ăThe Sixth Redemptionă
Yandere Beast Cookies x Reader part 12
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'Cause the world is ugly, but you're beautiful to me. Are you thinking of me, like I'm thinking of you?
"How are you holding up?"
The king's shoulders flex, his violet gaze not waning from it's stern expression, beneath it, you can tell he's anxious, or akin to that.
Somewhere along the excursion along the peaks the Pagoda where the air thins and you can see the clouds much closer than the ground, Cloud Haetae Cookie offers you all food, steamed white buns, a simple delicacy of the Temple. Both you and Dark Cacao passed up on the meal, and whilst the Dark Cacao warriors were refuelling their energy, you took the moment to talk with the Holder of Resolution
"I'm alright worry not." His glove tightens around the hilt of his chocoblade. "But my sword...holding it in my grasp as never felt so....unfamiliar ever since we stepped foot on this continent."
That's...concerning. You glance back, the others are preoccupied, laughing talking, eating. You're out of earshot to hold this conversation, hence why Dark Cacao Cookie brings it up, he trusts you enough to release the crux of his newfound worry. After all as a fellow owner of a Souljam, who better can understand the responsibility it harbours? You put your hand out, accompanied by a soft-spoken request.
The steel lifts and gets placed in your open palm, the great sword is eye-catching, the most being the diamond jewel in it's hilt, glowing a striking purple. You brush your hand over it, it's cold and jagged to the touch.
"...I do sense a tremor...dread, fear, something in between." Your hand lowers from the gem. "I'm not quite sure what to make of it. The plausible conclusion is that it's...reacting in fearfulness of a presence."
His face hardens, composing of that stern will he retains when faced with the darkness he so bewares. "That of the Beast?"
"Most likely scenario, yes."Â
You give back his sword and instantaneously deflect your eyes when his hand brush against yours for a sec longer than necessary, Dark Cacao Cookie fishing up a cough from his throat as well. The illusion of quiet does not last long as his eyes measure up the cracks on your face. His sturdy voice surprisingly softer.
"Those cracks you bear...A healer should've checked up on them before we set out, my apologises." He addresses, straying as far away from any invasive intonations as he can. In the side view of his vision, you pull the sleeve of your cloak over you hand, hiding the fractures. You smile lightly, the pitch in your tone rather odd.
"I'm afraid It's more complicated than that. But thank you for your concern Dark Cacao Cookie."
As if on par with the conclusion of your conversation, Cloud Haetae Cookie happily calls out to the group. "Now that we've refueled... Let's keep going!"
"Do you see that large stone statue? Mystic Flour Cookie's followers erected this statue for the day she would emerge from her cocoon!"
What stands before you is an statue, boasting multiple meters high. It's cut from pristine stone, made in the image of a saint. It's poise emotionless as if deep in it's own thoughts. You eye it, trying to school your expression away from conveying unease. It's a spitting resemblance to her. It ensnares you with solemnity, the same weight you felt when you saw her bestow her boundless generosity.
"This Mystic Flour Cookie must have done a lot of good in her previous life. A statue this big must have required the strength of many Cookies to make." Caramel Arrow Cookie remarks.
"Oh, wouldn't the world be happier with only Cookies that are nice?"
"But as you know, My Lord, the world isn't always that happy and peaceful. Many Cookies came to have their wishes heard even after Mystic Flour started pursuing enlightenment inside her cocoon."
The same generosity that you adored and envied from afar. Like the stars admiring the splendour of the sun, and never be able to get closer than the dusk and dawn allow.
And perhaps that also was for the best. Stars bring darkness with them, as did you. After all, you were the first to start questioning your roles into this world.
Doubt and anger that manifested into long, blank stares and quietness, and upon the virtues' inquiry, you would brush it off, biting down the whispers that would engulf you in your lonesome.
"When their wishes weren't immediately granted, some angry Cookies tried to invade and take over the temple! Every time, I curled up and watched them from underneath the stairs... Their eyes were glowing... ablaze with hatred!"
"So I ask, My Lord, do you have a wish of your own?"
