Chapter 2308

Chapter 2308

Her eyes, deep set in the obsidian mask, began to smolder.

Devick stepped, eliminating the distance between the first charging individual and herself. The heat and the wild elation of battle lifted her out of her own doubts into another place entirely. She reached into the Turtleline’s chest and plucked out his heart, splashing out a crescent of crimson across the ground as she removed it with a flourish.

An individual worth killing is worth killing well.

She raised the heart, following the dark impulses that emerged in her chest, wielding it as a ritual object. She squeezed until grey and purple pulp oozed out between her fingers. The ground exploded, rust-colored chains surging out of the ground and wrapping themselves around the approaching Turtlelines.

Congratulations! Your Skill Chains of Madness (R) has evolved into Bitter Prayers of the Damned (L)! Skill Levels will be maintained.

Congratulations! Your Skill Bitter Prayers of the Damned (L) has grown to Level 491!

Movement whipped her burning gaze sideways, but it was Hungry Eye’s chosen minion capitalizing on the opportunities she had created. With the same easy grace he displayed before, he stored away the blocky weapon and leveled the ornate gun with his right hand. He fired two shots, generating fireworks in the torso and arm of two of the Turtlelines.

Devick wondered if those Skills were why he had been chosen by Hungry Eye, when she had to follow the Nether King around like a limping and unwanted puppy.

Congratulations! You have learned the Skill As Above Admires, So Below Craves (M)!

Congratulations! Your Skill As Above Admires, so Below Craves (M) has grown to Level 2!

...

Congratulations! Your Skill As Above Admires, so Below Craves (M) has grown to Level 56!

...

Congratulations! Your Skill As Above Admires, so Below Craves (M) has grown to Level 114!

Devick ripped her gaze away before any more dark impulses could bubble to the surface. The veins running through her body felt strange; at some points her blood felt like ice, leaving her numbed and sluggish, but at others she felt molten metals bubbling along through her muscles. But for all the strangeness, she looked down at her limbs, hands soaked in blood and legs soaked in mud, and felt like herself.

She released a breath. Her fingers itched to reap more life, but the soft sound of rocks tumbling down made Devick lurch around. With a wide yawn, Nether King Hungry Eye sat up and looked blearily around at the situation. His eyes, still slightly unfocused landed upon Devick and he smiled at her.

“Nice mask,” Randidly chuckled. “I must have missed my invitation to the masquerade.”

“For now, this place is stable. You can explore freely. Be careful though. There are a lot of monsters around that could kill you.” Hungry Eye said. Hank snorted and sauntered away, reloading small bits of gleaming brass into his weapons. The Nether King then glanced again at Devick, his gaze lancing through her body and shocking her with a thrill of pleasure. “Your Grand Fate is developing quickly. But looks like you finally have it centered inside your body. Does your new image harmonize better with your Class?”

Devick glanced sideways at Neveah, but the black-haired woman had conjured an armchair and simply slumped over on its sumptuous cushions. She licked her lips; no one had asked her or commented on the Class provided for her by Hungry Eye’s subordinates before. “Would you believe me if I said I simply bullied them both into behaving?”

A genuinely cheerful grin spread across Hungry Eye’s face. “If you are saying that’s the case, I’d believe you capable of it Devick.”

Devick felt brittle and exhausted. Too much had happened too quickly. But she supposed she was glad no one had told Nether King Hungry Eye about the Class she had received. Because indeed, it harmonized well with her new Grand Fate Malice, Merry Consort of Perdition.

Her Class was Ghosthound’s Willing Martyr.

It was never a question of whether she would sacrifice herself for him. Now, a new resolve emerged in Devick, to understand who and what had so totally stolen her heart.

*****

“To withdraw now will avoid the danger,” Deganawidah said slowly. Words shaped in his wide mouth had a habit of resonating in Lowanna’s chest. From the first moment they had met, she had found it distasteful. “Our forces will overwhelm them, given time. But currently-”

“I cannot retreat, Deganawidah. And you know exactly why,” Lowanna pressed her lips together. Every one of her people that perished on the battlefield she felt, a tiny, eternal pinprick of absence joining all the previous deaths in the back of her mind. A horrid accumulation of naught that made her quite weary. “My people need me. I might be bound, but I am not a coward.”

“Your little tricks gleaned from Hungry Eye will not-” Deganawidah’s eyes flashed. But he held his tongue when Enmya looked up from the ground.

“I hate to agree with the Thrice-Drowned, but this... Cult of the Savior is the group that led the attack on Wyndaos, yes? We cannot underestimate them.” Enmya’s eyes slid away from her face. Even now, he could not understand why she had kept him in the dark when she had known the attack had been coming. “They are aware of our presence, yet they still press forward. They will bring means.”

“Even a rat may kill a lion, if given the opportunity to select the proper reaping ground,” Deganawidah scowled.

Lowanna gave the two of them a pointed glance. “Then let’s practice being a bit more fearsome than lions, shall we? Peace, gentlemen— you will not sway me.”

So they stood and glowered as the sounds of violence drifted closer. Lowanna the Nether Arbiter looked up at the sky and studied the strange currents of significance that surrounded them.

To her surprise, the world-shattering feats of Nether King Hungry Eye had done surprisingly little to affect their conflict; even now, she could stare at the stars and see her inevitable death writ large across the universe. It seemed completely certain.

But this time, Lowanna knew she might be wrong. So she sat and considered and waited for death to stalk closer. She felt so, so tired.

Will you make it in time to hear my thoughts on the universal unifying principle of Nether, Hungry Eye? The Nether Arbiter closed her eyes. Or will you allow me to spare my people this curse?