Chapter 39

Reave

It’s been nearly a full day since the rain started falling, and still there’s no sign of it stopping.

The rivers overflowed and flooded the lowlands south of Panear, and now we’re forced to take to the trees like the monkeys we are, desperately trying to avoid the raging streams below. Obviously I can’t do that, but the monks can. Jurfan does it better than most, which is why he’s carrying me on his back.

Dead weight? Of course not. I can still do my job properly, which is to watch for the other teams.

Teacher, they’re signaling us, I said upon seeing Anlong’s team waving out at us.

“Alright, let’s see what they’ve found.”

As you can tell, I’m doing my job properly. Sound signals no longer work as the stream below would drown any voice or whistle and now we’re left relying on my eyes to tell what the others are up to.

We follow where the signal indicates we should go and found a small piece of dry land situated a little above the flood.

“Did you find anything?” teacher asked her mentor.

“No,” Douzhen answered bluntly. “This flood is making it hard for us to move around, and we can’t keep jumping around like this, can we?”

“Maybe if we go further south…” Karyat suggested.

“How much further, a league? Two? No, brother,” Douzhen shook his head. “All we’re going to find is more water.”

“So what, we’re just going to give up?”

“No,” Douzhen turns to me, “but this is why we brought her.”

…Me?

“You found the alpha, did you not?”

We got lucky.

I only thought that the alpha would be somewhere the augurs couldn’t see from the ridge, somewhere down south. In other words,

It was just a guess.

“A guess would be our best bet right now.”

His eyes stay on me and from that, I realize he’s not going to let me off until I come up with an answer.

…It’s a far shot, but I think I have an idea where it might be.

“Tell us.”

I point at the swirling flood all around us.

“The water?” Douzhen said, following me to the edge. “You think it’s hiding underwater?”

“Well, that’s just great,” Karyat clapped his hands. “Anyone forgot their swimwear? Because I did.”

I don’t think we need to search it out.

“Yes, we do. If you want to kill something, you’d have to find it first. Did they teach you anything at acquisition?”

One thing I know they ‘didn’t’ teach us is diving into enemy lairs and die a moronic death. Of course, that class might’ve been too advanced for some people to understand.

Karyat’s just starting to throw needles with his eyes before Douzhen steps between us.

“What do you mean?” Douzhen asked, his gaze still stern on me.

That ‘thing’ from earlier, I think it’s a message meant for us. I think it knows we’re coming.

“And you were planning to tell us when?”

It’s just a guess. You wouldn’t have believed-

“Yes, we would’ve,” he said as he briskly brushes past me and starts scanning the trees around us. “Eyes sharp. It could’ve been following us from the start.”

“You actually believe her?” Karyat asked.

Douzhen looks at me again, and I swear there’s contempt in his eyes as he says, “I trust her instincts, “ - and only her instincts – was what he didn’t say.

He finally looks away when I glare at him. Bastard.

He thinks me some dangerous asset, or at least, some kind of convenient liability. Well, tell you what, he’s not so wise either. He can’t even realize the reason I went out hunting for toads in the first place was because of him.

“Elder, over there!” the augur shouted, pointing at a flooded area shadowed by the trees. Talk about timing.

“What did you see?” Douzhen draws out his one-handed spear, and the others follow suit.

“I don’t know, but it was under the water and it was fast.”

What did it look like?

I walk up to the augur.

“I only saw a shadow, but it was big and slithered like a….” he trailed off.

Like a what?

His eyes lose focus, now looking at something else behind me. I follow his eyes to the other side of land.

A large shadow looms, its serpentine eyes shone as every alarm in my instincts rang hard.

“Fay!”

At the corner of my eye, I see Anlong reaching for me, but before he or the giant shadow could reach me, teacher pulls me away with the tip of her staff.

I land on my butt to see the tail end of the creature as it slithers back into the water.

“It got Tenrai!” Karyat shouted.

Tenrai, the augur, was standing behind me just then. Teacher pulled me out of the creature’s way, but he wasn’t so lucky.

“Fay, are you okay?!” Anlong runs towards me, but Douzhen stops him with the blunt of his spear.

“Don’t make rash movements, boy. Fay, was that the demon?”

I don’t know, I didn’t get a good look.

All I got was a glimpse, but… it looked like…

“It’s coming back!” teacher warned.

Just like before, a shadow appears. Faster than anyone could see, it goes back under the water’s surface, taking with him another person.

