บท 124: Lady Anastasia
"You are a weak man."
Lady Anastasia glared at him with a smoldering look.
"You know, any other guy would be delighted for a blonde in their 20s to be saying that to him." Irwin remarked, closing his left eye to cope with the pain. "Hell, they'd even pay for it."
Lady Anastasia shrugged, "I know. I've been… surfing, is it? Yes, surfing the internet."
Irwin chuckled, "I swear if you get addicted to Facebook!"
"Facewhat?" She tilted her head, rolling inside of the musky room.
Her face morphed into a contour of revulsion once the smell entered her nose. She was, however, quick to relieve herself and Irwin of that rancid odor with a snap of her finger. The smell and damp spots were gone as if it had never been there.
"You should be dead." She said, shaking off the remnants of the smell permeating in her nose. "Why aren't you dead?"
"Because I'm an evil man, ma'am. And we don't die that easily." He replied humorlessly.
"So you say. Now, tell me what happened during that month-long stay wherever you were in full detail." She ordered sternly.
"Where do I even start?" Irwin sighed, "Uh, got too cocky and got captured by Dagon."
"The Prince of Hell?" She asked to confirm, and when Irwin nodded, her eyes closed for a moment before opening up. "I assume you have dealt with the consequences of your action."
"I have. I wouldn't have returned if not." He said with resolute eyes.
Her eyes then widened in realization as she muttered, "The angels…"
Irwin nodded.
"You're playing a dangerous game, Irwin." She said gravely.
Irwin crinkled his eyes and bit his lips as a sardonic smile appeared on his face. "Well, now I'm nervous about telling you the other thing."
Lady Anastasia narrowed her eyes, "What other thing?"
"I killed off the Grand Coven's High Priestess, half its leadership, and most of its forces. I used them as bait against Dagon's forces by dangling the treasures of her sanctuary." He recounted mirthfully. "It was actually very cool of me."
"You… destroyed the Grand Coven?" Irwin swore that he could see hints of a smirk on her face before she glowered at him whilst exuding a terrible pressure. "Why would you do that, Irwin?"
"Because… because I can," He said, hiding his true feelings. "I needed an army to rescue Charlotte, and the opportunity presented itself. I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, at least not anymore."
"I see," Was all that she said before descending into silence. Irwin didn't say anything either, merely grunting quietly as dark gel oozed out of his armpits.
A few minutes later, she grabbed the wheels of her chair and gazed past Irwin's form. "There will be consequences in your actions, Irwin."
"What do you think I'm doing?" Irwin japed.
"If they come, however, make sure to inform me. Am I correct to assume you will know of the remnant's movements?" She asked.
"I do. They're staying put at the moment, but they're collecting the rest of their forces." He informed her. "A few weeks at most."
"I'll handle it." She said in a tone that brook no arguments. "Now, on to the other stuff, you really are stupid? It's not even a few months when you took over my nephew's body and you blab about it?"
Irwin shrugged his shoulders, "That's what happens when your priority is straightened."
She scoffed, "I don't care about your priority, Irwin. I care about my family. The family with which you are leeching off of."
"Not anymore." He said, taking out a cube pulsing with crimson energy and throwing it towards Lady Anastasia. "A gift."
She inspected the cube and found it to be reeking of a malevolent energy. It also oozed such insidious magik that merely handling the surface of the cube caused her own magical energy to be corrupted by the opposing energy.
"Is this…"
Irwin nodded, "Dagon's corrupted soul, a Prince of Hell's demonic spirit ripe for the taking. I've turned her into a battery."
"The power of the sun…" She muttered under her breath.
"What was that?"
She gazed at him, startled. "Nothing. We're even. Just make sure not to hurt them anymore, especially my daughter."
"Aye, aye!" Irwin saluted.
She grinned, "This is mine, right?"
"I don't have any uses for it as of now, so, yeah." Irwin nodded.
So long as the cube was used for any means, even if it was just releasing a tendril or two of her malevolent energy for fun, it would cause Dagon's very soul to experience pain beyond any Earthly measure; which was actually the real reason he bought it from the store.
"How long will your self-inflicted atonement last?" She asked.
"What do you mean?" He tilted his head in confusion.
"Oh, Irwin. You have yet to understand the basics of magik." She tutted as she gazed at him, ashamed that he was declaring himself as her student. "Magik is intent, will, and purpose. Your self-loathing may be giving you enough fuel to drive away the guilt and conscience of killing hundreds of human beings, but your psyche is barely keeping up. It is corrupting your magik. You need to remind it that you are in control."
"And how do I do that?"
Her eyes flared with a purple light, illuminating the entire room for a moment before dissipating. "Your sensitivity to magik has been enhanced for a few minutes. Use it as you see fit."
Lady Anastasia played with the cube for a while before leaving Irwin to his devices, snapping her fingers once more to remove the smell from the room.
Irwin was hesitant to do what she had advice, seeing as there was a chance that what she had done earlier would be detrimental to his current situation. But the pain coursing through every single bone and muscle fiber changed his opinion in the matter.
His magical energy was already pulsating through his body, but now that he had focused on it, he found that their routes were getting streamlined and centralized. Instead of sending energy in every blood vessel and using its interconnected systems to revitalize his body, his magical powers were now creating their own transport system without interfering with the flow of blood and other fluids.
This act not only enhanced his regenerating powers but also gave way for his pituitary glands to surge with newfound energy and release more units of endorphins.
He not only felt physically better, but there was a subtle pop in his psyche that made him relax and truly rest after a while. It was at that moment that he actually felt his stress going away, replaced by a strange comfort amidst a sea of musky blood and bile.
These actions continued on for a few more hours before gradually subsiding. Irwin, however, did not move from his position until he felt the corruption in his body and internal organs be repressed enough that he could do it away in one fell swoop.
The moment it happened, Irwin skirred the room and headed towards the second-floor bathroom.
"Archie! I'm done," he yelled as he descended the stairs. "I'm changing my mind on the no housekeeper thing."
"On it!" Shouts Archibald from below the ground floor. "You gonna eat?"
"Just gonna take a shower!" Irwin entered his room and took a long, hot bath that involved dumping all the bath salts and those little bath bombs Ella had gifted herself on her birthday which Richard stole before he died.
He settled on the bath and made himself comfortable before descending into his system. He had a lot of time to think things through these past three days, and he did so with impunity given that not doing so would just introduce the pain into his mind once more.
"Thank fuck that's gone!" He praised the heavens, mockingly, of course.
One of which was the creation of his Garden of Eden, disguised as a garden park for all the people to visit and enjoy. Of course, once he was done, only those he authorized would be able to attend the park.
Since he would be doing nothing but soaking in his own filth, Irwin splurged around six to seven hundred credits worth of flora and mycelium, specifically rare ingredients that bear fruit once per century or root plants that need some kind of special circumstance to make it bloom.
Just as he was about to fall asleep after buying the items, three loud bangs resounded from out of the bathroom. "Hey, dork!"
Ella's voice startled Irwin awake as his neck slid past the tub, nearly drowning himself.
"What?" He yelled.
"There's people looking for you! They're from the Men of Letters"
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