22 Chapter 20 – Gluttony Crusade: Otto Suwen” (1/2)

Weiss : ”Ah! Jens, are you okay? I am so sorry! Please forgive me. Oh God please forgive me, I broke the contract I swore to never break. Oh God please forgive me. I am nothing but thrash. Oh God, please forgive me. Jens, I am so sorry… God please forgive me!”

Anastasia : ”What Contract are you talking 'bout Weiss?”

Jens looked at the crying Weiss who was sitting on her knees. Behind her, Anastasia, Crusch, Priscilla and the others looked them.

Jens : ”Weiss, don't apologize… I just witnessed… Something weird. You started talking about the Garden of Eden and I…”

Priscilla : ”Garden of Eden, you say?”

Jens : ”Yes… Weiss mentioned it and I started to see… pictures. No… Small fragments of Life… I saw me being tortured. I saw a boy and a girl playing in a grass field with beautiful flowers. I saw people I know… But… What contract are you talking about Weiss? I want to talk about it.”

Crusch : ”That can wait. We need to hurry and defeat the Cult. The city is mostly safe now, the Knights of The Kingdom will deal with the Cultists, while we deal with the Archbishops at the Royal Palace.”

Weiss : *Sniff*

Jens : ”Calm down Weiss. We'll have a talk about this later on.”

Nimura. Rose. Annie. Emerada. Starla. Lethias. Sapphire. Krista.

Those were the names he heard and witnessed in the vision he had.

Priscilla : ”Alright then! Time to conquer! Group with your team and head towards the palace!”

Everyone : ”ALRIGHT!”

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Priscilla : ”So this is the team, huh?”

Priscilla looked at the team which she was leading, it contained Julius Juukulius, Felt, Otto Suwen, Haku Segmunt, and her own pride.

Priscilla : ”Such a tragic sight. I doubt we'll be able to defeat a fly with this team. Only I, Priscilla is capable of dealing with the power of Archbishops.”

Felt : ”Cut the crap you bitch! You're obnoxious!”

Otto : ”Okay guys. Let's not fight, please? We're allies, remember? We need to deal with the Archbishops!”

Julius : ”I agree with mister Suwen.”

Haku : ”Priscilla, please calm down yes. Let's head towards the western part of the Palace.”

Priscilla : ”I am not angry, so there is no need to calm down for me, is there? I am being fully honest.”

Otto : ”That's… Weird to say Priscilla. Let's stop and just go.”

Priscilla : ”Alright then.”

Heading towards the palace. The team started to form conversations.

Otto : ”So Priscilla-sama, you are from the Sacred Empire of Volakia, right?”

Priscilla : ”Correct you wimp.”

Otto : ”I am just connecting strings. That would mean you're the wife of lord Leip Barielle. Correct?”

Priscilla : ”Before I answer, why do you ask?”

Priscilla : ”Aha, yes indeed. Leip Barielle was indeed my husband. However, call it a curse, call it a spell, or call it fate, but there doesn't exist a husband that can survive being with me.”

Haku : ”That's correct. They call Priscilla-sama the Blood Stained Bride. No husband has survived after the wedding with Priscilla!”

Julius : ”Priscilla, if I may ask, what are the names of your parents?”

Priscilla : ”Alvar Barielle and July Barielle. They got murdered. They were weak.”

Otto : ”So Priscilla, did Leip Barielle notify you that you were able to join the Royal Election?”

Priscilla : ”He found me. He found me and took me with him. I wasn't smart enough to notice, but he used me to further his own goals. He abused my qualities of becoming a Candidate to further his goal of stealing the throne.”

Otto : ”Aha… That explains. You see, I was born in Picoutatte, the Major Lugnician City of Merchants. When we received the news of the death of Leip, we were shook.”

Priscilla : ”Otto Suwen, right?”

Otto : ”Yes.”

Priscilla : ”I have heard of you. Your family is pretty popular in Volakia. I remember people talking about Mazeran, Framir, Yaktol, Regin and Oslo Suwen. But you're left out of the picture. Is there a reason why you're the black sheep in the family?”

Otto : ”I guess you heard the wrong stories then! I'm pre–”

Priscilla : ”You're lying.”

Otto : ”…”

Julius : ”What are you talking about Priscilla?”

Otto : ”I… I left Picoutatte few months ago…”

Felt : ”Why Otto?”

Otto : ”Let's focus on the objective, we've to defeat the Archbishops of Gluttony. I'll talk about it later.”

Suddenly, a blonde girls runs into Felt and both fell on the ground.

Felt : ”Watch out where you ru–”

It was a reunion with familiarity. It was Krista Lenz.

Krista : ”Ah! Felt! Please help me, you all, please help me, I need your help!”

Felt : ”W-What's wrong?”

