The Riddle of The Sphinx

Jack Sprat. Like all the bandits in San Lorenzo, he's all talk and no walk.

He is arrogant, narcissistic, selfish, and bad. He only thinks for himself and never listens to others. He often takes advantage of Puss's good nature to have Puss deal with the danger while he takes the treasure. He is a kleptomaniac. As Dulcinea states, he is rude arrogant and lazy and is the only person that Dulcinea truly hates. He hates when people call him villainous or full of hot air and tries to change the phrasing to make himself sound better. Despite these negative traits, because he and Puss have hung out for so long Puss still considers him a friend and is happy to see him (against his normally better judgement) but he knows that Jack is not a good person, but still trusts him because of the friendship.

He is fond of caves and is extremely lazy, rarely doing any work for himself. He likes showing off, and is very flexible and good at gymnastics. He likes working out and even tried opening a gym, but it failed on him. He hates being called flabby, showing how much he treasures his physique and enjoys working out. He tends to be easygoing and thinks everyone loves him, despite evidence to the contrary. For some reason, he carries a sword that is just a long stick with a lance handle.

It got bad to the point where it's literally driving him to drink.

Every day he'd tell himself that he is going to stop drinking, yet every day he'd find himself picking up the glass once more. It's a good thing he doesn't drink that much daily. He knows his liver will probably fall apart by the time he reach his sixties but he has yet to come across a better way to calm the storm that has been raging in his mind ever since he met him.

Jack was outside, completely zoned out as some tavern music blared through the doors inside. His head was in the clouds, that is, until a gruff voice snapped me back into reality, "What does a small-time bandit do in such a place?"

Jack snapped back into reality and turned his head to face... Nothing. Just the town illuminated by the pale moonlight.

"Up here." The voice called out.

Jack was then taken by surprise as a giant, winged creature was staring down at him from the roof of the saloon.

It was a large hairless sphinx cat with large, red, eagle-like wings. It has many tattoos on his body, varies from Satanic pentagrams to Voodoo symbols. The creature smiled as it dropped down onto the concrete ground in front of Jack.

"...W-what the-what the f- what the f-" Jack stammers in fear.

"The Demon of Destruction knows many a thing." he chuckled at Jack further, adding to the bandit's nervousness.

However as Jack was about to say something, the winged beast reached into the fountain and pulled out some old coin from the water. He proceeded to toss it into the air as Jack's eyes followed every single movement of his.

As the coin spun through the air, it started slowing down mid-flight and everything around Jack. The music stopped playing, the fire in every lantern above stopped moving and the coin froze in the air. The sight made Jack's heart sank, his fear was probably evident as the beast was trying hard not to burst into laughter.

None of this made any sense to Jack back then, and all he could muster was a soft, unconfident, "What?"

Time stood still around him, quite literally.

Everything was simply frozen in time.

He didn't know how to react; he didn't know what to think, he could move as the whole situation was too hard to process.

The beast reached out his paw to Jack, offering a handshake, "Randolph, my pleasure, Jack."

"Wh… H…" Jack couldn't speak, he felt sick, this was too much for him to handle and he threw up on the floor.

His head was spinning and his heart raced, Jack felt awful. There was no mistaking it, he was approached by some sort of something supernatural. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to know Jack's name.

He wiped his face and looked at the mythical creature whom he assumed was the Sphinx at that point. He had lowered his head and lapped up the water of the fountain. "I know, it's quite shocking, all of this. It's not my first rodeo with you humans."

Not wanting to piss off something who could stop time and probably knew about him more than he wanted anyone to, Jack cautiously asked him, "Are you the all-powerful Sphinx?"

The creature burst out into a maddening laughter, which had somewhat put Jack at ease.

"Oh, Lordy, this joke again?!" he mused to himself as some water had spilled on to the concrete, clearly amused by lack of awareness towards higher beings such as himself. "No, no, I am not the Sphinx, she's my sister." He proceeded to note.

"You see the Sphinx is said to have guarded the entrance to the Greek city of Thebes, asking a riddle to travelers to allow them passage. The exact riddle asked by the Sphinx was not specified by early tellers of the myth, and was not standardized." He continued speaking, "Every time Sphinx tried speaking riddles to you humans, you go wind up being eaten. I guess you're still not a high enough level to beat the ol' valley girl."

This made very little sense to Jack as it was the opposite from what he was taught his whole life. He wasn't sure if he should believe this creature or not, after all, he was claiming to be the Sphinx's brother. He guess he had noticed the doubt written all over Jack's face as he made a snarky remark towards him, "If I was lying, wouldn't I be tempting you with something right now? You know the Prince of Gluttony yadda yadda…"

"No, I just…"

"Yeah, I get it, Jack, you've been indoctrinated to believe in some weird anthropocentric story. Mind you that there are millions, perhaps even billions of species who are even more intelligent than your kind. To be honest, I'm pretty certain there are beings who are more advanced than my sisters, somewhere out there. There are probably even beings higher than the Gods themselves."

