Chapter 105: Dragon of Calamity
Jim stared at the shadow figure, trying to process what he'd just heard.
The Ego of Earth. A being that supposedly commanded all Dragons, including the one currently demolishing Umbros. Had just called them cunts.
"Um...", Jim started carefully, still kneeling under the oppressive pressure, "We need your help to—"
"Did I fucking ask what you need, you shit?", Tiamat snarled, their crimson eyes blazing brighter, "I asked where that crazy bitch Charlotte went."
Lea's eye twitched. Even in her half-conscious state, the sheer contrast between the being's imposing presence and their vocabulary was jarring.
"She... she left...", Solafant was strained, "But she said you could command the Dragon—"
"Command Curruid? That bastard?", Tiamat let out a laugh that sounded like grinding metal, "Why the fuck would I do that? Little shit's finally having some fun."
"Fun?!", Lea screamed, then immediately regretted it as her head pounded, "It's destroying a city!!"
"So? What's the big deal?", the shadow figure shrugged, an oddly casual gesture, "Cities get rebuilt. Happens all the fucking time on Earth. You lot are so fucking dramatic about everything."
Jim tried again, forcing politeness into his voice despite his bleeding shoulder and exhaustion, "Please, there are innocent people—"
"Oh, boo-fucking-hoo~", Tiamat interrupted, making a mocking crying gesture, "Listen here, you pathetic deformed little retarded fuck. Curruid is doing exactly what Dragons are supposed to do, fucking up Outsiders who don't belong. That spider cunt up there? That's an Outsider, Curruid's just doing his job."
"By leveling an entire city?!", Lea shouted, unable to see from the point of view of a planet built upon corpses.
"Collateral damage, fuckers!!", Tiamat said mockingly with an invisible smile, "Not my fucking problem!! Now piss off so I can go back to sleep. Charlotte will come get me eventually."
The shadow figure began to sink back toward the cane, preparing to retreat into the fragment.
"Wait!!", Jim lunged forward, trying to grab the shadowy form. His hand passed straight through, "Please, just... just make it stop after the Star God is dead! That's all we're asking!"
Tiamat paused, crimson eyes narrowing, "And why the fuck should I care what you're asking?"
"Because...", Jim scrambled for an answer, "Because Charlotte summoned you for a reason?"
"That bitch summons me whenever the hell she feels like it; she already uses my power as she pleases. I don't have to do shit.", Tiamat's form rippled with annoyance.
"Let me tell you something, you little shit. I don't give a single flying FUCK about this world, its people, or whatever the HELL Charlotte's planning. I'm the Ego of Earth! EARTH!! Not this backwater shithole."
Behind them, another explosion rocked the city as Curruid smashed The Demise Ground through a residential district.
"So here's what's going to happen.", Tiamat continued, voice dropping to something almost pleasant, which somehow made it more terrifying, "I'm going back into that cane, chilling until Charlotte decides to reunite me with my body. Curruid will finish his fight here and set off to a new life as an invasive species, the city will be rubble, and you three will either survive or you won't!!"
They began sinking further into the darkness pooling around the cane.
"I don't give a fuck either way..."
The three look at the cane that has just been tipped over.
"Well, that was a massive waste of time.", Solafant said, staring back at the two monsters still fighting.
Cautiously, Jim picked the cane up. Even if it housed an Ego of another world, he had seen how Charlotte used it.
So maybe... just maybe...
He can do the same.
"No.", Solafant took the cane from him, "Your condition is not optimal."
Jim nodded in frustration, accepting the logic. This was not how it was meant to be...
"I know how to use it, Charlotte said something like 'Walpurgis Festival, commence' to activate it!!"
Solafant nodded, glancing at Lea, who was already kneeling. She was exhausted and could not keep going.
They raised the cane, pointing it toward the battling titans.
"Walpurgis Festival...", Solafant's voice rang out clear despite the chaos, "Commence!!"
They pushed the cane forward slightly.
Reality screamed as power went berserk.