Dark Cacao Cookie considers the Haetae's scrutiny, grimness passing along his countenance. "A wish... I do. A rather simple one. My only wish is to continue protecting the Dark Cacao Kingdom."
"I have cut down countless foes and crises with my trusted sword... all to protect the Dark Cacao Kingdom and my loyal subjects. I cannot imagine a future for the Dark Cacao Kingdom without my sword. All I wish is that I may spend my time defending my Kingdom, protecting it, no matter the disasters we face."
You thoughtlessly follow bits of whatever they're discussing. Too engrossed staring deeper into the Pagoda, at the lotus flowers that drift in the golden waters, the leaves that glide down from the trees without a hint of a breeze and remember how there was a time when you would sit under it's shade with the Master of this Pagoda and exchanged heartfelt laughter as you each recounted your day's happenings.
"What about you? Do you have a wish?"
Your thoughts break and you snap to the voice beside you, Cloud Haetae Cookie looking at you in curiousity. Your eyebrows knit close together.
Your eyes trace back to the still branches without an answer. Dark Cacao Cookie had said your resolve is what this world needs. But what you carry doesn't feel like resolve. You don't pride through your days with resolve, not anymore.
Cloud Haetae tilts their head. "Used...to?"
These days, you just feel empty. Following a sense of obligation than any of your own inclinations. As long as everyone else is happy and fulfilled, then that's all you care about. And if you keep offering parts of your broken existence to help others....
Then maybe one day, the nightmares will stop. Maybe one day, you can forgive yourself.Â
The days you've wasted away in a unlit room by the far end of the Faerie Kingdom with nothing but the clamour of your thoughts may be a thing of the past, but the feeling that kept you rotting in your own self-loathing is still there. In the events that are now present, addressing your own woes come secondary. You'll just have to bottle them up and cast them away, hoping the tide of your own mind sinks them into oblivion. Like you've done so so many times.
Another leaf whisks down and dips into the pale pond. "I used to wish that no Cookie would have to go through suffering. That there would be a day when there is no more injustice or cruelty in the world."
Cloud Haetae Cookie goes silent for a while. "...That is a very selfless wish. If I may ask, is there a reason you don't harbour this desire anymore?"
You press your lips into a straight line, trying to reiterate your statement, sensing the little Haetae's genuine interest in your perspective. "I learned the hard way, that wishes are just that...wishes. And that holding onto them, no matter how selfless they are, is often setting yourself up for failure."
"Now, I merely do what I have to." You finish.
Cloud Haetae's round eyes analyse you yet again from head to toe. Something coming to light in their mind. What that is, you're unsure. "Hmm...from what I understand, you appear to be a Cookie with a lot of sorrows and regrets... perhaps even...anger?"
They're quick to wave their hands in dismissal at your stare. "But that's just a guess!"
Their hands clasp together. "I do sincerely hope that you may find the way to leaven that burden someday!"
You turn to the Haetae finally, giving them and glum smile then pat them on the head, much to the Haetae's suprise. "I hope so to."
They smile "We're almost at the Grand Temple! Let's hurry!"
"Is it fine to go on? Cloud Haetae Cookie! Is this really the right way to the Grand Temple?!"
The fog is still not yielding, it's scent is stinging your throat and obstructing everyone's field of sight. You've been following Cloud Haetae Cookie with only the remnants of their silhouette in the faint distance, the echo of their voice nagging at you to keep up.
"Of course, of course! The temple is my home! I could find my way blindfolded! Please follow me, quickly!" Their voice reverberate from the vast mist.
A Dark Cacao warrior nearly stumbles to your right. "Eugh... I can't see! Slow down!" He calls out.
Over here! This way now! Oh, c'mon, you slowpokes!
I even gave you food to eat earlier...
Crunchy Chip Cookie's face scrunches up in suspicion. "This Haetae... They're getting awfully comfortable with us. Come to think of it, what was the creature doing before we met?"
"They said they were just playing around all alone at the temple." Comes Caramel Arrow Cookie's response, whose holding the grip of her bow tighter.
