[tw for the mild gore and some twisted religious belief]

The moment that they’ve had everything that they needed, they went outside of the house that gave them comfort for a few hours before proceeding on their main goal. They’ve looked at each other for a few minutes as if they’re hesitating to split into two teams because it’s probably the last time that they’ll see each other.

Seeing all of them as seven people makes them feel sad and incomplete but they knew that Mingi wants them to continue on surviving without him.

“We should be going now,” Hongjoong stated, breaking the silence as everyone looked at him.

“Please stay safe, Sang.” Seonghwa looked at the brunette which immediately locked his gaze with his own.

“I will.”

Seonghwa smiles at how soft Yeosang's voice is despite being a deep one, “I’ll be waiting for you.”

“San, don’t do anything risky.” Hongjoong said as he crossed his arms before looking at Wooyoung, “You too.”

“I won’t.”

“We won’t!”

Yunho chuckled at Wooyoung’s exclaimed reply, “Please stay safe, guys. I-I wouldn’t know what should do if I lose an another one..”

“No, you won’t. We’ll always be here for you, Yunho-hyung.” the youngest assured him as he patted his back.

“We’ll be going to the church now,” Hongjoong announced as he looked at Jongho with a stoic expression, “I trust you that you’ll be leading the way there.”

“I will, hyung. You know how I wanted to do that!” Jongho chirped and giggled when Yunho ruffled his hair, “I want to be useful so you wouldn’t tear your attention away from me.”

“Let’s go, guys.” Hongjoong ushered to the three males that will come along with him.

Wooyoung felt like he’s about to throw up, he kept on seeing the dark mist around his friends and he wanted to stop them before he loses an another friend. He looked at everyone and he can’t help but see the dark mist everyone, his hands won’t stop shaking and he couldn’t breath properly. San and Yeosang are already a few feet away from him and before the others manages to leave to walk on a different path, he immediately held Jongho's hand— making the youngest look at him.

“Jongho.” Wooyoung's eyes widened when he suddenly saw an assuring smile on the youngest male’s lips.

“Don’t say it, Wooyoung-hyung.” he huffed, “I’m aware of what you’re about to say.”

“But—”

“We can’t cheat our deaths, Wooyoung-hyung. Just because you can see the signs of someone dying doesn’t mean that you should interfere,” Jongho stated before sighing and squeezing Wooyoung’s hand for comfort, “Despite being blessed with such a heartbreaking ability, you shouldn’t interfere. That’s the reason why you have the sin of Sloth, you’ll just be like sitting ducks and won’t interfere despite knowing that one of us will be dying soon. You would not and you wouldn’t be able to do anything at all, just being a sloth that you should be.”

“But I should do something.”

“It can’t be helped, Wooyoung-hyung.” That assuring smile on Jongho’s lips makes Wooyoung’s heart break into bits, “It can’t be helped.”

“I could've done something to save all of you but I can’t. I-I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. No one’s blaming you for that,” Jongho said, the smile’s still plastered on his face.

“Jongho! Let’s go!” Both of them looked at Hongjoong which was looking at both of them.

“Wooyoung-hyung, go. It’ll be alright. Everything happens for a reason, okay?”

“Jongho..” Wooyoung let go of the youngest’s hand and turned his back at him, staring to walk towards San and Yeosang that was waiting for him.

“Also, hyung.” Wooyoung stopped on his tracks “Just remember the consequences of your own actions. You know what I’m talking about.”

“What are you going to do about it?”

Jongho smiles, “Nothing at all. I’m sure that you did it for a reason and I should understand that everyone is just a bunch of sinners.”

“Thank you, Jongho.”

“We don’t have enough time so if we’ll be seeing each other again and we’re alive, you should tell me the reason why.” Jongho also turned his back on the black-haired male, “See you again, Wooyoung-hyung.”

“What took you so long?” Hongjoong sighs in annoyance.

“Sorry, hyung. I just asked something,” Jongho sheepishly replied, “Let’s go!”

Jongho was leading the way while Hongjong immediately kills any blackened one that he sees by running towards them and slashing their heads off with the cutlass on both of his hands while Seonghwa is holding a sniper, Yunho seems to be disheartened and kept on spacing out but he kept his grip on the double pistol on both of his hands.

Fortunately, they didn’t bumped into a lot of blackened one or worse, a group of them. They’ve arrived in the church as soon as possible yet they can’t help but looked in fear when they’ve entered the gate leading towards the gate. Jongho’s heart couldn’t stop on pounding as they took a step closer to the church, something’s off with the place. Jongho has been in the church weekly ever since he was a child and memorizes the entire place because he's such a free soul so witnessing how the lively and heartwarming area is eerie and filled with dark energy now makes him want to storm inside and remove every single unusual vibes that the church is giving off.

