Driven To Insanity(Draft)

In a dark room filled with racks upon racks of weapons, on the center was a man meditating. The man let out a breath as he felt the air get disturb. Infront of him was a large wall with a mirror attached to it.

He opened his eyes and stared at the reflection infront of him.

His bright crimson eyes stared at himself for a moment, before he turned his gaze down to his hands which he clenched.

"...What is this... State? I feel like im missing something, a piece of a puzzle that is forever incomplete."

Arshavin then let out a click of his tongue out loud before standing up, revealing a built and bulky body.

He grabbed a spear and started swinging it around.

"...What is it that im missing?"

His steam powered arm let out a roar as steam pushed out from a socket.

Arshavin continued to mutter as he practiced his martial arts.

***

In the office of the man, Arkan fixed his glasses as he stamped one of the papers and put it aside. His office was large but it still felt cramped inside.

It didn't also help that his office was filled to the brim with report papers and other paperworks, he desperately wanted to quit his job but remembering that even the Crown themselves have mountains of paperworks inside their office, he put the thought of quitting aside.

He massaged his temples and stood up, opening the windows, he grabbed some cigar from the drawer of his table and lit it up.

He sucked in some smoke before puffing it out as he leaned on the window. He contemplated his position for a moment before shaking his head.

"...Maybe i shouldn't have accepted the promotion to become a Division Commander..."

Letting out a grunt of self hatred, he finished his smoke break and sat back down on his seat.

After all, he was the Division Commander of Ward 5, it wouldn't feel good if he was seen smoking while on the job.

Unbeknownst to him, the hunters underneath his office were chuckling at him.

"Well, even the Division Commander himself get stressed out sometimes."

One of the hunters commented as they patrolled the area, his other partner, a woman, let out a chuckle. "Should i send some cigar pipes for him to use? After all, it is crude to just suck the cigar with his hands."

"What does a cigar pipe even do? It will just make him look refined and nothing else."

"Well, after all, your demeanor will heavily be impacted if you use it. Maybe his reputation as Division Commander will rise if he starts using pipes to smoke."

The hunter chuckled, "Nah, you just wanted to see him use pipe to increase his charm."

The woman hunter let out a snear, "Says the virgin."

"Hey!"

***

"Holy Priestess."

In a dazzling marble palace, countless paladins stood infront of a throne made of thousands of spears. They knelt down infront of the throne, paying their utmost respect to the woman sittng on the throne wearing a robe that covered everything.

She stared at the entire platoon of paladins kneeling infront of her with little to no expression on her face as she let out a yawn.

Her face filled with boredom, she swatted the large tiger's head that wanted to caress its face into her palm and let out a sneer.

"I gave all of you ten hours. Ten hours."

Her voice sounded out, it was quiet and soft. But it carried a certain sound that made their spines chill.

"I tasked all of you to find one person and yet, none of you managed to find one person, a little boy no less!"

The paladins shivered in terror as a powerful force pressed down on them. They gritted their teeths underneath their helmets, none willing to fall from her pressure in fear of incurring her wrath.

Aria grabbed the strands of her hair and pushed it back majestically.

She stared at each and everyone of them, but none was willing to meet her in the eyes, making her irritated as a result.

She stood up, "You! All of you are Paladins of Crimson Moon! How dare you not look me in the eyes with dignity, are you lacking in even your own manners!?"

The paladins flinched and buried their necks deeper as they shook. Her words cut deep inside their hearts, their pride, but just hearing her speak were even harsher than the wounds on their hearts.

They could feel it, their soul trembling against their will as she spoke loudly.

One of the paladins looked straight at Aria's dazzling yet disturbing figure as the momentum of her sermon grew like tsunami.

His eyes shook for a moment before blood started falling, he swiftly closed his eyes and silently muttered underneath his breath, "I didn't see anything. I didn't see anyting. I didn't see anything....."

He muttered it over and over, as if to convince himself. No, he was convincing himself, he forced himself to forget whatever he had just saw and chose to live in a mortal foil than of a terror inducing monster.

The paladins listened to Aria's speech while holding themselves up to not collapse infront of her lest they incure her wrath.

Well, anything they do will make her get angry at them but none of the paladins wanted to find out if that was going to happen or not.

