Seeing the oversized rose giant, Otto had a change of plans. He quickly turned to the stunned Luna, putting his hands on her shoulders. His emerald stared with glowing calmness as he spoke gently to her.
"Luna takes a deep breath and closes your eyes...Listen to my voice. Empty mind until nothing is left."
"How am I supposed to stay calm when there's a giant rose coming for us!? I can't just beat my trauma just from a meditation session!" Seeing the Titan inch closer, how could she stay calm in this situation?
"Don't worry, I'll take full responsibility, so just listen to my voice and focus...If anything happens, I will protect you."
Luna took his words to heart and closed her eyes. She blocked out the giant footsteps coming, the coursing wind, and the warm soothing hands on her shoulders. She only focused on the voice that was her light in this hellish dream.
"Great...Now, imagine yourself in the inner workings of your mind. Go deep inside your consciousness until you find the one true repressed memory that you have locked away for eternity."
Following his words, Luna's body soon turned limp as she fell onto the bloody ground and was motionless. Unable to move but only to think within her mind. Her face was in complete serenity as she fell asleep.
Seeing her position, Otto let out a worried breath upon looking at the fierce enemy coming his way. Their massive limbs crossed toward both of them with each passing second.
"May you be victorious in fighting your inner demons. Dreaming within a nightmare, how romantically poetic."
Finishing his words, Otto stepped away from the sleeping girl and strode toward the incoming nightmare of roses.
His figure acted like a knight shielding the helpless maiden as his back faced Luna, and within the next moment, two golden weapons started to manifest in his hands
It started to materialize from its sleek handles onto its overwhelmingly large barrels, glowing with a humming golden light, and soon a whisp of gray fog started emanating from his body, covering the two Judgements of Shamash.
It wouldn't matter if Otto were in a dream or in an entirely different dimension, as the owner of Sefirah Castle, Otto could stir it up anywhere to let it send a small wisp of its Authority and taint his False Divine Keys with the gray fog.
The design of the once blazing Divine Key was now a quiet duel of pistols, shrouded in mysteries. In his right hand lay a black Judgement of Shamash, and in his left a white one. Both were patterned with white spiritual worms flying wings of butterflies.
Otto's Spiritual Intuition started to flare up as sudden information was sliding into his brain.
They could conceptually damage a target's History. With each shot hitting the giant, its skillset and ability would change or weaken temporarily as its History was constantly being changed or severely damaged. With each shot taking use of his Spirituality... He had 13 Shots.
History Defiler...It would be its name.
His elated legs rushed forward toward the behemoth as with all his might, he jumped into the air with both pistols, aiming at its head.
"May this be a celebration for the departed!"
...
"Where am I?" That was the approach question Luna asked herself as the scene of the red-stained land disappeared abruptly, and now she was standing in a place of bleak darkness.
In the far distance, Luna saw a door locked with numerous chains. They varied from normal locks, cute ones, one filled with roses, and ones adorned with blood. Before she could go any further, a familiar voice called out to her, coming from behind.
"Ah, you're finally here! I've been waiting for so long."
Luna turned her head until she saw a figure that was an exact copy of her...Instead of a white summer dress, it was stained with the surrounding darkness, and atop her head was a crown of roses.
"Who are you? Is this some sort of trick!?" She asked with trepidation, from the stories her 'Grandpa' told her, that dopplegangers were bad news after all.
"What's with that tone? Can't you use your brain for one, V-A-M-P-I-R-E? Isn't this your mind? Shouldn't you get the answer within the snap of a finger, blood brain?" The girl lightly mocked, but before she could go any further, Luna pushed out her hands towards her.
"Did you just try impaling me with a blood spear? There isn't any blood..." She let out a sigh, then answered again, "I am your subconscious, and I'll be frank with you. I am here to stop you from going any further..."
"What's that supposed to mean? My greatest enemy is myself?" Luna pointed at herself
"Exactly, don't go any further...If you open that door, the cruel truth will come back from your repressed abyss and break your current self. Do you want that? To be broken down by the harsh truth of reality. The memories of the past that you hid yourself, and the fabric history that you made." She coldly said.
Luna felt as if she couldn't refute her words. She sensed a feeling of sadness coming from the other's words, but she finally said her peace.
"So what if I really did hide my memories...If I really did do something like that. Wouldn't there be a time when I'll open that door one day? I can't keep on hiding everything from Grandpa."
"What if he decided to get rid of you for being but a fraud who isn't who she really is? That man, after all, is also one shrouded in deceiving mysteries. I fear that one day he won't be smiling anymore, but instead staring at you like a disease that needs to be cleansed."
Luna looked offended, hearing her words, "Do you really think he would be that narrow-minded? He didn't even bat an eye when I was drinking his blood. I am sure he has dark secrets and pasts...This will sound stupid, but I believe one day he'll share them with me. Don't you like him as well since you're me?"
"I won't argue with that, but when will you wake up from that dream...That the world will always be a wretched and shitty ugly place."
