Chapter 184: Thought Invasion – The Resurrection of Kai’s Wrath! (II)
Kai called out all the Emotions he could muster.
They surfaced, and even the deepest emotion left his heart, racing to his mind. Those emotions blasted apart in a chain reaction, making him recall the oldest memories. At last, those memories became an ocean; an ocean of spirituality whose each wave represented a thought.
Kai had been trying it, letting these thoughts linger in the front of his mind, the spiritual waves prickling the inside of his head like thousands of spiders crawling their way in and out. Yet, he never tried to push them out, because he needed a recipient to do so, and Kai would rather not share these thoughts with anybody, especially when he couldn't control them yet.
-/Accept them, Ms. Selena,/- he said, barely holding onto those thoughts. -/And if you agree to my terms, then let me experience your thoughts in return./-
Then, with the gentlest of the push, Kai nudged the thoughts, like pushing someone off, standing on the edge of the cliff.
It was the easiest thing to do.
Now came the hardest part; to guide those thoughts to her mind, using the spiritual currents around him as passageways. Veins popped up on his head, blue and red. His teeth rubbed so hard against each other that the sound could alone make someone wince at it. Blood seeped out of his ears and nose in two thin streams, and a pounding headache assailed him just as his thoughts touched the black oblivion that was Selena's mind.
Then they vanished, one by one.
His childhood, his life of learning and playing, his love for his mother and longing for a father, and his will to set things right for his family after growing up.
His joy for a brother and then his wrath for the same, his loss, his anger, his anger, his anger…
And then his last smile after revenge… all dropped into the black oblivion, melting into the blackness.
The silence within the room was choking.
Amid this silence, Kai's thoughts of his new life reached Selena's mind, as his HP bar kept losing points after points at an increasing rate, blood pooling below him, and the headache making him insane.
His Glitch, his Will to defy everything and to reach the peak of Absolute Power, his adventures in the various worlds, his feelings while eating dinner made by her hands, his rising power, and his Items. Those words, those experiences, and those inexplicable and unknown vistas of inhumane slaughters and cold, calculative actions all got transferred to her.
When the last thought trickled down, his HP bar was blinking, and the color of the floor had already turned red some time ago. Yet, Kai waited. He waited with the same concentration, with the same expectation and hope as before.
-/Say something…/- he urged. -/Death is so vague, Ms. Selena. Life… Now, life is full of possibilities. Speak… Speak… Now!/-
Not much Kai had been expecting to listen.
And not much he received, either.
Just one word.
One simple word that only someone like him could know the depths of; all thoughts, memories, and emotions compiled into that single word.
Revenge… her thoughts told him, taking shape in his mind. Revenge… Revenge… Revenge…
A vein on Kai's forehead burst, showering the glass cylinder with thick black blood. -/On my ambition to trample over all,/- his thoughts again found that black oblivion. -/I swear you will have your revenge. I will give you the power to kill them all. And if you agree to say the words, one day I will let you have at it with an Old One as well./-
These weren't words, but purest thoughts.
Kai had not learned how to fake them yet, as his proficiency in the Ability was too low and his experience shallow. These thoughts were something he truly believed in, and the charred figure within the tank must have known it too.
For the first time, the blackened flesh stirred, her hands and legs uncurling. There were no switches on the tank, but its lid burst open by itself, the light green fluid cascading out like a filthy waterfall.
Kai opened his eyes, his sight blurry, pain coursing through his veins, and blood dripping down his chin.
He looked at her as the air filled those burned lungs. He remembered seeing her, smaller, frail, her skin pale, but somehow she had a mother's charm and ferocity. Now she had no skin, her flesh oozing out a mixture of black filth and green fluid. Somehow, she sat on one knee and lifted her head.
Kai didn't look away. He saw her eyes without eyelids, her head without hair, and her mouth without lips. He sensed her pain.
A horrifying rattling and grating noise escaped her throat.
Revenge…
"Say the words, Ms. Selena," Kai said, his voice quivering. "Say them."
Their eyes matched, bloodshot, and burning with murderous emotions.
"Chaos…" she spoke, words coming out of her throat as ashy, broken hisses, "I… swear a Soul-Blood Oath… live at Red's command… die at his command… mine is now his… will be his too. I swear... Swear… Swear… Swear… name of Hastur; HE who is the Dweller in the Depths, the Bringer of Madness and Doom, the King in Yellow."
The epithets came out of her mouth like bullets, and she slumped down, losing all her strength. A dull, sickly yellow-colored drop left her forehead and made its way towards him, their eyes still looking into each other. Kai's finger lifted by itself, the drop landing on its tip before he pushed it into his forehead.
Then he felt her.
Such hunger for revenge… He had only once felt it before; in himself.
"Rise," Kai intoned. "You are not someone who the bastards had tortured and then burned. Not anymore. Now, you are my savageness, my sin, and my spite. Now…"
He stepped forward, towering above her, looking down at her.
"… you are my Wrath."
Selena's neck crunched as her eyes followed his gaze, her feet slipped over the fluids, and her fingers cracked, bending at odd angles. But her eyes never left him.
"Rise," Kai commanded her again. "Rise. Rise!"
Burned, moist flesh crackled, and a thundering noise rattled out of her mouth. She pushed herself up, and when she had raised herself to his waist, Kai's left hand reached for her hand, pulling her up, his fingers digging deep into her soft flesh.
Only then did he let out a bloody smile. The grin… was demonic.
Kai's right hand blurred like a mist.
She gasped.
In one thrust, Kai's monstrous power had crushed her heart, his hand penetrating her chest, through and through.
"We are monsters, demons, everything but human, Ms. Selena," Kai told her, tilting his head. "What do we need our hearts for?"
A mass of silver mist burst out of his right hand, entering the burned figure, her eyes still staring into Kai's reptilian hazels as she fell into deathly darkness. The Ghost Basilisk exploded with a Soul Chill at 100 percent, freezing her soul, a hellish frost crawling on her blackened body.
Kai neared her, the grin on his face making him look like a fiend. If this did not work, then he had already lost the chance to resolve his Karma. Yet, Blood Demon's instincts were singing a song of victory, and he sang along with them.
"I will wait for you to come back, my loyal servant."