There's one thing I never told Kishibe. The female cultists had fetuses hanging from their bodies, still attached by umbilical cords. Whether they'd brainwashed pregnant women or bred them for this, I didn't know. All I knew was they tore the infants out and sent the women after me with their red shit hanging between their legs
Based on the older records no one in that cult pulled something like that before
Do they know what I've been doing? But how ? How could a mere cultists know about it?
Is this a message? A warning ? Or a way to call me ?
I don't know. And I don't want to know
But if Kishibe ever found out, he'd piece together exactly what I've been up to these past five years.
And I cannot let that happen'
The man bit into his left index finger nail , sweat sliding down his face as his eyes scanned the road above then He glanced down. His finger was bleeding. He hadn't even noticed until he started tasting the blood " tsk ! " he grimaced as he then started sucking on it
"Rem" Kishibe muttered from the passenger seat, eyes half-lidded. "keep your eyes on the road"
Then, without waiting for a response, he leaned back and dozed off again.
"Huff… you could've slept in the back, it would've been more comfortable—" he glanced at the backseat, expecting it to be empty. But instead, a red figure stared back at him "...."
" ... "
Rem turned his gaze back to the road slowly his pulse spiking. ' no eyes , mouth and nose coverd with stretched flesh , entire body flayed… that's definitely a cultist but how did he suddenly appear here...No that's a devil 'He stole a glance at Kishibe, who had his eyes open glancing back at him ' he noticed too '
Half a minute passed with both of them locked in a silent stare. The devil sat still, arms crossed, the stench of blood and gore thick in the car, hanging like a suffocating fog.
Then — in an instant — both Kishibe and rems bodies snapped into motion.
Kishibe lunged, driving a knife at the devil's face. Rem mirrored the attack from the other side.
But before the blades could even touch him, chains burst from every inch of the his flesh.
Kishibe dove clean through the car window, shards of glass trailing in his wake but Rem wasn't as lucky.
The car slammed into a tree with a violent crunch.
Kishibe hit the road, rolling once before coming to a stop. Without wasting a second, he sprinted back toward the wreck. But when he reached the car, all he found was a twisted web of chains tangled inside the wreckage and rem's severed arm, still clutching a knife, hung limp in the middle of the web with several chains piercing clean through its flesh.
Kishibe let out a weary sigh, pulling a silver flask from his coat and taking a long drink. His eyes drifted to Rem's left index finger which had a small chunk of flesh missing and the nail torn out.
His hand trembled slightly as he raised the flask again.
'Pain… what's that thing doing here? And why did it go after Rem?'
____________
Rem woke to the sound of rattling chains and a searing pain in his back. The world around him had changed — this wasn't Earth anymore. Beneath him stretched a vast, endless sea of blood. His nose dripped steadily, drops falling into the crimson water below which signaled that he'd been here for a long, long time.
He glanced around. The red world was empty, silent, save for the soft sound of his own blood hitting the sea surface.
When he looked down at his body, he sighed. His arms, legs — even his private — were gone, severed clean and Hooks dug deep into the flesh of his back, suspending him from the dark, endless sky. He squinted his eye at the chains and recognized them instantly.
They were the same hooks that devil had used on him before ,the blood rusted melting chains
"Ah… at last, the mortal stirs."
The voice rolled through the dark like a cold tide—ancient, unhurried, carrying the weight of things long dead. "I've watched the flicker of your life dim and flare fifty-one times these past two days. Couldn't resist leaving a few relics upon your flesh."
He raised his head and saw the same red devil that attacked him in the car sitting on top of a pile of skulls
"Strange," the devil mused, fingers resting lightly on its chin, a faint amusement in its voice. "No screams. No pleas. Even devils wail when I grace them with my works."
It tilted its head slowly. "Are you stronger than them… or do you simply crave the torment?"