Malik felt a vague sense of déjà vu.
It was as if he’d gone through sothing like this before.
anwhile, Huda imdiately pointed her sword at him.
A thin blade she had hidden beneath her dress, its edge gleaming in the pale light.
"Who are you?!"
Her pink eyes were wild, rapidly darting between Malik’s bloodied hands and Safira’s unconscious body.
Are you working with the ones who attacked us?!"
’...I am probably IT’s most hated enemy.’
It was unfortunate that Malik could not just say that.
The na would not stick, the words would not make sense, and Huda would only grow more suspicious.
"I knew you were lying!"
Huda pressed on, her voice rising with fury.
"No weakling can handle this place for as long as you had claid!"
Seeing that he was silent, she stepped closer, the tip of her sword inches from his throat.
"So tell ! Give one reason I should not kill you right now!"
Malik shook his head slowly, his golden eyes eting her pink ones without revealing a single emotion.
"I am not your enemy."
Though he said so, he did not deny that he had lied about his past in this land.
Sothing that Huda, of course, picked up on imdiately.
"You still haven’t told anything, dammit!"
Ignoring her outburst, Malik gently picked up Safira’s limp body, cradling her against his chest, and laid her against the trunk of the Tree of Life.
He cut off a piece of his dark clothing and wrapped it tightly around her wound in sothing of a tourniquet, pulling the fabric taut to stem the bleeding.
Hesitantly, Huda lowered her sword and approached, her eyes fixed on her injured friend’s face.
"Are you really...?"
She was unable to finish the question.
Malik nodded at her as he finished up, his hands steady despite the adrenaline coursing through his veins.
"Yes. Do you truly think that if I wished to kill you both, I could not have done it ten tis over by now? You realize that you haven’t exactly been in the best state of mind on our journey so far, right?"
Huda took pause and stared at him.
After a mont, or two, or ten, she did the most unexpected.
Sothing that showed her growth:
"...fine."
Grumbling her acceptance, she knelt beside him and pulled a small glass vial filled with a glowing green liquid from thin air.
She uncorked it with her teeth and sprinkled the contents over Safira’s wound, watching as the liquid sizzled and bubbled against the torn flesh.
Then she tipped the vial to Safira’s lips and forced her to drink the rest.
In seconds, the wound began to knit itself together, the ragged edges pulling closed.
The bleeding stopped, and Safira’s breathing slowly stabilized.
"Thank you for helping her."
Huda’s earlier hostility was gone.
"I don’t know what happened, but it’s... it’s good that you’re here."
Stutteringly saying that, she pushed up to stand—
"Ah."
Only to pause, her eyes eting the ssage carved into this tree’s trunk.
[Expedition 9999: I have no doubt that this land holds the remains of a God.
Perhaps the Tree of Life itself is a God’s grave.
It truly is a lost cause.
I do not know how long we have spent here, but we do not seem to be any closer to reaching the tree.
I am afraid there will not be many expeditions after us, if at all.
Perhaps all of our worlds’ Fate was to end up being in the Entity’s—]
The ssage stopped there.
Unlike most before it, the stop was too sudden.
It didn’t seem to trail off even a little.
Huda, who was reading the ssage, stopped there as well.
Her pink eyes glazed over, and her mind seed to give up functioning in monts, sending her crashing into the snow beside her friend, unconscious before she hit the ground.
Malik, anwhile, stood up in confusion.
’Why did she...?’
But not for long, as he read the ssage as well.
Instead of passing out as she had, his brain felt like it was boosted instead, the words triggering a cascade of realizations rather than a ntal shutdown.
’It cannot be.’
Yes, many things began to click into place.
All of those expeditions—stretching back who knew how long—were not coming here to extract sothing from the ’Source’ or maybe even to find a way to stop the Demons from invading their lands.
No, it was sothing much worse than that.
It was a desperate action by the worlds that had yet to be overtaken by IT’s Will!
They were sending their best into this nightmare land to find a way to stop IT before it consud everything, utterly desperate!
Expeditions were decreasing in number because IT’s influence had reached them!
It had infected their leaders and their people.
They were being turned against Devil’s Maw, against anyone who stood in IT’s way.
IT was pushing them to brand what should’ve been Heroes as Villains.
’This was the missing piece.’
Malik saw it clearly now.
IT possessed an ability to spread ITs influence like a virus.
Everyone who was exposed to IT was infected by ITs power, and after that... well, different people were affected differently. So went mad. So beca puppets. So simply forgot.
But all of them, eventually, served IT’s purpose.
What a final piece this was!
Malik’s greatest enemy was waiting, slowly amassing power from other planets, biding ITs ti for the mont he finally returned.
IT had not attacked directly because IT did not need to. IT was content to let the universe tear itself apart while IT grew stronger.
’Hm.’
Once more, this had him feeling lost.
He had only just ’returned’ to a life he barely rembered, and already he was facing a God-level threat that had been manipulating reality for who knew how long.
...what the Hell was he supposed to do?
’...’
Malik had no answer.
If it were any consolation, strong as IT was, thankfully, IT seed limited in capability.
IT couldn’t interfere in the world of the living too much, at least not without consequence.
Otherwise, Malik would have died the very mont he ’returned.’
Thump...
But of course, to make things worse than they already were, he was not given the ti to think.
Thump!
Never was he given a chance to damn well think!
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
Perhaps in reaction to the ssage being perceived, the land around him began to shake violently.
The massive Tree of Life in the distance pulsed with each thump, sending shockwaves through the frozen ground that split the land with familiar red fauna.
Even more shadowy things began to appear out of the corner of his vision.
They were disgusting forms that hurt to look at directly.
Demons.
Damned Demons were appearing all around him, rising from the ground!
Unlike the ones he had dispatched in the desert, these looked strong.
Towering at least three ters tall, they were lanky and hunched, their bodies entirely elongated with sword-like protrusions jutting from their arms and legs.
Above their heads floated crowns made of the sa shapes, arranged in a circle and connected by threads of Corruption.
’Ah... damn it all.’
Almost imdiately, Malik pulled up his system, his eyes scanning the interface for anything that could help.
—
╔════════╗
║Fear System║
╚════════╝
{Class: 11 (Knight of Rukh)}
{Unlocking Class (10): 0/101}
{Fear Points: 0.4 → 15}
{Soul Glyphs: None}
—
’...’
The points had increased greatly from when he last checked.
Again, it was most likely from his fear spreading through the sultanate and beyond... or not.
No, it wasn’t.
It couldn’t be.
Ti didn’t exist here.
Technically speaking, not a single mont should’ve passed outside the East.
In other words, this influx of Fear Points didn’t co from his enemies or his people.
It ca from this land itself, as only this land moved.
How was that happening?
Was this land’s Corruption sohow turning into Fear Points?
Malik didn’t quite understand it, but there was no ti to theorize.
Fifteen points were good, but it was just short of what he needed.
A single-use Soul Glyph would not be enough against this many Demons; they were too nurous.
He needed a peak Soul Glyph to have any chance, and to get that, he required sixteen Fear Points.
He had fifteen.
’One short.’
Malik looked at the Demons closing in from all sides.
He looked at Huda and Safira, unconscious at the base of the tree.
Then, he ca to a decision quickly, the sa kind of decision he had already grown tired of making.
’I have to stall until then.’
Malik let out a slow breath.
"Let us begin."
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