Chapter 142

The world slowed down and came to a halt. I scanned my body. Consequences of the attack: thorax pierced side to side; spinal cord partially severed; several ribs broken; left lung completely unresponsive; right lung undergoing shutdown; heart still intact, missed by a little over a millimetre.

Detection of sprouts from the embedded foreign body; immune response to bud growths… success. Heart at risk of piercing; targeted coagulation and induced surface ossification; production of a protective layer… success. Cardiac muscle responsivity reduced; blood flow reduced; strong activation of arterial contractile tissue; fine-tuning of contraction waves; approaching steady-state… success!

In less than a second, I managed to somehow salvage the situation and make my body functional once again. I pushed on my calves and rolled on the ground, barely evading the slash falling upon me. My head was on fire as I made my brain work at an overclocked rate to consciously regulate every internal process. The ethereal poison injected by the Thorn and currently flowing through my veins was tinkering with my automatic response, forcing me to opt for an inefficient control methodology.

The false space was filled with a blinding light. A golden sun shone its painful rays everywhere, making everything unbearably bright. The embedded stalk collected the golden power inside my body and infused it into my blood flow, causing me excruciating pain. My tissues degraded at the same rate they regenerated, making recovery impossible. The strength imbued in my ichor was sealed, forcing me to rely only on my physicality.

"You are a true cockroach. Struggle, struggle, it won't make any difference," Hector addressed me with a voice full of scorn that didn't belong to him.

His body continued to morph until nothing remained of his original appearance. My loyal friend was completely consumed, both in body and essence. In his place, the reborn Caleb stood, a pleased grin plastered on his face.

"W-what is going on?!" Jonah's bewildered voice reached our ears. He had been released from Chloe's grasp, who had distanced herself to a corner of the vessel, and was currently standing flabbergasted.

Caleb turned his sight on him, his expression unchanging.

"Let's clean up!" he laughed, drunk on his power.

"Overboard!" I croaked out an order with what little air remained in my ravaged lungs.

The bones in my forearms shattered and my right arm was almost torn off as I stopped Caleb's whip attack. The Thorn grew vines and spines, grabbing at my flesh and rupturing my skin.

Jonah got scared, stumbled back and fell overboard. His body disappeared in the pathway. I was relieved. The pathway would spit him out from the portal we had entered it, back to safety.

Caleb clicked his tongue at the missed kill.

"Oh well, you alone will do," he comforted himself.

Another pair of whips grew from his body and pierced my thighs. I grabbed them both with my functioning hand and pulled him towards me. I aimed my fingers at his throat, but he stopped me by grabbing my wrist. The golden rays were feeding him enough strength to allow him to overpower me, while also making my very soul  boil in pain as if it was being broken apart once again.

"Ah! Finally! Finally, I can repay you for everything you did to me! Tell me now, how does it feel to be on the receiving end?" he pressed me to the floor and began to pummel my face.

My skull creaked and several of my teeth chipped. Red fluid covered my vision and a displeased grunt fled Caleb's lips.

"Why are you so hard?!" he let out a vexed scream. He shook his hands in pain and held his own broken knuckles.

"Well, it doesn't matter. I've still won"

An arboreal sword grew from his left side, he broke it with his hand and thrust it through my heart. I screamed. It didn't come from my body. Sure it was battered and on the point of breaking, but it was my old self that screamed. Reality wavered at the pained cry of my true voice and I felt my consciousness begin to wane.

"I'm so happy! So, so, so happy!" Caleb giggled like a child, his eyes fixed on mine.

My vision was getting darker and darker as the golden power enveloped me. Besides feeling an indescribable amount of pain, I was getting sleepy. Extremely sleepy. It was almost comforting, but I knew that if I yielded, I would never wake up.

"Stop Caleb! This wasn't the plan!" Isaac's blurry outline appeared in my field of view.

"This isn't what you told us!" Lily appeared on his side.

My mind chilled and a shiver of awareness washed down on me. Caleb sent the two of them an annoyed look.

"You two are so noisy. Just shut up," he scoffed at them.

He hit them with a newly grown mace, sending them flying to the opposite sides of the vessel, all the while keeping me pinned down with a hand on the sword he had made.

He chuckled and put his face right in front of mine.

"Are you angry they betrayed you? After all you did, you should have expected it," he sneered at me. My blood froze.

He took on Hector's appearance and giggled happily.

"Or are you angry for your friend? Want to know how I did it? Well, if I say so myself, I'm quite good at stealing. But you should already know, don'tcha?"

I kept my eyes focused. I grabbed the sword embedded in my chest with both arms and tried to free myself. In vain, as it turned out while he started to exert more strength. 

"I must say, you are really something," he whistled in surprise.

"But it doesn't matter, you still lost. Unfortunately, it seems you cannot be killed in the usual sense, but the goddess will put you back to sleep soon enough," he explained with a sigh.

"... What?" I quietly whispered.

"... Ho? Still don't understand? Well, it's quite simple! The goddess planned everything in advance from the moment you fell down here. There were some variables, like that little b***h you care for so much, but what could a smart*ss change when confronted with the plans of a god? She couldn't do everything herself, so she led me to make sure everything would go as needed. She needed me to bring you here and incapacitate you so that her divine light could vanquish you. I must admit, hadn't she fiddled with my mind, the hell I would have let those two idiots kill me! But well, she needed me here with you, and there was no other way besides this. She knew you wouldn't be deceived otherwise. Isn't it incredible? How great the goddess is!" he looked at the brightened sky with an expression full of wonder and devotion. Zealotism transpired from his every word, as much as his intent to make sure I understood and despaired.

His eyes then returned to me and his tone returned placid.

"Anyway, until you are awake, she can't restart everything and I can't have the life I deserve, so go to sleep now," he twisted the sword, causing me to cry in pain once again.

"Stop!" Isaac shouted once again, slashing at Caleb.

He intercepted the sword with his open hand, without injuries. He tilted his head and his brow twitched.

"You can be such a bother, Isaac," he mumbled, grabbing his throat and breaking his neck.

"NO!" Lily shouted and assaulted Caleb.

He clicked his tongue.

"Come on, Lily! Don't do this! You are mine!" he swung his arm.

A sharp vine shot from it and cut both of Lily's feet off. She fell to the ground and began to wail in pain and anger.

"Come on! Shut up! Once I'm done here, you won't remember a thing!" Caleb turned to me, ready to give me the coup-de-grace.

His eyes wavered. My vision had returned clear. Even though I was extremely tired and the repose promised by the golden light felt so sweet, I had been awakened. I couldn't describe the emotions raging through my mind. A sense of loss while looking at Isaac's body. Wrath at Lily's condition. Shame for being defeated. Humiliation for being deceived. Desire for vengeance. Desire for retribution. And a sense of duty and liberation.

I pulled the sword out of my body. Copious amounts of blood flowed out from the wound. Caleb's eyes opened wide. He put his entire weight behind the sword, grew several vines that grasped at my body and tried to force the sword back once again. But it didn't move, as if stuck in time. It was a perfect equilibrium, one that could be broken at the smallest disturbance.

My arms began to tremble. I couldn't win. He had the upper hand. I may have been stronger than him before this entire ordeal, but now, under the light of her sun and inside of her domain, power was on his side.

And then, a small push, imperceptible like the flutter of a butterfly's wing. A single gifted instant, one that couldn't even be measured, was all it took to change the tides of this confrontation between higher beings.