NOVEL NEXT Chapter 51: Re-Awakening
'Do you know why I smirked? The reason is simple. I grew weary of weakness. I looked ahead and understood why the Demon struck me first, rather than the others. It was because I was weak. That is the truth of it, a contemptuous truth, and what a humiliation it is.' Kyle's thoughts echoed, carrying through the hollow silence of the lifeless sea that dragged him down.
His body drifted in that colourless void, but his mind remained active, gnawing at the memory of the blow, the brutal simplicity with which he had been cut down first, discarded as little more than fodder.
That weakness… it had shadowed him all his life. He had endured it, disguising it behind excuses, convincing himself that mere survival was sufficient.
But survival had brought him nothing but the Demon's disdain. No one had feared him, nor had anyone respected him. He had been branded the most unworthy to stand.
And in that brand, his Name was carved.
Naturally, his Name was the only thing that kept him alive. It granted him the barest advantage in survival, perhaps the very reason he had been given the Abyssal Orb in foreknowledge of his death.
Now, when the silence of death was absolute, its voice rang with clarity. A raw pulse beat from the centre of his being, pressing insistently upon his consciousness. He reached for it with the force of his will, and every remnant of life within him flared.
The response was merciless. His soul convulsed as the Orb poured itself into him. Agony ripped him apart, the torment of essence being flayed raw. His past unravelled before his vision: every dismissal, every sneer, every reminder that he was nothing but expendable.
Faces swam across the void, voices resounded in his mind, and each one cut him like a blade.
The sea that had swallowed him shuddered, its currents heaving, as the Orb unfurled within him. It split open its infinite depths and released strength no mortal should ever possess. A tide of corruption and ravenous hunger surged through him, and he welcomed it without restraint.
Suddenly, laughter burst from him, wild and unhinged. Who could have known that rebirth would feel this intoxicating?
When his eyes opened, he discovered that his head had fused once more with his body. He was drenched from crown to heel in his own blood.
Pushing himself from the ground, Kyle surveyed his surroundings and saw that the forest lay in ruins. Far in the distance, the other three were still locked in battle with the Demon, struggling desperately to preserve their lives.
Orion had assumed a shadow-wreathed form, surging with energy, wielding the rope-blade that had turned from gold to black, unleashing sweeping strikes. But the strain was beginning to erode him. Na-Ri summoned her ice into writhing tentacles and jagged spikes, restraining the Demon's assaults while firing her ornate gun, each shot exploding with destructive force, though the creature evaded them with unnerving ease.
All bore grievous wounds. Blood slicked their bodies, their movements growing laboured. The beautiful stranger's armour had been rent open in several places, while Adela lay crumpled upon the earth, too weak to rise.
Kyle glanced at his limbs, flexing his fingers, feeling the solidity of life restored. Even the gaping claw wound upon his chest was knitting itself closed.
'So this was the Orb's work. Convenient,' he thought drily. 'Plot armour at its finest.'
His gaze returned to the battlefield, where his companions endured blow after blow yet still refused to yield before that infernal beast. Kyle crouched and retrieved the broken rib that had slipped from his grasp when he had been beheaded.
With the Orb woven into his life force, he was now an undead vessel thrumming with alien strength. If that was the case, then restraint no longer had a place.
Adrenaline surged through him like a flood, sharpening every thought. Triumph over the Demon no longer seemed impossible; it felt inevitable. And the prize would be his to claim.
He stepped back, bent his knee, and coiled his body to gather speed. His gaze locked upon the beast, which hurled clawed strikes without pause at Orion and Na-Ri. Amidst its flurry, Kyle fixed on a single point, the hollow of its chest. That would be his mark.
Fingers tightening around the rib that curved like a crude spear, he launched forward at full velocity. The earth vanished beneath him as he cut through the air, springing past Orion's sweeping shadows. In a single motion, he soared above with his arm drawn back, and the weapon primed for the plunge.
