63. A Candle and its Flame

63. A Candle and its Flame

Horror.

The Hungry had devoured everything in Divas Pass. Calfasio was surrounded by weeping Adventurers who could no longer handle the grief of their losses. Their families. Their loved ones. Themselves who were stuck in this predicament.

They were all kept hidden within a room upstairs where the sleeping... Demi-human? Demon? Even now Calfasio didn’t know what to call the pale-haired woman.

He looked around and saw the frightened faces of the slaves, and the cat-eared girl who had only just awakened. The shock in her eyes reminded him of Ignis when she realized that she had entered yet another nightmare.

He remembered this inn fondly. Ignis cherished the food here. The sweets from distant lands, the warm milk she would always ask for.

He lamented that he was weak. Weak that he had to travel away in search for his daughter’s happiness than being able to grasp it with his own two hands. He felt like a candle without a flame as he dearly clutched onto his pendant, heartbroken as he prayed to every deity, every God, and every belief there was in Elysia for her safety.

The sounds of bloodshed; the clambering of blades; and the words that Hellen and the others tried to speak to him fell onto deaf ears. Strength was all what one needed to survive. With strength, perhaps even his wife wouldn’t have died when she gave birth to his dear Ignis.

Ignis was everything he had.

I wish I didn’t leave you. If only I had strength. Ignis... Ignis please be alright.

Snap.

The sound of a strange, mechanical sound caught his attention immediately. A highly reflective paper fell into his lap and when he looked up, he saw the one-eyed spider again.

Did you come here to make me feel better? These are supposed photos of my Ignis...?

Snap.

Snap.

Snap.

The spider instantly appeared in front of him now, hidden underneath a small pile of cloth. It moved towards the entrance of the room and left another photo there, right before leaving yet another by the staircase leading to the ground floor where the others fought.

Follow...? Are you telling me to follow you?

Calfasio stood up. All attempts to call him to sit down could only faintly be heard.

“Where are you going? Calfasio? Hello!?” Hellen exclaimed.

“Mister?” Alice whispered.

“Hey! You can’t fight right!? Get the hell back in here! It’s dangerous out there! You saw what happened to a bunch of us earlier... agh. CALFASIO!” The cat-eared woman shouted and was about to chase him down herself until Via intervened.

“Please, leave him be. He just wants to be alone. I know what he’s going through. Believe me. We all have different ways of grieving.” She assured the others.

And though her voice sounded sincere and truthful, he could not help but to feel as if she was following an order. It was unnatural to him, and he believed that Via was trying to encourage him to follow the spider.

The warmth of these pictures grew stronger as he followed them downstairs. He was almost invisible to the others as he slumped his way towards one of the back rooms, finding a window that he could just barely squeeze through. He knew how dangerous it was to leave, but he wanted to see Ignis no matter what.

There was hope in his heart that this spider had found her. That it was leading it straight to her. He toppled and fell over rocks and debris, cutting himself thoroughly on this arduous trip as he watched Furio’s flame lay waste to the Meatballs and Noodles.

Fire magic. How lucky for you to be so strong. With that kind of power, we wouldn’t have had to live in this place. I was always afraid someone would do something horrible to you Ignis. While I was gone... why did I leave again?

Snap.

Snap.

Snap.

That’s right... for your happiness. I wanted you to be the flame to my unlit candle. That’s what you are to me, my dearest Ignis. Ever since we lost her.

“Daddy is coming home... I promise... I’ll be home this time.” Just navigating through the urban ruins exhausted him.

His stamina was laughable. His strength just as pitiful. And his back was hardly reliable for anyone save for his own flesh and blood.

It pained him.

The spider guided him past the dangerous creatures, scouting ahead first then dropping its trail of blank photographs for him to follow. It was a light in his dark world. What a strange creature. Offering a hand to someone like him.

He understood how the healers must have felt when a spider of all things extended their kindness to them. How people as weak as them were offered a place. But there was no place in this world for the weak; for an unlit candle like himself. At least the healers had some use.

His lament steadily became his wrath as he cursed the world for being the way it was. The history of the first advent which laid waste to Atlas, and the events that transpired in Paradise which saw the damnation of Grandis as a whole. And then the persecutions his people conducted which caused innocent people like himself to harbor their sins; punished for things they never did.

He recalled the tale of the Punishing Bird. The one that went around punishing those who committed sins knowing they were wrong. It was a twisted Corrupted because ignorance became one’s greatest ally. How could one be wrong if they didn’t know it was wrong?

Calfasio despised Grandis from the bottom of his heart.

He wished it could all just burn.

Snap.

Snap.

The ground shook as he carefully passed through the fleshy ruins. His wet footsteps only instilled fear in his heart that Ignis had become one of these affronts to everything he knew and loved. He struggled to maintain his pace, panting, and heaving again the world shook once more.

< “Hey, why did you leave? Why did you leave?” >

Frost heard two distinct voices. One belonging to Calfasio, and the other to his daughter Ignis. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong. She instinctively retreated as the room steadily grew warmer and warmer.

< “You showed me I was still full of love despite the flame I lacked.” >

< “Without you I could never be.” >

The bloodied curtains suddenly caught alight as she felt her blood begin to boil.

Nav... what’s going on? What’s happening to them!?

“Unknown. Unknown. Unknown. Unknown. Could I be malfunctioning? Frost, I do not understand this.”

< In this unfair world that damned us. In this unfair world that demands flames from the flameless.” >

< “What is my name? Papa! Papa! My name!” >

Frost’s instincts fired on all cylinders now as she exited the house entirely, watching everything around them catch alight. The Ignis in his hands turned a bright red before flames suddenly ignited from her slime-like being. A wing then suddenly grew from Calfasio’s right shoulder as his body seemingly cracked.

A red, superheated flow of liquid flames course through him like blood.

“NAV! People cannot be Corrupted, right!? That’s not possible, right!?”

“It is impossible! People cannot be Corrupted themselves! If it was so simple, then we’d see countless people become Corrupted themselves! This – this is entirely unheard of! Frost... The Archivist mentions of a novella being written as we speak.

This is their story!”

< “If it is flames they demand from us – then the world is better off being burnt. Our name.... we are fire.” >

< “I’m following in your footsteps! I want to be like you!” >

//////// < WARNING > ////////

CALFASIO’S AND IGNIS’ CORRUPTION EVENT HAS BEGUN

< ETERNAL NIGHT >

< THE ARBITER’S TRUMPET RESONATES >

< Frost... I beg of you, do not die! They’re two separate Corrupted, but they’re working together! >

Iron Candle

Calfasio

< Set my wick alight, and I shall burn till the bitter end >

AFFINITY : Wrath

LEVEL : 140 ORIGIN : Trauma

HP : 500,000

ATT : 2,000MAG ATT : 1,200ATT DEF : 1,200MAG DEF : 1,200MP : 60,000RESIST : 500AGI : 50

Scorched Girl

Ignis

< Burn those who dare to care for me >

AFFINITY : Lament

LEVEL : 140ORIGIN : Trauma

HP : 200,000

ATT : 1,000MAG ATT : 1,000ATT DEF : 5,000MAG DEF : 5,000MP : 20,000RESIST : 500AGI : 50

Frost lamented that these two had become Corrupted. Even Our Happiest Moments made a strangely saddened snap when it realized that these two had lost all hope. And as if to spite the efforts of Our Happiest Moments –

The Corrupted Calfasio used a skill that went against everything the polaroid’s flavor text begged them not to do.

< [Fuel are Memories] >

The polaroid clutched in Frost’s fingers fizzled into ashes.