If it’s to defeat Oreon, sure, I won’t mind breaking the rules. They aren’t playing by the rules, after all.
Marvelous.
“Shall I take us to Oreon? We don’t want to fight near your troops, now do we?”
“Yeah, but I need to fetch horses for that.”
“No need. I can get us to him faster than horses can.”
“How?”
“Look.”
Alexiana conjures a red portal wherein the other side can be faintly perceived.
“Jump in,” she urges.
“What is that?”
“A door that serves as a shortcut to Oreon.”
“Really?”
“Uh-huh.”
***
They’re in the wilderness, cold breeze caressing them. Tenil can’t see a thing in the darkness, not until Alexiana grants her night vision. Since they aren’t bound by rules anymore, she is doing things Ouroboros wouldn’t have permitted before.
“Tenil...! Haha! You came to me, eh!? You want to die that badly!?”
“Wrong,” Tenil denies, “I came here to kill you.”
A horde of Demons has been following Oreon, one that is massive enough to blacken the terrain. Tenil can see clearly in the dark, thanks to Alexiana, and what she sees disgusts her. The Ember Knight is only twenty yards away.
“Is that really you, Oreon? You’ve become so malformed I can’t tell if you’re even human anymore!”
“Says the monster herself! Look in a mirror!”
“I did, and I saw a survivalist, not a monster.”
“Shut up, bitch!”
The Ember Knight charges at Tenil who stands still like a target dummy. She doesn’t even lift her finger to defend herself. Oreon laughs as he brings a black blade at her. He can’t miss, no matter how he looks at it, and the obsidian armor Tenil might summon isn’t tough enough to repel a longsword bestowed by the eater of worlds.
However...
Tenil disappears as the black blade sinks into her. To further confuse him, the massive chunk of hulking iron impales him from behind, tearing through his spine and guts. The tip of the gargantuan blade emerges from his chest.
She can’t teleport, nor did Alexiana move her anyhow. Instead, she created an illusion that served Oreon’s desire. The rest is history.
Tenil wrenches the humongous blade upward, splitting his spine, if not even crushing it thoroughly. The Ember Knight’s left and right open up like the petals of a blooming flower, an upward spray of gore accompanying the grotesque scene.
“Take this!”
Tenil swings the dragon’s fang again, this time cutting him from the waist as if to pick the flower, leaving its stem standing on the spot, namely legs, which collapse a moment later.
“Pfft, is that all, Oreon? You forced a powerful opponent to retreat, but you couldn’t beat a mere human?”
The supposed corpse starts twitching, stretching, and making noise. Baffled, Tenil steps back in fear of a surprise attack. She is fairly certain that should’ve killed him, but alas.
“I’ll kill you...! Attack! Kill her, my minions!” Thanks to the power of the Old One, Oreon has regenerated in a moment.
“Your minions won’t be helping you out today,” Alexiana flashes a smile at him, a mocking one. Her eyes are gleaming golden, a platinum sword held in hand. “I’ve taken care of them all.” She isn’t lying; the horde is mutilated and thus annihilated.
“How!?”
“I’m a Blade Dancer, you see, a creature so fast your eyes cannot see me.”
“Doesn’t matter!!! It doesn’t matter! I’ll kill you both! Damn you! AARGH!”
“Die already!” Tenil attacks, only to have her blade parried.
Oreon is knocked back by the force, massive as the dragon’s fang is. His balance is restored by a swarm of tentacles spewing from his back.
Seeing that Oreon won’t die so easily, Tenil lets the beast within her loose.
“ROAAAR!”
Alexiana covers her ears as the dragonic humanoid in obsidian armor bellows. Normal people would lose their hearing if that dragonic knight roared next to them. It’s as if a real dragon were bellowing, one that’s the size of a tiny mountain.
Oreon clicks his tongue, for there is something different about the transformation this time. From the back of the obsidian beast, two wings of a dragon spread out.
The beast takes to the skies, darting upward so fast Oreon is left alarmed. He can’t see the obsidian knight anywhere, thanks to its three-dimensional maneuvering.
