She hesitated.
Conflict twisted across her face.
Hatred.
Disbelief.
Fear.
Her faith demanded that she recognize the power before her, but everything she knew insisted that what she was seeing should have been impossible.
I took half a step forward.
The corruption beneath my foot pulsed.
Tias flinched.
Then she knelt.
One knee struck the blackened floor. Her white hair spilled around her lowered head like silk, while the skeletal fingers of her left hand pressed against the dissolving boards for balance.
"I-I greet the great Apostle of Hunger."
Apostle of Hunger.
So that was my title.
Ominous.
I smiled.
"That's more like it."
Along the far wall, black fractures continued creeping through Tias's containment field. Thin strands of claimed mana snapped apart one after another, allowing brief flashes of the academy's natural pressure to leak into the room.
I had forced her down.
Now I had to convince her before the room stopped hiding us.
I approached her.
She shivered like a leaf.
A part of me took immense pleasure in the sight.
That part was not me.
At least, I hoped it was not.
I stopped inches from her bowed head.
"Raise your head."
Tias trembled before obeying.
Her crimson eyes rose to meet mine. The eight divisions within each pupil shifted independently, some studying my face while others watched the corruption crawling beneath my skin.
Hatred filled them.
Humiliation too.
But she did not voice either.
Not while the corruption curled around her knees.
Not while I stood before her wearing the power she had worshipped for centuries.
She had obeyed the power.
She had not yet accepted the person wielding it.
Sleazy's voice came from my right.
"Seer. It's time."
I turned toward him.
Even he looked at my transformed body with contempt.
The others were no better.
Knight's expression was hard. Bloody stared at me without his usual grin, and Lazy watched the corruption spreading beneath my skin as though calculating how long I had before it hollowed me out.
I understood their disgust.
This was probably what Carlos had looked like.
Maybe worse.
I could not remember.
Sleazy grimaced.
"You really do look…"
"Handsome?" I asked with a grin.
He cleared his throat.
"Possessed was the word I had in mind."
"Rude."
"Accurate."
His expression hardened.
"Anyway, if we want Tias on our side, you have to convince her. Fear will make her kneel, but faith is what will keep her there."
"Yes, yes. I know."
I waved him away.
His brows furrowed.
"Trust me, Seer. She is not stupid. Once the shock fades, she will start searching for contradictions. Then she will report this to the other executives and return with enough force to peel your soul out through your—"
"I said I know!"
The words exploded from me.
Corruption surged across the room.
The black sludge beneath my feet rose in sharp waves, and what remained of the floorboards cracked apart. A violent pulse struck the walls, tearing another section from Tias's containment field.
Everyone froze.
Including me.
"What—"
That had not been entirely me.
Sleazy took a careful step back.
His expression softened into something uncomfortably close to pity.
"All right."
He sighed.
"You have it. Just make it quick."
I wanted to tell him that I had not meant to snap.
That the corruption had pushed the words out harder than I intended.
But the way the ghosts looked at me forced the explanation back down my throat.
There was no time.
I was still me.
I had to be.
I turned back toward Tias.
The hatred within the divided sections of her pupils had diminished.
Now there was fear.
Perfect.
It seemed my little schizophrenic episode had worked.
I cleared my throat.
"You must be curious."
Tias remained silent.
"How did I become the apostle meant for Carlos?"
Still nothing.
For a moment, I wondered whether fear had finally broken her.
Then I remembered.
Right.
I had ordered her not to speak.
"You may answer."
"Yes, my lord."
Her voice was restrained.
Careful.
"How did you become the bearer of His gifts?"
I chuckled.
Darkness rolled through the sound and pressed against the walls.
"Well, it's simple, my child."
The divided sections of her pupils tightened slightly.
"What do you mean?"
"God chose me."
Tias went still.
I placed one hand atop her white hair.
It was soft and silky.
She stiffened beneath my palm but did not pull away.
"This title was originally meant for Carlos Strega," I said. "That much is true."
My fingers moved slowly through her hair.
"The path was prepared for him. The hunger was made for him. The griffins dragged him from safety, and the branch starved him until he could think of nothing except reaching the end."
Tias listened without moving.
"But before the trial began, God came to me."
Her lips parted.
I smiled as though remembering something sacred.
"He gave me a choice."
I paused.
"No."
My fingers tightened slightly in her hair.
"He gave me a mission."
The separate divisions of her pupils shuddered, briefly losing their independent focus.
"A mission?"
"Yes."
The darkness around me pulsed.
"He told me that Carlos had been chosen to walk the path."
I leaned closer.
"But being chosen to walk toward a gift does not mean one is worthy of receiving it."
Tias swallowed.
"He commanded me to follow Carlos into the God Tree."
My voice lowered.
"To endure the same hunger."
The black cracks crawled farther up my neck.
"To suffer the same thirst."
Another pulse of corruption rolled across the room.
"To walk beside him through every trial without revealing why I was there."
Tias's breathing grew shallow.
"He told me to watch Carlos."