“Curses, it was too fast!”

“Who did it grab?!”

“Jurfan! It got Jurfan!”

This is no joke. Even the fastest drachtal can’t follow its speed, and with this flood around us, we can’t even see where it’s coming from.

Teacher, we need to pull it out of the water!

Teacher stays her gaze on the raging flood for a moment before answering, “We may not need to.”

Eh?

“Fay, think you can electrocute the water?”

You mean… no, the currents are too strong. Any charge would dissipate before-

“It’s here! North side!”

Thanks to Anlong’s warning, we somehow manage to jump out of the demon’s way. I said “somehow” because I still can’t see anything other than a large shadow flashing by.

“That was too close!” Karyat cursed, and I know everyone is thinking the same thing.

“Curse the nine hells! How does something so big move so quick?!”

“Watch for ripples in the water!”

“How?! We’re in a fucking flood, it’s rippling everywhere!”

“Inzhi! Fay!”

“We’re working on it!” teacher shouted back at her mentor, then looks back towards me, “If I make an enclosure to stop the current, can you do it?”

Probably, but how would you-

“Can you do it or not?!”

Y-Yes!

I turn to Douzhen and he in turn, barks at the others, “You heard the lady! Buy the geomancer some time, in any way you can!”

So he said, but how are you supposed to buy time when we don’t even know how to defend against this thing – is what I thought. Karyat, however, seems to have thought differently.

With seemingly no hesitance, he jumps up to a nearby branch of a tree and starts dangling -- that is, hooking his legs around the branch and let gravity do the rest.

“What are you doing?!” Anlong shouted at him.

“’In any way we can,’ right?” he said as he starts swinging his body as if to make himself look more tempting.

“Goddess, is he really doing that?” Anlong mouthed.

“…As much as I hate it, that idiot might be right. There’s not much else we can do,” Douzhen chided.

“Stay here with the kid, elder!” a drachtal said as he and one other goes off to nearby trees to do the same thing, though maybe not as flashy as what Karyat is doing. Just standing on a branch should be enough to present yourself as vulnerable targets.

At any rate, that leaves only the four of us on the ground.

“What do we do now?” Anlong stuttered.

Like he said, I said, summoning firebulbs around me.

We do what we can.

I send the first bulb, primed and charged, towards where the creature was last seen. An instant after the fiery orb crashes into the water, the shock comes, quaking everything around us while sending a tall pillar of water into the air, joining the rain as it pours back down.

“The hell did you do?!” teacher screamed at me.

Buying you time!

“Oh, well… don’t stop now!”

I don’t intent to, I winked at her.

With all these pillars of waters, it shouldn’t be easy for the creature to attack us. Hence, it doesn’t come as a surprise when the creature pounces out from the water right below the easier target, Karyat, whom must’ve seen it coming and used the momentum from his swing to jump out of harm’s way.

“He dodged!” Anlong broke out, but there’s no time for celebration as the creature, without pause, continues towards the other two “baits”.

“Scatter!” one of them shouted to the other before they jump onto other trees.

The creature doesn’t stop its attacks there, turning around and around between trees, leaving the three drachtals to helplessly, desperately jumping from branch to branch.

“Isn’t there anything we can do to help?!” Anlong yelled out, his sword shaking in his grip.

Douzhen furrows his brows, frustrated as well as he can’t leave the kid and the two magi defenseless.

Me? Well, there’s one thing only I can do.

Nexy, now!

Damn it, it’s moving too fast. I can’t keep my focus on it. Scratch that, there are two things only I can do, and one of them is my firebulbs.

As if knowing what my thoughts are, Douzhen puts his hand in front of me. “Don’t even think about it.”

Why the hell not?

“Firstly, you’d draw its attention to us. Secondly, you’d do more harm to one of ours instead of the enemy.

…Shite. He’s right with at least one of the points.

“Loudu, get away from there!” Karyat shouted to one of the drachtals.

An instant after, the demon whips the tree that drachtal is on top of, bringing the whole length of wood crashing down, but not before the man that was there jumped to another branch.

“That’s right, we can dance all night, demon!” Loudu spat at the water.

Less than a moment after, the snake comes back around. This time, Karyat’s footing is the target. He, however, has more than enough time to get away before his tree suffers the same fate.

“Doesn’t it feel like it’s getting slower?” Anlong surmised.

“It’s not. It just switched target to the trees,” Douzhen replied.

