Cold is the Void

[Amaterasu]

Expedition, Day 16 - Day 4 of the Ascent, Nighttime

The Fourth Hall: Gluttony (Part 2)

The evening came and went and night fell over the group. Not that they had any way of knowing, with daylight not reaching them in the depths of the mountain so that the glowing minerals on the floor, walls and ceiling were all the light that was provided to them, besides their lanterns. Those sources of light were constant, so the only way of telling the time was by how energetic they felt.

They laid down, this time without pitching tents but instead in sleeping bags gathered around a campfire, and swiftly fell asleep. The poor Urist and Fiara had a difficult sleep, the experiences from the Hall of Gluttony plaguing them and resulting in nightmares that made them thrash around in their sleep. Amaterasu on the other hand got no sleep at all. Her mind was wide awake, thinking back to what Senecianus had told them and repeating its words time and time again. The punishment for succumbing to one’s gluttony was to become food, to be tormented for however long it took before someone else made it there and ate them. Surrounded by the very items that had caused them to become imprisoned in their own body, unable to move on in any way but to make someone else take their place… it was terrible. A fate worse than death.

She sat up and let her eyes wander through the room. Oki, Fiara and Urist were sound asleep… Senecianus was still sitting in the same spot, and judging by how its head was down with the chin against its chest, she imagined that it was sleeping too. Her mind cleared. She felt oddly calm about this… slowly she sat up and adjusted her clothes, but left her Yasakani no Magatama behind on her bedsheets. “I’m sorry”, she whispered. “You will have to finish the ascent without me.” They had enough to brave the mountain on their own even without her aid. She would not come back.

After again ensuring that nobody had noticed her she snuck back, to the tunnel through which they had entered the cavern they were in now: the one leading back to the Hall of Gluttony. It was pitch-black after only a few steps but by feeling around with her hands she was able to make out the walls and move along them. Soon the temperature rose and the exit lit up before her, then the smell of food filled her nostrils. She had arrived. It was as enticing as before, her body wanted to leap into the fray and stuff itself to the bursting point and beyond, but she was able to hold herself in check surprisingly easy. She sat down on a bench made of speculoos and closed her eyes, focusing and summoning a large wooden tube with a trumpet-like opening at the end, to make her voice heard across the entire area.

When she opened her eyes again, Senecianus was standing before her, looking at her. It seemed serious and… energetic. Normally it had a tired posture and manner of speech. Now it stood straight and spoke normally.

“The trial is over. What are you doing here again?”

Amaterasu stood up and grabbed the instrument she had just summoned. “You know what I’m here for.”

“Are you aware of what you’re about to do?”

“Of course.” She peeked through the hole at the tip to ensure that the tube was not obstructed.

“Your actions will not change anything.”

Amaterasu ignored the wampa as she brought the horn to her lips and blew with full force. The sound that emerged was deep and majestic and rumbled through one’s very bones. After she had done so, she shouted into the tube. “To all those who are trapped in this cave because they ate and were turned: come to the exit! Gather where you can hear my voice. I will set every one of you free!” She then put the horn down, holding back tears. She would eat each and every single one of the edibles in which those poor souls were captured and shoulder their combined sins in exchange of their release. Without doubt the eating frenzy would turn her into food herself, and because she could not bring it on her conscience to make someone else take her place she would spend eternity here. But one life was a small exchange for the freedom of many souls, no matter how many there may be.

“Your actions will not change anything”, Senecianus repeated, this time with a hint of anger in its voice. “Others will come and they will endure this trial or fail it and become more food. Are you so delusional as to believe that your actions will make a difference?”

“They may only bring salvation to a handful of souls, Senecianus, that is all the difference I seek to make. I know that I cannot save everyone. But even if I could save only one of them in exchange of my life I would happily do so.”

“You can still turn back before it is too late. Your friends will fail without you. Can you bear the weight of knowing that they will not succeed because of you?”

Amaterasu chuckled as the first of the trapped souls came, some by flight and others on foot. The flying sushi roll she had seen earlier today was among them. “They will make it through. You underestimate them, Senecianus. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a feast to devour.” She walked down the street, meeting the edibles in the middle, and spoke to all of them: “Please, line up. The order does not matter, I will save you all. I want you to make me eat you, no matter what. If you must force yourselves into my stomach or hold my mouth open, do so. Every last one of you.”

Hesitantly at first, likely unable to believe that this was really happening, the edibles obliged, getting into a line. Amaterasu loosened her sash in anticipation of a full stomach and, once more holding back tears knowing that she would never see Oki and Fiara… and even Urist again, grasped the first one in line, a gingerman, and dug in.

