15 Chapter 15: Cry of a demented mother

After the interview, Lud and Weiss started walking towards the training grounds of Xu's Fingers. While walking there, Weiss says to Lud "How long has it been since Bai was sent to Vortias?" To which Lud answers "It's been about… seven days I think. Why do you ask?"

Then Weiss says "No it's nothing. Just wondering when I get to train with her again." Lud responds by saying "I'm sure the mission in Vortias will soon subside. According to Loren, things are starting to quiet down thanks to Bai."

Then Weiss asks "And what did Xu say?" To which Lud answers "According to him, she is dying of boredom."

Then Weiss wonders out loud "But why would Rucksta decide to ally themselves with Restias? I didn't know Jeremaja's full opinion of the matter, but he did refrain on taking sides in the demon conflict. And now that they allied themselves with Restias, Rucksta had to divide their forces not only to the east, but to the west as well. Wasn't one war enough?" Lud gives his opinion "I think that the current ruler of Rucksta is being pressured by different factions in Rucksta. Wasn't his name Soramaja? Anyways, for what I know, things are quite heated in Rucksta. There is even word going on that there'll be a civil war."

Weiss looks down and says "To what low has the once mighty kingdom now fallen. Is the shame that Jeremaja is put through so damaging to the people of Rucksta? No, in the whole middle realm." Lud puts his hand on Weiss' shoulder for a brief moment to console her as he says "Public shaming brings out all kinds of emotions to people. And since Jeremaja is still technically the king of the country, those emotions will run even more rampant. I'm sure this would have happened to any country whose ruler was put into a similar situation"

Then Weiss says "Thanks, but I feel no respect towards Jeremaja anymore. That respect died when he invited me to his bed chambers once. Unfortunately, he still is the king of my former country I once called home." Lud then wonders out loud "Did you accept that invitation?" Without noticing that he says it out loud.

Weiss responds by saying "If I had refused, then my position would have been compromised." Lud noticed that he said it out loud, so he said "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say it out loud. I didn't mean to ask such an invasive question from you. If you want something as an apology, then I try to fulfill it to the best of my ability. Just as long as it isn't anything too absurd."

Weiss chuckles a little and says "There is no need to apologize, Faust. You have already done so much for me. But if I have one wish that I want to be fulfilled, then…" Then Weiss wraps her arm around Lud's neck and says "I think you should learn to have an air like a king. The way you are now is like watching a commoner who's put in the position of power."

Lud says "Well that is kind of what I am. But while we are at it, why are you treating me like this?" To which Weiss says "You just…" Then she takes her arm off of Lud and says "You remind me of my little brother."

Lud then says "Little brother? I didn't know you had one. Where is he now?" To this, Weiss remained silent for a moment and the air became a little depressing. Weiss is about to say something, but Lud notices the atmosphere and says "I see. Well I had a brother once too. He wasn't expected to live to 20, so our dad ended up leaving because of it. Leaving only our mom."

Weiss stayed silent for a while longer, but then she took a deep breath and said "My brother would slap me in the back of my head right about now if he'd see me. So let's not worry about the past too much. So what do you plan on doing the rest of the day? I hear that you are free until 16:00." Lud says "I… haven't planned anything so I think I'm going to take a stroll around the city. You?"

Weiss says "Then I'll accompany you." Lud asks "You sure? Don't you have training to do?" And Weiss says "Can't let the king of my new home go by themselves without protection."

Lud asks "You think that there would be anyone who would attack me?" To which Weiss says "You never know if some assassin from another country has infiltrated the city. And you aren't exactly someone who I'd make a bet on in an arena."

Then Lud says "I think you are underestimating our security." To which Weiss says "I'll still tag along just in case. Or are you going to order me not to, king Faust?" To which Lud says "I'm not going to do that. Fine, do as you wish."

Then while walking, Weiss puts out a comment "You weren't planning on going in any places where deviants would go, right?" To which Lud commented nonchalantly "No way I'd have the guts to go to those kinds of places." Weiss commented "Well, now you'd have a bodyguard who'd make sure you won't get in trouble. I also promise to not tell anybody." To which Lud says "You really are underestimating the security of Elysium."

