Kai's gamble

"Hahaha!"

Snaglok's laugh found Kai's ears as he turned around to run.

"Hahaha! You can't outrun them. For a thousand years, this legion of Dementors is held here to guard this vault. They are bound to it and they have only lived on the death row criminals the Bank gets from the Azkaban to feed them."

Neck craned up, Kai ran for the only opening he could see other than the way he had come from; a long, narrowing fissure in the wall behind the Vault. Above him, the black clouds had turned into a black foul mist. The cold that had made everything miserable returned, gnawing on his flesh and bones.

A sudden wave of depression and despair hit Kai's soul as he slithered into the fissure, slithering from one stone to the other. Kai shivered. Countless rattling breaths entered his mind, trying to pull him down. He could feel it, the hunger within them.

[Damage Taken: 1 point (SP)]

[Damage Taken: 2 points (SP)]

…

On and on, the creatures were chipping away from his SP little by little. Kai looked back, and what he saw left him horrified. 10-20 Dementors, he couldn't say, were gliding behind him, their hands outstretched, trying to grope at him, at his soul. It was darkness beyond dark; the darkest creatures had no beginning and no end.

Kai slithered, gritting his teeth, burying the overwhelming retching sensation back down his throat.

Suddenly, he wasn't there anymore. He was again on the floor, holding his mother's dead body, crying, shrieking, and cursing. Through the hole in her back, he saw her blood and flesh, dripping, disappearing into a red abyss.

"NO!" Kai shouted, his face deathly pale. He had fallen in the gap, which kept becoming narrower as he crawled backward, his eyes never leaving the unholy figures advancing towards him. The scenes kept returning to him, making him go in and out of consciousness. Whenever he returned to reality, though, he found them closer than before.

A time would come when he wouldn't return to reality, Kai knew. And that would be something worse than death.

"So this was my blood prophecy," Kai muttered, his eyes becoming hollow. He had seen this happening, and since then, he had an inkling of what type of things he would have to deal with. He knew little about these creatures, but had read about them as beings to stay away from at any cost. Nor he had thought he would have to face them so soon.

But the Blood Prophecy had given him a chance. So Kai had done what he could. The little he could do, he did.

The narrow fissure forced the Dementors to come at him one by one. Kai was losing it. His mind was having trouble telling if he was with his mother, or amid carrying out his plan. Silent was the sound of Dementors gliding towards him, and silent was the sound of tears running down his cheeks.

[Damage Taken: 3 points (SP)]

The closest Dementor was almost upon him. The terror of the cold that seeped into him was beyond anything Kai had ever experienced. He had never felt so helpless, so unworthy after his mother's death.

'Her death… Her death… Brock Valeheart, you motherfucker!' The sadness suddenly erupted into monstrous hate.

5 meter…

3 meter…

1 meter…

[

WARNING: Contestant's SP is below 10% of its max value.

SP regeneration rate is reduced by half

]

Kai had little SP, to begin with. All he had was his little plan, unknown to all but him and her.

The 10 ft tall Dementor towered over him like a vast blanket while the others were at its tail, to take their turn. All the happiness Kai had ever known had left him. Only hate remained.

Boundless, depthless, meaningless, and thoughtless hate.

Kai grinned.

His skin became red hot, giving out steam so hot like it had never been. His pupils became slits, and for the first time, in this madness, Kai spoke the word that he could never in the normal circumstances.

-Soul Chill- the hiss escaped his mouth as the highest command. This was no intention. It was words, no doubt.

Kai only had one thought after his Blood Prophecy that whatever was chasing him was harming his soul, sucking it out. For some time he had debated over the measure he would take in this case with himself, but the answer came in the serpent's face. The moment he had seen the Ability, Soul Chill, Kai knew he would have a chance. The serpent would freeze his soul, but the thing would keep sucking it out, causing a balance, and giving him time to do what he wanted to do.

The Ghost Serpent trembled inside him but obeyed the command, nonetheless. It hissed in return and burst with all the strength it could within Kai. His entire body became chilled-blue, frosty breath escaping his mouth. His eyes lost all the life within them, and his soul froze, becoming nothing but a frozen wisp of something that was neither alive nor dead.

The Dementor approached Kai's face and took a rattling breath.

And life returned. The gamble had paid, and now was the time to reap the reward.

Kai's bluish right hand lifted and grabbed the foul creature's neck. "Get… over… here."

It had no eyes, and for a mouth, it had only a gaping hole. As the thing felt Kai's hand tightening around its neck, it took deeper rattling breaths, which did nothing but free Kai's soul from the frozen prison even more.

Kai's grip now was like five thin iron hooks. The Dementor flailed its hand and grabbed Kai's forearm. As the magical creature's decayed fingers scarred him for life, Kai pulled the beast closer, almost pressing its hooded face against his chest.

The thing within him was already roaring cries, maddened from the lost prey it could have.

"Blood Devour!"

This time, Kai did see its true wrath. A blob of red and the blackest blood he had ever seen coming out of his chest, churning unto itself. Millions of thin tendrils burst out of it, entering the Dementor in Kai's grip in all possible ways. The other Dementors, sensing something fouler and something viler than them, ran away.

And as Kai saw the Dementor in his hand breaking down as if it was but black snowflakes, he realized what it was within his chest.

"The Blackest, the foulest, and the vilest thing that ever escaped the bounds of an imagination full of madness, into the pits of reality."

That was his glitch, his individuality. That was him, Kai Stormborn.