Chương 139: The Boy at the Bottom of the Ravine

The claws sank into Zayn's shoulder. Deep. They tore through flesh already scorched, scraped bone, and came out near the shoulder blade with a wet sound. Zayn did not strike back. His left arm could have come up. The scythe was already in position. A single movement would have opened Narek from the belly to the throat. He did not do it. He stayed still. Blood ran down the beastman's wrist.

"Narek…"

"Don't say my name." The voice had nothing left of the one Zayn remembered. It was deeper. Worn down. Filled with a rage repeated so many times it had ended up replacing everything else. Narek ripped his claws free and struck again. Zayn stepped back. Not fast enough. The second blow split his face beneath the half-mask. A black shard fell to the floor. A red line appeared from his temple to his jaw. Lena took a step forward.

"Wait!" Jonah immediately threw an arm out in front of her.

"No."

"But—""We don't know what's happening." Soren had already vanished into the left corner of the room. His daggers were ready. Garron had placed himself in front of Mira and Ivara despite his armor being nearly destroyed. Elias kept his sword raised, his eyes moving from Zayn to the beastman. None of them understood. They knew Nahr. The silent survivor. The young beastman recruited because he said he wanted to kill the demon human. The one who almost never spoke about his past.

But Zayn had just called him by another name. And Nahr had answered as though that name were a wound. Narek attacked again. His claws aimed for Zayn's chest. At last, Zayn raised the scythe. The shaft blocked the blow. The impact sent him sliding through the blood to the foot of the Council table. His knee buckled. His black wings tried to open to steady him, but one of them shook and fell heavily back down. Narek saw it.

"Tired?" Zayn looked up. He was no longer smiling.

"You're alive."

"Answer me."

"I saw you fall."

"Answer me!" Narek drove a kick into Zayn's chest. He was thrown back against the table. The wood shattered beneath his back. The fused scythe growled:"Kill him." Zayn tightened his grip on the shaft.

"Be quiet." Narek stopped.

"You're talking to it?"

"Not to you."

"Of course." He let out a short laugh. Without joy.

"Even now, you still have voices telling you what to do." Zayn slowly rose among the broken pieces of the table. The hole in his shoulder was barely closing. Voragna's regeneration struggled to keep up. Flesh pulled itself together, tore open again under the weight of his arm, then started over. Narek looked at the wound.

"So you heal too." Zayn did not answer.

"The mirror was right." Something changed in Zayn's expression. Mira saw it.

"What mirror?" Narek snapped his head toward her.

"Don't speak." Mira held his gaze.

"How long have you been traveling with us under a false name?"

"Long enough to understand that your questions only come after the dead." Elias lowered his sword slightly.

"Narek." The young beastman bared his teeth.

"That name doesn't belong to you either." Then he turned back to Zayn. All his hatred came with him.

"You left me in that ravine." Zayn stayed silent.

"You watched me fall."

"No." The word came immediately. Narek gave a harsh laugh.

"No?"

"I couldn't reach you."

"You didn't want to."

"That's false."

"The mirror showed me." Zayn took a step forward. Narek raised his claws.

"Stay where you are." Zayn stopped. Not because he feared the claws. Because at last he could hear what lay beneath the words. Not only anger. A built certainty. A repeated story. A wound that had been fed until it became a weapon.

"What did it show you?" Zayn asked. Narek trembled. His pupils tightened. For an instant, he was no longer in the Council chamber. He was somewhere else. At the bottom of a ravine. He had woken with his mouth full of dirt. The first thing he had felt was pain. In his leg. In his ribs. In his skull. Everywhere. The second was silence. Not the normal silence of a forest. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. The silence after a catastrophe.

Narek had tried to get up. His right leg bent the wrong way. He screamed, but no one answered. Above him, the ravine rose like a throat of stone. Broken trees formed black shadows against the sky. He remembered screams. Fire. A silhouette with imperfect wings. Zayn covered in blood. Then emptiness. He had crawled. An hour. Maybe a day. He did not know. Every movement left a red trail behind him. He called for his own. His father. His sister. The hunters. Zayn. No one answered. Then he saw the light.

