Chapter 54: I am Light, You are Darkness

Chapter 54: I am Light, You are Darkness

When Mariannes body hit the ground, she was already dead.

Valdemar experienced her murder as if he had perished himself. Their souls had been intertwined through their shared dreams. They had made love in the flesh and in their thoughts. A bond remained even when they were awake.

When the link ruptured, so did the heart in his chest.

Valdemar had felt the cold hand of Lord Och as his pale fingers closed on Mariannes soul. His chest had burnt when the lichs magic tore his lovers spirit from her flesh. His dark power severed the anchor that bound her soul to her body with surgical precision. There was no malice or hatred in the act, nor regret.

When he coldly murdered Marianne Reynard, Lord Och felt nothing.

Valdemar let out a scream of pain as Mariannes body landed at his side. Her skin was as pale and lifeless as his was bloody red. Her pale eyes were devoid of life, the soulstone around her neck oozing a vaporous black mist. Her beloved rapier slipped through her fingers.

When Valdemar found the strength to hold her, she was already cold to the touch.

Lord Ochs fingersnap had snuffed out all warmth within Marianne. Her heartbeat, quick and strong, had stopped. Ice coursed through her veins. The warm breath that Valdemar had tasted when they last kissed had turned into empty space. Her soft lips and fingers no longer moved.

No, no Black blood dripped from Valdemars fanged mouth. His chest hurt and his eyes struggled to see. A sick sensation filled his stomach. Please, please, no

She couldnt she couldnt not now, not right after not right after they won.

Overcome with horror, Valdemar stabbed his lovers flesh with his fingers. His flesh merged with Mariannes. His biomancy magic traveled through the roads of her nerves and the cables of her arteries. If Valdemar could repair the damage Lord Och had done within minutes, he could save her! He could bring her back!

He didnt find anything wrong. No organ had ruptured. No spell had flooded her brain with blood until it drowned. Her cells simply refused to work. They were dead, every last one of them.

The soul was gone. Gone from her body

But not from this world.

A shiver went through Valdemars nerves when he detected the faint smell of a spirit. His many eyes looked at his lovers necklace, at the black jewel on her skin. A violet hue reflected on its polished surface. The empty space within it had been filled.

The soulstone had worked.

The device had caught Mariannes soul when Lord Och murdered her. Or maybe the lichs spell used the soulstone to kill her by capturing her spirit.

Whatever the case, Mariannes soul had survived. Hope warmed Valdemars innards once again as he removed his hand from his lovers body. If he could transfer her soul the right way, maybe he could

His masters grim shadow blanketed him in darkness.

Such a panicked response for a woman? Lord Ochs tone betrayed his disappointment. The sound of lightning coursed through the air when he spoke. Truly the pleasures of flesh can dull even the greatest minds.

You Valdemar raised his hand to fire a blood bullet at his former teacher. His movements were slow, his arms weak. He had lost too much blood. You heartless bastard

Crimson lightning surged from Lord Ochs hands.

Electricity raced through Valdemars flesh and fried his remaining nerves. Whatever organs he had left cooked inside his own boiling blood. His brain burst out of his skull, yet he didnt die. The lightning destroyed his body from within, but his soul refused to leave his mortal coil behind.

Not since his fall down Lord Bethors tower did Valdemar experience such absolute, mind-numbing pain.

I will coddle you no more, my apprentice. Lord Ochs mask of fake charm and affability had slipped. The cruel, cold-hearted undead underneath saw no need to hide his inhumanity anymore. I have tolerated your insolence long enough.

Ktulhulu! Ktulu snarled, wings extended and tiny hands raised. The familiar valiantly flew at Lord Ochs face in a foolish attempt to protect his summoner. Ktul

Lord Och mercilessly struck Ktulu down with another thunderbolt. The poor familiar squealed as it fell to the ground, but the lich didnt stop. He blasted the child Stranger with a torrent of lightning, again, and again, and again.

Worst of all, Lord Och did it with a ghoulish smile on his skeletal face.

Ktul Valdemar rasped, but only smoke came out of his lungs. He felt his familiars agony through their bond. They screamed as one with each electrical shock. Daggers of lightning stabbed them both until they could no longer move.

Valdemars vision blurred. Half his eyes had melted into his skull. His strong alien limbs refused to move. He felt so weak that the Blood itself slipped through his grasp.

Spare the rod, spoil the child. Lord Ochs hands burned with hellfire. Forgive me, my apprentice. You may experience temporary discomfort, but I cannot waste precious time on sentimentalities.

Flames swallowed Valdemar. The last of his eyes burned to a crisp and fell off his face.

He couldnt see anything, couldnt hear anything, couldnt taste anything. His mangled body didnt have the tools left for that. Only the Blood gave him slight awareness of the world around him. He sensed Lord Ochs magic at work and Ktulus presence nearby, space twisting around them all, Mariannes presence slipping away

How long was Valdemar trapped inside his own mangled corpse? Seconds, minutes, hours? Time lost all meaning when the world around you had become a blur.