Aria glared at the paladins before shaking her head and let out a deep sigh to exhume the rising anger in her chest. She turned her feet around and sat back down on the throne, looking at them for a moment, she opened her mputh to continue.

"That child is prophesied by the Crimson Moon to become the "Saint". If we cannot get him to join our cause and he escapes, he will join the other churches and become the Saint there. It is of utmost importance that we must get to him first before anyone else does!"

Then she pointed at the commander of the platoon.

"Sir Paladin, i give you the authority to use the entire Legion to search everywhere. I will not tolerate failure."

The commander stood up and bowed his head.

"Now go!" Aria then shooed them away as the paladins stood up in sync before rushing out after the commander ordered them to. The commander stayed still for a moment, bowed to her.

"The Legion will not fail you, oh Holy Priestess."

Aria nodded her head in confirmation and the commander stepped out of the throne room.

She rested her chin on her palm as she breathed out. Then, feeling a gaze upon her, she looked out of the window and stared at the moon before letting out a small smile.

The gaze looked at her for a moment before it disappeared, making her pout a little. Then she shook off her head, closing her eyes before opening them up and clenched her fists.

"Im almost there..."

***

Rueben opened his eyes once more and saw the familiar ceiling of his hospital room. He groaned and forced himself up.

The door clicked opened and a woman wearing a white coat walked inside. She held a folder in her hand and looked straight to Rueben.

"You should clean yourself a little, you'll look good that way." She fixed her glasses and spoke.

She walked to the drawer beside Rueben and opened the drawer before pulling out a small incision knife from it and turned to him.

"Im going to take some blood samples as well as flesh samples, as to aid our research in finding a cure. I hope you cooperate in our efforts."

Rueben stared at her for a moment, and just nodded his head.

The woman looked at him before grabbing his arm. Then she placed it on top of the folder. She opened the folder and placed Rueben's hand inside.

She then pulled the edges of the folder up in the air, creating a small partition made out of thick paper and adjustable sticks.

The woman the fixed her glasses as she pulled out two vials and a syringe. She first checked the syringe, seeing that it is clean, she then inserted it into his wrist and sucked out the blood inside.

She waited for a moment before grabbing one of the vials and inserted the syringe. Blood flowed into the vial and it soon filled up.

She did it once more and filled the two vials.

"Your blood concentration is normal, but judging from your crimson eyes, you must have drank a large amount of God's Blood..." Staring at them, she carefully placed them to the side while speaking.

"I as a doctor recommended that you abstain from drinking God's Blood for atleast a year, preferably two years."

She stared straight at Rueben's eyes, who only stared at her before closing them together.

"..."

She let out a sigh and grabbed the incision knife and prepared to slice his wrist but was stopped by Rueben.

The woman flinched, before looking up to see Rueben staring at her with an expression that she can only explain as contradictive.

Rueben held her wrist tightly but soft as his eyes shook. The woman stared at him for a moment, before she let out a cough and looked away, not wanting to get absorbed in his gaze.

"Sara....?"

She was about to speak when she suddenly heard him say something.

"...Sara?" She asked back as Rueben stared at her, his eyes stiffened before they closed.

"...I apologize, i thought you were someone i know." Rueben let her wrist go and bowed down.

The woman stared at him for a moment, fixed her glasses, before coughing. Then she mentally made notes before speaking, "I do not know of this person with the name Sara, and my name is Uril. Uril Marquee."

Then she grabbed the incision knife once more and grabbed his hand.

"Please do remember that."

She cut a small portion of his flesh and placed it into a small container with ice inside and carefully wrapped it with a clean cloth.

After doing that, she grabbed some cloth from her toolbox and cleaned the wound, before wrapping it with a cloth.

"The wound will heal by itself, judging from your concentration of God's Blood, it will heal in about a few minutes. Please do not insert God's Blood into your bloodstream unless you want to become a beast."

Then she cleaned up. Rueben just nodded his head and looked out of the window while touching the bandaged wound.

She stared at him before sighing.

"That is all for now. I will send these samples to a lab. Thank you for your contributions." She bowed down before leaving the room.

Rueben watched as she closed the door behind her and clenched his wrist.

"...Why?"

Outside the room, the woman, Uril coughed as she walked.

"He touched my hand.... Ah, how embarrassing..."

Feeling her cheeks boiling, she hurriedly walked away.