“Curse you! Come down, co—!”
The Ember Knight is cut in two without warning. The killer has descended from the above to assault him from a blind spot. However, Oreon regenerates and stands up a moment later, enraged.
“You fucking—!”
Again, the massive blade comes at him from above, slicing him faster than he can finish what he has to say. His innards are garnishing the soil. Since he’s basically died a few times already, a few of his organs lie on the ground double or triple.
“AAARGH! I’ll—!”
Again and again, time after time, he is halved or dismembered on the spot, and he can do nothing about it. He can only regenerate and take the hit once more. His sanity, which is already jeopardized, is crumbling like a weak tower.
“Hahahaha—!”
He starts laughing for no reason. It’s all he can do in that state, really. He can’t even summon mass destruction like he did before, just because he’s cut down before that. He’s seen his own guts splatter and spill, felt his own body being torn apart time after time.
“Whyyy!!!!?”
His laughter is blended with wailing. His willpower is slowly but surely deteriorating.
“Stop iiiit!!!!”
The obsidian killer beheads him next. Upon recovering, Oreon can see his previous head rolling on the soil, which ends up being the final seasoning to his psychological self-destruction.
The next killing blow is the final; Oreon refuses to regenerate ever again, thus choosing permanent death over the repeated torture of dying again and again. His corpse remains as it is, a large pool of black gore, twenty times his actual body mass.
His final death is a blessing he won’t give up on.
Alexiana thinks to herself, I wonder, who’d win? Susu, Louir, or Tenil if they fought? Hehe, I bet Mom would.
Emy is right in that regard.
“Emy,” a male person says behind Alexiana.
Turning around, Emy responds, “Huh?”
“We meet again in the Fourth Era, just as I said.”
He has appeared out of nowhere. There he stands in the form of a complete stranger, a young man in his twenties. It isn’t his true form or anything. In fact, it’s only one of many faces he consists of, one of the people of the unborn world.
“I know the truth, Ninth World,” Emy addresses him as such.
“I know, but you don’t know the details well enough, do you?”
“No, I don’t. I was hoping you could tell me more.”
The Ninth World, he, displays a relieved smile. “Firstly, you know these worlds you’ve been to are part of the Eight Worlds, or more precisely, the Eight Eras, as I like to call them, am I right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then you also know that the Eight Worlds are no more. This and the other Eras are but an experiment I’m conducting, and if I fail, I’ll have to create a new link in the Chain of Eras. The Dark Old One, eater of worlds, will surely consume me if I become the Ninth World as things stand now. So, what I’m trying to tell you is that the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Worlds are no more, or at least they aren’t what they used to be. I guess you can say they’re being digested, though that doesn’t really describe it appropriately. The Seventh and Eighth Worlds are me. In short, I’m an amalgamation of those those worlds.”
“So, you really carry the weight of the world, eh?”
“Dracon, Emy, do you still see me as an
enemy?” He asks with a fearful face, afraid that they might still declare their hostility.
“Ninth,” they abbreviate his name, “let us fight together.”
The trembling child is no longer facing the predator alone. He has a friend he can rely on now. Together, they stand up to the beast, but can they win?
Chapter Twenty-One
The Seed
She thought it’d be over, that she’d be free of the torment now. Even with Oreon dead, the curse still lingers, forcing Tenil to suffer such agony no other could withstand, not without a strong source of willpower.
That is why Emy, the transient one, has come to call Tenil the languished life, much like how Louir is the apocalyptic life. No matter what life it is, misery accompanies them all. Emy lost all that was dear to her, Louir had to initiate an apocalypse, and Tenil is shouldering the safety of her homeworld while languishing for as long as she lives.
What kind of a life will they meet next? Destitute? Forgotten? Chaotic? Or something worse?
“Tenil, is Ouroboros with you?”
“He always is,” Tenil answers her, having returned to her tent.
“Can I talk to him?”
“Sure, go ahead.”
“Ah,” Alexiana recalls something, “and can I share some memories with you as well?”
