Chương 225: Chapter 221: Confident and Composed

Solan was paralysed by indecision. Nothing had gone how she wanted, and now she was the one caught between two perilous outcomes? The perfect sacrifice was finally within arm's reach, and yet every time she tried to wrap the girl in her fingers, she slipped her grasp. It was infuriating. She was a fifth evolution; that didn't come to nearly the same realm as Solan. To this anomaly, Solan should be no different from a god. So how was it that Solan had found herself on the back foot?

Charge in head-first and give the girl the opportunity to lock her away forever in that unsettling space, or keep the door open for herself, and tempt the Darkness. Those were her options. She could also back off, but the perfect sacrifice was so close she could almost taste the power she would grant. To Solan, backing off now wasn't an option. Years ago — centuries — both she and all other cults of any significance discarded the possibility that a perfect sacrifice could ever feasibly exist.

They knew it was possible, but after years of countless deaths, and more than a few Madness outbreaks, it was a cold war that could not continue. If research and experimentation on the subject had gone on, nothing would have remained of Coral. Solan had shelved all her experiments, same as most other cults after that particular treaty.

For years she'd thought it was for the best; a redirection of resources to other avenues that were far more likely to turn up something feasible than the delusion of a sacrifice that had value of a singularity, infinitely dense. Then, the girl had appeared. It was miraculous. A happenstance so probabilisticly unlikely that none had ever determined just how impossible. Mathematics did tend to break down within those sorts of fields. Her existence was as shocking as it had been disastrous.

Still, Solan was happy to toss away a few hundred thousand of her loyal cultists and her Fleshforge — no matter how painful its loss had been — for the chance to snatch the perfect sacrifice for her own. Hers alone. Capturing the girl should have been easy. While those with cursed mutations could exhibit strange effects, they were rarely helpful. By everything she'd seen of the mutated — even those with more than a few — this girl shouldn't have been any more powerful than someone an evolution or two higher.

For Solan, her capture should have been as straightforward as an whisking the occasional child from a ward. It had been anything but. The Technocult's interference. The incompetence of her own cultists through the trial. The war and Zoaul. It was as if the Eidolons themselves were in her way. And now, after all that, Solan herself had tracked down and caught the girl, only for the sacrifice to pull off a trap that made even her think twice. But…

while Solan hung between unnatural teeth, it wasn't the threat of the Pink realm nor the Darkness that already tugged at her limp lower half that unsettled her.

"This, is where you pay for your atrocities. Both those of the past, and of the future never to come." It couldn't be true… could it? Solan had seen countless eyes of fury in her day. There was the impulsive rage of a cornered beast. The angered outburst of someone wronged. Then… there was the cold loathing of those who had mulled in hatred and anger for years. Somehow, the girl's eyes carried a frozen abhorrence beyond anything she'd seen. Even masked by that mocking grin, Solan could tell.

A mountain of pent up hatred. All for Solan. That was too much animosity to be over some small thing like being chased for her life. Solan had done something horrible to the girl, for a long time. Something she did not recall. And that was the problem: the sacrifice remembered a future far too intimately for it to be a prophetic vision. And that meant Eidolon interference. A lump grew in her throat. She tried to swallow, but suddenly couldn't. It couldn't be.

More likely the girl had gone Mad and it was manifesting in a stranger-than-usual way. Even if the lack of hallucinogenic manifestations denied that thought, it was better than the alternative. If… if the sacrifice hadn't hallucinated, then that meant the anomaly was directly linked to the Eidolons in some form. They had their cause and effect reversed. The singularity wasn't something they could ever have crafted to call upon the Eidolons; it was something that could only exist because of them.

Solan's eyes trailed over the source of all her recent troubles. She could see each mutation. Already, the girl had more than double the number of any experimental subject Solan had seen. Even those allowed to mutate deep into Madness. And she was still young. Barely older than the age these sort of mutations tended to naturally appear. The quantity was only more evidence that she'd experienced the twist of time. No. It didn't matter if the girl was an Eidolon creation or something they hungered for.

She remained brimming with sacrificial power. So much that Solan could not turn around now. The Eidolons would arrive for their creation, and Solan would have her opportunity to rise. She would ascend to the heights that the so-called pinnacle cults only wished to reach. As her god demanded. There was danger in calling the Eidolons, but there was just as much chance to rise above all of existence.