"Beast-Yeast is full of danger, but they were just playing around? Is that even possible?!"
"Of course it is." You answer lightly, simultaneously counting the steps. one, two, three, the stairs are just up ahead. "You just need to know where to be and when."
"Everyone, ready your weapons. We are not far from our destination. Once we arrive, all secrets will be revealed. So focus and climb those stairs!"
"Yes your majesty!" The Dark Cacao warriors shout. You reach into your cloak, weighing your options, the cold steel of your daggers come in contact with your hand. A Confrontation with the...Beast, is manifesting as the only reality, and you're starting to feel the pressure of what is to come. You're at a huge disadvantage, none of you knows what's ahead.
Cloud Haetae Cookie knows more than they're letting on. Slips of the tongue and questions that are far too targeted to be a coincidence. Your hand lingers on your weapons...there's a pulse beneath your dough.
You can't tell if it's your heart pounding or your Souljam.
"Yay, we've finally arrived! My Lord! Open your eyes and look around you!" Cloud Haetae exclaims.
"This is none other than the Grand Temple, the biggest and most magnificent temple on Earthbread! Its proper name is the Temple of Hollow Tears, but we just call it the Grand Temple!"
"Hollow Tears"..? What a peculiar name for a temple." Dark Cacao Cookie mutters.
Soon you all hit a road block, Caramel Arrow Cookie is the first to speak up. "The fog is still too thick for me to see it properly, but...There's something... white hanging in the air..."
Your eyes widen. What hangs in the center of the grand area you're in, is a shell encased in pale noodles, suspended in the air. The wheat petals and diamond shape gem is enough to elude to what it is you're looking at. Cold waves of dread rush over you and your throat might as well be clogging with flour, with how dry your mouth is. Is that...
"Wait, isn't that... the cocoon?!" Crunchy Chip Cookie yells, finishing your thought out loud before you could.
"Does this mean the cocoon has remained unharmed this whole time? With Mystic Flour Cookie still inside..." Dark Cacao Cookie asks quietly, earning a guileless reply from Cloud Haetae Cookie.
"Indeed, My Lord. Eons have passed since Mystic Flour Cookie entered the cocoon. Even as she confined herself to this shell, all she wished was for everyone to live happily and free from pain..."
"How does it feel, My Lord? To witness her most desperate wish."
The blinding fog returns, it trickles in by the edges of the room, so thick you can't see anything past it. Goosebumps cover your arms and you're suddenly on high alert on how confined you all were to this space. This is not right. Why did it you this long to figure it out? The cadence of Cloud Haetae's voice is all around, it comes from the crevices of the walls to in front of you.
"The sublime will to keep herself enclosed in this cocoon to save Cookies from their suffering... How does your resolution compare to hers, My Lord?"
The sail here, the disappearance of the other Cacao warriors, the finding of this temple without so much as a sweat to Cloud Haetae Cookie offering to guide you all without any push or convincing. How could you been so caught up in in your own despondency to notice?
"The legends say that Mystic Flour Cookie's precious resolution has been split in two...Do you not believe that it is right for the stronger of the two halves to take ownership of it?"
Dark Cacao Cookie covers a part of his face as the mist obscures his vision. "The distant voice...! The vertigo! The thickening fog...! Who's responsible for these tricks?!" His voice lowers in threat. "Cloud Haetae Cookie! Is it you?! Or the work of a Beast?!"
"La la la! Answer my question first, My Lord!" Cloud Haetae Cookie singsongs, ignoring the King's demand for answers. It's then a Dark Cacao Warrior coughs, a white powder sullies his black glove. "... Huh? It's flour.."
The warrior next him gasps, bumping into Crunchy Chip Cookie. "You coughed up flour! It's the Pale Ailment!!!"
The sick Cacao warrior screeches. "What? Me? No... No! It can't be! I don't want to be sick! Please, help me! YOUR MAJESTY!!!"
