"What—what have you done?" she stuttered in shock, eyes focused on Bortris, whose eyes were now completely black, almost like deep pools of darkness with nothing else there.
Voldrak could have attacked her, but instead, he allowed her to take it in. Gave her enough time to come to terms with the fact that her ally was now his.
He watched her hands tremble in fear as she grasped the reality that she now had to fight both Voldrak and Bortris at the same time.
What she didn't know was that Voldrak couldn't actually use Bortris. Yes, he had poured enough dark energy into his body to control it, but not enough to give life to the soul, and doing so would only make the little energy he had left dissipate even more.
"You look surprised?" he asked, his face calm as he clenched his rod in his hand and watched her turn her full attention to him.
"You're not going to beg?" Voldrak asked her, nodding as he realized the exact second she decided to die trying.
"You'll kill me! Don't pretend otherwise!" she barked at him, opening her mouth to elicit a scream that shattered his eardrums before Voldrak had even moved a finger.
The walls crumbled around them, the roof doing the same, and for a second, he struggled to gain control of his balance.
Adrani wasn't a fool as she raised her hands, half her attention on each of her enemies, conjuring up every wave she could, using every bit of her internal energy, including her essence, to flood the room while protecting herself.
Meanwhile, she called every slave in the clan who was under her ability, ordering them to her defense, including Floyda, who had been quietly standing by the wall.
Her body lit up with symbols as she drew her metal sword, cutting easily through the cloth sheath she weaved around it as she dived straight for Voldrak, who hadn't been expecting another enemy to join the fray.
Regardless, he swung his rod just as fast, trying to neutralize whosoever it was, too impatient to care.
It wasn't until his rod connected, smashing right into her and sending her to the floor, that Voldrak realized who it was. Even then, he didn't falter as he turned, sending a steady look at Adrani, who sent a sly, bloody grin back at him.
"What? You thought she would stop me from killing you?" he said slowly, with utter confidence, convinced that she was already dead and that the only reason she remained standing was because he allowed it.
"No!" he sighed. "You think I'll give you a chance to escape?"
"No!" she responded, shaking her head with conviction. "I don't need you to give me one when I can create one myself!" But she hadn't even finished speaking when a woman jumped into the room, dashing straight for Voldrak, who waited for her to come closer so he could tear her in two, only to watch her stand in front of Adrani instead.
A few breaths later, more followed, and Voldrak instantly understood what she was doing when the symbols on their skin became too apparent to be ignored.
At that point, he was done talking. He raised his rod and reaped their lives in seconds to get to Adrani, who was already dashing out the window.
Voldrak felt his dark energy waning and sent strands into the bodies he killed, including Bortris's, taking back every bit of the energy he had sent into his body as he ran outside the window and jumped down, chasing Adrani.
He caught up to her easily, only to clench his rod in fierce anger as he realized the full extent of her plan and what she was willing to do just to ensure her survival.
Hordes of people, with their skin pulsing with symbols, began to throw themselves in his path. Even as Voldrak carved their heads off and splattered the rest of their bodies on the ground just to make a path, the path became even more crowded as they trooped closer to him in their tens, twenties… more.
They didn't attack him, which made it worse, but for a while, Voldrak continued to attack them, carving through half of them with a swing of his rod without so much as a change in his expression, until his black clothes were covered in blood and pieces of different humans.
He worked quickly, easy enough considering how defenseless they were, but he soon realized that Adrani would get what she wanted when he raised his head and looked down the road he stood on, watching as even more continued to appear, almost as if they had been called by an order they could not refuse.
For a second, Voldrak paused, watching her run, not surprised when, in the same moment, he watched her disappear, shielded by bodies he would rather decorate the ground with.
He stood watching them—slaves—continue to fill the road, and for a full moment, he did nothing but watch them, even as a nasty sort of anger boiled within him.
He knew it wasn't their fault; Adrani had definitely planted something inside them with the use of her internal energy to control them.
He understood that they were nothing but tools used against him, but… regardless, he looked upon them and blamed them for being weak.
Useless enough to allow themselves to be used against him, which was the one sin he couldn't forgive them for.
"I don't have time to care about mortals!" he whispered aloud, more to himself than anything else, as he raised his head and stared at the heavens, knowing that it was where everyone he remotely cared about and wanted to kill lived.
Turning his head back to the hundreds of people in front of him, Voldrak, with pain soaring through his head like a chisel, grabbed the last bit of dark energy that was yet to dissipate from not using it and shot it forward.
First was the person who stood closest to him—a girl. She was short with moppy hair and bulging cheeks that gave her a sort of cute aura, even as she stood in front of him in a complete daze.
Voldrak didn't hesitate even as he watched the dark strands burrow painlessly into her body.
"At least it won't hurt," he mumbled aloud, watching as the strands began to spread faster than he expected them to, as they began to devour the life force of everyone that stood on that road, one after the other.
He would learn mortal techniques that he would merge with the dark energy already present within him, but he wasn't stupid enough to think he could find anything worthy in the base realm, regardless of how much time had passed since he died.
His eyes were focused outward, even as he felt numb as every pain in his body slowly disappeared, and in its place was a weight—a heavy sort of weight that brought more relief than confusion, especially since he understood it.
The weight of the power he held!
The strands continued, and the humans in front of him continued to fall to the ground with a heavy thump that was almost musical to his ears as he watched, too engrossed to look away.
It wasn't until the last person fell to the ground, and he stretched out his hand to call back each of the strands when his hands froze.
A wry sort of smile flashed across his face as the strands he controlled fought back. It wasn't a push but more an unwillingness to obey where they wouldn't have hesitated.
Voldrak tightened his fists and pulled harder this time around, satisfied to see them draw back toward him, sliding up through his body and disappearing back into his soul.
He knew there would be consequences to using such a barbaric way of gaining power, but it wasn't like he had much of a choice.
With a system that hungered after his body in his mind and enemies lurking in every corner to take his power for themselves, it would be foolish not to harm himself for the fight that was bound to come.
His dark energy growing a tad bit sentient was expected and something he would deal with in time if it came to it.
"I'll kill when I have to, and when I'm done, I'll kill one more," he mused, fully aware that he could never truly stop until there was no one above him, lest the past repeat itself.