Chapter 24: | An adorable Liora
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Days had passed since I began traversing the intricate tunnels of this endless cavern.
Liora had finally fallen into deep slumber, storing her strength for battles to come.
Her usually aloof, teasing self had quieted after relentlessly questioning me, a man without a mouth, for what felt like an eternity.
The tunnel around me was teeming with life.
Moss crept along the walls, vines dangled lazily, and bioluminescent flowers pulsed with soft light, illuminating the otherwise monotonous passage.
Surprisingly, Vinley had failed to convert all the flora into his domain.
Perhaps it was due to racial limitations, some laws embedded into his essence that made full domination impossible.
It didn't matter.
He was already dead, stewing in my stomach.
Still, I appreciated his generous patronage.
I chuckled.
Scanning the area, I found nothing worthy of my attention.
No aura stood out, there was no significant threat.
Lord-class monsters and above were rarer than I'd hoped.
With a sigh, my body moved on instinct, slicing through the current like a harpoon.
My form blurred as I accelerated to speeds of tens of miles per hour.
As I swam, the scenery changed.
Denser flora clung to the walls, and the ambient mana thickened, monsters nearby were more powerful.
Some were new variants, but I knew devouring them would be pointless.
Myth Voracity wouldn't yield any benefits from such lowly creatures.
I pressed on.
Eventually, I slipped into another tunnel, and that's when I felt it.
A faint but distinct aura of danger.
Liora stirred beside me.
Her legs shifted, transforming into an ornate armor with a hiss.
She raised one high, and the sound of metal slamming against chitin rang out through the tunnel.
"A dumb idea, but a good one."
She muttered with a smile.
Her armored foot smashed into something hidden, sending it crashing into the wall.
Lightning surged.
My instincts screamed, too late.
Spires of pure electricity surged toward me, wrapping my flesh in searing pain.
My limbs numbed.
An ambush.
One attacker was an electric eel, the other, a crab.
Liora laughed as she continued hammering the crab-like creature.
"Take care of the eel!"
My body blurred.
Accel Dash.
Boulder Rush.
Phantom Shift.
I reappeared behind the eel in a flash.
My instincts flared again.
A bolt of lightning struck my skull with pinpoint precision.
Then pain bloomed, attempting to fry my brain from the inside.
Impressive, but insufficient.
I've endured far worse.
My tendrils lashed out, but the eel reacted with lightning reflexes, evading them and vanishing into a streak of light.
It reappeared meters away, horn glowing, crackling with power.
A swarm of blue dots suddenly lit up across my body, and exploded.
Spikes embedded themselves in my flesh. The pain was real.
This thing was dangerous.
I closed my eyes and gathered mana, pouring it into every fiber of my being.
Blooming Wrath.
My skin flushed red, surging with adrenaline.
Then, again, the blue dots returned.
Cradle of Blooming Flesh.
My body was instantly encased in a cocoon of meat and sinew.
The cradle absorbed the brunt of the blast.
That was my moment.
The cocoon unraveled.
My body disappeared.
Accel Dash.
Boulder Rush.
Phantom Shift.
I repeated the combo again and again.
My flesh protested, tendons stretched, bones cracked.
The pressure threatened to destroy me, but I endured.
The eel thrashed in confusion.
Its prey had vanished.
The only thing left was pink lines, dozens of them, lacing across its form.
Then came the pain.
Searing agony.
It activated its trump card in desperation.
Its horn cracked, glowed, and in an instant, its body blurred and disappeared like a fading illusion.
I was shocked.
It vanished?
Escaped?
But the battle was over, I had won.
I closed my eyes and sheathed an imaginary sword.
Fae Sword Art: Multi-Petal Mirage Severance.
Suddenly, pain erupted across my body.
Blue lines crawled over my form, and exploded.
My exoskeleton shattered.
Flesh split.
Blood burst from my veins.
What the...!?
It had countered in its final moment!?
Impossible!
Then I saw it, a final sphere of compressed lightning hurled toward me.
My vision blurred.
My body refused to move.
All my veins had been cut, blood drained from me in torrents.
I couldn't dodge.
Cackle.
Flash.
Pain exploded as the sphere struck me.
My muscles convulsed.
I screamed, a raw, guttural sound of agony.
My insides cooked, organs liquefied.
My brain boiled.
My eyes burned away.
But my will endured.
If I devoured this creature, I would live.
Tendrils shot forth, latching onto the eel's mutilated form.
I dragged it to my maw.