The entities of higher realms may vaporise their entire world with something as simple as their gaze falling down on Coral, but in that gaze, her god would ascend. And so too, would Solan. The time for a casual chase was over. There would be no more annoyances or nuisances. It was time for Solan to pull out the stops. Solan reached through her soul. She could hardly be called a soulsinger, but there was utility in those names that she couldn't deny. Ethereal chains that only she could see shot out her back.

They bridged the gap between herself and the slowly rising shape of Coral above. Each of the soul-chains linked with one of her Invowed. Hundreds of thousands. The instant she connected with them, her cultists knew what to do. Whether in the midst of battle or being mauled by beasts in the bowels of Coral, they stopped. Each of her servants kneeled, and channelled their strength towards Solan. Those who knew self-empowering rituals immediately began chanting. As did those she'd tasked to self-sacrifice.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Power flowed through her. She clenched her fist, and the chains wrapped around the tooth tight enough to fracture it. Each link took on a connected life. Should the chain break, so would each that were now bound to it, but they were disposable anyway. The perfect sacrifice was not. Newly empowered chains clenched around the frustratingly limiting curse that she'd been unable to smother as she'd usually be able to.

The hardened anchor points shattered under the compression. Solan ignored the pain. So long as they were gone, she would fight freely. The instant she turned her attention to the chains coiling around her back and supporting her now useless legs, another bollard shot out of her neck as if to spite her. It was larger than the rest. Another stubbed pole that got in the way of her chains' flow. Another sneer painted her face. This was beyond the typical curse.

The sacrifice was somehow empowering the cancer of her soul, making it worse than ever. As if reading Solan's mind, the girl grinned wider. Oh, how she was going to enjoy wiping that arrogant expression off her face. There were now only five others that could even hope to compete against Solan. Even if that fucking phantom had left her half crippled and bits of her soul were completely missing, she was still a match for most. But it still wasn't enough. Solan reached through her soul again.

This time, she didn't touch any name with her own marked into it. She called for the name marked in her own. Solan opened her body for it.

"R̴͉̮̗̬͉̜͉̲̠̼͙̼̥̤̹̻̭͗̍̂̑̽̑͒͊̈̏̿̇̕̚͝u̸̧̦̬̩̼̼̲̺̝͎̣͎̙̜̭̐̆̈́͗͐̉e̸̯̫̭̓̒͐̏t̸̨̧̨̺̥͇͇̳̪̰̪̳̱͐̄͛̊͂̈́̀ͅh̶̢̧̬̰̯̤͚̜́̍͆͂͂͐̄͗̇̊̍̽̀̆̕͘͝õ̸̧̧͖̫̭͈̖̜̭̫͎̰͆̎̈́̆̇́̾͆͋́̍̀̊̆͜ͅn̴̙͓̮̖̪͚̭͔̙͈̗̗̮̩̂̓̂̄͐̒͗̕͝k̶͈̝͈̬̻̳͉̮̻̟̞̲̒̒͜r̴̙̟͈͋̈a̸͚͉̱͓͉̥̦͙̬̱̻̰̟̱̟̐̿̈̎̈̊̍̃͊̋͗͝ͅ, the means to our desire stands before me," Solan announced. Hundreds of chain links broke, bypassing the typical extended, tedious process of summoning a god.

"Join me, and everything shall rightfully become yours." The sacrifice's grin was gone. Solan enjoyed a moment of derisive glee before agony struck. Her fleshforged chains immediately sunk deeper into her skin. They wormed their way into her bone, and shattered it. Solan grit her teeth as her bones were reforged into an extension of the chain. Her internal organs faced much the same punishment. As her ribs and spine cracked into small pieces, her viscera wove between them. Solan's body buckled.

She broke another bollard, only for two more to take its place. Her god manifested through her name, and so it wielded all her own abilities to whatever ends it wished. Both crippled legs unfurled into a pile of boneless mush before reshaping into something larger. Something resembling the form of her god. The form she'd only once witnessed. It was digitigrade, yet comparing it to anything animalistic would be a disservice. Her legs twisted as if locked in a corkscrew torture device.

When they fully reformed, Solan shoved herself upright. It stretched the girl's odd detached jaw wide enough to pull a wince. The rest of her body was quick to follow suit. Her human nature lost to the godly influence, and she became a being of fleshforged chain that somehow both retained a humanoid form while also trying to mimic the gut-twisting visage of her god. Her shoulders bent backwards, allowing her ribs — now chains — to spiral like a ram's horns. She felt her jaw snap outward.

It grew wide and hard, stretching across her malformed face until it bordered it from all sides. Horns grew from the sides, climbing past what remained of her ears, and hooked back at the top of her head." Yes!

