"What?" Timí gasped but I simply took several steps backwards, allowing Yna to enter the heart.
We then all stood in silence for a moment as Yna and I stared deep into each other's eyes.
"I thought that was impossible due to your augmented body!" Timí said with a panicked face.
I offered her my hand and she gently accepted it while Timí went on and on about various things.
"What would you like to name it?" I asked with trembling lips.
Yna's eyes widened.
My heart then fell as a single tear fell from her left eye.
"I- I don't know." She said.
"Well, I suck at names, so you're going to have to think of one eventually." I said with a smile.
At this point, I was fully and properly crying.
"I… I don't know what to do, Katsíki." Yna said as tears fell from her eyes.
I could feel- no, all of Coh could feel her anxious heart as it thumped away, but I squeezed her hand harder than ever.
"Don't worry. I don't know what's happening, but I promised that I-"
My heart sank as a dark sword shot through Yna's body at a speed I was barely able to perceive.
The sword struck the ground creating a massive shockwave that threw me into the stream, which was severely displaced along with tons of dirt.
I let out a scream that was gurgled by hot mud, but regardless I swam up and out of the mud only for my skin to be lightly burnt by a wave of heat and light.
I looked to the north and saw a bright ball of light that slowly fell into Coh, but I didn't care.
I turned to face Yna and-
"Ahh…" I sounded upon seeing her body lying listlessly on the ground. She was covered in mud and blood and a large hole now sat where her belly once was.
"GHHAA!" I choked as I crawled out of the mud on the side of the massive crater we were in.
The air then grew so hot that the mud all around began rapidly drying but I didn't care.
I simply crawled towards Yna as she laid motionlessly in the distance.
The ball of light got ever closer and it this point, my skin began flaking and blistering due to the heat.
[I'm sorry.]
What?
My body was suddenly sucked into the world of darkness just as an egg shaped object landed on Yna, creating another massive shockwave that shook Coh.
"No!" I cried as the ball of light landed in the crater.
I looked around and saw that everything was in flames.
Flames that incinerated everything they touched.
The air was filled with screams and I stood in horror as I realized that it had probably gotten so hot that people were being cooked alive in their own homes.
Running outside would also lead to an excruciating death.
"NO!" I yelled while trying to leave the world of darkness but something kept me fastened to this world and I knew exactly what it was.
"KENOS! LET GO!" I cried as the air was filled with even more screams.
The ball of light in front of me grew ever brighter.
It then moved towards the center of the crater where it picked up a certain dark sword.
It moved as though to face me and I let out a gross squawk all while trying to reach it.
"CALIGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I screamed but the ball of light simply moved towards my egg.
I then groaned as it reached out to the egg with its ethereal hands.
Waves of heat and light then bathed the egg engulfing all of Coh in hellish fire.
"CALIGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I screamed while trying to rip myself free from my dark binds.
The the orb then floated up into the sky.
"NO! GET BACK!" I yelled as the world of darkness trembled.
[Katsíki, wait-]
"GET BACK HERE!!!!!!!!!!!" I screamed as a certain darkness filled the dark realm.
An unknowable blackness that engulfed the world to the point that I could no longer see, hear or feel-
Mmm?
I whimpered as I floated in the ink blackness.
I placed my hand over my chest and a faint, thumping ache.
I focused in on the ache and the more I did, the clearer it became.
This clarity was followed by motion.
I felt myself rise and it wasn't long before I found myself in my old throne room, but my teary eyes widened upon seeing a dark being sitting at the throne's side.
It's coal-like skin and collapsed face were all too familiar to me.
I looked around in search of Katsíki, who I could no longer feel.
"Katsíki?" I called out in the silence of the throne room.
I walked towards the dark being and stared at it cautiously as it gently embraced its enlarged belly.
It sat naked with its back rested against my throne and its head hanging listlessly to the side.
I tried walking closer to it, but I was overcome by fear and so I stood completely still.
"W-Where…" I stuttered prompting the dark being to raise its head.
"Where is he?" I asked.
The dark being raised its index finger and pointed it at its belly as a faint thumping noise filled the air.
It then placed both of its hands on its belly and it forcefully rubbed the soft looking black skin as the thumping got ever louder.
[K-]
My mind was nearly ripped in two by pain forcing me onto my knees.
[KILL HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]
I scratched off the skin of my chest as it was filled with unbearable pain.
My vision rapidly reddened as my mind was stretched to its thinnest.
It then darkened and I was catapulted into consciousness where I was immediately assaulted by waves of fresh pain which forced my eyes open.
I sat up to find that I was in a tent and sitting next to me were Ower and Ncil.