I bit.
I chewed.
I fed.
My body began to recover.
Closing my eyes one last time:
Cradle of Blooming Flesh.
Flesh closed around me.
As I began to heal.
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Time passed as Liora continued to block the crab's relentless attacks.
But without the aid of mana, her strikes couldn't break through its dense, stone-like carapace.
"Annoying bastard."
She muttered under her breath.
Her legs blurred into motion.
Boom!
A thunderous crack echoed as her strike cratered the crab's shell.
Yet, even with all that force, it wasn't enough to pierce its insides.
Worse of all, the damage she inflicted regenerated rapidly.
Sediments from the surroundings clung to the crab's wounds, mending its body as if nothing had happened.
"Tch,"
She hissed.
"What an incredibly annoying bastard…"
Minutes passed as the battle raged.
Liora and the crab exchanged blow after blow, each strike strong enough to rattle the cavern walls.
The ground trembled.
Dust and debris fell from the ceiling.
Liora panted, exhaustion creeping into her bones.
Her muscles screamed in protest, but she pressed on, buying time.
She needed to stall this monster, to protect her descendant while he finished his own battle.
The crab charged again, claws bared wide.
Liora sighed.
Boom!
Her legs flashed again.
The crab was launched into the air, crashing into the cavern ceiling.
But Liora was already there, leaping mid-air, spinning, and unleashed another devastating kick.
The ceiling shook as cracks spiderwebbed across the crab's chitin.
Its shell finally gave in, splitting from the sheer pressure.
But Liora's body was nearing her limit.
Her strength faltered.
Her energy was nearly gone.
A massive claw surged through the water, aiming to cleave her in two.
Liora didn't move.
Her eyes softened.
She smiled.
So this is it.
But then, tendrils lashed out from the shadows, intercepting the claw mid-strike.
In the next moment, pink lines webbed across the crab's massive body, carving into it with surgical precision.
Liora giggled as she landed on a nearby slab of stone.
"A ten out of ten save."
She said with a smirk.
I chuckled.
A ten, huh?
Just what I was aiming for.
Liora flopped down and dramatically tore a chunk of crab meat from the corpse, devouring it greedily.
"These damn crabs are way too delicious."
She said, chewing.
"Why are they so tasty?"
She beamed.
"Maybe it's connected to their diet?"
I stared at her, amused, as she rambled on and on about potential biological reasons for the flavor.
Silly Liora.
Crabs are born delicious.
That's all there is to it.
But I couldn't say a word.
I had no mouth to speak with.
Liora frowned, deep in thought.
"Maybe… crabs are just delicious?"
That was her grand conclusion.
I couldn't help it.
Bwahahahaha!
It was such a Liora answer.
Liora glanced at me, caught the laughter in my eyes, and pouted.
She raised a hand and smacked my head with a little whack.
"Eii! Don't mock this ancestor of yours, or I'll punish you!"
She crossed her arms, clearly embarrassed, her cheeks puffed in mock anger.
Still giggling, I watched her settle onto my back, arms folded tightly, nose in the air.
She was trying her best to ignore me.
Adorable.
Bwahahahaha! I burst into laughter again.
"You... you bastard, don't laugh at me!"
She shouted, punching my exoskeleton.
But I couldn't stop.
She was just too adorable.
As I lifted off the ground and cut through the water once more, I found myself reflecting again, this time more quietly.
All life is fragile.
No matter how powerful we become, through the Dimensional Record, through sheer will or centuries of growth, we are still fragile.
Is it because we are made of flesh?
Or perhaps because none of us are born perfect?
Even immortals fade.
Even deities sleep.
After thousands of years, even the soul begins to erode.
And when that erosion reaches its end… death comes, final and absolute.
The doctrine of Vinir, the deity of shadows, teaches that we should not fear death, but instead accept it.
That fearing death means fearing the next journey, the next step.
Vinir once said.
"Do not fear me, for I am a deity. Accept me, for I will guide you out of the shadow. For I am the shadow."
And I believe him.
It was Vinir who kept me sane during my long drift in the abyss from countless Epoch.
It was Vinir who led me to this new beginning.
I no longer fear erasure, or at least, that's what I want to believe.
But deep within… I still feel it.
That primal dread.
That cold terror of being wiped from existence, forgotten, never recorded in the annals of history.
Am I a coward?
Yes.
Because I'm still mortal.
And all mortals fear the unknown.
That's why I must prepare myself, for the end that will one day come.
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