CHAPTER 156: you are real.

I slowly walked to where I used to hide back then with the dwarf. I guess I just wanted to be at a place that was a little more familiar and not directly tied to my mistakes.

Upon arrival I placed the bird on the floor, and it followed me around for a little while.

Despite the massive damages to the ruins, everything was still here. the sketches, the tools, the materials. Even some of the prototypes of the advanced detection devises.

Some started to quietly hum when I came close. A soft, warm, red light filled the table on which they were placed. The shards of crystals that broke were still scattered all over the table. The small lights kind of reminded me of a night sky.

I carefully picked one of the sketches up. I remembered how I had helped the dwarf with this one. Sadly, it did not work out in the end.

I swiftly hid myself behind illusions again when I noticed that someone was approaching. Getting out of here was no longer an option. There were only two entrances and one had already been destroyed be the resent attack. if I tried to leave trough the only one left, he would ultimately notice me. the only option I had was to move away as far as possible from the crystals and hope that he did not realise I was here.

A few moments later the dwarf stepped in. he was holding a compass like device made from the same crystals as the detection devices. He also carried a half-loaded spear on his back.

He looked down at the bird that was confusedly walking around since in its eyes I had suddenly disappeared. Quite annoyed he shook the crystal compass. Tough slightly flickering at first it soon shone bright red at one side. The side that was pointing in my direction.

"Com on kid, I know you are here. I could not convince the higherups to hand me an adder stone so you acting like this is a huge pain in the ass."

Hoping that he would leave I stayed silent. Tough I already know from experience that just hoping that he would do something was not enough.

He took the pear and tossed it war out of his reach. "See? I am not here to harm you despite you destroying an entire street. I came here to talk. And since I had to go through an immense amount of trouble to be allowed outside of the city again, I am going to talk. Now show yourself or I would be forced to explain the entire lifecycle of a nuckelavee to you and neither of us want that."

"Where were you?! I was trapped there for days! I was stabbed more times than I have scales on my arm. and you didn't even visit me once!"

I knew verry well that he would not have had the option to come to me. only verry few were allowed to enter the dungeons to prevent me from taking control over important people. but now that I had escaped, they had to give their all to capture me again to limit the amount of destruction I could cause.

But still I felt like things would have gone differently if he had been there.

"I am sorry. But you know I couldn't."

I let the illusion slowly fade so that I would become visible again.

"I know. It is just… things happened. My father found out about some stupid stuff that I had done, and I don't know what to believe anymore."

The dwarf put the compass back in his jacket. "Then tell me about it. maybe I can help."

"How much can you help me with the fact that the majority of my life has been a lie? I found out that the angels are pretending to be a part of families. It was an angel that had instructed that silvery demon to do this to me. that angel was my sister. No, she probably was never my sister in the first place. she was just a selfish parasite that just wanted to have some fun in this world before she would just move on to the next."

"Then how did you know about that? Isn't I t a little far fetched to straight up assume that your mark was the work of an angel and that, that angel was pretending to be your sister?"

I reached out for Quetzalcoatl who was trying to climb my leg to get higher up. I placed the bird on one of my horns again and it just stared to walk around to find the most comfortable spot.

"You know of the existence of different worlds, right? Well, there is a space between them, a place between worlds. it is not just the gods that are out there. There is something else. Something more ancient. In this place between worlds live creatures of endless knowledge that are far beyond our understanding. These horrors are bored and watch the worlds as if they are just flowers in a garden. I happened to meet one of those. But if you want more direct proof. There is also a verry good example of an angel infiltrating another family. That child that came here with the girl to seek shelter. You know, the one that knew things it could not have known. That was an angel doing almost the same thing as Alice. I was getting burns from just being near it, and I most likely would have died if I had not left sooner."

"Then… I have seen an angel without even knowing it?"

"Wasn't that obvious? If the gods couldn't bother to come here, then what else could have been so holy for me to nearly die just from seeing it!"

The dwarf was stunned. Since he hid during the first part of the attack, he had not seen the angel that had blown the trumpet. He had lived a verry long life, and for the first time in that life he realised that he indeed had met an angel.

"You know. Since I now see how everything I thought was true was actually a lie fabricated by a higher being. I can't help but wonder what else isn't real. Who is to say that my mark really did turn me into a demon? What if I am just some random demon an all what that mark did was replace my memories with that of the human Gustave? What if I am just an entirely new creature created from the mind of Gustave and the remaining energy from that demon that died along with him? What constant do I have that I really am him? If I'm not, then what is the point of still trying ? what does it matter what my father thinks of me if I was never his son in the first place?"

The dwarf sighed seemingly already snaping out of the realisation that he had seen a true angel. "Come calm down kid. Yes, it is true that the actual effect of the mark turning you into a demon was just a hypothesis. And if it is really by the design of an angel, then we can never say for sure. But you are doubting your entire existence won't change anything. Who cares if what I thought was the effect of the mark is real or not? The fact that you have these thoughts and emotions is real. The fact that you are standing here in front of me is real just as the memories you have. It does not matter who or what you were in the past. You are no longer that person anyways, people change. Just as I am not the same as that I was fifty years ago. Mainly because I am just getting old, but you get the point. Whoever you were Gustave, you are real now, and I am sure that you can set right whatever happened between you and your father."