A small silver gleam between two stones. A mirror. No bigger than his palm. It should not have been there. Too clean. Too intact. He picked it up. At first, he saw only his own face. Broken. Filthy. Terrified. Then the reflection moved without him. The mirror showed him the village. In flames. It showed Zayn standing among the bodies. His black wings spread. His mouth covered in blood. Narek screamed that it was false. The mirror kept going. It showed Zayn tearing a hunter's throat out. Devouring a woman's flesh.

Breaking the neck of the old guide who had welcomed him. Walking toward the houses while the children screamed. And behind each scene, one true detail. A familiar scar. A real house. A familiar voice. A piece of the village Narek recognized. Enough truth for the lie to stand. He threw the mirror away. When he woke, it was back in his hand. He smashed it against a stone. The next day, it was intact beside his face. Every time he closed his eyes, he heard the voices.

Every time he opened them, the mirror showed him another scene. Zayn laughing. Zayn saying he had never had a family. Zayn letting Narek fall on purpose. Zayn murmuring that a beastman was only stronger flesh to assimilate. After several days, Narek stopped saying it was false. After several weeks, he stopped remembering what he had believed before. Then a woman appeared in the mirror. Only a smile. An eye. A soft voice.

"Do you want to know what he became?" Narek answered yes.

"Do you want to find him?" Yes.

"Do you want the strength to do to him what he did to yours?" Yes. Then the mirror gave him a direction. And then a name to use. Nahr. And later, when his body was strong enough to walk, an object appeared in his reflection. A small black seed streaked with red veins. He held out his hand. The seed fell from the other side of the mirror into his palm. The voice told him:"Not yet. Keep it for the moment when he looks at you and lies." Narek came back to the underground chamber. His claws were shaking.

"It showed me everything you did." Zayn stared at him. Around them, no one spoke. Even the scythe had fallen silent. Lena looked at Narek, then at Zayn.

"The village…" Zayn did not look away.

"I killed the ones attacking it." Narek lunged.

"Liar!" Zayn barely parried in time. The claws slid along the shaft of the scythe and sliced off a lock of his hair.

"I ate their enemies," Zayn continued.

"Not yours."

"The mirror showed you with their bodies!"

"It showed you what it wanted."

"You were covered in their blood!"

"Because I was in the middle of them when they died!" Zayn's voice cracked through the room. For the first time, something alive cut through his exhaustion. Not anger at Narek. Panic. The heroes saw it. Mira most of all. She had watched Zayn with the leaders. He had been able to kill without trembling, to choose his words, to read their crimes like sentences. In front of Narek, there was no longer a perfectly cold Demon King.

There was a man who had just found someone dead and understood he had been given that dead person back filled with hatred. Narek struck again. Zayn blocked. He still did not counterattack. Jonah frowned.

"Why is he holding back?" Lena answered without taking her eyes off Zayn:"Because he doesn't see him as an enemy." Garron looked at the wounds opening across the Demon King's body.

"At this rate, that's gonna stop mattering." Soren reappeared beside Elias.

"I can pin the beastman down." Narek heard him. He instantly turned toward him.

"Come closer and I'll open you up before him." Elias raised a hand.

"No one interferes." Jonah stared at him.

"You're joking?"

"No."

"We just walked into a room full of corpses, Zayn became the Demon King, and our guide was hiding his identity. This is exactly the moment to interfere."

"Not until we understand." Ivara, silent until then, was watching Narek. More precisely, his chest. Something pulsed beneath his tunic. Very faintly. A dark red light.

"He's carrying a demonic object," she said. Narek turned toward her. So did Zayn.

"Where?" Elias asked. Ivara pointed to the center of his chest.

"Not implanted. Kept near the heart. Something waiting for activation." Narek took a step back. His hand slipped beneath his tunic. Zayn saw the movement. His face changed at once.

"Narek."

"Be quiet."