The Blood returned him to life ever so slowly. Currents of magic created new cells for his organism. They borrowed flesh from all life in Underland to return him to his original state. Was it his newly awakened Stranger nature at work? For a moment, Valdemar had nearly become one with the Father of All and the flesh beneath the stone.

Its from within Valdemar realized. He thought it was the souls he had consumed at first, their spirit transformed into matter, but he was wrong. They were all within him, suppressed but present.

A force in the Blood strengthened him. It called flesh from other places to help him regenerate. Valdemar was already doing it passively, but now the dam had broken; where droplets dripped through before, now a river of blood poured within his veins.

Could he be tapping more directly into Ialdabaoths power now that Crtail was imprisoned? The two twins had been born avatars of Ialdabaoth. Perhaps they had been splitting the power between themselves, and now that one of them was incapacitated, Crtails leftover energies moved into Valdemar

Light struck through the darkness and a loud rumble filled the silence. Two eyes and ears, not more, stabilized his vision and hearing. He moved a hand whose fingers grew like plants and a leg that snapped back into a straight shape.

Im human Valdemar thought. The first thing he saw were arms wrapped in skin and sinews, laying on a cold stone floor. Colorful lights filled the horizon. ImIm in

The Pleromian vault.

The dusty tomb that had haunted Valdemars dreams was returning to life. The fiery glyphs in its ceiling flickered in and out of existence. They moved left and right, above and below. The magical formulas they formed changed in the blink of an eye. They swirled around the Painted World and lifted it above the ground, to the very roof of the stone dome. Tendrils of colorful energy grew out of the canvas. A pillar of light fell down from it and onto the Pleromian portal. Its shining radiance hurt Valdemars regenerating eyes when he looked at it.

The shadow of Lord Och stood before the pillar, his back turned on his apprentice.

Valdemar gathered his thoughts. He was human again, and naked like the day he was born. Mariannes corpse was nowhere to be seen, nor Hermanns. But Ktulu

K Valdemar turned to the source of the sound, a broken child laying on his left. KUpdated from novelbIn.(c)om

The Strangers were cast down from the Light above. Even to this day they still mourn their fall. They cannot let go. They are fragments of a broken mirror, desperate to pull themselves back together. I thought souls of believers would do the trick, but alas even martyrs can't open the path for the sinful. As for Sophia, her curse still stands. I needed a better power source that belonged to both the Blood and the Light.

A resonance, Valdemar realized. Hes creating a resonance between Ialdabaoth and the Light by using Crtail as a focus.

Valdemars hands clenched in rage as he started to get a better understanding of the situation. That was why you took me on as an apprentice. You were grooming me for the sacrificial altar from the start.

Havent I told you? All social interactions are based on self-interest. I help you, you help me. The Dark Lords head tilted to the side like a curious bird. My original goal was to study you thoroughly, I wont deny it. I wanted to witness the extent of your powers, to observe you act in a controlled environment.

Like an animal in a cage

The more I studied you, the more I realized you would never be the key I sought for. You were too attached to improving the mortal condition, too willful, too thoughtful Lord Och smirked fondly. Too human.

You almost sound proud, Valdemar noted.

I am. Lord Ochs gaze was sharp as a blade. In many ways, you are the ideal our species aspires to. The power of the cosmos at the fingertips of human will.

Somehow, the Dark Lords appreciation filled Valdemar with shame. It was just another petty manipulation tactic.

This spawn, Lord Och pointed at the Painted World with a finger, was a far more suitable tool for my purpose. I have faced Nahemoths in the past, but this one is something else. Your brother is a trueborn incarnation of Ialdabaoth. I knew you and Hermann would succeed in binding him in a way that would make it possible to harness his power.

Some teacher you are, Valdemar replied with disgust. You steal the discoveries of your students to make them your own.

I told you from the start that the purpose of this Institute was to accumulate knowledge for my own pleasure. I give shelter and purpose to scholars whose discoveries serve my needs. It was an even trade for the time it lasted.

An even trade? The expression made Valdemars blood boil. You stole Hermanns work and then murdered him. How was that an even trade?!

Lord Och remained unflappable. Believe me, I would rather have spared him if I could. I appreciated our dear troglodyte. Alas, his knowledge of pictomancy was too dangerous for my plans to ignore. I couldnt risk letting him unravel the Painted World.

Because you wont risk it yourself. Valdemar couldnt read Lord Ochs mind, but he knew that was what he thought. You wont let your brother disappear, would you?

Even if Valdemar was willing to make that sacrifice, the consequences would be disastrous. Destroying the Painted World so soon after completion might release Crtail and the Nightwalker before they could be fully assimilated into it. The new pictomancy universe within the canvas was young, fragile. It could easily revert back to what came before if disrupted.

