Chapter 2152

Chapter 2152

Demetrius felt a tug on his instincts and followed them, setting down the correspondence in his hand. Despite the relative lack of Nether he carried within his body- no, perhaps because of it, he needed to heed the nudges of meaning. As always, he was rewarded for his willingness to listen. He waited at the edge of the farm when his chosen Nether King strode past its edge, the set of his lord’s spine announcing he rode to battle.

“I’d like to accompany you, if I may,” Demetrius spoke quietly, despite the informality of their usual interactions. He couldn’t help himself; his instincts responded to a shift in the Nether King. The air around him had grown heavy.

It was not right to say this being... polluted the environment, but the sort of energy he produced did tend to stain.

Nether King Hungry Eye nodded shortly and Demetrius fell in behind him. The Nether King used his strange images to wrap a bubble of gravity around the two that accelerated their movements beyond what should be possible. Single steps crossed vast distances, bringing them within sight of the sprawling markets outside of Malloon in about three minutes.

Around that time of the arrival, Demetrius finally sniffed out why the impression of the Nether King had begun to shift. His eyes widened as he stared at his liege’s back. “You have begun accepting additional Phaea.”

Now that Demetrius knew what to look for, he could feel the signs. The stability in the weave around the Nether King. A certain gravity in movements that hadn’t been there previously, as Hungry Eye grew used to the drains of rule. Yet once Demetrius started paying attention to the right things, he grew only more confused.

Unable to keep his silence, Demetrius cleared his throat. “...you are gaining additional Phaea, even now. Which should be impossible, since I stand beside you and see no oaths being given. I would caution you to not take the process of Phaea lightly; if you believe you have some manner of generation false Phaea, it will not be without consequences. In addition, you should accept each personally. The connection is quite important to the process.”

Nether King Hungry Eye flashed the half-smile he used when he felt genuine, surprised amusement. “I am not just making up shades to create Phaea, Demetrius. And although I might not be there in person, my agent is the woman I trust most in the world. The connection will be there.”

“They must also be beings of sufficient Nether,” Demetrius couldn’t help but add, hating how much he felt like he was nagging. The accumulation of energy around Hungry Eye’s body seemed to be balanced, but logic dictated it could not be that simple.

Hungry Eye nodded in understanding, still walking forward and eating up the distance to Malloon. “We are being careful.”

Probably little could have given Demetrius more worry than the pronoun we from a Nether King, but his further worries were squashed by arriving before Malloon’s gates. Individuals flowed rather freely in and out of the buzzing barrier, but that flow of bodies slackened as two individuals in distinctive black robes appeared right in front of the city’s mouth. The guards blanched in surprise, hands tightening around their weapons. Speakers strangled off their sentences midway through, appalled at their sudden presence.

Demetrius felt a flash of pity for the guards if they were fool enough to try and stop Hungry Eye, but in this case fear saved them from ruin. They froze without being able to respond to his presence, simply static while their boogeyman glanced around.

To his credit, Nether King Hungry Eye walked through their midst without smugness. Demetrius followed, passing through the barriers. Near the city, he caught other scents of meaning. Being here was dangerous for them, right now, although the why was not exactly clear. On the other side of the barrier, an orcish guard in a much more ornate armored robe stood with a straight back and a glaive clenched tight against his side.

“What the hell is this?” Demetrius hissed out the words before he could stop himself.

As though the dank and twisted energy had sensed his words, several flows twisted around and rushed in Demetrius’s direction. Even as he flinched and took a step back, Hungry Eye interposed himself and waved a hand. A humming wave of Nether smashed back the flows.

Across from them, Mae Myrna grimaced at the collision. Blood began to ooze from her lips.

“...Release the grip you have on your image,” Hungry Eye said. His sharp emerald eyes remained on the greedy flows of energy, an infectious energy seeking to spread its rot throughout the world.

Mae Myrna shook her head slowly. “If I let go now, I won’t be able to control it any longer. My will is spent. You all will be forced... to face directly whatever Westrisser has caused my image to become. I will likely transform-”

“You have such a taste for the dramatic,” The Nether King interrupted rather drily, so much so that Demetrius first felt a bit of shock that Hungry Eye didn’t display more sympathy for his friend’s plight. The Nether King flicked his fingers and knocked away a flow of the rotting image. “You are suffering, yes, but I believe you are actually being too critical of Westrisser. Your image is definitely strengthened, you're just now fighting against it.”

“You call this... filth my image?” The Patron of Truth scowled.

Hungry Eye shook his head. “You probably had a fear in the corner of your heart, no matter how truly you believed it was necessary, that Westrisser might betray you, or twist your image to his own ends. Now, as you refuse to face it directly, why would it not be mysterious and flawed? It needed to be honed.”

The room settled into silence for a split second. Mae Myrna blinked. She swayed in her seat, but the puzzled expression remained. “Yet... what about the strange sentience suddenly within my image, pulling it in so many directions.”

Hungry Eye grunted in a dismissive manner. To Demetrius’s shock, the Nether King glanced at him; he wanted support for his position from his Nether Herald. And while Demetrius had no idea about what he saw of the rotting image, he could still read the weave and the way the image responded to it.

“I do not know the manner used, but aspects of Nether were added to your image,” Demetrius said. “What you witness is not sentience. Just as gravity affects the physical, significance pulls Nether. What you see are the flows of connection and history.”

“If you don’t release your image soon, its going to tear itself in half,” The Nether King added. “If you think the rot stinks now, just wait until there is an open wound at the core of your power.”

When the Patron of Truth didn’t seem swayed, the Nether King sighed. “Look, I think I see what Westrisser was trying to do. Let me put is this way: which is harder to swim across, a lake or a whirlpool?”