“I can hear voices inside,” Hongjoong muttered which made them stop on his tracks.

“I can sense some living creature inside..” Yunho added.

“Should we save them?” Jongho asks.

“We should stay back for now, baby. We don’t know what’s happening inside..” Seonghwa mutters and held the youngest’s hands.

“I can use my enhanced sight to see what’s happening inside though.” Everyone looked at Hongjoong and nods, “Okay. Here goes nothing.”

Hongjoong’s glowed into bright pink as he took a peek on what’s happening inside the holy building yet he immediately gasped and his eyes turned into normal when his knees seems to give up, startling the three males with him. Hongjoong looked so petrified that Jongho couldn’t help but be curious and fear for what’s inside. As Seonghwa and Yunho seems to be calming their leader, Jongho took a few steps and he’s in front of the door that is ajar and didn't even hesitate to take a peek.

Curiosity killed the cat, they said.

Jongho’s eyes widened and he felt something snapped, emotions bursting in every single part of his body and soul as he witnessed what's happening inside.

The place is filled with blackened ones and there’s a priest in the altar yet it has became a blackened one, his horrendous voice is resonating with the other ones that seems to be chanting something. That priest is Jongho’s favorite yet he turned into something that Jongho would loathe, he saw how the blackened one priest have raised the holy cup just to be filled with black icky liquid instead of the wine and instead of the bread that represents the body of God, he raised a skin that seems to be peeled off from an alive human being— if Jongho squints, he can probably notice that there's some flesh stuck on it.

It enraged Jongho.

Insulting God with such twisted belief. It enrages him. These monsters doesn’t deserve any kind of redemption at all.

“We shall turn these pitiful mortals like one of us!” the priest announced and cheers can be heard, “They don’t know what they’re missing, my fellow villagers! They don’t know how it feels to be blessed by Monsieur!”

“Turn them into one of us! Turn them!” the whole church was filled with cheers from the blackened ones.

“Now! Let us begin our ceremony with turning one of them, letting them witness how it is done.” the priest looked at the humans being tied up beside each other, “How are we supposed to pick one of them as a demonstration?”

“The lady!”

“Pick the child!”

“That man seems to be a good option!”

Jongho can see five humans tied up on ropes and he can sense the despair in their souls. There was a middle-aged woman, one child, a man around 30s and two teenage highschool girls. All of them seems to be crying in fear and anger, the priest looked at them one by one in amusement.

“How about the child? We should show this young one how it feels to be like one of us!” the priest exclaimed, dragging the ropes attached to the young boy that kept on crying, “There, there. You won’t be weeping after all of this, you should be grateful to be one of us. To be one of the people that will get the salvation that Monsieur will provide!”

“No! Give me back my mommy!” the young boy cried as he stared at a certain blackened one, a woman that has a large hole on her stomach which kept on bleeding the black and blue blood.

“I said stop crying!” the priest raised his hand to slap the young boy that whimpered when it hits his cheeks, sending him a few feet away. The sight enraged Jongho more, his sin isn’t even wrath but for the first time after their incident with the lunatic when they’re younger, he felt the same rage.

“M-Mommy!” Instead of silencing, the young boy cried louder as it echoes throughout the entire building.

“You should be grateful that we’re giving you the opportunity to be one of us! You should be thankful of Monsieur letting us bless you with his gifts to us! You, ungrateful child, should stop weeping!” the priest stated as he gripped the boy’s hair tightly, making the poor child cry in pain.

“M-Mommy! Help me, mommy!” the child said between sobs as the priest dragged him towards the altar.

When they’ve reached the altar, the priest merciless threw the young boy in it as a loud thud and probably some broken bones from the child which made it wail louder “How many bones should I break to make you stop crying? You’re already in the place where I want you to be, young one. Young people sure have a lot of energies in them, we have to break them so we can finally have our way.”

“H-Hurts.. someone, help me..” the child whimpered as he felt his legs and back hurting whenever he tried to move.

“Before I begin the ceremony, what do you want?” the priest asked the child which kept his eyes shut because of the fear of seeing the blackened one around them and also of the pain from his whole body.

“Mommy...”

“You want to see your mom, right?”

The child heard some footsteps before a familiar voice was heard, “Dear, I'm here. Mommy’s here.”

“M-Mommy?”

