It was a massive lump of flesh, pulsing and oozing all sorts of pus. Held within a damp and bloody hall that once resembled a hint of nobility.
The thing was once a musician, one who had delved into the idea that song can bring Harmony to the world and thus bring peace. But Fate was impartial and led it down onto the path filled with blood. Its once soft hands were now a horrid piece of music that wore the coagulated mantle of blood.
It was only a hollow shell of what it used to be. Its flesh started to beat with a breath of its life, and its veins started to bulge to a horrific size. The flesh started to expand rapidly as a section of its body started to swell up on one side of itself
It let out a horrid ear ear-piercing scream as a bump was split off its flesh. Strings of crimson threads attached to the fleshy remains of the spilt until they converged into one simple attachment.
That same separation gave birth to a new being as the split flesh started to churn and solidify into a husk of a being.
The form it took was a young lady with blonde and blackish hair. Her face was perfectly rounded, elegant, and pleasing to the eye. She had the allure of the sweetest treat, but underneath that charm was a creation meant to be used.
The "It" of existence now became something of an "I," though fundamentally it was nothing more than an extension of "Us."
That big lump started to churn as its crooked voice gave her the name, Elena.
Its tone was not warm, as expected of a "Mother", but instead one filled with cold indifference.
The "Mother" sent away her offspring into the open world at the cost of her Fate being chained to an unbreakable lock and only to obey her words.
With the passing of time, the one named Elena took up the role of a seamstress. A job forced upon her by her "Mother," to weave into the art of fabric and create.
She could do nothing but nod her head and accept the task...It was a child's duty to obey their "Mother."
The passage of time ticked as she made dresses that even the fanciest couldn't resist. Faced with praise and admiration from the masses, she couldn't help but feel the indulgence of pride hitting into her 'Soul'.
Humanity was a foreign concept to her. The compassion to empathize with others, the kindness to help those in suffering, and the virtue of aiding others. Even though she was born of blood, she saw Humans as two-faced in their Sins and virtues.
Despite their ugliness...The seamstress liked it. Beauty and Ugliness were on the same side of the coin.
The days when the feeling of being chained was absent, to create something with her hands, and being surrounded by those who admired her work. Having people who share the same interests as her brought a sense of joy to her life.
But she couldn't bask for too long, as those same Humans were soon turned into the very dresses she weaved with her hands. Their flesh and blood were incorporated into the fabric of masterpieces until their bone was revealed.
Why?
All because her 'Mother' demanded it, and she was nothing but a chained slave to her command.
It was nothing more than a deviation act towards the depraved being they worshipped. Why fight against the Honkai when one can embrace their destined end and live in hedonism?
Life was short, so they would cling to the same beings who would destroy the world, but also live through the End of the Universe as it fails to keep up with the increasing Entropy.
Elena wanted to resist the chain grasping onto her neck, but no, the orders of "Mother" were absolute, and the crimson strings chained her down; there was nothing but a puppet to be strung along.
Each time her limbs were stabbed and mawed at burned a fire to destroy the one birthed her. The one who brought her into this existence to be a stringed toy. To make her "Mother" suffer just as she did.
But every attempt was set in vain as each punishment was a violation of her being.
She tried to resist the constant beating of pain, but she could do nothing as she was covered in pulsing blood and had to accept the fact that Fate was Everlasting and Unchanging.
Was life worth it if your existence was created for the sole purpose of being controlled until your death?
Despair crept in as nothing mattered; whatever she did, she would always end up punished for trying to break free or trying to end her own life.
And so she accepts that all her life's worth was the dresses she makes, the blood she savors, and her existence was nothing more than a tool that was might to be used and discarded.
Would there be a point to give her life meaning if she were fated to have none?
Those emotions that one burned bright were now nothing more than a dull, nihilistic puddle sinking to the bottom by crimson threads.
Was her work a byproduct of her efforts and thoughts, or were they nothing more than an afterthought of her "Mother"
Her mind was hazy and drunken in thought as the past seemed to surge on. She wanted to stay in this darkness where her fate was unbounded by anything but her dull thoughts.
Though someone had other plans, as the stringed Elena felt a hand slapping her face.
"Wake up! Before I start throwing you like a cheap piñata." A rough, oldish voice seemed to cut through the darkness.
Elena opened her eyes to the sight of a moderately toned man wearing a ski mask. Her mind seemed to jolt awake as she remembered what had happened.
