Chapter 1208 (1/2)

Vualla had her hands behind her back and slowly walked up wooden stairs, not in control of her own body. One of her hands was clenched on the woolen shirt of an unconscious body, dragging it over the lip of every stair. The concern in her chest was extremely active, but she couldn’t do anything about it.

Why are you going to him? Vualla asked. There was no response. She simply continued to mechanically climb up the wooden steps toward the ruined battlements of Lady Iellaya’s fort.

The strange darkness was currently manipulating her movements and there was little she could do to stop it. With no real other choices, Vualla cast her mind backward, thinking of the times when the darkness had been very vocal and all the things it had told her.

As the battle had been winding up, Vualla had stood nervously at the edges of Lord Terith’s camp and listened to her commanding officer worriedly whine about what was occurring in front of them. After Randidly’s stunning performance earlier at buying their ground troops time, the Nether King had lost his patience and sent the wave of Nether Gatekeepers down to fight against them.

Still, it had been nothing they couldn’t handle, even if her commanding officer continued to act like the sky was falling. Or at least that’s what Vualla told herself.

Don’t die on me Randidly, Vualla had tapped her metal gauntlets lightly together as an offering to the god of luck. Don’t die before we can tear down this System together.

At that time, as Vualla thought those words, she noticed the special activity that the darkness took, quickly cutting through all the superfluous emotions that she felt and grasping at the core of her feelings. She ignored these movements. By this point, she had grown rather numb to the strangeness of the darkness she suddenly carried.

But when that darkness tasted her core emotions and then spoke to her, Vualla had stilled. This hadn’t happened before.

Do you wish to win this battle?

Vualla had frozen. The strange dreams had been one thing and suddenly dealing with the darkness while walking around was another. But also now the darkness spoke to her…?

Without waiting for Vualla to respond, the darkness asked another question. How many foes can you handle at your current strength? Enough to save these people?

“What…” Vualla began, but already the strange darkness shifted forward in her core. Vualla had felt the way it was pulling itself more tightly together. Where before it seemed like a layer of heavy gauze that muffled her entire experience, now it spiraled together to form a heavy iron lock that seemed to be directly binding Vualla’s heart. Small tendrils spread outward, undulating hypnotically.

The darkness had observed Vualla’s reaction for a few more seconds. It was a heavy moment, likely where it was considering whether it would use those tendrils to control her. Then it had spoken again, its voice lined with curiosity. You know how to take more power. Absorb it from these departing souls. You cannot deny that your own power is insufficient. Or that this will provide you with more power.

You refuse out of principle, but are your principles worth allowing so many people to die…?

When the darkness had asked that question, Vualla had felt for the first time that she had the slightest insight into the darkness. When it had asked that question, it revealed a gaping wound in its soul that had haunted it for a long time. As it spoke, it revealed itself. Vualla could hear the true question that it was asking.

Why did you not choose my path…?

It was like a switch was flipped and Vualla understood the truth. The darkness was Vualla. The other Vualla. The Vualla who had never gotten up the courage to even try and go see her father before he had died. The Vualla who had never had the pleasure of meeting Randidly Ghosthound. The Vualla had learned to profit off the deaths of others. The Vualla who so pursued power that she had let everything fall away. To the point that she had no desire to use the formidable power she had gathered.

Compared to achieving the power to prevent anything she didn’t desire from occurring, nothing mattered. Nothing remained of the old Vualla who had cared enough about the world to seek this power.

Rather than fear, Vualla had felt empathy toward the darkness. So she had answered honestly. “People’s lives matter. Taking them, sucking their energy away at that moment where they are about to die… I don’t know if I believe something happens after death. But if these lives that we can feast on are truly over… would we be able to take strength at all from them…?”

Vualla’s question had hung in the air. The core of darkness with its undulating tentacles had considered it. It is true. It is much more likely that we are harvesting their energy immediately prior to their death. But it is certain that they would soon die anyway. Is there any meaning in allowing them to suffer for a few more seconds? Especially when our power can save so many.

“Have you used that power to save so many…?” Vualla had begun to walk forward, ignoring the questioning darkness in her chest. This situation, the realization that she was connected to her past self and that it was such an empty, cold thing, had been unnerving. But that didn’t mean that the Nether Gatekeepers would wait for her to come to terms with that knowledge. The enemy was here; she couldn’t waste time engaging in a philosophical discussion with the darkness.

Yet even as Vualla tried to move forward, the darkness moved and seized control of her body. Perhaps… perhaps you are correct. My path brought me nothing. It is why I am so weak right now. So weak that I needed to feed on your emotions to try and balance out my own negativity to the point I could rediscover the willingness to move.

The truth is… you are strong. Strong in a way I am not. You… don’t need me.