Chapitre 46: Chapter 46
POV Daeron
As our group made our way to the previous meeting place of the cultists, my own sense of magic began to sound the alarm.
"I'm starting to sense that dreadful magic too," I communicated to Tun.
"It's unlikely we'll reach their destination before the cultist does," Tun suddenly said.
"Damn it!" I exclaimed, and in that moment, I tried to fully unleash my magic to speed up.
"Even if you max out your magic, you're unlikely to make it in time. You'll probably just end up putting yourself in a disadvantageous position," Tun responded, understanding what I was about to do.
"You really do know me well..." I said, quite disheartened by the bleak situation.
The next few minutes passed under grim thoughts, until I realized something.
"Tun, can you control exactly where the lightning should strike?"
"To a limited extent, yes."
"Heh, then try to disrupt whatever is going on at the cultists' gathering place. Just make sure you don't hit Feylina. Can you manage that?"
Without saying anything, Tun began to gain altitude to gather clouds through which he planned to strike.
"Just to make it in time..."
A few minutes earlier
From a third-person perspective
Pain... No, not just pain, but AGONY. That's what Seynes felt as burning alive was far from pleasant, especially when his body tried to heal itself but couldn't due to the burned parts. This resulted in unimaginable agony for Seynes.
"Please kill me, I beg you!" was all Seynes could think as his allies fought with Avus's group.
Suddenly, he felt something strange, something both terrifying and majestic... The gift that had been given to them all suddenly began to grow.
"Did you all feel that?" asked Torrabell.
"Yes. What happened?" confirmed Eysinus.
"Paim is dead," replied Crayden.
Everyone then understood what had happened. According to their master, the gift from him had been shared among them, which explained the surge in power.
"Whispers..." suddenly all the Rogues began to hear.
Not understanding where this whisper came from, the cultists did not pay it any mind, until there was a sudden increase in the strength of all cultists after the first wave of power increases. After the initial boost, no one paid attention to the whispers anymore.
"Different whispers..." a different whisper added to the previous one.
Seynes didn't care as it only meant his suffering would intensify. Suddenly, after another increase in strength, he heard what he never expected to hear... the majestic voice of their God:
"I will help you... You must deliver the woman..." the voice of the Black Goat sounded as if it was straining.
At that moment, Seynes's body began to heal completely, ending the cultist's torment.
"Why...?" a different type of whisper sounded in Seynes's head.
"For what...?" another whisper added.
"How did this happen...?"
"Death..."
"Murder..."
"Pain..."
One by one, these whispers interrupted Seynes's thoughts and slowly but surely broke the sanity of a man who had been shattered by the pain endured from Diya's trap.
"Be quiet! Be quiet! BE QUIET! BE QUIET! BE QUIET! BE QUIET!"
But no matter how loudly Seynes screamed, the voices only grew louder, and under these voices, the cultist swiftly took his target.
"Let me go!" Feylina Mott screamed, trying to hit the monster that had captured her and was now speeding towards the Main Temple.
However, strong as a woman might be, or as powerful as any person without magic, such strikes were futile against him and his strength.
"Why do you specifically need my child?" Feylina asked weakly, realizing that it was pointless to do anything.
"Our Master commanded it," Seynes said grimly.
Feylina, though unsatisfied with the answer, did not argue with the monster.
"Why specifically my child? What has it done to them? How? And why?" Feylina thought, assuming her child would simply be sacrificed.
Considering that people were sacrificed to the Black Goat, her thoughts were understandable. But she was unaware that the fate of her future child, if it fell into the Black Goat's hands, would be far worse than she imagined.
"Stop... stop... STOP!" Seynes whispered to himself, but eventually screamed as the whispers tore through his head.
He now began to understand whose whispers these were... They were his comrades, whose souls, somehow because of the bond created by their God, were stuck in a horrifying state.
As humans are not made to live between two states... Such a condition exerts a terribly deleterious effect on them, souls after such horrific manipulations... Go mad, lose what makes them human... And the one connected to such souls feels these processes most acutely.
Exactly this condition destroyed the one once called Crayden, and now the same was happening to Seynes. Only now, the process was worsened by the new presence of Crayden's face.
"Please... Let me go... What have I done to you?! Be quiet... Be quiet... BE QUIET!"
Feylina, witnessing this scene, was filled with fear, as it was clear as day that this monster was severely unhinged.
"Please, someone..." she nearly prayed to anyone for salvation.
Under such depressive thoughts, the monster with the woman on his back reached the Main Temple, whose gates magically adjusted to fit the current size of Seynes.
"Just a little longer... Just a tiny bit longer..." Seynes muttered insanely.
With these words, the monster fervently descended further and further, and soon Feylina could see nothing but the dark corridors…
POV Third Person
As our group made our way to the location where the cultists had previously met, my sense of magic began to sound the alarm.
"I'm starting to feel that terrible magic too," I communicated to Tun.
"We're unlikely to reach their destination before the cultist," Tun suddenly said.
"Damn it!" I exclaimed and immediately attempted to fully unleash my magic to hasten our pace.