Krista : ”The Archbishop of Gluttony, he has Sapphire, my friend!”

Priscilla : ”I would call this fate, meeting with someone who has the same enemy as we do. Truly interesting this. Follow us and you'll follow the path to victory you mortal.”

Julius : ”Priscilla-sama, don't talk like that. What's your name?”

Krista : ”My name is Krista Lenz! Ley Batenkaitos has my friend in his custody, please help! We need to hurry!

Julius : ”Alright then. Priscilla, are we in range yet?”

Priscilla : ”We are. Is everyone ready for the battle?”

Haku : ”Let's do this!”

Priscilla : ”Draw your weapons and fight the Devils!”

Priscilla swung with her fan and the team got teleported.

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The Royal Palace exists of Seven Parts.

The Northern Wing, a place where the King resides and where the Sage Council discus their plans.

The Western Wing, commonly known as the Hall of Valor. It's a library where books can be found of the history of Lugunica.

The Eastern Wing, commonly known as the Hall of Ulduar. It's a giant open area where Knight and Mages train.

The Southern Wing, a place where the family of the King reside. However, as the family is currently deceased except for the current king, that place isn't being used.

The Zeroth Layer, the giant basement of the Palace. It's mostly used for storage.

The Center Layer, the center of the giant Palace.

The Crystal Layer, the upper part of the giant Palace. That floor isn't being used anymore as it was formerly used to meet with Volcanica and the King. For Sacrifices and such. It contains a high amount of Mana in the crystal walls.

The team found themselves in a giant library. The bookshelves were meters tall, at the very least three or maybe even four meters tall. There were ladders everywhere.

Priscilla : ”Stay prepared. We don't know where Gluttony might be. Our goal is to defeat only Gluttony, after that, we'll head towards the Southern Wing.”

Otto grabbed a book and read the title.

Otto : ”The Four Maidens. Summer, Winter, Fall and Spring.”

Haku : ”I read that fairy tale!”

Felt : ”The Four Maidens? I think that book is actually about the real Maidens. The ones that possess Magical Natural Power.”

Otto : ”These books are weird?”

Otto opens the book, however… The book is empty.

Otto : ”It seems like what the book contains is gone for the time being? Search for a book that might be relevant against the Archbishops or the Cult.”

Haku : ”The Truth of Emerada, that ain't it.”

Priscilla : ”The Four Great Spirits”

Otto : ”Arthur”

Julius : ”Vernal. These names are weird. They're all unrelated to anything we want. What kind of Library is it when the books don't contain a single clue?”

??? : ”Birds in the cage. When, oh when will they come outtsuu…”

Everyone shocked, they look towards the source of the sound and see the short boy, known as the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony, Ley Batenkaitos.

Ley : ”It seems we're having a delicious meal todaysuu..”

Julius : ”Let me deal with this one. He's the one that made Joshua suffer. I'll represent Joshua's strength today and fight you.”

Ley : ”But Julius, where were you when I was sick? Where were you when our mom died? It was because of Batenkaitos. Now that Klein is dead, we're with Alv–”

Hearing this, Julius dashes forward and tries to hit him with his blade, however Ley jumps into the air and uses a bookshelf to dash towards Felt.

Otto : ”Ur Dona!”

Otto lifted a thick wall of bricks and used it as a shield, which resulted into Ley hitting the wall with his face.

Ley : ”OUCH!”

Haku grabbed his Katana and dashed through the wall, breaking it, and kicked Ley Batenkaitos towards Julius.

Julius : ”Fura!”

Julius started firing Wind Magic towards Ley Batenkaitos through his blade. He successfully hit him a couple times, but only scratches were made, no limbs were cut.

Priscilla : ”This area is hard to fight in. We need—”

Ley : ”GOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

Ley released a ring of flames and the whole library was set in fire. No knowledge for the team was left. Slowly, the flames started to spread.

Julius : ”Aqua Preyas!”

Julius created a cloud at the ceiling of the giant Western Wing, and the cloud started to thunder, and rain.

The fire started to get extinguished by the rain drops.

Ley : ”You all disgust usssuu…!”

Krista : ”Tell me! Where is Sapphire?”

Ley : ”Oh little girl. Little girl. Pretty little girl. Long blond hair. Sky Blue Eyes. You're beautiful.”

Priscilla : ”You little brat. You disgust US!”

Priscilla swung her fan and created her Yang Sword.

Ley : ”Priscilla-sama? Since when did you became able to summon the Sacred Yang Sword of The Holy Volakian Empire?”

Hearing this, Priscilla's expression on her face changed. From slightly irritated, to extremely angry.

Priscilla : ”Tsk! You sure don't know when to shut up, do you? No problem. This is the moment when I'll fucking kill you!”

