To Love is To Believe

Glowing in her own light, a creature so pure that she appeared as nothing but a white silhouette. 

Everything around her was beautiful, the colors vibrant and in the peak of perfection. No blemishes in a single leaf or flower, and even those that were seen as unsightly became luminous within her vicinity....

Because she was Beauty itself.

Everything was warm and welcoming. An air of comfort, of gentleness….. It wraps tightly around you like an embrace. Making you feel loved...

Because she was Love itself.

"Amore."

Pavor took a step closer to her as she continued singing and dancing. unsure what he truly feels now that he was seeing her in the flesh. But eventually. his thoughts gathered into a singular color, like different colors of paint mixing and mixing....

Turning into pure black.

"To love is to believe, someday I will be in your arms again and dream in an endless sleep la la lu la la, la la lu la la….."

Pavor could feel his mortal body reacting so intensely to the emotions within him. He was sweating, finding it hard to breathe, his cheeks flushed red, heart about to burst from his chest.....

Hatred.

Love, fear and hatred all had the same physiological reaction. And he hated that fact about the human body.

But these were not the only physical manifestations of his hatred. The loving and beautiful aura in the forest was slowly vanishing, succumbing into the darkness.

The flowers that once bloomed on the ground wilted and died even before his feet stepped on them. Crushing them into a pulp.

Soon, the darkness had overpowered the light. Snuffing it out like blowing on a candle.

Only the smoke remained as the remnant that the flame even existed.

"Amore!"

He called out as his hands moved faster than his own thoughts, reaching for her throat!

The creature of purity did not stop singing and dancing even as the darkness approached her. And now that she had been tackled to the ground, being suffocated, she still maintained a tranquil expression on her face. 

"To love.... Is to believe....."

She kept on singing even when Pavor's fingers were wringing the life out of her. 

"Stop it!" Pavor gritted his teeth, becoming nothing but pure malice. 

Amore did not stop singing the same melody, reaching out with her small delicate hands. Her touch felt like nothing but a feather grazing against Pavor's cheeks. 

"La la lu la la..... La la lu la la…."

Suddenly her form flickered, just like a candle light flickering as it would soon reach its end. Underneath the glow, the color of pink flesh appeared...

And so was the form of a boy.

Pavor tightened his grip on the boy's next, and the white glow vanished until it only remained in his pure white eyes. 

He was breathing heavily, panting like a wild beast. He roared:

"DIE!"

Just as the boy was about to breathe his last breath.....

Pavor felt the touch on his cheek this time, not as something light, but something that clung on to him so tightly. As if begging him to either let go…..

Or perhaps to not let go.

"My Lord….."

The fingers were not gripping his face just as tightly as he gripped the boy's neck, but it was still a strong grip. As if the boy was pulling him closer and closer... Their faces inches away...

"My Lord..." He whispered. "It's me."

This seemed to snap Pavor out of the bout of madness that was inflicted upon him. This lunacy that was driven by his hatred and malice, under the light of the full moon.

He let Davien go.

Davien coughed out, trying to catch his breath. He sat up, his back covered in thistles and dead grass that clung onto his white priest robes. But that does not seem to be his concern, as he turned to Pavor with his empty eyes.

"Are you alright, my Lord?"

Pavor remained kneeling on top of him, his eyes wide from shock and unable to think of anything at the moment. Spots of light swam in his vision, as if he could still see remnants of that creature in his mind's eye.

Then...…

He looked directly at Davien, and noticed something amiss. 

"You….. you got older."

Davien now appeared as a young man, no longer a prepubescent boy. He seemed to be the same age as Pavor, Tudo, Lynx and all the other Retaliators in their second year.

The priest only stared at him blankly with those white eyes. 

"What do you mean, my Lord? I have always been older, older than most of you."

Pavor shook his head. "I meant your appearance. What does this mean? Who are you, really?"

Is he even the same child that Pavor had killed before he was slain by Xarian? 

He recalled Amore's face, but it was blurry in his mind. She was too bright. But for some reason, even when he can't remember what she looked like exactly, he can't help but see her image in this priest that was not so little anymore. 

