Cain turned his head as he heard the dying cries of the siege beasts. His eyes lit up, watching a siege beast die as Numineer's roots ripped it apart.
Realization struck too late as Cain narrowed his blood-red eyes on the battlefield below. His vision focused on odd figures in white suits and strange masks. They were the only ones still standing.
Time wasn't on his side to investigate. Cain turned back to face Numineer's incoming assault.
"Seems something interesting happened! Your army has died, you have nothing left, Spirit! Now DIE!"
Numineer's vines converged, ripping Cain's body apart. The pain seared through him, and for a moment, the world blurred into a chaotic haze. He struggled to focus, his essence dissipating into mist as he desperately tried to reform his dismembered form.
'Damn, they released it too soon. Damn it, what is she doing?!'
Cain rushed down the tree trunk as his mist receded into his body, and he became whole once again. A Cain wearing scraps for clothing reached the battlefield as Numineer's roots were in hot pursuit.
He rushed the first white-clad figure he spotted and charged, reaching to tear off their mask.
Cain's fingers flexed, mist coiling around them, as he reached for their mask. His hands momentarily stopped. Pain erupted through his torso, radiating out along each nerve. He choked as blood gushed up his throat and flowed out like a crimson tide.
Doubled over, he struggled to breathe through the bubbling fluid filling his lungs. His essence retreated inward, assessing the damage, tendrils of mist probing his ruptured organs. His body was failing
Cain couldn't help but frown as he discovered his entire body was dying rapidly. But this was temporary; his body was just slow to respond to the threat, and his immortal body quickly hurried to fix the problem.
Cain slowly stopped coughing as he recoiled up, surrounded by the figures in white clothing, with Numineer's roots paused in place around them, twitching curiously.
"It seems even our trump card can't stop you. Nevertheless, this is your last chance to help us kill Numineer."
Alex walked forward, her clothes the same as the others, a white enclosed suit made of some stiff material with a mask that appeared to resemble a bird.
"You know that will never happen... where's Anders? I want to knock some sense into him for following a two-tailed fox like you. I would imagine he is quite upset you killed your own people, hehe."
"He's dead."
Cain's neck turned upward instinctively as he tried to peer past Alex's mask, yet he couldn't and was left not knowing her expression.
"Heh, no wonder. Gives me all the more reason."
Laughing to himself, he looked around to find 12 people surrounding him, including Alex.
They wore matching white sealed hazard suits with bird-shaped masks that covered them head to toe, their faces obscured by reflective mask lenses.
Insignias were emblazoned on their chests. Sturdy combat boots and utility belts bearing an assortment of vials and devices completed their uniform.
"These must be your elite, the only ones who could use your pathogen which caused this. Hehe, let's see who is better, shall we?"
Cain's hand was already losing some skin and bleeding. It easily melted away as only bone was left. Mist traveled towards Alex, and she tried to retreat as fast as possible, but the mist was carried by the wind and was already in front of her eyes.
In an instant, the ground ruptured. A gigantic root burst forth, spraying soil and rock. It slammed down between her and Cain with a wet crunch, severing the tendril of mist.
Cain couldn't hear Numineer's voice, but Alex did. His voice rang in her ears; she could sense his joy, feel his ecstasy just by his tone.
"So that's where you hid it! Finally, I found the one with the core! I will become whole again!"
Cain didn't need to hear Numineer to know his thoughts. More of his body turned to mist as he raced against the Tree for Alex. All the while, she was confused by Numineer's words, but she wasn't stupid and soon put the puzzle pieces together.
'The baby! Cain did something! Damn it, I have to escape!'
Alex fled, but escape was impossible. Cain extended misty tendrils, invading Numineer's rotting roots. The bark crumbled, exposing festering wood beneath. It slowed the Tree just enough for Cain to gain ground.
More roots protruded from the ground as they flailed in anger. Cain dodged the best he could, but with his focus divided, he was hit and thrown far off to the side.
At this moment, he put all his eggs in one basket as his body dissolved into mist, leaving only a skeleton and his things. Barely conscious, Cain directed himself to Alex in one final suicidal charge. It was all or nothing.
Numineer's roots cut away at Alex as they broke her suit. A root finally pierced through her leg, and she fell to the floor in pain. With the prize, Numineer entered a state of triumph, slowly dragging Alex toward him as she grunted in pain. Her fellow compatriots were already dealt with and dead, decorations for the roots that ended their lives.
As she was dragged, a scarlet liquid seeped out of the ground, heating up and turning into a mist. It crept through the smallest gaps in Alex's suit and entered her wounds.
It didn't direct itself to Alex but to her womb, invading the unborn child soon to be born.