She had been held at gunpoint and was being robbed before a brick knocked her out. She felt her hands and feet bound to the chair she was currently sitting on.
It had appeared she was being held for ransom in one of her break rooms. It was the middle of the night, and her store was at its closing time, the perfect environment to rob a store.
But how did no one see her store being robbed? Her windows didn't have blinds since the dresses were made to be set up through the windows, so that anyone could see, plus the door was see-through.
Either the robber had his supernatural methods, or it was just dumb luck, but it didn't matter to her; breaking out was as simple as snapping someone's neck.
"Finally awake! I was about to throw you against the wall. So listen up, I am holding you for ransom, so tell me where all your goods are, and we can all be happy."
The seamstress's nose twitched at the presence of the robber, and her mouth seemed to water at the sight of his neck pulsing with life.
She had never smelled something so good! Those previous depressing thoughts started to disappear once the notion of sweet, delicious blood slurring on her tonsils.
Her hands and feet started to break free from her slowly bound, but she felt a brick being laid onto her head.
She wasn't sure, but she felt a sense of foreboding if she were to break free now.
"So, you gonna start talking, or do I have to smack your pretty face a bit?" He threatened by showing the brick in his hand.
The weapon in question wasn't all that special; it was just a normal brick, colored red, and had the phrase 'Stealing your S*it' written on it...Clearly by Sharpie.
"I'll start talking if you can answer me why you smell so good, and maybe I can give you a little extra." Her tone was smooth to sweeten the deal.
"How much extra are we talking? If we're talking in the thousands, then I can give you some of my skin care and morning routine. All I do is put on some coconut cream, wash my face a couple of times, then ice my face again for perfect conditions...So cough up the cash."
"No, what I mean why does your blood smell so appetizing? Are you some secret love child of those Three Noble Families?"
"Are all you designers so weird and delusional. Are all of those soap operas getting into your head? Well, doesn't matter to me what you're doing in your spare time, just tell me if you have a secret basement or vault I can crack into, and I'll leave you to your freak off or something."
Elena's body seemed to pale at his words as her smile seemed to sunder against it.
"No. If you value anything, you will not go down there. There is nothing but an abomination in there." She lashed out at him, but to her dismay, the man's masked face had shown itself in utter greed.
"So there was something hidden down in this shop. Thanks for the warning! But I am gonna buy myself a yacht and a new house in this inflated economy."
Before he could spatter out another idiotic word, Elena broke the ropes and quickly lunged at the man, but as her figure dashed, her bloody eyes quickly picked up on the brick being flung at her.
"Go brick!" The man screamed as he smacked Elena onto the ground once more with his brick.
He quickly put a hand on Elena's neck and felt a pulse...Knocked out again by the good old trusty brick.
Seeing that he was once alone, the man pulled off the ski to reveal a face that had skin like wax. The substance started to shift as his face was reconstructed into the face of a young blonde man. The ordinary clothes plastered onto the man transformed into those of a performing Magician.
He got on his knees and faced down the knocked-out seamstress.
"My, my, my, having no cameras in your store is basically calling out to everyone to rob you. That's what most people think, but you were trying to hide something instead...Your "Mother.
I can end your life here, just a single shot to your head, but that wouldn't be despairing enough. So instead, I'll make you live a life where your Fate wasn't broken by your own hands but by some random Joe who decided to rob you."
The Magician stood up and picked up the brick he got from a dirty alleyway. He threw it at a dress made from broken crimson chains, and it tore apart upon hitting the dirty floor.
Fate was a fickle thing, leading people on a journey of heroism or to their timely end, but Fate isn't Omnipotent as it seems after all, even Fate can be fooled.
Finished with his vandalism, Otto walked out of the room with a dull expression, and he made his way to the far corners of the store.
What lay was a door. It was a white wooden door that had spots of red covering its planks. The scent of iron and blood was strong to the point that the Magician could taste it on his tongue. He fought through the overwhelming and disgusting smell and put his hands on the doorknob.
Opening it led to a descent towards the abyss, a place where the walls and ceiling beat as if they were alive. A place where the real Crimson Conducter is and what she became.
A blob of pulsing blood, where countless dying souls scream in a horrid melody. A former shell of a Musician who once walked a path to achieve Harmony with music, but fell to the very same thing as her "Daughter".
Fate.