I stared into her divided pupils.
"To study him."
My smile widened.
"And when we reached the end, I was to prove which of us deserved to bear His hunger."
Tias stared at me.
Her doubt had not disappeared.
But faith had begun to smother it.
"You were sent to challenge the chosen vessel," she whispered.
"I was sent to prove that He chose the wrong one."
The words struck her like a revelation.
A sharp crack sounded from the ceiling.
One of the upper layers of the containment field split apart, causing a faint tremor to pass through the room. Lazy glanced upward, his tired expression tightening.
"You are running out of time."
I did not acknowledge him.
I summoned Bloodrend.
Dark-red flesh stretched into the shape of a cleaver, black veins pulsing beneath its surface. The corruption entered the weapon but did not consume it. Instead, the blade darkened, as though the taint recognized Bloodrend as another part of me.
It was longer now.
Heavier.
Silent.
The usual song of hunger was gone, as though even Bloodrend understood that something worse had entered the room.
I rested the flat of the blade against Tias's shoulder.
"I walked beside Carlos for five days."
My reflection stared back at me from the darkened flesh.
"I starved when he starved."
The endless branch filled my mind again.
The poisonous water.
The disappearing food.
Carlos slowing his pace so I would not fall behind.
"I thirsted when he thirsted."
My voice darkened.
"I watched him struggle."
A lie began winding itself around the truth.
"I watched him weaken."
Another.
"And all the while, I waited for God's command."
Tias's lips parted.
"At the end of the path, Carlos saw the gifts."
My hand tightened around Bloodrend.
"He believed they were food."
I smiled.
"He believed the trial was over."
The corruption beneath us shuddered.
"But that was when mine truly began."
Tias stared at the blade.
"What did He command you to do?"
I looked down at her.
"I did not permit another question."
Her jaw tightened.
"My apologies, my lord."
I lifted Bloodrend.
"God told me that only one of us could leave that branch carrying His gifts."
My heart clenched.
Carlos's back appeared in my mind.
"So I obeyed."
Bloodrend rose behind an imaginary body.
"I plunged my cleaver into Carlos's back."
The memory struck me.
His body arching.
Blood filling his mouth.
The betrayal in his eyes.
I licked my cracked lips.
The gesture came naturally.
Too naturally.
"How delicious it was."
The corruption chose the word.
I hated that my mouth agreed.
Disgust clawed through my stomach.
I wanted to cry.
The corruption translated it into pleasure.
"To watch him turn toward me."
My fingers trembled against Tias's hair.
"To watch him finally realize that I had not followed him there as a companion."
My smile strained.
"I had followed him as God's blade."
Tias did not look away.
"He could not stop me, even as I threw him from the branch and into the void below."
I could still feel Carlos's weight leaving my hands.
The memory almost cracked my smile.
I forced it wider.
"Then I stood before the gifts."
My hand tightened around Bloodrend.
"They bored into my body. They burrowed into my soul and forced themselves into every part of me."
I shivered as the pain returned in fragments.
"They tested whether I could bear them."
My voice lowered.
"And when I remained…"
I looked down at her.
"They accepted me."
The fear in Tias's divided pupils began to change.
Slowly.
Reluctantly.
Into awe.
"Carlos may have been the beginning of the trial."
A dark chuckle rolled from my throat.
"But I was always meant to be its conclusion."
Tias stared at me with wonder.
But doubt remained.
Her faith was winning, though she had not surrendered to it completely.
"Now," I said, "you may ask your second question."
When she spoke again, her voice was quieter.
More reserved.
And beneath the last traces of fear, I heard the beginnings of worship.
"If what you say is true…"
Her brows drew together.
"Then was everything written in the Scripture wrong?"
Scripture?
What the hell was that?
My expression did not change.
Thankfully, Sleazy answered from beside me.
"The Scripture is an object through which the most faithful receive revelations from their god."
He folded his arms.
"The future, divine instructions, fragments of His design. Mother has probably spent centuries treating every word inside it as absolute."
I hummed in understanding.
"That thing."
Tias's divided pupils sharpened at the casual description.
I smiled down at her.
"The Scripture was not wrong."
Her lips parted.
"Then how—"
"God does not reveal the entire path to every servant."
The words stopped her.
I slowly walked around her kneeling body.
"The Scripture showed you Carlos because Carlos was part of His design."
I rested Bloodrend across my shoulder.
"He was the one who had to walk the path. The one who had to endure the hunger. The one who had to reach the gifts."
Tias followed me with her eyes, the divisions in her pupils rotating independently to maintain focus.
"But it did not show you me," I continued, "because knowing of my existence would have destroyed the purpose of my mission."
Her expression shifted.
I could almost see her faith rearranging the contradiction for me.
"If you had known another candidate was coming, would you have allowed the trial to proceed naturally?"
She hesitated.
"No."
"You would have watched me."
"Yes."
"You would have interfered."
Her silence answered for her.
"You might even have tried to protect Carlos because the Scripture had already named him."
Tias lowered her gaze.
