บท 113: Heart To Heart With A Dying Man
There was no need to wonder.
The outcome was clear from the start.
The hunter of yore had his back against the wall, his head hung low and blood seeped from his face.
Powered by Axiolypito's dark Abyss, Nartak had no problem landing his first blow and putting the old hunter out of commission, though, unlike what the Dark Blue Moon had expected, even a head hit right in the center of the man's body had not destroyed him, neither had it killed him.
"I suppose my perspective of body resistance is skewed" he admitted as he walked up to the lost hunter.
The old man rose his head, truly a man of great constitution, his neck remained operative even then.
Though blind, the venator could feel the wretch presence, it had changed greatly since their last encounter, it had used to be meek and unimpressive, the hunter had never seen such a strong change.
Most likely because his preys rarely ever got away or maybe because the wretch wasn't like other monsters.
He felt like a soft light was shining upon him, he didn't need to hear it from Axio's mouth, he could clearly sense that his presence was much like that of a moon.
Mysterious, grandiose and evoking the unknown, which in turn, evoked a deep sense of unease and fear.
The old man spat the blood in his mouth and moved his head up to face where he believed the wretch's eyes should be, he was finding it harder to detect what he wished right now.
The presence wasn't all that seemed different about Axiolypito, in fact, it almost seemed it was an entirely different monster.
"Aren't you going to kill me?" asked the old man, surprised that his demise hadn't come already.
Axio remained silent, his expression unknown to the old man, he didn't understand why the wretch stepped off to the side.
He seemed to struggle to pick and carry something up, he placed something against the hunter's chest, with a bizarre tenderness, as though not wanting to hurt him, as he gave the human his weapon back.
'A challenge?' thought the man, but that didn't make sense, he could no longer stand nor swing his heavy axe.
Then, Axio placed his hand against his chest and absorbed the abyssal matter that had gathered on him when he was struck as well as that that had remained sticking to him ever since he went through the rift.
He stayed silent as the monster took three steps away from him and sat down on the ground.
Could he have seen what sort of face he was wearing right now, the hunter would have been even more confused.
He took pride in his ability to read and understand a monster in just a single encounter, he knew what sort of being Axiolypito was just by their few meetings.
Honorless.
Vile.
Cowardly.
Egotistical.
Narcissistic.
Self-centered.
Conceited.
Resentful.
Unforgiving.
He was a collection of terrible traits brewed up together into a miasma whose stench could repel all, that stuck to any surface and left stains impossible to remove.
So what was this about?
Was he playing games? Given in to sadism? Was this an attempt at torturing the mind?
Or, was it even worse?
"What are you doing?" he questioned, this couldn't be possible, he had felt it, the monster in front of him was too cowardly to do such things, not against anyone with any sort of strength.
He would rather order the serpent to smash him into a pulp and then, only then, would he parade around and mock him, because he couldn't take any chance of something not going his way.
Axio had done this earlier when he had defeated the Abyss Eater, only speaking up once the enemy was confirmed dead.
He hadn't had any qualms about corrupting and enslaving Nartak either, so what was the point of demonstrating empathy to venator?
"I don't know old man, I just felt like I should, you can no longer threaten me after all, there is no harm" spoke Axio, his voice still off but much less irritating than it used to be.
'That's it' the old hunter still felt flabbergasted but he believed he understood now, Axiolypito had somehow grown even more proud than before, he had shed free of something.
"Since you aren't going to tell anyone, allow me to be honest with you for a moment, I want to get something off my chest"
"You see, I used to live in constant fear, not of others, not of the Obsidian Queen or the beings that could easily squash me, that wasn't what scared me, sure, I fear death, just like everything else"
"There is no point in denying it, we all are, but what truly filled me with terror and irrepressible wrath was to end up just like the rest"
The old man raised an eyebrow, was he wrong? Had Axiolypito not simply grown in ego? Had he developped a conscience or something? That was so improbable, of all the vile beasts that could grow soft, if there was even a single being that couldn't do so, it would have to be this one wretch.
"Even though I was so far above my brethrens, be it of the past, present and future, I was still constantly hovering around our singular fate, death by weakness, death by strength, we were all meant to die whatever path we embarked upon and so, incredibly quickly" Axio rolled his eyes and then spread his arms in the air, as if showing himself off.
"I had already broken the boundaries of the wretches and yet, I was still headed to the same fate as all of them, the same as those that failed to break out of the human bodies they appeared inside and suffocated like fools, the same as those that would trip and impale their brains on their own claws"
"I was just like them, and it terrified me, infuriated me, I couldn't admit it but it is a fact, I was nothing but a wretch, until today" he smiled for those last two words.
"I had never shaken off our curse until today, no longer am I a fool on a foolish journey with a pre-written end, I am ascended, I am no longer a wretch, I am a god, a true god, because I have defeated both fate and the laws that bound my species"
"And so, I no longer need to fear or be angry about anything, rejoice old man, your death is a divine act, I will be frank before Nartak crushes you" he put his hands behind his back.
"You were impressive, you were strong and I admire that, you were inferior to me but that is a given, both you and that crippled man, I was truly awed" giving out a praise wholeheartedly, Axio snapped his finger and the old hunter's head was crushed by a single tail swipe from Nartak.
สถานะพลังงานรายสัปดาห์
-- การจัดอันดับด้วยพลัง 
-- หินพลัง