The Begotten Fiend

Chapter 25: Eyes Filled With Death

I sprawled on the ground, rolling side to side. Holding my hands up in the air, I yelled: "YEEEEESSSSSSSSSS!"

The big dastardly thing--I don’t how I did it, but I beat it. No thanks to Zenith.

Basking in my triumph, I smirked, crossing my arms. "What help you were." They knew who I was talking to.

Still, Zenith didn’t respond. That’s fine, in the end, my own wits are what got me through this.

That’s a bit odd, though. They usually have something to say after each victory. I guess it’s because I use Plunder to absorb their skills, but Zenith was a little too quiet.

Wait, Plunder...

"Damn it!" I punched the ground, propping myself up perpendicular to my legs. "I forgot to absorb the spider before it died!"

There was no doubt that it would’ve had something I could’ve used. Though, even then, who knows if I could’ve absorbed it.

If there was one thing I learned in my fight just now, it’s that there are things far stronger that me. Just its movements were enough to knock down trees, and I’d used up a great deal of my mana after that big Plunder on those smaller spiders.

Spiders. I speak as if they’re different than me. But right now, I feel a little... different. I’m not sure what it is, but it doesn’t feel like my mind works the same way it did before.

This weird feeling... while I know that it may be from absorbing all those souls into myself, there’s one other thing. This fuzzy, buzzing noise in my head.

No, this is different. There’s something messing with me.

"Zenith, do you feel that?" I asked. Again, they didn’t respond.

That’s really weird.

I stood up, looking around the forest for the source of my confusion. I knew it was there, hiding. I wasn’t going to let this go.

Activating Mana Sense, I searched the place. No matter how much I squinted my eyes, attempt to locate any abnormalities, or question Zenith, I came across nothing.

No, that’s not it. Perhaps it’s not just the environment. What if it’s... me?

Instead of searching the forest, I looked inward--allowing my enhanced senses to delve into my brain.

Typically, I would’ve found nothing, but with the acquisition of my skill, Illusion, it’s given me heightened perception of any mana interfering with my senses.

There!

Chasing the outlines of the mana drifting through me, there was a peculiar dip to its shape. Like it were subtly manipulating my sight.

Tugging on it with my Mana Control, I whipped it into shape.

Nothing has changed?

Wait, let’s not be too hasty.

With that, I closed my eyes, relying on Mana Sense once more. I pushed my senses as far as I could take them--looking as far forward as possible.

Further, and further, and further, and further--

There!

I saw it. I actually saw it. The sight brought me to tears.

The castle walls, soaring hundreds of feet into the sky, just a few miles off from where I was. The place I’d been trying to find this entire time.

"But why...?" I muttered to myself.

[There’d been an atmospheric interference, keeping you from perceiving your surroundings outside a given range. I calculate it to have been making you walk in a circle with a radius of 2.2 miles.]

"Zenith, you’re here!" My smile was wide. But wait. "Hold on, why didn’t you answer me before?"

[The interference had extended to the connection between you and myself. I’m unsure as to how, but it withheld me from contacting you.]

"What? Why would it do that?"

[I... bzzttt...]

Zenith stopped mid-sentence. No, their voice started to glitch--enunciating random syllables one after another before, eventually, stopping altogether.

"Huh? Are you good?" I looked around one more time. None of this made any sense. First, something’s been making me walk in circles, then it’s able to directly influence Zenith?

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The sky thundered, roared, then fell.

This wasn’t an exaggeration. The sky itself cracked, its ocean-blue raining down an innumerable amount of spherical objects.

They cried, whistling through the air with such velocity that a deep red aura pushed against their earth-facing sides.

Like tears of the sky, they crashed down into the earth--each impact another resounding earthquake shaking me from balance.

They looked like rocks, but I could hardly see them through all their speed.

"What the hell is going on!" I wanted to push mana into my heels to ground me, but I had none left. No, after the Plunder and the mana attack I used on the spider, I was all out. At least, without Zenith to supply me more.

The shaking was enough to force me to the ground, watching as a shower of the rock-like tears rained down on the forest--kicking up large fires.

Smoke filled the air, animals cried out, and the forest lost its bright green.

A pit in my stomach formed. If I didn’t know any better, I would say I was... sad? But why?

However, what came next made the sky’s assail feel small.

With wings as wide as the hundred-feet tall trees, obsidian scales that coveted a nightly gleam, and talons so sharp that they would make any master swordsmith frown in jealousy, it flew overhead--casting a immense shadow over me.

It donned horns, dismal eyes, and a long and powerful frame. The imagery was straight out of a fairy tale, except this was real, and I was living it.

"A... dragon?" The words left me involuntarily. I couldn’t believe it. It was descending in my direction--and fast.

The ground scorched into ash as it rammed into the earth before me. The flames were so hot that the ends of my hair dipped dark-orange, then burnt off.

It was choking. I grabbed my neck, gasping for even a little air. Tears welled in my eyes.

But that wasn’t the end of it. The dragon tipped its head skyward, flapping its wings outward.

It roared, bellowing with so much power that the trees surrounding us blackened. The air warped, gunning for me as a heat wave.

There was no getting around it. I was going to die here.

[Automatically supplying your body with mana.]

My limbs filled with strength. My lungs adapted to the air. The heat wave blasted into my body, but I could hardly feel it behind the weight of my vigor.

Eventually, it stopped its cry. Instead, it looked into me.

Its eyes drilled death into me. All I could do was shudder.

"Zenith, how are we going to beat this thing?"