Awakening of the Weakest Slayer

Sezel stayed locked in the cage, a chicken in a coop, waiting to be slaughtered. He was all alone, his gaze fixed on the humming, steaming machines in front of him.

It was already night time, and everyone had gone to their usual shift of harvesting Spirit Essence. There was no one inside the underground Sanctuary at this time except Sezel and whatever it was that lurked on the other side of the curtained stage.

Sezel was worried about Mari. Up until yesterday, she had the puppet to protect her. But now, she was alone, with the puppet destroyed, and Vesta's promise to take care of her was not something he could rely on.

He knew, with a certainty, that she would soon get busy harvesting the Spirit Essence, forgetting about everything else in the world.

He sighed, a long, weary exhalation of helplessness. "What else can I do?" he murmured to himself, his voice low. "Let's have a little faith in her."

He slumped down, his back resting against the cold metal bars as he looked up at the ceiling. His hair had grown a little too much; they were long enough to cover both his eyes.

"How long since I jumped through the gate?" he murmured, his thoughts, now free from the hypnotic fog, wandering back to the fleeting, unanswered questions that had been gnawing at the back of his mind.

He calculated in his head. Apparently, it had been a whole month since the day he had first gotten here, since he had met all of his companions. "A month gone by, and nothing has yet happened," he said, not surprised at all.

It was, after all, an A-Rank gate. No wonder the heart hadn't yet been found. But even if the heart were found, even if this whole expedition were to end right now, Sezel's mission was still incomplete. He hadn't found answers to any of his questions, just more questions to be answered.

He looked straight ahead, his gaze piercing through the thin line between the humming machines and the jagged rock formations, to the curtained stage that held some of the secrets, some of the answers, he so desperately sought.

But the first part was to reach behind that curtain without becoming a damn slave. And that wouldn't be easy. He had mangled his own finger, and the voice was still in his head, a faint, persistent whisper that was consuming him slowly. He barely clung to his fragile sanity.

Through the corner of his eye, Sezel saw the lift moving, its graceful descent a jarring intrusion into the otherwise monotonous hum of the Sanctuary.

It descended with two figures in it. Sezel's eyes squinted as he saw Vesta walking towards him, and behind her, Mari followed, her small figure hiding behind Vesta's legs.

They both approached the cell, their footsteps a soft sound on the hard floor. Sezel's eyes locked into Vesta's rubies, a silent, tense exchange that stretched for a long moment. Then, Vesta broke the long-laden silence. "As I promised, Mari is safe. And I think she should stay here."

Sezel nodded, his gaze dropping to the little girl, who looked at him with an expression of sorrow.

"Don't look at me like that," Sezel quoted, a forced, tired smile on his lips. "I am not dead."

Mari slowly walked over to his cell and sat down beside it, her small body curled into a tight, protective ball, as if she was showing her anger towards him.

Sezel sighed. He had no words to speak for his foolishness.

Sezel sighed. He had no words to speak for his foolishness, for his failure.

Vesta came closer and sat opposite to Mari, her gaze fixed on something far away, her mind lost in some distant, forgotten world. A heavy silence descended upon their small, isolated corner of the Sanctuary. The humming of the machines was a distant, almost comforting drone.

"What are these machines used for?" Vesta questioned, her voice a soft, almost hesitant whisper that shattered the fragile silence.

Sezel looked up at her in shock, his mind reeling. "What did you say?" his voice was laced with disbelief.

"My head hurts when I ask a question," Vesta said, her voice small and on the brink of breaking. "When I question what is going on here. When I ask myself what am I even doing."

Sezel's eyes widened, and it was only then that he noticed the dark, viscous stream of blood that was flowing from her hand. "It can't be. What did you do?" he yelled, his voice a hoarse, desperate plea.

Vesta turned towards him. Her ruby eyes had lost their usual glint; they were hollow. Sezel knew that look. He had seen it on the broken, forgotten people in the slums, those who didn't know what was going on with their lives, those who had lost all hope.

Sezel clenched his jaw and inhaled sharply, his own pain, momentarily forgotten in the face of hers.

Vesta's gaze shifted to Mari, who had fallen asleep, her small body finally succumbing to the overwhelming exhaustion.

Then, she raised her bloodied hand and looked at it, a strange, detached expression on her face. "You are really brave, Gabriel, or whoever you are," she spoke, her voice an admiring murmur as fresh blood flowed from a deep, self-inflicted cut on her palm. "I couldn't do that to my own body. All I could manage was this scar."

"My name is Sezel," he spoke, his heart filled to the brim with guilt. "Everything else I told you before was true."

Vesta looked at him and smiled, a faint, sad smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "Show me your hand," she said, as she slowly approached closer to the cell and caught Sezel's cold, clammy hand, the one with the mangled, broken finger.

She brought out a medical box from the bag and, with a gentle touch, she applied medicine and some bandages. Sezel's eyes never left her face. In the dim, artificial light of the Sanctuary, her face, even though covered with dirt, was so much prettier than he had ever noticed before.

A slow, red blush bloomed on his cheeks, and he tried to divert his attention, to look anywhere but at her. He didn't even feel the pain anymore from his finger.

"It's done," Vesta said, as she retreated back and sat with her back resting against a pillar. "The pain from this scar was barely enough. It's fading already. The voice in my head is slowly echoing louder and louder." She gulped, and then took a deep, shuddering breath. "What do you want? Ask me while I am here."

Sezel pondered for a second, his mind racing, weighing his options, his chances. And then, he shot his gaze up to her, his crimson eyes locking onto hers. "Just give me my katana."