His eyes burned with murderous intent, his face set in silent fury.
Na-Ri froze when her eyes caught the sight of Kyle. He was there, alive and breathing, suspended in the air with that jagged rib poised in his hand.
For an instant, she believed her mind had broken beneath the strain of battle. Then, against all reason, relief flickered across her face. The illusion shattered when the weapon tore loose from his grip and drove with brutal force into the Demon's chest.
Her thoughts faltered.
'What…? Alive? He was decapitated. How can he stand again?'
The Demon let out a roar that cracked the clearing, its body convulsing as ashen blood spilled from the wound. Its crimson eyes blazed without falter. One arm lifted, claws sweeping wide, and the strike ripped the ground apart in a violent arc.
Kyle struck the earth hard, rolled beneath the sweep, and sprang up with a snarl. He moved like something feral, darting low and carving with the rib as though he meant to tear the beast open from its core.
His stance shifted without warning, lunging at twisted angles with his feet slamming into the dirt with the rhythm of a madman. Every blow ignored his own safety, and every dodge measured to the narrowest inch. The Demon's claws tore through the space his head had occupied, slicing strands of hair but never flesh.
Orion stared at him and his shadow form began to break apart. Disbelief struck him at the sight.
'...How could Kyle still be alive?'
Kyle drove a kick into the Demon's knee and followed with a punch to its chest, though the wound sealed almost as soon as it formed. He thrust the rib-bone at its throat but swerved the strike at the last instant, carving across its side instead.
Orion snapped from his daze and fell into Kyle's reckless rhythm. He swung his rope-blade in sharp arcs, chaining each of Kyle's feints with sudden cleaves that forced the Demon to divide its guard. Together, they struck from every direction and pressed it hard.
Na-Ri joined them. The ice around her broke into frantic shapes, lashing out as tentacles and spines that burst from the earth without warning. Her gunfire timed itself with Kyle's wild charges, and one round caught the Demon's left claw clean, tearing it free in a gush of ashen blood.
Even so, the Demon held its ground. Its remaining claws blurred as it intercepted their blows, while its flesh knitted back as fast as they cut it. One sweep shattered the wall of ice Na-Ri raised to shield them. Another hurled Orion across the trees, the trunks cracking apart as he hit.
Kyle alone refused to yield. He drove himself into the opening the Demon left, plunging the rib into its shoulder. More ashen blood spilled as the beast howled and struck him backhand across the clearing. The blow hurled him through the ruined ground.
He hit hard, spat blood, dragged himself upright, and bared his teeth in a red grin.
"Good. That's what I wanted."
Kyle charged again, faster with every stride and close to collapse with each lunge. His assault turned feral, striking with headbutts, elbows, even bites, anything that might force the Demon to falter.
For the first time, its stance wavered, unsettled by the refusal to yield to reason.
The advantage vanished quickly as the Demon adapted, tightening its movements and driving each strike with heavier force.
Its claws cut nearer with each attempt, and its blows landed heavier. Kyle ran on adrenaline and the borrowed force of the Orb, but the Demon endured without end. Every collision numbed his arms, though his primary element allowed him to harden and keep pace.
Orion staggered back into the fray and his shadows snapped with sharp precision, while Na-Ri froze the Demon's foot in jagged ice to disrupt its rhythm. Kyle seized the opening and drove the rib deep into its side with a roar, cutting further than before, but the Demon reacted at once. Its claw closed around his throat and it slammed him into the ground with crushing force.
The earth split beneath the impact.
"Eish!"
Na-Ri screamed as blood streamed from her eyes and she unleashed everything she had left. Orion hurled his blade to sever the Demon's wrist. It reeled, ashen blood spraying, but Kyle remained pinned with the claw tightening around his windpipe. His grip on the rib slipped as his strength waned.
All at once, the Demon's chest split wider as Kyle forced the rib deeper into its body. Its roar thundered across the battlefield and shook the air around them.
"Wait. Let me drive it further!"