Chapter 1214 (1/2)

I refuse, the newest incarnation of Vualla said sharply as she stared with a firm gaze toward the frozen figure of Ileot Swacc and the frantic form of Lord Miln surrounded by Nether Heralds. There wasn’t a single tremor of emotion through her heart. At this point, she appeared to have mastered herself well enough to disguise her inner dialogue.

The Vualla who was a lock of darkness sitting over that Vualla’s heart, and in fact was the original, meek Vualla, sighed at this reaction. It was a foolish and pointless show of defiance. We all must play a role in this farce that Eliot has created. It is not a happy thing, but we have no-

I refuse, the stubborn Vualla who had been touched by Randidly Ghosthound repeated. Still not a tremor of emotion. Still no attempt to retake control of her body, should the tendrils of darkness that controlled her force the issue.

The darkness-Vualla hesitated. She knew that without this Vualla existing, without those strong and pure emotions that she had experienced over the past six months, the original Vualla never would have awakened from the sea of despair in which she had been drowning. As for the third of their number…

The darkness manipulated this body to look sideways as Lady Iellaya and her vast, smoggy wings. For all that the Vualla who had been birthed by the same world projection as Ileot Swacc himself was an oppressing and aggressive personality, her single-minded pursuit of power meant that she would never have escaped the trap of her own existence. She needed to be physically carried, like an overburdened satchel, to the destination.

Or more accurate, like a load of dynamite. Once she was there, she could destroy everything in the vicinity. But before reaching a destination… She was content to brood.

Inwardly, the darkness-Vualla was actually quite relieved to be free of that Vualla’s depressing thirst for power. Let Lady Iellaya bear that burden for a while. She had been forced to endure it for long enough.

Ileot was finally forced to tear his gaze away from the three silent Vualla’s because the Nether King surged back forward to lash out at him. Once more, the intense fighting between those two resumed. The Nether King released ominous chimes and Ileot blasted white lightning in every direction. But this time, Ileot gradually sustained worse and worse wounds as he couldn’t help but glance suspiciously over toward the Vuallas, waiting for them to make their inevitable move.

The original-Vualla-turned-body-snatcher used her tendrils to make the possessed body sigh. It matters not which role you take. But if you do not take this role, a harsher role awaits you. It is our karma. We cannot escape our relationship with our brother.

The newest Vualla remained silent, her resolve firm. Even as a pang of guilt shook the original Vualla, she gave a meaningful glance toward Lady Iellaya.

Instantly, a surge of emotions could be seen in Lady Iellaya’s rapidly changing expressions. Her lips and eyebrows arched and quirked, then scrunched themselves together. Finally, the power-obsessed Vualla fed into Lady Iellaya’s desire for power and revenge and overwhelmed whatever else she had been thinking of doing. Her gaze fixated on Lord Miln’s sorry figure across the battlefield. By the end of the mercurial parade of emotions, a crazed grin was painted across Lady Iellaya’s face.

She began to walk forward, dragging those vast wings behind her. They stretched upward and upward, seemingly with their tips dipping into the Great Rift above them. With each step Lady Iellaya took, her body accelerated. As she began to sprint forward across the floating stone island, a terrible cry was ripped from her lips.

“Lord Miln…!”

Lord Miln looked around in shock, but the Nether Heralds reacted faster. One of the two completely healthy Nether Heralds that had been ambushing Ileot split off and rushed to intercept this new threat. Especially because the Nether Heralds had already seen the chaos that Lady Iellaya had caused.

The darkness-Vualla measured this one that moved forward. This was the second strongest of the Nether Heralds and would have been an even foe for her originally. But no longer.

As Lady Iellaya howled, those vast wings stirred. One moment they were so wide that it was impossible to see the distant tips of her feathers, the next those huge wings beat downward in a blur of motion, colliding at their massive tips directly onto the approaching Nether Herald. The concussive force of the abrupt movement created a ten-meter crater that simply seemed to materialize and freeze the Nether Herald for a split second. A strange thump reverberated outward.

Even the flexible Nether Herald yelped from the sudden blunt force. Its legs cracked and began to spurt shimmering black ichor that burned at the orange stones beneath it. Before it could even recover, Lady Iellaya had shifted into the form of her image. The brown-scaled raven-winged serpent slithered rapidly forward, its mouth wide open and revealing row after row of jagged and rotting teeth.

The crimson patterns once more covered its scales, but even though it no longer possessed any wounds, it seemed that those lines were comprised of oozing liquid rather than a sketched pattern. It was like every beat of the serpent’s heart had it shedding drops of precious life-blood that made a maze-like pattern across its scales.

Lightning fast, the wounded Nether Herald spun backward, but Lord Miln belated realized that an ally had arrived. Although he was wounded, he still sharply dodged another Nether Herald and unleashed an attack that forced the Nether Herald that Lady Iellaya was pursing to pause briefly.

Which was all the time she needed.

Crunch.

Lady Iellaya devoured this Nether Herald almost immediately, relying on the horrific power that the Vualla riding her provided. The raven-winged serpent’s throat moved grotesquely as she forced the body down into her stomach. The bulge slid almost tranquilly along the length of her body before vanishing into her stomach. Then she surged forward, making a beeline toward Lord Miln.

“Was this worth it?” The serpent hissed. Drops of blood began to spatter on the stone ground as they fell off of the crimson patterns on her scales. “Was all of this worth it?”

Lord Miln seemed immensely confused as a huge aura of rage and grief floated outward from someone he had thought to be reinforcements. The darkness-Vualla controlling the most recent Vualla’s body focused its Perception, then released a sigh of relief; the power-obsessed Vualla had understood her intention with the earlier gaze. Hidden within Lady Iellaya’s image was a tangible whiff of another image, one she had internalized not long ago.

Within Lady Iellaya’s image was a distinct trace of the Nether Prince, proving she had a hand in its death.