"Are you trying to change topics now that you're on the losing side!? Life is like a box of chocolates, the ones with coconut are the worst pieces and the dark ones are the tasty, but still, at least there's still some beauty in the coconut...They're covered in chocolate, of course!"
She couldn't believe what she was hearing, but lamented and begrudgingly unlocked the door for Luna.
"This is going nowhere...Fine, continue being a naive vampire, but once you go through there. You'll lament in the hell you brought to yourself."
Her voice and figure disappeared into a wave of roses, one by one, until there was nothing left but Luna herself.
"Leaving already?"
Seeing that she soon departed, Luna approached the now-unlocked door, which was painted with the purity of white, and its handle was that of lustrous gold.
Her body started to sweat heavily as she approached closer and closer. A sense of dread started to overwhelm her as her hand grasped onto its handle to open it. A heavy pressure seemed to press down onto her body as she struggled to turn the handle.
Inch by inch the golden knob turned until it was set downward and with her all might she could mustered, Luna pushed open the door. Her eyes instinctively closed as a bright light seemed to engulf her until she opened her eyes onto a familiar scene.
It was the warm, cozy house where her "birthday" was celebrated moments ago until that lady ruined it.
As Luna inched closer to the living room, she noted it was strangely too quiet and moving in further along the path...It was all too apparent that a stench of blood was becoming stronger and stronger.
One step further in, and a sudden mirror window flashed before her eyes. In it lay a woman in a hospital bed, gently holding a little figure within her arms. Her hair was as pure as snow white, and her smile was that of a blooming mother
Tears were dripping from her eyes as she gently whispered to her, "Please, live a life without the burden of our past...I'll make sure of it."
A single tear slowly ebbed and made its way down Luna's cheek upon witnessing a sight.
"Mother?" She instinctively called out, and her hand reached out, but it was futile as it was never meant to be, as the window shattered onto the next.
The next scene was on the patio of a modern but modest house. A well-dressed man with silver hair sat on a wooden rocking chair while the child sat on a wooden house. In his hand lay an open book, and his voice was in great fervor, telling the tale of a knight.
"As Don Quixote stared at the windmills, he said to his Squire, 'Sancho, I have conceived an Idea most ingenious! To fight those giants!"
"Sancho replied bitterly, 'But sir...Those aren't giants. I prefer you don't start getting flung around like a horse blindly with a stick on a carrot!'"
The little girl laughed, "Horsey! Horsey! Horsey! Horsey!"
"A fine horse indeed..." The Father smiled, but before he could continue the tale, his sunshine asked a question.
"Hey Papa...Why does the crazy man want to be a Knight?"
The Father took his sweet time, but he soon answered with a voice of longing.
"Well, I guess you could say...It was his dream. To become a Knight in a time when Chivalry and the Romance of Heroic adventures were long gone. He was a Flame Chaser on the ideals and Beauty of a knight."
"Is it bad to have a dream like that?" The child asked with a look of wonder.
He bitterly smiled and answered, "Reality says you shouldn't dream of the impossible, but what I believe is to dream the impossible because it's better to keep onto that possibility and keep on following that flame even if you seem a little crazy, plus maybe some people follow that same impossible dream."
"Did you have a dream, Papa?"
"Yup...This old man wanted to be a Knight who could defend the World, but it seemed the impossible overcame me, and now I am just a Father with a caring wife and a little baby girl." He smiled brightly at her.
"...Papa, can I carry on that dream!? Can I become a Knight just like you? Just like that crazy man."
He grimaced a little upon hearing her words, but put up a smile. "A hero can mean different things, but saving people is what makes you a hero...To stand up for what you think is right."
"Then I'll be a hero like you one day...Riding on a horse with my own squire and barging into their homes because I am a hero!"
"....Uh, sure, honey."
*Crack*
A bitter smile crossed Luna's face as the window shattered, and soon she made it to where the scent of blood was strongest.
Each step she took sent a shiver down her spine as the room was starting to become stained with blood more and more until it reached its peak.
Once she reached the living room, bile started to bubble up within her mouth, her body tensed in disgust, hands clinching bloody red, and eyes widening in dejection.
It was the memory that she locked for so long, a little girl wearing a white dress standing over the corpse of her own parents. Their body covered in their own blood, their flesh stiff as the ground and fully drained of their warmth.
Their necks had marks of being bitten, and their face filled with abhorrent horror. That they're own flesh and blood was the one to reap their life and bloodline.
The Child could only stare down at the two corpses with a face of utter despondency. She was disgusted at herself, but the hunger inside and her parched throat were consuming her sanity. Her family and friends were not enough to fill her bloodlust...This eternal quench to fulfill her hunger would never end.
Luna's hand suddenly moved onto the child's neck as she gripped it with all her might, and her eyes filled with utter rage at herself, but the little girl made no reaction to the pain.
She only replied with a simple sentence, not to mock her but to reveal the utter truth.
"The fault lies with you, Lucia Bathori Kaslana."
A/N: Welcome to Honkai Impact...The Game that embodies Suffering is Essential.