“Don’t cry now, sweetie. It’ll hurt but it will end as soon as possible. You’re a tough guy, right?” the sweet voice of his mother that used to sing a lullaby for him made him nod.

“O-Okay, mommy.” When he tried to open his eyes to see his own mother, it widened in fear when he realized that despite it being his mother’s voice, the person in front of him isn’t his mother anymore but also one of the monsters that he’s scared of “You're not—”

“Silence, ungrateful child.” the priest scoffed as he stabbed the young child’s chest with his claws, making the blood splatter everywhere as the child’s scream was heard, “It will be painful but you'll be thankful on turning you like one of us after this.”

The way the priest stabbed the child isn’t that deep yet when he started to push his hands deeper, the child started to cough out blood and wailed louder as the crowd cheered loudly. The child tried to struggle but the fact that he’s tied up and most of his bones are broken made the attempt to be useless and when the priest had a grip on his intestines, he poured black liquid on the scar that he made, making it flow throughout the child’s body.

“I think that you should have a smile on your face as always.” the price slashed the end of the child’s lips upwards until the huge cut reaches near his ears, making it look like he was smiling so, so, widely that it was done exaggeratedly.

The next scream that the child lets out isn’t his own voice anymore, it’s deep and menacing as the child kept on trembling. Its complexion started to pale as veins popped out on his own skin, the short and trimmed nails started to sharpen and turned into long, sharp claws and even its teeth became fangs as its eyes started to turn into pitch black. The child’s body trembled for the last time before it stayed still on a few moments, before they heard the rope splitting into two as the child sat up from the altar.

“Here you go! The child is finally one of us! We have a new member for Arcaeana!” the priest shouted and cheers were heard everywhere, “Now, who should go next?”

“No!” one of the highschool student screamed in fear as her knees gave up, falling into the floor as she threw up.

“Guess that you’re next,” the priest said in amusement, walking towards her direction.

“N-No! No!” the female tried to crawl away from the priest yet she failed miserably when the priest pulled her hair and dragged her towards the altar as she kept on struggling, “Help me! Help me!”

“It’s your turn now.”

The female looked everywhere and saw the amusement and happiness on the twisted monsters in front of her yet she locked gaze with one, one that shows empathy and hatred on these monsters. Her eyes met Jongho's and didn’t even hesitated to scream “You! You know that I’m talking about you! Help me! Please help me!”

“No one is going to help you. In fact, we’re helping you. You aren’t a part of this community so you don’t have the rights to be one of us but we’re offering you our blood so be grateful that we’ll be granting you the salvation that you deserve!” the priest said smugly, staring at his claws filled with the crimson red blood from the child that he just turned.

Jongho felt like he’s about to reach his own limit of restraint, the girl kept his gaze towards his direction as she was stabbed by the priest on her neck, almost splitting her body from her head and poured the black liquid— which seems to be their blood in the wound and just like the child, the girl seems to have a seizure yet with its remaining strength, she tried to reach her hand out on his direction before turning into one of them.

Jongho heard something snapped.

He knew that it was stupid to open the doors loudly and get their attention but his sin is gluttony. He’s a glutton on everyone’s attention and when their eyes focused on him, it felt so sickeningly sweet that he grinned in such a maniacal way. His eyes glowing in bright yellow which can probably outshine the sun itself as he took a step in the place that used to be holy but now, it's nothing but a wrenched place. Tainted by the hands of the souls that had been in their delusions too deep, not being able to move on and waited for their time to attain it.

His anger and excitement from the attention that he’s getting seems to mute his older friend’s voices calling him.

“Look what we have here,” the priest mused as he looked at Jongho, “Are you here to turn yourself in?”

“I have other business with you rather than that,” Jongho said, spitting venoms on every word that he says.

“And what is it, mortal? It should be important especially when you interrupted our mini-ceremony,” the priest said, smiling widely at him.

Jongho can't help but scowl because the soul that possessed the priest that he respected so much ever since he was a child is smiling at him. Despite using the body of the priest, Jongho couldn’t help but be disgusted with it “It is important. I have a message not just for you, but to all of you inside this place.”

“And what is that?”

“You’re going to have a bad time,” Jongho said with a sweet smile on his face as his eyes crinkled yet a bunch of energy sphere appeared everywhere and landed throughout the ground and exploded, causing fire to engulf the whole church, “Ah, I wish I have megalovania theme song as I do this. It would definitely be a badass scene.”

“Fire!” the blackened ones started to panic and ran everywhere yet the door leading to the exit and every single path that could get them away from the fire is surrounded with it. Except on the main entrance that was behind Jongho yet they couldn’t even get near him because the male isn’t even going to let them.