With each bite she could hear the soul becoming a little less tied to the food, but only when the two feet were eaten and swallowed did it get released completely. Amaterasu heard its relieved howl as it flew up and vanished, passing into the afterlife that it had been denied for so long. But there was no time for emotions. She grasped the next, a roasted salmon that was flopping in the arms of its friend, a gummy bear that handed it to Amaterasu, and continued. Now the tears were flowing, both because the flavors on her mouth were beyond anything she had ever imagined and because she felt that every bite brought her closer to the point of no return. She could already feel warmth on her feet. Were they turning to gingerbread already? She did not check. There was neither the time nor did she think that she could bear the sight.

For the next hour, Amaterasu ate. Her stomach seemed bottomless as even after eating the gummy bear which itself had more mass than her entire body her belly did not show anything. Her hunger and appetite were nonexistent… despite how good the food tasted, feeling that she was here for a reason cut her desire to eat for the pleasure of it, and had the beings she ate been regular food from the Hall of Gluttony rather than captured souls, she would have stopped on the spot. The line was longer than expected: a total of fifteen individuals had come. She released each of them, focusing only on what was before her… until nobody else came. The line was done.

“I have… finished…” gasped Amaterasu. She wondered what she looked like. No doubt were her face, her hair, her hands a mess, but how had eating so many different foods changed her? Was she a gingerbread gummy bear fish hamburger chicken rice nori hybrid, a gastronomical homunculus? She was afraid to look at herself.

“Hmm… you have saved every last soul after all”, said Senecianus. Its voice was back to the tired, calm tone and it was bent forward, sitting on the chocolate road that Amaterasu was also on. “I must say… I can hardly believe that you pulled it through. Nobody has ever done this before.”

“Thanks…” Amaterasu said. She wiped the tears from her eyes, wondering if they were now sake or something. “Are the souls saved?”

“Mmm… they have all passed on, indeed.”

“Then I have no more regrets. Just… please tell my friends that I’m sorry that I cannot accompany them any longer.”

“Hmm… why do you say so?”

Startled, Amaterasu replied: “Well, I mean… I ate not one, but fifteen different edibles in the Hall of Gluttony. I succumbed to my desires and stuffed myself without need.”

“You are mistaken”, Senecianus replied. “Look at yourself.”

Amaterasu hesitantly lowered her eyes and gasped: her clothes were a mess, her arms were covered in gravy, oil, crumbs and other things and her feet were nearly buried in molten chocolate that she now realized was what she had felt earlier - her body warmth must have melted the chocolate road - but it was still her! She had not transformed in the slightest. “But… how…”

“You did not eat for the pleasure of eating. You ate to save others, out of necessity. What’s more, you were conscious of the consequences and yet you sacrificed yourself for the good of strangers. Gluttony however is a sin that one commits to the detriment of others, depriving them of food so that one may indulge in pleasure. Thus you proved that your soul is pure, free of the sin of gluttony, and the curse that has turned others into edibles could not take root inside your body.”

“I… see.” She replied. Slowly she grasped the situation and a smile spreaded on her face. “So that means that I can see the others again? That I can continue my journey with Urist, with Fiara… with Oki?”

“Yes.” The wampa stood up and made a grimace that Amaterasu could not interpret. “Although I would recommend that you take a bath and summon new clothes for yourself before returning”, it added with a teasing tone. So that grimace must have been a grin.

“Oh… yes, of course.” Luckily there was a river of apple juice not far from the road, which Amaterasu submerged herself in and let the running water wash away the mess. She also extracted the Omnilium out of the horn and her old clothes and summoned new, fresh ones. Twenty minutes after she had gone to find the river she came back and Senecianus wordlessly led her back through the tunnel.

Oki, Fiara and Urist were already waiting for her, and Fiara nearly knocked her down when she tackle-hugged her. “MOTHER AMATERASU!” she yelled, tears of joy in her eyes. Oki joined them and hugged both of them since Fiara clung to Amaterasu as if she hadn’t seen her for ages.

“When we saw your empty bedroll and your Prayer Bead chain we figured out where you were pretty soon”, he explained. “I saw the footprints leading back to the cave, and pieced together the rest… Ama, don’t do this ever again! Fiara nearly had a heart attack.”

“I did not!” the girl yelled, but then looked at Amaterasu. “But Oki’s right. Never ever do that again.”

“I’m sorry, you guys… but hey, I made it. I saved the trapped people… ate all of them, too.”

“You ATE them?!” Fiara yelled. “I thought you were going to use your Prime powers to… extract their Omnilium or build an altar and pray for them or something!” She clung tighter. “How are you not turned to food?”

“... it’s a long story”, she admitted. “Let’s lay back down while I tell you. I’m cold.”

“Good idea”, replied Oki. “I’ll organize breakfast while we’re at it… Ama, want some of the leftovers from last dinner? There’s mackerel don.”

Amaterasu laughed at this. “Please don’t bring up the subject ‘food’ anymore, for a while.”

20272 + 2048 = 22.320 / 20.000 words.