Ruins of Sloth

Alan stood up from the hard pavement and stretched his limbs with a pained groan.

"Damn…" he said in annoyance, "why did she choose this place of all places. He looked around the area and saw a large holographic advertisement showcasing a soda brand with two twin-like virtual avatars drinking it. "..." Alan studied the recording and noticed something off. As the two avatars chugged soda cans, Alan caught a good glimpse of their faces and realized that he's seen those two somewhere. He paced back and forth trying to figure out where but ultimately gave up. He then retreated to a dark alley to escape the depressing city lights that illuminated the lifeless streets. Alan then pulled out the Crimson Princess and stared into the sky. The same anomaly as before hovered over him.

"Maybe...if I…." Alan spoke in fragments as he thought out loud. He glanced towards the top of the buildings looking for a way to climb to the top. The alley that Alan had found himself had no direct rooftop access or anything to climb as a little cheat to the roof. It was an empty Alley with no windows and only a few dumpsters for the neighboring shops. He shrugged his shoulders and looked up again. He then took a deep breath while adjusting his blade towards his front. "1...2...3!" As he gripped his blade with his left hand, a large explosion blasted from under him and he was sent airborne towards the sky. "Tch," He realized that he miscalculated his launch by a few yards and he summoned another explosion to his right. He then spun in a horizontal circular motion, with the center of the blade slicing through the strange anomaly in the sky. The drone then revealed itself as it was falling from the sky.

Shortly after destroying the drone, Alan realized about 100 ft into the air that he had no way of landing. As he began his descent back to the ground, he tried to use his fire to help redirect himself. But, he aimed and bit too high and the mid-air explosion that was supposed to help him blasted him into the pavement below.

"You really are worthless without me, huh?" Alice said in a cheerful tone. Alan slowly got back onto his feet and noticed that black markings were receding from his arms and legs. Alan grabbed his blade and placed it into his crimson mist.

"Oh shut it- nnngh!" Alan lost his balance and fell to the ground. He felt a throbbing pain coming from his left foot. He tried to carefully stand up but quickly succumbed to the pain once he placed his body weight on it. "!!!"

"It may or may not be sprained," Alice announced unapologetically. "When I took control, my one and only objective was to prevent you from dropping on your head. Sooooooo, you're welcome!" Alan could not see her, but he had a gut feeling that she was smiling, which made him uneasy.

Alan then sat cross-legged on the ground and looked down at his pendant. He then purposely froze time over and over until his leg was well enough to walk on again. Once he was finished, he walked out of the dark alley and made his way towards a large glass window that belonged to a clothing store. Alan used this window as a mirror to access the changes to his face during his time spent in the frozen plane of existence. His wounds received from the previous attempts had all faded away, not even leaving a scar. His facial hair grew in small patches throughout his face, leaving some areas with more hair than others. Alan then took off his hoodie and searched his torso for any unwanted souvenirs from previous attempts. He then frowned as he noticed that a small scar was left behind where that old man had sliced him. Once he was finished he gave a deep sigh before noticing a strange glint of light in the window. Then without thinking, he sidestepped to the left and a large cleaning robot flew to where he once was.

"Whoa there…" Alan said thinking he was alone as he put his hoodie back on. He walked over to the robot and examined it, "To think that these things could malfunction like this."

"Umm...Alan?" Alice called out with a worried tone, "You are aware that even if a robot were to malfunction, there is no way in hell that one could become a lethal projectile."

"I get what you're saying, but this is a heavy-duty cleaning robot. There is no human alive that can pick one up."

"Yeah...my point...NO HUMAN!" Alice shouted. "Haven't you realized that you are being watched, your actions follow the scripts that she had planned out? Things haven't been repeating like they should because of that-" Then without warning, Alice took control of Alan's body and launched into the air, on top of a metal bar that acted as a projector for an advertisement. A painfully loud crashing echoed off the buildings as Alice gave control back to Alan. He looked down to where he once was and found a large eighteen-wheeler with its cabin embedded into the pavement and its cargo suspended in midair, just waiting to fall and crush anything under it.

"What the hell?!" Alan then noticed something move in his peripherals. He quickly turned towards the top of a neighboring building and noticed something disappear into the night sky.

"Stay on guard." Alice said in a stern voice, "We are being hunted."

Alan nodded and summoned his mist as a smokescreen as he carefully maneuvered himself into the depths of the alley. He then lifted a large manhole cover, with the help of Alice, that led to an underground sewer network. Without thinking, he jumped down the hole. He then realized that the drop was much deeper than he had initially had thought and Alice took control to ensure he didn't go splat once he reached the bottom.

