Chapter 29: Decimation

We walk onto the sanded arena after I clad myself in the gem chaining gear. The gems on my hands gleam even as we step outside though the gray clouds offer little resistance against the gems splendor.

No one practices outdoors while the clouds swell into contorting blobs that disperse like oil in water. The wind shoves against the clothes on my chest pulling me backward. The dreary atmosphere quells my enthusiasm as no one trains outside today, but Petra says,

“So a little wind and rain’ll stop you like those other delicate flowers?”

I smirk, “I’m not that wet behind the ears." I stare upwards saying, "At least not yet.”

A small grin appears on her lips as she says, “Clever, but let’s get started. Mimic my movements. We’re gonna stretch ourselves and warm up before you begin practicing.”

Once we finish several minutes of dynamic stretching, Petra says,

“So tell me. What do you know of gemchaining?”

“The user tears the souls of the creature to pieces for explosive power. That’s the gist of my own musings.”

“Well, it isn’t that far of I suppose though rather than tearing the soul to pieces, we simply use the residual energy left after an animal dies.”

Deluge spits interrupting my thoughts, “The imbecile doesn’t even understand what she’s doing. This is idiotic.”

I snap in my mind, “Be quiet and listen. Show some patience.”

Petra continues, “The energy then converts into either an immediate benefit or a residual enchantment. The stronger the soul, the stronger the payout. The tarantula slime I killed is a good example.”

She grins more than necessary as she continues, “Since the beast was so powerful, the enchantment was used by the king for making the kingdom’s mantle giving the wearer immunity to poisons, illnesses, and the cold. The enchantment would have been even more powerful if used on a metal object.”

“So why would people ever use the souls for a single charge if such useful enchantments can be wrought?”

“The charges grant far greater instant effects. The mantle wouldn’t do much good versus the fire of a Daygron or its razor sharp scales now would it? You could produce an influx of gravity strong enough to crush its bones if you used the slime's soul in a gemchain however.”

She slams her gauntlets together saying, “Either way, we will be teaching you how to actually gem chain today. In your current gemchaining gear, you have a total of three charged gems. Grip the souls of the creatures and wrench them out.”

She lifts her foot saying, “Then you just visualize the impact.”

She pulverizes the sand with her foot thundering a loud POOM as sand lifts into the air around her. A small shockwave pushes me back while my hair flies backwards. Before I express my amazement, Deluge bellows in my mind,

“I shall snap her neck as I squeeze her heart of its blood. She shall experience eternal torment.”

A will powerful enough to dominate the mind of all living things splinters my own. As my resolve shatters, Deluge obliterates my control like a horse stomping a rabbit to death.

I bury myself in my own rationality slowing his ascension, but my efforts emerge too late. Deluge unravels.

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She does this to the souls for mere kinetic force? I’ll tear her arms off. I’ll gnash her cheeks. I’ll smash her teeth and mangle her skin and maim her legs. I'll shear her bones and rip her scalp and gash her organs. I'll submerge in her blood.

I’ll regenerate her as I deface her body. I am the justice of reason. I am the force of this world. I am the power of hypocrisy and the weakness of truth. I am the might of action. I am the apathy of angels, and I am the guardian of ego and spirit of fire. I resolve the agony of the lost and the bliss of the desolate.

I will protect my children.

Jack howls, “You're the insanity of anger. You're the mania in murder. You’re more than this Deluge. You are a force of nature who fights for the freedom of all things. All crumbles in your wake, but you must walk carefully, else you crush this world under your heel. Think before you act.”

His words pull me from my fury with reason and passion. Each of my infernos of hate dampen as the flood of reason tramples the flames. His compassion melts my wrath, and with the abatement of my anger, my will wilts.

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I return to consciousness with my body sprawled over Petra. My jaws gape with small insect mandibles squirming from my throat. I halt my mouth's movements as acid saliva drips from my maw corroding the sand beside Petra’s face.

Tears spill from her eyes as she weeps with strained arms shaking with exertion as my weight bears down on her. I cease my hissing by closing my mouth. As I revert my form, I lift myself removing my heft from Petra.

Her arms fall to her side as she gasps for air. The pillars of earth around us obscure our surroundings as I return to normal. Once my face forms into its normal visage, I meet her gaze.

Her eyes dart back and forth as she mumbles while weeping her eyes out. She embraces hysteria saying,

“Please, don’t take them from me. Please spare them. They’ve done nothing. Give them back. Please give them back. Don’t take them away. Don’t eat them. Anything, anything else. Anything, please.”

I shout, "What's wrong? What have I taken?"

She starts striking my sides with viscous blows, but she uses her arms alone for power. I grit through the pain as I grasp her arms lifting her from under me. She murmurs, "Stop. Not me two. Don't take me too. Let me be. Don't. don't."

I whisper as I set her down, "Tell me, what are you seeing?"

"Skinless bodies...Blood. The flesh. Crawling and acid. My family. Oh, my family. Why must you leave me? Please come back. Please. Please."

Realization fractures my confusion. She's reliving the death of her parents. the horror Deluge transformed into rekindled the trauma of her losing her parents to the flesh viper. She's seeing their deaths, and she sees the sight alone.

The wrinkled skin on her face folds together mimicking a raisin while her mask of red shows her mania. She gasps in panic as I lift her against my chest sitting her up and whispering with the tone of a mother to her child,

“You're ok. I’m here. You're alright. You're not alone.”