He’s right. In fact, it’s not even bothering going for their footings anymore. It’s just randomly destroying everything around our small island, not even sparing the smallest piece of drift wood.

“You three, get out of there!” Douzhen yelled out.

“Don’t worry, elder! We’re having the times of our lives here!” Karyat shouted back.

“Look around, you gibface! You’re running out of trees to stand on!”

Realizing what’s happening, Karyat jumps back to land after instructing the other two to do the same.

“Holy goddess,” Karyat mouthed at the scene.

There’s nothing anyone can do but to look helplessly as the trees get destroyed by the dozens. Before long, there’s nothing but water around us.

“Well, if there was before, there’s no going back now.”

“Barriers!”

With Douzhen’s blaring shout, the air around us feels as though if they vibrate as everyone generate their vimic barriers. Before I can say anything, Anlong steps in front of me. - Stay behind me -, is what he said with his eyes.

“Inzhi, how much longer?” Douzhen asked.

“I don’t need long. Just… give me a second!” teacher answered, sweat forming between her brows as she struggles to concentrate.

At that moment, the shadow appears again, except it’s a shadow no longer. It rises at the far end of the unflooded grounds, hungrily gazing at us with its slit eyes.

A serpent, in all intents and purposes. A giant serpent.

Its body is of slick-looking scales that seem harder than steel, adorned with some out-of-place feathers here and there. Its head is large enough to swallow Fanny whole, with me on top of her.

Nexy.

⌠n□□□Δ□⌡ ┤Vim Rate├

│799│ │65%│

Σ⌠Δ□∞⌡ ┤Pull Rate├

│85│/134

Name

Kukulkan

Appellations

Wind Snake

War Serpent

Rainmaker

Feathered Serpent

Species

Chrysopherus, plumed variant

Age

192

Name

Titles

Feathered Serpent

Species

Snake Demon

Age

Gender

Mana Affinity

Demon – Air

Beast – Water

Mana Pool

│85│

Threat Level

Category │S│

I knew it. A snake demon, just like the lifer back then.

…No, it’s different now. This time, I’m not just running away.

It’s the demon, for sure!

As I tell the others, I focus at the demon again. Nexy, analyze!

“Loudu, Bianan, with me!” Karyat roared.

This time, the monks take the initiative and charge at the demon. Seeing this, Kukulkan unleashes a barrage of water bullets, similar to the ones used by hydras. The warriors raise their arms and the water breaks out as if they’re protected by an invisible shell.

[ Appelation, |Feathered Serpent|: A great beast in the form of an airborne snake, believed in some cultures to be the god of wind and learning.

That’s… not good enough.

Nexy, give me something else.

The drachtal called Bianan pulls out a bowgun and begins firing back. In reaction, the demon pulls itself back underwater, leaving them no option but to retreat, back into formation. Before they can, however, the demon jumps back out. Fast as an arrow, it lunges towards the bowgun user.

Appelation, |War Serpent|: A snake demon known to partake in the last holy crusade. It killed thousands of people in the war before the crusaders managed to drive it out of the continent.

Damn it, Nexy! That’s not the kind of trivia I’m looking for!

With a battle-cry, Karyat jumps in to save his friend. A loud ring sounds, like the shattering of glass, as the barriers of all three drachtals goes head on against the demon. Now that the enemy is grounded to land, they begin the counterattack.

Species, |Chrysopherus|: Evolved from a species of gliding snakes. Able to climb surfaces such as trees and rocks, and as does their predecessor, capable of gliding through the air. They prey using an unique venom that acts as a neurotoxin when coming in contact with dermal tissues, but becomes a lethal hemotoxin when injected into the blood stream.

Watch out for the teeth, a single bite can kill you!

“Poison?” Douzhen asked.

Yeah, something called hemotoxin.

“Alright. You two stay back, I’m going in!” Douzhen ordered us as he rushes forward, his spear wedged between his arm and his body. He shouts at the others, “Drachtals, birdcage formation!”

Swiftly, the drachtals adjust their positions and surround the demon on four sides.

“So you finally decided to come and play,” Karyat joked between breaths.

Douzhen doesn’t answer and instead attacks at the demon with a long-armed jab. The demon retaliates, but Karyat, standing opposite of Douzhen, seizes that chance to plant his sword deep into the snake’s tail.

From then on, the monks take control.

Whenever the demon faces one direction, the person behind it sneaks a slash. Then as the demon turns its head to return the favor, the people at the side have their turns, preventing the demon from focusing on just one target.