A massive beam of pure darkness erupted from the cane's tip. Something that Solafant is too familiar with - the absence that devoured everything.
Void
The beam was massive, easily fifty meters wide, carving through the air with a sound like the universe itself tearing apart. They could feel their hand being burned by the absence.
Curruid's reptilian head snapped toward them, crimson eyes focusing on the incoming attack. The Dragon moved, grabbing The Demise Ground's spider body with all four claws and wrestling the Star God into position.
The spider shrieked, legs flailing, trying to escape. Yet too late.
The beam struck The Demise Ground, causing its body to explode in purple ichor and black smoke, the sheer force of Tiamat's power overwhelming even a Star God's defenses. Panels manifested desperately, trying to redirect, absorb, contain—
Yet the darkness consumed them all.
But Curruid didn't escape unscathed. The beam pushed both creatures backward with tremendous force, the Dragon's claws still locked around the dying Star God. Thirty meters of muscular beast skidded across the city, through buildings, through streets, leaving a canyon of destruction in its wake.
The ocean loomed ahead.
With one final roar that sounded annoyed, Curruid and the remnants of The Demise Ground crashed into the water. The impact sent a wave fifty feet high rushing back toward shore.
Then silence.
The beam dissipated. Solafant collapsed from handling the cane, letting it go clatter to the ground. Jim caught them before they fell completely.
"Did... did we...?", Jim asked, voice hoarse.
Solafant nodded weakly, "The Star God is probably dead. Curruid... probably retreating to recover."
They had seen its body regenerating slowly after the blast, so the Dragon is still alive...
Jim let out a shaky laugh, relief flooding through him, "We survived... we actually—"
He turned to share the victory with Lea.
She was lying motionless on the ground.
"Lea!!", Jim scrambled over, "Lea, wake up! It's over! We won!!"
But Lea didn't respond. Her eyes were closed, breathing shallowly. The tears had finally stopped, but only because consciousness had fled entirely.
Her mind had retreated somewhere they couldn't follow.
=0=0=
The mirror world greeted Lea with its familiar wrongness.
Endless reflective surfaces stretched in all directions, each one showing a different version of herself.
Lea didn't stand. Simply curled up where she appeared, knees to chest, arms wrapped tight around herself.
And she cried.
Not the silent tears her body had shed during the hunting games. Real, broken sobs that tore from her throat.
I can't... I can't do this anymore... she choked out between sobs... I thought... I thought becoming stronger would help... yhought Fourth Step would be enough. But it's not... It's never enough...
The mirrors showed her reflection weeping. Showed her the monster she'd become while hunting Jim and Solafant. Showed her every victim she'd caged, every moment of helpless horror.
Sinclair destroyed my town... I couldn't stop her. The Tome of Light nearly killed me, I couldn't fight it. The Zankur army almost ended me, Charlotte had to save me. And now... now even a fragment of something incomprehensible can just... just take me, use me like a puppet...
Make me hurt people against my will...
Her soundless voice cracked, dissolved into silent tears. Never had she felt so violated before.
Around her, the faceless pale demons emerged from the mirrors.
Dozens of them. Humanoid shapes with smooth, blank faces and too-long limbs. They moved with unsettling fluidity, approaching her from all sides.
Lea didn't run or even look up.
What was the point?
She'd felt it again. That pit of absolute despair. The same helplessness she'd felt before becoming a Pathstrider, when Sinclair held her down and forced corruptive mud down her throat. When the Tome of Light's gaze had nearly obliterated her mind. When the Zankur army surrounded her, she'd pushed herself until her body gave out.
And now this.
Forced to hunt, forced to hurt. Forced to watch herself become a monster while screaming uselessly inside her own skull.
The demons surrounded her completely now, their blank faces tilted down toward her huddled form.
Just take me... Lea whispered, although no sound exists here, it is clear to anyone that she is broken... I don't care anymore. I'm tired. So, so tired...
The demons reached out with pale hands. And Lea didn't resist at all, letting their claws touch her.