Alex's shrieked to Cain's invasion which jolted Numineer. She clutched her stomach in agony. Sensing something wrong, Numineer hesitated to act. He dared not risk damaging his prize.
Through her suit, Alex cried while a hand seemed to press on the suit from the inside. It felt around for a bit before finding a tear and reaching its hand out.
Alex's shrieks intensified as a small being clawed and pushed out her stomach and ripped through her clothes. A baby the size of a cat escaped from her as it crawled out of her and onto the blood-stained ground around them.
The newborn baby lay still, its tiny limbs curled inward, wrapped in a blood-soaked blanket. Its nearly translucent skin revealed bluish veins running beneath. And then, its eyes opened, glowing with an eerie crimson light. The innocence of a typical newborn was absent; instead, those eyes held a disturbing, malevolent presence. Its cherubic face twisted, lips forming a smirk of dark satisfaction.
A chill slithered down Alex's spine at the sight. The infant flexed its fingers with eerie precision, planting its palms on the cold earth. Its bones cracked and popped as it forced itself upright on wobbling legs.
Alex's breath caught in her throat. Such an abomination - this was no child, but a demon puppeteering flesh. She stared, paralyzed by the wrongness of it, a scream building inside but unable to escape.
She shook her head in frantic denial. The pregnancy had been her last hope, a chance to leave behind good in this world. But she had failed again. Her body was merely a vessel for Cain's evil.
The thing that wore her baby's skin like an ill-fitted suit tilted its head back and inhaled its first breath.
The newborn's body seemed to change as limbs cracked and moved in unnatural ways. Its size began to grow as flesh broke and regrew. Mist rose around it to help in the process. Finally, the baby cried as it felt immense pain since its birth.
All the while, Numineer stared. If he had a human face, it would surely show an expression of amazement or curiosity. Alex forced herself upright as she looked at her child, still attached to her, but her face only held terror and despair.
As the child increased in size, from the size of a cat to that of a 10-year-old child, it expressed itself through words for the first time.
A childlike voice emitted from its vocal cords as it spoke with the dignity of someone 10 times its age, "I must say that was a gamble, not only fully turning to mist but also... this. I never experimented with taking over a newborn, but it was quite easy. I didn't even need to pacify a consciousness."
It continued to grow, turning to look at its mother.
"I suppose I should call you mom, but you will soon die with your injuries and that virus still lingering here. Though looking at your stomach, you should live for a few more minutes."
The child looked down to Alex's stomach where her skin and flesh wriggled to connect and heal. It seemed she made some breakthrough in regeneration of some sort.
Alex stayed silent and looked at her child. It continued to look at her but turned its head to look at the air behind it. It was odd; she saw her child's face contort to surprise as it turned instantaneously.
Cain's head snapped to the side, startled by a woman's voice in his mind. A bright blue screen hovered behind him, words appearing as she spoke.
[Congratulations, Host! You have absorbed a Territory Core and have proven to be fit to Rule! Accept the system to integrate this power and open the Host to a world of new wonders!]
Cain's astonishment quickly dimmed as his hand raised to his chin, and his face turned to amusement, and he smirked.
'This is the Path of Rulers? It's... distasteful, a system? Similar to rules perhaps? Nonetheless, it's foreign. I only want the core; I can already feel its influence as it melds with my very being!'
"I refuse the system."
[Error! Host cannot refuse the system! Refusing the system will lead to the host's death!]
"I refuse."
Cain reached out his hand, grasping the screen and squeezing it in his fist. The screen cracked slowly as all sorts of messages popped up.
[Error! Error! Host is refusing the system! The host is removing the system's influence! Eradicating the Host! Error, Host has no ties to Territory, influence cannot be enacted!]
Cain's smile turned savage as the blue screen fractured under his grip. He could feel himself growing stronger as the screen broke into fragments. Triumph surged within him, hot and visceral.
The screen broke and mended with the air as it turned illusionary and disappeared. As he did this, he felt the influence of the core fully meld with him, and his awareness grew and his vigor rose.
Cain focused his will on the blood. It congealed beneath his feet, pathogens and organisms churning at his silent command. He curled his fingers. The blood rose in swirling tendrils.
With a mere thought, he solidified the liquid, shaping it into deadly spikes poised to impale enemies. The crimson shards hovered expectantly, awaiting his order to strike.
Cain shifted his attention to the rats feasting on the dead. As one, they convulsed, squealing as their forms melted, bones and flesh flowing like wax to reform as skeletal warriors. Empty eye sockets turned towards him, awaiting direction.
