NOVEL NEXT Step 18: Loss(P2)
Jeriko lifts his arm to smite my caved-in chest once more, the radiant energy around his fists warping with clear divinity. I curse my arrogance and suffer the blow, coughing out blood, bone, and mucous from my insides, all while reaching for the one thing that can save me.
"Aahh!" Jeriko screams as my mind-controlled [Hezzura] stabs three bone spears into his broad side. With a casual swipe, he shatters the bones and sends the Crimson-tier Demon tumbling away.
Slipping from under him, I make an urgent escape, putting some distance between myself and his brutal smites. Flooding Essence around my body, my shattered rib cage pops back into place, but that's all I can manage as Jeriko's divine affinities burn away at my insides.
Choking on myself, I skip and sprint out of Jeriko's reach. At the rate it's going, his lingering energies will burn away the base Essence within my body and [Soul Crystal]. I was a fool to engage him. Even King had Valery's help when putting him down, and that was a difficult and drawn-out battle where any mistake would've been the last.
I've made one, and now it might be my last. I should have waited until my strength had returned, until I filled up on Essence before throwing myself at a mad man who obviously thinks and acts like an impenetrable wall. Fuck.
"Bwahahah!" Jeriko bellows, heartily separating the [Hezzura's] head from body, tossing both aside to collect the [Soul Crystal] within. "Come now, Demon, I thought you were going to put me down!"
Curiously, he doesn't pursue me past a point, sticking close to the fallen gate arch, so I banter, "And you? Deran, the Emperor, and the Empress are dead and gone. What use do you serve standing guard here?"
Drained of Essence, all I have to go on is mana, so casting [Invisibility] on myself and Meira as I scoop her up is all I can manage.
Jeriko dangles the purple vial once more, cocking his oversized head to the side. "Don't you need this anymore? Have you given up on the knife-ear's life, Demon?"
"Have you given up on killing me like every other fiend?" I toss back, cradling Meira in my arms. Jeriko still manages to see or sense us somehow, but it doesn't matter if he won't pursue.
He vanishes the vial into a purse dangling by his waist and plops down, grinning up at me. "She will die, and in time so will you, by my hands or the hands of some other fiend trapped in Kyis."
Trapped? If I had enough Essence for [Mesmer] I'd have answers now, but Jeriko's confidence and resignation to wait tells me enough. Somehow, we're trapped.
Biting my lip, I turn and run the way we came. His bellowing laughter chases after us with condescending words, "See you again, or not… Demon."
The farther away I am, the less his divine affinities burn my insides, until they quench all together and my body has a chance to heal. I flood mana through my pathways in an effort to sooth the charring burns within me, but it's not as effective as Essence.
Meira groans in my arms as I feint through groups of skirmishing Demons, invisible to all yet weaker than I've ever been. My [Soul Crystal] leaks out even its base. King's lasting gift continues giving and threatens to cripple me permanently. Fuck.
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"Hold on, Meira, hold on."
Her eyes flutter open for a moment and a small smile graces her lips as she says in the Elvish tongue, "We're going home, the war is won."
Home… "Yes, we are. We won. Home is… Meira? Meira?"
Her mouth hangs open and she drools blood onto my chest. Not a breath touches me, even with her eyes wide open and hopeful—no, glad to be home. I stop running, my feet tired and somehow my heart exhausted as well.
"…" I want to say something, call her name, yet that voids me as well. Together, we make it back to the kiosk, unharmed by lesser foes yet thoroughly beaten.
Pushing the stone slab away, I find Corym as silent as she is, hung by the strap of his bag and fabric of his clothes. Laying Meira down, I shut her eyes so she doesn't see me bring him down, clothe him once more, and lay him next to her.
Kyis continues raging, and I sit by the corner of the kiosk with my two silent companions, eyes unblinking even as the first tear in a thousand years rolls down my cheek. I didn't even know I was still capable of such as a Demon.
What now?
***
I decide to survive.
With my [Soul Crystal] leaking out all the Essence it contains, it wasn't a very difficult decision to come to. In a way, I suppose this wound truly is a gift from King. I've wanted death and peace for years, but I've only ever survived. Maybe this was her way of giving it to me, the power to stop living, an end to my immortality.
But now, after Meira and Corym, I think surviving is the only thing I've ever been good at. I promised they would survive too, and perhaps Meira would have if… no, it doesn't matter what if. The fact remains that I'm all that's left at the end of the day. Even King technically doesn't exist any longer, incubating in that Egg of hers.
No, if there's going to be an end to my streak of survival, then… then the world will have to earn it. I won't give it for free. If all I'm good at is surviving, I figure becoming a Maroon-tier Demon would help greatly with that.
At the edge of Kyis, I finally grasp what Jeriko meant by being trapped. Kyis is encased within a massive dome of divine light and aura. As the nexus of the demonic incursion, it's no surprise the Gods or Heroes are eager to contain it. Jeriko, as their warden, proves to be highly effective too, and as none of the Demons I've encountered even come close to my full strength, I doubt he'll be having any trouble shepherding the Demons.
However, that's just as well to my advantage—they're all trapped in here with me. I've been hesitant to reach out for more power, but my lack of it is what made me fail Meira and Corym. It's what made me fail my daughter, the nameless, beautiful shroud of Essence that tormented me the whole time I existed within the [Soul Crystal].
"What do I fight for indeed."
My answer—survival—may not be as sufficient or as meaningful as I believe it needs to be, but it's all I have; it's all I've ever had. I fight to live, and live well. Perhaps someday I'll have something greater than myself to fight for, and for that possible future to hold true it's best I amass as much power as I can.
[Crimson Soul Crystal]- Lvl.8(11esq)
[Absorb] [Destroy]
One Crystal among a dozen that I proceed to absorb, rejuvenating my [Soul Crystal] and bringing my Blood Orange to a fraction of its former strength. With a third eye on my hand, I observe the crack in my Crystal seal bit by bit. I'll require a whole lot more before I'm free of King's gift, and even more yet to achieve Maroon tier.
Stepping off the corpse of thirteen fallen Demons, my entire body soaked in their blood and guts and my Crystal enriched by theirs, I look onto the first faction of Demons I'm intent on subjugating.
Much like the layer of Reais I come from, these Demons have grouped themselves into factions. Three factions, to be exact. There was a fourth where I met Jeriko, but with his presence they crumble and reform under new leadership ceaselessly. Of the three solid factions, only one stands stronger than the others; I only need to feel the how heavy Essence flows through their carved territories to know.
"Grrr," a Demon growls behind me—another meal.
"Come, bring me your soul."