"Even if you max out your magic, it's unlikely you'll make it in time. You might just end up putting yourself in a disadvantageous position," Tun advised, understanding my intent.
"You really do know me well," I said, quite despondently, as the situation was indeed dire.
The next few minutes were filled with somber thoughts until a detail occurred to me.
"Tun, can you control exactly where the lightning should strike?"
"Only to a limited extent, but yes."
"Heh, then try to disrupt whatever's happening at the cultists' gathering place. Just make sure you don't hit Feylina. Can you do that?"
Without a word, Tun began to ascend to gather clouds for his strike.
"Just to make it in time..."
A few minutes earlier
From a third-person perspective
The cultist, rapidly losing his sanity, finally managed to bring Feylina to the altar. She watched her surroundings in terror, understandably distressed by the sight of a room splattered with red stains and permeated with the strong odor of blood.
As Seynes entered the room housing the altar, he suddenly felt a sense of peace as if all the voices in his head were abruptly cut off.
"Finally... Silence..." Seynes thought, unable to hold back his tears.
"Thank you, Master," Seynes muttered, closing his eyes briefly.
He then began preparing everything for the ritual that would facilitate the descent of the Black Goat.
"Master... Just a little longer... I'll have everything ready in a moment," Seynes said as he began gathering the scattered materials around the room.
Feylina, witnessing all this, silently wept, realizing she was powerless to do anything if she wished to keep her child safe.
"My God... Whoever you are..." she thought, beginning to pray.
Suddenly, the area was filled with light and the terrifying boom of lightning.
BOOM
Lightning flashed throughout the building, seemingly targeting one creature in the lowest level of the Main Temple.
"RAAARGH!"
Defying the laws of physics, the lightning created by Tun found its target in Seynes. At that moment, the goat-like monster experienced the full spectrum of electrical torment.
Feylina, watching the entire scene, thought perhaps some deity had indeed responded to her prayers.
"If only these chains would be destroyed..." she thought, staring hypnotically at her shackles.
From Daeron's perspective
Realizing his attack had hit its mark, Tun said:
"I've struck him, and he'll be incapacitated for a while."
"Thank you. Can you keep your powers active?" I asked my partner.
Tun only responded by indicating that the clouds continued to linger around the same place.
"I have a few ideas about what we can do given the situation," I thought as I approached the temple.
Fortunately, after Tun's lightning strike, people did not rush to surround the cultists' temple.
"Diya, where are you now?"
After a few seconds, the group of Arphenians finally responded:
"Should we head towards where the lightning struck?"
"Yes, Tun has incapacitated the monster for a while."
"We'll try to get there as quickly as possible... But we might be late... Be careful, Daeron," Diya said somewhat unhappily.
"Alright, and thanks for caring," I replied, slightly cheered.
Several minutes later
Before me stood the building where it all began, the place where I encountered the monster known as the Black Goat, and where something horrifying had started. As I entered the building, my magical senses immediately screamed that something terrible was happening.
Sensing these disturbances in the magic, I hurried, trying to conserve my magic because I would need a vast amount for my plans.
"I just need to make it in time..." I thought as I passed through another door, remembering the route I had taken.
Descending to the lowest part of the building, I observed the cultist, now in human form, pouring all his energy into runes that glowed around the room. The woman, seeing all this, grew even more desperate.
What I saw helped me understand exactly what the cultist was doing; from my knowledge of Arphenian lore, I grasped the basics of summoning beings from other realms of reality. And that's precisely what was happening before my eyes, but there was also something even stranger occurring in the magical atmosphere...
"I'm missing something... I've definitely seen this type of magical behavior somewhere before..." I thought, straining my senses.
Soon, I realized what was about to happen, and at that moment, I understood what needed to be done to destabilize this construction. After all, the fundamental principles of this portal were very similar to those used in the summoning of a demon in Lorath.
After acquiring the knowledge of the Arphenians, though they hadn't extensively explored the divine or similar matters, the many theories put forth before and after the demon summoning were enlightening. Based on these theories, the Arphenians had belatedly come to understand how things worked, though still in quite general terms.
Moreover, the "Book of K'Dat" also contained interesting, albeit terrifying, knowledge. Based on this knowledge, creating theories of resistance was simpler. Well, "simpler" isn't quite the right word... It became feasible, in theory, to devise methods to combat dreadful beings.
And so, I could say how such portals could be destroyed. Killing the leader isn't always helpful, as not all rituals of this kind require continuous oversight. It would be more beneficial to destroy key energy gathering points or the integrity of the runes.
For me, the most advantageous solution seemed to be the saturation of these points with a different type of magic.
Right now, I was thinking about the best way to disrupt the energy that the cultist was supplying. What I felt from this person—monster? Being?—suggested a confirmation of my suspicions about the fates of the other Rogues. Inside this being emanated a different kind of magic; they were not entirely distinct from each other.
But it was clear that this difference indicated the presence of other souls within this body.
"Tun, are you ready?" I asked my partner, who seemed quite tense, at least that was the emotion transmitted through our connection.
"Yes."
After relaying the points where he needed to strike, I counted down:
"On 1, 2, 3, hit these points."
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Chapter 61 has already been published
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone