red desert

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/EplvvkB.jpg"> It is your 10th day at the desert. You have left everything and everyone in search for enlightment. Yet even when you see only stones and sand around you. You feel its presence. And then... [[It makes itself known]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/JzSuy8K.gif"> There it is. The Fiend, watching you with amusement. "Bored yet?" "Are you trying to become one of the stones?" [["I wished to be alone..."]] [[Ignore it]] [["This is what I deserve."]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/8Ewwayo.jpg"> "Ah... No mission? No searching for divine guidance? No more prissy excuses?" "Left all of humanity behind for the company of wind and sand?" "What brought you here then?" [["Hate"]] [["Hurt"]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/8Ewwayo.jpg"> "Aww, do not be like that." "Do not act as if you cannot hear nor see me..." "I know what is inside your little head." "I know the darkness behind your shiny innocent eyes." "I know ''You''." "''You'' know you cannot escape me even here." [[You try to run away with your mind.]] [["I am better than this"]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/8Ewwayo.jpg"> You think you know what is its goal, to stir you away from your path to tempt you to succumb to your darkest thoughts. "Ohh? Better than what, pray tell?" "What person with such a demeanor of stoic elegance as you are doing here? In the middle of nowhere, with their bottom in the sand?" [["I am here for enligthment!]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/sgXpmKb.gif"> (text-colour:#ff8f8f)["Never deaf to my words"] [[You shut your eyes.]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/kxm6WU0.gif"> (text-colour:#ff0a0a)["Never free of me."] [[...->Start]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/u2YrNO6.gif"> (text-colour:#ffb8b8)["Never blind to the fantasies I show you." ] [[You cover your ears.]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/KW1mFf4.gif"> "So you did not choose solitude. //They// made you do it." "You were disgusted by their imperfections, their squabble, petty behavior and stupidity." "How annoying, how cretinous, how cruel..." "Do you wish to do anything about it?" [[No]] [[Yes]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/KW1mFf4.gif"> "So you run away from them. Sitting here under the scorching sun while they stayed oblivious to the damage they did to you..." "Is it not unfair?" "Do you wish do do anything about it?" [[Yes->Yes1]] [[No]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/vv4MAc5.gif"> "From the scorching sun? You are achieving it quite well from the looks of it" "Or did you look for something specific?" [[Divine Guidance]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/vv4MAc5.gif"> "Attention then." "Screaming to the sky is beneath you though, is it not?" "Are you here to mope around? To feel better than anyone else?" [[To perfect myself! To become better, holier than before! No matter the sacrifice!"]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/KW1mFf4.gif"> "...holier?" "My my. How righteous" "I got a feeling there is something special hatching in here..." The thing you must know, oh brave and righteous..." [[...]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/v8uJijo.gif"> Every New Saint does not only catches an eye of the Divine... [[...->Start]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/8Ewwayo.jpg"> "So what are you about to do?" [[Wait]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/3n4cykX.gif"> "A true solitude" "A true peace and quiet" [[...->Start]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/Updpe3I.jpg"> "You are enjoying the empitness, are you not?" "It calms you." "You relish in the stillness, yet amongst the things that are silent." "I am not." [["Me neither."]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/XKg17EZ.gif"> "To grow roots...And thornes. An Asylum of your own." "No one will dare to come find you, no one will penetrate the spiky cage around your heart." "Very well...I will keep an eye on you." "Fellow beast" [[...->Start]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/qSCUrSV.jpg"> "...peculiar." "Are you going to converse?" "To listen?" [["I will if you do too."]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/3n4cykX.gif"> "Finally..." "For the lack of simpathy" "They can finally feel what you feel" [[...->Start]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/nGo374T.jpg"> And then... You both talk. That's all. You pour your venom out, your anger, your feeling of injustice. The Fiend spins its fantasies of revenge, served in cruel ways. It also acknowledges your hurt. And that is enough, even with out turning the white sand red. You leave the solitude. Maybe you will be back someday. Just to visit. [[...