“How dare you taint the church with your fucking dirty hands?!” Jongho roared as an another bunch of energy spheres landing to the groups of blackened ones, he made sure that it’s small yet many so it can explode and create the fire that they loathe so much, “How dare you end their innocent lives just for your own self-satisfaction?!”

“You care for these mortals?! Well, you’ve caused trouble for us so be it.” the priest said as he cleared his throat, “Everyone, as one of the elder in this village, I order you to rip the remaining mortals into shreds in exchange of this ruthless human’s actions and capture him afterwards.”

“What—”

It happened too fast, the enraged blackened ones ran towards the remaining three people and grabbed them, biting, scratching and pulling them until their limbs were torn apart. They didn’t even stopped and tore the bodies apart as if they’re a bunch of dolls, some even ate their flesh and organs. Jongho can sense that they’re looking at him as they chew and one blackened one even grinned at him before squashing one eyeball with his own hands. Laughters can be heard along with the frightened screams of some of them as Jongho looked hopelessly on the poor humans that kept on screaming for help yet he wasn’t strong enough, he wasn’t fast enough and wasn’t alert enough to save them in time.

“Look what you’ve done, ruthless mortal! You’re the reason why they died!” the priest lets out a maniacal laugh, resounding the entire church, “It’s your fault.”

“M-My fault..” Jongho’s knees are trembling as he looked at the discarded parts of the mortals which was alive a few moments ago.

“Yes! Succumb to despair! You’re the reason of their deaths! You should be ashamed because you probably went here to save them but you didn’t! In fact, you’re the reason why they died!” the priest kept on laughing, mocking him and pointing at his direction “They could've been turned into one of my kind, ones that is gifted by Monsieur! Ones that will attain Eden!”

“Save them? I came here to save them? I failed to save them?” Jongho muttered as he lowered his head.

“Indeed! You’re a failure for doing that!”

“Failure? Haven’t heard that word for a while. I haven’t failed on something for a long time, hearing that ticks me off but you’re wrong about that. I, Choi Jongho, isn’t a failure at all. You’re just dumb, bitchass.” Jongho said which surprised the priest when he lets out a laugh and held his stomach as if he’s in pain for laughing too much.

“What are you laughing at?!”

“You see, I didn’t came here to save anyone. I came here because I wanted to rip that smiles off on your ugly faces. Me? Saving them? Failing to save them? Come on! I’ve been doing these for days! I’ve been attempting to be a good boy for my entire life! Numbing myself with the mortals’ attention in exchange of my good deeds because all I wanted is attention! I failed on saving Yeosang-hyung once but that’s why I’m here now, to attempt on saving him again. I didn’t fail, I just made a mistake!” Jongho said as he tilted his head, grinning in such a psychotic way that he creeped out the priest, “If you think that I’m a goody-two shoes boy that came here to save people then you’re wrong because all I’ve wanted is to see you all burn into ashes and beg for your lives!”

“Monster!” the priest shrieked.

“That's rich coming from you,” Jongho said as an another bunch of energy spheres appeared, “Unfortunately, Yeosang-hyung isn’t here so there’s no presence that can make me calm down. Yeosang-hyung is our safety zone and his presence are the only thing that can calm us down when we go berserk so I guess that I’ll overdo it this time. I’ve been yearning to act like a villain since I was a child so thank you for the opportunity, monsters.”

The priest started to run around along with the other blackened ones as they tried to search for a way out aside from the main entrance that Jongho is blocking. Jongho gave them an another sweet smile of his before snapping his fingers and the energy spheres went to their direction.

“Goodbye, au revoir, adios.”

----------

heyaaaaaaaaa! i’m so sorry for the delayed update! i've been busy on spazzing on pentagon lately and crying over onf, ateez, oneus and ab6ix q wq also dreamcatcher dancing to hala hala again makes me feel so weak and my multifandom self is sooo attacked ;; Votes and comments are highly appreciated since I’m a sucker for ‘em now that my confidence in writing is soooo low again hhh so this update is prolly shitty

aLSO HAVE YOU SEEN THE PERFORMANCE PREVIEW?! BECAUSE.. DANG!

ONEUS and ATEEZ providing us songs with ‘kaja’ bskahakaakahakhskkgafgasvhagahaga

speaking of ONEUS, you prolly didn’t know but I kinda insert a character that is actually one of them here. Guess who?  They’ll appear on the second book so it’ll take y’all around ten or twelve chapters before this ends since fifth day’s gonna be a bitch and sixth day too. Character death flags have been implied too ;)