“Well, if it’s just memories, I suppose it’s fine.”
“Great.”
Ninth shared his memories with Alexiana, a portion, to be exact. She is planning on sharing them with Ouroboros and Tenil too. She will do it to Louir as well.
Alexiana touches Tenil’s hand, transferring the memories. Tenil’s mind is flooded with external images that confuse her at first, but once they begin to cohere, her hairs stand on the edge. The truth of everything is in her head now.
“What the...? Is that...?”
“It’s true. That’s what we are.”
“So we’re food!?”
“To the eater of worlds, yes.”
“I... I can’t... No, I can only believe it. But what can we do?”
“I don’t know. We can start by destroying the Seeds. That’ll solve the problem for a moment.”
“I see. Here, tell Ouroboros too.” Tenil holds the dragon’s fang for her.
“Thanks.”
Alexiana touches the fang next, transferring Ninth’s memories to the Supreme God of the Fourth Era. Immediately after, the dragon exclaims.
I’m food!!!!? I’m the one who eats!!!! No one else!
“But that’s the truth. Therefore, can you cooperate with us, Ouroboros? Can you forget your game and save the existence of everything and all?”
I... that’s... But my game...! Auugh...
“Don’t cry. You can come up with a new game. Like, let’s say, a game to defeat the eater of worlds?”
I’m alright with the idea, but it’ll take some time for me to come up with the rules!
“Well, to honor the promise with Tenil, you can start from the Seed of this world or something,” Alexiana suggests.
“Eon,” Tenil speaks up, “if Louir and I can destroy the Seed on our own, will you swear your loyalty to me for having saved your world?” She is trying to provoke the dragon to play a game people call gambling.
Hmm, that’s an interesting game, I’d say. I have no knowledge of the Seed and its power, so it is a bit tempting and risky. Yeah, I take up on the offer. If you fail, I’ll promise to make a flashy grave for you that no mortal can ruin.
“So we have an agreement?”
Before the contract is sealed, I’d like to remind you that, according to the rules, you can’t invoke the transformation just yet. You can always wait one week, but I don’t know if you have that kind of time.
“We do have that kind of time, in fact. But you could make it easier on us all if you just let her borrow your power right now,” Alexiana reasons.
I guess... And it’s a bit boring to just wait, so fine! Do what you want.
“Marvelous. When will Louir be ready? I need to rest for the night, so I was thinking if she’s ready by morning.”
“I think she’ll be,” Alexiana says.
“Great. If you don’t mind, I’ll try to sleep now.”
“Please do.”
***
By destroying the Seeds that have been planted in six different Eras, they can prevent the eater of worlds from consuming the first link in the Chain of Eras. That’d allow them to prepare for as long as they like.
The Second and Fifth Eras weren’t ‘cultivated’ early on, that is, no Seed has ever been in either of them. On the other hand, the six other Seeds existed before the Eight Worlds were made. When Ninth replicated the worlds, he did so by copying the point when the two remaining Seeds weren’t planted yet.
In the morning, Tenil looks for Lieutenant Lerrot. She needs to tell him that she’ll be gone for a while, and thus he must assume command temporarily.
“Lerrot, come here!” Tenil shouts.
“Sir?” Lerrot trots to her.
“I will have to leave the camp for a while. You must take the command while I am gone.”
“Is something wrong?”
“Yes. Something is very wrong. I must deal with it myself.”
“Should we prepare for the possibility that you may not return?”
“Of course. The chances are fifty-fifty.”
“Understood. Do not die alone.”
“That much I can guarantee you.”
Tenil is heading to a tent at the edge of the camp, the dragon’s fang on her shoulder. She’s left her republican armor in her tent, knowing that she’ll be covered in obsidian in battle.
The tent is for Alexiana, Louir, Yessika, and Embers. Since Ti has her fur, she doesn’t really need shelter that much, not that she’d fit in any of the tents. Tenil saw Embers once already, and she can’t help but be alarmed, knowing that he was a servant of the eater of worlds.
