Nacht looked at Alister in contempt.
"Are you really asking such a worthless question?"
He had been expecting Alister to ask more questions about what was happening in the overworld, not about himself. For any other person that enters penance, answering this question would be easy. For him on the other hand, it was a little difficult. He had been avoiding thinking about what he had done and the person he had done it to ever since he entered the first gate. Now that Alister had brought up the topic, he felt the unending guilt of his actions returning. Thankfully, the pain of his saber being embedded into his flesh helped to distract him what he had done.
Gritting his teeth, Nacht answered in a shallow voice
"My uncle… I killed my uncle."
Alister looked at him with interest.
"Why?"
Nacht knew that he didn't have to answer the question, but the feeling of unending guilt forced him to anyway.
"I had to kill someone to enter penance."
Nacht lingered for a moment, the pain and guilt of what he had done became evident on his face.
I could have killed someone else from my district. After all, many of them commit crimes on a daily basis and none of them could be considered decent people by any standard, but none of them deserved to die. I didn't want to kill someone that I never knew and have someone else wallow in grief for my actions. No, my uncle and I were the only family either of us had left. He gave me an education and taught me how to survive in this world, a luxury many of the people from my district don't have. I am thankful for that. "
Nacht paused for a moment, then continued.
"However, I didn't want him to see the type of person I was becoming... and for that I killed him."
Alister simply stared at Nacht.
"You're lying."
Nacht's eyes widened in both surprise and anger.
"What? I told you the truth!"
Alister shook his head.
"Sure, most of what you said was indeed the truth, but the reasons you gave for the murder was a lie. So why did you actually kill him?"
The fury that was hidden deep within Nacht's eyes gave way to a different emotion.
"I hated him."
Nacht was conflicted. He had both cared for and hated his uncle. As he said before, he was grateful for the knowledge about the world that he had bestowed upon him, and he greatly enjoyed whatever time they spent together. Still, he could not rid himself of the hatred he felt for him, because while he had been left to suffer in the slums of District Nine, Solren had lived as a citizen of District Three.
In his mind, Solren represented everything about the capital that he hated. He wore tailored clothes, lived a modest life and never had to worry about food. In essence, he had mostly turned a blind eye to the suffering that was going on in District Nine and the other lower districts. He had left both him and his mother to rot in hell while he got to live a perfectly ordinary life free of trouble.
Nacht noticed that on the rare occasions he met with his uncle, he would always have that conflicted look in his eye. He knew that his uncle still cared about him so why?
'I don't understand it. If you felt bad then why didn't you help us?'
Despite his negative feelings toward his uncle, they were still manageable. However, that only lasted until the death of his mother. He blamed the capital mostly for what happened, but he was also furious at his uncle. He could have saved them and it would have been so easy given his status. In his eyes, what Solren had done was no different than watching a person drown in shallow water. It was unforgivable! He needed to pay for his crimes, just as those pompous Enlightened in the capital needed to pay for theirs.
Nevertheless, he needed to enter penance, so why not kill two birds with one stone? He could enter penance and Solren would get what he deserved. However, after the deed was done, most of his anger turned into guilt and self hatred. He grew up being taught that human life was sacred after all, so it wasn't surprising that he was feeling this way.
Upon removing his saber from his body, more blood flooded out of his wound before he forcibly impaled himself again. This time, the sword exited out of his back.
"My turn."
Nacht's eyes were bloodshot and his breathing was laboured. Seeing this, Alister seemed amused.
"Go ahead, ask anything!"
Nacht wiped the warm blood that was beginning to stain his lips.
"How do the fallen enlightened of penance manage to fight the infection?"
Alister shifted slightly.
"All enlightened are different, some can hold off the infection for many years and others turn into an abstract the moment they enter penance. Ultimately, fighting the infection through sheer will isn't enough. Nothing can halt its process for long unless you advance on the path of enlightenment. That is why everyone in penance is so desperate for power.
Alister lingered for a moment, then sighed.
"That is actually why I am here in the crucible. Our way of advancing is the same as yours, except we can't leave penance. We can only leave the gate and ascend into the next one. Of course our way of repenting is slightly different than yours."
What Alister said made sense. If walking the enlightened path was a continuous cycle of cleansing one's soul, then advancing would certainly fight off the infection. He was also interested in how the sinners of penance repented as opposed to him, but he didn't think it was worth another one of his questions.
Before Nacht realized it, Alister had already inflicted another wound upon himself, staining the ground red.
"What goal is so important to you that you'd kill your own flesh and blood?"
Nacht exhaled in disbelief.
'You still want to know more about me huh…'
When Alister first met him, he had treated him as if he were dead weight. Alister only interacted with him because he had to in order to survive the crucible. Even so, somewhere along the line the smiling sinner had changed his mind and even changed the way he looked at him. The questions Alister is asking was a testament to this.
Nacht began to regret his choice of playing this twisted game despite gaining such valuable information. However, he was too deep into the game now to quit and he'd be damned if he was going to lose.
'Fine I'll tell him.'
He stared deep into Alister's blood red eyes.
"I want to destroy the world."
Alister eyes widened in surprise.
"That… is not what I expected."
Nacht continued.
"I told you a little about it before, but the world has gone to shit and people like me are paying for it the most."
Nacht sneered in disdain as the same feeling of hatred that killed his uncle rose up again.
"The numbers of enlightened are declining so the enlightened clans have been purging more of my people everyday for the chance of birthing new soldiers. What right do they have to decide who lives and who dies? I understand why they do it, truly I do. Humanity doesn't have a choice in the matter. However, I don't give a damn that humanity is fighting against its impending doom, in fact I welcome it."
Alister laughed.
"Before you were saying how you didn't want to cause unnecessary suffering to the people and now you welcome them to its gates?"
Nacht shook his head.
"You misunderstand, I do not wish for us humans to die. In fact, I hate the world so much because I cherish the people that walk it. In other words, I want to destroy the current humanity, that is the very systems that govern the world. It is not that I don't accept humanity, it is the world created by it that I don't and can not accept."
Alister looked at Nacht in disbelief.
"Who do you think you are to judge how the world works or how humanity survives?"
This time it was Nacht's turn to laugh.
"What right do I have to judge? Well the answer is simple, I don't. Only the strong can say what is right and what is wrong. Right now I am a nobody. After I conquer the first gate I will still be a nobody! However, after the second or third or even the last gate? When I become a being comparable to those so-called gods? Then I can decide my own fate and it will be my right to judge!"
Alister's smile froze and he seemed lost for words. In the end he simply sighed.
"Quite the ambitious little sinner are we?"
Nacht picked up his saber and impaled himself for the third time. The stabbing pain washed over him again, causing him to cough blood.
"Now I have a question for you. You've been strangely interested in me and my own circumstances and I feel quite the same way about you. So tell me Alister, what terrible crime did you commit to end up in this hell?"