Distrust grew even more in Pavor's heart. He did not know what could be real or not anymore. He could not be certain.

She was the Mother of Lies after all.

What if all of this was just another one of her lies? What if he was truly dead, but instead of allowing him to rest in the nothingness of the Void… She trapped him inside a dream just to mess with his mind?

She was the most powerful god in Amoreas after all, but Pavor never knew the full extent of her powers.

But she knows his, and the extent of everyone else's. She knows everything.

She knows all the secrets of this world. 

It's unfair. Pavor hated her even more, and his hatred already reached depths that went on to perhaps the ends of the cosmos itself. Endless.

And since he can see her so much in this sheep, this priest that might just be an illusion….

He can't help but despise him just as deeply as well. 

"I am Davien Sacramentum, my Lord." The priest said. "I was born in the Temple of Amore in the Kingdom of Erosith 108 years ago, and I was from a divine conception from a virgin mother. A priestess that was blessed by Amore, just like all the other priestesses in the temple."

Pavor scowled. "It's not divine, and they were not virgins. Amore is a—"

Before he could finish his sentence, an arrow whizzed past between them. A silver arrow, made purely of metal and yet was still light and flew at a speed as quick as one's thought. 

Pavor immediately recognized that arrow. 

"So she really did steal it." He muttered, suddenly intrigued by that notion. 

Davien tilted his head. "What do you mean, my Lord? What flew by us just now?"

Pavor did not speak, and simply grabbed his sword. He aimed it at Davien's neck...

But the blind priest did not flinch.

He set it down. If his blindness was truly just an act, then he was doing quite well. But Pavor did feel his pulse when he was suffocating him, and he felt that this one could truly die. That he was mortal.

But he still does not trust the little sheep for now. He stood up, taking his leave to check on Tudo and Princess Minerva. 

When he reached the clearing by the exit of the forest, he heard the agitated voice of Tudo that seemed to be trying to reason with the princess…..

Who was floating in the air, shooting him using a silver bow and arrows!

"Just a moment, Your Highness! I do not mean to make it seem like I was threatening to reveal what you did, I just wanted to know your reason behind it!" Tudo deflected every arrow using his spells, his hand forming a force shield made of blue light. 

So that was how the arrow went flying straight to where Pavor and Davien were. But why did the princess suddenly start attacking him? Just because he would reveal her crime of stealing the Bow of Erudition? 

That was not really a logical move, and unlikely to be made by someone like her.

There must be something more, and Pavor watched the fight for a moment. They were too focused on each other to notice him, and he was still emanating this dark aura that made him difficult to perceive, especially at night. He was practically one with the shadows.

"And why do you want to know the reason!? It is not something you should meddle with, so leave me alone!" Princess Minerva said, still launching arrows at the spellcaster.

A silver quiver was on her back, and she couldn't have carried that all the way here unnoticed, so it must have been something divine. The arrows inside also do not seem to be depleting no matter how many she used. 

The Bow of Erudition, if Pavor recalled correctly from his many years as an immortal, was the sacred weapon of the chosen one of Memtem. 

Yes, Tudo was among his 'champions'. But this chosen one, who will be called the Prodigy of Memtem, was destined to use this weapon to save humanity from the brink of extinction. It was unclear what exactly would cause this extinction, but everyone assumed that it was only a secondary concern because Xarian Plover was destined to defeat the Lord of Dread anyway.

If the Lord of Dread was dead, there would be no more threats to humanity, is there?

But here was the bow, being used by a princess that was not even chosen by Memtem as a Retaliator. It's a mystery why the god would just allow this to happen in the first place.

But another question was…..

Did this really happen back when Xarian was still the Champion of Amore?

Pavor did not recall such things since he was not really paying attention to this little prince until he and his group had come into the Outlands. He was aware of the prophecy, but he thought it was just another one of the false promises of Amore and underestimated Xarian as a result.

Yes, it was a 'mistake' on his part... But at the same time, there was a part of him deep down that wanted his empty, directionless existence to end. 

Billions of years of nothing but being the monster. He secretly sought de—

"Your Highness!"

An arrow that Tudo deflected went straight for his head!