NovelOnline Chapter 347: Just a bite
Chapter 347: Just a bite
"That is why people fear and hate Forbidden Mark. They bring nothing but trouble, and claiming inheritance is something very rare. Seeing one of the shards at all is comparable to one in a billion stars," Old Man smiled.
"Each shard is then broken into fragments, small powers and abilities like the one you gave your subordinate."
Vale swallowed. He saw the smile that Old Man gave. It was a smile filled with concealed malice and greed. And he remembered that the one-in-a-billion shard had fallen into his lap just like that.
Just like that, he claimed a shard and inheritance. Something that was planned by the subordinate of Old Man.
Vale didn’t know if he should be angry or happy. He didn’t know how he should react to the fact that he was indeed being used somehow.
. ’....I have the Infernal Dominion shard and he has the Dead and Decay shard. What does that mean?..’
"Can one have more than one shard?" he asked, his mouth suddenly dry as if he was afraid of the answer, but his eyes never left Old Man.
"Yes. Although you can only claim one inheritance shard."
Vale frowned in confusion. "Explain."
"An individual can only claim a shard. But they can devour a completed shard from another Forbidden Knight, absorbing it with their power."
The horror that he expected didn’t come. Maybe he knew already, his mind already knew, and that was why he was hesitating to go after the power.
Only cold amusement whispered in his mind. ’...again and again I ended up being used like a tool...’
"So you planned everything. You let me claim the Shard of Infernal Dominion. You are the one pulling strings."
Old Man couldn’t hide his mind. He was proud of it and wasn’t ashamed. He was glad. "This makes things easier. I want you all completed before I eat you, but you just have to go and start a war that almost killed you."
Vale ignored him as he continued speaking. "You know where the Infernal Dominion shard was, but you can’t claim it personally. But at the same time you have to guard it, and then you have to feed it to someone who will claim it, and then you’ll eat them. Me."
Suddenly, Vale stiffened. "You knew I was a Forbidden Knight since I was born. And my father began to behave differently since the day I was born... you are behind all of this!"
Old Man did not deny it; he even smiled a little and shook his head sadly. "Your father’s will was stronger than expected, and my subsequent attempts could not fully hold him. A shame."
Vale reeled. He could feel all the images he had of his upbringing crumbling before his very eyes. Everything was now tainted by a lofty gaze high above, looking down at him with condescension.
He felt exposed and seen through. An uncomfortable feeling rose up to the forefront of his mind, mixing with his thoughts and almost making his mind blank.
Vale had hated his father because of who he was. But....if he actually never met him? How many people in his life had been planted there? How many were hands used to turn him in this or that direction?
Have all his decisions been influenced?
What about Tiber and Slya?
Suddenly his world felt hollow and feeble. His world felt weak and unstable, and him—he felt as if he might fall into the deepest void at any time.
"That’s right," Old Man continued. "You were mine since you were born. A vessel to hold one of the shards and for me to devour. You should feel yourself glad to have caught my attention."
His words were meant to drag him under totally, shattering his will so that the only thing he would see when he looked around would be the eyes of the Old Man telling him what to do.
But Vale, as he fell and felt his will bend and be tested, was angry. He was truly and totally angry. An Old Man that can’t even free himself from imprisonment thinks he can dictate and command his life?
How stupid! How incomprehensible!
He was the one that was controlling his father? So what? That only means Vale now knows where to pour his blame!
He was the one that let him eat one of the shards? So what? He had given Vale a free meal, and he would fill his belly with it.
He wants to devour him? So what? At the end, what will ultimately decide the devouring is the stronger one.
Vale just had to be stronger.
He is the Crimson Lord. The Lord of the Eternal Pyre. He is a Forbidden Knight. Vale Athrimir.
His anger bubbled to the surface; it mixed with the hunger he suddenly felt. A strange energy of red taint covered him quickly, forming a phantom snout on his head.
He opened jaws filled with fangs of red light and took a bite out of the Old Man.
It happened so fast that Old Man did not react until half of his body from the right side had been ripped away.
Old Man stared at Vale with wide eyes, his expression utterly shocked and slightly confused. "What....?"
But Vale didn’t answer. His jaw came down once again and bit through the upper head of the Old Man. Then again, completely devouring him.
The force that was holding him failed, and he fell to the ground, but Vale couldn’t stand. His eyes opened wide as power rushed through every corner of his body; his body jerked, and his head slammed into the rough ground with a loud crack.
His eyes turned red like a red moon. And a fog of red fire quickly swallowed him whole.
☆☆▪︎▪︎☆☆
In a dark room, an old man sitting in a lotus position suddenly opened his eyes. His eyes were deep purple, and symbols of power floated around; the most prominent was a purple scythe.
The man blinked, then blinked again. He frowned in confusion. "What just happened? How?"
He turned his head to look around him. The room was small and as big as a country at the same time. Space twisted and collapsed around him, and everywhere his eyes landed, the space twisted on itself with a soft popping sound.
But nothing came close to the expression of confusion on his face. He just didn’t understand. In his thousands of years of living, he had never been met with such a situation before.
"I.....froze and allowed myself to be devoured? How is that possible?"
Suddenly his eyes widened, and he stood up.
His reaction was sudden and fast. And the room reacted to this as if the man was the center of the world. The air whined loudly, and space cracked around him. The empty space flexed, appearing small and big.
But the man wasn’t worried.
He raised his hand and gestured. That simple gesture made it seem as if the very world would collapse around him.
Old Man has been in the prison for so long that he had become the absolute master of it all.
He just couldn’t break it open. But he has made cracks, cracks that made it possible to influence the world once more. Something that would make it possible to eventually break out.
But things aren’t that simple. He had to accumulate power just outside of the cracks to create an avatar so he could use some power out there.
Unfortunately, he used up all of that power to save Vale and to steal the Crimson Lord Lantern. But fortunately for him, although he couldn’t bring the Lantern into the cracks with him, he placed it just outside and used its power as a medium source.
It was how he was able to talk with Vale earlier and even connected with his Forbidden Mark and that artifact to bring him near.
But now that he was devoured, that avatar was gone. Together with the Lantern.
Old Man blinked. "Years....years of work to make that boy enter the Rift and free that Lantern so I can finally have a suitable avatar. All gone, just like that."
His face twitched and twisted into anger that he forced himself to suppress. "Although I will eventually eat the boy, I still need a suitable avatar to work freely. This..."
Suddenly his eyes widened again. "You did this, Crimson Lord! You are dead! Gone and forgotten! You are nothing!"
But nothing answered him. Old Man gritted his teeth. For years he has had the belief that there are still some tiniest pieces of that extraordinary Crimson Lord in the shard, and it was working against him.
He had no real evidence for thousands of years, just a feeling. But how else would he explain himself just allowing his avatar to be devoured?
Old Man chuckled, and his anger seemed to evaporate. "This Forbidden Knight is a wild dog. He’ll hunt, and I’ll hunt him in the end."
"But for now....I need my avatar."
With that, Old Man sent a message through the cracks.