Yessika is still asleep in the tent. She might’ve matured during the time she was dead, but she is still an airhead nonetheless, and lazy at that. Embers and Louir are sitting by a campfire, whereas Alexiana is sitting by a tree.
“Alex, Louir, you ready?”
“Ab-soooo-lutely!” Alexiana exclaims.
“As ready as I can be,” Louir adds.
“Great. Are we using a portal this time too?”
“Ayep! But we probably want to do it inside the tent, now don’t we? The soldiers might start spreading rumors, you see.”
“Agreed.”
They enter the tent that was assigned for Alexiana’s band. The moment Tenil steps in, a cry of pain shatters her ears.
“Ow ow ow ow ow!!! My leg!!!” Yessika is crying, for Tenil has stepped on her leg. Thankfully, the gargantuan sword wasn’t on Tenil’s shoulder, so the pressure Yessika has suffered is only Tenil’s body weight. If the fang had been included, her leg would be pulp.
“Why’d you sleep so close to the entrance!?” Tenil scolds.
“I didn’t! I must’ve been rolling in my sleep!”
“As long as you understand.”
Alexiana ignores the commotion and proceeds to summon a portal. Actually, it’s Dracon doing it, not the two of them, as Emy isn’t the Supreme God, but a Blade Dancer and a very wise girl. Before long, a red portal has appeared out of nowhere, taking most of the space in the tent.
The Seed can be seen on the other side, although very faintly. Even with the Sun blazing above, the land looks dark and evil, unwelcoming. A very vague image of Loraan can be seen as well, blackened by the Demons.
“I’m going first,” Tenil declares. She steps through the portal soon after.
Louir follows right behind, Alexiana coming with them. She won’t participate in the battle, knowing that it’s part of the game Ouroboros and Tenil are playing. The game is simple; Louir is to destroy the Seed while Tenil protects her from the Demons and other possible threats. If they succeed, Ouroboros becomes Tenil’s loyal servant. If they fail, it’ll literal
ly be the end of the Fourth Era.
“To think that the fate of this world will be decided by a gamble...” Alexiana can’t help but frown.
“Don’t worry, we won’t lose,” Tenil declares.
They’ve landed on a cliff near the Seed, but not near enough to be in the middle of the Demon horde. The mere presence of the minions of the Dark Old One has caused the vegetation to wither and die. The soil has turned gray, and dark, surreal clouds are blotting out the Sun.
“Can you hit the thing from here? Or should we get closer?” Tenil asks Louir.
“I can hit from here. Just keep the Demons at bay. I’ll have to concentrate all of my power at the Seed for a long period. Prepare to protect me for an hour.”
“As long as Oreon doesn’t make a comeback, I think I’ll be fine. Speaking of which, shouldn’t it be me destroying the rock, hearing you couldn’t beat Oreon and all?”
“Pfft, he just caught me off guard, that’s all. I wouldn’t lose in a rematch.”
“Loser,” Tenil provokes.
“Tch, just you wait, I’ll disintegrate that rock in the blink of an eye!”
“Better do it now, or I might do it before you can.”
“Shut up!”
“Aish, quit quarreling and start working!” Alexiana voices her displeasure.
The apocalyptic and the languished nod.
The cliff on which they’ve landed isn’t really high. The distance to the ground below isn’t enough to kill a healthy human, but the fall would certainly come with broken bones. That being said, it’s perfect for Louir to aim her spell at the Seed, mainly because the trees aren’t in the way.
The forest has truly changed from what Tenil recalls. The trees are barely alive, and Loraan is blackened by either some black substance or by the Black Demons. The Seed, which is a large, towering rock of abnormal mass, is emanating darkness around it. Truly, the capital of conquered Valoria has become a land of horror and death.
Adding Tenil’s looks to the scene only emphasizes the dark corruption the eater of worlds is spreading. A gargantuan sword, black blood vessels, and the pained expression make her look like a demonic queen. Will she ever escape the torment? Will she have to live her whole life with the pain? If she loses her reason of existence, her mind will collapse in on itself, and she’ll most likely commit suicide at that point.
Languished Life Page 22