Meanwhile, Bai is manipulating her swords and quite frankly, beating her enemies' asses. She has few aids around her and an army behind her, but they are there just for the sake of appearances. After all "You can't just have one girl face off an army by herself" and the likes.

Then again, the army that is standing by is feeling quite guilty of not being of any help. Any attempts of trying to bring up Bai's mood has been met with scoffs and fake thank you's.

And when Bai was done dealing with this round of attacks from the enemy, she went to her designated tent and waited for someone to come and call her when she was needed or that they were moving.

The enemy's morale wasn't the highest either. Just watching your soldiers be defeated by a bunch of flying swords was really mood killing for those who survived the ass beating.

One of the enemy soldiers whined to another "Damn that brat! When I saw her face in the distance, I saw how uninterested she was! Can you believe that?!" To which another soldier said "What kind of monster do you have to be to be able to face off an entire army?! There were supposed to be over 1000 of us, but she just wiped the floor with us! I heard that some people have bailed after so many defeats!"

Another soldier says "Shhh! Don't say that out loud! If someone high enough hears you, you'll be fucked! Then another soldier complains "Gods what I'd do to have a couple of beers right about now." To which multiple soldiers said in unison "Agreed."

Then in the commanding tent of the enemy, the one in charge slams his fist to the makeshift table and shouts "God damn it! Why can WE have a badass chick on our rank?! Why do WE have to be the punching bags of someone who works with humans?!" Then another commanding officer says "Don't say that. While I agree that it is quite unfair how things currently are, we cannot lower ourselves to the level that Vortias has fallen." Then the highest in charge whines while two demons from Restias are present "Those demon bastards! Of course they would do such a low thing as to ask help from a human led nation!"

One of the non-demon commanding officers clears his throat as to say to the highest rank that that wasn't an appropriate comment. But the highest rank still whines "Shit! To be stuck with these morons! When will we receive reinforcements from the motherland?!" To which one of the officers says "About that sir… they have deemed that there is no way that we can't defeat the people from Vortias with this many troops… sir."

Then the highest rank shouts as he breaks the table in anger "GOD DAMN IT!!! I know that the humiliation that our king is going through is an unforgivable sin for those human scum to do, but we need to finish this part quickly if we ever are to be respected by the other countries! Why can't that brat see that?!"

One of the officers is trying to leave the tent, but the highest rank throws a wooden blank at the officer's direction as he shouts "And where the hell do you think you are going?! We have to figure out what to do before our dignity is irreparable!"

The other people at the tent are silent for a while as the highest rank shouts "What?! Does no one have any ideas on how to beat that bitch?! You fucking insufferable grunts know NOTHING useful when MATTERS!"

Meanwhile, Bai is listening to them talk from the comfort of her tent. She mutters to herself "Why can't I go beat them up right now? "It would be disrespectful" or what not they would babble. This is war people, we don't care about respecting our enemies. *sigh* And then there is my homie's wish to avoid as much bloodshed as possible. I'm starting to reconsider if I want to call him my homie after what he is putting me through."

A while passes, but eventually the enemy begins to move. Bai responds by "Finally. At least I can do something." Then Bai leaves the tent and one of the people who were to attend her asks "Where are you going, miss?" To which Bai responded "The enemy is moving. They appear to be splitting their army into five different groups presumably because they think they can go out of my range or make it harder for me to focus."

Then one of Bai's attendants motions another attendant to go inform the others in the army and then saying "Will there be any issues, miss?" To which Bai says "You kidding right? I have the processing power to fully control all my 100 swords' movements from across the world as if I was there in person. Honestly, I could have done this from the comfort of my tent, but it seems you guys want some sort of respect to be shown, I'll humor you."

As expected, Bai's swords quickly deal with the enemy's movements and the enemy is forced to retreat.

Bai goes back to her tent, ready to hear how the enemy is losing their shit over nothing working.

As expected, the highest rank of the enemy army shouts again in his tent "Fuck! Fuck that bitch! Fuck everything she stands for! And fuck her bratty ass!" The highest rank looks around the tent where all the commanding officers would gather, but sees that more than half are absent. So he shouts at the remaining officers "Where are the other guy's at?! And if any of you say that they have abandoned their post then I'm going to make sure you will go running to hunt them down as deserters!"

