Chapter 14B: Extraneous Solutions

Though I never cared at all about righteous reasons, I could feel Elijah’s remains roar on inside my head as if he were vicariously driven to defeat the dark queen with his own power. I conceded to his request and then activated the power I had stolen from his soul; I augmented everything I had as if I awakened in that moment. Even the darkness became clear as his power heightened my acuity. With my sword in my hand, I raced toward the staircase from the side and jumped clear over its edge. When my feet fell firmly upon the stairs, I steadied my sword and erupted up the staircase. With every stairstep to pass beneath me, I felt another emotion inside my churning mind drive me onward. I had become a living cemetery for lost souls – a chimeric polymerization of my many victims, and with what little they had left, they all shouted valiantly and vigorously as if to vindicate my vicarious campaign.

The underworld queen unleashed her storm of energy blades as I raced along the staircase, but with my augmented agility, I evaded eleven strikes. I knocked three more aside in a series of slashes which succeeded only by my doubled dexterity. Two blades struck my body with a burst of blood, but Elijah’s power had also amplified my durability. Her attacks were as powerless as the bite of an ant against a boot as it comes crashing through their castle made of dirt. She understood the urgency of her situation and threw herself backward with a glare of alarm, and then her henchman threw himself at me with two daggers in his hands. I could see both fear and hunger in his eyes as clearly as I could see an Array of Black Fire etched into each blade. He quickly steadied himself into a defensive stance, but his efforts were wasted because that was the same moment when my right foot reached the level floor at the top of the staircase.

Without the slope pulling me back, I erupted across the short distance between us and plunged my sword through the daggerman’s chest. It struck with so much force that blood and bone burst from his body. His eyes widened as black fire emerged from my sword and engulfed his helpless body. Blood leaked from the corners of his mouth, but I glared into his dark brown eyes as my soul devoured his.

“Your death is your own fault, and that is something you must see. Your death is your fault because you dared to stand against me. You are cursed by your power only to reflect someone else; you were cursed by your soul to have no power for yourself. Perhaps when you join the other victims in my head, you will realize in the end you are more valuable when you’re dead. Your power is a potent factor placed in my equation, and with your weapon in my hand I will rise to the occasion. It’s a shame you paid the price with your life for her lies,” I said to my victim as Bellaina glared into my eyes.

And though this victim could serve as a shield from her storm, I used the full extent of my strength to tear my sword through his lifeless body. After throwing her henchman to the ground as if he were nothing more than garbage, I swung my sword to face Bellaina. Though she now clenched an engraved sword of her own, she chose instead to invoke the power which had horrified me when I saw it for the first time. She summoned a scattershot of energy blades and then unleashed them at a high speed like hail in a vicious storm. It was in that moment that I realized that even Bellaina herself did not understand the power I possessed, and therefore I employed the power I had most recently stolen. With a tiny shift of my hand, I stole her weapons from mid-air and launched them instead at the other henchman just a short distance away. Bellaina’s blades barreled through his body in a bloodbath. He slammed against the nearest wall and fell to his butt, but he would never stand again. Her blades had pierced his neck, his lungs, his stomach, and every extremity.

“If you are the dark queen, then the dark I will devour. Everyone I kill surrenders their soul to my power. I am the human form of the demon which once haunted all this land, but you are nothing more than the queen of an empire made of sand. You lived your life to die as a mere drop inside my ocean; the blood and sweat you sacrificed will serve as nothing more than lotion. Your only mark upon this world will be your ashes in the mud, and I will forge your bones into a bracelet for my love. Everything you ever built is nothing more than my buffet,” I said to the dark queen as she slowly backed away.

“We all feed on lost souls, but in you they remain intact,” Bellaina said as if their souls had all been forced into a pact.

“It means at least you will join me in the moment of your death. This is a contract for immortality signed by your final breath. You can continue to flail in the darkness like a rodent, or you can join into me where you will be the most potent. I know someone with your business sense can predict the prognosis – that all this world will burn as fuel for our apotheosis. Aeliana and I will consume all other life in the end, so reality itself is something that we will both transcend. The only way out is to hitch a ride inside my soul, or else all you ever had ends when I burn this city whole. I would prefer that you not die and then just simply fade away, and this is because I still owe you a debt I never could repay. So will you die for nothing or live forever inside me?” I asked as I lifted my sword to show that her death was guaranteed.

Bellaina held her sword with both hands as she glared into my eyes. I could see that her confident authority drove her to reconsider, but she had only made it this far in life because of her realism. She saw reality as it was without wishing it away, so she could easily tell that she had no chance against me. She did not know before we fought that I had inherited the powers of my victims, and so she had trapped herself when she tried instead to trap me. Realizing that I was her only way to live on, she dropped her sword onto the tile with a clamor. She glared at me and nodded, so I sank my sword inside her stomach with my augmented strength. The Array of Black Fire activated on my sword and ignited her body with the dark flames which would burn through her soul.

I stood over the dark queen in stillness as small sounds scattered the shadows and shattered the silence surrounding us. I heard a quiet patter emanating from the basement staircase. The other henchman struggled to breathe heavily in the background as he watched Bellaina burn beneath me. I turned to watch his blood slowly spill from the countless lacerations which scattered his body. When I retrieved my sword from Bellaina and wiped her blood on the nearest doorframe, I realized that this henchman watched my blade in horror. He shivered as he watched me as if he were transfixed by the edge of my sword.

He whimpered out the words as if he doubted they were true, “You said a soul can live on forever inside you. I know I won’t survive the wounds I have, and… I just want to escape this pain. Can you do the same for me? Can you kill me with the Array?”

But I glared into his blue eyes and then answered with disdain, “I do not owe you any debt nor do I have something to gain. I witnessed the power you possess and felt it for myself, but to devour your soul with mine would simply compromise my health. Your power and your heart are just as worthless as your life; I have a sword and a gun so I have no reason for a knife. Bellaina was a warrior to whom I owed a solemn debt, but you are a sycophant whom this world will soon forget. So I refuse the request on which you wasted your last breath, but at the very least I will be here to watch your painful death. I will not devour you since I don’t eat tainted meat; I am a cauldron of lost souls becoming ever more complete. But Aeliana is no cauldron but a bright fire instead. She will burn your soul to ashes and leave it permanently dead. A lacky and a sycophant have no place within my world.”

Note: There is one more part to this chapter.