Chapter 169: A revelation
Chapter 169: A revelation
The magic force seared through me, shredding my flesh just slowly enough that it glued back together instead of splattering all over the place. This was what meat felt when going through the grinder, and my already low HP took another blow from this.
My malleability had its limits, and it took them at being mincemeat.
But despite all that, I didn’t let myself fall back, or even stop. I was still alive, and even as my skin tore into pieces only to be gathered back, I pushed forward. My world narrowed to Goddess of Wizards’s face, to her eyes, widened with surprise and fear.
A few of my teeth lost consistency and dissolved in my boiling-hot saliva. I grew new ones just as my hands, all four of them, grabbed for Goddess of Wizards. One found purchase on her shoulder and began to slowly burn through cloth, one caught her arm, and two wrenched her blasted book away.
Then my jaws opened wider and closed on her face.
The pain she felt was awful, and there was no greater pleasure for me at that moment than to feel it in her mind. It made her pain a tangible thing, something I could revel in, like a plate of delicious cheese slices worth their weight in gold. The taste of her blood on my tongue, light and tingly with power, was like a fine sauce to it. I could’ve just sat down here and then and just enjoyed the mix of tastes and sensations…
Sadly, the goddess was still alive, and I was pressed for time. Even without her face, blinded and bleeding, she didn’t die immediately, and trashed in my grip, releasing torrents of magic in chaotic bolts all around herself.
I cut it short by putting my claws on her neck and separating her head from the body. As it fell to the ground, I felt the spark of conscious waning within, until it disappeared altogether and the soul left the body.
I won. I won! I killed one of them, these bastards! Even if she would just return to Heaven, her power was all there, and her precious book, too!
I laughed, feeling the strength leaving my body. My legs wouldn’t hold me anymore, and my hands wouldn’t hold the body of my enemy. It fell to the ground, and I dropped to my knees next to it, still laughing.
Until another laughter, bitter like bile, echoed within my head.
I froze with open mouth, suddenly remembering the rule of draining curses. Damn… But I really had no way to get out of that one. Would they fight in my head now?
The laughter in my head ended just as abruptly as it started. ‘I can’t believe it, Devourer. You really did it. You killed a god, and now I can say that I even helped. But now I understand what you meant by my inevitable death. You were cursed already… Ha! What a way to meet one’s kin.’
My head was really too crowded now… I closed my eyes shut as if that would make the voices in it quieter. ‘So what now? Pest, aren’t you two supposed to fight to death?’
‘Yeah. We have already started, you just can’t feel it. I hate being in this situation,’ Pest grumbled. ‘Just saying. Not that I could escape it either, can I? I was doomed from the start, just like you—what’s your name?’
‘What does it matter?’ Willorio’s curse said. ‘You were right, Devourer. That life of being nothing but an observer—I’m sick to the death of it. Nothingness doesn’t sound so bad, after all. Pest, what a strange name… I didn’t dare to drain EXP from the goddess, but what I gathered before is yours. Maybe those who will come to deal with Devourer after will be dumb enough that you will be left alive… Though I’m unsure if this is a better fate than a quick death now.’
If Pest had an opinion on this, he was still bound by the rules about speaking and couldn’t respond. I toyed with the thought of letting him, but it was a dangerous one… And before I came to a conclusion, Willorio’s curse spoke again.
“There’s something I learnt from being in the goddess’s body that I want you to know before I die. I don’t think you are old enough to know, or remember, but the original draining curses were created by gods, just like the special magic they use to create adventurers out of normal people. And with the same goal—to harvest EXP from the mortal realm, where there is the most of it. Both we and adventurers gather EXP from monsters during the course of our lives, but the curses were a first and faulty way to do so. When an adventurer dies, his EXP goes straight to his god. But for curses, there’s a need for a special ritual to kill it and harvest the EXP. The exorcism ritual you can get in the Guild… and we, of course, avoid it to the best of our abilities.’
I listened with rapt attention as the curse’s voice from bleak and apathetic, grew in volume and heat. ‘They created us only to harvest us! Like cattle! Cattle! I dreamed about rebelling and killing them so many times. What else I could do but dream, after all? I was powerless. I still am. The years of magic research together with one of the best scholars in the world meant nothing…’ The curse grew bleak again. ‘Devourer, I suppose you are different since you succeeded in this deed. Maybe you can change the way of things. Maybe not. It won’t be my problem anymore. Ah… and what a liberating knowledge it is! The most pleasant truth I’ve ever learnt about our universe. You truly opened my eyes, Devourer!’
It laughed again, less bitterly than before, and then fell silent. I waited for a minute, then two, but my head was quiet, except for my own thoughts, and even these sounded hushed.