However, even as it’s trapped between pins and needles, the demon doesn’t show any sign of retreating. I don’t like it because from my experience, that usually means the enemy is one step ahead.

Teacher, how much longer?

“Don’t rush me, Fay. I’m going as fast as I can.”

Uh, yeah, just… just take your time, I answer as the demon swings its tail, sending one of the drachtals, I think Loudu, flying into the water.

Just take your time.

Then, in the heat of the battle, the snake suddenly coils its body, hiding its head under gigantic coils of beast meat.

“It’s hurting! Keep at it!” (Karyat)

“No, wait-” (Douzhen)

Just as the drachtals are about to charge in, the entire length of the demon’s body whips out, like a spiral spring released after contraction. The movement is too quick and sudden that they never had any chance to dodge.

Everyone gets blown away by that move, except for one. Douzhen is now the only one left standing between us and the demon, but that’s not even the worse part. The worse part is, the demon is staring right at us.

It knows. It knows what we’re planning.

Teacher!

“In a second!”

The demon lunges out. Instead of evading, Douzhen stands his ground, raises his spear and throws it at the demon. A couple of days ago, he’d probably hit a bull’s eye, but now that he’s missing his good arm, the throw goes into a completely different direction he intended, missing the demon completely.

“Fuck!” Douzhen cursed aloud, raising his only arm to meet the serpent head on.

The other men shouted, hiding the one girly scream from the guy beside me as the unbelievable thing happens.

The air hisses and a shockwave is sent our way. A certain man’s barrier shatters, leaving nothing but his enhanced physical might to stand against the adversary.

There he is, the mighty Mentor Heartbreak, holding his own against a monster the size of a house. One could argue if he’s a monster himself, which unfortunately he is not. I can see his feet dragging against the ground. The demon is pushing him back, inching closer to us until it suddenly pulls back -- only to dive again at him.

To everyone’s surprise, Douzhen jumps forwards, meeting Kukulkan head on. When I expect to see a splatter of blood and probably flesh, I see instead my mentor jamming himself between the serpent’s fangs.

“Holy shit!” exclaimed the boy beside me.

Now that they’re back on their feet, Karyat and the others also continue their attack. With Douzhen stuck in its maws, the demon can only whip its body around behind it as they steal free strikes onto every part of its body.

Of course, I don’t intent to miss my chance as well. That gaping maw seems like a good place to throw a firebulb into.

Eat up!

I launch the gurgling, flaming bulb of energy into the snake’s maw, only to see it turn into a puff of steam as a sudden jet of water comes out.

It came like a waterfall and hit us like a brick wall. The world spins around me and the next thing I know is I’m no longer on my feet. Douzhen, struck by the brunt of the force, flies right past us and into the water.

With nothing holding its front, Kukulkan easily whips the drachtals off his body, then continues to lunge right at us. Teacher narrowly blows us away from its path using air magic, which also feels like being hit by a brick wall.

“Fay!” teacher runs over to help me up. “Fay, it’s done!”

Ignoring my creaking ribs, I stand up and summon the chargebulbs I need to bring storm into the water.

“What are you waiting for?!” one of the drachtals shouted.

He hasn’t surfaced yet.

“What, you waiting for it to come back up and eat us?!”

“She’s not talking about the demon,” Karyat answered for me.

Underneath the rampant water, nothing can be seen. We wait, and even as the seconds tick by, the awaited person has yet to surface.

“He’s fighting down there!” teacher widened her eyes, pointing at the water.

Eh? I can’t see anything.

“He’s buying us time,” Karyat muttered as he meets my eyes. “He’s buying time for you.”

No one dares to say anything after that. I glance at teacher to see her agreeing with a nod, though with dread on her face. The demon has probably realized our plan at this point. Now it merely needs to escape teacher’s enclosure to win. This might be our only chance to kill it.

“It’s now… or never,” Karyat urged, his voice betrayed by the doubt in his eyes.

Of all the people here, Karyat is the one who knew him the longest. He’s the only person outside the elders that dares to call my mentor “brother” instead of the proper “elder”. If he’s truly Douzhen’s closest friend, then his blessing should be enough.

I’m sorry, mentor.

It’s the math, you see. Always the math. Sacrifice one man to win everything or save him and let a thousand people die. The attack on acquisition has begun hours ago, and hundreds must’ve fallen already. I know that, and I know the only way to stop it is to kill the demon, but still…

…I can’t do it.

