"Shall we begin now?"
The mont those words left Jeremy’s mouth, he began chanting strange incantations as the ritual circle beneath them started glowing brightly and the very environnt around them began to distort.
Jeremy’s entire body started glowing with a terrifying crimson light, pulsing like a living heart. Seles, trapped between him and Alden, let out a scream of agony as the red energy poured into her body before bursting out from her back and reaching toward Alden.
Yeah... I am fucked.
Alden thought,his mind screaming at him as he watched the crimson energy rge with his body.
The process was slow but horrifyingly efficient.
It used both Jeremy’s and Seles’s mana before fusing itself with Alden’s body, using Seles as a sort of living filter.
Imnse pain erupted throughout Alden’s body. He was already familiar with pain but even then... he couldn’t stop the beast-like screams tearing out of his throat.
"ARGHHHHHHH!!!!"
Along with the agony, he felt sothing that wasn’t his rging into him. Mana, mories, knowledge, emotions and countless things were being forcefully fused into his existence.
He saw the mories of a young boy. No... he didn’t rely see them. He felt them as though he had lived through them himself. Every touch, every heartbeat and every sound, everything felt horrifyingly real.
The sensation was similar to when he absorbed the grudges of others... through his traumatic inheritance but unlike that stable inheritance, this felt like a dam bursting apart.
Only now did Alden truly understand the horror of the technique Jeremy was using. He wasn’t rely trying to transplant a soul. He was trying to completely overwrite Alden’s mories and emotions.
But just then, a status window suddenly appeared before Alden.
[Voidheart has resisted Emotional Manipulation.]
[Voidheart has resisted Soul Damage... Error... Error... resistance failed.]
[Interference of ????? detected.]
[The Supre Ability is activating forcefully.]
[????]
[....]
[....]
[Error.]
Alden couldn’t even properly process the ssages as the pain beca too overwhelming to endure and yet, through sheer willpower alone, he refused to lose focus because he didn’t know what would happen if he fell unconscious.
"Hahahaha... just give up, Alden."
"GIVE UP."
"You have no way out anymore, so stop resisting."
Jeremy’s voice echoed loudly around him but Alden ignored it completely. Instead, he focused on comprehending the mories flooding into his mind, desperately searching for a way out of this nightmare.
There were countless mories pouring into him but he focused only on the one he needed most. The mory of the mont Jeremy obtained this technique because if he could understand the technique itself... Then maybe there was still a way to stop it.
With those thoughts, Alden closed his eyes and focused on the mory.
He saw a vast ruin buried deep underground. Countless people surrounded Jeremy, all wearing cheerful expressions as they looked toward him.
And then... the mory shifted as he saw an altar and floating above it was a strange shard-like object. It looked like so kind of ornant won used to tie their hair, a delicate piece of golden jewellery.
Then a voice echoed from the ornant, one Alden heard with terrifying clarity.
"You are here... my child."
The voice felt eerily familiar. Alden could feel the confusion Jeremy felt back then.
Jeremy looked around to see if anyone else had heard it but nobody reacted as the voice continued.
"Take this fragnt I left behind... it was destined to reach you one day..."
Even though the voice was speaking to Jeremy from years ago, even though this was rely a mory, for so reason, to Alden, it felt as if the voice was speaking directly to him.
But before he could dive deeper into the mories, a sudden commotion erupted in the outside world, forcing his eyes open once more.
Seles was still positioned in front of him while half of Jeremy’s physical body had already vanished as his soul slowly flickered without the restraints of mortal body.
anwhile, Seles continued screaming in agony.
She was still alive...
But she looked as though she had aged several years in re monts but the source of the commotion wasn’t them.
It ca from farther away where soone new had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
Nyx.
Her body was covered in blood and sweat as her blue eyes instantly locked onto Alden.
"Alden!!! Are you okay?!"
She shouted before imdiately rushing toward Jeremy.
He saw her imdiately and raised his hand, preparing to attack but Nyx suddenly released a terrifying burst of energy.
"Drop Seles."
The instant the words left her mouth, Jeremy’s body froze. Not only did he fail to attack... He imdiately released Seles, dropping her onto the ground as though controlled by a force far beyond his will.
And the mont the connection was broken, the magic circle beneath them stopped glowing as the filter sustaining the ritual was removed.
Nyx let out a sigh of relief but before she could issue another command, Jeremy’s expression twisted violently.
"YOU BITCH!!! You think you can ruin my plans?!"
He suddenly ford a strange hand sign in the air, and instantly the magic circle beneath Alden began glowing with an even more blinding light.
Nyx’s expression hardened imdiately.
"Stop what you are doing this instant."
She shouted at Jeremy but he only burst into manic laughter.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA... you are too late, you bitch. My body is already gone. All that remains is my soul and once it enters his body... everything will finally be perfect."
His distorted gaze locked onto Nyx.
"You will be the first person I kill."
Alden recognised it instantly, having already understood part of the technique from the mories flooding into him.
