Aum Shinrikyo

In Promo by Tenchu

It was a normal day in the streets of Tokyo that day. People living their lives, going back and forth from work, outings with their families, all that one could ever hope for really. But down in the subways, something nefarious was afoot.

As rush hour hit in the morning, they came in holding bags wrapped in paper and strange umbrellas. Stepping onto crowded subways, they put their parcels down and began to puncture them. As soon as the reaction began, they got off, trapping the citizens in their cars with sarin gas.

The culprits? Aum Shinrikyo, a death cult wanting the end of the world.

Even back then, people could feel the change coming. Like the calm of a storm, they knew it was getting close. The end times. The end of everything they ever knew. And when logic told them otherwise, they clambered to the one thing they had.

Faith.

They let their faith blind them in fear. Fear of nuclear war, fear of the end time. Only the one above them all could assuage their fears, even when he started it all. They followed him blindly as they made weapons of mass destruction, from chemical warfare to attempting nuclear weapons. Even to the act of harming and attempting to start the end they feared, they followed in faith.

They still do, holding hope in a dead man of release of this world.

Faith that blinds is also the faith that binds.

Bound by your faith, you’ve blinded the world with your acts. Hidden behind a mask, you’ve struck out for faith. Faith in a god that died here, whose blood was spilt in the name of this place. Trust placed and stolen from you so long ago, and yet here you are.

You persist, because what else is there for you to go back to?

And the more blinded you become, the more you take down with you. The more egregious your acts become. You have converted others into your cult. Attacked strangers and people with no ties. Hunted and haunted others in search of power led by a mysterious man.

So blind, that you attempted to recreate the sin that took the son of your god from this earth once more.

Others may see you as a dangerous man Renualt, but one merely has to remove the mask to see the truth. So far into this, having invested this faith, you can’t come back can you? There’s nothing left, all cut away in the name of a dead god. There is no man left behind there to really rescue.

So I ask of you, man of faith, to extend your faith to me. Release the zealot from your grasp, breathe free and easy once more. I shall free you from this cycle that you have been trapped inside of.

For faith is the failing of the mortal, and I am beyond that. My blade shall strike true, and you shall go to the one that you so desperately wish to see returned.