Black Heart (2)

"Huff, huff! Haa-kk... huff- hah, huuff...!" Ciemnosc lay on the ground with his back against it. His body was clearly in turmoil as his skin became covered in a layer of his own sweat. His chest heaved up and down, wobbly like it had nothing inside, and only air was poured in and exited his torso. His arms down and to the sides at a 90-degree angle, his legs were practically immobile as he looked into the starless dark, deep blue night sky with his eyes gleaming in enjoyment.

‘Wow, I ne- never thought… I could get to fight like this.’ Remembering all the times his body broke apart, his bones broke, and he had to fight with whatever he had left until his body self-repaired as he poured copious amounts of dark Power Energy to speed up the process. How his body had changed so much, he could even repair his bones amidst a battle, and such an intense one, for that matter. Ciemnosc felt his head so light, yet his body so painful and sore to no end that he could not move because of his excitement and after being beaten the shit out of.

He wasn’t uninjured, of course not. His lower back was bleeding profusely, creating a muddy pool of red that the snow avoided at all costs. It used to be dark blood at the beginning. But Ciemnosc was rapidly unable to elaborate further on dark Power Energy after fighting for more than 12 hours without taking a break. The red puddle turned into mud and was still growing, but Ciemnosc could only breathe heavily and nothing more.

“Wo- hey, you fought really hard.” Without much breath in him, Ciemnosc turned his head to the left, his lips crooked and broken but wet, especially with his blood and the Creature’s.

Grruu… The Creature pathetically weakly answered back. It was also with its back against the ground, though its blood wasn’t making a puddle like Ciemnosc was, but rather a lake of its own beside the Little Lake, still transformed into ice. After it responded, its tongue came out. It had a pretty, ordinary pink color. All it could do was direct its tongue towards Ciemnosc, who was just a couple meters away from her, and then keep waiting.

Even though it was like this now, Ciemnosc wasn’t feeling sorrowful. He could very well sense the changes she had during their duel. She spoke to him with her strength and movements. As she did telepathically, like animals with a mindset in common. It was, perhaps, best described as a magical feeling and one he felt the most sensitive to. It wasn’t because of his recent breakthroughs but because she communicated with him.

Her strength might be at the 1st stage of the Ashes Apperception realm, but her truth couldn’t be measured, at least not by the current Ciemnosc.

Responding to her growl from earlier, Ciemnosc opened his mouth and was about to speak out loud when he smiled instead. After taking another breath and gathering efforts to repeat, he opened his lips to tell her, “I know, I know. It was fantastic. I couldn’t have gotten a better partner to duel, and you helped me stabilize my cultivation base. Soon, I can keep cultivating to higher stages because of you, mn, thank you.”

“Though I cannot give you a proper burial or bid farewell to you that well. I won’t let anyone come and steal you. Even if you are this strong and dying, nobody can touch you or do anything with your body. Only pure energy will taint you and… and I hope you have a comfortable trip when you go.” Ciemnosc said, bringing his nose to point to the sky again as the dark, starless black canvas remained perpetual.

Grrriiieeeu. The Creature moaned softly, its vibration reverberating everywhere around the two of them. Ciemnosc felt his back like it was patted, and after voicing a ‘thank you’ with his mind. His pupils shrank.

“You won’t have to worry about her burial. I know a place to keep her body. And a… ‘way’ to send her to that trip you spoke of.” The man’s voice, the very same man that asked him to do this, sounded out after his eyes changed. His voice was soft but also trembling, and as his soundless footstep moved to the head of the Creature, Ciemnosc looked at his feet with his eyes gone upwards and his head tilting into the earth and his nape.

“I’m thankful, Ciemnosc.” The man shed tears, one after another, his face barely scrunching up as he rubbed his forehead and nose left and right one clean spot of the Creature. In return, she growled neatly at him like an obedient daughter. Graaaawluu.

