Chương 140: What the Seed Devours

Narek went through the wall with Zayn. Stone exploded around them. They burst out into an upper gallery of the palace, rolled among split columns, then crashed into a balustrade already weakened by the days of fighting against Maelor. The reinforced wood gave way. Zayn fell into the lower atrium. Narek followed him. The creature landed on top of him. Its warped paws drove Zayn into the tiles. One claw sank down near his heart. The other seized the base of his right wing and pulled.

A wet crack ran through the atrium. Zayn clenched his teeth. The wing was not completely torn off. Almost. Black bone pushed out through flesh. Blood spilled across the tiles, steaming under Drakhar's unstable heat. Narek opened his maw above Zayn's face. Two voices came out of the same body. An animal roar. And behind it, a warped word:"Die." Zayn jammed the shaft of the scythe between the creature's jaws. The fangs clamped down. The black wood groaned.

The voice trapped inside the weapon screamed:"Cut his head off!" Zayn shoved back with all his strength.

"I told you to shut up!" He drew up his leg and kicked Narek in the stomach. The wolf-man's body left the ground, flew across the atrium, and slammed into a column. The pillar broke. Narek fell among the blocks. Then rose immediately. Too immediately. His right shoulder hung at an impossible angle. The seed pulsed in his chest. His fur lifted. His bones snapped back into place in a series of cracks. Zayn got back to his feet using the scythe as support. His right wing dragged behind him.

He watched Narek repair himself. This was not regeneration like Voragna's. The flesh was not healing. It was being forced to continue. Even badly set. Even torn open. Even condemned. Narek charged. A golden light suddenly cut across the atrium. Elias's sword struck the ground between them. The explosion knocked Narek sideways without cutting him. The heroes and the rest of the raid came down through the breach. Elias landed first. Jonah just behind him, shield raised.

Soren slid down along a wall before vanishing behind the rubble. Garron came down more heavily, still held together by the metal plates bracing his ribs. Ivara and Mira remained on the collapsed gallery while Lena reached the floor. Mira immediately raised her staff. Three analysis circles appeared around Narek. The first exploded. The second turned red. The third displayed a string of incoherent numbers. [Measured Soul Strength: 228.] Mira frowned.

"No." Ivara turned to her.

"What?"

"That reading is impossible." Narek leapt at Elias. The hero blocked the claws with his cracked sword. His arms bent under the impact. Jonah immediately smashed the creature's flank with his shield, hard enough to knock it off line. Garron threw a chain around its back leg.

"I thought he was with us!"

"He was!" Lena shouted. Soren appeared above Narek and drove a dagger into his shoulder. Not deep. Just enough to divert a new strike meant for Elias. Narek roared and spun. His claw caught Soren in midair. The assassin crossed his daggers. The impact hurled him into an archway. Elias shouted:"Don't kill him!" Jonah looked at him like he had lost his mind.

"He's at two hundred and twenty-eight!"

"It's Narek!"

"It's a three-meter monster trying to carve us apart!" Zayn lifted his head.

"He's right." Jonah snapped toward him.

"I didn't ask you."

"You'll die before you finish the sentence if he lands a proper hit."

"Then help us stop him!" Zayn looked at his scythe. Then at Narek. The blade could cut him. Even now. Despite the gap in exhaustion. Despite the mutation. One strike of corrupted aura in the right place. Ruined Time on the heart. Right of Taking on the seed if it could be considered a possession. He had several ways to end the fight. None of them guaranteed Narek would survive.

"I'm looking for how," he answered. Mira widened her circle. The numbers trembled. [Measured Soul Strength: 228.] Then a second value appeared beneath the first. [Estimated natural Soul Strength: 47.] It froze there.

"Forty-seven..." Mira whispered. Lena looked up at her.

"What?" Mira ran the reading again. Same result. [Natural Soul Strength: 47.] If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. [Converted external power: 181.] [Temporary combat total: 228.] The blood drained from Mira's face.