"Show me what she gave you." Silence fell. Narek pulled out the seed. Small. Black. Alive. Its red veins pulsed in rhythm with his heart. The mark of Gluttony reacted beneath Zayn's tongue. Not with hunger. With revulsion. The system appeared before him. [Unstable demonic object detected.] [Seed of assimilative rage.] [Compatibility: beastman high.] [Risk of irreversible mutation.] Zayn took a step forward.

"Put that down." Narek closed his fingers more tightly around the seed.

"You're afraid."

"Yes." The answer disarmed everyone. Even Narek froze. Zayn kept moving forward, slowly. The scythe lowered.

"I'm afraid of what it'll do to you." Narek twisted his mouth.

"You expect me to believe that?"

"No."

"Then stop walking." Zayn stopped a few paces away.

"Who gave it to you?" Narek did not answer. But his free hand slid toward an inner pocket. The small mirror fell. It struck the floor without breaking. Its surface was black. Mira inhaled sharply.

"Nhaless." Zayn lowered his eyes to the mirror. He understood. The half-eye he had left to Seryth. Half enough to watch. Half enough to prepare one last joke.

"Seryth," he murmured. The surface of the mirror lightened. A face appeared. Pale. Elegant. Cut through with silver cracks. Seryth was smiling.

"At last." Elias raised his sword toward the reflection.

"That's her?" Ivara tightened her grip on her book.

"General of Envy."

"Former General," Seryth corrected softly.

"Titles grow confused once kings begin handing out humiliations." Zayn stared at the mirror.

"You did this."

"I showed."

"You lied." Seryth tilted her head.

"I assembled. It's more elegant." Narek looked at the mirror.

"She showed me the truth." Seryth smiled wider.

"Of course." Mira crouched slightly, searching for an analytical angle.

"The scenes were falsified?" Seryth turned her eyes toward her.

"Falsified is such a crude word. I used real places. Real dead. Real expressions. Real fragments of memory." She looked back to Zayn.

"The best lies keep enough true bone to stand." Zayn raised the scythe.

"Come out of the mirror." Seryth laughed.

"You've already broken half my eyes. Don't be greedy." The mark of Gluttony pulsed. Zayn took a step toward the mirror. Narek moved in front of it.

"You won't touch her." Zayn looked at him.

"She destroyed you."

"She saved me."

"She found you wounded and gave you a target."

"She showed me what you were."

"She stopped you from remembering." Narek trembled.

"I remember perfectly well."

"No." Zayn spoke softly.

"You remember what she forced you to look at." The words reached something. Not enough to convince him. Enough to crack him. Narek tightened his grip on the seed. Seryth watched the scene with almost childish delight.

"Go on. Ask him the right question." Zayn never took his eyes off Narek.

"Which one?" Seryth smiled.

"Ask him why, if you were his family, he never came back for you." Silence. Narek slowly raised his eyes to Zayn. The pain in his face was worse than his hatred.

"Yes." Zayn did not answer at once.

"Why?" The whole room waited. Zayn saw the ravine. The destroyed village. The bodies. The falsified elven traces. His own flight to the northern island. Elvarin. The Generals. One target after another. Always a new direction. Always a new vengeance. And Narek, somewhere at the bottom of a ravine. Alive. Alone.

"I thought you were dead," Zayn said. Narek let out a shattered laugh.

"You didn't check." Zayn did not look for an excuse.

"No." The word fell. Narek nearly staggered. He would have preferred a lie. A defense. A reason to hate more easily. Zayn continued:"I should have come back." Lena lowered her eyes. Elias tightened his grip on his sword. In the mirror, Seryth stopped smiling for a fraction of a second. Then her amusement returned.

"How beautiful. A king learning regret after destroying two continents." Zayn turned the scythe toward the mirror. Narek raised the seed.

"You regret it?" Zayn looked back at him.

"Yes."

"You regret leaving me?"

"Yes."

"You regret the others?" Zayn fell silent. Narek understood that hesitation in his own way.

"The mirror was right."

"No."

"You became exactly what it showed me."

"Maybe." The answer froze the heroes. Zayn took one step forward.

"But not then." Narek moved back.

"Stay away from me."

"Give me the seed."

"To eat it?"

"To destroy it."

"Because it can make me strong enough to kill you."

