"One of the greatest virtues of a great man is making a killer entrance. I have always dreamed of having one. But I never imagined there would be a dealer of death fighting alongside me as we rise to save the life of a champion of humanity, all while being surrounded by monstrous savages that desire to eat our flesh. And oh, all this happened in a magical world that decided we were special."
Screeeeeeeech!
The Therizon’s head shot out of the ice, but it didn’t travel far. Being forced to crash through the thick layer of frozen ground had actually damaged its head, leaving parts of its massive beak and skull battered from the violent emergence.
It held the Chief firmly in its beak as he hung there unconscious, his ruined body dangling helplessly from its mouth. Half of the Therizon’s body was still buried beneath the ice, with only its enormous head and part of its upper body having managed to break through the frozen surface.
Damien and Vincent were still holding onto its long feathers. Somehow, they were mostly unharmed despite being dragged through the violent eruption beneath the lake. Snow covered both of them from head to toe, clinging to their clothes and hair as they held on tightly to the massive creature.
"I must say Damien, you and I make quite the odd pair."
Damien glanced at Vincent’s half-naked body. His abs were perfectly sculpted, appearing as though they had been forged from skin like marble. Damien wasn’t particularly ugly himself; in fact, most people would describe him as gorgeous. But after becoming undead, his skin had become as pale as death, giving him a freakish, solemn vibe that made his appearance feel less human than it once had.
"Go put on some clothes. This isn’t a nudist party."
He looked away begrudgingly. The remaining Eidolons were still gazing blankly at their Chief. He wasn’t dead, but considering the state of his body, he might as well have been.
Vincent stepped forward, and his eyes immediately turned pitch black.
"Deadlock."
The moment he said those words, Damien was greeted by a refreshingly terrifying sight. The Eidolons gradually began to fall to the ground, one after another. It was eerie beyond words, seeing so much death happen so silently, without any obvious explanation for it. There were no screams, no desperate attempts to fight back, and no warning that death was coming for them.
But Damien did know what was happening.
The Eidolons had weak wills and no soul defense whatsoever, which allowed Vincent to extinguish their lives one after another. Their bodies collapsed into the snow until, eventually, there wasn’t a single Eidolon left standing.
"No, Wretch King."
They both glanced down at the Eidolon Chief. His Dormant Ability was starting to fade, and with it, the changes brought by his power were gradually disappearing. His fur was becoming white once more, while his massive body began shrinking back toward its original size. Even after everything that had happened, the Chief was still alive.
Vincent was taken aback. An amused smile appeared on his face as he looked at Damien.
"Are you the Wretch King?"
Damien was incensed. He really didn’t want Vincent to hear that deplorable nickname. Unfortunately, it was too late, and there was no way to undo it now. The best he could do was feign ignorance and pretend Vincent hadn’t just asked him that.
He quickly pointed at the Chief.
"Can you do him too?"
Vincent activated his Dormant Ability once again, his eyes turning pitch black as he attempted to extinguish the Chief’s life. But nothing happened.
The Chief’s soul remained completely unaffected.
Vincent frowned, his amused expression disappearing as he studied the Eidolon.
"There’s an otherworldly power protecting his soul. Before, I thought it was just his superior rank, but now I can sense that it’s something else entirely."
Damien grimaced. Of course the Chief couldn’t just be killed off. After everything they’d already gone through, he had been hoping Vincent could simply finish the job for him.
Apparently, he wasn’t getting that luxury. The side of his eyes spotted a distant figure rising from beneath the snow, it was Andrea, her white armour was barely keeping itself together.
So she immediately dismissed it, it actually disappeared, turning into light particles that entered her body, Damien had never seen anything like that before. So he tilted his head and stared straight at her with a questioning expression.
"The Vestige is connected to my soul".
"Oh" Damien nodded skeptically.
He jumped down and landed next to her. Damien had never seen Andrea look so bad. Her white armor was cracked and stained with blood, and there was still blood covering part of her face, yet somehow, it didn’t diminish her beauty. If anything, the contrast only made her look more striking.
