The images of a young Raaz and Elina overlapped with the couple.
The kid’s features shifted into Aran’s, making the darkness that flowed inside the Abomination’s body instead of blood boil. Then Aran’s face overlapped with Carl’s and every pretence of joy and indifference disappeared.
“Can [you] understand [me?]” Derek asked with a snarl, fury mixing up his words.
The thugs didn’t waste time talking. They jumped off the horses and pulled out tier three wands, raining fire, ice, and lightning on the monster.
The Void took them all just to see how strong he was. The icicles shattered against the Voidwalker, the fire was consumed by his Abomination Touch, and the bolts of lightning barely stung before being devoured by the darkness.
The Void released more tendrils of Spirit Magic, capturing the three men again and bringing them closer.
“I asked you if you can [understand] me.” He said while sucking the life out of a horse to show them what fate awaited them. “Yes or no.”
“Take the horses but let us go!” The sentinel bandit emptied his wand from point-blank range yet he didn’t even hurt the animals.
Ragnarök defended its master’s meal from the stray shots, cutting the spells asunder when needed.
“I’m not the monster you think.” Derek waved his hand in front of the thugs and sent tendrils of Spirit Magic to their brains. “I’m a human, just like you.”
“Help! Someone saves us!” The robber bandit yelled, not persuaded one bit. “A monster is going to kill us all!”
“I said I’m not the monster you think.” The Void performed the mind trick just as he remembered it from the movies.
“And I know a monster when I see one!” The rapist bandit discharged his lightning wand as well but this time something weird happened.
The monster swatted the bolts of lightning away like flies and bit the hand holding the wand off.
“Thanks for the answer, fucker. You do understand me and I have no reason to keep you alive any longer.” Derek crunched the hand and felt it turn into ashes.
This time his meal was fresh and full of life force, giving it a pleasant taste.
He grabbed the stump, withering the wound to stop the bleeding before grabbing the thug and biting his throat. An Abomination drew no pleasure from drinking blood but the Void’s fangs drained the prey more slowly than his hands, letting him savor its life force better.
Feeding off the thug gave him almost as much pleasure as looking at the terror in the eyes of his accomplices. After a lifetime of being a victim, after being forced to hide in the shadow like a thief whenever he exacted his vengeance, Derek was drunk with power.
He didn’t need clever tricks anymore. He didn’t need to fear that if his actions were to be exposed by the so-called law, he would be treated like he was the criminal. Derek found joy in the kill, something he had never experienced on Earth.
Something to which Lith had never stooped so low.
‘Fuck me sideways!’ The Voidfeather thought. ‘This wasn’t supposed to happen. George is losing himself and the family is next on the menu.’
Derek drained even the thug’s clothes into dust, breathing in the fear of horses and humans both in excitement. It was the same thing that happened to most newborn Abominations.
Feeding was the only thing that gave them respite from their suffering and soon it became their only source of pleasure. Murder wasn’t the root cause of an Abomination’s madness but who they killed and how they killed.
It was the fun accompanying the feed that made an Abomination lose grip on their past self and turned them into monsters.
Derek killed the remaining two thugs and horses with the same slow deliberate cruelty, savoring their life essence and emotions like a selection of fine wines. Fear, desperation, wrath, hopelessness, and agony all had their own taste and he enjoyed them all.
It was with an excited click of his tongue that he approached his dessert. The travelers were still alive and ripe for the taking. Mostly.
The man was bleeding out and in a while, his life force would become tasteless or he would lose consciousness, robbing Derek of his fun.
“Thank you for saving us, Magus Verhen.” The woman put herself between the Abomination and the child, praying to the gods her eyes weren’t deceiving her.
“Ma-gus Verh-en?” The words rolled with difficulty off Derek’s tongue but not because he didn’t know how to pronounce them. Quite the contrary.
They felt familiar. Painfully familiar and they brought with them one of the worst headaches he had experienced since waking up. Each word struck him like a punch to the gut, making him stumble.
“Aren’t you Magus Lith Verhen?” The savage smile had disappeared from the Abomination’s face, replaced by a confused look in his empty white eyes. “Isn’t that the Voidwalker armor you wear?”
Lith was a Magus to the Kingdom, but so much more to commoners. He was one of them who had made it only by working hard and relying on his hard work and sheer talent.
He had ascended from farmer to a noble rank second only to the Royals in less than twenty years.
Agra read Lith’s biography to her son, Liru, every night before bed instead of fairy tales. She and her husband, Borj, had named their son after Lith in the wake of the destruction of the lost city of Kaduria.
Agra had watched the holograms of the Voidwalker armor countless times as she read out loud from her Tablet. It was another of the gifts that Magus Verhen had bestowed upon her family and her most prized possession.
“Void-walker.” A sudden pang brought the memory of hammers, spells, and light brown hair to his mind. “Sol-us.”
The Void fell onto all fours, panting and quivering as his vision blurred.
“Please, save my husband.” Agra didn’t know whether to feel relieved or worried. Every trace of aggression had disappeared from her savior, yet he now looked like he needed saving almost as much as her husband.
“Borj has been hurt while he protected me. You are the best healer of the Kingdom. I beg you, please, save him.” She knelt in front of Derek, her hands and forehead on the ground.
Agra was so desperate that she stopped holding the tatters of her shirt that covered her chest.
“I am?” Derek said in utter shock.
It was another piece of the puzzle that didn’t match with the evil overlord persona who was supposed to have summoned him.
“Yes, you are.” She spoke slowly, needing every bit of courage she could muster to use a respectful tone and keep the fear out of her voice. “The greatest mage of your generation. I’ve named my Liru after you, may the gods bless him with a shred of your talent.”
“Liru. Leria. Lilia. Leran!” One pang followed every word, forcing the Abomination to punch his head to make it stop.
“No, Liru.” The other names made no sense to Agra. Lith’s biography covered mostly his achievements and Leria was too young to be more than a footnote. “Please, my husband doesn’t have much time. We don’t possess much, but it’s yours to take.”
