NOVPUBDavid slumped against the Sacred Beast’s corpse, taking a few deep breaths as he pulled on his fingers, fixing their locations for the fifth time.
He didn’t think it would be necessary to break his fingers again, but it looked like [Greater Restoration] was not omnipotent. Breaking his arms and hands multiple times within a few minutes seemed to have been enough to mess them up real good.
“Should I cut it off?” He wondered allowed. Maybe that would have been easier: faster.
“You’re an oddball. Then again, I might be the weird one because I expected you to say something like that at some point,” Zachariah’s familiar voice rang out. He was drenched, looking like he’d been bathing in blood for a while.
“I am also happy that you made it out alive,” David responded with a wry smile.
Zachariah sat down beside him, groaning, “Can you heal me? No…well, I expected that much.”
“Good job. I was wondering how to kill it,” Zachariah patted the Mythical Electra, “Didn’t think you would manage.”
David snorted and activated [Blood Manipulation]. It was painful, but the blood in the Electra stirred and poured out of the back of its head, alongside the Obsidian Blade and a familiar necklace. He’d inserted a trace of Blood into the necklace to fix it, and retrieved several massive stones. Zachariah jumped to his feet, startled and ready to fight, bringing a smile to David’s face.
He returned the Obsidian Blade back to his mind space and leaned back, lying on the ground beside the Sacred Beast’s corpse.
“I was not sure if it would work out, either. But I am happy it turned out fine,” David muttered, glancing at Zachariah, “How did you end up with a Sacred Beast following you, in the first place?”
Zachariah’s expression soured, “I killed a Void Sapling, and was greeted by Zephir’s Child before I could recover.”
“Zephir?” David tilted his head. The Mythical Electra was said to be Zephir’s ‘Spawn’: his Child: but that was all he knew.
“Just an annoying god, whose as slippery as a snake. He acts like one,” Zachariah shrugged, “Well, he actually is one. A transcendent snake, sometimes also called Beast God, but the details don’t really matter.”
The details didn’t matter? David was not so sure about that. If he’d just killed the child of a Beast God, he would most certainly be better of with as many pieces of information as possible.
“And he hates you?” He asked.
“Among others, yes.”
Great. More enemies. David looked into the sky, ignoring the faint hue of poisonous fog blurring his vision.
“Wouldn’t it be easier to work together?”
A chuckle caught his attention, and David turned to the laughing regressor. Was that funny?
Zachariah took a moment to stop laughing. He cleared his throat and smiled at him, “Don’t get me wrong, David. Of course, it would be best if we could work together against our common enemy. Maybe everything would have been fine if we had done that in the last Cycle. But transcendent beings think ‘long-term’. At least, that’s what they call it.”
He shrugged, “Then again, it looks like Zephir is struggling to raise his disciple this Cycle as well. Only this time, its Child suffered the consequences.”
“If I didn’t know better, I would say that Zephir’s plan must have failed.”
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David glanced at the Mythical Electra. Did the Beast God’s plan really fail? David wondered, storing the Mythical Electra in the storage necklace.
He sure hoped so.
***
William gasped for air, his legs burning as he forced them to keep going. Scenes of the Venicro getting struck by an astray lightning bolt and the events that followed thereafter flashed before his eyes. He fell from the sky and landed with a sickening crunch. At that time he felt like screaming, but fear’s grip was tighter.
Zephir’s child was dead. But how could that be? William recalled watching the fight in the sky. If one could call it a fight, in the first place. Lightning bolts ought to have burned through David, killing him instantaneously. However, David prevailed and…forced the Electra to the ground. The thunderous explosions of the Electra’s attacks ceased to be, and the grand attack: the destruction of the Dwarven Sanctuary: ended ahead of time.
It was a failure. He…had failed.
He stared at the wide-open sky, his fingers curled tightly around the hem of his robe. His breath was rigid and his legs buckled. William fell to the ground with a loud thud.
“Fuck…” He cursed, feeling like searing hot blades passed through his entire body, replaying the fight over and over in his head. The reminiscent cut deeper each time, “How did you get so strong, David?!”
When Zephir showed David’s image to him for the first time, he had been hesitant. It was hard to imagine his friend enraging his Master: a literal god.
David had always been extraordinary, a pain in the ass, but to attract the ire of Zephir? It didn’t make sense at that time. Now…now, the times had changed. Significantly.
William wiped his sweaty palms on his robe and adjusted his clothes repetitively, but he did not get up as he recalled David’s fight before his friend turned to face Zephir’s child. It had impressive, for sure, David’s blade cleaving smoothly through the Cohorte’s monsters. Not even the Armored Letuar: the creatures that consumed most of William’s power: survived long against him. But how did he do that? William only saw David stabbing himself and the Armored Letuar’s power diminished.
What did David do? What exactly…was he?
At the thought of his friend, William’s heard pounded like a drum against his chest, and his legs felt like jelly. He glanced back to the aftermath of the battlefield he had deserted, half-expecting David to be there, and shuddered. Was he scared of David? Of…fighting him?
Maybe he was scared. However, his old friend was not as scary: their near-encounter not as unpleasant: as the poisonous-green haze surging from his body.
The wind howled through the sparse, dying trees around him as the steam swirled around him, bringing whispers to his ears.
“You failed,” Zephir’s voice rang through his mind, poisonous-green haze surging into his ears.
“I…did,” William acknowledged, shifting on the ground. He grit his teeth and knelt on the ground as he added, “Please punish me.”
“Punish you?” Zephir’s laugh resounded, deep and eerie. William’s shoulders dropped and he leaned closer to the ground.
“Don’t be mistaken. I will not punish you, my youngest,” Zephir hissed, “I will reward you!”
Reward him? For failing to destroy the Sanctuary? For…the death of Zephir’s Child?
William clenched his robe, certain Zephir was playing with him. Certain everything would be over soon.”
“I will grant you a very special reward. It’s something you will never forget.”
Something in Zephir’s voice shifted suddenly. It felt more tangible, almost like he could grasp his master’s words. His lips parted but no word escaped his lips. He tried to move, but his movements were restrained. William struggled for what felt like an eternity, but was probably no longer than a second or two, his body feeling heavier than ever. But it only made sense when his eyes trailed to a serpent coiled around his body.
William failed to comprehend where the serpent came from, or how it coiled around his limbs, waist, and head without him realizing, but it did…and it stared straight at him with its piercing yellow eyes.
“If you survive this, you will be stronger than ever,” Zephir hissed, his voice laced in…was that enjoyment? He could not tell, but he shuddered. His hair stood at its end, yet nobody seemed to care. The serpent hissed at him, the voice overlapping with Zephir’s, and it lunged at him, driving its massive fangs into his neck.
“You will be a part of me!”
Was the last he heard before his body caved in. He collapsed and the world around him turned dark. But he did not lose consciousness. He was still awake, feeling everything Zephir wanted him to feel.
Pain. Fear.
Power.
[End of Volume 2]