Jack had nothing to say; he was completely shocked by this revelation. While on the one hand, the things he was saying were making sense, on the other hand, they weren't making any sense at all.

"So, how does this whole cosmic order thing work then?" Jack asked weakly.

"Hm, well anything with a consciousness mechanism has what you define as a soul, it includes me, you, everything else on this planet with a complexed neural system. Even the Gods has that sort of thing. Now, nothing is really eternal, eventually, everything dies. At one point, every sentient being will pass away." He answered.

"Even the Gods?" Jack was unsure if he even wanted to hear the answer to that question and yet he asked, anyway.

"Yeah. Someday, in the future. You are aware of the fact that they aren't all creators, or destroyers, of everything?!"

As obvious as this should have been at that point, this sentence sent chills down Jack's spine. His heart sank into deeper into his stomach.

"Hmph, here's the kicker though there one thing you humans got right, in a way, the Sphinx gives out riddles. The circumstances around it are what you got wrong."

"What do you mean, doesn't the Sphinx always tell riddles?" Jack asked him in response.

"No, not all of them!" he proclaimed as he stared down at Jack.

"All, of them?" Jack asked, puzzled.

"Yeah, some of them tell riddles, some don't. You can't tell wither or not they let you live, or just kill ya on the spot. Sphinx is indeed reported to have had many Riddles, but this offered to Oedipus was the chief, 'What is that which in the morning goes upon four feet; upon two feet in the afternoon; and in the Evening upon three?' What was answered by Oedipus is not known. But they who interpret concerning the Ages of Man are deceived. For a Quadrangle of Four Elements are of all things first to be considered, from thence we come to the Hemisphere having two lines, a Right and a Curve, that is, to the White Luna; from thence to the Triangle which consists of Body, Soul and Spirit, or Sol, Luna and Mercury. Hence Rhasis in his Epistles, 'The Stone,' says he, 'is a Triangle in its essence, a Quadrangle in its quality.' Heh, the old buzzard got lucky, that's all I can say."

Once, he had finished speaking about the inner workings of his sister, Jack looked directly into his yellow eyes and asked, with as much confidence as he could muster, "So, why are you telling me all of this?"

He smiled that unsettling smile once again, "It's because I need your opinion on something, Jack, let's have a walk, shall we?"

He got up from his spot and began walking towards the entrance of the town. At first, Jack was hesitant to do anything and watching Randolph walk for a few moments before Jack heard him call out to him. Not wanting to piss off a thing that could stop time, and probably murder the bandit on a whim. Jack got up to his feet, ignoring the dried puke on his shoes and started catching up with the beast.

They walked through the midnight desert for what felt like hours, chatting about the whole ordeal. Till a flash of light came out of nowhere, it was so bright, it nearly blinded Jack.

After an agonizing few seconds, the light began dispersing and a familiar sight greeted his eyes. "No way…" Jack blurted under his breath.

"This is San Ricardo. A miserable little town that was once the home of it's so called 'savior'. But now and days, they start to wonder where their little hero is at now, and how they can survive." Randolph announced, almost gleefully.

Jack looked around and San Lorenzo was gone. He was in this place before. There was no mistaking it, this was the town the infamous Puss in Boots grew up in before he moved to San Lorenzo.

As I was trying to process whatever was going on around me, Randolph asked him, "Tell me, Jack, do you believe that all humans deserve to live?"

He caught the bandit off guard, but this was probably the easiest answer he had to give that day, "Yes, I do" Jack answered still eyeing his surroundings.

"Even the sadistic band of serial murder rapists in this encampment before us?" He asked again, pointing at the makeshift paramilitary compound.

"Yes… even them… if what you say about them is true, they should be detained and tried, but they do deserve to live. Killing them won't make it any better." It was still an easy question, Jack doesn't believe killing will ever salvage anything. He'll doubt the death penalty is a good way to rid themselves of crime even to this day.

"I see. Follow me, I got something I need to show you."

With that said, the same exact light shown again, and this time, this place was something different, something Jack has never been to before. This place has prison cells and Jack looked down to see this large raging pit of fire. This pit was about a mile across, with flames raging high up into this open cavern. It wasn’t metaphorical or allegorical flames. It was real, literal fire. Standing next to this large pit of the fire, Jack could see these monsters shoving people in. People were burning. They're totally helpless. They can’t fight them off. The monsters have great strength and they don’t. Jack was standing beneath this tunnel and all along the walls were other monsters, twisted, deformed and grotesque. Some were only 2 and 3 feet tall. Some were 12 and 13 feet tall. And there were snakes all along the edges. He could only see along the edges and through the flames. It’s so dark, it consumes the light. The People inside the fire were burning and screaming. The flesh was hanging off their bones. People were screaming, and the screams were so loud, he wanted to get away from the screams but he couldn't. He has to endure that.

