Chapter 179 - Howl!
“Hakuya…!” Char Char gasped as she stepped back away in shock.
The back of her foot collided with something, causing her to stumble and nearly fall over.
Her eyes dropped down to see that she had tripped on the arm of a person bowed deeply with his head down. Char Char realized that it was Reid - she hadn’t even noticed his presence up to this point.
The Hunter lay prostrate and motionless at its base, as if deep in prayer. His cloak took on a mottled appearance causing him to blend in with the wet, mulchy ground. Even standing next to him, the cloak played tricks on her vision making it hard to focus on him.
Even though she had pretty much stepped on him with her heel, he didn’t react at all.
His knees and elbows were half-submerged in the thick red mulch. The top of his forehead was pressed into the ground, though it looked as if he was still breathing.
Numerous thin green saplings were sprouting out of the ground around him, wrapping around his limbs and crawling up his body in worm-like motions.
A sickening feeling filled Char Char as she nearly dropped immediately to help her friend.
“So you do know the vessel!” Medusa spoke exuberantly, interrupting Char Char before she could act.
Char Char’s eyes snapped up to look at Medusa with horror-filled eyes.
“What are you doing to them?!” Char Char demanded, trembling violently.
“Doing? I’m not doing anything. They are serving their divine purpose, just like you and I.”
“I’m not- I’m not doing whatever it is you want me to do!” Char Char yelled, “There’s nothing divine about this!”
Medusa didn’t seem perturbed by Char Char’s reaction, even chuckling a bit as she shook her head, “This is all arranged by providence, my dear. As a blessed of the White Maiden, you should have more faith.”
The spiritual intuition of both women suddenly triggered as they felt a tremble come from the tree. The light around Hakuya’s petrified form shimmered softly as he emitted a soft groan.
It felt like the Cleric was calling out to her.
“H-Hakuya?” Char Char spun around to face the tree. At this point she noticed that there was something very odd about Hakuya’s form.
The space around Hakuya was filled with tiny, subtle motions. The tree quaked and trembled from the low grumbles coming out of the forest, and the hand-shaped branches quivered subtly, and the liquid in the red mulch at the base of the tree shimmered with tiny ripples.
But Hakuya himself was completely frozen. His body was completely still, disconnected from the present time. Even the pulsing ambient light played off his form differently than everything else.
But just now, the stasis that locked Hakuya in time wavered ever so slightly.
“I see now. I see! Char Char, you know this man!” Medusa said, coming to an epiphany, “This man is frozen in time, a side effect of his original pathway, before he was corrupted… Hakuya, did you call him? What a generous soul, to sacrifice his life for Prince Deka!”
Char Char’s pupils quivered as she reached out toward Hakuya’s frozen form, stepping down the slope toward him. The brim of his petrified hat concealed his face, though with this step she could just see the bottom of his chin. “Hakuya… You’re still alive in there?”
“I’m sorry to say, your friend is not with us anymore… He was gone the moment he succumbed to the corruption.” Medusa said with a sombre tone, stepping forward with Char Char. She once again made the pious gesture of tracing a line from her lip down to her chest, “But the problem is that although his body is in the perfect condition, his remnant will has put up this time barrier that prevents him from fulfilling his destiny.”
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“Now I see, that is why the Maiden sent you. Your connection with Hakuya is the key to breaking the barrier.” Medusa said softly, “Don’t worry, no harm will come to you. A blessed of the Maiden is a blessed of Prince Deka. Once you fulfill your divine purpose here I will personally bring you back to the White Maiden’s shrine.”
Char Char wasn’t listening to Medusa as she stepped forward again, reaching the base of the tree. Her lips trembled as she looked underneath the brim of Hakuya’s black hat.
His once friendly face with a broad nose and goatee had turned ash in colour and wooden. It was as if he were wearing a mask that was frozen in a look of pained terror. His mouth was agape and frozen in an eternal scream. The sockets of his eyes sunk into a hollow, empty darkness.
The stasis field around him quivered again and a soft, forlorn moan rumbled out of Hakuya’s throat and frozen mouth.
As she stared up at him, she felt the stasis field react to her presence. Her sixth sense lit up as she felt a wave of emotions pour out from the frozen cleric. Regret, sadness, shame. These feelings that Hakuya felt in the final moments of his life washed through Char Char.
