Read Novel Full Chapter 448: Let’s dance.
Chapter 448: Chapter 448: Let’s dance.
Chapter 448 – Let’s dance.
The activation of the skill was complete even before Woeful was fully aware of it.
In one instant she was desperately backing down from the sitting, tired Kaden; and in the next she found herself in a completely different place.
The sight was just simply horrific.
And that, not only to Woeful. Even Kaden himself never knew what was truly inside his mind. He didn’t know the toll, the pain, the consequences of always going back in time did to his psyche.
So when he opened his eyes to his own mind, he almost felt like he was in the mind of someone — or rather something — else.
It was far too alien; far too dreadful.
It was a world of crimson, with a sea of blood running down beneath continuously. The bloody sea was always churning, bubbling and spluttering like a living thing trying to take an inhale.
In place of fishes, the only things that were inside it were broken limbs, dead bodies, eyeballs and intestines and bones.
The corpses of many monsters and beings mangled each other.
There was an ever-present pressure pressing down on all sides, a squalid yet holy stench soaking the surroundings.
Kaden seemed to have seen the corpse of Shamsi, the Sun Empress, and of Brain Cerveau and all of those beings and monsters he killed since the beginning.
None were missing. Yet there were also others he didn’t remember killing, yet was seeing their faces here.
But that was not everything.
There, in the very middle of the sea, like a hand thrust down by a merciless god, a gigantic crimson sword stood.
A woman — all in crimson, beautiful beyond measure — was sitting at the top of the pommel, looking like a sculpture made for the damned.
Above the crimson woman were multiple bulbs of crimson-black colors. And inside those bulbs...
Kaden instantly sucked a deep breath, his feet staggering, almost kneeling. The realization of what those bulbs signified was like a sword thrust.
He blinked, trying to see if it was only his illusion. But no. He witnessed inside each of them the same worlds of Fokay and Darklore, yet completely different in terms of events occurring.
It was the same yet different.
’Timelines?’ He wondered, cold sweat dripping off the back of his neck, ’The ones that were supposed to be if I didn’t return in time?’
Those were worlds where he no longer existed, yet somehow, in some mysterious and chilling manner...Kaden had these worlds living inside his mind.
’How in the bloody fucking hell is this possible?’ Kaden was in complete dismay, his face aghast.
He snapped his head towards Woeful, expecting her to see the same sight as him. However, her eyes were instead on one direction.
He followed her gaze, and saw a sight that at least brought a faint but broken smile to his lips.
Rea Thornspire stood there.
Her appearance was identical to Woeful, but their aura and existence, no matter how alike they felt, were different in a way Kaden could tell one from another.
’This is what I asked for. A battle between our three minds inside my own mind.’
A reckless idea, but one that appeared inside his mind without invitation nonetheless. So he took it, and now he must go through it.
He took a peek at the bulbs and the woman, then clasped his jaw tight. ’Not now, Kaden. You will ponder about it later.’
For now, Kaden tried to forget the sight of the timelines existing inside of him, focusing his sole attention on one single thing...
"Rea, I sacrificed so much to save you." Kaden said softly, "I expect compensation."
’Blood and Ashes, I lost a damn divinity.’
"I can give you a child. Can we do it now?" Rea replied, walking atop the ocean of blood, her feet crushing bones and intestines and hearts, until she stood beside Kaden.
She smiled humorlessly yet lovingly, looking at Woeful in front of them,
"I like the state of your mind, Kaden. Why did you hide such a thing from me?"
"Mind you, I didn’t know I could do this. Let alone that this would be the sight."
"You will suffer considerably if we lose the battle."
"Most certainly. But will we?"
"Sorrow’s breath, we are against a goddess."
"Who damned cares? Are you afraid?"
Rea’s lips curled up, sparing him a glance, "I just died, Kaden. My mind literally broke, and I felt my soul grasped by something utterly incomprehensible. I truly thought I would be no more, Kaden..."