Jack wanted to talk to a person, just anybody. There is pleasure in conversation and being with people, but Jack was kept apart. Even when he saw those people in those prison cells, he's kept at a distance. He'll never have any conversation. He's isolated and alone for all eternity. That alone is enough to bear. That's when he noticed the air around him. The stench in this place is so fowl and putrid, the worst odors you can ever imagine. Worse than any open sewer. Also, there is a smell of burning sulfur. If you ever go to Hawaii to the volcano, they have signs posted that tell you, you cannot go beyond a certain point because of the toxicity of the burning sulfur coming up. It will kill you if you breath it. It’s called sulfur dioxide. Sulfur is just another word for brimstone. Jack's breathing in this fowl, putrid, disgusting air that he doesn’t want to breath. It’s even worse than that because there’s not enough air to breath. He has to fight for even the tinniest bit of oxygen. He felt like at any moment he's going to die of suffocation.

Randolph flew towards the bandit from the air, un-phased by the lack of oxygen, and landed near him. Jack realized that there is no roof in this place, it was like he was inside some giant's exposed rib cage.

"Welcome to the Lucifer Pit." Randolph said, "Every day, month, and year, every ill-begotten human goes to this place to receive their penalty for their crimes. Once their time is up, they'll be tossed by demons into the pit, and become nothing but ash and bones."

"Can we leave? It stinks too bad." Jack cried out from underneath his shirt covered mouth.

Randolph just grunted in approval and lead him on through the dark tunnel. Soon enough they were standing at the edge of a forked path, one diversion was made up of stone, another of some pulsating fleshy mass and another was made up of sand. Randolph lead Jack on the path of sand.

"I'd like you to me someone, Jack, someone very important, he's been here for nearly two millennia," Randolph remarked with some glee in his tone.

"Two thousand years?" Jack muttered. He couldn't even bear staying another hour in this place and yet someone was there for two thousand years.

Randolph did not speak for a while as we walked on the sandy path. Jack grew more and more anxious with each moment, to the point of trembling. His mind was racing, his breathing was quick. Eventually, they reached a doorway with a long bridge that ends with a narrow cliff, to where the lava falls. At the edge was a small, orange tabby cat.

"I'd like you to meet Lucius Aurelius Commodus!" announced Randolph in a gleeful tone.

It was an identical copy of Puss in Boots, but with a few differences such as his hat. Whereas Puss's hat has a yellow feather, this cat has a red feather to with his cavalier's hat, he also wears a belt with a sword, and small Corinthian boots.

This is a manipulative, careless, charming, vindictive twin of Puss. He is shown to have most of Puss's skills and a few new ones which he uses to his advantage to try to frame Puss as the Evil Puss. Unlike Puss, this demonic version isn't afraid to fight dirty, and he also makes sure not to let anything get in the way of what he wants. He demonstrates his sword fighting skills when he fights Puss. He is also very charming as he charms Dulcinea many times.

Jack felt a knot build up in his stomach again; he was sure he would throw up again, he could literally feel the food rising up his esophagus.

"Bow to your god!" The cat whispered,

It startled him.

A moment later Jack found himself in San Lorenzo again, next to Randolph, shaking with fear as Jack's mind was racing. Nothing made any sense to him anymore, at all. He looked at Randolph and the back of his head began throbbing as if Jack was hit with a hammer across the head. His vision started blurring and his ears began ringing.

"I… I… I don't…" Jack managed to blurt out as he was trying to fight through his sudden headache.

"So, did your meeting with Little Boots made you change your mind about the value of all human lives?" Randolph asked.

"I don't…. know…" Jack forced himself to respond weakly as his head felt as if it was about to blow up.

Randolph lapped up the fountain water again and said, "Well that's a shame because I already destroyed San Ricardo, and everything in it."

As he said that, the pain in ack's head began subsiding and disturbing images began popping up in his mind. He's seen it.

He's seen it all.

The way Randolph tore them apart…

The way he…

Ripped them to shreds….

Jack felt the tears…

Jack felt the tears streaming down his cheeks just like they do now…

He can't get the image of the beast making a gun sign with his paws, shoving it down a kneeling man's head and blowing up his skull…

Oh god…

Randolph was gone after that…

Jack heard that damn coin fall onto the concrete.

Jack looked around…

He was gone…

But the guilt…

It's there…

It's all Jack's fault…

Jack was to blame!

It's his fault he followed him there!

Everything is his fault!

Jack's just a sorrowful drunk with a lot on his plate.

Jack knows now that the Blind King does not bargain for souls, he simply guilts their owners straight to the Netherworld where he can watch them suffer for as long as he wants them to.

He'll drink to the craftiness of this son of a gun.

Cheers!