Chapter 312: A Fruit

Late Evening - Mid Winter : Siratha Space Rune | Western Siratha

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*Vwoop* "So, you said you were going to Valtiv- Huh?" Zafeíri's eyes widened in alarm as she saw my hunched stance and heavy, labored breathing. "Vasilias?"

"Hah... Hah... Hahh..." Her voice, muffled as if consumed by the hunger clouding my mind, barely made it to my consciousness. "Y..yes?" -Fuck... I don't think I can make it...-

She quickly tried to rush over to me. "Are you alr-"

Looking her in the eye with dilated pupils, I instantly stuck out my wing to stop her, unknowingly leaking out some bloodlust. "Don't get close to me..." Countless thoughts immediately dashed through my mind. -At most, I have an hour.. and that's being generous... Where can I make it to...-

Summoning all the energy I could muster, I frantically tried to think of any other place I could fly to, but other than an empty expanse of ocean, mountains, and forest with a few elven towns, there was simply nothing.

-The ocean's depths might be able to hide me, but...- While it initially sounded decent, something in my mind despised the idea. "Fuck..." Quickly looking back toward Zafeíri, I steadied myself with a heavy breath. "Hooh..." -No... Now that we're out of the void.. maybe I can stress my senses to distract my mind from the hunger...-

Although I knew it would cause my mind and body immense pain to forcefully suppress it in such a manner, being so far beyond the limit of what I could suppress with false satiety, it was my only choice if I wanted any chance of making it to the Tree of Prayer.

-And even still, I might not make it... But it's my only chance...- "Let's get moving.. quick..." *snap-FWOOOSH* Instantly taking to the sky, the weight of every passing second began to weigh on me.

Thankfully, Zafeíri, although clearly unsettled by the momentary bloodlust I released, quickly nodded and followed after me, but this time, her carefree demeanor was replaced by caution.

Not that I could blame her.

Over the next hour of our flight, my consciousness was at war with my instincts, and the longer we flew, the more strained the thread I used to control myself became.

Every moment that passed brought the risk that I might lose myself to my endlessly starved hunger, and with only her and Ilios nearby, the consequences would be dire. But by some miracle, I managed to hold on.

Thanks to Zafeíri's vacuum magic, we were able to maintain Mach 3 nearly the entire time, and that meant we were actually over the edge of Valtivar already and were only a few minutes away from the Tree of Prayer, but at the same time, the thread tethering my consciousness had finally begun to fray.

*FWOOSH* At that point, free thoughts could not surface in my mind, and Zafeíri's anxious voice could not reach my ears, no matter how loudly she spoke. Every single ounce of brainpower I had was simply being used to keep myself in control.

But each wingbeat chipped away at me until finally, just as the Tree of Prayer emerged over the horizon.. exhaustion claimed my mind.

"V-VASILIAS?!" With swift reflexes, Zafeíri darted beneath me and caught my body on her back before it could plummet to the ground. "We're almost there! Hold on just a little longer!"

But while I could still hear, see, and feel her, the last thread I had to hold onto had already snapped.

In an instant, everything changed. I felt detached... I felt powerless, as if I was suddenly viewing a film or memory I could not influence.

And that was when the horror set in. The horror of watching my jaws lower onto the back of Zafeíri's neck like a panther pouncing on its prey while being unable to do anything at all...

But the instant my mouth was about to clamp down, Ilios appeared just in front of my eye.

*CRACK-FWOOSH* Hitting her hard enough to crack several scales, he threw her head toward the ground, moving her neck just out of my jaws the moment they clamped down.

But while I wanted to feel relief, Ilios's expression did nothing but make my little remaining ability to think freeze solid.

Much like earlier, his demeanor was as cold as the abyss, and his gaze pierced straight into my mind as if I was being stared at by the void itself.

But his gaze wasn't warm nor cold, gentle nor rough. It was simply as though I was looking at something I couldn't fathom.

And that was when a deep, mellow voice echoed through my mind. "~It seems as though the fruit has finally ripened...~"

Disappearing from in front of me instantaneously, I felt the scales on the top of my head shatter and watched as my vision blurred and turned to face the ground.

But I couldn't even recognize what had happened before I was finally detached from my senses.

*blackout*

*GASP* "HAH.. Hah.. Hah..." -W..what the hell.. was that?- The moment I woke up, I was in a completely different space, surrounded by stone walls in what looked like a cave.

