95. The Spawn of Darkness’s Awakening

Hell was a void of darkness and silence. Or so I thought before Ray’s voice broke into my mind through our necro-bond.

‘Armen. Can you hear me? I just activated my power. Th-There’s no need to be scared, it’s all right, we’re still alive, so p-please don’t leave my side. We just need to put our minds at work to figure out what’s going on. I don’t know why, but we’ve been dragged along with you, inside the crystal. Also, I don’t know why but… I get the feeling that, if I deactivate my power, the three of us will disintegrate into energy.’

In the nothingness, Ray’s voice soothed my anger. I was momentarily frozen by the fact that I had dragged Ray and Zeeta inside the sphere. Then shame and worry were replaced by a wave of joy and relief. I was not dead. I was still alive!

‘Armen? Are you all right? Ah… I guess I cannot hear you. It’s weird, but even if we’re supposed to be inside a crystal, I can breathe just fine. Maybe we’re not in the crystal anymore and we got teleported. It doesn’t seem like Julen Yamazaki is around, though. W-Well, I wouldn’t be able to see him even if he was. It’s so dark. My power is so damn terrifying… But I’m fine. Hell, I’m fine. As long as we’re alive, there’s still hope.’

He sounded like he was trying to convince himself. I couldn’t see him, probably because his black shadows covered him entirely, but as soon as I breathed in, his wasted lifeforce revealed his location. Ray was talking so much that I even began to see it. He was panicking a bit, either because of the surrounding darkness or our incomprehensible situation. Probably both.

“Ray…”

‘Oh! Now I can hear you!’ His relief poured through our necro-bond.

“That’s because I didn’t say anything before,” I explained. “I’m a bit dizzy. I think I ate too much. My core suddenly got crazy… I thought Furies couldn’t get drunk…” I wasn’t sure about it, but inside the red sphere, I’d had the impression my core had eaten anything it could grab, red crystal, purple crystal, and more. But maybe I was wrong? If I wasn’t, then I could only hope that my body wasn’t going to explode or something. “Anyway, let’s leave that matter for later. Where is Zeeta?”

‘Just behind you, according to my shadows… But I can’t see him, of course. It’s t-t-too dark. He’s completely covered with my shadows, so he probably can’t even talk. I’d like to release him, but I don’t know how the energies around would react if I did, and I’m not even sure that I can control those shadows. It’s the first time I’m using them consciously. And the first time I don’t pass out. I just hope my power is not harming him. I’d like to check on him, but I can’t even move…’

I frowned, alarmed.

“Are you hurt?”

‘N-No… I’m fine, Armen. It’s just that I can’t move. Maybe because we’re inside a crystal.’

“That’s weird. I think I can move.” I turned around. My core was telling me that my body was moving. I couldn’t sense anything else than my own gestures, though. “You… really can’t move?”

The answer didn’t come right away. A mix of self-mockery, desperation, and shame went through our necro-bond. Then Ray confessed:

‘It may be a drawback for using my power. Or maybe I’m just too scared? It’s so frustrating.’

“Let’s not worry about that. If your shadows are really protecting us, that’s great, but you probably can’t last for too long. My big sis told me that the more incredible a technique is, the more energy it requires. So… how do we do to get out of here? Any idea?”

I had followed Zeeta’s wasted energy and crouched by his side. I didn’t dare to touch him, though. I wasn’t wearing my gloves.

As far as I knew, people paralyzed by Ray’s darkness didn’t really remember anything afterwards. At least, after that night when Sally Sunclaw had attacked Ray, triggering his power, Linah had told me, “At first, I thought I was going to suffocate, but I didn’t. It felt as if something cold was flooding through my body. I heard a chirp, a creepy one as if I had swallowed a raven alive, and I thought I was gonna die, but the next thing I knew, I was lying in my hideout and you two had already run away, leaving me alone with my sister. I won’t ever forget the face she had. She won’t admit it, but she got super scared, hwara-hwara!”

I shook my head. According to that, Zeeta should be fine. I got up, felt Ray’s fear increasing, and turned to him.

“Ray. Snap out of it. Darkness is not your enemy. It’s your power. So grab it, control it, and don’t let it go until we manage to get out of here.”

I heard Ray’s snort.

‘I know. I’m fine.’

To my surprise, the necro-bond calmed down. For an instant, I feared Ray had fallen unconscious. But then he repeated more firmly:

‘I’m fine. I don’t need light when… I already have one.’

I raised my eyebrows, then grinned as I recalled. Didn’t I tell him last year that his friends would be the light he needed? Just now, he had just forced himself to relax. As expected of Ray, he had a strong will, but… in fact, he was probably just trying to stop thinking about the darkness. I heard him take a deep breath.

‘Armen. Since you can move, how about you take a look outside? Without peeping out too much.’

I nodded good-humoredly.

“Okay!”

