It's Something Called Obedience! ||

Chapter No.11: The Dance of Bleeding Ink

Kelx Azen was truly the stature of a god, with his height of 6 feet and an inch tall, and his hybrid forms between cross-road daemon and a siren, his hair is the hottest pink and pitchest black, and his eyes are the most beautiful lavender I ever have traced. Peach fuzz chases his cheeks and he wears a golden robe with red accents, and leather skirt, he's not really wearing a shirt but from studying mythology, there were plenty of deities who didn't. His head was crowned with a forehead tiara that was bejeweled with green jade.
"Ink Bringe, I have been awaiting your arrival, I do enjoy what I have read about you." He expresses with great pride, it makes me feel extremely validated if I'm being honest. "Thank you." Kelx stands up from his throne and walks over to me, which makes me nervous because he's nearly a foot taller than me. Yeah, I don't know why the deity is so tall but he is. The Grimoire of Purity and Intoxication told me nothing about this man.
"Now now Ink! Let us commence The Ceremony of Purity!" He lets out a howl of pure laughter, charismatic and all. "Mania, settle Ink into the proper position after you dress them in the ceremonial robe." He gestures gradually toward the galaxy goddess. A light nod rests upon her and she walks over to take my hand in her own. "You'll just need to dress down to your garments, your other clothes are too much to cover, not to be weird." She awkwardly asks while handing me the cloak. I find a comfortable room and change my clothes.
Mania takes me back to Kelx, pride glitters across his face, marking his favor of this ceremony. According to Mania though, that is rather a good sign. The cloud colored silk curves around my skin, embracing it and whispering mysteries. Mania looks rather dazzled by my appearance, and Kelx looks delighted. I can tell it has been awhile since they had an opportunity to brand another demonic as one of their own as they're getting rather antsy for the ceremony to begin. Kelx makes triple checks around the room, citing if this layout is good enough, alongside everything is lined up correctly. He takes an approving nod.
With a clasp of his hands, the lights turn off and the flames from red & black candles roar to life. The wax melts like a murky, tainted blood and the smell of smoke fills the atmosphere. He grin widens sinisterly and his purple iris' engulf the rest of his eyes. "Inklyn Bringe, it is time that we bid you a creature of mortal myth!" He laughs and magic oozes around the deity, a bunny beside him transforms into a small wererabbit that holds long purple hair, and yellow + pink eyes. They offer some magical control to Kelx and he swirls it around into ribbons.
The ribbons that could only be seen as the color of cotton, turn a vibrant gold as they match my skin, wrapping around like a second layer of skin. Yet, before I can react, thorns explode from the magical fabric, tearing deeply into my skin. Laughter of Kelx echoes through the hall, and I, instead of rejecting the magic on impulse, I fuse it with my own, causing it to mix my blood from a ruby colored liquid to the colors of the fires around us. The thorns shorten up as my body loses its energy, and I am left paralyzed with wounds where the thorns used to be.
The watery flames rest upon my cheeks as Kelx walks down to me from his throne. He leans down with a grin, "Now aren't you the special one? You're the first creature I saw fuse their blood in a millenia. Not to mention the first investigated creature sent here in 5 years, they usually just do the ceremony by shot these days, how boring is that now?" He rants, cupping my chin and making sure I'm facing him. "Oh yes, my mistake. The paralyze forbids you from speaking to me, that's no fun. I'll see you next morning for your title. Now that I think about it, Crypt was the last one, what a fun young man, I wonder how he's doing these days."
Kelx Azen left me with a laugh before taking his leave, where Mania held me up and brought me back to Stanza. "I still can't believe you did that!" She sighs, honesty lurks in her voice. My paralyzed body lays limp in her arms, her admiration is the only life source that connects me to energy. She kicks up her leg on the door as if to mirror a knock. I'd say a word, say anything, but my jaw feels as if it were clamped shut. Stanza opens the door, and her eyes widen in shock as the sight beholds her.