It only took an instant for me to recognize it as the area beneath the palace in Kaelallan, but the instant I came to my senses, a vaguely familiar enticement filled my mind, and soon enough, it was as if I had become a shark that smelled blood. -That must be my body...-

*VWOOM* Instinctually moving the seemingly still, crystalline energy in my abdomen, it slowly became liquid and began flowing, simultaneously freezing everything around me as if slowing down the ticking of time itself.

But it only made the enticement more pronounced and, after a moment, made it feel like I was being pulled toward it by an invisible force.

However, this time, I didn't let myself mindlessly float there. -Something feels wrong...-

Using every ounce of strength in my soul's cloudy, indistinct form, I darted straight into the solid ground, phasing past rock, soil, and magma at an unfathomable speed.

For that moment, the only sensation that could surface in my mind was the irresistible enticement, which grew stronger and clearer the farther I moved. -It must be right here...-

Suddenly speeding up even more, I bolted out of the ground expecting to see the familiar landscapes of central Siratha, but instead, I was met with the vast expanse of open ocean; the water glistening under the light of the full moon and reflecting the nebulous, constellation-filled darkness overhead like a mirror.

-H..huh?- Instantly scanning the horizons around me, I tried to find any kind of landmark at all, but there was simply nothing. Nothing but massive, cresting waves standing frozen in time.

Still feeling the pull of the enticement, I once again looked in its direction, but rather than looking down or at the horizon, I found myself looking up. Straight.. up.

My eyes widened as my gaze finally settled. I was looking straight into the moon, now larger and brighter than I had ever seen.

But rather than seeing it as a celestial body, I felt as if I was looking into the eye of a creature, a creature that could squash me like a bug.

However, I didn't have anywhere else I could go.

Climbing into the night sky, my body quickly entered the vast emptiness of space, and the ever-growing unease in my mind started finally showing itself.

I simply felt as if I could no longer tell illusion from reality, as if my mind was tricking itself into a false sense of security, and the longer I flew, the worse it became.

With every meter, more detail revealed itself on the moon's surface, from the massive, spanning fissures that were always too bright to make out finally dimming to faintly show a reflection of the planet behind me as if I was looking at a rounded mirror, and the endlessly massive, perfectly circular craters looking to have massive spanning structures at their center.

But no matter how much I wanted to verify if what I saw was real, I couldn't pull my focus off the one singular point the enticement was coming from, far away from anything that looked unusual.

As I continued forth, the moon continually got larger and larger until, eventually, I noticed an aura so large it peeked through the moon's thin atmosphere.

It was my body, unmistakably laying on the surface of the moon, surrounded in a thin black veil.

It was a gate, and just like with my dragon sleep in Kaelallan, I was laid perfectly inside of it. -But there isn't much of any mana suction yet... Has it not started?-

Assuming Ilios was the one that somehow brought me there, I looked around for him as I descended, but after finding he was nowhere to be seen, the doubt filling my mind became a certainty. "This must be another one of those visions..."

I was confident. Ilios was the only one I knew of who could use space mana besides me, and even with how unusual he had been acting recently, I was sure he would still lie next to my body.

But that was simply wishful thinking.

"To think you would be able to come all this way so quickly."

Instantly turning toward the smooth, deep voice I heard, I looked down and saw that Ilios had suddenly appeared next to my body, just inside the gate, with a black sphere in his mouth.

It was an artifact, the Eye of Bahamut. "I had hoped your soul would remain dormant for this, but it seems you are more willful than I anticipated..." The voice slowly darkened as Ilios finally stepped up on my body. "I apologize for not being able to send you home peacefully, but fret not.. I will send your companion's soul with you. His body served me quite well while waiting for yours to ripen."

As Ilios's mouth opened, his body went limp, immediately falling to the ground next to my body and letting the artifact fall onto my face. *tink*

"I apologize for using two innocent souls in such a manner, but your job here is done. I hope you can lay down whatever resentment you have for me when you reach your home world." *VWOWOOOOM* Enough aura to cover hundreds of kilometers instantly exploded out of my body before halting and being irresistibly sucked back in with enough force to break down nearby matter.

But while it all happened, my eyes could not leave Ilios. The image of his limp body laying on the dusty surface of the moon was the only thing that could make it into my mind.

"I wish good fortune upon your soul."

I was surrounded by a gate in an instant, but while I was fast enough to escape, neither my eyes, nor body could budge.

For the first time ever, my mind was truly still.. truly silent...

But at that moment, even I didn't realize that the web of strings holding together my sanity had already melted.