The blood around them was still alive.
Not still, not solid, but pulsing with a slow beat, as if the dead city had not completely died, but had turned into an open heart that refused to stop.
Ashen sat inside the blood sphere. His body still carried the marks of old cracks, but they had closed. Not true healing, but harsh repair, like bones forced back into place.
His breathing was calm, cold, with no exhaustion and no relief.
He finally raised his gaze toward the being standing before him.
The giant monster.
Fifteen meters of twisted flesh, plants rooted in bone, and blood that belonged to no era.
Its vertical eye watched. No blinking. No rest.
Behind it, souls were screaming.
A heavy silence stretched between them.
Then Ashen spoke.
His voice had no tone, no real curiosity, as if the question was not important, only necessary.
Ashen:
"What exactly are you?"
The monster did not move.
But the voices inside it shook, as if the question struck a fragile wall deep within.
Ashen:
"Your body is not the body of a single being.
Your soul is not a single soul.
Are you human?
A bloodline?
A beast?
Or just a failed experiment that was never buried?"
The blood aura around the monster trembled.
Then the voices merged.
At first, whispers.
Then broken laughter.
Then overlapping screams, until one voice emerged, made of hundreds of throats.
Monster:
"We are not a name.
We are not a type.
We are a result."
It bent slightly, the vertical eye staring at Ashen with terrifying focus.
Monster:
"The result of a choice.
The result of greed.
The result of an era that believed everything could be broken and rebuilt."
A short silence passed, then it continued.
Monster:
"Our origin, as our chaotic souls remember it,
is three."
The ground beneath it trembled, as if the memories themselves were heavy.
Monster:
"A child. Human.
A small body. Fragile. Used because it does not scream for long."
The tone of the voices changed. Some laughed. Some groaned.
Monster:
"And a plant.
Something that belongs to no forest.
Something that grows inside flesh, not on it.
It roots itself in bone and feeds on pain."
The vertical eye stepped closer, its shadow covering Ashen completely.
Monster:
"And a beast.
A chimera.
Not from these continents.
Something that came from dark lands,
where humans are not even fit as food."
It fell silent.
Then its voice lowered, as if approaching a true secret.
Monster:
"But what merged all of that,
what bound flesh to soul,
what kept the chaos from exploding…"
The voices whispered together, like a cursed prayer:
Monster:
"…ancient blood."
The blood sphere trembled.
Monster:
"Blood from a forgotten age.
Blood found in ruins older than history.
The Corpse Purification Sect.
I do not know what it was or where it came from.
But they knew it could contain anything.
So, in a mad idea, and to contain all the chaos they created in a single being,
they mixed this ancient blood with all the components."
It raised its head.
Monster:
"And so… we were born."
Ashen showed no reaction.
No shock. No disgust. No sympathy.
Only another question.
Ashen:
"And how do you think?"
The voices twitched.
Ashen:
"How do you speak?
How do you have logic… when you are this mixture?"
The monster laughed.
A laugh coming from unseen mouths.
Monster:
"We devour."
Simply. Like a law of physics.
Monster:
"We consume bodies.
And with them, we consume souls."
It moved closer.
Monster:
"Not the entire soul.
Pieces. Fragments. Memories.
Screams. Images. Thoughts."
Its voice sharpened.
Monster:
"And everything we consume stays.
It speaks.
It thinks.
It screams."
It looked at Ashen.
Monster:
"This is how we learn."
Ashen was silent for a moment, then:
Ashen:
"And spells?"
The vertical eye gleamed.
Ashen:
"You use them because you ate those who knew them?"
Monster:
"Yes."
One word.
Heavy.
Honest.
A moment of silence passed, then Ashen asked the most important question.
Ashen:
"Is there someone in control?"
The giant body tensed.
Ashen:
"A stronger soul?
A core personality?
One thing holding this madness?"
Silence.
Then the voices exploded at once.
Screams.
Laughter.
Crying.
Threats.
Begging.
Then the monster's voice emerged, hoarse.
Monster:
"No."
It bent slightly, as if the confession was heavy.
Monster:
"No center.
No control.
We are… a mass."
It raised its claws to its head.
Monster:
"Every soul wants something.
Every soul hates something.
Every soul screams."
It paused.
Monster:
"And we… drown."
Then its tone changed.
Monster:
"Except when we get close to you."
The voices shrank.
They softened.
Monster:
"Your aura…
does something."
It looked directly at Ashen.
Monster:
"It silences them.
It arranges the chaos.
It returns clarity."
It stepped closer.
Monster:
"We want it."
It asked in a layered voice, yet terrifyingly unified:
Monster:
"What is it?
And where did you get it?
We have never seen anything like it in any being."
Ashen raised his head.
He looked at it with an empty gaze, but a decisive one.
Ashen:
"It is not an aura."
The voices stopped.
Ashen:
"It is… intent."
The monster stepped back half a step.
Monster:
"Intent…?"
This time it spoke not in chaos, but in strange harmony.
Monster:
"What is it?
How is it eaten?
How is it made?"
Ashen closed his eyes.
Ashen:
"It cannot be eaten.
And it cannot be given."
He opened his eyes.
Ashen:
"Intent is awareness when everything else burns away.
It is will after desire dies.
It is the thing that remains when reasons end."
He paused, then added:
Ashen:
"Those who awaken it are rare.
And those who possess it never remain the same."
A heavy silence fell.
The vertical eye fixed on Ashen.
The voices inside the monster fell silent.
With a silence heavier than blood.