Chapter 18: Cruel Infestation: Part Three
More of it burned! More of it was forced out!
The aggregate’s existence did not include pain, but it was a close thing. It could feel it’s being shrinking, being reduced by the attacks levelled upon it. It was diminishing, every loss taking a toll upon the power it had accumulated.
To a living creature, a mortal or even a demon, it would have been a horrific experience, to have portions of one’s mind and one’s very being cut away; not so for the aggregate. Its state as a barely alive entity protected it, made it inured to the horror that it would have drowned in had it possessed even a sliver of intellect.
Instead of suffering it simply continued to follow the wills that were impressed upon its very essence.
The demigod it infested must die before the hellish collection of energies were purged. There was no other outcome that could be allowed. It had sought to eviscerate its host's energy pathways, but despite its efforts, the light was driving it back, undoing the damage before it could inflict enough harm.
It just wasn’t enough. It would not be able to hurt the host enough to kill him before its parasitic existence was driven from his body. Once again it pulled more of its outer extremities back, consolidating into a thicker mass near the demigod’s core. Its retreat had left the forces pursuing it behind. The light would find it soon, but it would take precious moments. The pressure upon it was great, but in its consolidated form, it could endure long enough.
What it would do would kill the host, but the parasite would also die, the energies released consuming them both. That was unimportant though, it would complete the wills that drove it on, and nothing else could be allowed.
As mindlessly driven as ever, the aggregate began to gnaw at the core, biting, clawing and worrying at it like a hoard of rabid rats.
The host had to die!
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Hadriel knew something was wrong when the threads that she had been cutting began to stop being pushed out.
At first, she had thought that perhaps the battle was near won, that perhaps there was no longer much more of the parasite to force out of the demigod’s body. Such a hope only lasted for a moment though, then Adam had screamed.
The red-winged angel had not had much interaction with mortals throughout her existence. She had had little experience with the mortal plane before the Pathways had closed, and afterwards, she had never given them much thought.
She had heard them scream before. She heard them scream as they burnt or broke or died. But this . . . this was different.
Perhaps it was his nature as a descendant of Bath Kol. Perhaps it was because his change had made him more similar to an angel than she had suspected, but as he cried out in pain it sounded more akin to one of her brethren than it did to the agony of a mortal.
Blood exploded from his lips in a fine haze as his howl became a cough, and the angel felt frustrated helplessness well up in her as she was, once again, unable to help him. For an instant, she considered swinging her blades at the exposed portion of the parasite. What point was there in holding back if it was already attacking her charge from within? But before she could something changed.
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I felt it when the infestation inside me changed tactics. I felt it when it thickened. I felt it condense.
My magic lost the grip I had. I was still able to keep up the pressure, but I couldn’t force it anymore, not with it all so much stronger and more concentrated.
Then it attacked, and I screamed!
There weren’t any words for it. My core, the burning and shining sphere of magic that I’d so painstakingly condensed and integrated into myself . . . it was still so new, so fresh. It might have been strong, but it was . . . tender, sensitive like a freshly healed cut. When the darkness attacked it, I felt it. I felt it throughout my whole body. Shockwaves of pain ran from my heart to the tips of my wings. This time there was no sensation of heat or cold, no feeling of blades or hooks. There was just pain, pure and sharp, without anything to dull or blunt it.
For a moment I was paralysed, held captive by the sheer shock of it, but anger and fear spurred me into action. I wasn’t going to die! I refused to!
What came next was utterly without thought, the pain didn’t allow for any thoughts, only action. I needed to protect my core! I needed something to drive the attacker away! My own magic wasn’t getting the job done, it couldn’t get a grip, it couldn’t hurt the parasite!
But I knew something that would, something I could reach.
Driven by nothing but instinct and necessity I reached out, my magic responding to my desire. It was new, unformed, unset, still waiting to become something, but it still obeyed me. Even with my core under attack the magic in my system and nodes responded, reaching out for my target.
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When Joan felt her magic being ripped from her control her heart nearly stopped in her chest. And given that the use of her life force to reinforce her magic had already left it feeling weak, that was not a good thing.