“I failed her. Her and let her and everything else become so low. It was my fault. This is my ask for forgiveness, so please take it.” The man added, his heart out with his words, and the Creature went silent. But before long, it let out a comical growl. Grauunff.

“Mm, she says you’re acting like a baby! To man up and accept death like her, to follow her and look for a new place to start over again. Even if it takes, err… changes? Though she also hoped for, err… archeons.” Ciemnosc suddenly said, breaking the moment. And very well broken, indeed. The man smirked and chortled; once; before separating his head from the Creature.

“... Is it done, then?” After a couple seconds, the man asked Ciemnosc as he gestured to the Creature. Ciemnosc lifted his right hand as much as he could, showing a tiny piece of a light blue-colored crystal. It wasn’t transparent, but its appearance and color gave the impression that it should be.

“You should’ve seen her face when I came out of her body again, but with this in my hands,” Ciemnosc said without a smile in a calm and soft voice, slowly turning quiet. He was referring to one of the many times that either she ate him down her throat or he penetrated, with his whole body, into her body by breaking through her skin. “She was like, ‘Oh! What? Oh well, I guess the fun times are over.’ - and then she began to fight subsequently slowly… Like I was.”

“She was losing all speed faster than me though… and I could only watch as she simply lost balance, from time to time.” Ciemnosc began speaking with a clear voice but then turned hushed as he continued to say until he seemingly found no more words. Was it sadness striking him? It would be good if it was, but it was only loneliness and understanding.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to worry. In fact,” the man said, his eyes locking onto the incredibly bloody and injured Creature’s head. “You are paying her back for saving you.”

‘Paying her back by killing her? This world… it is weird.’ Ciemnosc frowned in curiosity, his head tilting to the left. He then set his darkest eyes on the man, who continued to elaborate.

“Do you really think there was an earthquake, bringing every single Expectre down there further down, but you and a few others were somehow unharmed and with intact corpses? Body, in your case.” The man’s words left Ciemnosc speechless. Of course, he thought so! How could any living beings have the capability to move earth and bodies without utilizing Power Energy? Besides, this girl was just in the Ashes Apperception realm 1st stage!

“Heng, I know your look.” The man snorted as Ciemnosc set his gaze on him once again. He pointed with his right index finger at the girl, who was at her weakest, and explained, “She didn’t use to be just a Creature or a Monster. This is… as I said, ahem, my fault. Let’s just say… she has backtracked a few steps.”

“Hmm,” Ciemnosc frowned hard with his right eyebrow as the left tone remained up and even arched. But he recuperated soon after. He faced the girl’s tongue, to which he weakly lifted his left arm. Tremblingly, his palm landed part of its tip as he quietly said. “Thank you again. I’m useless the more people I meet. The more amazing people I meet.”

Gaawaawuaa~. Big Girl: You’re embarrassing~!

“Heh,” Ciemnosc grinned, his canines showing as he snorted lightly. The man looked up and softly spoke in such a peaceful tone. “It seems to me, Ciemnosc, that you ended up meeting the last opportunities and chances this Kingdom had.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“...” Ciemnosc became silent, his were eyes serene and ultimately cold… and lovable. His eyes looked at the man again, moving each time as if by frame. When they landed on the man’s throat, who then lowered his head. The man spoke in the same way yet again. “You found wind first. And just like its speed and stability, you were there much after it drifted away.”

“When you encountered water, all you could do was give another burial. Everything that shouldn’t have happened had been done. Nothing could have been made in return.” The man stopped for a moment, a slight pause, and continued for a couple seconds with the breeze of the Little Lake never so cold. Which Ciemnosc didn’t really feel, of course.

“There was a chance for earth, but… it has been dried up with too much death, and you saw that recently. So you couldn’t get to meet them even if they did form in the first place.”

“... …” There was a sudden, long pause that Ciemnosc wasn’t prepared for. He could feel the life seep away from the tongue his left hand was practically stuck to. After a few more moments, he asked the man, his mind becoming as clear as ever-possible.

