LEVEL 0 IMMORTAL-Chapter 62: The Thief of Gold

His regeneration meant that Elias could hold his breath for a long time and starve off cell damage, but what it would cost him was his Stamina levels, especially since he would not be staying still, but surviving and killing.

There was a slight pressure as if he was digging through leather, then his bladed hands sank deep, and Elias dragged them down and around him, ripping the flesh that was squeezing around his body sideways.

Black fluid that was both cold and burning poured over him, and now the monster truly screamed, it was high and piercing, and if not for the cover of the flesh around him, his eardrums would most certainly have exploded.

Elias could not stay in a single position; the cord had not taken him as deep as he wanted, but his senses could still hear the sound of his target, and this was where he needed to push towards. The heart of this monster.

Like a man possessed, Elias began to tear his way through her flesh, and she must have gone crazy because he could feel the tremors and vibration passing through her flesh to reach him.

The deeper he went, the higher her screams, and despite the flesh being squeezed around him, the creature seemed not to have great control over her internal muscles and could not exert proper pressure to crush Elias into a paste.

Then Elias reached the first of her internal organs, and she went insane, her screams reached levels that blew out his eardrums, and she began calling out in that unknown language that the Passenger gleefully translated to him.

"Thraem’voryn... saethar enu vael’kyris thraem vael’saeth?"

"Broken One... Why are you killing me?"

He was in darkness, so he did not recognize where he was, but he could feel that the textures of the surrounding flesh had changed; it was now more rubbery, and the scent he was perceiving was no longer as foul, not that there was any air here in the first place.

It seemed he had reached the part of her that did not hold as much rot, and when Elias sliced down with his bladed hands, he felt an obstruction, and he pushed all of his strength into it, and then an image of the Pillar of Sorrow he assimilated, entered his mind, and an unknown force traveled from the base of his spine and into his arms, and the obstruction parted before him, and Elias was suddenly covered with a golden radiance that brightened up his surroundings, and he saw he had just sliced through a red orb that was not too big, yet a river of shining golden fuild was pouring out of it.

He did not know which organ he had just cut through, but the shriek of the creature went silent, and then it was replaced by a mournful howl. Elias was no longer listening to her as he felt as if he had been thrown into a vat filled with lightning.

After the golden radiance had spilled across his body, he had initially felt nothing, but then the nine purple marks on his chest began to light up, and as if all of his cells were cheering, a mighty suction force erupted from all over his body; even his hair seemed to be drinking up the glowing golden fluid.

Elias was not feeling pain, it was almost as if he was being compressed by the sheer force by which his body was draining the golden fluid, and then even without entering his Lumina Space, Elias began to hear the call of his Miracle/Damnation Orbs, and his eyes widened because it meant that as impossible as it was, ten or more of his infinite Oceans of Lumina had been filled up.

"Vael’saethar..."

"Thief of Gold..."

Elias pulled his mind away from the weird state that he was in as his body devoured this golden liquid. There was something in the creature’s voice that called to him, a seriousness that was not there before, as if whatever this creature had been before had just remembered everything it was.

"Vael’kyris thraem..."

"Desecrator of the slain..."

A feeling of fear began to emerge from his heart, but Elias pushed it away because it did not seem to come from him; it was being forced upon him.

"Instead of feeling fear," Elias growled, "I would rather feel sorrow." He did not know who he should feel sorrowful for, whether it was the children who did not have the chance to explore their potential before all they were was cut short, or was it the insane creature who had forgotten what it was to be a mother and now used her children as tools?

The Fragment he absorbed seemed to resonate with his thoughts, and a feeling of sorrow flooded through his body, and the growing fear in his heart dissipated, ’that’s right,’ Elias thought, ’I chose my own cross, not the one you put on me.’

Knowing there was no reason to speak, but feeling that being silent here at this moment may be dangerous, Elias’s mind placed certain words together he had been able to glean from this language, and using from the last of the dwindling air in his lungs, he called out in a firm voice,

"Vael’saethar enu... thraem vael saethar."

"I am the thief... because you are already broken."

It was unknown if the creature could hear him, as it muttered one final word before it went silent,

"Vael’voryn thraem’saeth!"

"Destroyer of the sacrifice!"

The silence that came after these final words was deafening, and then one of the most unsettling noises Elias had ever heard in his life began to happen... it was the sound of chewing... of hundreds of massive baby monsters eating their mother.

Although she was silent, Elias knew that she was still alive; he could still hear her heartbeat above him, which was slowly becoming faster. It would seem that even though she had stopped screaming, she was feeling the pain of being eaten alive, and her heart was accelerating due to this pain.

Whatever he was absorbing that was rapidly filling up his Oceans of Lumina was so precious to this creature that it was determined to eat itself alive for the chance of killing Elias.

Elias could respect this determination, but he was not going to allow himself to be eaten by these things, not when he was this close to the end.

His body wanted to freeze in place as this golden liquid was being siphoned into it, but when did Elias ever get anywhere by listening to what his body wanted? He had been making a lot of rash decisions lately, but it was partly because his growth had shot up like a rocket, and he was sure that if his Will had not grown to the extent that it had, he would have made mistakes that would have killed him.

Grunting with mild anger and irritation at his body, which refused to obey his command, Elias slowly lifted his arms and pointed in the direction he could hear the heartbeat of this creature.

Shivering in pain and discomfort, Elias dug deep into his Will, feeling something crack inside his head as blood began flowing down his nose, and with that total concentration, he touched the Ascendant Swarm inside his body and whispered,

"Spear!"