After falling for what felt like a minute, Alan fell onto a strangely soft pile in a dark room. He then summoned a small fire on his fingertip to help aid him. "What is this place!?" He looked down at the soft thing he landed on and resisted the urge to vomit as he realized that he landed on a pile of damp trash mixed with human and animal waste. He quickly stood up and looked around the darkroom.

Alan found himself surrounded by stone bricks with religious icons engraved onto them. It was hard to believe that such architecture was befitting for an underground sewer network, but the harsh stench, standing water, poor lighting from his finger flame, and roach sightings only forced him to believe so. Hoping for an answer from Alice, he waited before moving forward. But unsurprisingly, he was met with silence. Alan sighed but then regretted it as the stench of the sewer filled his lungs. He then found an old wooden torch on the wall and used his power to ignite it. As the light from the flames engulfed the shadows of the room, the horrid sight of fifty roaches running deeper into the sewer to escape the light was enough for Alan to regret his decision of entering the sewers. Before going deeper, Alan turned around and noticed a stained glass window that was shattered, revealing a small mechanical mechanism next to a shortened wooden stick that was charred black by fire years ago. On closer inspection, Alan concluded that the mechanism was able to light and put out a torch with a pull of a switch.

"This seems too advanced for ancient technology..." Alan muttered to himself as he turned to face an archway that the water flowed into. As he traveled through the tunnel, he noticed a series of small, uniform metal piles sticking out of the walls that seemed to have water flowing from them. "What type of waste management is this!?"

He then carefully followed the path deeper and found himself at the crossroad that branched out into four different directions. Ensuring that he doesn't accidentally go in circles, he summoned a small fireball and blasted part of the wall that he came from and went left, the only direction that water didn't flow from. However, just as he turned the corner, he realized why there was no water flowing as part of the tunnel had collapsed. He then turned back towards the crossroads and made another left, this time where the water was flowing to.

Along the way, he noticed more and more religious symbols etched into the aged bricks. As he walked a bit further, he found himself in a large open room with old excavating equipment and tools littered throughout the area. Alan walked up to an old yellow work vehicle with a large front-mounted drill. Past the vehicle, he found a small little cross with multiple hard hats stacked on top. There was a small message engraved on the cross that read: "Here lie the miners who were trapped due to the earthquake. May their souls rest in peace."

"So victims of the quake, huh?" Alan looked around and found nothing that showed signs of a struggle or fight that took place. "At least they didn't fight one another to survive."

Alan then continued his search around the room. The room itself had two original entrances and four destroyed walls that water flowed from. Nearing the edges of the room lay old, stone benches and fragmented pieces of red wool. In front of him was a large wooden double door that appeared to somehow resist deteriorating from years and years of neglect. The door had an odd image of an angel with a broadsword on her back with her eyes shut, with a spherical object in front of the angel that was cracked in half, engraved onto it. Alan placed his hand on the door and attempted to push it open.

Suddenly he felt immense pain in his back and his vision then started to blur as an unfamiliar voice spoke to him.

"Thu is not ready. Thu must face one's sin before they face the sin of their brethren." Then Alan blacked out.

After an hour, Alan woke up with a pounding headache as he looked around the room in a daze. Once he regained his senses he noticed Chronos looking down at him from the corner of the room. Alan tried to speak but a voice in his head prevented him from doing so.

"Don't…" Alice spoke in a harsh tone, as if she was angry at Alan, "Please...don't entertain him."

"How rude." Loki said using the mouth of Chronos, "And here I thought maybe we should be nice and look after you in case that thing comes gunning for your head." Loki's tone shifted into a more serious tone, "But...you shouldn't have come here. I'm sure that 'beautiful' princess was silent the whole time you explored this place."

"Don't listen to him!" Alice shouted.

"So, allow me to formally introduce you to the Underground Church of Sinners. Where people would follow the teachings of God by 'satisfying' the ancient souls of the sinners."

"However," Chronos started to speak, "One foolish man, the apostle of sloth, decided to wage war against God. Each apostle and their princess, from one of the seven kingdoms on the continent at the time, followed and forcefully awakened their hidden powers in order to suppress him. Each apostle commanded their princess to become weapons."

"Please make him stop…" Alice's voice had become desperate. "Please don't listen to him…."

"So how did the princesses become weapons?" Chronos was very aware of Alice's cries, but he continued nonetheless. "Though the mass genocide of their own subjects. Each princess was ordered to kill thousands of their people with their own hands. Alice may seem like a kind, mature woman who wants to look out for you, but, like me, she has her own agenda to follow. She's using you."

"SHUT UP!!!" Alice shouted.

