Killed Me? Now I Have Your Power

Chapter 416: Chapter 416: Welcome to my Abyss

Chapter 416 – Welcome to my Abyss

Sky listened with surprise plain on his face. He darted his eyes around the monster-looking beings present inside the room, his eyes stopping on the two Seven-Scars members.

They were two women, twins judging by their eerie similarities even with their bony faces.

Sky only managed to tell the twins apart because of their hair. One braided it completely, while the other let it in a puffy-like circle of hair.

It was strangely beautiful. It was not the first time he saw this hairstyle, and Katy had once told him it was called an Afro.

Shaking his head to focus back on the present, Sky listened to the Afro woman. She was called Aminata. Her braided twin was called Awa.

"We are a species named BoneHunters," Aminata said, fixing her black eyes hard on the face of Sky, wisps of red fog shrouding her, "I won’t bore you with how we came to be."

Her bony face seemed to twist distastefully. Sky couldn’t really tell, he was having difficulties reading their facial expressions.

"But just like the other Orders, we are monsters."

"Now you will wonder why we are telling you all of this now." Awa picked it up, her voice lighter than her twin.

Sky nodded.

She smiled, and continued, "it’s not only because you have reached Three-Scars status. Many had achieved that inside our Order throughout the past years. Many who weren’t born among us. Just like you."

"However, dear Sky, only you are here, in the Room, at this level."

Awa laughed, a sound like bones scraping against each other booming out,

"Do you know why?"

"Because I am talented." Sky said matter-of-factly with no change in his expression, "Because I am not like others."

His master grinned, showing a prideful, pleased expression.

No Three-Scars being would dare to speak in such a tone and manner to a Seven-Scars. But Sky did. And yet, none of them was surprised.

They had accepted Sky’s arrogance as part of him. Then again, they only did so because of his power and monstrous talent.

Anyone else would have been impaled on the wall with bones in his skull.

They had never seen, since the birth of that monster, a being like Sky.

And that was exactly why,

"You are right," Awa said, and Aminata continued more sternly,

"Due to your talent, we do not need to wait more than necessary to invite you into our Order. In fact, we would have done it the moment you obtained your Second Scars, but..."

She left her words hanging, then clicked her tongue.

"The point is, we want you to be part of us."

Sky’s eyebrow briefly knitted together. ’This is troublesome.’

"Think it through before you answer." His master added, knowing his disciple well enough to guess his feelings through a twitch of his face, "and think of the benefits you will get by accepting."

"Benefits?"

"Yes, benefits." Awa said, smiling sheepishly, "after all, you can only marry inside our Order by being one of us."

Sky’s eyes widened, his mind directly catching the underlying statement of Awa.

He stared at her intensely, then looked at the other two.

"And by being an official member of our Order, you will have the right to ask of us one thing we won’t refuse."

"In other words..."

His master grinned evilly,

"If you wish the head of The Fat, my disciple, then Order Orion will do its utmost best to serve it to you on a plate made of his fat bones."

"If he ever has any." Awa added, cackling, her blue fog swirling along her body.

"So don’t be hasty," Aminata added, crossing her arms on her generous chest, ignoring her twin, "because we won’t ask you a second time."

"What if I refuse?" Sky finally spoke, cocking his head to the side, "what if I, let’s say, quite love being a human?"

His words were like ice, plunging the room into a still silence as Awa, Aminata, and his master transfixed their monstrous eyes on him.

At that instant, Sky felt like prey about to be swallowed by three hungry hunters. He unconsciously gulped inaudibly, the bones inside his body creaking.

It felt like they were about to jump on him, killing him swiftly.

Sky smiled, strained, waving his hand leisurely, "it’s a simple question," he said, trying to dissipate the tension around him, "after all, my master always taught me to consider both sides before choosing."

Like a pierced balloon, the tension deflated as if it never actually occurred.

"True, true." His master said, his beard dancing with the nodding of his head, "I did teach you that."

"But Sky," Awa interjected, smiling warmly, "you certainly don’t wish to know what would happen if you refuse after seeing us. Believe me. There is a reason we like to play human."

"Now you have two days." Aminata added, raising two slender ebony bony fingers, "Two days to think of your answer."