"That isn't his strength." Ivara understood before the others. She snapped open her forbidden book and flipped through several pages. Her expression collapsed.

"It converts." Elias stepped back from another blow.

"Converts what?" Ivara raised her eyes.

"Everything." Mira's system expanded the analysis. [Seed of assimilative rage.] [Function: combustion of life force.] [Secondary input: concentrated demonic energy.] [Forced conversion into temporary soul pressure.] [Consequence: progressive destruction of body, lifespan, and identity.] Lena went pale.

"His life force..." Mira nodded.

"The seed is taking what he was supposed to live later and burning it now." Another pulse ran through Narek's chest. The creature grew again. His arms lengthened. New black spikes pushed out along his spine. The red veins beneath his fur brightened. The window changed. [Temporary power: 228 → 233.] Narek howled. His gray eye tightened in pain. The other burned brighter. Ivara stared at the rising numbers.

"It's also converting the demonic energy stored in the seed. His life force serves as fuel. The demonic energy serves as structure." Mira murmured:"This isn't even a real increase in Soul Strength."

"No." Ivara looked at Narek.

"It's an execution dressed as a power-up." Something in Zayn's chest turned cold. He turned his eyes toward the small mirror, still visible in the upper chamber through the torn-open wall. Its silver surface gleamed. Seryth was watching them. Her smile was enormous.

"You knew," Zayn said. His voice carried through the broken levels. The mirror answered.

"Obviously."

"He was under fifty."

"Forty-seven," Seryth corrected lightly.

"A lovely little number. Very honest. Very insufficient for facing a Demon King." Narek broke free of the chain. Garron and Jonah were thrown aside in opposite directions. The creature lunged toward Lena. Zayn vanished from where he stood. He appeared in front of her just before the claws landed. The scythe blocked the strike. The whole atrium shook. Zayn's legs bent. His already torn-open shoulder ripped wider. Narek pushed. Zayn held with both hands on the shaft.

The warped face of his former family was only inches from his own.

"Narek." The roar drowned out the name. Zayn tried again.

"Narek!" The gray eye moved. A fraction. Then the seed pulsed. The pressure increased. [Temporary power: 233 → 239.] Zayn was hurled into the wall. Narek turned toward him. Seryth laughed from the mirror.

"You should hurry. Every instant he spends hating you costs him several days. Sometimes several months. It's difficult to calculate with beastmen. They cling so hard to life." Zayn rose.

"Take it out."

"No."

"Seryth." She tilted her head.

"My king." The title was spoken like a taunt.

"Give me the method to remove the seed."

"Why would I?"

"Because I let you live." Seryth smiled almost tenderly.

"That was your mistake. Not my debt." Zayn tightened his grip on the scythe. The mark of Avarice opened. Right of Taking stretched toward the mirror. The surface blurred. Seryth lifted one finger.

"Careful. If you rip the link violently, the seed will interpret the severance as an extraction attempt." Ivara jerked her eyes up from her book.

"It'll detonate what remains of his life force." Seryth smiled.

"I like women who read." Zayn stopped the skill. Narek charged again. This time, the whole group reacted. Elias intercepted the first blow. Jonah blocked the second. Soren cut a tendon without going deep. Garron wrapped a new chain around the torso. Ivara cast a slowing seal. Mira locked the joints with her circles. Lena reinforced their bodies so they would not break under the pressure. They held. One second. Two. Narek roared. Demonic energy exploded around him. The chains snapped. Mira's circles burst.

Ivara's seal burned away. Jonah was thrown to the floor. Elias staggered back, driving his sword into the stone to keep from falling. But this time, Zayn saw something. When Mira's circles had passed through Narek's chest, the seed had reacted. Not like an organ. Like a mouth. It was feeding on two sources. Narek's life force. And the hatred driven into his mind. Seryth had not merely made a powerful monster. She had built a closed cycle. The more Narek hated Zayn, the more the seed converted.

