"Excellent." The Egovore responded.
One word.
That was all Kion needed to hear to confirm his greatest suspicion, and his greatest fear.
That he was as good as dead.
Kai and him had walked into something that nobody in the history of humanity had ever come out of alive.
"Well, well, well…" the Egovore said, loosening its grip on Kion's hair, "it seems you finally realise what you, my friend have just walked into. Any last prayers?"
Kion squirmed as vines stretched from the surrounding trees and wrapped tightly around his legs, his arms, and his torso. The vines raised and suspended him in the air, like he was a fly caught in the middle of a web. His longsword slipped free of his hands and clattered to the ground.
The Egovore approached, slow and steady.
Kion writhed, but it was of no use. The vines wrapped tighter the more he struggled. His already smashed ribs continued to crack under the new pressure. He was in worlds of pain.
"I can make it stop." The Egovore said, as it contained its slow walk towards him.
Meanwhile, Kion continued to struggle. He tried to activate [Smoke Form], but his breathing was off, his circulation cut off, and his mana depleted. He tried everything he could, even attempting to will his system into view, in hope of it offering something that would help in his dying moments.
Nothing worked.
"Stop struggling," the Egovore said in a strangely soft and soothing voice, "you'll only make it hurt more."
"Don't come any closer! I'll kill you!" Kion screamed. He was in so much helplessness that he could only resort to threats.
"Shhhhh…" the Egovore coaxed. "Struggle will only damage you further. You're such a clever young human. It would be a shame if I had to end your pain with your bones crushed to a pulp."
"No! Stay away!" Kion screamed. The vines squeezed tighter, crushing his wrists. He roared.
It was almost as if his uproar and expression of pain affected the Egovore. It stopped momentarily in its tracks, hesitating for just a moment.
Then, it did something Kion didn't expect.
It snapped its fingers, and the vines loosened their grip on him.
Kion's screaming subsided. His head lolled in pain as he coughed out streams of blood. His face reddened and his skin bloated.
He hadn't looked any worse.
"Why do you resist?" The Egovore asked him, its expression sad and confused as it faced away from him, as if embarrassed at his agony. "I don't want you to die in pain. I want to give you a peaceful death."
"How about not dying at all?" Kion croaked, his voice ragged and cracked.
"Is that why you struggle so much? Is your will to live that strong?" The Egovore asked.
"Yes, and I will live to see your end."
The Egovore chuckled. It turned back to face him.
"You don't seem to understand. In here, you're as good as dead. You accepted my mist. Now, it's working it's way through your physical bodies, breaking down your psyche, like a cook would do with their ingredients, chopping them up and mixing them into a sweet, savoury soup."
"And in here," the Egovore gestured to the nightmare scape around them, I exist, not as the cook, but as the feeder. When the soup is ready, I'll be the one to drink it, and relish it's savoury goodness for all of eternity!"
Kion was cooked (literally).
But in the course of the Egovore's monologue, he had realised something.
"Do you usually enjoy your soup when you have it?" He asked out of curiousity.
"Oh yes, yes!" The Egovore said with delight. "Especially for minds such as brilliant as yours. I have to say, for the first human I've had, you are definitely the most clever. One would expect as much for your race, although I can't speak for the other one with gold hair."
Kion knew the Egovore was referring to Kai, but he couldn't focus on that now. He needed to know something.
"I'm going to relish you for all of eternity." The Egovore said with hunger in his eyes.
"You said that we're your first humans, me and my brother."
"Oh yes!" The Egovore promptly reponded, "Before that was centuries ago, when I had two mind-mancy elves. They really helped me adapt to their mind tricks and develop new ones too."
"And did you relish their pain as well?" Kion asked, and the Egovore softened.
"I never relish pain. I just live to survive. I'm doing what I have to, just like any of you out there." The Egovore suddenly began to sound violent, "could you imagine living for centuries without food? Do you know why that does to a person? I'm trying to survive, just like an species out there."
He suddenly faced Kion again, his bark-like fingers caressing the prince's face.
"But you—" he mused, "you would serve a purpose. A monetary cure to my eternal hunger. I promise you that it will not be in vain. I will relish you for centuries to come. And I will remember your name, Kion."
"I'm ready." Kion said, much to the shock of the Egovore.
The creature's eyes widened.
"Ready for what?" It asked.
"Ready for you to have me." He said. "I realise now how futile it is to keep fighting, to keep going for a losing battle. You're right. At least if I'm to die, it would be for a purpose."
The Egovore's mouth hung open. It stuttered out of surprise. "Yes—yes I was trying to get you to see just that."
The hunger with which it spoke was monstrous. Kion could even imagine it drooling, if it had any saliva.
"But alas, I will keep to my word, young human. You will be remembered, not forgotten."
The Egovore finally closed the distance between the both of them, finding its way to his back.
It dug its woody fingers through his skull, and Kion's eyes rolled to white as a golden ball flickered to life above his head, growing insidiously.
He saw his world slowly black out once again, like his life force was being sucked out of his soul. It was a strange feeling, but a familiar one that he had felt when his mercenary gang was ambushed.
The feeling of death.
Kion allowed it take him. He chuckled at the thought of Thea's angry gaze…
"Don't die." She had told him back at the dreamscape.
Heh. I guess I already did.