Because there’s a face in the water. An elderly face with a wicked smile.

The face of a man that shouldn’t be here.

“Little Fae,” he called out. “How many more are you going to kill?”

I can’t answer. Because he’s not real.

“’Not real?’ I was real enough for you to choke the life out of me,” he leans in, whispering in my ear, “I was real enough to hurt you.”

He’s not real, Fay. Not anymore. But the demon is.

I know that. I know that he’s not real, but…

“But you still can’t get over me,” he laughed, “I was your first, wasn’t I? Tell me, how many have you killed after me?”

He’s. Not. Real.

“Yet, here I am.”

I close my eyes and try to shut him out, but his laugh feels as though it reverberates through my bones.

You can do this, Fay.

Again, I try to do the deed, but another face appears in front of me.

She stands there, on top of the water that seems to calm around her, slowly walking towards me. Her limbs are all misshapen, bent and stretched in a way that shouldn’t be possible. Her skin is burnt, mangled, pulled apart to reveal the flesh that had been scraped away.

There’s only nothingness in place of her eyes, yet I could still feel her… glaring at me.

“Why?” is the only thing that came out of her lipless mouth.

“Why?”

She’s not real, Fay.

But it wasn’t me. It wasn’t my fault.

“…Why?”

It’s not my fault.

FAY!

Huh?

There’s another face in front of me. A familiar face. Teacher’s face.

She’s shaking my shoulders frantically, her lips moving as if she’s saying something, but I can’t hear her what she’s saying-

- SLAP -

“SNAP OUT OF IT!”

Eh?

Suddenly all the sounds come rushing back—the rain, the turmoil of water, and people shouting.

“The heck is wrong with you?!”

Teacher? Ah, the demon-

“Is gone. The demon is gone. It escaped my barrier when you…” she narrows her eyes, leaning closer, “what happened?”

I… I couldn’t do it

.

Teacher pats my head, then pulls me into an embrace.

…Teacher?

“It’s not your fault. It’s not.”

Teacher, what are you-

A cry, like the bellow of a caged beast, forces my eyes to turn to someone else.

In his hands, he holds the lifeless body. There are no tears in his eyes, but his scream is enough to strike fear into anyone who hears it. Because it’s not just grieve. It’s also anger. Anger directed to the one answering his bloodshot eyes.

Anger directed to me.

I know that gaze. I’d know it everywhere. He wants to kill me, but why?

Of all people, why must he be the one looking at me like that?

His body should’ve been paralyzed after his stunt with the demon’s maws, and he should’ve been exhausted after wrestling the demon underwater.

No, it’s probably only because of those things that the two drachtals barely manage to hold him down.

“Why didn’t you do it?!” he cried out. “Why didn’t you kill the demon?!”

I look again at the body on the ground.

I know that face. The face of the only person outside the elders that dares to call him “brother”.

“It’s not her fault!” a female voice shouted.

She is right. How could it be my fault?

“She could’ve killed that thing! She could’ve ended all this!”

“You would’ve died as well!”

It’s not my fault.

“Why yes, thank you for not killing me. And now a thousand people will die in exchange! And Karyat, he… he…”

“That’s not fair! You can’t force her to make that choice, no one can!”

It’s not my fault.

You can still fix this.

How?

The demon. You know its weakness.

No, I don’t. Nexy couldn’t reveal any weakness. There’s nothing I could use, except for…

…Except for that thing. That thing, with the body, it was…

A message.

It knew we were coming.

It wanted you to come.

The demon already won the war long ago.

All it had to do was to go back into wherever crevice it slithered out from. The armies of beasts would’ve overrun every hall and village by the time its finished with its nap and yet it waited for us, even left us a message intended to provoke us.

And thus, my conclusion; the demon is an idiot.

Thankfully, I am as well.

OY, KUKULKAN!

I “broadcast” as loud and as far as I can, ignoring the shocked stares of my friends.

I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME!

“Fay, what are you-”

A flash of eyes made her swallow her words. It’s there in the darkness, hiding under the shade a fair distance away.

I did it. I was the one who killed Akulay.

I roasted that toad with my fiery bolts, and oh the scream it made was just beautifully pathetic. You must’ve heard it too, right?

I smile as I answer those serpentine eyes,

Come and get me-

Before I can finish, the eyes disappear. Something ripples under the surface of the water, faster than my eyes can follow. Then it jumps out right in front of me, its maw gaping wide before darkness envelopes.