None of the remaining officers dared to open their mouths for a moment, but then one of them dared to say "Um, I heard that the unit led by officer Oscar Tomson was wiped out." To this, the highest rank shouts "No shit you dumbass! We were all wiped out by that bitch!" To which the same officer corrects the highest rank by saying "No sir. What I meant by that is that most of them were killed, including officer Oscar Tomson. The only remaining people from that unit were shouting some nonsense about a ghost or something."

Then the highest rank shouts "That still must be the work of that bitch! She simply got bored or something and decided to mess with our heads!" To which the same officer tries to say something, until they hear screaming from the outside. The highest ranking officer shouts "It must be an enemy attack! Go and deal with it!" To which the officers go and investigate.

Soon after the officers leave the tent, two halves of one officer come flying to the tent. The highest rank is startled by this and shouts "Sweet mother of gods!" Then he goes to investigate and he sees a ghost-like woman that is about 2,4 meters tall, has her neck twisted and bent in unnatural ways. The ghost has long and sharp claws that come out of twisted hands, is wearing tattered black dress, has one of the eyes gouged out and one has small barbed metal around the other. The noises she made were unnatural cries of a tormented soul that had lost itself in the fog a long time ago.

Then the gaze of that ghost sees the highest rank who is pissing his pants by the second. The ghost looms closer to the highest rank. The ghost says in a horrid voice "The scent of my sons… the scent of my sons… closer… closer… just like papa dearest promised."

The highest rank starts to flee as he shouts in terror "St-stay away from me! Someone, you must rescue me! If somebody is to survive, it has to be me! You hear me! Throw yourself at it to buy me time! You must…" And then the highest rank's face was cut from the right side of his head to the left side of his cheek.

The ghost murmurs "Yes… yes… this…" as she glances at the direction of Bai's sword. Then she says "You… you will lead me to my sons… YES!"

Meanwhile Bai is wondering what it was that killed those people. She couldn't see anything but a fog that cut the highest ranking officer's face in half. She had a bad feeling and went outside her tent and said to her attendants "Evacuate immediately."

The attendant questions "why", but Bai repeats with a more stern voice "Evacuate". This time, the attendants got into action and started to make the Vortias' army leave the area.

Even if Bai didn't see anything but a fog killing those people, her software was telling her that it was about to get dangerous.

A while later after observing the area, Bai felt a sudden need to move to the right. And in that movement, she dodged a claw she could barely see. She mumbled "At least it got interesting." After which she activated a bunch of different sensors to try and observe the entity more closely, but as she was doing so, another urge to move in a certain way came to her, and she followed it.

Not stopping, she filtered different kinds of things, until eventually she tried to use basic eyes, which showed a more humanoid form rather than a pile of fog. Following that, she switched her ears to the same frequency.

The ghost murmured "You… my sons are near… guide me to them… I order you!" And as the last words were said, the ghost attacked Bai, who actually had an instinct to dodge rather than block. And the dodging took more effort than she expected from things from the world she was currently at, so she got a little "blood" pumping.

Both start to exchange blows after that, but Bai's attacks just fell through the ghost woman. Bai tried different methods, but eventually the time ran out when one of her left arm was cut off.

Bai started to go on autopilot for a moment as she processed the information. "My arm was cut" "My arm was cut" "The arm that held the jacket" "The arm that held the jacket" "So the jacket was damaged" "Jacket" "Damaged" "Jacket that Li made for me" "Li's gift" "Jacket" "Li" "Jacket" "Li".

Then she said out loud with quite a menacing look on her face "Elimination mode… engaged." An immense aura began to radiate from Bai and her speed was greatly increased. This time, the ghost had a hard time following Bai's movements. 

Bai said "Qian Jian 69th form. Rapid. X10." Then another "Qian Jian 91st form. Lighting javelin. X61." And another "Qian Jian 67th form. Lull. X25." And lastly "Qian Jian 100th form. Deus Ex Machina." 

Suddenly in a briefest of moments, hundreds of flashing lights flicker in the spot where the ghost is standing. Then the next moment, an explosion occurs that levels out the area to the point where the shockwave makes trees fall far from where the explosion happens. Some of the soldiers that were accompanying Bai are hit by that shockwave and have their hearing damaged for a while.

