[BiTPR2] Hell Episode: Like a Bat

[Frozen_Feet]

It's a moot point because that isn't what was said.

In any case, the man places a hand on Sarah's forehead. "Improve."

Sarah might realize she's seen something like this before. It was in the memories she read from that black crystal sphere.

The scenery around Sarah loses color. Individual snowflakes stop in mid-air. The man, too, seem frozen in time.

Then it all starts burning away like a cheap polaroid put on fire.

Sarah's left standing in her own, ashen inner world, with those upside down skyscrapers hanging above. Around her, burning black-and-white photos swirl and rain down.

They are memories. Memories of man she has never really met. Images of another life she was never a real part in, but which she has seen glimpses of from afar.

He was never really here. But he may have given her something despite of that. Maybe it is enough.

Outside, in Hell, the ground starts sinking. It's like something created an empty space underneath, which then collapsed under weight of the rock. The depression grows larger and larger, causing a flow of lava to divert and start forming a new pool in it.

[Rater202]

Within Sarah's Inner World, the ashen sand burying everything rises up and reforms into something...

Sarah doesn't see much--she's too distracted by the sudden realization that she's back in her old hometown, ruined as it may be before she opens her eyes.

*******

The lava pool is just about filled when there's a sudden spike of Reiatsu from underneath it.

And then, something erupts from underneath it, flying high up into the air.

Mikael'sVoice of All Things improves things so that they're one step closer to the platonic ideal they're thought to embody.

There's no perfect Hollow, but every Hollow, whether they know it or not, strives towards a certain ideal form.

That of the Vasto Lorde.

Whatever the platonic ideal of a Hollow may be, it most certainly includes the characteristics assigned to a Vasto Lorde.

When Sarah was buried in the bottom-most layer, she was a Gillian on the cusp of becoming an Adjucha.

One step closer to the perfect Hollow then, would be an Adjucha on the cusp of becoming a Vasto Lorde.

Magma drips off from a twelve foot tall, humanoid bat with six limbs.

She's hunched over Her torso is too long. Her arms are too long. Her legs are too long, and they end with the feet of a bat, but she still has the same skull at her throat and the same black-chain marking spiraling across her pale white flesh, the same horned skull mask with thick red 'liner' around her eyes. Long bat ears fram a messy, spikey mane of silver hair down to the base of her long, reptilian tail.

Remove the skull at her throat and dye her hair black, and she'd be the spitting image of Anim-manĝanta Diablo-Reĝino at the time of her destruction.

There's only one stop left on this train, and Sarah's heading right for it full steam.

She roars.

See, when the Wardens tore open the ground to pull her down, a lot of the sand from the desert fell down into the fifth level as well.

And now all of that sand is glowing green and it flies to Sarah. She's not even eating it, it's just kind of phasing it's way into her.

As is all of the ambient reishi, reiryoku, and loose reishi the section of this level of Hell that Sarah is contained in--that all of the sand occupies.

Sarah's own nature is combining with the hollow nature inherited from the Devil Queen... Or perhaps that power was likewise enhanced by the Improvement?

...Or just maybe, the improvement is still ongoing?

Regardless, it seems that Sarah is going for that last milestone, aiming to become a Vasto Lorde and be strong enough to Escape Hell, whther Hell likes it or not.

[Frozen_Feet]

Far away, a pair of glowing eyes turns to look at the hurricance of sand and spiritual power, puzzled. What is this unholy racket about now? Slowly, the beast they belong to turns around and begins marching towards the source. Others of its kind step out of the shadows of volcanic columns, appearing out of nowhere. First a handfull, then a dozen, then a hundred wardens stomp across the volcanic terrain, obsidian cracking and the ground trembling under their combined weight.

But, they may be already too late. If Sarah's transformation is still on-going, then that means she already has all the souls she needs. She doesn't need to eat anymore. She could just fly away and hide, waiting for the transformation to run its course. She's already faster than them. For the small price of making most of her spirit consist of dead souls of unrepentant sinners, subjecting herself to several torturous transformations and becoming a horrific monsters, Sarah's gained the power to dodge the wardens indefinitely.

