Ink Spreads Until All Turns Black

The next day came.

Alvis' face was scrunched up as he contemplated what Jill the Ripper said.

''We'll be heading out?' What is going to happen to me?'

He didn't think he was going to die, but the mere underlying message was enough to send a chill down his spine.

He was, after all, now a slave of Jill the Ripper in both legal and magical terms. It was no different than selling his soul to the devil.

Wearing casual clothes, Alvis waited for Jill the Ripper.

He waited no sooner than a minute as Jill the Ripper descended from the stairs.

"Good morning, your highness."

"Let's get going shall we?"

"...Yes."

As soon as they were out of sight, Jill the Ripper pulled him into the dizzying alleyways of London.

"Ugh…"

'I don't think I'll ever get used to this…'

Alvis felt like hurling out his breakfast.

"W-Why are we back in Whitechapel Miss?"

Alvis asked, disoriented, as he found himself back at the infamous hunting grounds of Jill the Ripper.

"Don't you remember what I said before? I'm going to dye you in my color."

Jill the Ripper replied, a twisted smile seemingly on her face.

'...Damn it.'

After being within this world, he understood what she meant by 'dyeing him in her color'.

"You'll look beautiful in my black eyes. We'll be perfect for one another."

'Crazy…'

He unconsciously shivered. Because of his recent closeness and working with Jill the Ripper, he had forgotten just how mad she was. Realizing this, Alvis shivered.

"You aren't going to answer?"

A dark gleam seemed to pierced through him.

"N-No, of course we'll be perfect for one another when our eyes dye in each other's color."

'...H-How do I color my eyes when I don't have mana? I'm not even born here damn it, I'm not born with mana…'

'Do I need to wear contacts?'

As Alvis tried thinking of methods to fool Jill the Ripper, he was roughly being guided deeper into the slums where prostitutes were clearly being shown.

"Before we go any further, you need to carry this around."

Jill the Ripper held out a gun in her hands, waving it around like it was a children's toy.

"Huh…?"

"I'll repeat it once more, carry this gun around. I'm not omnipotent so if we ever find ourselves in a situation where you are unable to protect yourself, you would need something to defend yourself with. Correct?"

Her reasoning was so perfect that Alvis couldn't make a single retort before the gun was suddenly in his hands.

"Even if you give me this…"

Even though it was a perfect statement, Alvis had full trust in Jill the Ripper's strength. It was simply inhumane so if something went past even her, what would be the point of a gun?

Looking back up from the gun with complicated feelings, Alvis found Jill the Ripper to be missing.

'...'

Taking a moment to process what had just happened before looking once more to confirm she was missing, Alvis sighed deeply.

He didn't panic.

Just how many times had bandits and something completely unexpected kill him? Almost always, rather, it would be inconceivable to expect him to be shell shocked about Jill the Ripper's disappearance.

'Is this some sort of test?'

Alvis hid the gun away before starting to walk.

"I should have asked for some money…"

A sudden thought about his promise with an orphan came to mind.

As Alvis continued to wander around through the alleyways of Whitechapel, disorientated by the similarity, he eventually found a road.

'...'

Alvis felt hesitant to go into the bright road where he would be easily seen, it was better in Whitechapel where all sorts of criminals and lowlives live to hide in the dark alleyways. He would only be an easier target to pick on and extort.

There was nothing more comforting to him as of the moment where he was abandoned by Jill the Ripper than protection that these disturbingly dizzy and hard to navigate alleyways gave him.

As Alvis turned around and headed to the next corner, he hit someone.

"Ugh…"

"Hey you."

A distinct heavy male voice came from ahead.

"Drop all your things."

A daylight robbery. The robber held a sharp knife that had a worn out handle.

'Damn it…'

Unlike the orphans who wore rags or the rough looking gang members, his casual attire was clean which only further showed his lack of physical prowess.

"I don't have anything…"

Alvis said, calm and collected.

"Don't play dumb, you think a random pedestrian would be in Whitechapel except for prostitution or gambling?"

'...'

"I said give all your things!"

The man quickly rushed at Alvis and without time to respond, he pulled out his gun and shot.

Bang!

Alvis looked at the dead man with an indescribable expression.

The muzzle of his gun was still warm to touch and the wound was still leaking blood like a neverending faucet.

Behind him, Jill the Ripper whispered and comforted him with sweet lies.

"It's all right, you did the right thing…"

Alvis' eyes were turning noticeably black.

'Was it…?'

Alvis' mind felt like it was sinking.

Blacker and blacker.

"Everything will be fine…"

Her words were empty, full of sweet nothings yet it felt comforting that such 'affection' came from the monster.

Alvis, dizzy and hands shaking, passed out.

* * *

Foggy, strange, unexplainable.

'Eyes' watched over me, they were everywhere.

What was this feeling…?

Words flowed into my mind.

'...Three-and-a-half years…'

Worship-

Divin-

Benevol-

Allmigh-

I wanted to kneel and pray to the one who looked at me. Cry and call out to the Father Of Christ, the Holy Spirit, Jesus, the Savour and Maker of Humanity.

Disgusting…

Disgustingdisgustingdisgustingdisgustingdisgustingdisgustingdisgustingdisgustingdisgusting-

It's wrong.

Wrongwrongwrongwrongwrongwrongwrongwrongwrongwrongwrongwrongwrongwrongwrong-!

'...Prepare.'

* * *

"Aaaaahhh!!"