"Because in two days, we will need to know where you stand in the battle against the Heir."

"You can go back to your quarters if you have no other questions."

Sky smiled warmly, bowing his head respectfully, "I shall give you my answer before then."

With no other words, he pivoted his body and walked out of the room, his mind churning with many other restless thoughts.

’Fucking hell.’

...

Back to the Tomb of Echidna, Inara stared at the now calmer state of her master.

Yet despite her calmness, Inara felt like one wrong word and she might be no more.

"The Seven-Headed King of Hydra, The Mother of Dragons of Draco, The Primal Bonehunter of Orion, The Wise Warmonger Centaur of Centaurus, The Song of Temptation of Lyra and finally..."

The Snake Princess paused, then continued, her voice strained,

"...The Sphinx."

"Yes," Echidna said, eyes narrowing, "that’s them."

"But why?" Inara asked, puzzled, "why did they betray you knowing you created them? And how did they achieve such power?"

"Think for yourself, my princess." Echidna scowled, "What else a reason could be except freedom?"

"Freedom?"

"Yes, freedom." Echidna said, "that was all they wished. Freedom from my overwhelming control over them. Freedom from the fact that I can take back whatever I give and they are nothing without me."

"Can you comprehend that?" The Mother of Monsters asked, leaning forward, eyes colder, "the awareness when you realize that you could wake up one day and you are no more just because someone else wished it?"

Inara said nothing, the full picture of the situation finally painting itself in front of her.

It was a harrowing canvas.

"They refused to live in such fear. So they sought freedom."

"How?" Inara asked again, "I didn’t think it was possible for a monster to go against her mother."

"Learn that today. Nothing is impossible, Princess. Nothing at all." Echidna grated, "One only needs to find a way. And find it they did. All because of that damned Star."

"Star?" Inara echoed.

But Echidna simply raised her head upward, staring again at the blinking eye adorning the sky. It seemed to calm her mind,

"Time is scarce, my princess." Echidna whispered, "and if we wish success in this, then we need to do one last thing together."

She looked back at her and Inara felt the weight of the situation on her. But the Heiress didn’t back down. She steeled herself, looking back at her master with the face of a soldier ready for a war she might never survive.

"What do we need to do?" Inara asked, hands balling into white-knuckled fists.

Echidna smiled faintly seeing her determined state.

"You will die with your current power if you fight them at this level. And my Gambit I planned for so long will be for naught if you do."

She slowly stood up from her throne, striding towards Inara with measured footsteps.

"You need to reach Grandmaster." The Mother of Monsters continued. "You need to obtain your Domain for our chance of success to increase. That’s not all, my princess..."

In time faster than Inara thought, Echidna was already an inch from her.

She raised her index finger, put it under the chin of Inara, and raised it gently so that their eyes bored deep into each other.

Inara suppressed a shudder seeing the profane vision inside her master’s eyes.

"...I also need you to make me come back from death. You are the key, Princess. You have always been."

"How?" Inara gingerly asked, "I do not have an Evolution Stone to rank up, neither an idea on how to revive you. Is that even possible?"

"Evolution Stone is just a tool to facilitate the process of sublimation of your self to be ready for evolution and receive a quest from The Will."

"If you can achieve that state of sublimation by yourself," Echidna grinned monstrously, "then you need no stones."

"But—!"

"From the bottom of the abyss comes the voice of sublimation," Echidna cut her words, as her head cracked into four parts, showing a sight so horrendous Inara’s eyes were bleeding, her mind at the verge of shattering.

She stretched her mouth to shout.

However, Echidna clasped her hand on Inara’s mouth.

"Don’t speak. Just listen."

Echidna made Inara forcefully witness what was inside her mind. Inara whimpered, eyes wide in horror.

The atmosphere around began to change, the corpses of dead monsters trembling.

At last, Echidna’s voice echoed through the mind of Inara,

"Welcome to my Abyss, Inara Serpentine. Hear the voice of sublimation, or let us die with pride."

Inara was sucked inside the mind of Echidna; inside her fractured, broken Warren.

And they both fell on the ground like broken puppets.

—End of Chapter 416—