The more it converted, the more the pain increased. The more he suffered, the more he hated. Until nothing remained. Zayn looked at the mirror.

"You didn't want him to kill me." Seryth smiled.

"Oh?"

"You knew he probably wouldn't manage it." Her smile thinned. Zayn understood.

"You wanted me to kill him myself." Silence. Even the heroes grasped the horror in that sentence. Seryth delicately rested her chin on her fingers.

"I wanted to see whether the Demon King still had a limit." Narek struck Elias. The heroic sword cracked further.

"And whether that limit," Seryth went on, "could bite hard enough to tear out what little humanity he still had." Zayn turned toward Narek. The demonic wolf-man was advancing through the heroes. He was a teenager. His natural Soul Strength had not even reached fifty. But the seed was burning his future away to give him, for a few moments, the power of a Demon General. He was not becoming strong. He was dying violently. Zayn lowered his scythe. Elias saw it.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to isolate him." Mira understood immediately.

"Your Pride skill?" Zayn looked at her for a second. So she knew. Information had spread faster than expected. Or Lyséa had spoken. It did not matter.

"Yes." Ivara went tense.

"If you take him into a closed space at that level of power, no one will be able to help you."

"That's the point." Lena stepped toward him.

"You're at your limit." Zayn turned his torn face toward her.

"So is he."

"That's not the same thing."

"No." He looked at Narek.

"He didn't choose this." That sentence silenced Lena. Narek knocked Jonah aside and launched himself at Zayn. The Demon King did not raise his scythe. He simply opened his right hand. The mark of Pride around his neck flared. Space contracted. [Territory Extension.] Seryth's mirror vibrated. For the first time, she lost her smile.

"Zayn." He looked at her.

"You wanted to see what I'd do without an audience." The shadow of the territory spread beneath Narek.

"Then watch the door close." Seryth reached out from the other side of the reflection. Too late. The world folded. Narek vanished. Zayn with him. They reappeared beneath a black moon. Zayn recognized the place before his feet even touched the ground. A ravine. Steep walls. Broken trees above. Wet earth. A slope covered in old bloodstains. Not the real ravine. A reconstruction. Territory Extension had chosen, from their memories, a space narrow enough to contain their duel. The place where Narek had awakened.

The place Zayn had never returned to. There were no stars in the sky. No mirror. No heroes. No Seryth. Only the two of them. Narek landed on all fours. His maw opened. A roar tore through the ravine. The system window appeared. [Target isolated.] [External interference interrupted.] [Warning: the seed retains already converted energy.] [Temporary power: 239.] Then another line. [Remaining life force: 31%.] Zayn stared at the number. Thirty-one.

The seed had already consumed more than two thirds of what Narek had left. The wolf-man charged. Zayn shifted aside. The claws ripped open his flank. He could have cut. He did not. He struck with the shaft of the scythe into the ribs, hard enough to throw him back, not to shatter the heart. Narek came again. One blow tore away part of Zayn's cheek. Another pierced his forearm. A third opened his belly. Zayn staggered back through the mud. Voragna's regeneration tried to repair him. It slowed.

His body no longer had enough reserves. The scythe screamed:"You cannot keep tanking this!" Zayn blocked a set of jaws inches from his throat.

"I know."

"Then cut!"

"No." Narek shoved harder. The fangs sank into the shaft. Zayn used forge-blood. Not to strike. To heat the weapon. Narek released it with a roar of pain. Zayn slammed into him with his shoulder and threw him against the ravine wall. Rock split. The creature fell back. Its legs trembled. One second. Then the seed pulsed. [Remaining life force: 27%.] [Temporary power: 239 → 244.]"Stop," Zayn whispered. Narek lifted his maw.

"You... left... me..." The words came with difficulty. Through the fangs. Through the rage. But they came. Zayn froze.

