Chapter 64: The Journey Ends

For several tense minutes, Elias waited as his body healed itself from the brink of destruction, and then he heard the sound of his heart resuming its beat,

“Lub DubDub…”

His eyes flashed over to the Status Bar, and he saw an immediate change in his Stamina,

Vitality: 542 / 2385

Stamina: 001 / 613

The slight tension in his mind vanished when his Stamina began to slowly tick back up. While inside the body of this creature, his heart had stopped beating after it had been crushed and pierced through by his broken ribs. Only his insane regenerative talents had kept his cells alive and his mind active, but without a heart that could pump his blood around his body and enrich the starving cells, he could not regain energy or stamina.

Elias was now aware of another of his weaknesses. If his stamina was low or at zero, and his heart was destroyed, he would not be able to move until his heart returned. He would have to watch out for this, because he did not want to find himself in a helpless position.

The battle was over, and as much as Elias would like to delve into his Lumina Space to assess all of his benefits and allow his Elder Talent to begin making changes to his body, he was aware that he could no longer stay inside this Fragment.

The creature he had killed had not died in silence, and he knew that it was not the only one here in the darkness. If he did not want to die, then he needed to leave, and when he returned, he would be more powerful and more aware of his surroundings than ever before.

Elias sighed once more as he pushed back the desire to enter his Lumina Space and slowly came to his feet, and his eyes fell upon the remains of the mountainous creature that had shrunken until it was barely bigger than a small cat. Where did all of that mass go? Could it be possible that for a creature like this, most of its body mass was pure energy?

He watched as the remnants continued to shrink until they collapsed into ashes, and Elias sighed, but before he could look away, something rose up from the ashes, and he arched an eyebrow when he saw that it was a flower that resembled a golden rose.

Curiosity forced him to move towards the flower; he bent down and peered closely at it.

This flower had only a single red stem, filled with black thorns, and five golden petals that wrapped themselves into a shape reminiscent of a rose. Elias inhaled, and a pleasant scent entered his nose, and then his heart stopped.

He took a step back and went to his knees. He could feel his vision beginning to dim, but after a minute, his heart restarted, and his vision returned. “What a vicious poison,” he gasped, and he looked at the flower with a glow in his eyes.

He walked back to it, and this time he made sure he was not breathing. Bending down, he gently picked up the rose by its stem with two of his finger nails, not allowing any of it to touch his fingers.

The decision was a wise one, as the fingernails he used in touching them turned black, but after a while, that blackness faded. Bringing the rose closer to his face and not daring to breathe, Elias looked closely at what remained of this creature, and he had no idea what it was.

Its bloom was about ten centimeters in diameter, which was a bit too large for just five petals, but Elias knew that this was not a rose; it only looked like one, and its stem was a little bit over nine inches long.

He recalled that the Commander had told him he could find treasures here, and he wondered if this poisonous rose was one of those treasures. Well, he could find out later; he needed a safe way to store it before he left, and he thought he had just the thing.

His Ascendant Swarm had obeyed him when he created a spear, and Elias had picked up certain tricks in controlling the swarm after that experience. He began to focus his thoughts on what he wanted, painting a clear picture in his head, and then, carrying this thought with his Will, he sent it towards the Ascendant Swarm.

There was a slight delay of three seconds, and then purple motes of light began to drift out of his fingers, and instead of creating blades, they covered the entire rose like a thin film.

It no longer had the color of a golden rose with red stems and black thorns; now it was a purple rose with thin strands of gold running across its length. He brought it to his waist, and it stuck to the side of his hips, as the purple knee-length breeches created by the swarm held it fast.

Elias looked around the cavern, and then he noticed that this place was not naturally made. He was inside what he would describe as a massive hall, and on the far walls were runes and drawings that he could barely see.

His curiosity was on fire, but then he began to hear the growls and whispers, and it was in a deeper, more grunting language that seemed to be a close cousin of whatever language the creature he had just killed was using, but the Passenger had no problem translating it for him.

“Khrath vael’thraem saethar’khor.”

“The mother of the shattered lies broken.”

Ekias knew that his welcome was over, and because he had been lucky enough to face a powerful monster with a unique weakness he could exploit, that did not mean he would be able to do the same with what was coming; he needed to recuperate and rest.

Allowing his mind to connect to the part of his consciousness that was linked to the Fragment, Elias felt the space around him begin to blur, and he could feel his body begin to fade. Suddenly, all the whispers stopped, and Elias felt his heart becoming tense… something was wrong. He could feel that one of the spots of cold, the Fragment of Divinity that was on the far end of the map, had suddenly appeared near him.

Feeling eyes on him, Elias looked over, and he saw a small face peering at him from the cracks in the wall. Squinting his eyes, Elias looked closer, and he could draw more details from the face.

He observed that this was a boy who was about five years old, and his estimation was correct when the child slipped through the crack in the wall as if his body was made of liquid.

The boy was naked, but his private part was so long that it trailed in between his legs like a serpent, and he began to slowly walk towards Elias, and he immediately noticed three things: the first was that his body was fading far too slowly, and he would be screwed if he was in danger and wanted to quickly leave this Fragment. The second observation was that this body resembled all the gigantic, mutated babies that he had seen.

The boy walked to Elias, and he smiled, his teeth shining white, before he spoke,

“Khrath vael’saethar myr’khor… vael’kyris enu thraem’voryn saethar, vael’saethar enu.”

“You have slain my broken whore… when you return more whole, I will end you.”

These were the last words in Elias’s head before he vanished.

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