"Where have you two been?" Andrea said coldly.
Damien shrugged. "We were battling the Therizon." He pointed back at the unconscious creature.
"It’s of the Awakened rank." Andrea noticed it with a single look.
But Damien wasn’t done talking. He added brazenly, "And we murdered Naomi."
Andrea went quiet.
She didn’t say a word for a very long time. Even after Vincent came down and joined them, she remained silent. Her relationship with Naomi had always been complicated, filled with enough history to make it difficult to describe with something as simple as friendship.
But now that Naomi was gone, Andrea was finally ready to let her go.
"What’s with the ominous silence?" Damien asked almost casually.
"Nothing. She was just an old friend of mine."
A low hum suddenly shook the ground beneath them.
The ice began to crack further, spreading beneath their feet as something massive shifted underneath the frozen surface. The sound grew louder, accompanied by the deep rumbling of something forcing its way upward.
The Therizon was rising once again.
"I would gladly accompany you both upon this rather suicidal endeavour against a soul-devouring bird of prey, but alas, I must withdraw. The creature appears to possess an immunity to my dormant ability."
They both looked at Vincent.
He had already begun walking away, shamelessly abandoning them before the enormous creature without even the slightest hint of guilt. Damien could only stare at him as he calmly retreated.
Then the Therizon’s enormous body shifted beneath the ice.
"Screeeeeeeech!"
The Therizon’s wings opened and spread out, blanketing them in a shallow shade. The Eidolon Chief’s body fell to the ground, but his sheer size triggered a chain reaction, and the ice finally gave way completely beneath them.
The cracks spread across the entire camp, branching farther and farther through the frozen ground as the whole area began to sink.
Vincent noticed immediately and bolted away. He passed Yuri without saying a word, already putting as much distance between himself and the collapsing camp as possible. Yuri’s ability was active as she prepared to charge in and help Andrea and Damien.
Except they weren’t planning to run.
The Chief wasn’t actually dead yet, and they couldn’t risk leaving him behind only for him to recover. Besides, Damien wanted the Therizon dead. If he could kill it, he would gain another powerful addition to his undead legion.
Noticing that they both remained still, Yuri accepted their decision. She bolted away in the direction of the ice caves, racing past Vincent as she fled the collapsing camp.
Elias had already woken up, and his giant body was walking out of the frozen lake, his metallic form emerging from the ice as he made his way toward the ice caves.
"I didn’t think you would stay. You do realise safety is that way," Andrea said, gesturing toward the direction Yuri and Vincent had taken.
Damien glanced at her, then briefly looked toward the others as they disappeared into the distance. He could have followed them. There was nothing stopping him from choosing the safer option, especially after everything that had already happened. But Damien had never been particularly good at making sensible decisions when something valuable was within reach.
"I do appreciate safety, but a man must be willing to abandon his most basic needs in order to accomplish great things."
Andrea stared at him for a moment, as though she was trying to determine whether he was being serious.
"You want to be a great man?" she suddenly asked.
Damien looked toward the massive Therizon, then at the ruined battlefield surrounding them.
"I want to be the greatest of everything."
The ground beneath their feet gave way, and both of them plummeted freely into the depths as the collapsing camp disappeared above them. The darkness swallowed them almost immediately, leaving only the faint light filtering through the broken ice far overhead.
Massive chunks of ice and stone were falling alongside them, tumbling through the depths at terrifying speed. Damien twisted through the air and quickly found a large boulder, wrapping both arms around it before the falling debris could smash into him.
Andrea did the same, gripping another chunk of ice as they continued their descent.
But before either of them could regain their bearings, the Therizon was already looming in their direction, its enormous body descending after them.
"Screeeeeeech!"
[You’ve Been Cursed By The Therizon]
[You’ve Been Cursed By The Therizon]
[Your Soul Is Corrupted]
[Your Soul Is Corrupted]
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