The basement of the church was a lot brighter than Kai thought it would be, but the weirdest thing about it was that the things giving off the light weren't torches, but little glass jars filled with scuttling insects of varied luminosity.
Even stranger was how deep the basement seemed to go, with corridors of endless length stretching on all around him.
It would have been a topic of great interest if it weren't for the strange looks that the guy he brought in here had been giving him.
"Say…"
That was odd; he hadn't heard the guy speak in forever. What did he want now?
"You wouldn't happen to be named Cain, would you?" the scientist said finally, dusting off a countertop in the basement as he spoke.
"Of course not—my name's Kai."
He was lying.
Or was he?
Cain sounded really familiar, hell, as he thought about it, the name seemed more attached to him, as though burned into his chest, but it seemed so…
Unnatural.
Like a parasite in his body.
Names didn't feel that way, did they?
But the scientist seemed relieved at the statement, so he wasn't gonna take it back.
Poor guy probably needs a break.
"Good, good. I was worried that you were That Guy." The scientist paused for a moment, shivering to himself at the thought of whoever Cain was.
That didn't sound good. What had Cain done to warrant such terror from the guy?
And if Kai really was Cain, didn't that mean that he was actually some horrible person?
What if all this was some sick punishment for his actions?
What had he done to deserve all this-
"Hey Kai!" The scientist called from the other side of the room, apparently having already moved on from the conversation.
Kai, moving over to meet the scientist, was greeted with a carved mural that looked far too large to be sculpted by a human. It depicted a single figure with thousands of arms spouting from its body, with hundreds of times more eyes blossoming across its body, looming over the universe, as well as one long string.
"What do you think this means?" The scientist said, looking towards Kai questioningly as he did so.
As if Kai could know, he barely had enough information in himself to tell the guy what his name was; how could he be expected to know that?
"…So you're just as clueless as I am."
The scientist looked disappointed at this fact, but moved on quickly upon seeing the mural shift, revealing that it was actually not carved at all, but rather was thousands of small beetles, making up one image.
This time, however, they made up an Image of the being above all, setting aside the thread it was examining before.
The image moved on faster this time, shifting again and again until it looked as though he was watching a videotape.
The figure looked to be weaving the three separate threads, which were originally hard to make out until the bulb full of insects beside him broke. The luminous insects flew over, most of them attaching themselves to the line of thread, making it glow white gold, and some of them scattering themselves along the background, emulating the stars.
The One Above All, having finished the final thread, set it aside, grabbed the first thread, which glowed a luminous black, and, grabbing the empty expanse in front of it and bringing it to the thread, which shifted to form a single figure, that the insects seemed unable to form, as the space it took up was given a wide bearth by them, meaning nothing about it was unable to be made out.
The One Above All then took another thread that glowed with every color possible, this time bringing a hand to its forehead, pressing until it passed through its head, forming a large hole. Then, bringing the hand to the thread, forming the figure of a woman cloaked in burning parchment that seemed to endlessly shift. Constantly adding more information and deleting as it pleased.
Finally, the One Above All grabbed the last thread which glowed a mix of luminous gold and black, bringing it to its chest, which shifted as though pierced by a spear, only there was no spear at all; instead, its heart ripped through, the movement caused some of the bugs to shake uncontrollably, exploding and spilling both their blood, and the blood of the figure on the planet directly under it. The thread then wrapped around the heart, constricting until it was split in two, and then three pieces combined, forming one final figure with a face that seemed to endlessly shift like the wall in front of him, only this time it wasn't limited to the texture of stone, rather it seemed wothout limits, sometimes its face was grotesque, made up of rotten flesh, sometimes ots face was unmatched in beuty, and sometimes it had no face at all, being comprised entirly of stone.
The figures then stepped towards the One Above All, knelling as they did so, one by one their figures glowed, and they were each given robes of different color, the invisible one was given a dark mantle, which, much like itself, couldn't be made out by the bugs, the woman covered in parchment was given cloth that shifted between multiple different garment, sometimes it was a lab coat, sometimes a suit, and sometimes a traditional gown. And finally, The One of Many Faces was given a golden robe that split into two sections, one perfect in every way, the other chaotically covered in strange murals, with one hourglass placed in the small of the back.
Then the image stilled, with the invisible one slowly turning around to look directly at Kai and the scientist beside him. The void of its face was then filled with some of the beetles and flies until he was greeted with its horrid smile, the beetles started to shake angrily, polluting the air with a horrifying buzzing sound until they each started to explode one by one. clearing the entirety of the mural until only the luminous insect remained, spelling one sentence in vivid red.
'No other mortal shall learn this mystery.'
Suddenly, the scientist next to him, who had been annotating each event on a small notebook, yelped and scrambled backwards as the book he had been holding suddenly burst into flames, illuminating the ground directly below them, which the insect hadn't quite reached earlier, revealing a ground coated in engravings an unknown language, which the insect flew towards, filling the gaps until the glowed a deep black that stole the light from the tunnel.
Encapsulating them in complete darkness.
Only Kai could still see.
Which meant he could see the words on the wall shift to form a single word.
'Cain'