Sinner of the Spades

Lumière commanded the mirage to run to the edge of its range, around one-hundred meters away, drawing all of the remaining demonic clowns to the edge of the carnival hall. At the same time, he tried to ascertain the current situation. He hadn't been able to leave the first Zone for several hours. In comparison to the previous visit, he was starting to get anxious that he would be in here longer than he first anticipated.

After all, he had forgotten that it was possible he would be transported to the Labyrinth so quickly. He had only meant to enter the Private Room in the House of Cards to recuperate his mental state. Appearing in the Labyrinth was a dire situation already, but now he had to focus himself on gaging all possible information, recovering stamina, and clearing up his mind. 

He climbed up the black stone spire with the last inkling of his strength, falling into a limp mess atop its flat crown. He heaved outwards, trying desperately to suck in a breath. For a few minutes, he simply rested, until he was able to calm himself and focus on his mind. His thoughts were in chaos, and only in the moment where he thought he would die did he find clarity. Now that he was out of such a dangerous situation, the onset of madness had returned in full force. 

Lumière closed his eyes, calming his breathing as he focused on the darkness in the recesses of his mind, falling fully into its depths as he appeared in the abyss where his personae and the ancient stone ruin rested. It still had the same strange glimmering runes on its surface.

Lumière looked towards the black-haired and dull-eyed man sitting up against the wall, frowning as he approached. Lain slowly stood up, facing Lumière as he held his hands up.

"Who knew you were so capable?" Lain chided, watching as Lumière grew ever closer.

The latter didn't respond. Instead, he raised his fist, lurching towards Lain before making contact with the side of his face, causing his head to crack against the stone wall. The other personae, Ophelia and Despair, watched this event calmly, the former a bit amused.

Lain let out a loud, pained groan, glancing up towards Lumière with a semblance of violence in his eyes. "What the fuck are you doing?"

"I know it's not your choice to encroach on my consciousness, but I can't afford it right now." Lumière responded casually, grabbing hold of Lain's collar as he punched downwards once more, catching the crazy persona in the jaw. Lain dropped to the pitch-black ground below, his eyes shaking as Lumière knelt down, continuing to lay his fist down on his face, blood and saliva spilling out until the man was conscious no more. 

Lumière stood up, Lain's blood dripping from his hand. He glanced at the unconscious man, and then at Ophelia and Despair, who sat in silence with grins on their faces, before nodding his head and disappearing back through the darkness of the Abyss.

His eyes opened to the cold, shadowy carnival hall, letting out a deep sigh as he placed a hand against his face. This time, it truly felt like his own. While madness still crept towards the center of his mind from its outskirts, he had bought himself a bit of time to try and exit the Sinner's Labyrinth. As his hand fell away from his eyes, silver flames erupting against his skin as his facial features warped, his hair turned a bright cloud-white, and his eyes adopting a stark violet hue.

'If I have to allow another 'judgment' of a persona to take over after I exit the labyrinth, I can't let it be Lain. He gets me into too much trouble. Right now, I'll cultivate the story of 'Ophelia' and turn him into a fully-fledged personality! Then, I'll let 'Ophelia' take over for a few days while I recover from this madness.' Hopefully the Demon of the Garden won't get me into too much trouble in the meanwhile…'

With a plan set before him, all that was left was to acquire information and recover his energy. Lumière pulled the familiar ancient black leather-bound book out of his jacket, Poe's Gnosis, navigating to the silvery-glowing page in the middle before laying his eyes on the writhing black ink that sprawled itself slowly across the paper.

— [Zone, Beta-3.77]

— [Class 5 Danger]

— [Entity Count: Medium]

— [Notable Hazards: The poison in the air will slowly infest your lungs and kill you. Recommended that you spend no longer than two hours and thirty minutes in this Zone.]

Lumière's eyes widened as he read this line. 'Two hours and thirty minutes!? I've already spent two hours and ten minutes in this place!'

Suddenly, he realised why he had felt so weak the longer he had spent in the Carnival Hall. It wasn't just that he had been running- it was abnormal that he, someone who had spent many years engaging in rigorous movement exercises all day for the sake of training his blade, would be tired out so easily! Of course, he should feel his strength waning, but to this extent? He felt as if he couldn't move a single muscle in his legs!

'Ha, maybe it would have been better if I died in the Phantom's attack. Dealing with this much requires too much effort. How did Ainsworth manage to get through trials like these so many times… no, perhaps the Labyrinths are different for others. But if he really went through something like this each time… ah, I was wrong to demean him at times… he's certainly stronger than I am.'

'Is there really a way out of this? If I use 'Blaspheming' or 'Godly Mimicry', I might be able to regain enough strength to use my Silver Flames, and I might be able to take out the demonic clowns, but then I'll definitely succumb to this creeping madness. Same thing with creating an illusion to make them kill each other- I just don't have the strength. I used the last of my energy to teleport through the clown's blood puddle and climb my way up here. I hoped I would have time to recover naturally, but it seems that's just not an option…'

Lumière sighed heavily, letting out a feeble laugh. 'If I think like this, I'll ruin Ophelia as a persona. Shouldn't I try and think like a Demon would?'

"I am Ophelia, born of the Demonic Realm. Betrayed by all others, this life of lies is all that awaits me. I must make my own fate. I must move forward. I must let the garden flourish, let these fables be spread. I must remove the Phantoms, yet become as they are." This was almost like when Lumière had played the 'story game' with Selaphiel and Orion, although to a more self-serving extent. It was so easy when it had come to "Despair' and 'Lain'. While Despair had an ancient background that Lumière did not know, he had embodied and absorbed that personality from the moment he had accepted the contract, so it remained full-fledged. Besides that, 'Lain' had been torn from a storybook Lumière had read so many times before- it was a character someone else had already invented, and so it was easy to align with its personality.

This was the story that Lumière had forged so far, but what kind of person was Ophelia exactly? They seemed calm, calculated, but also motivated and powerful. They exuded a lofty persona, that they were fond of making deals but that many things remained beneath them.

While Lumière Croft preferred savoury foods, the Demon of the Garden enjoyed sweeter things. When Lumière would enjoy hot treats in the winter, Ophelia sought out something even colder than the frost itself. Lumière didn't enjoy the company of others for the most part, but had his heart open for loving others, while Ophelia enjoyed being a part of a larger group, but was ambivalent towards romance. 

Both Lumière and Ophelia were cold and calculating, but while the former realised his insignificance and sought to compensate for it, the latter knew his strength and sought to exploit it at every turn. Of course, Lumière was not truly powerful like a Demon, and so until he was, he could not fully embody the persona of Ophelia, but he could very much so deepen its realism.

He was quiet and collected, and wouldn't get himself into trouble like Lain would. At least, not the sort of trouble that might implicate him in the future. This was the perfect development, the perfect persona. It was someone that Lumière thought he could truly rely on, as long as he couldn't rely on himself. If he had to fall into unconsciousness to dissipate the madness in his mind in the future, this new understanding of 'Ophelia' would serve him well.

His facial expressions relaxed slightly, his eyes filling with a slow-burning silver flame that wouldn't extinguish. He grinned, glancing up at the carnival hall ceiling.

He spoke in a deep reverberating tone. "I'll perform for you all. I'll kill you all. I'll survive this."

'Ophelia, Demon of the Garden' was born.