It happened before she had a chance to react, one instant she had been directing her power, scouring after the fleeing parasite, the next her magic was flowing away from her, out of her control and escaping her mind’s eye. Losing control of her magic like that should have been more painful, a violation, instead it just left her reeling unsure of what was happening.
For a moment she moved to throw herself back into the battle, to burn more of her vitality to create more healing magic. Then she felt it, her magic, still moving, still active, still ‘alive’. Her eyes blinked, swimming in and out of focus as her attention was divided between the material world and the world of magic and energies. She could see her magic racing through Adam’s body, but she could also see . . .
A smile touched her lips at what she saw.
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Hadriel watched, somewhat stunned, as Adam’s formally spasming right arm came around with shocking speed. His fingers clamped down on the black and putrid form of the parasite extending from his back. A keening wail that sounded like a musical instrument being abused, rose from its lipless mouth as Adam’s nails dug into it. The body tried to thrash about, but the grip on it held firm.
More tendrils, thicker than the threads that had been forced out before, rose out of the demigod’s skin near his neck. Thick as the fingers of Hadriel’s own hand, they moved like snakes, jabbing at Adam’s hand with fang-like claws on their ends. The wicked tips sank into his flesh, drawing blood.
From the wounds, the crimson-winged angel could see light spilling out along with the blood. It was a light she was familiar with. Her eyes darted to the side, focusing on the kneeling form of the resurrected saint. She still held onto the wing she had grasped, but her face was no longer set in concentration, rather she appeared . . . pleased?
The light was Joan’s, the magic of radiance and healing infused with the power of the heavens. It was not magic that a mortal mage could mimic, not without their own connection to the High Heavens. Only one that had died, earned their way into the Kingdom of the Lord and then been returned to life could create such a power.
But it would seem that even if he could not create it, Adam could still seize control and make use of it.
Hadriel felt a surge of approval run through her as she sensed the magic in her charge flow and grow. It would seem that the demigod was not as helpless as she had first thought.
Inch by inch she watched as the malignant composition of hell-born energies was pulled out by her charge’s hand. The creature emerged from the flesh as though it were being drawn from water. There was no tearing, no blood, save for its futile attacks upon the hand that held it. There was resistance, but it seemed to be failing.
Stolen novel; please report.
Then there was another wail.
Then there was blood.
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The aggregate wilted before the attack, but even as it did so it maintained its assault.
The light was everywhere now, spread throughout the host just as it had when the demigod had come into his power. It was more defuse, a current rather than a flood, but it was still sufficient to drive the parasite back even further, its limbs retreating closer and closer to its central body.
Then came the crushing force upon its outer portion, the grip that tried to tear it from its host, to drag it out into the outer world, away from its sustenance, away from its target.
NO!
It was perhaps the very first impulse that approached thought that the mass of hellish power had had in its short existence. It was not sophisticated or complex, it was simply a wordless denial, a refusal of what was.
The demigod would die! There was nothing else! It would accept nothing else! It would allow nothing else!
Every bit of its remaining essence drew together. The creature that had once resembled the root system of a tree had instead become something like a huge maggot crossed with a spider. The flexible maggot body extended beyond the flesh, but beneath it, the nine spider-like legs stabbed into the energy system and the flesh, rooting the aggregate in place even as they attacked the demigod’s core.
This was it, the last desperate stab of the creature that should never have existed.
With all of its mindless hate, with all the malicious fury of hell, it stabbed into the core again and again and again!
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The light burned the tendrils away and I was able to think again.
It almost made me lose the healing energy. I’d been running on pure instinct, and my thoughts managing to get themselves in order almost interrupted the flow I had going. I didn’t really get what I was doing, it was like riding a bike for the first time. You just manage to get it going, but as soon as you start thinking about how you're managing to ride on just two wheels, you lose it. All I could do was try to keep going, continue on sheer momentum and try not to let my thoughts get in the way.
I was doing it! Despite my almost losing it I was still managing the circulate the tide of magic through me in waves, feeding it my own power to strengthen it and keep it going. In the space of seconds, I could feel the creature infesting me pull back, and I could feel the healing energies repair the damage the parasite had left.
More than that though, I could feel my control over my body coming back!
