64. Pact
From the back of her own mind Celia watched her other selves fight. Saw how outmatched she was by E-10, and saw her life preserved twice over. She watched in awe of Discipline's swordsmanship. Enviously looked on as Vice weathered pain like it was nothing at all to her.
She had watched and wished she was that capable as herself. But envy soon turned to horror when Vice suddenly, and without any warning, turned her eyes inward. Not towards Discipline and her but towards the crystal that had found its way into her chest. That shard of E-10's essence, that had granted him the power to return from death.
And she was looking at it with pure hunger. A look Celia recognized on her own face all too easily.
But that didn't enable her to do anything about it.
She could only watch in terror as Vice reached into their chest and ripped the shard out. Holding it up to her face, staring at it, studying it, and then she spoke to it.
"Dead. Dead. You are dead. But you do not have to stay dead."
Vice, what are you doing? Discipline asked for the second time.
She received no answer.
"Refuse it. Fight it. Claim it. Become me."
The shard flew into the socket where her missing eye used to be.
Vice screamed.
Discipline screamed.
Celia screamed.
And somewhere, in the furthest reaches of her own mind, she heard Paradox laugh, triumphantly. As if she had waited for this exact moment.
Celia would've fumed with rage if not for the excruciating pain that threatened to consume her. That hit her mind like a hammer. Like steel on steel. A ringing sensation that sent cracks and fissures throughout the whole of her being as something embedded itself not just in her skull but in her very self.
It was a sensation she was not completely unfamiliar with. Like the parasite. Only this time, there was no struggle. No fight for dominance. But a bridge that connected. Arms reaching out and clasping each other as the world near collapsed around them. One taking in the other like welcoming a stranger into their home.
And soon, the stranger was no longer a stranger.
Pact made
Skill gained!
Essence drinker
Cost accrued
Your fate drifts ever further and the Beyond marks you Aberrant
Celia shifted. Sense of self displaced for a moment. A cascade of different hers sliding over her, overwriting her, drowning her.
And then she was back. She was herself. Vice was in her head again, and Discipline was screaming. Asking her why.
The battlefield didn't give Celia the chance to hear the answer. Something black and yellow jumped at her. It's form blurring through the air, and barreling into her. Claws biting through skin and armored flesh and drawing blood as her attacker snarled and growled.
Amber eyes met her singular one. And she beheld fear as the beast, for all it's jagged teeth, realized it was not the predator here.
Celia grabbed it and activated her new skill.
Life was sucked out of the creature. Drained from it's being and siphoned into her. Wounds closing as she did so, a strength she hadn't realized she was missing slowly returning. Hunger abating like a storm clearing up.
And then the well ran dry. Her attacker, her snack, it wasn't dead. Not yet, but it had no more strength left to offer her. She had drained it dry. And as soon as she had, a tremor passed through the battlefield. One that originated from the largest of E-10's remaining heads.
Which, seconds prior, had been fighting against Haet. A battle that he had been winning. Now, though, he was slithering towards as fast as his coils could carry him. Ignoring - or outright crushing - everything that got in his way.
"You!" He screamed, rage tinting his voice. "You caused this! And for that I will see you devoured if it is the last thing I do!"
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Celia could've dodged. But she didn't. Her muscles responded too sluggishly. As if whatever signals her brain was sending out were traveling through thick mud. All she could manage was to raise her arms in a paltry attempt at defense.
It amounted to nothing.
A shell exploded on his face, bursting apart into a rapidly expanding cloud of shrapnel. It shredded through two of her arms and left the last two a wreck. His beak stabbed through her chest right after. Impaling her, lifting her off the ground and into the air. Wings buffeted her then, launching razor sharp blades of wind.
Celia was little more than a corpse in seconds. Her body a sprawling mass of gashes and cuts. Bones shattered, and nerves screaming.
She started draining him. Hands weakly wrapped around his beak. Skill activating at a thought, sucking from him the barest trickle of his essence. And he felt it immediately. Swinging his head down, hard, and throwing her to the ground. A hiss escaping him as he did so.
Celia was very certain she was going to die then.
She was too drained of strength to defend herself. Isolated from her allies. And utterly at E-10's mercy.
No. Not yet. In approximately 114 variations of this moment you survive. 10 of which leave you minorly injured. Remember there is always a chance for success.
Celia didn't get a chance to respond before E-10 struck. A blast of wind shaped blades sent her way. They struck her back. Flayed her scales. Turned more of her to ruin. And all she could do was scream. A cry of agony and defeat both.
Again and again, he struck her with the same attack. Blades carving ever deeper into her flesh. And only after he was sure she couldn't so much as move or twitch a muscle did he come in close.
He went to stab her in the head.
At the same moment, a rush of energy flowed into Celia. Power like she'd never felt before possessed her. It gave her just enough strength to shift out of the way of the incoming attack. Causing E-10 to miss and stab his beak into the ground. In that half second while he was stuck, Celia grabbed him. She activated her newest skill and forced it to operate as hard as she could make it.
This time it wasn't a trickle that flowed into her, but a river. It reinvigorated her with new strength just as the boost that had saved her life began to fade. A boost that, as far as she could tell, came from nowhere.
Contemplations aside, the fight was far from over. As E-10, unlike the first victim of her essence drinker skill, didn't wither right away. No, he possessed a strength that was hard to match, and instead started shaking in an attempt to dislodge her.
Celia climbed higher in response. Straddling his serpentine necks, hands never leaving him as she did. And as she did, she became dimly aware of how much larger she had become since the first time she met the hydra. Her thighs, put together, were half as thick as his neck.
A mix of fat and muscle - well, mostly fat. But what muscle was contained within, she dedicated to the task of squeezing against E-10. Along with a dozen or so growths of shark like teeth. Enamel biting into his scales and securing her in place.
After that came her tentacles. The limbs, possessed of an explosive power, reached around her and furthered her hold. Grip holding strong even as E-10's attempts to dislodge her grew even more intense.
Throwing himself against the ground over and over again. Each battering blow more than enough to crush bone. And it would've done exactly that if it were for her draining him of his essence. Drinking it in, in waves. Both satiating her hunger and restoring her at the same time. And soon it was pushing her beyond her limits, strengthening her with might that wasn't hers.
Enhancing every single ability she had at her disposal as well. Turning her rebuking tentacles into more than just portal bound limbs capable of cutting straight through stone. Instead they became an extension of her will all across the battlefield. The limbs punching straight through whatever stood in the way, and slashing at her foes with a potency that left her in temporary awe.
The rest could be said for the rest of her kit as well. Which she soon brought to bear against E-10. Striking at him with spell, flame, and skin slowly turning to steel. His neck transformed into a bloodied mess of scales still loosely attached to his form.
More than that, it seemed her new skill was effecting all of his heads rather than just this one. They were slowing. Becoming both more sluggish and far less coordinated in their efforts.
It was the beginning of what looked like victory.
And then Celia ran into the limit of her new skill.
She was full.
Somehow, both physically and metaphorically. Her capacity for essence was more than utterly satisfied, it was at the point that any more might be actively harmful. And it showed. Her gut, which she hadn't even realized was being filled by her actions, had achieved it's regular post meal state. Bloated and big enough to make a woman pregnant with twins look small.
The stuffed orb pressed against the top of E-10's neck, and for the first time she could remember in a long while, begged her to stop. Which felt like a far more unique feeling than it should have.
Celia didn't listen to it.
Not at first. Instead, she forced herself to keep draining. Ignoring the way her body protested the course of action. And as she did, she watched the rest of the battlefield. Eyeing Haet as his battle against the heads he faced finally became one sided in his favor. She watched those of his crew slowly little down a head of their own. And several more fell to the beasts of the forest.
Soon there was only about three heads left. And at that point, Celia was more than at her limit. She couldn't continue. Her body was so suffused with stolen essence that it made her dizzy. Made her skin burn, and set her head alight.
To push any further, she instinctively knew, would more than likely risk her very life.
Fortunately, the battle, at long last, was practically won. The head beneath her, more weakened by her drain than any of the others, lay on the ground exhausted. Too deprived of strength to even struggle against her. And his remaining heads weren't faring much better.
And as she rose to get off him, he spoke. Any trace of arrogance gone from his voice.
"If you would spare me, I would to serve you."
Celia didn't even consider it. "No. Both because that's obviously a lie, and, uh, yeah."
"A lie? No, little one it is the truth. I would serve. You are greater than I, more cunning and powerful. It is the way of things."
She shook her head. "Do you think I'm stupid? You're literally a snake that was just trying to eat me. There's no way I'm trusting you about anything. Now please, be quiet while we kill you."
He tried to lunge at her after that. Serpentine necks turning and raising off the ground for a second. Only to fall at her feet, beak resting only a few inches away from her toes. And his eyes cast upward at her.
She saw in them nothing but loathing. Hatred. Rage.
She closed them with her sword.