After the dust settles, there is no sign of the ghostly woman. Bai calms down a little and regrows her arm like it was nothing. What worried Bai was that the sleeve of her jacket was cut off. But for some reason, Bai just said "I need to go inform Ludwig immediately." After which she switched places with the sword that was near Elysium.

Bai was looking where Lud was, until she eventually found him near a hill together with Weiss. Bai scoffed at the idea of vermin being near Ludwig, so she went to where they were.

When Bai was there, she said to Lud "Ludwig, I've finally found you." To which Lud says in a confused tone "Why are you calling me that Bai? Did something happen?" To which Bai tries to say something, until her chest bursts open and the ghost comes out of her, leaving Bai in shatters.

The ghost now says "Ah… finally… I found one of my sons." Then quickly comes to Lud and hugs him carefully. Weiss tries to stop her, but the ghost just simply says "Out of my way." and swipes Weiss into five pieces with her claws. Horrified, Lud tries to say something, but is unable to due to the aura that the ghost exudes.

Then the ghost says "Ah… Ludwig… my dear little Ludwig… we are finally reunited… but where is Adam? My reward cannot be complete without Adam." Lud says to her "He is… he is dead… mom."

The ghost chuckles a little and says "Dead? Adam is? My dear Ludwig, it isn't fair to lie to your own mother. After all, you are here for my reward, and papa dearest would never lie to me. Now where is Adam, Ludwig?"

Lud tries to say "But… mom… he is..:" Then the ghost starts to breathe uncontrollably as she says "No, this can't be… my son is lying to me about the other's death… This simply can't be… Adam must be alive… After all… I'm a success. Yes… I'm a success so both Ludwig and Adam should be present. Yes, now I get it papa dearest. This thing in front of me isn't Ludwig. Yes, this person is a fake disguised in the scent of my son. Yes, the impostor must be dealt with."

Then in a sudden motion, the ghost cuts Lud into tiny pieces. Then she begins to laugh as she says "Yes! All of these fakes must be dealt with! Only then will papa dearest give me my well deserved reward! Yes! Die! Die! Die!"

A while ago in the deepest part of the abyss, Maumar is doing his business with the graves, until he notices that one of the gravestones is broken. He stares at the gravestone for a minute in contemplation, until finally saying "Oh… oh no… oh this is bad… Well, the silver lining is that I found what the disturbance was. Let's see, this person was… Oh it's her…" 

Maumar continues to contemplate for another minute, until he says "Oh… oh no… if it's her then that must mean that she is after… Hmmm… What to do… I could just let other gods take care of it, but then they would chew me out for my failures. What to do…"

Then Maumar tracks where the person that was represented by the grave is and he sees that it is in Elysium "Oh… oh no… Things have become quite dire indeed… If I don't do anything soon, then I fail to uphold my end of the deal with her. Hmmm… I COULD just remake him… But then what would have been the point of giving him the 72 days in the first place? Hmmm… I suppose I have no choice but to intervene. Marumaru to the rescue."

Then Maumar comes to the scene where Lud was cut into pieces. Maumar notices this and says "Oh my, it seems that I came too late. Now then, I'm faced with a choice. Either I go with the remake plan… or I use my time manipulation powers to fix things. Hmmm…" Maumar ponders as he hears several people screaming in the distance. 

Then Maumar says "I suppose it would be a shame if I just remade the reward. Sigh, I really am hopeless sometimes. Marumaru to the rescue, yet again." Maumar goes to where Lud's cut up corpse is and he picks up the surprisingly intact head. In fact it is only cut from the neck, so Maumar says "Nice catch, me. Now then Ludwig Freigner, if you would allow me to share my senses with your soul. As in, you would be sensing through me as we walk through the streets."

Soon after, Lud hears the screams of his people, the bloody smell and the despair in the air as they walk through the streets that used to be filled with happy people. Maumar says "Can you sense all of this, Ludwig Freigner? You may not be able to answer me, but I know that I've made the connection with you. These corpses that we see, they are your people, are they not? This despair in the air is from those people who trusted you, is it not?"