Madness encroached on Alvis' mind. Like a lunatic, he screamed as he went feral like a wild animal.

An unknown amount of time passed.

His mind gradually calmed down.

"Ha… Hah…"

His throat was sore as his still erratic eyes looked around the room.

Jill the Ripper was at his side, staring into his eyes as he calmed down. Wounds, as if caused by scratches, were on her arms.

"What a disobedient slave I have…"

For a moment the static parted allowing him to see the large disturbing smile on Jill the Ripper's face, it was blasphemous.

"Ah…"

Realizing what he had just done, Alvis' face paled, almost accepting his death as a sure conclusion.

"My~ Why are you so scared? Did the dog realize that it shouldn't have bit the hand that feeds them?"

Through the smoke-like blur, two points of unimaginable depth seemed to be looking at him, it was different from the 'eyes' that looked at him before. It was somehow more humane than those accursed 'eyes', a psychopath who knew nothing of emotions was more humane…

Madness came from those memories. 

They were 'blessed'.

It was too divine to call it cursed, but the entity was also too inhumane to call it something that is possible to be seen by mere mortals, so it was simply 'blessed' with madness. It was forbidden knowledge. As they say, too much of something is not a supplement but poison.

But one was for certain: something was going to happen in three-and-a-half years.

Alvis watched with wariness as Jill the Ripper stayed silent as he covered her wounds.

"...I'm sorry."

"I didn't think that you could be so feral, what a wicked man."

"Haha…"

Alvis responded with a dry laugh, it was truly unexplainable how she had turned everything into a joke.

As the bandages were wrapped, Alvis got up from his knees.

"...How do you feel?"

"Hmm~ Nothing whatsoever. Although I have questions as to why that happened, let us leave it for another day."

Although they had moved from the crime scene, there was no doubt that the London Metropolitan Police were still out on a hunt for those who committed the crime.

'It truly makes me wonder how she managed to kill six different people in a single day…'

"Miss Jill, is perhaps Gia Lestrade the first police officer?"

Because of Jill the Ripper's large killing spree just a few months prior, the London Police had both their reputations tarnished and were also high on alert.

"Yes, that woman is in this case as well."

Jill the Ripper held an irritating tone when she spoke of Gia Lestrade.

"Although I won't ask why you lashed out like a wounded animal, I have to ask Alvis: Why do you not just kill people?"

For a moment Alvis' mind blanked.

Did he not just kill a person before passing out?

"...I don't understand."

"It's just that simple, you are like me yet you don't kill. That was the first fascinating thing I found out about you."

"...Like you?"

Alvis didn't understand what she meant.

"You don't understand?"

For Alvis it was almost the same with his blasphemous dream, it was a completely alien subject in which he had no idea on how to proceed.

"...That's strange, are you living in pure ignorance about yourself? The more I learn about you Alvis, the more I am intrigued. It makes my appetite fester."

A small hint of red came through the blur, it was her tongue licking her lips.

'Fester…'

Alvis repeated the word in his mind.

"...If I may ask a question."

"You're so stiff, it almost wants to make me laugh."

Jill the Ripper replied in an emotionless tone.

"...Why did you make me kill a person?"

"..."

Jill the Ripper stood like a statue as she gazed into Alvis' eyes.

"...I don't want to reply, perhaps if you understand your own situation I'll tell you in the future. Though by that point you will not need my answer."

As they made their way through the alleyways back to Buckingham Palace, Alvis contemplated the events.

'...I feel so calm even though I killed someone.'

It was the first time he had witnessed killing someone from his own hands.

But through that, he felt like some part of him had been lost. Like something turned black.

And the other more foreign and unknown event…

'That dream shouldn't be ignored.'

It gave off a distinct sense that it should not be ignored no matter what. If he did from what he felt he would be a complete fool.

'Three and a half years…'

There was only a single entity that could produce such madness yet such divinity.

God.

The living creator that created humanity and possibly all races on Earth.

'Haha… Wasn't it I who complained about no objective? Could [He] have answered my 'prayer'?'

Alvis was nervous.

A true omnipotent god had given him a 'revelation' or a prophecy. It would happen no matter what, for that was what fate was.

'But fate… Am I truly bound by a concept like 'fate'?'

He could not help but question. Was he, a person who was traveling through worlds, bound by such a concept?

Alvis stayed quiet, deep in thought.

'...I need power.'

The urge for power grew to new heights than ever before.

'...Do I need to use my Arts?'

Originium is in essence different from mana. Mana draws power from the Earth and is an energy that is renewable from the planet being alive. Originium is a mineral made from not just people, but from life itself. They could be said to be the polar opposites that somehow converged at a singular point making Arts and Magic.

If magic was life and illogical, then Arts is death and logical.

Life and Death intersected to create the same outcome through different means.

'...In this life, it's impossible to utilize my Arts.'

There were too many problems, the only way he could utilize his Arts was through a suitable conduit which he didn't have.

'...In the end, it all leads back to her.'

Alvis gazed at Jill the Ripper's black coat with indescribable emotions.

His savior and benefactor yet also a psychopath and a killer.

A plan started forming within Alvis' mind.

"...Miss Jill."

He called out.

Jill the Ripper turned around, looking at Alvis.

"What do you say to humiliate the police even more than you are doing right now?"

A sly smile formed on Alvis' face.

His eyes turned a hint blacker and an intrigued look appeared in Jill the Ripper's eyes.

~~~~

This marks the end of the prologue period. For those of you still reading I hope you enjoy the rest of the story!