"a voice hissed from her own mouth." You have found one. A Seed. Finally!" Solan's teeth grew hot as the god saw through her. Magma flowed from them, flowing down her now lipless mouth and encrusting hardened steel into the chains of her neck. Her body grew significantly, rising twice her previous height. Still, it wasn't enough. She felt her god call for her masterwork. The massive chain slithered down from Coral and stabbed the end into her back where she stood holding open the portal.

She'd needed that chain as a return to Coral, but she would do as her god willed. The being had never expressed this much enthusiasm before. And so, having completely abandoned thought of getting pulled down into the black hole, Solan attacked. The sacrifice, a 'Seed', had gained distance during Solan's transformation, but it vanished in a single leap. With her massive chain linked to her back, the girl's portal mouth couldn't close. Momentarily, her thoughts wondered to the word it had used for the sacrifice.

It had known what she was — enough to have a label — yet it had never shared that information back when she was actively experimenting. Not for now. Solan focused on the girl that would alter their everything. Solan should have struck. She was moving an entire Coral-length a second, and was far larger then before. Yet Solan passed Nyxalair harmlessly. Her chains should have been enough to grasp even the most slippery of souls.

Nothing besides — maybe — one of the other cult leaders' names would have allowed escape from these. The girl had. Even for phasing abilities, she shouldn't have been able to avoid that. Another mutation? Solan grit her teeth and the hot glowing metal spilled from her mouth faster then ever. No matter. She turned. Her massive chain whipped around to catch the girl off-guard. With the combined power of Solan, her entire cult, and her god, there was no possible escape for the girl. But… she didn't look scared.

The sacrifice should know this was her end. She should know there was no possible way that she could ever come out on top against Solan, no less a god, and yet she looked determined. Confident. And as hateful as ever. Those eyes drilled into her as powerfully as the Pink space around them. And Solan… she shivered. She couldn't turn away. Her eyes were pulled into those four globes as if they were each a gravity well of their own. She felt like she was falling.

Solan could do nothing but watch as those eyes — both normal and sharp — began to spiral. The whites bled out the edges, leaving nothing but black and a tiny pinprick of colour in each. The straight line pupils of the upper eyes which looked like an artificial mimicry of a feline's slit rotated in opposing directions. Then, all four eyes seemed to explode with colour. The blackness was instantly filled with the spiral of a million tiny pinpricks of light.

And, as they continued their slow spiral, Solan felt like she was looking somewhere very, very far away. These weren't something as simple as spiralling lights. Solan knew with full confidence that she was looking at four entire galaxies… somehow held within a child's face. Her soul quivered as something not quite right passed over her. She tried to brush it off as another unnatural sensation imposed by the Pink around them. But after a moment, it became clear that this was a soul ability. A name. Not a mutation.

It coiled around Solan's soul with a cold touch. She tried to push it away with her own soul manipulations, but it didn't so much as react. It was as if she was a youth again, and being attacked with a soul ability without having one of her own to defend against it. She thought, maybe, it was the scars in her name from that phantom that left her unable to defend herself, but as she watched the bubble of soul wrap around her, something impossible happened. Her god's soul failed to interact with it. It tried.

Oh, how it tried. Solan's soul-sensing abilities were all but scorched to uselessness as she watched the god burn through its connection to her soul to try and fend off the infection, but not even it could do anything. Just before the lock fell in place — also around the soul of the girl before her, she noticed — Solan's god did something unthinkable. It fled.

"What are you doing?" She came to a halt, assault forgotten. Her words were far too disrespectful to refer to her god, but this was not something she ever expected.

"You are leaving? This is what we've been waiting centuries for. You've been waiting millennia." There was no response until almost nothing of her god's soul remained. She thought it wouldn't answer. When it did, she was left speechless by the notable presence of dread in its voice." And I can wait an infinite more.

"It no longer had access to her own mouth, but she heard its overpowering, hesitant voice." This Seed has sprouted. We were too late. It is no longer a singularity I dare touch." With that final word, her god was gone. The mark of its name in her soul remained, but she felt more barriers blocking the connection than ever before. Solan's god had abandoned her. Her body immediately began to crumble back into its natural form, yet the transformation had left a toll. Mouth agape, she stared at the Seed.

The girl had that shit-eating grin again, yet Solan felt no irritation arise.

"Did your god just run?" she snarked.

"Seems Euphoria's not the only coward. Now." The grin vanished. Only a numbing cold hatred remained in those deep, galaxy eyes.

"I think you've lived long enough." For the first time in centuries, Solan felt terror.