->Start]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/Ds0WbkL.gif"> "For how long?" it asks. [[Just a while]] [[Forever]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/uIujJcr.gif"> "For the Divine to pat you on the back like a good obedient puppy?" "For you to wither under the sun?" "For the sand around you to turn to glass?" [[For me->Stay]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/KW1mFf4.gif"> "You have piqued my interest." "Does this shiny, pearly white, garment of yours covers a dark heart?" "I ''must'' know more." [["I want to repent..."]] [["It covers more than that."]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/WNiknN6.gif"> "//Repent//" "It has a double meaning nowadays, does it not?" "Either you are just a sinner, filled with jealousy, anger, envy, laziness..." "...Many times prideful, for a bunch of fleshy sentient dolls that is one of your favorite sins, that and gluttony" "Discontent with the fact that you cannot keep your souls free of sins. It is like expecting an apple not to get beaten up after a while. So you repent, for that apple to be fresh again" "Either that. Or you are a monster" "Which is it then?" [["Wouldn't you know?"]] [["Monster"]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/WNiknN6.gif"> "I am a Fiend, not of a sultry kind, mind you. But I do know how clothes work" "Say other than for decency. Answer me." "Are you the sheep or are just wearing its' pelt?" [["You don't know enough about sheep."]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/KW1mFf4.gif"> "Fair" "I would" "The fun part is for you to asses it yourself." "You are a human, your hands cannot be clean." "Are their soiled with mundane things?" "Or with Blood?" [["My hands are not stained, yet."]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/MW0ouTc.gif"> "Fun" "Were you looking for a cage then?" [["I need my prison"]] [["Every beast needs a lair..."]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/Vln0kqS.gif"> "Prison? Ohoh..." "Do not confuse me for your guard." "Or are you your own judge, prosecutor, lock and key?" "Is the desert enough of a prison to you? The torture of heat and sun, the boredom of the view? [["I don't feel like it's enough..."]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/VJHvb3J.gif"> "Every monster has its hideout" "Every beast has its prey." "When slumber after the hunt, when you lick the blood of your claws" "Even in your lair, you will not be alone" "I will be there to watch you feast." "I will be there to watch you rest." [[...->Hunters]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/ZmSV389.gif"> "A middle of the desert is not enough?" "Would you like to be buried then?" "Sunken at the depths where the mere concept of sunlight is alien?" "Where would you place yourself?" [["Deeper"]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/MW0ouTc.gif"> "A succubus would not enjoy your company" "Considering you mock the usage of metaphores" "Are you a sheep with a black heart then?" [["Maybe"]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/Vln0kqS.gif"> "What brings you here, little black hearted sheep?" "You deserve to bore yourself amongst the sand?" [["I wanted to separate myself from other people."]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/ZmSV389.gif"> "What for?" "Are you tired of your kind?" [["So I can meet you."]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/60QusQS.gif"> "So you are one of those." "Who do not deny hearing my voice, who even welcome it?" "Refreshing." "What is that you ask of me?" [["I want to be like you."]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/dtATILn.gif"> "A Fiend? What a peculiar request." "You want to leave human kind to become a creature of temptation and malice?" "huhuhu..." "You were right...." [[...->hell]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/emInkyZ.gif"> "I do not know enough about sheep." [[...->Start]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/vv4MAc5.gif"> "Premature guilt?" "How impatient." "You put a muzzle on yourself yet you have not bared your teeth yet." "Tell me, are you eager to bite someone soon?" [["I am afraid that I would.."]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/sgXpmKb.gif"> "You are filled with worry that you would." "Yet your hands cannot stay clean forever." [["I can't stop thinking about it."]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/hTP3FGq.gif"> "I can show you places far from what the Mages could describe in the scriptures." "Maybe one of the Lower Rings of Hell, would be just deep enough for you" [[...->Start]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/gSGtkeq.gif"> "And I will be there watching the hunters catching up to you." "The truth is every hungry monster is watched by even hungrier beast." [[...->Start]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/aDITDqa.jpg"> "Your eyes will always see gray in snow white gloves." [[...->glove1]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/7Ohx4Nn.png"> "I wonder what will happen when the one little stain shows up on your palm" "Will that set you over the edge?" [[...->glove2]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/hxnHC7n.gif"> "Will that set you free?" [[...->Start]]