◊ ◊ ◊

Darkness. There was only cold darkness and the sound, like tapping on wood, rhythmic and constant like heartbeats.

Oh, and it was wet. The walls were cold and wet and… bulging. That’s all I could remember before the darkness fully took over.

It’s not the wetness that woke me up. It’s the headache.

Rain is still falling and I’m still breathing, and I would’ve rejoiced if it weren’t getting harder to push the air out of my lungs. Also, I can’t move my limbs. There was something about poison, wasn’t there?

As I experience all this, there’s this giant snake that does nothing but… stare at me. I tried to firebulb it when I first woke up, but whenever I try to focus, it feels like my skull would split open.

I can’t even turn my head, but just by rolling my eyes around, I can see that we’re somewhere cold and… foggy.

Could it be the stone-webs? It must’ve climbed up here after…

…wait, that’s not right. I remember being… eaten?

「 You. Awake. 」

Oh, the snake speaks.

No, it’s not just any snake. It has a name.

Kukulkan.

Its eyes flash when I spoke its name.

「 Poison. Inside you, 」it said, its tongue snaking out with every syllable. 「 Slow, painful death. 」

There’s something in his voice. Something that makes it feel like its…

…Angry. You’re angry at me.

「 At you, more, than others. 」

Because I killed Akulay.

「 …… 」

You attacked us. You… started this.

「 We, survived. What we did, survival. 」

Was it survival when you killed all those people?

「 This place, hidden. Home. 」

You want to take our home from us.

「 Homid, took ours. 」

Not them. It was… different people.

「 Homids, treated us, all same. We, same to you, when not. 」

「 You hunted. You massacred.」

Ugh…

I can’t breathe. The poison…

「 Drove us, away. From home. 」

「 For nothing, but only sin. Sin, of our father. 」

「 You, think us beasts. 」

「 We, are not. 」

What… are you then?

Its forked tongue perks out, nearly touching me as it answered,

「 We. Are. Living. 」

“Surprising, isn’t it, to know the monsters are alive.”

Him again. Why won’t he just leave me alone?

“Are you surprised to know we’re like you? Or are you afraid to see that you’re like us?”

Fuck off, Jead.

My head starts ringing as my vision blurs out.

Is this it? Is this how I’m going to go out? With a ghost telling me what I am?

You went through all that trouble in Purgatory, just to die here?

But I am dying.

You always are.

I… always am.

That’s true. It was always like this back then, yet I’m still here. How? How did I survive back then?

It was them.

They helped me.

You learned, but can you remember?

Remember what?

What Hadda taught you.

「 The active mind and subconscious tend to resonate more in emergency or life-threatening situations. 」

Life-threatening situations. Purgatory had an abundance of those, but ever since I escaped…

You’ve forgotten. But now you remember. Alignment of the will and the subconscious…

Pain, like thunder striking my head, burning every nerve inside my body. But I can’t stop, not yet.

Reach out… and connect.

I can see it. Everything, and more. A world beyond ours, a world beyond time, seeping into ours. The aether.

There’s something else as well, something causing rippling in the world beyond.

No, not something. Someone.

…Teacher.

She’s here. She’s found me, and now she’s… fighting. The others as well.

Help them.

How?

Reach deeper, further.

Deeper, further…

I feel it. The rain, and the lightning crackling above. The particles swirling about, coursing charges through them. There’s so much of them, crashing about randomly, except that it’s not randomly anymore. They’re moving in a pattern now. A pattern that I make for them.

「 Electric potential and insulation. That’s how you create lightning. 」

I… remember.

「 The air makes insulation, and the charges make potential. 」

I swirl the particles about, both above, below, and everything in-between.

「 Remember; positive to negative. 」

Positive… to negative.

Positive charges within the storm, and negative charges here, where the demon is.

「 Insulate the charges and let them build. 」

It’s growing. The charges are growing wildly beyond control. But it’s staying there, because the path is blocked -- by me.

「 Obstruct them, hold them apart until it can no longer hold them apart. 」

It’s breaking through, forces so great the clouds become like a blinking sun.

「 And when that happens… 」

The air crackles, and a bright flash illuminates the earth.

「 Lightning will reave everything in its path. 」

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Chapter RSS About the author 3 Fictions 38 Posts 3 Threads Derthian Follow Author Sunday, February 4, 2018 5:47:46 PM Duck Penguin

Bio: Quack.

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