"Ink! Mania can you leave us for the night? They need peace now, thank you." Stanza explains on impulse. "Yes, but I'll be back in the morning just so you know." Mania replies, relaxing her arms as soon as Stanza picks me up. "Why? You didn't with me?" She asks in a defensive tone. "Ink's reaction was different from the others, different than everyone's before Melchior Banaii." Mania averts her gaze, trying not to get latched into the conflict and from revealing too much information.
"Melchior.. Okay, well please just leave us for now." Stanza sets me gently atop of my bed, making sure I am rested comfortably. Mania leaves us with a quick nod and our viewpoint settles away from her in minimal seconds. "Don't worry Ink, I made sure the elixir is prepared for your arrival." Stanza exclaims, picking up the glass bottle and resting herself in front of me. She attempts to open my mouth before realizing just how stuck it is. She analyzes the room before taking a worried sigh. "Ink, I'll have to break your jaw in order to get this down your throat, looks like Kelx has increased the effects of his paralyze."
Fear trickles through my body, leaving me covered in goosebumps. Cold air blows against me as Stanza takes her arms, builds up potential energy, and snaps my jaw off. I wanted to scream, I needed to scream, but instead, black spots highlighted my viewpoint, and the only thing I could feel was my bloody body and the exhaustion taking it all over. Sharp liquid drips down my jawless mouth, purple trickles in and out of my body, but I can't keep conscious for long after so much blood loss, so I black out.
The next thing I know, I am awakened in the morning, luckily with an unbroken jaw. I assume since only the breakage of a profile can kill an afterlife creature, other injuries are completely healed. Stanza gleams over me, her cotton candy hair falling lay on top of my face in concern. "I'm glad you healed well, Kelx heard about the incident and postponed the meeting till noon, you'll meet for a brunch then perform an 'initiation' process. Whatever that insinuates." Stanza scoffs, clearly unamused with Kelx.
"Thank you Stanza, you're a lifesaver, well death-saver?" I let out a sarcastic laugh and smiled gently at the girl in front of me. "No problem, we should start devising an escape plan after your meeting with the deity." She crosses her arms, escape is the only thing I've really seen on Stanza's mind since I got here. "Sure but I mainly just want to clean myself up right now, anywhere I can do so?" I ask, Stanza nods and points to the room on my right.
It's a normal set up for a modern bathroom, not bad, actually it's kind of nice. It is cleaned fairly well, and doesn't stink so I'd call that a win. I roll my eyes and turn on the bath water, it starts to fizzle up the tub and I add some bubbler. That is when I notice the robe from last night is still dressed on me, the ghostly silk. The silk is drenched when coming off, both in my blood, and the elixir. I drip down to the warm tub and soak myself, last time I took a bath I was with Tion a couple weeks ago. Everything that happens here moves so swiftly, it's hard to know how to feel, maybe the longest time I spent was with my captor.
I sigh, letting myself drain the water and putting on the new selection of clothes Kelx so lovingly brought me. It's not that I don't appreciate the gesture, it's more so that his taste is in colorful dresses and pastel robes, both of which aren't really my thing. This dress had vibrant hues of yellow, violet, gold, and purple. Complementary colors are indeed a good choice, and the mix is inviting to both the lightness and the darkness.
I dress myself and lace up my silver choker + gloves. My jaw still feels rather sore from being torn off of my face. I sigh and exit the bathroom, Mania and Stanza await my arrival, they appear anyway. "I'm glad to find you dressed accordingly, would you like to leave for our brunch with Kelx Azen now?" She asks in a delicate tone, as if she's a flower. I nod softly in response, as if I'm scared of breaking her. "Great, let us depart then. Have a nice evening Stanza." Mania waves off, taking my hand as we exit the door.
Her outfit is a laced silver dress with a ruby over skirt, her blue and purple hair tied neatly in a braid. My hair itself is a half bun, half down with the new golden locks accenting my already ocean blue hair. "You look nice this evening." I compliment Mania but it's more so just honesty than anything else. "Why thank you Ink, I do admit you've made yourself beautiful." I can tell she was trained to speak this way but it still makes my heart flutter nonetheless.
We continued our small talk all the way towards Kelx Azen's chambers. It's almost like a date, when was I alive and had something even close to this? I've checked my files over and over, yet the closest thing I had to this was Gabe and she was the one I murdered, how could the closest thing to this be so different? My cheeks tint rose for a few moments but stopped as we basked before the chambers from last night.