Lud is forced to watch the bloodied streets of his city as Maumar walks them. Maumar says "Is this what you think game developers could imitate through software? True, in your world, they can control dreams as if they were games, hence the creation of GFOO. But would they go as far as to make one of their players experience this kind of horror? Can you be sure that a game can imitate this amount of dread in this amount of detail?"

As Maumar walked closer to the source of the screams and the fighting, Maumar extended his hand and looked at the face of the dead Lud. Then he says "Wasn't it one of your world's greatest stories written that asked the question "To be, or not to be?" What would your choice be now? I remember that you once had a choice about that question, but now you no longer remember it, as it is how I made this."

Then as Maumar walks towards the source of the screams and finally sees the ghost that has killed so many of Elysium's people, he looks around and sees plenty of battalion commanders as well as Li in a pinch. Maumar then says "Banshee of the abyss, stay still." And the banshee stops moving in the astonishment of the others present.

Sarah sees that Maumar is holding the head of Lud, so she begins to lose herself and tries to attack Maumar with all her remaining strength. But the attack simply passes through Maumar as he is getting closer towards the banshee.

Then Maumar takes a hold of Lud's head in a way that he holds it from the top of the head. Then Maumar places Lud's head to the chest of the banshee and says "I suppose that I ought to say a few magic words before doing my thing. Let's see… Ah. Now I got it. Ahem. Marumaru's secret art. House extension. My house, my rules."

And then the scene turns back to the time where Bai was about to say something to Lud, but now Maumar is present and is holding his hand inside her chest like he was holding Lud's head previously inside the banshee. Bai is confused for a moment, until she remembers what just happened, but before she could say anything, Maumar says "It may hurt a little, Song Bai." Then Maumar pulls the banshee out from Bai's body without killing Bai, though Bai is feeling a huge amount of pain.

Maumar is holding the banshee from her head and the banshee is trying to struggle. Maumar just says "It is over, Aileen Freigner. Your time in this world has long since passed." After hearing that, Lud is surprised to hear his mother's name and tries to say something, but Aileen says to Maumar "Papa dearest! Papa dearest! Why are you avoiding giving me my well deserved reward?! Give me back my sons as promised! Papa dearest never lies, so give me my reward!"

Then Maumar says "You seem to have followed Ludwig Freigner's scent back to this world, but you fail to accept that he would tell you that Adam is dead. This alone is enough to prove that you weren't a success." Aileen shouts "Papa dearest! Papa dearest! Please, just give me my sons! I've waited for so long! I've suffered as you said I would, but I have a humanoid form and I can speak! Surely I must be a success! There is no one closer to it than myself, so please let me see my sons, papa dearest!"

Maumar says "As a show of mercy, I allow you to say your final goodbyes to Ludwig Freigner that is standing behind me. After that, there'll be no second chances as far as I'm concerned." Aileen then shouts "That thing in front of me isn't my son! There is no way that MY Ludwig would lie to me about MY Adam's death! There is no way! I know you are testing me papa dearest, but don't be too cruel to me and MY family anymore!"

Maumar sighs and then says "You are mistaken on something Aileen Freigner. The truth is that the person behind me is Ludwig Freigner, or at least what remains of him, and that Adam is, in fact, dead. All three of you were. Then again, the only truth you need is your own truth. Some may argue, some may bicker, but in the end, what you know will always be the truth for you. If you wish to be gone from this world with your own version of truth, then I'm not going to stop you."

Aileen shouts "Papa dearest! Papa dearest!" And then Maumar says "I'll make sure to place flowers on your grave too. Now, I hope you will find your way back home."

Then Aileen starts to be compressed to a single point. The screams that Aileen made while she was being compressed were otherworldly and terrifying. No words could do it justice of how inhumane the sounds were that came out of Aileen in those moments. When the screams ended, Aileen ended up becoming a small glass ball thing. Soon after, Li and Sarah come to where Lud and the others are. 

Maumar says to Li "Greetings Li Last. It's been a while." Sarah tries to attack Maumar, but it just passes through Maumar like he was a ghost.