It was hard as I tried splitting my focus and keeping the light energy flowing through me as I started to move again, but I managed it. The first thing I did was grab the bloated thing growing out of my back and try to pull it out! Maybe it wasn’t the smartest move I could have made, but I didn’t care! I wanted this thing out of me!
There was some pain in my arm, but I was cycling so much of the healing energy through me that it didn’t matter. The pain was dulled, and what injuries were inflicted healed fast enough to make Wolverine jealous. I was riding a victory high! I could practically taste it!
Then another wave of pain shot through me, scattering my victory like a house of cards in a hurricane.
My core! It hurt! It hurt! So much pain, it ran through me as though I was being electrocuted. Jolts of agony shooting through me even worse than before!
I turned to healing energy inwards again, sending it around my core, trying to drive the attacker away, but it wasn’t working! I could feel the edges of the parasite breaking down under the purifying nature of the light, but it wasn’t enough! It was tougher than before, holding together better than when it had just been threads and tendrils. I was hurting it, but not enough, not fast enough!
Again, pain shot through my core, stabs of agony radiating from it through my whole being. Desperately I tried to use the healing energy on my core itself, but the power slipped off it like water on glass. It couldn’t find purchase on the mass of hyper-condensed energy. It wasn’t like flesh though, nor was it like my channels. The core was too dense, too vital for the lesser healing energy to enter.
More pain, more stabs! I was absently aware of blood dripping from my mouth, of a wetness in my ears, but all of that was so far away, so unreal compared to the feeling of those thin barbs digging into the centre of my magic.
I tried to focus the healing and purifying magic on the legs the parasite had created. I could feel them, preserve their outlines, and get an idea of their shape and hardness. The magic I’d taken and reinforced ate away at them, but it wasn’t enough. I tugged at the main body, trying to drag it out, but the barbs and hooks on those legs kept it rooted. I squeezed, trying to crush the exposed part, but even though it deformed under my grip it didn’t break! Nothing I was doing hurt it! Nothing stopped it!
One of the legs stabbed out again, and this time it went in deep! Before the stabs had only gone in shallowly, just a bit of the points. It had hurt so much, but it had barely been enough to pierce the ‘skin’ of my core.
Compared to what I now felt that pain had been as mild as a spring breeze.
This new agony flashed through me, so violent and so fast that I think the only thing that preserved my sanity in the face of such agony was its sheer intensity. I couldn’t think enough to go crazy from the pain.
An instant seemed to stretch into an eternity, then I was back. The leg drew back, offering a brief reprieve from the pain, enough for me to be able to think again. Then I felt the barbed limb move once more, move to stab my core again, and my every thought vanished in the face of that pain returning. All I could do was react.
The tide of magic meant to heal and purify surged up around my core again, burning the legs trying to stab it, driving them back for just a moment, but that was all I needed. Again, my core rejected the power, but this time there was a flaw, an opening, the stab the parasite had made!
The healing energies flowed in, and this time there was no rejection, no impenetrable sheen holding them back!
Another shock ran through me, but this time it wasn’t pain. It wasn’t pleasure either. It was something else, something that shot through my veins like lightning, setting my nerves to buzzing, making my head feel as though fireworks were exploding within it, yet not causing any harm. For a moment the world swam, awash in sensations that I’d never experienced, that I’d never even thought possible, then it snapped back into focus.
The magic burnt up like wood thrown into a blast furnace, the vastly concentrated mana of my core consuming it with ease. Yet for that brief moment where it burned, my entire core became that very energy. Healing energy, cleansing energy, purifying energy. Just a brief moment, but it was enough.
My pain vanished as my entire body was momentarily suffused with that energy, my every hurt bathed in its radiance and the damage eased, if not completely repaired. Still, all of that was only background action, something I was only distantly aware of. All my focus was on my core and the parasite.
While the light had healed my body and magic, the dark creature infesting me had suffered from it instead. The spined legs that had been stabbing at me had all recoiled, their spear-like tips simply gone, leaving seared stumps in their place! For that moment the parasite’s strength was gone, stolen by the burning light.
I didn’t waste the chance!
My hand tightened its grip, my knuckles whitening from the strain even as black putrid flesh dug under my fingernails. Before the hellish monster could regain its grip, before it could cling to my insides once more, I pulled, every muscle in my arm straining to the max!
