‘Leech.’ Orpal corrected her. ‘There’s no Lith here. Stop talking about him with respect. I’m your host now and forever.’
‘Of course.’ Night replied, having a hard time not having a good laugh at the “forever” part.
She didn’t like Orpal much but he had his uses.
When Moonlight finally reunited with its masters, the pillars of darkness became as big as the crater, filling its every nook and cranny.
Each impact boomed like thunder, producing a localized quake and a shockwave that sent the bystanders flying like paper dolls. The members of the Knight Guard kept their tower shields raised while slowly retreating from the scene of the fight.
Together they generated a powerful barrier that allowed the boy, the Constable, and anyone smart enough to stand behind the Knight Guards to run away with their lives.
‘This should be enough.’ Orpal ceased the attack but kept weaving more spells. ‘I won’t believe Leech is dead until I see his unimprinted equipment.’
As the dust cloud settled and the darkness element dissipated enough to see through it, Life Vision showed the Dead King that somehow, Ragnarök and the Voidwalker armor had escaped the onslaught.
They were both at a safe distance from the crater and they still bore Lith’s energy signature.
‘What? How is this possible?’ The Horseman of Night and her host wondered in unison.
In answer to their stupor, a black liquid gushed from the cracks in the ground, growing and spreading into a humanoid form.
The form of Derek McCoy.
“Are you done, Poopie?” The Void said with a laugh.
With Lith’s cloaking rings still attached to the Voidwalker armor, Orpal could see with Life Vision that while Lith’s equipment was unscathed, the Abomination had suffered significant damage.
Yet he was recovering faster than someone using a breathing technique.
‘Leech is almost stronger than when we ambushed him. How is it possible?’ Orpal asked.
‘With lots of nourishment.’ Night telepathically clicked her tongue, cursing her own arrogance. ‘Zeska is above a mana geyser, remember?’
She pointed at the massive flow of world energy that fueled the city arrays and rejuvenated the Abomination’s body. Derek’s talons were firmly planted in the ground, sucking the world energy along with all kinds of life forces.
‘It’s the reason we were so confident in our ambush. The mana geyser allows us to tap into Moonlight’s true power but it also feeds Leech. We had no idea he had turned into a full Abomination and that led to our second mistake.’
Night shared her mystical senses with Orpal and what he saw left him appalled.
The shockwaves from his relentless attacks had wounded the bystanders, if not killed them on the spot. It had left a city block full of ripe fruits that the Void was squeezing dry. A network of tendrils spread from the crater to the injured citizens, robbing them of what vitality they had left.
“How can you do that, Leech? You are supposed to risk your life to protect those people, just like you did for that kid!” The Dead King screamed in outrage for everyone to listen.
The problem was that everyone was too busy running away to listen to his rants.
“Why?” Derek asked as his maw curled up in a smile. “Why should I care about a bunch of nobodies? Besides, without treatment, they are going to die anyway and I don’t see anyone coming to their rescue.
“There’s no point wasting such a juicy meal, especially when everyone will blame you for their deaths, mister most wanted.” He said while the armor covered him again and the bastard sword flew to his hand.
There was something unsettling in that scene. Orpal had never seen Lith smile except in official portraits and in the photos taken at public events. Back when they were kids, Lith was always frowning for something.
Because he was starving, because he was worried for Tista, or simply because he was counting the money he earned and calculating how much he would still need to renovate the house.
Orpal had seen Lith smile, but never at him, never like that. It was the savage smile of a nightmarish creature hiding under a human skin. Of a hideous creature who only cared about himself.
The same smile with which Orpal had always imagined Lith and now that it was right in front of him, Orpal didn’t feel vindicated so much as terrified.
‘Stop spacing out!’ Night snapped the Dead King out of his reverie just in time to see Derek point Ragnarök’s tip at him and unleash a tier four Chaos spell, Howling Void.
‘We need to Blink!’ Orpal conjured the dimensional spell, moving away from the deadly Cursed Element.
‘No, we need to block, you moron!’ Night scolded him.
The Void infused the angry blade with Life Maelstrom and Ragnarök used it to make the Howling Void ten times more powerful. The boosted Chaos spell crossed the Blink before it could close, reaching the Horseman as if he had never moved.
The silver lightning increased Howling Void’s speed, destructive power, and size, making it big enough to swallow Orpal whole.
Night used the Life Maelstrom in her crystal to instantly conjure a massive wave of darkness and what was left in her equipment to enhance its durability. At the same time, she circulated water magic in the Davross to split the world energy from the Void’s mana and neutralize the spell.
Her plan worked, but only in the sense that she survived. Her darkness was no match for so much Chaos and the Howling Void was too fast. The water element in the Davross couldn’t get rid of the Cursed Element before it struck Orpal square in the chest.
Orpal wrapped himself in his wings like a cocoon, using his arms and legs to shield the red and black crystals from the blast. Howling Void destroyed everything above the shoulder level and bent the Black Rose armor and Thorn spear out of shape.
Black crystals sprouted from the wounds, regenerating the missing limbs, while the Davross’ self-repair properties restored Orpal’s equipment.
“Fuck me sideways, when I kill someone, he is supposed to stay dead.” Derek blurted out in astonishment. “Are you like me, Poopie?”
“I am nothing like you!” The Dead King was both ashamed of his own performance and outraged at those words. “I’m your big brother, Leech. I’m better than you. I’ve always been and I always will!”
He pushed Moonlight at full gallop, charging with the speartip filled to the brim with darkness element and aimed at Derek’s center mass. Orpal shot Thorn’s enchantment, Wailing Wind, from a distance, knowing that Lith would deform his body to dodge.
The spear crackled with the mana its master had stored within. Every one of its movements generated harrowing wails along with a blast of darkness, as if Thorn trapped the mournful souls of its victims.
Once again Derek shapeshifted to escape the brunt of the enchantment but this time Orpal exploited the awkward position the Void had put himself into to sever the thread of darkness connecting his lower and upper halves.
Then, he impaled Derek through the chest and pinned him to the ground while releasing another Wailing Wind.
