste no more time with you. Now off with your heads.”

The grating voice lost its gaiety and now sounded grim.

His stance changed. The Headhunter put both hands on the sword’s hilt. With just one hand, the knight’s sword could go through concrete wall. But with two, Jude realized, he could easily crush anything. If he was alone, at least he could have escaped. However, behind him was Aleksandra, passed out and defenseless.

Shit. His eyes glanced around, looking for a way out. Though he was in incredible pain, the adrenaline pumping in his body had dulled it somewhat.

All of a sudden, the whole building shook. The ceiling fell, bringing other monsters with it. Six of the creatures resembling the one Jude saw before bared their yellowing teeth at them. Hollow the Headhunter did not flinch. With a swipe of his sword, all of them crumbled into ashes.

“Pitiful ghouls. Empty things. Cursed things. Thinking nothing but satisfying their hunger...how trite,” Hollow the Headhunter muttered. Suddenly, his flame flickered and he stopped moving. “Lord? What are you saying?” The headless armor turned around. “But why?...I see, your wish is my command. I will return promptly.”

He sheathed his massive sword and raised his arm. A circle of flame appeared in front of Jude and a black horse stepped out of it. The mane was the same color of the burning fire and its eyes like ember. Its hooves melted the concrete floor underneath.

The knight mounted the mighty steed and said to Jude. “It seems that luck favors you, Demonspawn. But soon you will know that death is salvation. For here is Purgatorium, where the strong thrives and the weak perishes. If you survive, we shall meet again.”

With a kick of his heels, the horse neighed and vanished into a portal of fire.

Left alone in the middle of a killing field, Jude was speechless. He groaned, stifling an urge to drop to his knees. When he moved to stand, the blade slid into his arm, causing a sensation like cold steel slipping between his bones. Though the pain was momentary, it was sharp enough to make him wince.

"A...aagh...!"

Grimacing, he limped towards the girl. Cold vapour drifted off her body like snakes, coiling and wrapping Jude’s body that even his breath turned white. Even though she was cold, the girl was running a terrible fever.

He knew then that he had to move. Staying here would only endanger him and the girl.

“Aleksandra?”

There was no respond. He tried shaking her awake but it did no good. Finding no other solutions, he made up his mind and slipped his hands under her head and knees. When he lifted her, he was surprised at how light she was.

He then carried her out of the awful place, limping slightly.