Across from the fountain, Nacht was practicing swinging his saber. Alister had refused to spar against him, saying that it wouldn't be that beneficial. Nacht simply thought that he was just being lazy, so for now he would have to practice on his own. From time to time, Alister would correct his stance or sword posture. Other than that he had been strangely silent. As Nacht was swinging his blade, he heard footsteps walking towards him. Turning towards the sound of the footsteps, he noticed Alister with a peculiar look in his blood red eyes.
"Do you want to play a game?"
Nacht looked up at Alister with a weird expression.
'Does he think I'm an idiot?'
Slightly annoyed, he shook his head.
"No I don't."
Alister chuckled.
"Don't worry, we won't have to shake hands this time and I won't use my rune on you."
Nacht looked at him skeptically.
He didn't trust Alister—even less so after his last stunt—but his curiosity won him over in the end.
"What's the game?"
Alister's eyes brightened slightly, and he raised his blade.
"It's simple really. It's a game of resolve… and pain."
In the next moment he plunged the blade into his stomach.
Nacht's eyes widened in surprise.
"Don't kill yourself yet. I need you alive until I get out of here."
Alister winced in pain as his sword turned crimson red.
"A wound in exchange for knowledge, the last person to ask a question wins."
Nacht raised an eyebrow.
'What knowledge could I possibly possess?'
From Nacht's perspective, he couldn't provide anything of meaningful value. He was from the slums of District Nine and barely knew anything about penance. Even so, the more he thought about it, the more he was inclined to believe that he actually did hold some information of value, and from that, he knew what questions Alister would ask. However, another obstacle entered his mind.
'What if he doesn't tell the truth.'
Alister's trait allowed him to tell if someone was lying but he had no such ability. On the other hand, he desperately needed answers to his own questions and he wasn't sure if he was willing to mutilate his body to gain the information that could very well be a lie.
Nacht glanced at the fountain and stared at it for a while. Finally, he retracted his gaze with a sigh and wordlessly sat down.
In the end he decided to trust his ability to detect lies and hope that he would be able to see the truth behind it.
Alister's smile widened slightly.
"The winner gets to ask an extra question or elaborate further on a past question, I'll go first."
More blood dripped from Alister's self inflicted wound.
"Whats the current situation in the overworld?"
Nacht answered almost instantly, having expecting this question.
"The overall situation is dire, to say the least. The danger that the abstracts pose increase day by day while humanity is getting weaker and weaker. In short, humanity is getting desperate."
Alister sighed dejectedly.
"I see."
It was quite surprising seeing the normally high spirited Alister being dejected. He thought that the crazy sinner cared only for himself, but now it seems that he still holds some attachment to his birthplace.
Nacht lingered for a moment before he raised his saber. He hesitated, but only for a moment before he plunged the sword into his side. The agony of having been pierced by his own saber left him seriously questioning his own life choices.
'Ahh… this better be worth it.'
Nacht gritted his teeth as more blood left his body and onto his sword.
He wasn't bleeding as much as he should since his saber was stopping the flood of blood from leaving his body, but once he removed the sword to open another wound, he would start bleeding profusely.
Ignoring the pain, he asked his question.
"What happens when you die… in penance I mean."
Although he knew that there were probably better questions to ask, this question concerned him the most. He knew that if an enlightened were to die then they would end up in penance. But what would happen to a sinner if they were to die again once they entered penance?
"Well… I guess it depends on how you die."
Nacht had a confused look on his face.
"How you die?"
Alister nodded.
"Yes, you may not feel it yet since you've just entered penance. But the longer you stay here, the more the seed of sin festers inside you and forces you to become an abstract or die in the process."
Nacht was thinking about what Alister had just said, and it left him shocked. From what Alister had said he could also put some other details together. When someone completes the sacrifice ritual to enter the first gate of penance, they are infected with sin and are thus sent to penance. To leave penance they would have to cleanse this infection through repentance, thus allowing them to advance.
This was probably the same for the other gates. The only exception was that some enlightened clans have a way to allow the advancement to take place within penance due to their archetype, but it seemed that they weren't allowed to leave unless the infection had been cleansed. If you stayed in penance for long enough, the infection would take control of its host and could kill you or turn you into an abstract.
'Wait, does that mean all abstracts are humans or were once human?'
Nacht thought about it for a moment and shook his head. There had been many other creatures and beings besides humans that the gods had created or were born through other means. It is just that most of them had died long ago, but some may still be alive in penance. So although it was true that a human could become an abstract, the same was true about the other fallen creatures.
So were the abstracts a combination of corrupt humans and past extinct creatures? How did the abstracts manage to escape penance and enter the overworld? How do the sinners of penance stop the infection from turning them into monsters?
Nacht lingered for a moment and had already thought of his next question before he realized something else.
'He didn't fully answer my question.'
Alister had only answered one of the ways in which an enlightened could die in penance and not the way of death in which he had intended the question to be answered.
"What about when someone else takes your life here in penance?"
Alister shook his head.
"I answered your question, didn't I? If you want me to elaborate then you have to win the game."
He glared at Alister while the person in question continued to smile in return.
Alister removed the blade from his stomach, causing more blood to flow out of the grotesque wound before he plunged the blade into his side. Blood seeped between his teeth making his smile seem even more sinister before he asked a question Nacht hadn't been expecting at all.
"Tell me Nacht, who did you kill to enter this gods forsaken place?"