Lewd King's Bucket List

It was quiet.

Usually after battling such a force, it would only draw more Scourge to the area, but that didn't seem to be the case.

Perhaps we killed so many we scared the others away!

Like the Scourge have fear…

What was more likely was that the amount of life to taint had dwindled to such a small amount that the Scourge were no longer drawn to our small group; instead heading for other forces either north or south.

Not that I, or anyone else really, complained.

We were drained. Defeated. Exhausted.

Done.

We were stronger, but weaker than ever before.

Many lost ‌family members who were their only reason for fighting. People like Lor who lost his daughter. Drath lost two of his sons and apparently almost his daughter too. Tristan and Marcus lost their father. Their mother too, but her death was self-inflicted upon hearing the news of her husband.

In fact, of the 96 of us, merely one campaigned that instead of recuperating we should go assist others who were getting hounded as a result of our line falling.

Hope, that heroic bastard.

Not that any of us agreed.

As for Cecelia and me…

Her irises seemed to shine through the slits of her visor as she held the ridges of my armor.

"W-where's Coraline! You were with her! Where is she?!"

With a placid tone, I replied:

"Despair took her away."

I couldn't see it; her face obscured by the metal prison none of us dared take off, but I could hear the faint hiss escaping from her mouth.

"T-thank… Thank the gods!"

She slumped to the floor and cried.

That was the first and one of two times she cried in her life.

But, where was she?

Where were Coraline and Despair?

What were they up to?

Well, I was about to find out.

As Cecelia knelt on the floor, crying and praying upon her blade, a hand fell upon the pauldron of my armor.

"Let me borrow you for a quick sec."

The next moment, I was in a memory.

But this was no ordinary memory.

Something was wrong with it. It was incomplete… fading. Tainted.

As for the space…

It was someplace I'd never seen before.

I was in a dark stairwell with only one path, down. I turned, looking up only to spot a wall. At my side was Despair

He stood a step lower than me with a smile plastered on his face as he gestured for me to follow. His bleak eyes were shining, and he had a genuine smile on his face.

"Now, now, Ixion, I think I've had a breakthrough!"

His voice was so cheery it almost moved my spirits from the depths into which they had just fallen. Though another side of me was pissed at Despair for being cheery at all.

Where was he during that fight?

"You know how Coraline can dissolve into shadows?"

"Of course."

I hadn't even had a full day to process the grief and loss.

"Well, I've been doing research on the subliminal world. I think I've found a way to counter the Scourge!"

My eyes lit up for a moment.

Only a moment.

The moment I took the last step from the stone steps and onto planar ground, I was introduced to the other side of Despair.

The mad scientist.

"We've always thought the Scourge tainted the physical body, but no! We were wrong, so wrong!"

The room was dark, dimly lit by candles. All around were test tubes with unconscious people inside. Cages where weak Scourge were housed. Much like your father's workstation.

And in the middle of the room was a table.

I was too stunned by what I saw to be mad.

"Despair, what is the meaning of this?"

On top of that table was Coraline, naked and covered in blood, her body split cleanly down the middle.

"Ixion. I know it looks bad, but hear me out. You'll understand once I explain."

I listlessly stared over the body of Coraline, studying the soul flickering inside ‌her. A soul that was wrong. All wrong.

"…Explain."

My voice came out flatter than I intended. Not anger. Not grief. Just… hollow.

Despair brightened, as if I'd indulged him with a compliment. In fact, this was the happiest and most expressive I'd ever seen that man.

"Yes. Yes, of course! You see it too, don't you?"

He stepped beside the table, fingers hovering just above Coraline's split form.

"Her body is ruined, yes, but that's not the point. This is what I brought you here for. Tell me, what does her soul look like? If my theory is correct…"

I was already looking.

Where there should have been cohesion — threads wound tightly into a singular flame — there was… separation. Fracture. Like two melodies forced to play out of sync; a second rhythm pulsing beneath hers. Faint and parasitic.

"They don't infect the flesh," Despair continued.

He was pacing around the table, tracing the edge with his hands clasped behind his back.

