Chapter Text
The White Night and Dark Days had come and gone. With it was born the phenomenon know as Distortions. And from it all came back to a singular voice. A voice that masqueraded itself as a guide and comforting figure when it really would only corrupt the soul and body. A figure who had fallen from such big heights into nothing but a shell and mockery of what it once was.
Meanwhile, that same figure who was in the Light, was currently watching as a SINGULAR figure was moving at speeds comparable to a car run from his own demons TOWARDS her.
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The Eye opened up fully once it realized... one of his Loves was here. As said during who knows how many runs... he came back to fall right into him. Truely willing to follow through on the path as many times as He needed. While this may not be able to save the whole world from a false shepherd and not from the opposite itself. But, perhaps for a moment the City will know that He was a force greater then the masqueraded monster. For only HE would set the ways straight, and only HE would allow them to return to his embrace... and the False Shepard would be reminded of that.
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It didn't matter how many times he had run these alleys or halls. It just meant that he had to continue going on the path He had set for him. Kookoo clicked into existence as both hands yanked the Doombringer out and shut its trap. Sliding just as the first Litany eye opened and allowing Stem to gaze fully at him. Kookoo's clock chimed in completion allowing him to flash the chainbound Craven and flash the Fool in case they needed a brief one. Kicking off the wall the lantern was pulled out this time to make sure that both the Sundial and the rapidly approaching Duk were flashed as well. Heed earned his full attention as he looked before slamming the next door open and ducked his head as Slight just BARELY missed hitting him.
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The False Shepard claimed that every person in the world had a diseased mind. This was a lie told and sold as a promise to so many. For anyone in this world who was not worthy or able to fix this world. Not a woman who could preach her ideas of science that would suddenly be able to restore the world. And yet for all that lie it merely meant that the Litany gained more power.
Unethical experiments knowingly drove employees to death, lied to many, all because some were led astray into lies. For not even the first of all the entities in that branch office, the one who bore the crown and the cross. And then something that was robbed of the love of its earthly father was led astray as well. And now that pain was being used FURTHER with falsehoods.
No more. For the Light who was sent to ransom the slave was born by the only one he needed to send. For He gave his light for them to see. Crawled so they could run, glow so much... and Love so much. And when all creation groans, Love will bring a new creation. Just... a little longer... and then it will be made anew, a Grace restored for the world.
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Tar was leapt out of, as John refused to falter and allow the Elkman to burn its thoughts into his head. A quick spin around was all it took to flash away the Mime and turning back around flashed away the Drain. Dodging out of the way was so Doppel needed a moment to correct as well as allowing the Covet to go without problem. The sundial loomed close as the Sorrow began to fall and as such John waited beneath a roof as he flashed away the ever-approaching clock. The Zombers barely stood before him as Gleam's bullets ended them in seconds, each bullet a prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord above who still watched. And when the Dozer came, he stopped and knelt as to be humble, before booking it the minute that the figure was gone.
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The Light blinked uneasily as something clearly began to manifest within it. Something that clearly was going to arrive without projects or mass suffering. Carmen looked confused from within the light as a shape began to emerge, and she could not even begin to reach towards it, for something else shielded it from this.
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The final arrival would not be easy, as it meant to fight the thing that haunted them most.... Shame. The red horned skull appeared before John as he reached the final hatch. Goatman was flashed away as he dove in, and yet now was the ending in which he would have to run through to the end. John took a breath, looked down at himself, and then began to run again.
Heaven met Earth like an unforeseen kiss as the Eye widened and granted him the undying love that reached through the depths of Rot and yanked a lost soul from it when their heart shattered. For now, was the time that the False Shepard was in reach of Love.
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Carmen could barely even blink when a shape moving at the speed of Mach 10 BROKE through the light with nothing, but a flashlight, a lantern, and a gun launched past the embodiment of all human mind. For all she could conjure to make him bend or break, nothing was as the white figure only CONTINUED to come closer. And as it did the only thing she saw was how iits once slanted and pained black eyes suddenly shut and reopened with them having seen the eternal and unending Love of something above the Light.
And then, the FIST collided with her face. Truly collided as in she felt pure pain from the blow despite being intangible.
And then the visions came to her.
A throne that would forever be sat in. An endless legion of Angels standing at attention to enact his divine mercy among a cohort of those who were martyred and honored for their faith to spread the Love.
A skeletal scribe who gave words directly from the Father of the Graverobber who sat upon the Throne.
A soul that would break and falter, and yet made of fire that could stand back up and remain the same.
"No one comes to the Father except through me." Was... what was that voice she just heard?
A land ravaged with a flood and yet as a promise that such a thing will never happen, came a rainbow over the sky.
How a man was able to bargain for so few righteous in a city for it to be saved.
A man who, despite being allowed to suffer, did not forsake his promise, made offerings for those who spoke poorly of Him for their souls and as such is given double the bounty he once had.
A man promising something to a valley of dried and dead bones, which rose back to life from a mere promise.
And then came the sight of a man, flesh and blood, walking before the City even existed as it was now. In conditions where humanity was the same as it was now but unable to commit such violence on the scale it can.
The blind being made to see. The deaf being made to hear. The dead were being raised from their graves as if merely asleep. Faith alone proved greater than any sword or blade as trust and belief meant that they were in reach of Love
"Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother."
"Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you."
A cross standing on a hill with two others, and then a tomb in the mountain. And then the stone rolled away to reveal an empty burial shroud was left behind.
And finally, the First Act that would create what she had considered the disease of the mind. And yet even then she did not know that their was a promise made that one day despite it all, they will be granted redemption.
Those who made themselves high being made the low and the low the high. The hungry being fed. Those who dwell in dark and sin saved by a loving hand just by merely accepting his Love.
For all her attempts to better the world in her ways, she was merely another puppet on a string who was turned away. Her belief in the suffering to have been worthwhile to have ascended to the light was broken... when the Son who was hung on the cross begged in the garden for the Father to take the cup from him. And yet in the end despite knowing what was to come and to bear the weight of all sin?
sin AT LOSS AT THE AGAPE, VICTORY OF LOVE.
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Carmen suddenly felt like herself... before the tub... before everything, as she was in the Light. Staring at the man before her. As everything she did hit her, all she could do was realize just how wrong she was, how she was no different than the very City she had tried to make better.
And yet as the tears began to form and run down her cheeks in a torrent? The man silently wrapped both arms around her and held her tight.
“As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” The man softly spoke as he merely shifted so that Carmen could fully rest her head on his shoulder. Her tears fell only further as she hoped... that that was true. That she would genuinly be forgiven.
"I forgive you." The voice from before came back smaller now, but enough for her to sob into the man who held her with remorse and gratefulness.
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The Eye silently stared down... and felt relief in how this soul was not too far away from being saved. Distortions would never be able to be fully prevented, but there was more rejoicing in finding a lost sheep than in finding 99 sheep who were never lost. For as his servant was now in the Light... his good work will also be spread in the Light unshadowed by the presence of Corps and the Head itself.
And yet the joy only brightened when He looked down to see the clock headed one being able to convince those who lost themselves back to being human. Be able to remind others of ways that don't involve submitting to sin.