Return of the Fallen Volume 9 Chapter 37
Only for a moment did a strange calm wash over Zephris and he thought everything was fine. Only when he saw the vile look from the mysterious woman did he understand, she had done something. What he didn’t know but the what became apparent immediately.
His crown was still activated. As more experts were ground away by his fused Azirian giant, they were integrated into the monstrous mass and became a unique Azirian. The very next instant, the fragment inside of them was split in half. One half remained while the other half entered Zephris’s crown.
The next process was the erasing of the unique personality, consciousness, and intelligence within the fragment before it was to enter Zephris’s own soul world and fuse directly with his soul. However, the moment the unique soul fragment entered his crown, nothing was erased and instead, the fragment went from his crown and joined with his soul fusing together.
Zephris entire body came to a complete stop in the sky and his eyes rolled up into his skull. He suddenly grasped his head and roared out in excruciating pain.
*ARHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!*
This sudden change and roar caused everyone to become paralyzed for a split second. They didn’t know what was happening but because of this, an opening appeared before them and they didn’t hesitate.
“ATTACK!”
All at once, the enemy swarmed Zephris, cutting away at him delivering upon him destruction. Magic rained down from every direction and exploded outward like a bomb.
The smoke hadn’t even cleared and they knew that Zephris still wasn’t dead. With him weakened though they decided to press even harder. Those keeping barriers up surrounding the city dropped them and concentrated their full power solely on Zephris.
While Zephris felt his body being torn apart, something far worse was taking place within his mind and soul.
(IT HURTS! WHO ARE YOU WHY! MY MIND! MY SOUL! WHAT IS THIS!)
The unique soul fragment that had fused with him, the instant it fused with him, brought with it, fragmented memories from the creature that it used to be. Not only did it inject millions of strange broken memories but it also flooded Zephris’s soul and mind with excruciating pain. Pain from the insane amount of broken memories as well as pain from the most powerful, last memory.
The very last memory this creature had was of it being torn and mangled to small fleshy bits before the Azirian blood took over. Zephris felt intense emotions on a scale that was barely processable. Hatred, agony, fear, sadness, never-ending rage, and then death. Zephris literally felt what it was like to die. These memories and experiences were now all his and they were fresh.
Zephris’s mind started to go blank from this one soul fragment fusing with him but he still had a powerful will that just barely kept him in focus.
(Must destroy that fragment, but it’s no longer a fragment, it’s already fused with my soul. I have to remove these thoughts, these feelings. I must purge part of my soul and I must do it quickly before I die!)
Zephris’s mind was spiraling out of control but he knew he needed to remove everything he had just taken in. This though was no simple task. He knew how to split his soul, he had done it millions of times before but to remove something specific from him, specific memories, specific thoughts, and feelings, it had never been done. Not only that, he would not be removing a mere one or two thoughts but instead millions.
His first natural thought was to use the element of darkness. With its powerful eroding capabilities, he theorized he could simply destroy the parts he wished but that was quickly disproven as it merely destroyed bits of his soul without rhyme or reason.
(More control, More precision.)
Using his aura, he guided inside of his soul tree in search of everything that didn’t belong. He split his aura into millions of feelers and controlling them separately, they scanned over his memories, over his very soul in search of any falsehoods. Once he found them, he grabbed hold of them with his aura and tried to remove them that way but found that when he separated them, they were not fully removed.
Just as he was getting desperate, once more his crown activated and pulled another unique soul fragment into his soul world.
Zephris felt panic and immediately intercepted this unique soul fragment and destroyed it before it could fuse with him. He then understood right away what the problem was. His magic tool, his crown, there was something wrong with it. He quickly looked t over and found that a single inscription was damaged.
(THAT WOMAN!)
It wasn’t hard to figure out who the culprit was but at the same time, there was nothing he could do to her right now. With a thought, the crown was thrown off of his head.
As it fell toward the ground, the mysterious woman snapped her fingers, and the power of space gathered around the crown causing it to vanish and then reappear in her own hand.
“It would be a shame to let this interesting device go. With this, one can control that monstrous giant. This alchemist isn’t half bad. With an army like that, it can keep growing indefinitely as long as there are creatures to consume and take over. I think I’ll be holding onto this for a while.”
The woman waved her hand, this time, instead of the power of space, greyish energy surrounded both her hand and the crown. With a casual wave, the damage on the crown was reversed in an instant.
Torzz watched the woman do this and felt a chill run down his spine, or rather would have felt a chill if he had a body made of flesh and blood.
“Demigods really are different. You use the element of time just like my mother.”
The woman glared at Torzz and snapped.
“Do not compare me to her. Your mother’s powers are inconsequential compared to my real power. If we were in one of the higher realms with my true body, well, let’s just say, this much is nothing.”
Torzz detected an edge of brutality in this woman’s tone. He did not know or understand the full extent of her powers but the way she spoke, made it sound as if she could turn back time on the universe itself.
The woman decided to have a bit more fun. She changed something on the crown once again as if it were nothing.
“What did you do?”
Torzz asked and the woman simply turned to him and said.
“It was going slow, this ought to speed it up a bit.”
The moment her words fell, the crown lit up and Zephris, screamed out again.
*AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!*
“He threw away this crown, thinking that would end his suffering but he didn’t sever the soul connection within it. It’s useless to throw it away. Not only that, instead of one or two fragments joining him, I made it so all of them are joining him all at once. Torzz, what do you think would happen if tens of thousands of different personalities and billions of memories, thoughts, and feelings were to fuse with you in a single second?”
Torzz didn’t even need to think to understand what she meant.
(This woman, this level of cruelty is something even I would never do.)
Just as the mysterious woman said, the device Zephris had built, the device he had created to take hold of the world and change and to help save it, this very same device led to his very downfall. In an instant, thousands upon thousands upon thousands of unique soul fragments fused with Zephris’s soul. He had made a fatal error in the crown’s design. Because the magic tool connected both his soul, along with the fragments, throwing it away did nothing to stop the flow. All at once, billions of thoughts, billions of memories and emotions, became one with Zephris.
All of the pain and agony in the world could not compare to what Zephris felt at this very moment. It was as if his mind had exploded and shattered millions and billions of times over. Not only did he feel the moment of death, again and again, it never eased, it never got better. Suffering upon suffering on an infinite loop. Not only that, all of the unique fragments that joined with him, all had their own voices, their own torment and they called out, screamed, roared, echoed, and howled endlessly.
Infinite pain, infinite hell. This was Zephris’s existence.
Zephris fell out of the sky. Even under hundreds of thousands of continuous attacks from his enemies, he still was not destroyed. The physical pain though was because of the constant barrage of blows, ta the just barely kept his mind from unraveling fully. A tiny portion of his own thoughts, of his own unbending will, even after all of this, whatever made him, still remained.
(Have to destroy the thoughts, have to destroy these voices in my soul, in my mind.)
Zephris could feel his very existence dwindling and his control slipping from his grasp. But he could see no way out of this. At the same time, he could still see the vile woman smiling in the distance.
(All of this, if not for her, the world would have been…
Just before he lost it all, an unending rage took over. All he could think about, all he was consumed by was killing that woman. With the last of his will, he fused darkness, space, and his soul as one.
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