The Begotten Fiend

Chapter 22: Father Is Here

My eyelids weighed down on me, struggling to stay open for longer than a few seconds. Everything felt numb--too tired to move. I couldn’t even bother to look to the sky for the time anymore, though I still counted the encounters like clockwork.

It’s been four days since the first horde of spiders ambushed me, all four of which occurred in the night. I haven’t gotten a nick of sleep, and to make matters worse, the forest is dead silent.

No rabbits ran through the green, chittering with their wild innocence. No birds hummed their morning tune, preparing feed for their little ones.

Nothing.

The sun’s warmth burned into me--it was horrible, reminding me that I’m trekking through these planes without so much as a single clue as to how to get out of here.

I might really die out here.

The reality became far more real with each passing step.

My feet hurt. My eyes hurt. Even my damn head hurts. I didn’t have to go through any of this when I was a noble.

At times, I think it would be better if I dropped dead and gave up...

No, now’s not the time for this! If I get shaken by things so easily, I’ll never obtain the one thing I desire.

"Ah, screw it!" I fell down to my chest, twiddling the rabbit hide I’m wearing between my fingers. "So warm..."

Draping it over me, I closed my eyes.

[I strongly advise you not to--]

I blocked out Zenith’s voice. Honestly, I surprised myself, that was the first time I’d successfully managed to make it shut up, but the heavy load my drowsiness is pressing down on me makes it hard to think at all.

Let me just close my eyes and forget all of this for an hour... Just an hour...

The world fell to a true silence. I couldn’t see, I couldn’t think.

Like floating amongst the clouds, I felt myself drifting, succumbing to the flow of the world. freewēbnoveℓ.com

Can’t I always be like this? Do I really have to work so hard to shape my own destiny?

After all, this feels so nice... I could stay here forever.

[...sh... Nash!]

What now? I don’t have time to listen to your ’advice.’ Look where that’s gotten me.

For that matter, what does Zenith even do? Of course, they helped me survive out here, but they let me get mauled by that rabbit from earlier.

Not to mention, they could’ve prevented this whole thing had they not failed in letting me get drugged by Lysandra. In that regard, I can say this whole thing is their fault.

Really, none of this is my fault. I think I’ll stay like this--

GYAAAHH!

Wild electricity short-circuited my mind, cutting me off. It dragged me to consciousness, propping my eyes open.

And there it was. A spider hovered over me, its mandibles staring me down.

"Hey, there..." I hadn’t quite registered it yet. It was only once I noticed the air beneath its small, jagged teeth begin to swirl that I caught on. "Shit!"

Putting all my weight in my right shoulder, I swept my left leg across the spider’s midsection. It went clean through, severing the beast in half.

What’s going on?

My question was quickly answered once I turned around. There I saw it. Another parade of spiders, stretching further than the eye could see. ƒrēewebnovel.com

You can’t be making this up.

My chest burnt, strained from the sudden twisting and turning of my body. My lungs ached with each exhale, tensing as they hit my exhausted ribcage.

My arms felt stiff. My head throbbed. My stomach curled.

I can’t take this. Not another horde of them.

I simply dropped to my knees.

"Zenith, I can’t do this. I simply can’t."

It didn’t respond. Instead, all I could think about was all the clattering the spiders did, rubbing their limbs while staring me down.

Even if I wanted to escape, it was too late. They were going to rain down hundreds of their mana jets on me, a totally unavoidable, inescapable death. Even for me.

Still, I’m not scared. In fact, I can only smile as a pleasant memory came to my recollection.

Seraphine and I were sitting by the center of my house’s courtyard. We were children, not even older than four, yet I remembered this one vividly.

Her hair, as flagrant as ever, fluttered in the air.

What was it she said?

"--Sh... ----ck..."

What?

"Nash, you have to fight!"

Ah, that was it. I’d just gotten beaten by kids my age. Even though they were of a lower house than I, they still struck me as if they were better.

What I held particularly close to my heart is how disinterested my father was. He didn’t even demand an apology.

No, at that moment, I think I was closest to losing my will to live.

Yet there Seraphine was, pleading for me to fight. But why? Why would she want someone as weak as me to keep moving forward.

Wait, that’s it. I’m not weak. No, not in the mind. I think that’s what she meant.

Then why am I sitting here, waiting for my end?

I can’t kick the bucket here, not before I’ve done what I’ve set out to do.

"GGGRRRRARAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The world went white. My mind moved, my body moved, but I didn’t think even once. Something deeper crawled out from its corner, doing what I couldn’t.

Ah, but I see it. Long, vicious black flames whipped from my core to lash out against the many spiders surrounding me.

The forest blared with a brilliant violet. I’m not sure why, but my soul flame burned more proudly than ever before.

The dark-purple burnt into each and every spider. They all cried out, writhing on the ground. I felt it--all the minds, the souls entering me.

This... I... we can’t die here. We won’t allow it.

Hundreds of faces, hundreds of lives, they all whisked through and past me. With each, I found myself struggling to see who I was.

"Krrttkkk, no, wait!" I think I was holding my hands to my head. By then, the flames were gone. My Plunder, that’s what I just used. But why? Who am I?

[Notice. As a result of assimilating too many souls into your own, you’ve lost your sense of self. I am incapable of separating, nor preserving your soul.]

That voice... I recognize it, but from where?

What is that--Father is here.

[Warning. Large mana signature nearby.]

Father? No, that’s not it.

Just as we were consumed by Plunder, another great spider appeared before me. It was ill-timed, almost too conveniently so.

It towered even as high as the hundred-foot tall trees, each limb the size of five men. Within it held so much mana that we could hardly stare at it--parading its own light.

And it directed itself towards us.