“No matter how hard you try to deny this universe, Sophia, it will corrupt you. Just like it tore him apart. There are creatures so thoroughly ensnared by their own vices that they will stop at nothing to tear the world apart to fulfill them.” Mordred smirked as he spoke. “I am one of them, and soon, once I finish corrupting Peter's memories of Celeste, he will be too. Blues had the right of it.” Mordred kicked to his feet, and leapt off the plateau, taking advantage of the distraction.

Blues was inhaling and exhaling slowly, the heat from the core slowly, ever so painfully slowly dropping. “Why do you... Persist... If he is free... Of his past... He can not... Be corrupted by... Despair.” The light emitting from the core was sickly, a jaundiced yellow. His eyes were still hidden behind the visor. “Taint has to be... Destroyed. Absorbed it... To concentrate... It...” He exhaled, his breathing easier as it cooled.

“I have tried to... Keep it from getting past the other layer. You touched the glass barrier once. If that slimy resin gets past it, he is doomed. That twisted desire he holds is like fodder for it.”

The moment she was looking into his heart, it was like falling into a pool of cold slime. It was clinging to her, and it was most importantly alive. This cold slimy hatred was coursing through her. It was so greatly vast, that if she was not looking for anything else, she would be lost in it forever. But after a few moments of this terrible cold, there was a surging heat. This was pressurized, scouring the hatred off of her. She has pierced a wall of some sort. Getting out was going to mean going through that again. But more importantly, there was a surge of emotions. Fierce anger, first, an outer layer to it that was a bright and hot as the sun. And then it got scary. Intense lust, but just as strong an Empyreal love. It was boundless. Where there had been in comparison a tiny layer of the icy slime, this was broad, and all consuming. Whoever this was focused on, if they ever found it, would never want for love again.

And then she hit the core. And it was like bricks were tied to her waist. Because it was depression. Homesickness, pain, and a single thought so strong it was translated as a sentence, not a feeling. “I failed them all.” Such crushing loneliness, and an inability to solve it. Misdirected passion. Consuming Lust, and Pure Love. And that out wrapping of empty hatred, with the darkest shards of corrupt ambition...

Sophia can feel Mordred’s smirk without looking at him. “It is true that anyone of us can be corrupted. However, I fight against the best I can. I try not to leave room for hatred, but that creates its own problems.” She looks at the sword, but turns around as Mordred jumps off. Blues brings to mind what she saw in his heart once. The corruption. The way it ate at everything. It was strange to see something out to destroy itself. Yes, sometimes violence was the only practical solution left. However, it was a sad truth that she had never felt comfortable with. Sometimes, the world forces one’s hand. She didn’t hate Mordred though. Mordred was yet another piece of Peter. Finding the willpower to fight came from something else entirely. She frowns, but stands. “I’m going after him.” She jumps off the plateau and darts off into the dark after Mordred, hoping not get lost in it.

Mordred went diving off the plateau, and before Itoi could fully register the sudden move, Sophia was careening down after him. His first instinct was to turn and leap along with her to lend his assistance, but he thought better of it as it came to mind that he should probably remain to help Blues in his recovery. So as Sophia went chasing off after Mordred, Itoi continued to channel his healing powers as he spoke to Blues in the same serene tone.

"We're after the same thing, you know... For Peter's freedom. But where you see a need for destruction, I see a need for restoration. We need not tear everything down and rebuild from the ground up when we can merely help him restore his faith and rebuild his heart."

He could barely grasp all of this -- swallowed up inside a manifestation of Peter's mind, using his newly-acquired healing powers to restore a false image of a Megaman character... What on earth had he gotten himself into with this new alter-ego?

"If you'll work with me.. I believe we can make that happen."

"I hope you believe so. Because I can not. His childhood ended in despair, Itoi." Blues spoke to him calmly, matter-of-factly even. "I am not long for this world, though I thank you for your kindness. It ended in fire for them, so it must for me. His faith is not in Yaweh anymore. She stole that from him." Blues looked at him... Not pityingly, but with... Pain. As if he empathized with Itoi. "Chaos Taint is many things. For some, it represents the death of the soul, much like Sin. For others, it represents rebellion, like these Zodiac... In others, it is a weapon, the way they fight the world. I know of one or two souls who used it as such... But for Peter, it was a blessing. He met Chaos."

Blues extended a hand to the man's, clasping it in his armoured gauntlet.

"Mistress Chaos guide me, Mistress Chaos shelter me, in your mercy I am sheltered, in your wisdom I am humbled."

The form was indistinct, though femenine, having aspects of the things Itoi would find most appealing in a woman, but also what would make him most fearful. It truly sought to bring about Rejoicing with Trembling, to evoke the fearful revelry that the love for God was rightly expressed with. He could see a figure, the Crimson hair apparent. He looked younger, with more vitality, but it was Peter. Kneeling before her, with a handful of others nearby some mocking, some joining in his praises, some looking detached. Only he showed the proper reverence one should show a god, the others praising purely with Joy, or Fear, not with both as was right, and needed.

The figure dipped two beautiful, terrible hands down, and took Peter's temples in hers. The darkness was already inside of him, Itoi could see. The Goddess Chaos merely enriched it, charging it... And adding to it. Smothering any light left in his soul...

"Matthew 29, and 30: And if thy right eye scandalize thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee. For it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than that thy whole body be cast into hell. And if thy right hand scandalize thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than that thy whole body be cast into hell. I have to destroy these tainted bonds, Itoi. They are keeping him in darkness."