Chapter 10- This is your punishment

"What should we do-"

Arthur's head felt heavy, and he felt dizzy. This was a very unexpected feeling, because he was feeling active a moment ago. Everything blacked out for what seemed a moment.

"Is this a dream?" Arthur thought as he looked around him. He was in a large room. It's walls were white in color and they seemed endless, but it had a ending. He could not see a way of getting in or out anywhere.

"It seems too realistic to be a dream, by any chance, can it be the reality," he thought again and again.

Something caught his eyes, a human like figure was sitting at a distance. The weird thing about it was that it was plain black, in contrast to the walls.

Arthur walked to him and asked, "who are you?"

The human-like thing stood up.

"Who am I, you ask? Let me show you," it said. It's voice seemed familiar.

It's skin started melting off, and it started to assume shape. Previously it's head and body were too smooth to be human.

The something happened that shocked Arthur.

"Mo... Mother?" He mumbled. The creature was looking like the splitting image of his mother.

"Fool," it said as it's skin started melting off again.

"What are you doing? Wait!"

This time the creature was looking just like Lucifer. The three wings on his back were copied upto the finest details.

"Lu-Lucifer? Bastard!"

"Get a hold on yourself. All these years, and you still don't realise?"

His skin started melting off again. This time the shape was looking very familiar. The creature walked up to him, to a very close distance, taking that familiar form.

"Do you realise now, naive boy?"

"You are... Me?"

"You hid me all these years, in a far corner of the void inside you. Accept me. Embrace me."

"What do you even mean? I don't understand anything."

"Haha... Don't you realise anything, you son of a bitch? After being abandoned and left to rot in this realm, and being denied your very basic rights?"

"Hey! Stop this, I don't understand."

"Let me frame everything for you. You. Are. Guilty."

"What?"

"Isn't it hot? Let's make it rain. After all I can do anything here."

"Wha-" it started to rain. There were no clouds, but it was raining. He could not see the end of the room now.

Something was seriously wrong, and Arthur knew it. The color of the rain was red!

"What's this supposed to mean? Is it supposed to be blood? You can't scare me with blood anymore."

"Yes, it's blood, but do you know whose? Four billion had died two years ago, or should I say four billion were killed, by you. It's there blood."

Arthur's head felt dizzy again. He could not understand what to do. His clothes were soaked in blood.

"No. This can't be happening. I was not responsible. No..."

"Aw... Is it too much for the baby? Suffer."

Blood started soaking out of the walls, which he could now see.

"See beneath you, in the pool of blood on which you are standing. Did you understand yet? Take responsibility."

Arthur felt something touch his leg. A pool of blood has formed near it, and he did not even notice.

He looked down to see countless hands reaching out for him.

"No. No... Stay away. Stay away! I am not guilty. I am not GUILTY."

The bloody hands were pulling him inside the pool.

"Stop. Stop!"

"Do you want me save you, boy?"

"Yes, please," Arthur replied, with tears dripping down his cheeks.

"Tell me. Do you accept me? I will save you and in return you shall acknowledge me."

"I agree. Just save me!"

The creature nodded his head, and everything went back to normal. The room was white again, and still spacious. The pools of blood were gone.

Arthur fell to the floor, after facing the largest trauma of his life.

The creature came closer.

"Get up, boy. Acknowledge the reality and it shall go as you plan. You are the vessel to the greatest creature in existence."

"What do you mean?"

"You shall eventually find out. You are now capable of defeating Lucifer. You now have absolute control over this realm's resources, which include ground, air and light."

"Why are you doing this for me?"

"You think I am helping you? This is your punishment," the creature said, with a smile on his face.

"Is that how I look when I smile?"

"What?"

"Nevermind. Thank you."