Ah, Isidro. So you wish to atone for your sins, to rescind the impact you've had on the innocent, to send them merrily back to their old lives.
Anastasio
Is this an expression of your resolve? A reflection of your conscience?
Anastasio
When they realize the end is near, many sinners turn to sobbing appeals for the friends whom they have implicated.
Anastasio
Alas, that does not mean they have truly repented.
Anastasio
How does one who knows naught of their own desire demonstrate the ability to suppress such desire, and to atone for the sins thereof?
Isidro
No. It's you who need to suppress your own desire. You who needs to demonstrate that ability.
Anastasio
...Naturally. I have always said that desire cannot truly be killed. Even now, the desire to feed upon the lives of others lives on within me, and I must suppress it.
Anastasio
I will cut off my flesh with my own hand and dispose of it.
Anastasio
I will demonstrate that I can suppress my thirst for it, if only briefly.
Isidro can see the grotesque scars under Anastasio's collar, marks of flesh that has grown back after being cut away.
Isidro
You said desire grows endlessly, dragging more and more people into the abyss.
Isidro
How many have you judged and killed with that pretext? Why do you think that you, and you alone, can suppress your own desires?
Anastasio
Because death is liberation.
Anastasio
Before being corrupted by desire, you had lived an honest life, performed honest deeds.
Anastasio
As such, you have the right to be liberated from that corruption. By death.
Anastasio
But my life was a mistake from the beginning. My very existence a sin.
Anastasio
Were I to die, my pathetic existence would have held no meaning other than sacrilege.
Anastasio
Therefore, I must atone. I must atone for as long as I can, until I am consumed by desire.
Anastasio pressed the nails on his left hand against his own chest until they pierce the skin. Only pain can calm him down now.
Isidro
You mentioned the meaning of your existence.
Isidro
Are you really unworthy to die, Anastasio, or do you just want to live too much?
Isidro
You keep talking about your desire to feed on others. But isn't your most fundamental desire to keep on living?
Isidro
Be it self-harm or the judgment of others, aren't you just trying to make sure that your so-called sinful self can live on with peace of mind?
Anastasio's assault had slowed while listening to Isidro's confession; now, it intensifies again.
Each time Isidro parries an attack, strands of Corazonix float up from his arm from the impact.
The sound of the handcannon's shot echoes through the hollow bones of the valley.
Isidro sees Anastasio put the handcannon back on his belt, then close his eyes as though he had just been born again.
Isidro turns his head—the bottomless pit is right below him. The heat gushing within the bones resonates with the Corazonix on his arm. He knows the steam is about to swallow him.
At the end, he looks towards the sky.
Across the towering bones, through the heat wave of the steam, he can see clouds and sky, just like the azure ocean and white waves from the stories.
