Chapter: 692
As Jay removed the third immaterial creature, he felt the last group of the non-souls fall into the cold earth.
Compared to his own soul, and the souls of others, theirs felt like empty. Hollow. Smaller. Wrong.
“If I were a better person, perhaps I would have sent them into another creature, if there were any around.” he shrugged, “But based on them falling into the earth, it seemed that they were destined to be destroyed. Killing them now really didn’t change anything.”
Afterwards, he focused his mana around his forehead – the spot where these creatures, these demons which pretended to be him, somehow entered.
Unlike the rest of his flesh where there was like a subtle barrier, here there was a hole in the barrier, and coming out of it was something like a tree. Or a whirlpool.
It was like it was pulling in something. Not mana, but something. Perhaps information.
“Dammit. How the hell do I fix this…” he frowned.
For a moment he felt hopeless, like somehow he had done irreversible damage to himself in a way which couldn’t possibly be fixed.
“Will I have to rip out these soul parasites for the rest of my life?” he frowned.
“Maybe the barrier will heal itself? Or perhaps I can just keep my mana there to cover the hole… until I try to sleep…”
His options were abysmal, simply treating the signs rauther than the problem.
Hopelessness set in.
Suddenly, he received a strange notification – one that disappeared as soon as he read it.
[Your seal has been healed. Beside me there is no other; above me there is no other. Mercy comes at a price. Forgiveness, has a price.]
“My seal has been healed?”
Jay felt a drop of water travel across his brain and mind – instantly his hopelessness was turned to joy.
Strangely, it made his head feel cool and refreshed, as opposed to feeling hot and irritated like it was before. He couldn’t help but smile as his heart also seemed to respond with joy.
“What was that…”
Compared to the way the parasites in his arm made him feel, there was no sedation and he didn’t feel dirty, but his mind felt more clearer.
He felt like he had woken up from a deep sleep and was filled with energy and life. Using his mana, he found that there was no hole in the barrier anymore.
“What… is going on?”
Jay felt like he had perhaps won the blessing of a higher being – and by the sounds of its brief message, it is the highest.
The forest was as quiet as ever, the only sounds coming from the clinking bones of the skeletons and the odd snapping of a twig.
Jay was still being carried on his throne above the forest floor and the plants below, each hiding different tics, insects and other parasites under their leaves, waiting to jump on a passerby to suck their blood or eat their flesh.
Most bugs and parasites lacked red blood and were therefore spared from the blood-vine bear – though they lacked creatures to feed on as well.