Supreme Magus

Chapter 4510: Hollow Being (Part 2)

”You’d be crippled in mind and body. To what degree, it’s impossible to say. The choice is yours, but if you ask me, death is the most merciful solution. Unless you want the Vurdalak bloodline to spread.

”To let this cancer turn parent against child, brother against sibling, and clan leader against their people. Vurdalaks only see each other as food. They are incapable of trusting their own kin because being close to them causes the hunger you’re experiencing, child.

”Do you wish that on your clan or any other living being?” The Crone asked.

”No.” Althika cried, battling the despair ravaging her heart.

She was about to die, and every egotistical instinct she had screamed for her to satisfy her hunger and run away. Yet she refused to listen, preferring to die with dignity as Althika the Dryad rather than as a monstrous Vurdalak.

”I don’t want this for anyone. Especially my baby boy. Is he suffering? Does he feel what I feel?”

”It’s likely.” The Crone nodded. ”Just like you, however, he refuses to yield. The curse left by his father has yet to overpower the baby’s desire to protect you.”

”Verhen?” Althika turned to Lith. ”Is there nothing you can do?”

’He’s younger and much less knowledgeable than Baba Yaga, but I won’t surrender my child’s life until there is a single shred of hope left.’ She thought.

”I think I can save you.” Lith replied, shocking everyone. ”I think I can save you both.”

”How?” Baba Yaga asked. ”This is my first time seeing something like this, and I doubt you ever encountered an illness remotely similar, let alone treated it.”

”It’s my first time as well, yet I know there’s something I can do.” Lith’s face was a mask of focus as he searched inside himself for the right words. ”It’s an instinct similar to when I helped Solus or Ely helped Zoreth.

”Ever since I touched Althika, I can hear two voices in my head. One repeats, kill, obsessively. The other screams, wrong, over and over.”

”An instinct?” Lotho scoffed.

”You hear voices?” Naphila sneered, and the Crone squeezed her Root into a crumpled mess to shut her up.

”Are you sure?” Baba Yaga asked. ”I’m not doubting you. I know who you are and what you are capable of. I just want to make sure you realize how much is at stake here. You risk destroying three lives if you are wrong.

”Althika’s, her son’s, and your own. Can you live with the consequences of your actions if you fail?”

”I don’t know.” Lith shook his head. ”The only thing I’m certain is that I won’t be able to live with myself if I don’t at least try. I can’t promise you anything, Althika. I can’t give you an explanation or my odds of success.

”I can only assure you that I’m not lying when I say that I believe I can help you. Whether to believe me is your choice.”

”Nice move, Leech!” The Dryad’s delicate features twisted into a Vurdalak who spoke with Orpal’s voice. ”You get to kill my child and pose as a hero. Only if this idiot buys your act, though!”

Baba Yaga used the arrays of the lair to restrain Althika before she assaulted Lith and used her tier five Body Sculpting spell, Cradle of Life, to suppress the influence of Orpal’s fragment over the Dryad’s mind and Light Soul before the corruption of the Vurdalak’s flesh spread further.

”Do everything you can.” Althika panted heavily as she now had to fight back both the hunger and the attempts of the Dead King’s fragment to possess her. ”Just promise me that if it comes down to a choice between my baby and me, you’ll save my son.

”I put us in this spot, whereas he’s innocent.”

”On that, we agree.” Lith replied. ”Lady Yaga, make sure that nobody disturbs me. I can’t afford my focus to slip even for one second. Also, no matter the outcome, once I’m done, I’ll be helpless and in need of your protection.”

”Leave that to me.” A wave of the Crone’s hand depowered most of the arrays of the Redleaf Clan, flooding Bloodhaven and Starforge with all the world energy they needed.

She and Solus conjured the magical formations of the towers to seal the medical ward from any external influence.

”Whenever you are ready.”

”Okay, Meln, this is between you and me, like usual.” Lith moved to the Dryad’s bedside and took deep, slow breaths. ”The only difference is that this time you can’t run away like you always do.”

Then he turned to Althika.

”This may hurt a lot, and for that, I’m sorry. I need you to be brave and not struggle, no matter how scary it gets, okay?”

”Okay.” She nodded, too busy holding the Light Soul under control to feel any fear.

”Now, close your eyes.” Lith said, and Althika did as bidden.

Only then did he unfurl his six wings and use the world energy he absorbed through them to wreath himself in Dread Flames. Lith placed his right thumb in the middle of the Dryad’s forehead and his left thumb above her heart.

The moment he touched her skin, he could hear the voices inside his head clearly enough to distinguish them.

’Wrong!’ The Voidfeather Dragon roared. ’It’s all wrong! Wrong!’

’Kill!’ The Void hissed. ’Kill it now! Leave nothing behind!’

’Make up your mind, dammit!’ Lith struggled to tune the voices down and focus on the readings of the Eyes and the Ears. ’First, I need to get rid of Meln’s influence. That thing is alive and can somehow reason.

’If I let it be, there’s no telling how it might screw up the rest of the procedure. Althika might survive thanks to her regenerative abilities, but the baby’s life force is much weaker. All it takes is one mistake, and the Dread Flames will kill him.’

Lith opened his mouth, exhaling a slow stream of silvery flames as thin as a hair that struck where the black mist of Orpal’s influence was thickest. Althika clenched her teeth in agony as her flesh burned, while the black mist reeled at the contact.

Lith heard Orpal scream in pain amid the distorted melody of the Dryad’s life force, but it only lasted a second. Her regenerative abilities instantly closed the wound, and the black mist moved away from the silvery flames.

Lith tried a few more times, but the result was always the same. The black mist dodged the flames by using Althika’s body as a literal meat shield and exploiting her healing factor to cover its escape.

’The damage I do to Meln’s fragment is negligible. I’m draining Althika’s vitality and mental focus for nothing. Solus?’

’Neither the Eyes nor the Ears are a diagnostic instrument.’ She replied. ’They are meant for Forgemastering processes. It’s the reason Mom dedicated an entire floor of the tower to the Infirmary.

’There’s only so much I can tell you unless we put Althika in the crystal tank.’

’And expose the tower’s existence to the rest of Mogar? Thanks, but no thanks. We’ve already seen how the plant folk’s idea of gratitude is a knife in our back.’