They would be back to square one.

What then? Valdemar asked. Where do all these murders and cruelty lead?

My, where else? Lord Och waved a hand at the portal. I will enter the Light, but on my own terms. Not as a disembodied spirit devoid of personality, but with the full weight of my human desires and unbearable sins.

The veil separating the Light from the material world had grown thinner. Not thin and stable enough to let anyone through safely, but closer.

I will not beg for a place in paradise, no. I will take it. Lord Ochs smile widened. It was the satisfied smirk of a winner, the vicious grin of a conqueror rejoicing at his enemies defeat. I will flaunt the feeble teachings of Sophia, shed my mortal coil, extirpate myself from the limitations of matter and form. I will become a wavelength, my apprentice. An unstoppable radiation, an invisible force as irresistible as gravity itself.

A sudden feeling of cold made Valdemar shiver. He gazed into the colorful abyss of the Light and the cosmic energies bursting from within it. You want to become a god. To transcend the Strangers and achieve a higher state of existence.

Must you make it sound so pedantic, my apprentice? What I want is absolute freedom. From the laws of men and gods, of physics and reality. Freedom from this ceiling of stone and a doomed universe. Nothing more, nothing less.

The twin lights in the lichs eyes flared with a blue hue. I thought you would understand that, Valdemar.

Was that why he had spared his apprentice and given him a chance, however slim, to ruin his moment of triumph? Because he wanted validation? An ancient undead of his age and experience cant possibly be that insecure, Valdemar thought. I dont get him at all. Whats his game?

I understand your vision, but I do not endorse it. Not at the cost youre ready to pay. Valdemar squinted at the portals baleful energies. After having observed it carefully, he had a pretty good idea of where this phenomenon would lead unless stopped. What will happen after you cross this doorway to Heaven? You need a willing martyr to create a stable portal. You're forcing the path open just long enough to go through, but the rift will soon grow unstable. What will happen then?"

Do you truly want me to say it, my apprentice?

Yes. I want to hear it from your mouth. Valdemar wanted to hear the faint sound of regret, of hesitation. Any hint that he could still talk down his teacher from his madness.

Well, the most likely possibility is that the breach will explode. The Dark Lord spoke with the cold, clinical confidence of a soulless doctor. He had given a lot of thought to his plan and considered its potentially disastrous consequences. The energies of the Light would pour out uncontrollably in a lesser universe unsuited for them. The portal might bloom into the heart of a newborn sun. Ialdabaoth will boil like an egg, the Whitemoon will melt, and everyone will die. The end.

He didnt care one bit.

Or maybe the breach will collapse on itself and harmlessly dissipate, Lord Och dismissed Valdemars worries with a shrug. Maybe the portal will explode and destroy this facility, but spare the rest of the Domain. Were in uncharted territory. Anything could happen.

Exactly, anything could happen! Valdemar snarled. You would abandon everyone to die! The Scholars, Lord Bethor

Lord Bethor will survive. To Valdemars surprise, it seemed that the lich truly believed it. My former apprentice is already an almighty existence that transcends humanity. I doubt anything short of the complete annihilation of this reality will permanently destroy him. Even then, Im uncertain.

The fact that Lord Och believed Ialdaboth would perish in the cataclysm but not Bethor surprised Valdemar. The Dark Lord of Sabaoth was a powerful man, but to survive the worlds destruction demanded more than power. Was Bethor some kind of lich whose phylactery was hidden in another distant world?

Even then, Lord Och didnt bother to pretend that he cared about anyone else. Anyway, does it really matter what happens to this world after weve crossed into the other side? Yes, Young Valdemar, a few meaningless lives will be lost, but such is the cost of progress. We can always create new worlds and life in our image after we ascend.

It mattered to Valdemar. He couldnt let Och proceed with his mad bid for godhood if there was even the slightest chance that it would destroy Underland as a side effect. The risk of releasing Crtail and the Nightwalker was a lesser evil at this point.

Did you expect a heart of gold in my ribcage? The old taunt flashed back in Valdemars mind like an ominous warning. He doesnt care about anything or anyone

Wait. Valdemar squinted, as his teachers last sentence registered in his mind. One word in particular rang in his head. We?

Lord Och didnt make a sound. For a few seconds, only the faint song of the Light and the bursting cracks of the Pleromian glyphs filled the room.

Why did you let me live, my teacher? Valdemar asked, utterly confused. Why did you bring me here? Why didnt you restrain me? Why are you telling me all of this now?

The ancient lichs stone face morphed into an expression that his apprentice had never seen before. An emotion Valdemar found more surprising than the cosmic Light in the background.

A flash of vulnerability.

Valdemar.

Lord Och extended a hand to his apprentice as the world trembled around them.

Come with me.