From the darkness, emerged Zomearon, wearing the same outfit he had worn, a long purple cape, with gold inline, behind him a posse of corpses, moving but rotting, all souls under his control.
The smell made me sick, I threw up a little.
Dragan wanted answers.
"Why did you… " before he could even finish, Zomearon moved his hand and clutched Dragan by the neck, with an invisible force, Dragan started to gasp for air, as Zomearon lifted him off the ground.
"Stop!" I said and ran towards Zomearon. Pushing my whole body weight against him. "You're hurting him, please stop," I plead with my arms, hitting his chest, but nothing happened.
I crumbled to the floor, my body melting away from sadness.
Zomearon let go of Dragan as I heard him thumbing to the ground.
"No words," said Zomearon, and a zipper appeared on Dragan mouth, and closed in on itself.
My body just melted even more, the sadness swept over me, I could feel the call of the void even more now, I could feel the madness creeping into my skin like spiders crawling under your bed sheets.
Zomearon scooted down and lifted my head up.
"Such a drama queen," he said with a mocking voice. I didn't have any energy to fight him anymore, I wasn't sure what he wanted, so I muttered those words.
"What do you want?" I said
"What do I want?" he said laughing and mockingly. "Of course you know what I want,"
"Please enlighten me," I said with little to no cheer.
"Tsk, you're no fun," Zomearon sighed. "Power, greed, immortality, world domination, or everything in between, what do I want? To become a god? To be the supreme fey of this and all realities, even at the cost of killing myself?"
He wasn't making any sense, as always. But he continued, he got really close to me, I couldn't move still.
"What do I want?" he said with a crazy mad voice. "I want you little one," he said it despectivley. Dragan shuffled angrily, as he had also had his hands tied behind his back.
Zomearon looked at Dragan angrily.
"I said - No Words," Zomearon launched a knockout spell to Dragan, making him fall over on his side, only for Dragan to recuperate himself once more.
I knew because I could read his every thought, that he was starting to burn the rope around his arms, with a tiny fire spell.
Sybil had already cast it.
What was he going to do?
Don't do anything stupid
Don't worry I got this
We exchanged words over telepathy. I let my depressive thoughts envelop me even more. I needed to keep him distracted.
"So… What do I want?" he continued. "I want everything, and nothing, all at once, and none at all, I could care less, yet I deemed it worthy, why is that so?"
He took a moment, considered if he should tell me, but continued anyway.
"You know, sometimes on the path to god-hood, in my case a Customary Fey, some - let's call them - sacrifices have to be made, people have to die, so that others can be born, you had to break a contract so you could be here, why is it that the mods allow for you to continue this game? I would have killed you a long time ago. What is it that they see in you, I wonder," he crouched down, almost lovingly. "You see that's why I've taken an interest in you, because if I wanted you death, you'd already be nothing but a shell of your former self, little one,"
Suddenly Dragan started charging towards him, Zomearon didn't move a muscle, but when Dragan launched his speak, trusting it in a circular motion, Zomearon caught it with his bare hand and sparks started flying out of them.
"Huh?!" Dragan was perplexed. Zomearon deflected, and punched, a punch that sent Dragan flying back and then hitting his back against the veil of darkness. Sharp blood released from his mouth.
"I'll have to silence you for good," said Zomearon walking in his direction.
He casted a spell, a blue light swooshed towards Dragan, and withouth warning, in the place he was, Dragan started to freeze in place, with crystals, made of aquamarine color.
I stood up, my skin still melting.
"You - You froze him!"
"He was just getting in our way, dear,"
"Don't call me that!" I said pushing him away.
"Ah~ You're lucky someone like me would even look at you in the sorry state you're in, albeit with a couple of plastics you'd be good as new, you're made of slime after all,"
I was getting mad.
"Stop beating around the bush!" I said
"Fine - Fine," he said throwing his hands up. He waved his hand and a chair appeared from the darkness below, it was rustic and beat up, but looked comfortable enough. "Would you like to sit?" he said, patting his legs.
"You're crazy," I said.