Char Char’s lips formed a thin line as she rested her eyes on Hakuya’s horror-filled expression. Her eyes were red as if she were to break out into tears.
“You’re right, Lyssa…” Char Char said calmly, her voice taut, “I can feel his energy, his … will, as you said. And I can feel that there’s no soul behind it anymore. He’s really gone.”
“Yes, indeed.” Medusa nodded, “But his death won’t be in vain. With his body, Prince Deka will be able to rise again and bring balance back to the land. Unfortunately, his remaining will is too strong. Even I can’t break the barrier.”
“Don’t worry.” Char Char said quietly, “I can do it.”
As she spoke these words, the ground began to rumble and the trees around the glade began to sway. The thick rustling of leaves filled the air as the agitated caws of birds filled the air. The glowing light beyond the egg’s walls brightened. The entire forest came alive in anticipation.
Char Char felt suppressed by a heavy divine pressure as the God of Life placed his eyes on her. But this didn’t bother the girl as she continued to stare up at Hakuya with hardened eyes.
A vision flashed in her mind, one without sound or images, but just raw, heartfelt emotions. These were the final thoughts and wishes of her friend before he completely lost control. These final remnants of Hakuya’s life force blast into Char Char’s heart with such intense vividness that she experienced them as if they were her own feelings.
“It was tough, wasn’t it.” Char Char whispered, a tiny smile flickering on her lips, “You just wanted to save her. It was all you could think about. Even in your final moments you didn’t think about yourself at all.”
A tear rolled down her cheek as she reached up to touch Hakuya’s wooden face.
“Don’t worry, Hakuya. She’s safe.” Char Char said. “You did great.”
As she touched his rough wooden face her body froze as the stasis field shimmered brightly and engulfed her. For a moment it seemed like she’d been trapped in time with Hakuya. Then it flickered and popped like a bubble. A final soft sigh emitted out of the cleric’s wooden mouth as his presence disappeared from the world.
“You can rest now.” Char Char whispered, caressing his rough, hard cheek.
Before those words even left Char Char’s lips, a terrible roar erupted from the forest. The ground beneath their feet began to heave as the top of the glade cracked into pieces and pulled apart. The moment the stasis bubble popped the immensely powerful spiritual presence wasted no time and began flooding into Hakuya’s empty body.
Chunky mulch and red mud flew into the air as a ferocious cyclone bloomed around them. The black, petrified flesh of the hand tree bulged and groaned, its twisted boughs stretched and reached up into the sky as the claws grasped for the heavens.
The heavens opened up above them as the blue afternoon sky suddenly turned black and darkened into an eerie twilight. A black moon materialized in the sky and obscured the sun from view, its edges glowing in a fiery orange ring as a supernatural solar eclipse engulfed the heavens.
The floor of the glade continued to rise up into the air as the forest below tore off and fell away. Five huge black spears thrust into the air around them. From up close they appeared to be massively thick vines or branches, but from afar they formed the fingers of a gigantic hand. This hand rose out of the ground violently, holding the hand tree and the three Exalted in its palm as it thrust into the sky.
The dark expanse of a rapidly growing and mutating forest spread out across the horizon as huge glowing orange flowers blossomed across the forest. Ethereal, floating lights like pollen burst out of the center of the flowers, spreading across the land. Wherever these lights landed, grotesque creatures with twisted limbs and monstrous bodies burst from the ground.
All across the province, the hearts of regular citizens began beating rapidly and their hair and beards spontaneously grew several inches. Plant life flourished and budded with strange fruit and flowers. Animals howled and grew feral and burst into mating frenzies. Those who were Exalted were able to resist the side effects, but their spiritual intuitions trembled as they all instinctively looked toward the forest.
In the palm of that giant hand, in the center of the rapidly growing tree with hand-shaped branches, the body of Hakuya that was trapped in its core bulged and trembled violently.
Black, glistening flesh rippling with muscles erupted out of the cleric’s back, tearing through his tattered robes. A thick crack suddenly split his frozen wooden face as the empty sockets sparked with a fiery orange light from deep within.
A feral, distorted howl erupted across the night sky, overpowering the stormy winds and chilling the souls of everyone who heard it.
Prince Deka, the Demonic God of Life, was being reborn!