LOFTER-网易轻博

Do you not desire more prey?

The mansion said to Bestia, who was walking in the hall.

But you were so hungry for blood before.

"I have had enough. I don’t need anymore...Although she was blind, no, because she cannot see, she does not push me away. She was the only one willing to accept me, to be with me."

But you obtain peace, cast it aside, and then pick it up once more. But you’ll never escape from it completely. After all, you are enchanted by the pleasure murder brings. You have been a very very long time...

"This time, this time I am done. I won’t kill anyone again. Being with her is far more satisfying than the joy killing brought me. To be with her is truly what I want!"

So very self-centered.

There was a knocking on the door again.

It was as though Bestia was viewing a flashback. The sound of the knocking echoed in the mansion, as it had the day the merchant came and brought the beast’s short-lived peace crashing down.

"No... What did I just tell you? I don’t want any more prey! Stop this, stop! Don’t bring me any more! I thought you were supposed to fulfill my desires! Why did the door open?"

The door opened by itself. Sword in hand, Bestia ran through the mansion’s halls. He was overcome with fear. He had obtained the peace he so dearly wanted, and even found someone who did not fear him; he was terrified that the appearance of more prey would case this all to crumble. If he spotted the prey, murdered them, and conceded to his madness, the girl might choose to leave him. As much as she claimed he was not hideous, if she witnessed him doing that... I will just chase them out! I am done with this! My desire has changed!

However, Bestia shuddered in terror at the sight. 

A beast.

"Stay back! Stay away from me!"

Bestia broke into a run.

It was not, after all, helpless prey that had entered the mansion. The monster’s voice seemed to slither along the floors behind him. He felt as though, if he were to turn around, it would be right there on top of him.

"Why are you chasing me?" Bestia shouted with fear in his voice, uncharacteristic of the beast who had so readily slaughtered his prey.

"That’s a Bestia!"

In that moment, the maid had an epiphany. She had assumed he had called himself "Bestia" unaware of what the word meant.

"Bestia other than me!"

Bestia, is not, in fact, a name. It is a word means beast. Indeed, a second beast had come to the mansion.

"Are you here to kill me? Because I settled down? Because I wanted to stop being a beast?"

"Is something the matter?" when the white-haired girl poked her head out of her bedchamber, Bestia was aghast. He frantically attempted her to her room.

"You mustn’t leave your room!"

But as he was doing this, the horrifying creature, no, the beast’s voice drew nearer.

"Huh?"

"Do not open this door, for any reason! I will protect you!"

That’s right, Bestia though. He didn’t want this peace destroyed, these tranquil days together with this woman. He would protect them. He would. 

Trembling in fear, Bestia gathered his resolve. He pointed his sword, which until then had only be used to torment others, at the second beast. Now, he would wield his blade to protect the person he cared about.

This was the same beast who had killed and killed and killed to satisfy his own primal desires.

"I won’t let you destroy this. I will protect it from you!"

From a rational point of view, the things he was saying and feeling were rather idealistic, but Bestia was desperate. He did not want to lose this peace. Before long, the beast, the one chasing him, appeared from within the darkness.

But, if the resolve was the only thing necessary for one to act courageously, would that not mean nearly anyone could become a hero?

Bestia had viciously slaughtered so many people before. But now he had gathered his courage to protect the things he cared for. Although he was shaking.

He did not gallantly bring his sword down upon the approaching beast; instead, he trembled visibly from head to toe. He must had been quite terrified at the beast’s appearance.

"Stop, no, stay away from me! Don’t! Stay back!"

But the beast slowly, slowly ambled toward him.

"If I don’t kill it, it will kill me! I have to kill it, I have to kill it!"

And that was the moment Bestia’s mind ran off rails of sanity. He lifted his sword up above his head, facing the approaching beast. And ferociously, swung it down upon his assailant.

Again, and again, and again.

Blood, and blood, and blood.

Screaming, horrifically, at the top oh his lungs.

He continued, swing after swing, until the other beast had gone completely still.

Before long, copious volumes of fresh blood stained the corridor. At some point, the other beast had stopped moving and sunken into a pool of his own lifeblood.

"I did it. I did it. I killed it. I killed the other beast."

Bestia had let his guard down, assuming he had claimed victory over the unmoving beast. 

But he was wrong.

Even the maid did not imagine that the beast could still be alive after shedding so much blood.

"Stay back..."

The beast reached its hand out toward Bestia. It was determined to drag him down to the underworld, it seemed. Slowly sliding along the slippery floor, it dragged himself toward him. Even on its last breaths, it continued reaching for Bestia, fixated on him. Bestia kicked the beast’s hand up into the air, staggering it, and then he said....

"BURN IN HELL!" then rammed his blade down into it. 

Bestia’s fear-stricken expression was hardly that of a knight who had just saved the maiden. Nevertheless, he had indeed eradicated the other beast.