Her voice shook a bit,
"But it seems the goddess mended it for me. How generous of her, don’t you think?"
"My distaste for her just lowered." Kaden smiled, "Should we go easy?"
"Easy? Sorrow take me, I will kill this bitch." She rolled her eyes, "And oh yes, Kaden, I just died for you. What do you have to say?"
"You love me?"
"I certainly do."
"Oh—!"
"Are you two done with your charades?" Woeful asked with a flat yet forlorn voice, "You sicken me. Let’s end this."
"Jealous?" Rea tilted her head.
"Yes, I admit. But not for long." Woeful replied, then looked at Kaden, "You are a fool, Kaden, to fight in this place. You will—!"
"You said it, it’s my place." Kaden cut in smoothly, raising his hands like wings, "And as it indeed is, I have the right to decide how the fight will be played."
"What?" Woeful asked despite knowing what was going to happen. However, Kaden was already continuing, his smile wider and wider, using the authority of his own mind.
"A fair fight, I propose!" His voice rose a notch, "In my mind, everything is dead."
He swept his hands all around,
"But the dead always leave something behind. And that something is most of the time, if not every time, darkness."
He paused a bit in a theatrical manner, looking at the twin-looking women in front of him. Then slowly,
"So here’s the thing," he whispered, "witness those darknesses, and the one who doesn’t let any of these darkness stain his or her soul..."
Another curt silence.
"...wins everything."
And so, without waiting for any of them to fully comprehend, the battle had now...
Rea cackled wildly.
"...Let’s start, ladies."
...
Meanwhile, inside the City of Cats, the Trial of the Blessed of Meris was still ongoing.
She was now lying flat on the strange, shifting, transmuting ground, her body rotten with wounds she never experienced.
The pain was mind-numbing.
Meris realized achingly that she could no longer move, her body too heavy and drained to do anything but lie down.
The ground and the air around were still changing from ice, water, snow and fog in a continuous, irregular cycle.
At this point, her mind had already gotten used to the constant change, and she was close. Ah...she was very close to something.
However, one thing was missing. So she opened her bleeding eyes — a cold, apathetic light exploding from them.
They rested on the Third Ancestor looking down on her with the same coldness, or even worse.
"One question." Meris said, "Is there any rule in this place?"
The Third Ancestor visibly recoiled in surprise, the question completely unexpected.
But that was all Meris needed. Because that reaction alone meant there were rules underneath all that was happening in that place.
And if there were rules, it meant there was a way to counter them.
And that way had been told to her since the beginning, she realized, even before she entered this artificial dungeon.
’Never stop dancing.’
That was what was written boldly on the door of this dungeon.
And those words had been often surfacing during the beatdown the Third Ancestor gave her.
How could it not be?
Many things, specifically the way the elements changed around, made her think of dance.
But...the way the elements changed was too sporadic and nonsensical to be a dance.
’That was where I failed.’
She had failed because she didn’t know the underlying meaning of dance.
What was dance?
’Rhythm, movements, joy, sadness, melancholy, meaning...’
There were many things in dance, and that was what made it, to Meris...
’Life.’
Dance was life.
And to not dance — to not live — because of rules that existed all around that didn’t match your own way of living — of dancing — was one of the fastest ways to die.
If not literally, then mentally.
So what was she supposed to do?
Oh...it was loud and clear. It was just...
"To never stop dancing." She said aloud.
The Third Ancestor immediately took a couple of steps away.
Because to never stop dancing, was to never stop living. And as long as you were living...
There were no rules.
’And even if there were...sometimes, breaking rules meant extending them.’
That day was one to break rules, and build from the remains something greater. Something of her own.
Something that would match...her own way of dancing.
With that understanding...
A blue yet black light sang into existence, enveloping Meris in a deep cocooning embrace.
Meris Elamin, sole daughter of the Primordial of Frost, reached enlightenment.
—End of Chapter 448—