[Garius's eyes widen as he sees Aoto come into view]
AOTO! AOTO!
He can't hear you, it's no use.
Garius looked at Mikalo confused, expecting an explanation, but he wasn't given one. Instead, Mikalo continued to ramble on about his past.
I was only a child when he came to me. I barely knew anything about this world. I mean, everything was so new; the world was all new to me. I couldn't help but accept, but who wouldn't?
As a child, I lived on the surface, you know, before Arcad was discovered, a majority of the impoverished were forced to live on the outskirts of Nycon, not being allowed inside, due to our "devil's blood".
That's what the townspeople used to call us, because why would people be subjugated to live in that wasteland unless they were devils? I couldn't blame them; they were just acting as they were raised.
It hurt, though.
Having to enter the city as a child daily, trying to find food and maybe barter money off a kind soul, while being ridiculed by the people around you, gets to you.
You understand, don't you, Garius?
Garius was silent, not responding to Mikalo, locked in on Aoto below, but listening to Mikalo's story.
The feeling of being trash, of everyone looking down on you, having to suffer, having to steal and rob to survive, you've lived it, you know what it's like, you know what it can do for you.
My mother and father were deadbeats who ended up dying shortly after my eighth birthday, leaving me to fend for myself, alone. On the surface, it was scary, and even where I was supposed to be "safe" in Nycon was just as frightening.
I remember being a child wanting to buy myself a slice of cake for my birthday and not having the money. I was so sad, I sat down in a nearby alleyway and cried.
Crying my heart out, I seemed to have alerted this beautiful woman to my whereabouts. I remember her coming to me asking, "What's wrong, child?".
I told her about the slice of cake and how it was my birthday. I thought it was a pity, so she grabbed my hand and pulled me into the shop, buying me the slice.
I was so happy at that moment, as I ate the cake, she brought me to the town square. I didn't question it, though I should have.
Finishing the cake, it was all over my face, and I had rubbed it on my hand, which then grabbed hold of the woman's hand, being led into the city center, she let go of my hand and screamed.
"AHHH THIS DEVIL BOY JUST STOLE MONEY FROM ME AND ASSAULTED ME" I was stunned that the person who showed me so much kindness, more than I had ever seen before, would turn on me as quick as a lever being pulled.
Within minutes, I was surrounded by a group of men wearing heavy suits covering all skin forms. They closed in on me, and I remembered trying to tell them it was a misunderstanding, but it was useless.
The cake that I had eaten was all over me and her hand and it didn't that she was sobbing saying that I tried to "rape her", what a day that was.
Shortly after they pinned me to the ground, strapping his large collar around my head that formed a noose around my head, from there they picked me up by the shoulders, letting my feet drag along the ground, and took me to the guild.
As I was being dragged away, in the corner of my eye, I saw her. I thought she smiled; her smile was so beautiful, but behind it was pure malice.
From there, the dome began filling with that black liquid, the same surrounding us here.
Garius's ears perked up. Mikalo had gotten his attention.
It entered my whole system, flowing through me. I felt connected to it and had no idea what it was until I woke up here.
I woke up in this hellscape as a child, just like you and you're friend down there, but it wasn't to a familiar or friendly face, it was to a devil.
Greed.
He promised me all that I could imagine, the life I never had, the life I yearned for, and the life I needed.
I couldn't say no to that offer, so I agreed and began to follow him. Unlike your friend, I wasn't chosen to become his host.I wonder what would have happened if I did, but that's in the past.
After signing my soul off to him, I woke up in a prison cell below the guild. You see, below the guild lies something terrifying, a testing facility of sorts, where they test that liquid on prisoners like me.
Day after day, I could hear the screams and cries of my fellow inmates down the corridor. Each day, the guards would choose a person from the cells to be taken down the hall. Each time they left, they never returned.
I was so scared that I didn't have any choice.
They took me in my sleep, walking me down the hall, to what I expected to be my death.
See the Mosscrest family hides something. Garius, in the church, has a severely misunderstood role; they're seen as just one of the bodyguard members. No, that's wrong.
The Mosscrests are strictly in charge of research and development within the church, specifically meant to develop and research the discovery of the elixir of death, or "LD" for short, and how it affects people.
Strapping me to the table, they began pumping me full of LD until I couldn't take it. My body began to shake uncontrollably, making me lose my mind. The pain was unbearable. The doctors stood back, and I vividly remember them saying, "Another failed subject, prepare for the next".
But I wasn't a failed subject; I survived, and credit that to Greed. I don't believe I was special; I just think I was lucky.
Shocked at my recovery and resistance to the effects of LD, they sent me back to my cell, and from there I remember waiting what seemed like days, unsure of what was next to come.
Until the head of the Mosscrest family at the time came to greet me at my cell, "Mikalo, is it? How would you like to be a Mosscrest?".
From there, the rest was history. He told me that I would become a central member of the family. I didn't know exactly what it meant, but I didn't refuse, and all the stories you've heard about my past came with my new role within the family.
The older I got, the more my Greed began to grow. It grew so much that I could not control it anymore, and I broke in that void. I know you're very aware of what came next.
I was used by Greed, my supposed family, the world, and worst of all, myself. I can tell you this: if that is your friend down there, you had better keep a close eye on him because I'm sure Sound and "our family" have plans for him.
Mikalo finished his sentence and had gotten Garius's full attention. When finishing, he pointed back down to Aoto, only for Garius to see him strapping what he had first come to the Curator for around his neck.
How did he get that….
[The world around them began to shake, falling apart until the abyss had gone even more silent]
Waking back up, Garius held the marbles to his chest inside his room in the Inn.