She sobs, “Give them back. Give them Back. Please, just give them back.”

I whisper, “I remember a story. Would you like to hear it?”

Her breathing slows as I release our embrace and our eyes meet. Her eyes glaze over as she replies, “I...I...”

“Once upon a time, there was a boy. During one of his travels, he lost his mother and father in the blinding light of lightning and the booming bane of thunder. He braved the burden alone, but his soul left a gaping hole.

Whenever the hole threatened to consume him, an angel came from the sky in a blinding flash of violet and heat. The angel restored his wounds and granted him a companion. Since then, the boy has braved many storms and made many mistakes, but he does so with the angel watching over him.”

I clamp her hand in mine as I murmur in a voice warmed by the sun,

“You’ll find your angel Petra, just as I found mine.”

My vision fogs as a stinging pain grows from my throat, yet I continue. I do not relent. I do not succumb. Another lost one lies in ruin, so I act as her harbinger. We sob together without reserve or restraint. The barriers between us shatter. The gray clouds overhead weep with us blanketing our mourning with crisp, arctic rain.

After several minutes, Petra whispers, “I thought you’d become a monster. I thought...”

I murmur, “I’ve been a monster for a long time, but I only realized it recently.”

After we separate, she says, “I don’t know what happened. I thought you were the flesh viper come back to life so you could drag me to hell with my parents. I just started seeing my parent's passing.”

Deluge’s discomfort emanates from my subconscious, but I rasp out a lie, “I must have bludgeoned you with excessive force.”

Her shoulders shiver as she says, “I remember you charging at me so violently that I just reacted on instinct. I hit you square across your temple and your knee with my gemchains.”

She fights down a wretch as she continues, “I broke your neck and legs. Your head hung limply as you hobbled at me. Your face jerked back into socket as you leaned downwards charging me to the ground.”

Her gaze widens as she stares into the abyss of her vision. She hollows as she says, “Your jaw unhinged like a snake as your teeth elongated then....crawling legs grew from your throat.”

I stammer, “Th-that sounds more like a nightmare than a dream.”

She closes her eyes while shaking her head. After an instant, she looks towards me opening her eyes and saying, “What actually happened?”

Panic erupts from my gut as I face my own ignorance. I may have lied my way this far, but without any warning, my ability to weave this tall tale withers.

A second passes then another before Deluge nudges me from my conscious saying, “I consumed all of the gemchains at once hitting you with some kind of burst. You started attacking wildly without reason afterwards.”

Petra’s eyes open as she gasps, “How did you use more than one gemchain at once?”

Deluge shrugs his shoulders saying, “During a class of soul forging, I shattered the gem of a golem. I couldn’t give it any of my own soul, so I may only be able to use other creatures more effectively as compensation. I don't really understand it myself.”

Deluge exposes the gems in his hands. As expected, the once glowing gems lay in their sockets without a hint of light. Petra places her chin on a loosened fist as she says,

“I don’t understand it, but your story adds up more than mine. I think...I think that’s enough training from me for today. See if Joan will instruct you on some techniques. I need some rest...Thank you for earlier. I lost my mind, and you just calmed me down rather than berating me.”

I grin lifting my fist as I reply, “We must stay strong, for our parents watch over us.”

Her eyes soften as a small smile grows on her lips. She stares at me for a moment creating an awkward atmosphere, but I hack out a violent cough interrupting the tension. I rasp,

“The winter wind and rain will exacerbate my illness. Let’s go back indoors.”

Petra snaps out of her reverie saying, “Ah, yes. Of course.”

She stands up brushing off the sand on her clothes with rushed swipes. As I stand up, she marches away swinging her arms in wide arcs. I blink in surprise several times before I walk towards the break room. Holding her unusual behavior against her seems tactless, so I release my judgments as I enter the break room.

My cloak and sword lay precisely on the bench I put them earlier, so no human garbage attempted stealing the items while I was away. Excellent. After I remove my armor, I put on the possessions, but I pause afterwards standing while staring at the ground in front of me.

My teeth grit as I reach for Deluge. I howl, “What madness has taken you. Why do you lash out with such stupidity?”

After several seconds I howl once more, “Justify yourself. What provoked your carnage?”

Deluge chokes, “The souls of the entities...They're nothing. She shatters hollow husks...Come.”

His grating torment extinguishes my fury, so I follow him into the subconscious. The number of souls floating in consolidation expanded to a colossal pool. The souls of massive hordes disperse across the black landscape like shifting stars.

The small souls of Insects and birds fly through the upper expanse leaving trails of dark yellow behind them that fade after several seconds. The countless rodent souls scurry across the lower domain as they scramble over one another in a shifting sea of glowing amber. The dim, black chamber of before transformed into an abundant flood of intermingling life.

Each of the creatures meshes with one another without a worry or care.The humans group together forming a tight web of amber color like polished ivory that shifts with gentle waving. Among this display, three writhing souls of purple emit cold, menacing hatred, yet they obey Deluge's words,

“Come, my children.”

They scurry upwards. The deformed bodies of two verreis and a single wren wrench under their own weight. The once elegant birds jerk and yank as they stagger for us. As abominations, they wail broken songs of sadness and sorrow. Their plight cracks my resolve.

I say, “What has been done to them?”

Deluge murmurs with a hollow voice, “Only evil Jack. Only evil.”