Dashing towards the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony, Priscilla left a trace of yellow flames, even though it was raining, these flames did not extinguish.

One meter away from him, she gets kicked in her right side from a shadow of someone, resulting into her getting knocked and landing in the other side of the Library.

Roy : ”The Sin Archbishop of Gluttony, Bizarre Eating, Roy Alphard!”

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Ley : ”The Sin Archbishop of Gluttony, Gourmet Aspect, Ley Batenkaitos!”

The two Sin Archbishops introduced themselves again.

Otto : ”This will get real dirty, won't it?”

Haku : ”Ts… Hya!”

Haku threw a spear of lightning towards the two, as it was raining, they both got electrocuted. Leaving them foaming and shaking.

Otto : ”Krista Lenz! Go help Priscilla-sama! She's the strongest here!”

Krista : ”I'm on it!”

She ran towards Priscilla, entering the library which wasn't completely burned and was gone from their eye sight. In the meantime, the two archbishops recovered.

Roy : ”We're getting irritated. This is irritating. It's quite irritating. Because it's so irritating. It really is irritating. Isn't it irritating? It's too irritating!”

Ley : ”Royyyytsu… It's time…”

Ley & Roy : ”LET'S EAT!”

Dashing towards the group, the two archbishops grabbed their knives. Julius, Haku and Felt dashed forwards while Otto summoned bricks of stone with his Earth Magic. However, Roy sliced the knees of Julius successfully, with Haku kicking Roy away immediately, Ley jumped above everyone and successfully came in contact with Ley.

Ley summoned a wall of burning molten stone behind him, so nobody could interfere in this fight.

Otto : ”N-No… Is this how I'll die?”

Ley : ”You're a merchanttsuuu…. Putting price tags on things and humans. Don't you feel disgusted?”

Otto : ”W-What?! I don't work in slavery what so ever! Y-You got this wrong!”

Ley : ”We don't care. You're all the same. We'll eatsuuu!”

Ley and Otto clashed. Before Otto could close his eyes, he started losing his consciousness while he heard a scream of sorrow.

Felt : ”OTTO! NOOOOO~–”

For some reason, Otto's memories, name or both weren't eaten. For some odd reason, their consciousness were swapped.

Ley fell on the ground, and so did Otto. Both witnessed the past of each other.

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??? : ”I… We'll call him Otto… Otto Suwen.”

When Otto Suwen was born, his mother cried out of both joy and sorrow. His father held her hand while looking happily at his wife, Otto's mother.

Mazeran Suwen, that was the name of the Father of Otto Suwen.

Framir Suwen, that was the name of the Mother of Otto Suwen.

??? : ”Mama! Can I hold Otto in my hands, please!!”

Framir : ”Of course, here you go. Support his head.”

Oslo Suwen, that was the name of older brother of Otto Suwen.

That day, was the best day of Otto's life, but that Joy and Happiness didn't last for long.

Years later…

??? : ”Brother, are you alright?”

Otto : ”It… It is complicated Regin.”

In the meantime, Otto's younger brother was already born and was already working in the family business, Regin Suwen.

Despite being the middle son, all attention of the parents went to Regin and Oslo.

Regin is a veterinarian operating at the Suwen Treatment Center in the town of Pappelt. A trading town close to the capital city.

Oslo is the representative of the Suwen Trading Company. He's handsome and had a wife.

Not knowing what was going on, Otto's ears kept hearing words unfamiliar to him. He heard whispers of creatures and things that were not human.

No matter where Otto was, the voices chased Otto without an end.

It was unrelated to his family, in fact, he loved his family.

Otto held no grudge or jealousy for his brothers or about his parents. For one thing he hadn't fostered neither the negative nor positive emotions of hatred or finding things enviable, but moreso, even though Otto generally would not understand what they were saying, his brothers would interact with him patiently.

He thought his parents' mental exhaustion inevitable.

Otto didn't know, had he been in his brothers' position back then, whether he would've been capable of being so insistently kind to such a strange family member. So in fact he was grateful to them.

Seeing problems with their second son, they went to the doctor. Weirdly enough, Otto possessed some kind of unique ability. In fact, he had two abilities. He possessed a Semblance and a Divine Protection, a blessing, commonly known as that.

Framir : ”What is going on with our son? Why does he hear whispers of creatures he doesn't want to hear?”

??? : ”Otto possess two abilities. He has the Divine Protection of Soul Language, which makes him able to hear the voices of all organisms. But that's not it…”

No, that's not it. It wasn't enough. Otto was being followed by these voices for eternity, but that wasn't the only bad news.

When Otto three, he fell into a Demon Beast nest.

When Otto started learning how to walk, he broke his left foot.

When Otto started learning how to talk, he got caught up in the voices of the unknown and was left speechless.