"Not primarily. That's just a symptom — a consequence. They infect the soul's architecture. They embed themselves into the subliminal layer; the part of the soul that governs instinct, impulse, desire."

He stopped, turning to me with that same awful smile.

"They rewrite it."

I didn't respond.

Because I knew he was right.

I'd seen it. In the way the Scourge moved. In the way they hunted. In the way even the strongest would turn and become something else entirely.

Despair's grin widened as he added:

"They're not corrupting. Like a parasite, they control the mind. So, the infected are not really dead, but simply lost and replaced. And seeing them as creatures and not a force of nature, their motives are so obvious! In life, a creature's only motive is to reproduce! Now, has the Scourge not been doing that this entire time?! But, let me ask you this. With that in mind… What if we killed the parasite of the Scourge as it changes one's mind? Think about the implications! They'd be infected by the Scourge, recognized by them, but still human at their core!"

I was silent as I stepped forward and lay my hand on the side of the table.

He gestured sharply toward Coraline.

"I know, I know. She was important to Cecelia, but I'm sure you understand this research is much more valuable than one life. She was perfect for this. Her ability — dissolving into shadows — it's not just physical. She can partially separate her soul from her body and dip into a subliminal plane."

Despair draped his hand over Coraline's face and pulled back her bangs, revealing her empty eye socket, which oozed a steady stream of inky black. The mark of the Scourge.

"I needed to expose the infection without letting it spread beyond control. Thankfully, I could give it direct access to her brain through this gash..."

My gaze dropped again to Coraline.

Her lips were parted slightly, unmoving. Her eyes, half-lidded, stared at nothing.

"Then all I had to do was systematically destroy all factors in her brain before the Scourge had a chance to alter them. And, left with nowhere to go, the mark of infection has simply been toiling there! Isn't this discovery marvelous?! I might have just discovered immunity!"

Her soul…

It twitched. A thin, shadowed filament wriggled against the brighter half, gnawing at it, burrowing deeper.

I muttered softly.

"She's still alive."

Despair nodded eagerly.

"Of course she is. That's the brilliance of it! Her body and mind are dead, yet she lives."

His voice sharpened, conviction bleeding through the cheer.

"Now all that's left is distracting the mark!"

I asked quietly.

"…And the cost?"

Despair tilted his head.

"The cost?"

I stepped away from the table, my hands falling to my side.

"What's the cost to her?"

Despair smiled

"In her case? She'll die. But, with the knowledge gained from her I should be able to spare future patients! They'd be mindless hollows, but they'd be immune to the Scourge."

"I see… How much longer does she have to live?"

Despair smiled, then said.

"Ironically, it's the Scourge's mark which is holding her together. So, she'll die once I extract it."

Ixion's vacant stare fell on Despair. Then, imbuing his words with [Noble], he ordered.

"Extract it."

"Huh?" Despair's body began to move on its own. "No! Wait! Ixion! There's more to learn!"

Yet, his hands found their ways to the tools and began moving.

Looking away from Despair, Ixion focused on the suffused soul. He studied it intently with [Karmic Soul], feeling at where Scourge and her soul pushed against one another like oil and water.

Then he reached out and touched it.

It felt just like the thousands he'd slaughtered in the past.

Looking over, he watched as Despair began to extract the last bit. Then, he looked back at Coraline and watched her begin to die.

But…

Ixion demanded with [Noble].

"Live."

The bits of her flesh began to coagulate and mesh together. But that wasn't enough. As long as the Scourge stained her soul, her will would remain hollow.

Ixion felt the Aether rapidly drain from him as he demanded repeatedly.

"Live. Live. Live…"

Then he activated [Soul Shatter], precisely sundering her soul. Removing the blighted portion.

"Live."

Thirty minutes passed.

When I was done, I stepped away and fell to my knees.

Despair stepped back, watching with a delighted expression.

"Ixion… this is… marvelous! Since when could you pull off such a spectacular feat!"

The woman began to faintly breathe. Her soul daring to persist despite losing half of itself.

I'd saved a woman.

But, Coraline?

I didn't save her.

All I saved was the idea of her.