I didn’t know exactly in which direction I should walk, since I was completely blinded by darkness. Anyway, the sort of sphere Ray had created around us was small, and I soon made it out and passed my head through the dark veil. I saw a river of dazzling light. My undead eyes didn’t need to adjust to the sudden change. A huge shining white door as tall as a three-story house stood in front of me. Artistic patterns were engraved all over its panels. After some seconds of contemplation, I stepped back and said in a voice shaking with emotion:

“You were right. We are not in the red sphere anymore. We are…” I took a deep breath and concluded: “at the door of the final big boss.”

There was a silence. Then Ray muttered:

‘Give me a break. Does that mean I can deactivate my power?’

“You can. I think.”

There was a silence. Then Ray let out a groan.

“Ray? What is it?”

‘I… I can’t deactivate my power. I may not be controlling it right now.’

“Huh, you can’t tell if you are controlling it or not?”

‘Agh, it’s the first time I ever try to control it, so yeah, I can’t tell!’

Oh, my. He was annoyed.

“Take your time. Don’t you know that story about the super prudent young sailor who crossed the Ocean of Hell, and when he was about to land, he got impatient, sailed rashly, pricked his ankle with a splinter, and died of gangrene—No, wait, am I mixing the stories? What I mean is no need to rush, master. You get the hang of your shadows. I’ll drag Zeeta out of the darkness.”

The way to word it sounded pretty weird. Anyway, some minutes later, Zeeta was lying outside Ray’s shadows, and I was patting his cheek with the leather cover of A Thousand Paths to Heaven. I heard him grunt.

“It hurts…”

I smiled.

“No way. It’s supposed to help you reach enlightenment.”

“Aaaah,” he let out.

His odd, muffled scream made me frown, and I loomed over him. I bet he wasn’t reaching enlightenment so… was he injured? His eyelids fluttered open as he added:

“Aaaaah…”

“Holy Gods, Zeeta, are you all right? Are you hurt? Where?”

Zeeta stared at me, looked at the pitch-dark wobbly shape that was obstructing the tunnel, then again at me. Was he just too shaken by the events? I explained, pointing at the shadows:

“Ray’s in there. Right now, he’s trying to deactivate his power. He probably saved our lives inside the sphere that swallowed us. Looks like we’ve been teleported. And unless there’s something behind Ray in that tunnel, our only way out is… that one.”

I turned, indicating the magnificent gates. Zeeta huffed, impressed, though he probably didn’t see them the same way as I did. The white energy covering the panels was so dense that it made me even wonder if the door wasn’t exclusively made out of it. Was it lifeforce? Was it another kind of white energy? I had no idea. What I did know was that my core was reacting to it. It wanted to eat it. Furies really ate anything as long as it could be processed.

Zeeta had sat up with a painful grimace. He massaged his temples, his back, his shoulders… I smiled ruefully.

“Sorry. That must be me. I dragged you out of Ray’s shadows.”

Zeeta hesitated then took out his cellphone. After a while, he showed it to me. I could read:

«I basically get what happened but I can’t hear u. I’m currently deaf.»

“…!!” I stared at him, dumbstruck. “Deaf?”

He nodded, reading on my lips. I couldn’t believe it. Zeeta had become deaf? How?! Zeeta added, writing on his phone:

«Don’t worry. It may be just a temporary effect of the teleportation. Obviously, my power doesn’t work either.»

I was aghast. Was it really because of the teleportation? Or was Ray’s power…? No, wait, that couldn’t be!

With a sudden impulse, I tried to make different sounds, clapping my hands, roaring, grazing the strings of my violin—but Zeeta kept shaking his head. I played the worst and most disagreeable melody ever, in vain. I had to face the facts. Zeeta was currently deaf. Becoming deaf was the worst thing that could happen to a musician. If it was Ray’s power’s fault and Zeeta remained deaf for the rest of his life… Zeeta would never forgive him. Ever. In the end, he wrote:

«Calm down, Straw Head. Your tears are even creepier than usual.»

Tears? I passed my hand on my face and looked at my tears. They weren’t black tears, but a mix of shimmering dots of different colors: red, blue, purple, gray… So, in the end, I had eaten all kinds of energies back in the red sphere. My core still hadn’t finished processing it all. What crazy amount of energy did I eat for a Fury’s core like mine to have trouble digesting it?

Zeeta moaned and typed:

«My back hurts like I’ve been dragged by a madman up and down a street.»

Ow… I wiped the apologetic pout off my face along with my tears, took out my phone, and wrote:

«I thought you’d rather have back pain than damage your guitar, so I made a choice.» And I added: «Can I do something?»

«Not dragging me on a rocky ground perhaps? (Thanks for the guitar)»

«I mean, your hearing. 😓»

Zeeta shrugged, glanced at Ray’s shadows with his index, then at the white gates, and wrote:

«We’ve got more urgent problems right now, don’t you think?»

He was right.

Besides, maybe it was just a temporary effect, as he said. I typed:

«You just missed the best melody I will ever play. Can’t redo it.»

Zeeta rolled his eyes and replied:

«My intuition tells me I should be glad to be deaf.»

I chuckled, saw the book A Thousand Paths to Heaven lying on the floor, picked it up, and put it inside the case with the violin. My movements were getting more awkward by the minute. And that was because… of that door.

I finally turned to the gates. Such a beautiful and majestic view. It was as if I was staring at a spring of lifeforce, a volcano of life… Maybe the Holy Lake looked a bit like that? The more I looked at it, the more restless my core became. As a matter of fact…

“Straw Head?”

Though deaf, Zeeta called my name. As he did, I realized I had stood up and walked closer to the door. My core was now frantically asking me to continue. I glanced back. Zeeta was frowning. He wrote while approaching.

«You’re not planning on touching that door, are you?»

Why shouldn’t I? He added, putting his phone under my nose:

«You got swallowed by the sphere. The same could happen here.»

“…! True. Then I won’t touch it.” Despite what I said, my body was moving on its own, pushed by the core, drawn by the energy. “Crap… How am I supposed to stop?”

Zeeta panicked and typed in a hurry:

«Stop!»

Then:

«U DEAF?!»

He was one to talk.

Since I wasn’t stopping, he pulled me by the hood of my coverall. I’m sure he put everything he had into stopping me, just as I did, but my body kept walking forward. While my core was eating the leftovers wandering around the door, my breathing was getting heavier and deeper by the second. Furies did not know how to stop.

Zeeta ended up trampling on one of my feet and hitting the back of my knees with his other leg, trying to make me stumble. I should have fallen over, but I didn’t. I kept standing, as unshakeable as a rock. Hadn’t I gotten stronger? Was it because I had overeaten? Or maybe Zeeta was being affected by the qi pressure and was weakened?

He still was slowing me down, and I got annoyed.

“Zeeta! Just let go of me! This door is not a crystal, and it has no purple energy. I won’t teleport. I’ll probably be fine. And what if Erma is just behind this door…?”

That would be a helluva coincidence, yeah. I looked Zeeta in the eye. He didn’t hear a word of what I said, obviously. How frustrating. I didn’t have the time to write it down. I had to absorb that energy. My Fury instincts were just too strong. To ignore those gates was for me the same as if a starving man, being offered a loaf of bread, chose to die instead…

“I have to eat that door.”

Zeeta couldn’t hear me, but his face paled as he looked at me.

“NO!” he screamed deafly. “STRAW HEAD, I HAVE A BAD FEELING ABOUT THIS! DO YOU WANT TO DIE?”

I couldn’t help but smile at his question. Die? That door was the epitome of life!

“Let go of him.” Ray’s sudden voice startled me. As I turned my head, Zeeta followed my gaze.

The young necromancer was standing in the middle of the tunnel, dark volutes of smoke flowing out of his hands. Did… Did he succeed in controlling his power? Under my keen expression, he grasped the brim of his cap and smiled slightly.

“This door is made of pure lifeforce. It’s a paradise for a Fury. With this, your core will not only recover its stability but also evolve more quickly… Incredibly more quickly. Also,” Ray pointed to the tunnel at his back, “we’re in a dead-end. That door is our only way out. The problem is, normal humans cannot get near it. It’s eating our lifeforce from there. If we were to even graze it… I don’t think we would survive even a minute. So… let go of him and let him eat, Zeeta.”

After a silence during which I could only hear the lifeforce sizzling around the door, I smiled. Excitement, pride, and joy filled my soul. Ray had managed to control the shadows! He feared them so much, yet… he had done it! Even though he was trying to downplay his achievement, he was undeniably thrilled. Not only that: he was now confidently telling me to do what my instincts urged me to. He was giving me free rein to devour that gigantic door of lifeforce. Somehow, it didn’t even occur to me that I couldn’t eat it all.

A cellphone’s screen eclipsed my view.

«What the hell is he saying?»

After I patiently transcribed what Ray had said almost word for word, Zeeta stared at my phone, frowned at Ray, then clicked his tongue, and let me go. My lips went up, showing my teeth.

“Zeeta. Ray. Trust me. I’ll destroy the door for you.”

I rolled up my sleeves. In a few more steps, I reached the door. Dense streaks of lifeforce emanating from it aroused my core. Without delay, I laid my hands and forehead on the panel.

A torrent of energy roared towards me. It felt as if Heavens had embraced me. As if I was devouring the Heavens.

The coverall I was wearing didn’t prevent the lifeforce from sneaking under it. The more I absorbed, the harder it became for me to keep my lucidity.

‘It’s all right,’ Ray told me through our necro-bond. ‘With my shadows, I can protect you at any time, so keep eating.’

Did he… order me to eat?! My core was stirred up and grew even wilder.

‘Eat.’

My core got even crazier. Wait, was that okay? Wasn’t Ray being more confident than he normally was?

‘Eat and become stronger.’

Through our necro-bond, I could feel his urge to get power. When did Ray ever want to become more powerful? When I turned my face to him, I was almost sure I saw black smoke gushing out of his eyes.

“Ray…?”

‘Don’t worry about me. Eat so we can stay alive. Devour the door and become stronger. DO NOT STOP UNTIL I TELL YOU SO.’

My worries were swept away by a voracious hunger.

The door was huge—absorbing all its energy was going to take a while—but the void inside me was even bigger. I could do it, oh I knew I could do it: right now, I felt as if I could eat the whole world if my master ordered me to.