"Am I?" he said mockingly. "Then you are too, the void only accepts people who are a little bit crazy, those that have gone a little mad by waking life,"
"So? What does that have to do with anything?"
"OH MY GOD! This dribble is numbing!"
"Then get to the point!" I shouted. He looked at me defiantly.
"Don't you get it?" he started. "Big guy over there, he's the bad guy here, not me. Dragonkin are nothing but ravaging thieves, liars and schemers, frauds and con artist, you've been lied too, you've been sleeping with sharks this whole time, you didn't even know it. Said Zomearon with a grim face.
"We've been over this, we got over this together with mutual trust and understanding of each others need, I refuse to accept that,"
I looked at him like I wanted to ask a question, he was involve, stuck in stasis by the crystals. He pushed forward, putting his elbows on his knees.
"You do know what happens to Dragonkin when they reach their final evolution line,"
"I do not, and I bet you're about to explain,"
"They succumb to the void, all of them do, though recorded history there has not bee a single Dragonkin to has been able to suppress the call of the void,"
"Dragan will!"
"Like men are unable to suppress sexual urges, Dragonkin are unable to suppress the call of the void, it's part of their nature, it's built into their DNA, and when that happens, you won't be able to control him, he won't be Dragan anymore, but just another Dragonkin who rampages through towns and villages, running everything down with fire-flames of hell, until there's nothing left. The void won't stop there, it'll take him too, after he's had his fun," said Zomearon.
"So what is it that you want from me?"
"I want you to work with me," before he could finish that sentence, I said.
"Why would I ever work with a murderer?"
"I haven't killed anyone!" he said with open arms.
"You killed Emi, worst you took away her humanity," my body was slowly regaining it's original self.
"No sweetie, that was the void taking Emi's humanity to channel me and you into the same space, all thanks to that little malware I installed in your, how you call her?"
"Sybil?"
"That's right! You see the void is like it's own entity, like a black hole that devours all those that step to close to it's edge, a living breathing entity, filled with so much darkness and hate, you want to be careful when stepping into it's labyrinth, otherwise it swallows you up, only to spit you back out like a husk of your former self,"
There was a silence
"I'm not the bad guy here, yet you and your little cat friends make me out to be, I was only trying to help. I gave you a choice, I set you up to find the truth about Dragan, yet you only crawl back to him. Why? Because of his muscles, psshhh give me a break, you're whole thing is that you wanted someone like Dragan, and I gave him to you, served on a golden platter, and this is how you treat me? This is the way you treat the one who has given you everything in this world?
"He loved me-" I said tears and anxiety starting to rise from my stomach.
"Loved you?! HA! What a riot! He did what was most convenient for him - he did what he had to do in order to survive, little did he know he would meet the most powerful sorcerers hiding in plain view in the past 600 years, people don't change," he said.
"Yes they do," I said my voice breaking.
"Hmph Wishful thinking is all that is," said Zomearon crossing his legs, he almost enjoyed watching me suffer and cry.
Zomearon suddenly made a face like he was trying to swat a fly away, I heard a low grumble in another language I couldn't understand, Sybil started listening in to see if she could translate it.
Zomearon suddenly started speaking to himself. He stood and face his back against me.
"I know this is not how it's supposed to happen but plans get moved up sometimes you know,"
Another deep grumble, there were multiple voices.
"Gods have strange way's of doings things around here," … "I know, I know! This was only supposed to happen until the end but we gotta fly with what we have here,"
"Who are you talking to?" he dismissed me by putting one finger up, like this will only take one moment.
After a a brief second Zomearon placed his thumbs on his temple and sighed. He was defeated.
"Okay, I understand, yes I understand, yes, yes sir, I understand, thank you," the voice swished away like it was never there.
He turned back to me.
"You know, gods sometimes do things in funny ways, sometimes they don't make sense, and sometimes they are only meant to teach us a lesson,"
"What the hell, I've met your gods, they're nothing like that,"
"You've met them now, have you?" said Zomearon in a sassy tone.
"Yeah - before I reincarnated, I've met them, I've traveled through space and time and ended here. So this is my story! This is the fate I choose, and you've ruined it! It wasn't supposed to end like this!"