Then Maumar says "It seems yours is quite the hothead. Not unlike my own." Everyone stays quiet for a while, until Maumar says with his blank face and monotone voice "Speaking of which, Li Last, I have come here to brag about how my own child called me her old man. Tremble before me." Everyone stood quiet for a while.

Then Maumar says "So Otzal lied to me. This isn't the reaction I expected after bragging." To which Li says "I think it is the matter of current circumstances as well as the insignificance of the thing you tried to brag about."

Maumar says "I see. But I thought that it was something worth bragging about. Emotional beings are truly hard to understand." Li asks, "What was that thing?" To which Maumar answered "A being known as a great abyssal banshee. This particular one was none other than Ludwig Freigner's own mother. Mama? Hmmm… I wonder how that would feel? Ludwig Freigner, what do you call your own mother?"

Lud says "I call her mom, but how is it possible for a game to know about how my mother sounds like, let alone who she was?" To which Maumar says "As this all happened because of my negligence, I'll answer this question without hiding too much. But first I say to you as well, the only truth you need is your own truth. Some may argue, some may bicker, but in the end, what you know will always be the truth for you."

Lud says "Just answer me already." To which Maumar says "As an engineer of this world, I'll tell you my truth of how things are. My truth is that the body of Ludwig Freigner that was on earth, no longer has any activity going on in his brain. In fact, there is no longer any brain to begin with."

Lud asks "How… how is that possible?" To which Maumar says "My truth is that you died while you were holding the device that let you play GFOO. This happened a long time ago and you no longer have a body to return to on earth. As for what all of this is, my truth is that this is a whole nother world that you are in. But for your truth, you may think of this as a fever dream of a dead man or that I'm lying to you. But I let you know that even though I have done many abhorable things to an unfathomable number of sentient beings, I don't ever recall saying a lie to them and I have always played fair with them."

Lud is slowly having a mental breakdown and Maumar says to nail it home "So I ask you once again, Ludwig Freigner, "Can you be sure that a game can imitate this amount of dread in this amount of detail?" And I answer you with my truth "The body of Ludwig Freigner in earth has died long time ago" So will you hold onto your current truth? Or will you be forced to face a different kind of truth? Do tell, Ludwig Freigner."

Lud falls to his knees and starts to just scream as he panics. He keeps thinking "Real? What is real? Me? Dead? Mom? Here? Is this all still, a game? What? What? What? What? What? What? What What? What? What? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?" 

Sarah, Bai and Weiss try to comfort Lud, but Li shouts at Maumar while Lud is unable to hear "Why did you do this Maumar?! Why did you make him face his worst fear?!" To which Maumar says "His worst fear, you say? Li Last, while I think of you as a fellow papa, I think it is far too below you to think that this is Ludwig Freigner's worst fear." Li stays silent for a moment and says "Aileen spoke about a reward that her "papa dearest" promised. And since my lord being here without his brother wasn't her reward, then that must mean that the one he is a reward for is…" To which Maumar cuts Li off by saying "I think we both know who's reward Ludwig Freigner is. But now the question "But who WAS the person rewarded?" will stay with you for now. As a fellow papa, I would love to tell you about it, but even for you, I must wait until the 72 days have been spent. And even then, will I help you uncover the truth, or will I be the best papa to my daughter? So as they say, only time will tell."

Then Maumar leaves and Li is left to deal with the aftermath.

When Maumar enters the lowest part of the abyss, he goes near the hole in the middle that radiates the cosmic light that fills the otherwise dark graveyard. He then drops the marble that was Aileen into it and says "May your soul be purified during your journey home, Aileen Freigner. May your image as a caring mother stay true irregardless of your past actions in Lutah… or on earth."

Then Maumar goes and fixes Aileen's gravestone and places some flowers on it. Then he mutters to himself "It is a shame that you weren't the one to be the successful one. Alas, your sins even before coming to Lutah weren't very promising to begin with. Alas, I was desperate for candidates, hence… *sigh* Someone who would murder her husband and tell lies about him to her children was always going to be a failure. I wonder, if it weren't for that car crash, would you have lived a long life in that so-called house of cards?"

Then Maumar leaves Aileen's grave and walks a bit. As he walks, he wonders "I wonder how my daughter is doing?"