“Then, what about fire?” Ciemnosc asked. The man looked up and then back down at Ciemnosc smoothly, almost like a dance of sorts, smirking at Ciemnosc before looking in the direction northeast. “She is also gone.”

The man’s voice was sorrowful and self-deprecating despite his smirking lips and smiley words.

“Now, get up, boy,” The man said at a slightly faster pace. Ciemnosc put effort into his body to stand up and face the man and the already dying Creature. And in a few more moments... She would be unresponsive, her body completely shutting down, and she would finally die.

“Comfortable travels,” remained Ciemnosc to the girl who could barely ‘grru’ a few times in response. It was her goodbye to him. And it didn’t seem like she was bidding goodbye to the man, though. It was a beautiful starless, dark night. But why did his heart feel some sort of fire?

“Go find your mother’s past.”

Ciemnosc: “!!!”

Ciemnosc stood there shocked, looking at the man who placed his left arm around what he could of the Creature’s head and looked back at him with intangible but gentle and worshiping eyes. What eyes were those.

Then, in a moment of weakness, Ciemnosc uttered out. “I don’t think I can even move.”

Whoosh, rustle, thud- pah~.

Ciemnosc’s eyes and consciousness closed, fading into the back of his head as he plummeted back down on his own puddle of blood and that of the Creature. The man looked at the place where Ciemnosc used to stand and looked at the void, his eyebrows slowly lifting as he lowered his head slowly. Turning to face the right eye of the big girl, she looked back at him comically before her eyes’ life and light faded, mirthfully looking at the man and knowing she had experienced the best end of her life.

. . .

On another morning. On a mountain’s peak to the east of the Moribund Yearning Cult.

WHOOOOOOOOOSH WHIIIIIIIIIIISTLEEEE~~.

“...” Opening his eyes silently, Ciemnosc looked at the blue sky above him. It looked peaceful and vacant, he felt as if something was coming to a close, but his body felt peaceful, though his injuries were the same as when he was conscious for the last time. He slowly sat up, only to face a height he had never witnessed; previously. Either with the Cloudless Eagle, training his Creatures, or simply floating, which was even newer.

‘Holy shit, they placed me on top of a mountain’s very peak? How did my back not feel it? And how did my body not fall off?!’ Ciemnosc’s eyes widened. Though he was sobered up already, he became even more somber now that he faced his situation.

He was, indeed, on the very top of a mountain, the one to the utmost front from the range of mountains at the east of the Moribund Yearning Cult’s organizational territory. Standing up, he stood on the 60 cm long and less than 30 cm wide ‘bed’ - which was basically the mountain’s peak. Ciemnosc looked to the farther northeast, his eyes clouded with a sentiment he had never shared before and that lately seemed to build up with some sort of limit that he was already exceeding over.

There was no need to worry about being seen here. Because for whatever reason, nobody wanted to build around these sweepest, tallest, and most robust mountains, which were known for being the largest in the entire world. Not just this Region. Ciemnosc couldn’t even see the floor or the tallest trees always accompanying the mountains, and they were damnably tall. Unless he utilized his enhanced sight, his Spirit Sense was too ‘short’ even for that.

Some smalish organizations tried, but both: the environment and their lack of resources were the reasons they all died or fled. Creatures came, and the atmosphere was awful for their low cultivation base. And all they could amount to was some wood, stones, and meat. Some knew how to farm crops, and others barely knew how to prepare dinner for more than 10 others than themselves.

“...” Ciemnosc gazed at the panorama for a long time, but not too much. He went down the mountain by throwing himself down with a slight jump. He couldn’t descend too fast himself unless he jumped downs straight away. And unlike other weaklings who couldn’t even divide their attention to use their Power Energy, Ciemnosc’s more potent bodily strength. Still, he had to use his cultivation base to float away from the mountainside so that no accidents would occur.