Zomearon suddenly transported real close and held my chin with a soft hand.
"Child - this last part of your story, it was the hardest one to write. I've seen the veil that crosses in between the white pages of your scrip , this wasn't planned, but this last part was left blank. All of this new development, every action you've ever taken has been planned out for you. You haven't any free will, you only move with the tides of destiny," said Zomearon.
"I don't understand…" I said
"Of course you don't understand, you're not supposed to, it hasn't been written yet, you've seen what the hands of time can do, yet you refuse to believe in the fate that has been set out for you," he said almost longingly.
A beat, he looked at me like I was some type of science experiment.
"Ah ~ You humans are so naive, thinking ever single one of your choices matter, thinking that every decision in your day to day causes a ripple in the Infinite Regress of time," he said. His grip got tighter on me."Actions speak louder than words child, you have one move left, the king is in check; run, hide, or face it head on; the ball is in your court now, dearly beloved.
I had lost - I had to admit defeat.
Right?!
There was nothing I could do, everything I tried, we would just end up back here, if this was my fate, was there really nothing else to do but accept it?
Was there no other way to conform.
He let me of his grip, and I crashed down on my knees.
All hope had gone out of me, I couldn't think straight, let alone think of any way to defeat him.
He was immortal in my eyes.
>I might have a suggestion
Suddenly Sybil spoke.
>But it will require me to show myself.
Zomearon might have already know what was going to happen next, as she turned his back and on me, and headed towards the pile of flesh and bones that had been standing there the whole time. He turned at me with a wry smile, crazy in his eyes.
"This is the path you choose then?" he said in a low tone, it felt different, like his inner demons were speaking.
I had no choice, if we were going to get out of this alive, we had to try something crazy, something absolute mad we broke all laws of physics.
If we broke this universe we'd find a way to fix it back up.
"Sybil, let's get ready for battle!" I said and behind me she appeared, in the form of a circle, like earlier before, this time much smaller, just behind me, but big enough to fit my whole body.
"THAT'S SYBIL!" said Zomearon, he laughed it off, almost mockingly. "I was expecting something bigger," there was a beat as he cleaned his laughing tears. "Come on Chariot, do your thing," he said nochalantly.
Just like Sybil appeared, appeared, so did Chariot, except it started gobling up all the corpses that Zomearon had brought with him, as it did, blood and guts pooled below, it had to fit them into a tiny dimensional whole where it broke the bodies into a million pieces, spitting out whatever didn't fit.
It was disgusting, but I was getting used to digsuting with Zomearon. He treated humans and bodies like cattle for his own gain.
Chariot grew bigger, and even bigger still. As it was finishing. Zomearon lifted his arms, and floated upwards towards the center of Chariot. Where a tube and connected to his neck, his skin flashed a million colors, and his as well, until they reached pure black.
"This is your final chapter!" he spoke in a booming voice, kinda like Sybil, except it was deep and menacing. Is that what it took to become a god?
>Confirmed; Void Demon Status acknowledge; Zomearon has reached High Elf Fey
>Scanning for further data.
>Denied
>Chariot has blocked all skill assessments.
Chariot released a wave of mana that shock-waved throughout the void, and into the outside, what had been that?
>Epoch has come into effect.
Suddenly Chariot started spewing out a red sea of blood, it crashed hard into me, but I was able to keep my balance, it smelled salty.
>Mind has come into effect
>Scanning
>Time void was successful.
I hadn't notice, but Chariot was relaying this information to Zomearon as well as it cast this passive territory spells. It was appearing on her as text I could actually see.
>High Threat Detected; Red Alert
>Powering up skills
>Assessing stored mana to level up stats.
>Connection to user Dragan has been temporarily severed.
I heard a noise in the back of my mind.
>Universe Server pings user _NO NAME_
>Success
>Message received
>Mods will arrive shortly
A message appeared in my purview
"Hold out hope; until we get there!"
It disappeared just as quickly.
I suddenly got a kick of bravery and foolishness, and took a fighting stance.
>Initiating Battle Mode
"We're fucked."