"May you find paradise in the eternal embrace of death"
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The wide room's ground was blanketed in dark grey skulls, and thick mist. Once Selene and Sidra entered, their sights were set on the shrine which had peering skulls surrounding it.
Fountains of mist spilled from the void eyes of the skulls. It was the eternal shrine.
Selene took a few steps ahead of the black lotus division's lieutenant. Her eyes narrowed as they darted around the misty space, with a cautious whisper she said:
"There's the shrine… you see the fat bastard anywhere?"
Sidra remained silent. Her own purple eyes peered through the misty space in search of a bloated entity.
As if answering the two women's curiosity, a sudden rumbling noise made the walls tremble. In the next moment, the room was assaulted with a piercing growl which made Selene and Sidra squeeze their eyes shut and bring their palms over their ears.
Sidra gritted her teeth, as she planted her palms firmly into the ground.
She struggled to focus her spirit energy into her black lotus sealing spell. The pressure exerted from the dead soul's howl made Sidra feel as though her skull was collapsing.
The feeling of her skull slowly cracking forced painful tears of blood from Sidra's eyes. Fortunately, she managed to pour enough spirit energy into the ground, manifesting a wide black lotus mark which stretched across the ground.
Once that happened, both herself and Selene could feel an influx of overwhelming power course through their bodies. For Selene, it seemed as though the toll her body took from the red sun's effects were completely nullified…
For Sidra, she could feel a slight change in her physical strength and all five of her senses. Though suddenly, she gurgled and coughed up a handful of blood.
She stared down at her palm with gritted teeth. And for a split second, her vision blurred and then cleared up.
"Hey! You still with me?!"
Selene shouted. Her sights set on the bloated beast which bulldozed its way through the wall of skulls.
"Y-yeah… let's just kill the bastard already."
Right as Sidra brought herself to her feet, a thick hand gripped one side of the destroyed wall. Ghostly yellow eyes peered through the white mist as an obese thick grey skinned giant pulled its way into the room.
In one of its hands, it clutched a bone carved bat which rested on its shoulders as though the dead soul was patiently waiting for the two sorceresses to make their move…
And they greatly obliged.
***
Sidra made the first move.
A small sharp blade she had hidden in a wristband beneath her sleeve sprouted.
Sliding it across her wrist, black blood from her veins splattered onto the black lotus marker which sprouted across the ground.
In the next moment, a numberless amount of wide puddles marked the stone ground. And from the puddles, a weapon emerged and flew right into Selene's hand.
The weapon known among sorcerers, named reaper of the gods. A masterpiece of a weapon used back during the blood war, which gave sorcerers a way of combating divine level beings.
'Good, I can still access the northern tribe's storehouse from this world'
All members of the black lotus division, with the exception of Hinari, are spiritually linked to the storehouse via blood contracts forged by Sidra's power.
With access to a wide range of weaponry, Selene who had no access to her sorcery for the time being would have to rely on her own skill with these weapons.
Responding in kind, the bloated dead soul growled as he swung his bat like a drunken beast.
His wild swings exerted enough force which made his hungry bat rip through the thick walls of the room. Selene and Sidra were barely managing to evade each swing, if not for the help of Sidra's technique enhancing their bodies to the peak of human form, they'd have already been dead.
Selene slid back a few feet. Blood trickled down her chin as she felt a crushing pain in her ribs.
'Damn… fat fucker!'
Stumbling as she rose to her feet, Selene took a few breaths. In the next moment, she launched her body forward and vanished at the moment the dead soul slammed his weapon down onto where Selene had just stood.
In a black blur, Selene dashed along the fat bastard's arm. She dragged the sharp end of her weapon, allowing it to cut through bastard's the thick skin.
Sidra was also running along its other arm.
She too was now wielding a weapon akin to the one she gave to Selene earlier. They were intending on severing the dead soul's head from its bloated body, but as soon as they shot themselves forward off the heel of their feet, the dead soul opened its mouth.
Black goo spilled down its chin, as multiple tendrils drunkenly danced around in all directions. Selene and Sidra managed to slice through a few of them, but were quickly overwhelmed.
The translucent tendrils wrapped around both their bodies, and held them in place.
Sidra gritted her teeth, her unkept heir now draped over her eyes as she shouted in a broken voice.
"Help me rip these damn things off! I found its heart, pierce that blade through it at the same time as I do… and it'll die!"
As Selene mustered up all her strength to free herself from the dead soul's hold, her eyes narrowed in search of the black heart, and she finally saw it.
The dead soul's grey skin became translucent around his chest. Every few seconds, a black ball pulsated.
Selene could hear each beat clearly. This only made her stab at the tendril's more fervently, but she knew better than to believe that it would have been this easy to kill such a beast.
Suddenly, the mouth of the beast was now slowly opening. The gap between its lips grew more until it seemed as though there were no bones inside the husk.
From its throat, a blinding white and black light burst into life and met the eyes of the two women. Rapidly, they felt their bodies being sapped of all functions and energy.
One moment their vision went black. In the next, they awoke inside the belly of the beast.