It was worth it, right?

[Rater202]

That remains to be seen.

Anyway, whatever was needed to complete her transformation is taken and as it clears, the nymph has returned...

Kind of.

Before, it was obviously her skin. Now, it looks like it's more like a skin-tight body suit.

It actually kind of looks like she's wearing elbow gloves and open foot stockings the way it's layered. Her hands and feet are obviously flesh, and now have claws at her fingers and toes

Her mask now wraps around her head, being open at the back, though most startling is that her eyes... Look human. The whites of her eyes are actually white. Her irises are the same silver as when she was alive. You can even see her pale human skin around them through the skull's eye sockets.

The only things that indicates that she's not a human in convincing makeup and costume are the obvious flesh and blood wings and tail and the fist-sized hole in the center of her chest.

Sarah... Is full.

Sarah can think straight. She remembers everything...

She... She's not exactly pleased with herself right now.

But that's something to worry about later.

Sarah reaches up to the collar around her neck and grasps it with both hands. It shatters with a tug. She slams her wrists together to break those shackles, and the reaches down to claw the chains off from her ankles.

She's free, nominally...

Now she just has to evade the wardens long enough to figure out how to physically get out.

She can probably kill them now, but... What's that solve?

She makes to fly away--are the crevices to the fourth layer still open, or is she going to have to make her own path back up?

[Frozen_Feet]

The slope left behind by the collapsed terrain is still there, framed by two rivers of lava flowing down from the desert. Getting to the fourth layer is just a matter of flying up the slope and piercing the storm clouds shrouding the yellow-tinted sky. From there, all Hell is in principle open to her. She can remember the path she took to get there. She can trace her own steps all the way to the white stone block on which she first woke up. It's just a matter of where she wants to go.

[Rater202]

Back up to level four it is then.

From there she looks for the cliff at the edge of layer three and tries to fly it back to the ocean of layer 2.

[Frozen_Feet]

It is a long and tiring flight. But not as long and tiring as walking the other way was while carrying that man.

...

"You dare to set your Burden down without permission, Slave? Pick it back up at once! Carry it to the ends of Hell! This I command, as your Master!"

That's what the monk said, wasn't it?

In the end, she did do just as he told her.

In a way, she still is carrying him.

Sarah passes through a veil of steam where yellow-hot lava from the crags flows into the water. Soon, the rocky terrain fades from view entirely and she is flying over those stone waterlilies again.

[Rater202]

Sarah says nothing.

She flies, passively, towards one of the stone lilies. Not the first one she sees, one that's a decent way from the shore, but not quite in the middle.

She hides in the skull of a dead warden and sits down to rest.

Thinking...

[Frozen_Feet]

There's a massive splash as one of the wardens rises out from the water. It looks around, but seeing nothing, it dives back into the waves.

Or... wait. There are a bunch of cloaked figures wearing those weird masks, sitting on the edge of the next waterlily. They are far so Sarah can barely see them through the mist, but the warden ought to have seen them easily.

Yet, it did nothing. Strange.

[Rater202]

Sarah peers at the masked and robed figures from her perch inside the skull, wondering.

The man in her Inner World--the piece of Mikael's power--had said that it was the anonymity of the masks and robes--pretending that one had no self--that let those robes protect the sinners wearing them from the warden's, but th Wardens, even as a mindless automaton, can't possibly be that stupid, can they?

When Sarah is certain that the Warden will not return, she glides down to the robed Sinners.

She holds her hands up, palms out, to show she comes in peace.

"Ugh... Parley?"

[Frozen_Feet]

Carefull, Sarah. That might be an offensive gesture in some other culture.

As she approaches, all but one of the cloaked figures scurry away to hide inside one of those giant skeletons. Some of them drop... chisels? On the ground. It looks like pieces have been carved out of the ribs of the skeleton.

The last remaining figure is quite bulky, at least a head taller and twice as broad as Sarah. She can't make head or tails of its spiritual pressure. That cloak must hide it in some way as well.

"You. Thing. Where are your chains?" , a gruff voice rumbles from behind a mask. How is anyone meant to see through those?