Dark Cacao Cookie observes the commotion and grumbles, his hold on his sword adjusts, slices through the air when he lifts it. " I refuse to take part in your foolish games any longer! Even if this cocoon was made to save all the Cookies in the world, I no longer care! It has become clear that it was Mystic Flour Cookie who struck my Kingdom with the Pale Ailment! I will cut down any danger to my Kingdom with no hesitation!"
"I will not waste my opportunity to eliminate this threat that lies in front of me!"
Before you know it your hand reaches out.
"Dark Cacao Cookie, don't! It's!-"
It's too late, and the cocoon comes undone in two hollow pieces. Cloud Haetae goes utterly still, their conduct having done a complete spin, they stare at the lot of you with unblinking eyes. Their tone resentful as they utter their final say, the fog swallowing them up after.
"You're no different than the others...the ones who wanted to hurt the cocoon to satisfy their own selfish greed..."
Dark Cacao Cookie glares at were the Haetae once stood. "What did you just say?!"
"I, the master of the Ivory Pagoda, speak to you."
Your hand lowers and your body goes lax. An uproar wracks on the walls of your mind, yet your limbs stay frozen. You can't move, not as the others go into defensive positions, readying their weapons, not as they look around trying to the origin of the one talking.
"Where's that voice coming from? There's nothing inside the cocoon!"
The speaker continues, voice firm however monotonous in it's timbre.
"Born in the first land, I was baked with the power of ancient magic. It is my purpose to protect Cookies with my unwavering willpower and lead them to Paradise."
"I enclosed myself in a cocoon for the sake of my followers, and yet the world seen from inside the cocoon was far from pure...Cookies putting their own greed first, pushing and shoving to have their own wish fulfilled before anyone else..."
"Witnessing this, my heart grew forlorn and empty."
"At first, I believed this emptiness would crumble my dough, but my cocoon remained strong and intact throughout the ages. Time comes and goes as Cookies are baked and crumble once again... but I learned how to overcome time itself simply by being me."
"Just as I was one step away from becoming the Leavened One..."
"Someone spread a false rumour that my cocoon was full of treasures."
Your gaze rises, familiarity sparks at that, howbeit bitter. You find parallelism in her words.
I knew it! The rumours are true!
While we are suffering from famine and on the verge of war, you are hiding away and shunning anyone who comes for your help! You don't deserve to be an emissary of the Gods, because you never were one to begin with!
The two of you had been the closest amongst the virtues. Closer than ever admitted. Your hopes and wishes harmonised with on other. Your duties relied on the wants of the common lot of Cookies and when those weren't met, they got hostile. Even the ultimate discarding of said duties were rooted in the cruelty done by Cookiekind.
What a cruel twist of fate.
The fog parts just slightly, It curls and reveals a Cookie that steps forth. Her pure white hanfu sweeps against the tiles as the only sounds that follows her. Her hair is set up in a bun, pale bangs falling softly around her face. A crown of wheat petals dots her Souljam that rests on her forhead. She hadn't changed a bit, apart from the veil that whisks over her back, well her outward apperance that is.
Your eyes stay fixated on her, even as you step back discreetly behind the others and tug at your hood.
"The cocoon was cut open with one slash of a sword. Fake immortal, they said," Her head tilts just a inch, toward Dark Cacao Cookie. Her hand put out to him just barely. "âjust like you."
Dark Cacao Cookie brandishes his blade to her. "Mystic Flour Cookie! You... You Beast...!!!"
She continues talking, unhurriedly. Her every utterance even and removed from any viable emotion. "What do you think of my story? Does it not make you feel... like everything is futile?"
"No matter how strong your resolve is, no matter how hard you try, this world will never change. Everything will be in vain and turn to hollow tears."
Her posture returns to it's closed off poise. Her body movements reminds you of a lotus bud, impassive and subtle. Sealed off from any external factors. It's captures you in a thrall, stealing your attention.
"I, Mystic Flour Cookie, shall tell you the truth."
"A world in which individual desires exist will never be an ideal world.The one who covets the grass will soon wish for a whole forest. The one who seeks out a cave to escape the rain will soon wish for a big house with a roof. There is no guarantee that even your most basic wishes will ever be granted."
