Chapter 1209 (2/2)

A good question. A tragic karma. The darkness had casually used one of Vualla’s fists to crack open the carapace of a Nether Gatekeeper in front of her. For after Eliot duplicated his life and created Ileot, the two connected karmas that had taken different Paths touched and resonated. And then in the seconds after their connection had been established, the injury that had driven him to such lengths that he had discovered his power finally won; Eliot died on that battlefield. In fact, it was right here in this place, during an attack by a Nether King, several thousand years ago.

For a portion of the newly connected karma to die… suddenly, that destiny of death became almost inescapable for Ileot. It is why he has brought us all back here, to forcefully overcome his own destiny with all the original players present.

While Vualla mulled that over, the darkness continued to speak. Yet in his millennia of skulking around and avoiding facing his karma, Ileot certainly has become quite the plotter. He seems to have hoped to gather several chess pieces at once to fight against his destiny.

For example, your boy Randidly was another possible future resource, his unique physique giving Ileot some inspiration on how to escape his Fate. Meanwhile, he was also utilizing the duplicated version of us for energy… well, it might have just been an added benefit. A well-manipulated advantage based on the necessary evil of recreating a portion of the battlefield where he died. So that he can finally escape his own death permanently.

Both of them had fallen into thoughtful silence after that. Vualla partially because she had been increasingly focused on familiarizing herself with the image the darkness used to imbue her own body with power, the darkness because it had its own thoughts. But also Vualla was still having some difficulty understanding the situation around Ileot. Meanwhile, the rather relaxing honing of the image continued as the darkness had landed blow after blow on the increasingly miserable Nether Gatekeepers.

Until, to Vualla’s surprise, the darkness broke the silence.

...I have missed this. The easy pleasure of possessing a body. It is… enjoyable.

Feeling rather foolish, Vualla had responded, Are you… dead? A vestige of your soul left in the System? Or even… karma…?

The darkness had laughed. Ha! No, I’m very much alive. Although barely anyone would know it anymore. My experiments with the imitation Nether Cores… well, it certainly advanced the study of power utilization by generations. But it had a great cost. The energies didn’t mix well inside of me. Bit by bit, my senses were numbed and muffled by the imitation Nether. My ability to move fell away. Yet… I had already given so much up for power and knowledge, it seemed like a small thing to give up my body. Eventually… I was nothing more than a statue, inside and out. I can still remember that feeling. That deep weight of pointlessness that smothered me.

My existence was only meaningful because I had power and could continue to learn. But as I cashed in even my ability to learn for power… eventually, all that was left was the emptiness. So I sought oblivion in myself while alive, letting everything about me slowly atrophy and vanish…

Vualla’s hand had snaked outward, seizing a Nether Gatekeeper by the neck. With a brutally sharp twist, she cracked the neck and then tossed the lulling body into the path of another Nether Gatekeeper. Then she stepped forward and began to brutalize a third Nether Gatekeeper that got isolated while the others struggled.

...I honestly cannot even remember why I was so depressed. It was like… well. You are no doubt uninterested in my own struggles. And in fact, Eliot’s certainty that I had died is the only reason that he was willing to duplicate his family once more. As he found with himself, duplicating karma while another thread of it is still active in the world can have… complex side effects. Suddenly there are too many factors present in one individual…

In fact, I would likely still be sleeping in that empty oblivion if our connection didn’t allow some portion of your life and emotions to flow into me, slowly waking me up… slowly reminding myself that life isn’t pointless. It was… welcome.

While Vualla appreciated learning more, she was slowly becoming frustrated with the spoon-feeding arrangement when the answers that the darkness provided created even more questions in her mind than they answered. But Vualla did her best to control her rising temper when she had spoken again. But… what I don’t understand is why you are here trying to stop him. He’s our brother, right?

For the first time in a while, the darkness’ grip on Vualla heart tightened. Even in the middle of the fight, the darkness twisted Vualla’s head to look upward to the swirling and strange darkness that slowly wafted up out of corpses and became a part of the grand array. ...such is our karma.

Then the darkness had gone silent. Vualla had attempted to ask additional questions, but the darkness largely ignored her. So Vualla had simply focused on watching how the darkness used her body and slowly began to appreciate the principles of energy conservation contained within its movements. She did her best to ignore the ominous words the darkness had said before it had gone silent.

So she had watched as her body had vanquished the foes in front of Commander Terith’s camp and the battle had focused on Lady Iellaya.

Vualla had also been forced to endure as the shadow used her mouth to speak to Randidly and request that he make her new gauntlets that were heavier than the masterwork pieces that her father had gifter to Vualla for her fifteenth birthday. And of course, Randidly had looked at her with his serious emerald eyes and nodded. Of course, he could do that. Because he was Randidly Ghosthound.

There had been a moment, when Randidly had kissed her lightly on the lips and the darkness was shocked by the intimacy of that touch, that Vualla had pressed forward and ripped her body back from this strange, other-self. She had tried to warn Randidly that the other Vualla was controlling her body, but very swiftly the darkness had recovered from its shock and knocked Vualla’s consciousness back again.

After Randidly had left, the darkness raised Vualla’s fingers and pressed them against her lips. “That… that might have been my first kiss. Took me a bit by surprise.”

Then Vualla had felt her own mouth twist into a crooked grin. “Don’t be a sore loser. Let me have my fun for a while longer.”