Selene's eyes slowly fluttered open.
'What the hell?… where am i?'
From what she could make out with her blurred vision, she noticed two nails. One of each piercing through her wrists and holding her up on what seemed to be a cross.
Sidra was in a similar state, positioned opposite to Selene. There had been blood spilling out of her stomach as she seemed to be in a dazed state.
For Selene, her pale and scarred face was dirtied with dried blood. She couldn't even muster up the strength to speak, but she knew where they were.
The belly of the beast…
A soul space.
***
The entire hall was covered in black flowers. Sapping the life of everything they came in contact with, as Kahal drove his heavy fists into the bloated abdomen of the dead soul.
Each punch blew ink spilled holes into the body of the dead soul as Kahal relentlessly tossed it through the thick walls of skulls.
But no matter how much he tore through the dead soul's bloated vessel, the damned thing stubbornly refused to go down.
Kahal cursed beneath his breath, and aimed his hand toward the drunken bastard. As though responding to their master, black flowers blossomed all around the left side of the dead soul's empty vessel.
Usually, the cursed flowers would sap the life of all things surrounding Kahal and return that life force to Kahal, though this was a different case.
There was no life to sap from a dead soul. Though the fat bastard seemed to have been agitated once the flowers blossomed along his body. It began violently clawing at its own skin until blood and thick skin tainted its fingernails.
In the next second, the dead soul let out a pained roar which made Kahal bring his hands over his ears. He indifferently stared at the bloated blob of flesh as he thought to himself.
'The thing is in a way alive but not living… sort of like a puppet. The shrine's controlling the corpses of the long dead sorcerers of the old earth, so their bodies is still alive but their brains which control their thoughts is dead'
This thought had reminded Kahal of his former comrade during the golden age. The former supreme general of the southern tribe, Hotoke Masayoshi.
His powers allowed him to govern all aspects of death itself. Controlling the corpses of fallen allies and enemies alike, killing the soul while keeping it's vessel alive.
With that, he could continue fighting without feeling physical pain. Though there were limitations to such a powerful ability…
While outer damage meant nothing to him, internal damage such as attacking the soul directly or internal organs being damaged was a completely different story.
Kahal's crimson eyes peered right into the eyes of the dead soul.
Hivemind.
Earlier his sorcery was acting on its own which limited the power of which his sorcery could exert. But now with his will, the potential with which he could utilize his power was almost boundless.
And with the strategy he thought of with the memory of his former comrade's powers, he could give Jason more time to destroy the shrine.
Just like earlier when he used a process similar to photosynthesis to slow the assimilation in Selene's body, this was the opposite…
The cursed flowers which assaulted the very biology of all they devoured had began converting Kahal's tainted spirit energy into a plague.
Kahal grimaced. Remembering how the malediction he released which helped win the blood war affected sorcerers and humans alike who fought alongside him.
The man made plague had begun devouring the deteriorating organs of the dead soul, all that was left was for everyone else to destroy the eternal shrines.
Everything was going exactly according to plan…
Hopefully.
***
Jason swung his blade wildly through the air. Sending slashes of white flames which cleaved through the corpses of foreigners.
'Damn all this, where that shrine?!'
Each direction of the halls were completely infested with the undead foreigners. Most of them managing to cut right through Jason's skin, knocking him right on his ass.
As they all rushed in at once to pile down onto him, Jason's mind ran in all directions trying to find a way out of there.
But he was too late to think.
Squeezing his eyes shut, Jason flinched.
…
One second passed.
Then another.
One more.
'They stopped attacking?'
Fluttering his dark grey eyes open, Jason began to notice that all of the undead foreigners had halted all movements.
Their torn backs were turned to him as they each cast fearful gazes down the hall, particularly toward a set of double doors.
Taking a closer look at the foreigners, they began violently trembling. Then one by one, they began dropping to the ground like dead flies.
'What the hell?!!'
Jason hastily rose to his feet, and clutched onto the hilt of his katana. All he could think of was the sudden fear that was frozen on the faces of corpses.
'What the hell's behind that door? The shrine?'
One by one, Jason took hesitant steps toward the double doors. His mind raced with two possibilities of what could be residing within the room, a third dead soul? Maybe the shrine?
The walk toward the doors seemed as though time was passing by as slowly as it usually did. But Jason suddenly felt a sense of dread crawling up his spine with each step he took.
Once he reached the doors and placed his palm on them. His breath caught in his throat.
For some reason he felt as though someone had been gripping onto his shoulders, with a pair of lifeless eyes gazing right through his own.
Once he pushed open the door, the first thing he saw was the eternal shrine. But he also saw the very thing that induced fear in the dead themselves.
"General Asami?!"
Strands of her long black hair hung over her dark eyes. Her katana was scraping over the ground's surface.
"Why did you separate from everyone else?!"
Something in the back of Jason's mind made him clutch the hilt of his blade, but he hadn't raised it just yet.
Instead of answering him, Asami's eyes simply rose up to meet his.
Filled with nothing but darkness, and vengeance.
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Continued in chapter 113: Fear
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