He wasn’t afraid of dying from a ‘little’ fall like this. But he was not only not in a normal state, but he was also heavily injured and needed some days’ worth of rest to recuperate. Fortunately, the wind didn’t damage him, as if it could never dare to, as he disappeared through some clouds and heavy snow, which was lacking in the upper half section of the mountain he was on.

… Several days later, Ciemnosc was now 13 years, 4 months, and 1 day old, the young, strong boy. After going down the mountain and not stopping for a break, ignoring the ordinary people’s settlements and killing any cultivator he saw.

After his doings, he was the most renowned cultivator in the last few tens of thousands of years, at the very least. And at least for what ‘the public’ was left to know. He was the most-renown cultivator ever, but he wasn’t looking for fame. If anything, infamy sounded good in his mind. But he still left a trail of blood and ‘unknown’ deaths from an unknown Creature.

From that time the gigantic Creature was sighted, search parties, even amounting to 100,000 cultivators from the different ‘major’ organizations and their subordinate organizations. To find that carcass and make food, ingredients, and medicine from its body would mean possibly discovering the truth to the next era! Becoming stronger cultivators and bringing the upcoming rise of the world’s power! It meant everything!

Yet, no one found something. All they could gather were reports of possibly another monster. Smaller in size, that was sighted back then, fighting the gigantic Creature. It became apparent that of the two monsters, the smaller one ended up victorious and was traveling the land as they breathed, spoke, ate, fornicated, and shat.

Nobody dared chase after it. Even peak Obsidaifying realm cultivators cowed from it, notoriously showcasing the prowess that such a monster withheld. Let alone any other who wasn’t even in the Obsidiafying realm, dreaming was different from being a fool. And not a single living being went over to investigate the whereabouts and direction the smaller monster was heading to.

As for Ciemnosc, he didn’t bother about who he killed. His Spirit Sense went through each of them, and even those who held defective Covert Space bags, he knew very well who was with whom and who was not. He killed all, ate some for random snacks, not needing to worry about getting fat and much less about side effects, and continued on his road nonstop.

The weaker he was, the more strong he wanted to be seen like. Not everyone was a fool. Ciemnosc was indeed powerful. But to grow strong enough to the point of killing something like that. They did not believe that, either by common sense or because they did not want to. And they would even more so not chase after him… what if he did become stronger after breaking through the Conflagrate realm? It could mean their end.

Ciemnosc slowly regenerated. It was the same as before, mostly. His bodily strength was an enormous 32,000 kg, and double the amount meant too much fucking power. He quickly grew used to it, as he had never been an ordinary kid. And became proficient, even soundlessly jumping for a hundred meters or so while making no sound.

If he used it all, he would break apart the earth and create tremors hundreds of meters away, at least. He had to learn to put that strength into more than just ‘raw’ use. He was good at doing so as he lonely made his way to the northeast extremities of the Region.

Ciemnosc didn’t use Valeria’s bike but focused on moving between open fields and forests, jungles, swamps, and simply from hill to hill. High in the air and observing several thousand kilometers from one point, increasing the scope after every jump. At a specific time, when he felt like he could just rest and fully heal and also try to see if he could breakthrough to the 2nd stage of the Conflagrate realm, he selected a large village to loaf at.

The Conflagrate realm was a complicated small step for a cultivator, and it had a complex relationship with them, too. In the Spirit Gathering realm, one would feed their Power Energy to their Natal Spirit. Pure energy would also work. Of course. Anything that could help would help. But that also meant leaving nothing for the cultivator.

So when Ciemnosc, who ate who knew how many goddamn Supreme Powerful Stones and Obsidiafying realm cultivators broke into the Conflagrate realm, he had no Power Energy or pure energy to spare like he did when breaking into the Spirit Gathering realm. It was like a vase that could hold a hundred seas becoming empty, and he needed half a sea to keep advancing. Subsequently necessitating to fill back up all hundred seas again to keep cultivating.

Ciemnosc came into the village unnoticed, nobody recognized him, and he quickly found the one and only inn to stay. The other was a brothel, and he wished to keep his virginity safe for his first wife.

…