This wasn't all; he could now feel something similar to the organisms. This feeling was in all shapes and sizes comparable to the microorganisms. However, the difference between this feeling and the microorganisms was large.
He could feel that the microorganisms were alive; they were like tiny animals with thoughts, even if they were only instincts. But this new feeling was giving off cold nothingness, feeling dull, concrete, and thoughtless.
It was this feeling that he felt strongly from the blue panel, and he used the influence of the core to crush it, destroying the energy of the system that was forming before him at the source.
'Well, this wasn't the only gain. I also stole Alex's abilities gained from the Great Earth Tree through the child.'
Cain's thoughts whipped into a frenzy as he pondered the strange energy. But that mystery would have to wait - he needed to focus on the battle at hand. The alchemists were his own creation, an offshoot branch of plague doctors. Yet current alchemists lacked the full abilities of their origins. Like the vessel Cain now inhabited - designed to contain Netherane's Core and siphon Alex's gift.
'It resembled that energy from the blue screen... possibly remnants of this land's former power?'
Cain's thoughts whipped up a tornado inside his mind as he thought of what this weird energy could be. But this was for another time; now was the time to finish this.
Now an adult once more, he turned back to Alex, who had become a hollow shell of her former self. Her skin was pale, and her eyes were grey; her hair was especially colorless, no longer showing her once fiery bright red hair.
"This is where your life ends," Cain raised his hand and tried to control the roots underneath the earth that weren't under Numineer's control.
At Cain's command, the roots below rumbled to life. They tunneled upwards in twisting paths, bursting from the soil to entomb Alex in an instant.
Her face remained frozen, eyes wide with despair as the life left her body.
Turning to Numineer, Cain smiled. "Time to finish this, parasite."
The tree's branches and vines rustled as Cain felt something enter his mind, and he soon heard a weakened Numineer in his head.
"Indeed, I am in awe of your strength, but it's still not enough to defeat me."
"I would beg to differ."
Mist rose from all around them; Cain had the core of Netherane, with it, Numineer's power weakened as he cut off the core's support.
He was now the source of Netherane's power, and he decided where it went. Not only did this weaken Numineer to a great extent, but he was also boosted greatly, with his sphere of influence over Animum expanding around him like an extra limb.
The entire battlefield churned as blood and corpses surfaced. Rats and small animals melted to bone as mist rose and formed a sanguine cloud the size of a lake. Numineer could do nothing as the red cloud invaded his body as it rampaged and slowly hollowed him out.
His very being was being removed from existence as the virus known as Numineer was eliminated slowly but surely. The mist reached everywhere and dove deep into the abyss to search everywhere.
When Cain was done, all that was left was a hollow tree leaking disgusting liquids with a stench that burned nose hairs.
Even so it wasn't over, Numineer wasn't a human but a virus; his roots spread far and wide, as well as himself. Soon more consciousnesses would form with his remaining self and even with the power of Netherane receding on Cain's command, it would take time for everything to return to nothingness.
Cain knew what he had to do to free himself from the mental cage he was trapped in, only until everything was gone could he find true freedom.
'This might take a while... damn, I hope this works.'
With a weary sigh, Cain scanned the battlefield, searching for the discarded belongings he had thrown them off in desperation during his suicidal attempt to absorb the core.
Cain gathered his belongings. He returned to camp, hiding them away. With a deep breath, his body bubbled, merging into mist.
Now he could finish it all. Eradicate Numineer. And Netherane itself.
Volume 1, Netherane End
Note: Thank you to everyone who has stayed on this journey. I started as a newbie (and still am) in writing Lowly Ascent, all I can say is I improved as I learned more and gained feedback from many sources, though my current skills are not enough in my opinion.
With the end of this volume, the next will start as Cain begins to finish his business in Netherane and travels to other territories outside of Netherane.
I thank everyone who has read this far and ask you to stay as the story continues. If you have any feedback, please comment, I read every single one and it's greatly appreciated.
Pilgrimage (Volume Two/Chapter 116) will be coming at a later date. As of now I have school just around the corner and have now started revising early chapters for those who didn't know.
If you want to see the deal with the revisions, it's in the first chapter. That being said, Lowly Ascent will be on a hiatus.
When I have time I will be revising chapters and when I have more time I will be making chapters. What I plan to do with the chapters is stock them up and mass-release them when I finally return.
I don't know when I will be returning, but hopefully, it will be a time when I can release every day or maybe even switch to a different schedule requiring fewer chapters a week.
Whatever the case, those who wait will be rewarded. For those who can't, the first Arc of Volume Two is already on my Patreon collecting dust.
Until we meet again.
Thank you again for reading my story.