Mystic Flour's eyes open, just a fraction, there's no trace of the once heartfelt compassion she draped herself with. Just a shell now devoid of any sentiments she held close, it's as if she wasn't fully present, even as she preached her nihilistic doctrine.
"The wish to protect your Kingdom... your subjects... Both are ultimately useless causes that will do no more than inflict endless pain. You must free yourself from worldly affairs and anguish. Throw away all that you know to achieve true enlightenment."
The dough of the Dark Cacao warriors begin turning white, they scream at the sight and her eyes shut again.
"You, who arduously carried the burden of your King. Do not forget the reason you were born." She adresses to the suffering soldiers.
"Return to flour. Set yourself free from the fear and pain of the perpetual cycle of being baked and crumbled."
"You dare use your sly tricks on my subject?!" Dark Cacao Cookie shouts, the anger in his voice booms across the temple. "Do not think for a second that we will fall for your floury tricks, for they are nothing but white dust standing against our firm determination! May my razor-sharp and unwavering resolution punish you!"
The Beast does not sway by the King's threat and instead the atmosphere curls, rippling through the air. You sense...something akin to bitterness, yet too detached to fully adhere the term.
"Resolution...! Fraying, worthless conviction... " Mystic Flour Cookie says, repeating the word as more of an confirmation to herself, a regained sharpness to her voice. No sooner does her tone mellow out again. "...Is that the resolution you speak of?"
"My once strong conviction... was split into apathy and resolution." Her eyes snap open to glare at the king, her irises slit and hollow. "The true owner of your resolution... is none other than ME!"
Dark Cacao Cookie's sword drops as he grunts in pain, you and Caramel Arrow Cookie rush up to him yet he put up his hand before you can enquire his wellbeing.
"May the curse of the Ivory Pagoda befall all who fail to recognise this truth!" Mystic Flour announces with nothing but indifference.
From the inside of the Cocoon something emerges, a pale spider, it's legs twitch and crawls over the remains of the Cocoon, hissing at you as it locks it's sight upon the group. The Dark Cacao Warriors pull forth their swords and point it at the massive creature. Crunchy Chip Cookie shouts in horror. "Y-Your Majesty! The thing that was inside the cocoon...... was a huge spider! "
"Oh, crumbs! It was a trick after all! Look out! That thing is coming right at us!" Caramel Arrow Cookie nocks the arrow, draws her bow and aims it at the thing. "I shall fight by your side, Your Majesty! I will do all to make sure this battle won't be in vain!"
You attempt to draw your daggers, however Dark Cacao Cookie blocks you with his arm, you two exchange a look and after a silent mutual understanding you nod hesitantly and back up.
Dark Cacao Cookies readies his stance as the creature leap at them. "Very well. SOLDIERS, ATTACK!"
You watch the fight unfold from the sidelines, undisturbed. Until the sensation of a thousand spiders crawls over your dough. You try to overlook the feeling, but it soon proves too irksome. You look around carefully.
She's...she's staring at you.... You can't place the emotion, or lack thereof, in her gaze. But she's definitely staring at you. Her eyes are half-lid, almost narrowed. The phrase "Deer caught in headlights" would be be an accurate description to how you probably look right now.
Stop staring at me. You chant in your own mind. Keeping your expression as neutral as you can. Yet the moment stretched out for seemingly forever.
The battle ends and the Dark Cacao warriors are victorious. Mystic Flour's gaze lingers on you a moment longer. Then her eyelids fall, head slightly shifting back to the warriors.
"Those who have yet to experience true futility...soon it shall permeate your heart, seeping in like mist...And then... your resolution, too, shall fade to white."
The temple starts fading into a void of white and it's master turns around with resigned withdrawal.
You catch the implication immediately. This whole place disappears with her retreat. You act before thought can intervene, glimmers ignite and you rush forward in less than the blink of an eye. But it's still too late and you stumble into the white abyss.
And when you look around, Dark Cacao Cookie and the others are nowhere to be found.
The only thing you can see is overarching mountains, trees of blossoming pink petals and a long set of stairs.
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