Mania motions me to step back a couple paces as she takes a bowing knock in front of the gates. I bow too, unsure of the best gesture to offer the deity that invited me to this meal. Kelx opens up the gates with a strong blow. "Ah what a pleasure to see you this fine evening Ink!" He heaves a low laugh. "Nice to see you too, Kelx." I grant him a sarcastic smile while I cross my arms. Kelx motions me indoors to a table with a fully built out meal fit for a king.
"I had the space guardians brought down to cook this meal themselves for this momentous occasion." He gleams, clearly blood-fusing is a big deal over here in Voided-Oblivion. I wonder how often this happens? It's a strange thought that chases me down this rabbit hole. "It's not that I disapprove of your excitement, I just am confused on what this occasion is?" I ask, gently scratching my arms in a mix of stress and confusion.
"Oh you're rather silly aren't you? Did you not read about what happens when a Demonic and Deity of another species mix their blood? They combine! And we'll be awakening your new powers." Kelx explains in excitement, cold sweat jitters down my spine. Not that shocking though, this hasn't happened in a millennia as Kelx said. "Fine then, let's do your ceremony, got any pain medication though? I have a migraine."
"Sure, I got some strong ones, but I'll have to enchant them to only work for a migraine, pain is in the ceremony after all." Kelx sighed, summoning the pills and using his powers to swiftly enchant them before handing them to me. "Lovely, thanks for the migraine relief, it's been a long week." I sarcastically remarked, walking aside Mania and sitting down at the table that laid out such a feast.
"So, I have never been great with conversation. How long have you been a deity for?" I continued, trying not to be bad at this. "Ah, just around a few billion years, not long." Not long? Excuse me? "Do you enjoy it at least.?" I asked, trying not to be absolutely awful at this kind of small talk. "Sometimes I do, other times I don't."
"I'm sure, do you know what the colors of these highlights mean? My gold, your pink, Mania's purple?" I ask, sitting across from him shyly. He nods, sitting up and gesturing for me to dig into our meal. "I do actually, but that discussion is for after the ceremony though, speaking of which, it starts soon so I'd recommend you to eat" He suggested.
Well I shouldn't deny the request of a deity. I make sure to cleanly dig into the meal, I don't want to be messy in front of him. "How did you become a deity?" I asked, trying to lift the atmosphere. "Well I guess since you will be one of my subjects, it wouldn't hurt. This place didn't always exist. In fact it was created by a fallen angel by the name of Syte Eteric, and Esther Angelline took the credit. A long time ago there was another land in the sky, one much larger than this, it was called Dread-Topix, and it was ruled by a young demon by the name of Melchior Banai. He was a smart man, a naive one too.
Esther started ruling long before him, back when she split Hue-Lake into two segments and ruled both lands. There was Hue-Lake and Saturation-River, it was a simple time, but Esther got bored and enslaved the 'sinners' to do her bidding, using all of their power to create the land of Dread-Topix. She saw Melchior in her highest ranking of knights and saw fit to use the ashes of her old sins to make him a demon, the first one to exist. Melchior was given more and more responsibilities by the day. Esther also grew picky of who went to Hue-Lake as well.
This put unhealthy weight on Dread-Topix, frequent cases of earthquakes would occur, no one thought much of it as it was no heaven after all. But Melchior knew what was happening, and he was learning more and more about the true colors of Esther Angelline. He was furious, and he stormed over to her borders. But Esther labeled it treason, and as she executed him, Dread-Topix fell to the ground, making it so that angels couldn't observe the Demonic realm.
So after ruining an angel's wings in an attempt to spy on them, she created a world with what she found to be the remnants of Melchior to have a creator of Investigators, to watch over the new version of Dread. But managing the species was annoying to her, so she chose me to become a god, several species giving me their powers.
Esther Angelline didn't want to even bother with any work, I actually manage both Voided-Oblivion and Hue-Lake. Thus I am now a deity, I apologize for all the information." Kelx Azen apologized, and we were both done with our meals.