I stopped before her.
"That is why I was hidden."
My voice became solemn.
"Carlos's trial was hunger."
The corruption beneath me pulsed.
"Mine was secrecy."
Her pupils widened, every divided section briefly fixing on me.
I pressed one hand against my chest.
"I had to walk beside the chosen vessel while appearing insignificant."
That part, at least, required no acting.
"A weak Studies student."
My smile tightened.
"An irrelevant boy."
The old future flickered through my mind.
A messenger.
"I had to reach the end without anyone clearing the road for me."
I leaned closer.
"And when the moment came, I had to prove my devotion through action."
Tias's breathing grew unsteady.
"But that is not possible," she whispered. "The Scripture has never concealed an apostle from us."
The moment the protest escaped, she shut her mouth.
Fear flashed across her face.
She had questioned me.
Worse, she believed she had questioned God.
I let the silence punish her for several seconds.
Another section of the containment field tore open behind us.
The corruption had reached my jaw. I could no longer feel two of my fingers, and the black sludge pressing against the remaining layers of claimed mana was beginning to seep through them.
I needed her faith now.
There would not be time for a second attempt.
Then I softened my expression.
"Oh, my child."
I stepped closer and embraced her head against my chest.
Tias went rigid.
Her entire body trembled at the sudden contact.
Disgust crawled beneath my skin.
I ignored it.
"As one of His most faithful servants, it is understandable that this frightens you."
I gently stroked her white hair.
The gesture felt revoltingly natural in this form.
"You devoted centuries to following the path placed before you. Now you have learned that there were steps even you were not permitted to see."
Her fingers curled against the floor.
"That does not mean the Scripture betrayed you."
My voice dropped into a caring whisper.
"It means God trusted you to continue walking without knowing everything."
Tias gasped quietly.
I lifted her face toward mine.
"Think, my child."
The dark cracks along my hand framed her cheek.
"If I were not the Apostle, would I be standing here?"
Her divided pupils moved across my blackened form.
"How could I have survived the gifts entering my soul if I had not already been accepted?"
She said nothing.
"How could I command His taint?"
The sludge around us shifted at my will.
Behind the confidence, my heart hammered.
I barely understood how to do any of those things.
But Tias did not know that.
Her doubt trembled.
Then it began to collapse.
"Yes," I whispered. "You may doubt what your mortal mind cannot understand."
I brushed my thumb beneath her eye.
"But always remember this."
I smiled.
"God is with you."
That broke her.
Tears gathered across her crimson eyes, blurring the divided pupils until, for the first time, they almost looked human.
She stared at me as though I had granted her absolution.
I nearly recoiled from my own disgusting words.
All I had done was feed her faith back to her in a prettier shape.
And she was swallowing every piece.
She slowly rose from her knees.
"If it is as you say…"
Her voice trembled.
"If the Scripture deliberately concealed your existence…"
She looked almost lost.
"Does that mean we were not ready?"
A tear slid down her cheek.
"Does God truly not trust us?"
What a crazy woman.
I had assembled this theology while trying not to die, and now a three-hundred-year-old executive was rebuilding her entire faith around it.
Fake it until you make it, I guess.
I gave her the kindest smile I could manage with black cracks splitting my face.
"Some truths are meant to be placed before your eyes."
I touched the centre of her forehead.
"Others are hidden because discovering them is itself a trial."
Tias stopped breathing.
"You were not abandoned," I continued. "You were tested."
"Tested…"
"Yes."
I let the word settle inside her.
"You were confronted with something that contradicted the path you believed absolute."
I lowered my hand.
"You could have rejected me."
The corruption shifted around her feet.
"You could have attacked the gifts simply because you did not understand them."
Her eyes dropped in shame.
"But you did not."
I smiled with gentle approval.
"You overcame your doubt."
Her lips trembled.
"You recognized His authority even when it arrived in a form the Scripture had never shown you."
The tears fell freely now.
I spread my arms.
"You, my dear servant, have passed your trial of faith."
Tias stared at me.
"Be proud."
My voice deepened.
"For you are the first devoted believer to stand before the Apostle of Hunger."
Her divided pupils widened.
Something inside her finally gave way.
"Yes, my lord."
Tias dropped to the floor.
Not merely to one knee.
She lowered herself into prayer, placing both hands—the living one and the skeletal one—against the corrupted boards before bowing until her forehead nearly touched them.
Her white hair spread across the darkness beneath me.
"I greet the true Apostle of Hunger."
Her voice shook with reverence.
"I offer my flesh, my faith, and my life to your sacred hunger."
I looked down at the three-hundred-year-old executive worshipping at my feet.
What a chump.
The thought almost made me laugh.
Then I remembered the terror on every ghost's face when Lazy first proposed this plan.
Tias believed me.
That meant she would obey me.
It also meant that, from this moment forward, I had to remain worthy of the lie.
I had entered this room as a frightened student pretending not to know where the gifts had gone.
I would leave it as the Fifth Apostle.
Whether I wanted the title or not.