Seles had been acting as a filter, sothing ant to convert Jeremy’s soul and powers into a form Alden’s body could safely absorb.
But now...
This bastard... He is abandoning the filter. If this fails, both of us will die from incompatibility.
—
anwhile, Nyx’s body shuddered in horror.
She didn’t fully understand the true extent of the technique since all she knew ca from ancient legends but she could feel it instinctively...
If she failed to stop Jeremy now, Alden would die.
So she moved without hesitation.
She closed her eyes for a brief mont as she imagined the Heart of the World where she had been monts ago.
She didn’t know how to safely stop Jeremy’s technique, so she chose the only option left. She was going to teleport Jeremy directly into the World of Mana... A place where survival itself was impossible.
Blood rolled down from her nose as she jumped forward, appearing mid-air beside Jeremy, her hand shooting toward his face but just as she was inches away, sothing blinding suddenly burst out from her storage ring.
A long thread woven from pure golden light.
Nyx’s eyes widened instantly as she recognised it imdiately
The fragnt of Ananke’s thread.
What is happening?
Before she could process anything further, her spatial powers activated on their own. The golden thread rapidly unravelled around both her and Alden and then, a silhouette slowly ford within the glowing light.
A woman with flowing green hair and radiant golden eyes appeared in the air itself and with a gentle smile, she stretched her hands toward Alden.
Jeremy chuckled, recognising the woman at once after all, she was the one who had given him this divine technique.
Relief spread across his distorted face as everything had worked, all the sacrifices, the many years of preparation, the endless searching... it had all led to this mont. He was close to his revenge, closer than ever.
But then, a golden energy erupted from the woman’s outstretched hand and struck Jeremy directly.
His smile froze as the ritual changed all of a sudden. Jeremy felt it before he could understand it, the flow of the technique was twisted into sothing entirely different.
"No...?"
His expression twisted violently as his remaining body and soul began collapsing into streams of condensed energy.
For the first ti in a while, panic appeared in his eyes. He tried to free himself but his body was stuck in place under the woman’s gaze.
"No— WAIT—! What are you doing Goddess?"
The condensed energy from his body started mobilising towards Alden as everything started becoming clear.
The voice, the fragnt and the technique, the thread of fate guiding his entire life. None of it had ever been for him.
"You... used ...?"
His voice ca out broken and hollow but the goddess simply looked at him with calm golden eyes and in that instant, Jeremy finally understood.
He had never been chosen. He had only been a path for soone else’s ascension.
"Alden..."
Jeremy’s pupils trembled violently as realization settled. He couldn’t even understand how that was possible or why the Goddess would choose soone like him but the streams of energy being forcefully absorbed into Alden’s body was proof enough.
"Forgive , Mother... sister... I couldn’t complete the reve—"
A hollow laugh escaped his lips for one last ti as he looked at the sky and before he could even complete his sentence, he vanished without leaving behind even a trace.
Alden stared at the woman with widened eyes.
"Mother...?!"
That was the only thing he managed to say before his consciousness abandoned him. A massive portal suddenly opened beneath him, swallowing him whole.
Nyx’s body reacted before her mind could even process what was happening as she imdiately jumped into the portal after him.
anwhile, only one person remained conscious within the barrier, Seles looked weakly toward the portal before shifting her gaze toward the woman above.
Her body was far too exhausted to even move anymore as she saw the woman vanishing completely, leaving behind only a blinding golden thread floating silently in the air before it slowly descended onto the ground so distance away from Seles.
The portal that had swallowed Alden disappeared soon after and the barrier surrounding the area began fading rapidly.
Seles knew exactly what fate awaited her if she remained here and she could also feel a strange power radiating from the golden thread as if calling her towards it.
She didn’t have any other choices either. So without any hesitation, she began crawling toward it. Every movent felt agonising but she continued dragging her exhausted body forward until she finally reached the thread.
Then, just as the barrier around them was on the verge of completely disappearing, Seles grabbed it tightly within her hand.
Instantly, the golden thread erupted with a blinding radiance and in the very next mont, her body vanished without leaving behind even a trace.
—
anwhile, within a dark void, a woman chained by countless obsidian shackles suddenly coughed up blood.
Her green hair glowed faintly in the darkness while her golden eyes shimred with an eerie brilliance. A smirk slowly appeared on her face as she gazed at the endless void surrounding her.
"It... finally succeeded."
"The seed I planted long ago has finally blood."
Relief washed over her knowing that, despite the countless unknown variables, her son had finally reached the place where he was always ant to be.
"Fate... has fulfilled its role."
"Now, the rest is up to you, my child."
"Go... and reclaim what is rightfully yours."
With those final words, her eyes slowly closed as she was far too exhausted to even think anymore.
—
anwhile, sowhere far away, sinister chuckles echoed endlessly through a chaotic space as a twisted smile slowly stretched across an unseen face.
"So... things have finally started moving. Let’s hope it will be interesting this ti, Alden."
—-
[End of Volu 3 : The Pawn.]
User Comments
0 comments from readers