[Rater202]

"...I broke them."

[Frozen_Feet]

"... you what?"

[Rater202]

"... you what?"

"I grabbed the shackles and pulled them apart."

[Frozen_Feet]

"I don't believe you" , the figure rumbles and extends its right arm towards Sarah. She can see a shackle around its wrist. "Break mine."

[Rater202]

"What are you in for?"

Sarah's not breaking the chain of a complete monster. she disagrees with Hell but you don't go tearing down the prisons until after you've got an alternative established.

...Which probably won't be for a long time...

Sarah now feels a little worse about herself.

Still not breaking his chain until she knows what he did.

[Frozen_Feet]

"None of your business." The figure crosses its arms on its chest. "If you don't show me, I don't believe. Buzz off."

[Rater202]

"The very fact that I don't have chains should be proof enough that I broke them. Everyone who comes through here gets them and the sadistic bastards who run this place aren't likely to just let someone go. Come on, use your brain."

[Frozen_Feet]

"Outsiders don't have chains untill they die. Go away."

[Rater202]

"We both knows that you're not capable of making me leave. I came to ask you about those masks and robes, but if you want me to leave so bad I guess I can just take yours and leave you where the Wardens will find you..."

Sarah's incredibly casual about saying that.

[Frozen_Feet]

"You know nothing. You want a cloak? Break my chains and I'll give you one."

[Rater202]

Sarah responds by just grabbing his cloak and using fullbring to figure out how it works.

"Look, for all I know you could be Dalmer or Gacy or Hitler and... Okay, while I'm down here I'm gonna go find Hitler and kick his ass just to say that I did, you know, just so this won't have been all bad. Anyway, I'm not just breaking your chain if I don't know what you did, so I'm just gonna ask your cloak how it works, kay?"

[Frozen_Feet]

The masked figure takes a rapid step backwards, snatchibg the fabric out of Sarah's hand before she can get a good reading. "You. Hands off!"

Sarah can see the other cloaked figures tensing up in the shadows. Murderous intent hangs heavy in the air.

[Rater202]

"Okay? Show of hands everybody, who here knows what a Hollow is? And those of you who do, how many know what a Vasto Lorde is?"

[Rater202]

"Okay... Nobody knows what a Hollow is."

Sarah facepalms.

There's a burst of bringerlight. Sarah appears beside the sinner she spoke to and digs a claw into his shackle.

It doesn't break the shackle, but Sarah certainly left a mark on it.

She could have broken it if she wanted to, that much is plain to see.

"Belive me now?

[Frozen_Feet]

The figure takes another rapid step back, clearly interpreting Sarah's motion as one of hostile intent. It raises its fist as if to punch her, but stops mid-motion when it notices the mark left on its shackles. Slowly, it lowers its hand and crosses its arms again. "What do you need a cloak for?" , it asks.

[Rater202]

"It's been a really long day... a couple of days... could even be a week, I don't know. I've only had a brief respite from fleeing or fighting or tests... I'd like to take a nap without worrying about being eaten in my sleep. How do the cloak's work?"

[Frozen_Feet]

"They make you invisible to the wardens" , the figure states. "You need a mask also. Not the kind you're wearing. It needs to be the same as everyone else's. We make them out of those." The figure nods towards the giant skeleton. "The fabric, you have to come up with on your own. We got ours by taking clothes from other inmates. Dyed it black with their blood. Then resurrected them. Have to be careful, or the fabric disappears before you can put it on."

[Rater202]

Sarah hums in understanding, and takes off in the air, flying to another skeleton--not the one she was resting in, but not the one on the Lilly the sinners she spoke too were on.

She lands on it, and communes with it--what about it makes the masks protect from Hell?

[Frozen_Feet]

This skeleton wouldn't know - no-one has made masks from it.

But, in a way, it is one of the wardens. Could it be wearing bones of the wardens makes one wearing the mask appear as part of them?

There's no confirmation to be found here. But Sarah is strong enough to crack a piece of the skull and make her own mask, if she just wants. If it works, she doesn't need to know why it works.