Last time it had dug in and made me fight for every millimetre. This time the resistance was all but gone! I could feel it scrabbling, trying to grow barbs on its legs, trying to find purchase, but I didn’t give it the chance.
The healing energy had seared away anything other than the strongest portions of the parasite. The body and legs had remained intact, but the tips, the hooks, the spines, all of them had been blasted away as the light tried to scour it from existence. The main body had survived, but its purchase had been lost.
There was a slimy slithering sensation as I pulled it out. There was no pain, but I could feel the parasite’s leg writhing and wriggling as it tried to resist but found nothing it could cling to. More and more came out, too much for my body to have physically held, but as I opened my eyes and got a good look at it, I realised it wasn’t made of anything that belonged in this world.
The edges of the . . . the thing that I’d pulled out of me were blurry, as though I couldn’t quite focus in on them. I had the impression that something was breaking down, then coming back together so fast that I couldn’t see it. Then there was the way the thing moved; it was like watching a special effect in stop-motion. Its movements didn’t blur, despite the indistinct edges. Instead, its movements were jerky then still, but constantly in one place or another.
The maggot-like worm portion of the body was more than a foot long, while the twitching, thrashing multi-jointed insectile legs added almost two more feet. The last of it came free and I brought it round in front of me, getting a good look at it with my eyes for the first time, not through the weird extended perception I’d been using.
It thrashed in my grip, but the movements were sluggish, dulled, putting me in mind of a fish pulled out of the water and slowly suffocating. Maybe if I had left it alone it would have died on its own.
But I didn’t intend to give it the chance!
As I pulled the world was starting to swim around me. The pain, the struggle, the effort I’d put into sparking my mana, then the horror of having almost everything ripped away from me, it was all starting to hit me at once. I could see little flecks of darkness starting to form at the edges of my vision as the last of the adrenaline in my system burnt away. My eyelids felt as though they had anchors attached to them, but I refused to give in, not yet!
Glaring at the creature I held through eyes that wanted nothing more than to close I dragged on the mana I’d managed to spark into life. The magic in me, the power that I only had the vaguest of grasps upon, reacted to my clumsy efforts, pouring through me, becoming what I wanted.
I spat one word. A command, a curse, I wasn’t entirely sure which. All I knew was that I wasn’t going to let sleep, unconsciousness, or even a freakin’ coma take me while this thing was still about!
“BURN!”
The magic in me went . . . red? No, not quite red, there was also orange, yellow, even blue, but it all was part of the ‘red’ that answered my desire. It flowed through me, gathering in the hand that held the black mass of energies trying to be a living being, and lashed out!
The parasite screamed as it burst into flames! The sound of its shriek reached volumes and pitches I doubted mortal flesh could ever have managed. It was enough to jar my tired mind back to full focus, to drive my exhaustion back a bit. Dragging all the remains of my energy together I narrowed my attention onto the burning form I held.
Its struggles had grown violent, its earlier sluggishness gone as it flailed, trying to escape the flames, trying to escape my grip, trying to escape anything. I held on. The flames licked at me, but somehow I knew they wouldn’t burn me. They were mine, and they would not scorch my flesh unless I willed them to.
The scream grew quieter as the parasite continued to struggle, but bit by bit its thrashing grew weaker. Soon its body was no longer flailing about, soon the only movement was the twitching of its legs. The smell coming off the charring form was disgusting, what I imagined burning sewage must have smelt like.
I kept on holding on, not relaxing my grip, not giving the creature the tiniest opening. At the back of my mind, I wondered if I was being cruel, watching this thing as it slowly burnt away, but in that moment I didn’t care. This thing . . . it had hurt me in ways that I’d never even dreamed of before! It had cut me off from my own body, it had tried to consume me, to cripple me, and then kill me!
So, I didn’t relent. I held it there, glaring at it as its struggles ceased, as the flames consumed it, as my grip broke through flesh that had become ashes, ashes that broke down into flakes that in turn faded away into non-existence.
Gone! The damned thing was finally gone!
As the darkness rose up to take me, I could feel a small smile form on my face.