"Because it's going to replace you." Narek lifted the seed near his lips. Zayn spread his wings despite the pain.

"Narek." The young beastman was trembling all over.

"You left me alone."

"Yes."

"You chose your vengeance."

"Yes."

"You forgot to come back." Zayn tightened his grip on the scythe.

"Yes." Each answer struck him. He accepted them all. Narek had tears in his eyes.

"Then why would you have the right to ask me to stay the way I am?" Zayn could find no good answer. There wasn't one. So he gave the only true one.

"Because I only just found you again." The seed stopped in front of Narek's mouth. Silence. Even Seryth did not speak. For one second, something older returned to the young beastman's eyes. A forest. A fire. Zayn sitting apart from the clan. A plate left beside him without a question. A laugh. A hunt. An imperfect family. Then the mirror pulsed. An image entered Narek's eyes. Zayn covered in blood. Zayn laughing over the bodies. Zayn watching him fall. The seed touched his lips.

"Narek, no!" Zayn lunged. Too late. Narek swallowed. The world contracted around him. His back arched. A sharp crack ripped through the room. Then another. His spine lengthened beneath his skin. His shoulders swelled violently. His arms twisted, bones forcing their way through flesh before the flesh sealed around them again. Narek screamed. Lena rushed forward. Elias caught her.

"Wait!"

"He's suffering!"

"You can't touch him now!" Narek's gray fur blackened from the chest outward. Red veins spread beneath his neck, his face, his arms. His fingers broke and regrew into claws too long. His jaw opened at an impossible angle before closing again in a broader, more animal shape. Two incomplete horns punched through his skull. One broke while emerging. Blood ran across his eye. His beastman aura exploded. But there was nothing natural left in it.

The vital will of beastmen had been contaminated, turned inside out, filled with demonic rage. It struck the room like an invisible maw. Garron planted his feet into the floor.

"That was not in the contract." Soren appeared in front of Ivara, daggers crossed. Jonah raised his shield. Mira tried to read him. The window nearly burst at once. [Demonic mutation in progress.] [Identity: Narek.] [Race: Beastman — critical alteration.] [Soul Strength: 139 → 174 → 201.]"It's still rising!" Mira shouted. Narek's bones cracked again. His legs bent backward. His torso broadened. A deformed wolf maw opened in a roar that shook the underground walls. [Soul Strength: 201 → 228.] Zayn remained standing before him. Exhausted. Wounded. The scythe lowered. Narek now stood nearly three meters tall. His frame was too long, asymmetrical, covered in black plates between clumps of fur. His right eye kept a gray glow. The other burned red. The small mirror lay between them. Seryth still appeared in it. She looked at the creature she had made. Then at Zayn. And burst out laughing.

"There." Her face split inside the reflection.

"I wondered what you would do when your last family came back to devour you." Zayn slowly raised his eyes. Blood still ran down his face.

"I'm going to bring him back." Seryth smiled.

"You don't know how to bring anyone back." Narek roared. The floor exploded beneath his paws. He hurled himself at Zayn. This time, the fused scythe screamed:"If you don't kill him, he'll kill you!" Zayn raised the weapon. But turned the blade. He blocked with the shaft. Narek's claws tore through his left wing. Zayn was hurled across the room. His body smashed through three columns and crashed down near the heroes. Lena took a step toward him. Zayn got up on his own. With difficulty.

A piece of his wing stayed on the floor. Narek was already coming again. Zayn looked at the demonic wolf-man charging toward him. Then he said, low enough that only Lena could hear:"I won't kill him." Lena stared at him. She saw his hands trembling. Not with fear. With exhaustion. She saw the scythe capable of cutting Narek down. She saw Zayn choosing not to use it properly. And she understood.

"Elias!" The hero turned toward her.

"What?" Narek slammed into Zayn. The two of them tore through the wall of the underground chamber in an explosion of stone. Lena stared at the gaping hole.

"He's not defending himself against him like he would against an enemy." On the floor, Seryth's mirror was still glowing. Her laughter went on.

"No," she murmured from inside the reflection.

"He's defending himself like someone who knows he deserves every blow."