“Having this kind of power is fun, but if I have to spend the rest of my life alone like a rabid monster it’s going to get old very fast.” Derek sighed. “On top of that, I need to understand who this Verhen guy is.
“The tiger man called me like that but back then I thought it was an insult, like monster, or a title. Yet even the woman called Verhen and mentioned something like a Supreme Magus. Verhen must be a name.”
‘Maxwell’s beard, yes!’ The Voidfeather thought. ‘Come on, you are a smart guy. Just take one small leap of imagination and realize it’s your name. Otherwise why would different people recognize you and call you like that?’
“The name of the guy who inhabited this body before me.” Derek said, making the Voidfeather groan. “Or maybe even the name of the guy who wants to possess this body. This may as well be a trap, but I haven’t many choices left.”
Lith’s paranoia was alive and well, making him second-guess every decision he made and look for hidden enemies even when there were none.
Derek took a leap, leaving behind a deep crater and reaching a great altitude before unfurling his wings. He looked in every direction, but without the Tiamat’s eyesight, he wasn’t better than an Awakened human.
He took a random direction again, hoping to meet a road or a river that he could follow to civilization.
Soon, his mind relaxed and his thoughts about loneliness and conspiracies moved to the back burner. If there was one thing that Derek loved about his new life despite its many mysteries and painful limitations, it was flying.
Soaring through the sky made him feel free and powerful. After spending his life on Earth being small, insignificant, and unheard, it was a pleasant change. While he flew, he could forget about his problems and miseries, both old and new.
For the first time in his life, he could stop worrying and just enjoy the journey.
“What is that?” After hours of flight, Derek had finally found what looked like a wide paved road yet there was also something else.
His Abomination hunger felt a strong surge in the density of world energy but it didn’t come from either direction of the road. Following the delicious smell would lead him away from civilization and into the wilds again.
The Void was torn between the desire to discover the identity of the man whose body he inhabited and the constant nagging hunger that tormented him since he had opened his eyes on Mogar.
“Oh, screw it.” The Void was an Abomination so the hunger came first.
He just memorized as many landmarks as he could and tried to fly in a straight line to find his way back to the road with ease. Hunger and instinct fuelled the flaps of his wings, producing booms of thunder and making him cross dozens of kilometers in mere seconds.
Usually, once he gained speed, Derek found it hard to stop. He didn’t give a damn about landscapes and natural beauty. He only cared about the intoxicating feeling of power that being untouchable gave him.
The rare times he did, like when he found a prey or something drew his attention, he would plunge like a sack of bricks.
Due to the amnesia, he moved his body like a bike. Below a certain speed, he needed to touch the ground to stabilize himself, which was a problem when the ground was hundreds of meters below.
This time, instead, he came to a halt with the grace of a raptor. His wings performed strong and rhythmical flaps, keeping him in mid-air while his mouth drooled.
“Food!” The Void’s maw snapped in excitement.
‘A mana geyser!’ The Voidfeather thought in joy. ‘Finally! With this, I should be able to heal the rest of my wounds without George making a massacre and ruining my life as Lith Verhen.
‘Worst case scenario, I’ll restore our life forces and remain unconscious for a while. If I have no idea where I am, I dare the Chroniclers to find me.’
The Void was too fixated on the geyser to notice what he was doing which was the reason he had yet to crash down. Without his interference, Lith’s muscle memory could make him float indefinitely.
Even from a distance, Derek felt the dense world energy drip on his body like gentle spring rain on a man suffering from dehydration. It gave him relief and hope. It relieved his mind from the pain and worries about his existence, making him feel normal.
Despite his hunger, the Void was suspicious of the geyser and approached it slowly, afraid that taking in too much and too fast might actually hurt him.
Every iota of darkness energy in his body demanded for him to throw himself in the violent stream of world energy but Derek resisted with the stubbornness of a man used to not receive anything from life without strings attached.
“Dammit!” He screamed in frustration.
The mass of world energy blinded Life Vision and the closer he got to the geyser the less Derek could see. Even worse, the harder it became to control his drive to feed.
Hunger and paranoia battled to a standstill with the Void weaving his best spells while incapable of stopping his advance. He waited for one minute, but it felt like one hour.
When another minute later nothing happened and no one tried to kill him, Derek threw caution to the wind and himself in the middle of the geyser. To a casual observer, the clearing looked like nothing special.
There was a fertile grassland with a gentle stream of water coming from underground and that was it. No natural treasure grew amid the tall grass and if a mana crystals or magic metal veins existed, they had to be deep in the ground.
Yet to an Abomination, the clearing was the greatest of treasures. It was abundant not only in world energy but also in life force. Derek could feed on plants, insects, and the small animals hidden in their burrows.
“That would be stupid and inefficient.” He refused to come down, knowing from experience that his touch would drain everything of life whether he wanted it or not. “How was that spell?”
The Void focused on the memory of the traveler he had saved by following the instructions of the old woman.
“Nana.” He said, recalling the feeling of the mana flow necessary to cast the tier four Spirit Spell, Mother’s Embrace.
Before he knew it, an emerald construct shaped as Elina emerged from the ground, opening her arms to Derek.
“This is stupid. I have no reason to doubt my own powers.” The Void knew the spell couldn’t hurt him but at the same time, he felt a mix of revulsion and longing.
Longing because Elina’s features stirred his memories as a baby, filling his heart with the warm feeling of the love with which she had showered him since the day Derek had possessed the corpse of her baby.
Revulsion because he knew from the name of the spell that Elina was a mother and to Derek, that was a four-letter word no better than father.