"I know." Narek lunged. Zayn did not move fast enough. The jaws closed around his left shoulder. The fangs went through flesh to the bone. Zayn screamed. Narek shook his head like an animal ripping prey apart. The left wing nearly tore free completely. Blood covered the monster's maw. Zayn raised the scythe. The blade rested against Narek's throat. One movement. Just one. It would end. Maybe the seed knew. It pulsed harder. In the red eye, hatred blazed. In the gray eye, something wept. Zayn let go of the scythe.

It fell into the mud.

"Idiot!" the weapon screamed. Zayn wrapped both arms around Narek's neck. Not to choke him. To hold him. The fangs sank deeper into his shoulder. The pain turned white. He pressed his mouth against the creature's chest. Where the seed throbbed beneath the bone. Gluttony awakened beneath his tongue. It recognized the corruption. Not Narek. The thing inside him. Zayn opened his mouth.

"You want to devour me?" the scythe growled. He bit down. His teeth tore through fur, skin, demonized flesh. Narek screamed. The ravine shook. Zayn bit deeper. Gluttony found the seed. It was attached to everything. The veins. The nerves. The life force. The memories. Tearing it out brutally would kill Narek. Devouring it without distinction would empty him out with it. It had to be separated. The mark of Envy pulsed at his collarbone. It felt the fragments of converted strength.

Sloth followed the artificial tissues and began eroding only the demonic attachments. Avarice identified what belonged to the seed and what belonged to Narek. The Locks of Ghelkar prevented the corruption from moving into another organ. Zayn used his Downfalls together. Not to kill. To dissect a curse with powers made to take, eat, erode, and possess. The seed reacted. A wave of memories entered his mouth. Then his mind. Zayn saw the village in flames. He saw himself among the bodies. He saw himself laughing.

He saw himself devouring the people who had welcomed him. He saw himself pushing Narek into the ravine. All of it was false. And yet all of it resembled him enough to hurt. The features were his. The wings were his. The voice was his. The cruelty resembled what he had become later. Seryth had taken what Zayn would become and placed it in the past. She had made a lie that the future made believable. Zayn swallowed the first fragment. Narek's hatred entered him. Weeks of solitude.

Months spent staring into the mirror. The pain of not having been searched for. The fear of having loved a monster. The shame of surviving when the others had died. Zayn nearly let go. Narek slammed him into the ground. The two of them rolled through the mud. The creature clawed at his back. Zayn kept biting. The seed screamed in his mind. Not with a voice. With Seryth's. You bring no one back. Zayn drove his fingers into Narek's chest.

"Maybe." He tore out a first black root. Blood burst free. Narek screamed. [Remaining life force: 22%.] The seed tried to convert more. Zayn sealed the Locks. The rise stopped. [Conversion interrupted.] [Temporary power stabilized: 244.] The creature thrashed. Its claws ripped open Zayn's chest. He did not let go. A second root gave way. Then a third. Each time, a false memory entered him. Each time, Zayn saw Narek hate him more. And each time, behind the lie, he found something true.

Narek calling his name at the bottom of the ravine. Again. Again. Until his voice broke. Zayn closed his eyes. The void Maelor had left opened again. A door he had not opened. A ravine he had never returned to. People he had always found too late. His fingers trembled.

"I'm sorry." Narek roared. Zayn tore out a fourth root.

"I know that isn't enough." A fifth.

"I know you won't believe me." At last, the seed appeared beneath the flesh. Black. Pulsing. Driven in near the heart. But it still had one last attachment. Not in the body. In memory. Seryth's voice rang through it. He abandoned you. Narek froze. His gray eye settled on Zayn.

"You... left... me..." Zayn held the seed between his teeth and fingers. He could have lied. Said he had no choice. Said he had been too far away. Said he had thought Narek dead and that should have been enough. Instead, he answered:"Yes." The gray eye shook.

"But I came back now." The seed pulsed. Zayn tightened his grip.

"So stay alive long enough to hate me with your own memories." And he pulled. Narek's scream split the black moon. The seed came out of his chest trailing a network of demonic veins. Zayn swallowed it. The whole ravine turned red. Then everything vanished.