"But here's the exciting part," Loki began to speak, "That very room was where the ritual took place. Where thousands were murdered. But the best part about all of this is that to complete the ritual and to have their soul awaken, they must make love on the altar with their corresponding apostle. Hehehe, that was fun though to be honest, making love in the same room that all that pathetic cattle was slaughtered in." Chronos's mouth began to drool as he remembered the past events.

"Stop that, you psychopath." Chronos punched himself in the face as he regained control. "But to summarize, beyond this door is the Chamber of Sloth." He paused for a second, "And I, Chronos, am, no was, the apostle of Sloth."

"And I, Loki, was the apostle of Wrath. However, that's all the information I'm willing to give. And knowing Chronos's princess, she won't tell you anything anyway. That girl's pride makes the actual apostle of pride seem like a generic wanna-be."

Alan sat there quietly, at a loss for words. He was curious about what was behind that door. However, the girl inside of him seemed to have completely broken. All he could hear was the sound of soft crying as her pride and her trust with Alan was completely shattered. The past she tried so hard to cover up just revealed thanks to the man she had once trusted. The man who she gave her heart to back then, had just backstabbed her again, and the man who she thought she could trust and love, ventured into the wrong place on a whim causing this to happen. Alan knew that what he did wasn't wrong. He knew he had the right to at least know something about the situation he has found himself in. But he did feel a little guilty about how it happened.

"So boy," Chronos interrupted his thoughts.

"The choice is yours," Loki alternated with Chronos.

"Alice."

"Or us?"

"Hehe...HAHAHAHA!!!!" Alan began to laugh uncontrollably, "To think you had the nerve to ask that damn question once more you damned geezer." He then stood up and walked up to Chronos with a determined look, "Even if she hates me now because I bought her and indirectly exposed her innermost secrets; I will continue to follow her till the end, rather than you."

"Heh," Chronos chuckled a little, "well, I tried. The ball is in your court now boy." He then broke character and bent his knee towards Alan.

"What…!?" Alice was the first to express her surprise, leaving Alan dumbfounded. "I...I...I thought-"

"Sorry princess," Chronos said while looking down, "I have forced you to endure many unspeakable hardships such as forcing you to murder your subjects, depetaling you in front of them, and killing you in your state of ecstasy."

"You didn't need to bring that part back up."

"However, as of this moment, I shall serve none other than Alan Macemon. I hereby denounce your plans princess, and shall act in accordance with ancient law." He then stood back up with a look of relief on his face.

Alan noticed this and unconsciously gave an empty smile. "It's that easy to have a scapegoat I see." He spoke quietly with little emotion.

"Boy, you will one day understand that we humans must place the blame of our emotions on something." Loki said, "Just like Chronos did to Alice, there is more to this story than we are letting out. It's just that most of it is irrelevant to your situation, therefore unless we feel like talking about it we won't." Loki then walked up to Alan and placed his hand on his shoulder. "I only agreed to serve you because I want to see my successor and you two seem quite intimate." He chuckled at his own statement.

Alan looked at him with an annoyed look, "I wished, kinda. But that brat only sees my father in me sooo….there's a major barrier between us and intimacy. Also, haven't you talked to her already? You know, in a previous timeline?"

"That doesn't count, and Chronos doesn't allow for any interface between us and the subjects unless he knows the world is done for."

"Subjects, huh?" Alan looked down and mimicked that word softly. As he returned his gaze back to Chronos, he noticed that the aqua spirit had an oddly aggressive stance with eyes staring off into the distance as if he were stalking an approaching predator. Then the sound of splashing water was heard coming from the direction that Alan had entered with a small, orange light that led the way. Chronos then gently pushed Alan away and pointed towards a ladder that was located in the corner of the room. Alan stared at the weathered, wooden ladder that led to a metal trapdoor on the ceiling. Alan turned back towards Chronos and nodded silently and ran towards the ladder.

"Leaving so soon?" A female voice called out with strong authority behind it. Alan hesitated for a moment. He turned and found a tall woman with silver hair dressed in a moonlight silver suit that reflected the illuminating torch in her right hand. She had a strange-looking silver mask partially hanging off the left side of her face, allowing her sapphire eyes to stare directly into Alan's soul. Beside her was a familiar android with silver hair and crimson eyes. The machine itself did not appear to be a threat as it stood idly with a servant-like posture. "To think you would leave right before he could have our little reunion, Chronos, Loki, and Alice."

"Alan get the fuck outta here." Chronos shouted.

"If you don't move now, I will make sure your escape will be as painful as humanly possible." Alice said with a low growl, "That woman is Pupagenti, the former apostle of Greed."

Chronos then took a fighting stance as Pupagenti walked closer, "Long time no see, Genti."