Chapter 42: "Rise of the Abomination"

Upon recognizing my devotion, Zenith transformed me into her most treasured warrior. We shared a Sacrum bond that connected us, and through it I could sense how her vitality was slowly fading.

Her strength will not last forever. I need… the Feather.

Blood poured from my mouth, running through my multiple lacerations. Jix approached, closing my wounds with his plants. Yet, that was not enough to soothe my suffering.

"Celebrate that, at least, you took his sword." Jix said, consoling me in the pitiful state I was in.

I unearthed the serpent from my abdomen and threw it into the Plague sea, where it merged with the darkness and was lost in its immensity.

He is right: Darek is unarmed. Yet, I can barely move; the pain is suffocating.

Xeroth concentrated the Plague into a minuscule focus, a tiny core, a point of pure destruction that made everything around it explode with an apocalyptic roar.

As I caught my breath, a titanic explosion unleashed, scattering debris like rain and fracturing the chaos of the storm.

Zenith is suffering, barely able to contain it. I must get the Feather, quickly. No matter if it costs me my life.

At that moment, Kaleron awakened. From the rings, an impossible light began to emerge, defying the absolute darkness of night and the red sun.

They cleared the darkness like rising suns, pushed away the infernal winds that swept wave after wave through our ordeal, and illuminated the terror of the most unfortunate souls.

In an instant, the accumulated brilliance turned into lightning that destroyed dozens of the Lord of Flagellum’s arms. Yet, it was not enough to quell his fury.

The city responded to our struggle. Just as it had against the World God of Ruin, now it acted against Xeroth.

"Let’s find Darek, we must take the Feather from him, quickly." Ordered Jix, impatient.

His size grew. He was no longer tiny like a doll that fit in my hands. Now he crawled on the ground, his mask reaching my forehead: he was regaining his original volume.

The storm struggled to reclaim lost territory, rising slender over the rings. The blazing red of its fury and the absolute black danced over Kaleron, trying to devour it completely.

"Do you think taking my sword will be enough to save you from misery?" Shouted Darek from one of the inverted islands wandering nearby.

"I think you will need more than the Feather to finish me." I replied, hiding my wounds as I rose.

Flows of Plague hovered around him, creating a bare wall that seemed to venerate him.

"Space and time are going crazy. Look around: these are images that occurred eons ago. My greatness has never before glimpsed anything like this." Jix said, marveling yet terrified.

They were fragments of a past time, scattered over the devastation consuming the city. They revealed scenes of Creation, up until moments ago, when Aurethys still retained its ostentatious brilliance.

A fissure opened beside Darek. Jix, mercilessly, moved across the islands and debris until he swept him with a wall of bushes. One by one, his attacks blocked his vision, preventing him from reacting properly.

I ran toward him, ignoring the burns that gnawed at my muscles, stiff, emaciated.

This is nothing, I’ve suffered worse because of him. Simple cuts will not kill me.

Jix beat Darek and summoned insects that clamped his limbs. Thus, frenzied, he managed to suffocate him in a tangle of roots and rotten fruits.

He distracts him using the same tricks he used in The Nether Hollows.

In a fit, Darek freed himself. However, it was too late for him: Jix had perfectly gagged him.

Entering one of the altered spaces, I transported myself near him. I used my will to make him lose balance and, with the strength I had left, struck him in the forehead. I delighted in seeing his brain sink into his skull.

He covered his face to endure the pain. Then Jix, with his red mask, pierced his body in a display of thousands of pointed fungi.

Seas of blood flooded the island.

This is what I was waiting for. Finally, the Feather will be mine.

As I approached to claim it, he moved his hands aside and looked at me with a mocking, playful air, betraying his delight. Evil and degradation had invaded every corner of his mind.

What’s wrong with him? Why does he enjoy this?

Then, with a breath of superiority, he hurled himself into the void, surrendering to the Plague.

"No! Stop him!" I implored Jix. "Grab him, take the Feather from him!"

It was too late. By the time Jix raised his branches to pursue his fall, he had already been consumed by the element.

Zenith, in a desperate attempt, inverted gravity. The world rotated on its own axis, the Plague began to lash like a viscous liquid as we all flew toward the sky.

No, the storm!

The tempest reached us once more, suffocating me. Its dense air could not enter my body. The lightning and thundering wind ground everything in their path.

"If you stay here any longer, you won’t survive." Said Jix, sheltering me within him.

Then we witnessed the rebirth of a shadow rising, untamed, rebelling against the fate we had imposed.

The hollow in his forehead transformed into a precious gem. From it, strands of Plague emerged, twisting like burning veins.

No, it’s not the Plague. They are the souls he absorbed in the mausoleum.

Three figures emerged from his back, forming white wings, riddled with blackened feathers, open eyes, and jaws exhaling icy breath.

Darek descended upon us, soaring through the air effortlessly, while we struggled to stay alive in that hostile environment.

"He remains unperturbed by the calamity brushing him. Not even a World God would survive this cataclysm."

That thing should not exist.

"The Silence nullifies everything… so who is he? Isn’t he supposed to be incompatible with the Plague?" I murmured, trembling with disbelief and fear.

"It’s not just him. The battle of Zenith and Xeroth is tearing the universe apart. What you see is a deformed echo, a profane birth." Jix explained with bitter certainty.

Then he is an aberration, even for the elements themselves. His existence defies not only the laws of the world but also his own being.

Doubts pierced my mind like a stinger. And yet, there he was: an unprecedented creature with the body that once belonged to a friend.

"Darek now wields a power that even the gods cannot comprehend." Jix declared with a trembling voice.

The ground shook. Around him, Plague creatures rose one by one. They were the knights who had given their body and soul to the Plague, who had shed their humanity.

They moved toward Zenith, whose lilac hair had been stained with her own blood.

As I traversed the cosmos, amidst a reality overflowing with chaos and violence, devoid of all logic, I glimpsed Darek’s face one last time.

Now he had transformed into a being dominated by the elements, an entity eternally marked by the curse that Silence and the Plague had consecrated in his essence.

His smile had vanished. He no longer needed to kill to satiate himself: in his new niche, he harbored an existence consumed by absolute hunger, an unrelenting desire to devour the entire world.