"WHERE IS SHE?" I wheezed only for Ower to force me down.
"Sir! Please sit still!" He yelled with a horrified expression.
I looked at my body to find that I was covered in burns.
Ncil was pouring life energy into me but the process was agonizingly slow and I assumed it had something to do with her trembling hands.
I took deep and painful breaths before grabbing Ower's hand.
"Where is she?" I asked as the sun bathed the tent in its light.
Ower lowered his head, but I grabbed collar and pulled him closer.
"TELL ME!" I hissed.
"H-her body is still in the egg."
My heart fell.
"Ah… oh…" I sounded.
"No. No. No." I said while trying to get up.
Ower reached out to stop me, but his hands didn't reach me as I crawled out of the tent.
My eyes then widened upon seeing that we were near the center of a gargantuan crater and sitting near its center, was the egg.
I walked towards it before rushing in to wrap my arms around its now rough, dark surface.
I closed my eyes and tried calling out to Y-
Mmm…
I opened my mouth, but I couldn't say her name.
I couldn't even recall her face.
I fell to my knees before looking around at the sunlit crater.
Coh was gone.
Our heart was destroyed and it was by Caligo's hand!
All of it!
That bastard did this!
He killed her!
He stabbed my heart and there was nothing I could do to stop him.
All I could do was watch as he burnt everything away.
Everything that Katsíki had worked so hard to build.
I cried.
I cried loudly and painfully as my body convulsed in pain.
A pain that I knew belonged not to me.
Ower walked up to me as the light of the morning sun bathed the crater.
I hated it.
I wanted to return to the dark realm-
"Do you want to see her?" Ower suddenly asked.
"No… no. No. No." I said before stumbling onto my feet and walking north.
"Sir, where are you going?" He asked but I simply crawled up the crater.
I eventually exited it and looked out into a hellscape of twisted glass and mud.
I bit my teeth before walking northward as the sun bathed the burnt remnants of Coh.
"Sir, shouldn't you at least wait for Serylea and the others?" Ncil asked as I walked.
"What should they do about lady Yna's-"
I summoned a certain golden sword and pointed it at Ncil's neck.
"Don't… just don't." I whispered as my mind rung with fresh pain.
Ncil looked at me with panicked eyes and after sighing, I continued northward.
I eventually arrived at the melted remains of the northern wall and its here that I stopped.
"If you don't come back, I'm not going to stop." I whispered.
"Sir?" Ncil whimpered but after waiting for a single moment, I walked forward towards the burnt remains of forest Niki.
My vision blurred as that fresh pain ached ever painfully but I walked regardless.
Caligo had always taken and destroyed whatever he wanted.
The dragons, the Rendaro and now Katsíki.
I would be the one who destroyed everything Caligo held dear.
I would fall the dark sword onto Medelona and even if he destroyed it, the aftermath would kill nearly everyone in Lanceberg and I wanted to watch.
I wanted to see the face he made when everything he and his father built turned to rubble.
.
..
The sun slowly sunk into the horizon casting dark shadows all across the Startta Planes where I stood atop a small mound.
Standing before me were Serylea, Farin, Shiru, Erna, Calëb, Anda, Thneia and Llana.
They all looked at me with various expressions as I stood in front of Ower and Ncil.
Nothing was said as we stood, but it was eventually Shiru who walked up to me while holding in her hands a large dark bag.
I recognized it as the modular bag that Han had helped design.
I blankly looked into Shiru's shaking eyes as she weakly held the bag up.
Ower eventually took it, leaving her to clasp her shaking hands.
"Where are you going?" She asked but the only response she got was from the whistling wind.
"If-If we- if I asked you to stay … would you listen?" Shiru asked as tears welled up in her eyes, but I remained silent.
I felt… nothing.
Not because I couldn't, it's just that something deep within was gnawing away at all thoughts except the ones that drove me north.
Shiru nodded weakly before offering me her hand.
I didn't move and so she forcefully took my right hand and held it as tightly as she could.
"Please… please stay safe. Both of you." She said before walking away.
Erna ran into her mother's arms and like always, she looked at me with apprehensive eyes.
I turned around to leave even as sniffles and cries filled the air.
"Ncil, do you want to return to the sub space?" Ower asked as he and the Black Blade followed me.
"Mmm… no, I'll stay out here." She said.
I don't know why, but these two were determined to follow me.
I didn't feel like talking to them and so I simply let them be as I walked ever northward.
Towards the sun.
Towards my revenge.
TO BE CONTINUED!
AFTERWORD
Thanks for reading Goat Isekai. See you next time in [Goat Demon of the South]!