Chapter Forty-Eight

Not only was Jackson sure that Lazarus, his mentor and friend, was lost to him, but he knew that he would have to kill what he had likely become. A true monstrosity. He had tried asking Lilith if there was anything else that could be done, and it was the first time he had seen a look of empathy cross the angel's face.

“Short of killing the rebel himself, no, Jackson Grey.”

Her tone was not unkind. It made Jackson wonder why she cared, but that wasn’t something he felt like prying into at the moment. He shook his head, wiping away the tears from his eyes. When he looked at his hands, he scowled. He cried blood, as it turned out. So that was great. He stood up, and as he had done so many times and in so many ways in this dungeon, he confronted the idea and tried to reconcile himself with it.

There really was nothing he could have done. Delathorn had been far too powerful for him to overcome. He may as well have been asked to fight a hurricane or a mudslide. The rogue was a god, a stage of advancement so far above him that he may as well have been trying to touch the sun. They hadn’t known he would be here, or else they would have likely never bothered trying to climb the summit. Or else they would have tried to find some other solution, at least.

No matter what, the outcome would have been the same. Perhaps he could have offered Lazarus faster; maybe that would have saved Melanie, but he couldn’t beat himself up with that. What kind of person would he be if he so easily betrayed his friends? Even so, there was that tiny voice inside of him that whispered that he had betrayed Melanie by not giving up Lazarus sooner. Indeed, it was his fault. Jackson tried to ruthlessly crush that voice, and while he did succeed in quieting it, it was still there. Like a grain of sand, the tide could not wash away.

The bottom line is that no matter how he played it out in his head, things were going to end up this way, and there was very little he could have done to change that. Did this make him feel better? No, he had still lost his friend, and the woman he loved had been taken from him. All in all, he felt pretty terrible. However, it did make it easier for him to move past it and do what he needed to do.

When Jackson looked at Lilith, she was regarding him with a strange expression; if he didn’t know better, it almost seemed like she was giving him a look of respect. As quickly as it had come, it was gone as she schooled her expression. Her facial expressions shifted as fast as the wind blew.

“Are we ready to move on, my host?”

There it was again. Jackson decided to ask about it. Lilith shrugged,

“Is it not true? I am a part of you, yes, but you are the one in control. My fate is tied to yours. I feel like a guest here, thus I feel the term is appropriate.”

Jackson waved it away. It wasn’t that important to begin with.

“Lazarus is likely going to be a very dangerous opponent; is there any training or advice you could give that will help me?”

Lilith’s eyes flicked closed as she seemed to be contemplating something. She nodded and opened them, regarding him seriously.

“Lazarus knows you. I cannot say how much of him is likely to be left. Maybe more, maybe less, but he will have an understanding, if an instinctual one, of how you operate. That is a huge advantage to him, and it is your biggest weakness in the upcoming fight. You will need to use skills and weaves he does not know about. That means the new skills and weave you received from merging.”

She tapped her chin, her eyes narrowing at him as she considered,

“Your training with the ancient spirit was quite thorough. The old vampyre knew what he was doing. Practice is all you really need at this point. I would take some time and practice your new skills and that new weave.”

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Jackson gave her a nod. It was sound advice. It appeared that, when it came to matters of survival, the angel could be helpful. Before he experimented with the new gains, a question occurred to him.

“Did you know Abaddon?”

Lilith cocked her head.

“I knew of him, as I know of all the divine ranks. They were my peers, after all.”

“Delathorn killed him. Won’t there be, I don’t know, repercussions for that?”

Lilith shrugged,

“Perhaps. His faction, the shadow, will certainly be looking to fill that void of power he left behind. There will likely be a lot of political squabbling. I care not for such nonsense, however. Why does it matter to you?”

It was Jackson's turn to shrug.

“I was curious. Abaddon was treating us like calves raised for slaughter. In a way, I am happy he got his. It just makes me wonder if Delathorn had anything to do with why Abaddon put us here.”

“The betrayer is manipulative. I do not doubt he had something to do with it.”

Jackson ran a hand through his hair.

“Another reason to end Delathorn.”

Lilith bared her teeth in a silent snarl.

“Yes. Now, are you going to practice?”

Jackson rubbed his hands together and nodded.

“Let’s get to it.”

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The Wings of Desolation skill was as awesome as described. The wings were a dark violet fire, streaked through with shots of dark crimson flame. Jackson found he could easily control them with his willpower, and they absolutely made him a beast. With just the wings alone, he was faster and more powerful than when he had an active Ebon Eruption. When he added the Ebon Eruption on top of that? He was a true monster.

The dark cloak of abyssal destruction surrounded him, not unlike when he manifested his aura. Jackson fairly thrummed with power, moving faster and hitting with more strength than he could really understand. He cracked a part of the mountainside with a single punch, the sharp, veiny cracks splitting the dark stone before shattering into small shards that fell to the ground like black glass.

He hadn’t even put his full strength behind the blow.

And flying was truly wonderful. Jackson felt the air rush past his face, and yet somehow, even at his speed, he could still see and hear just fine. He was a dark violet comet, streaming through the sky with a sonic boom that blasted in his wake. It was nearly enough to take his mind off what he had lost. Almost.

He soon found some monsters—a group of uncorrupted kobolds. He pointed a finger, used his will, intent, and imagination, and slowly twirling blades of sanguine red fire appeared in the air, hundreds of them off to either side of him.

The kobolds looked up. They tried to run. They did not get far. Jackson's blades of bloodfyre were simply too much for them. All it took was one pierce, and the life force of the kobolds drained away, as if he had unclogged a well and now the water could gush out of it freely. It flowed into him, nourishing him and sating his hunger. The destruction he had sowed also streamed into him, and it tasted just as amazing as any of the blood he had consumed. If not more so.

Jackson took a deep breath, savoring it. Lilith clapped girlishly, her eyes alight with undisguised happiness.

“Yes! Brutal, efficient, and brutal! Very good!”

Jackson was almost concerned at just how happy she was about the whole thing, but he didn’t really know how to respond to it, so he let it go. She was an angel of destruction, after all.

When Jackson was sure he had a handle on his new abilities, he decided to return to the summit, a trip made in the blink of an eye thanks to his new wings. He landed with a whoosh and a wave of heat that pulled at the air. He dismissed his wings, and they vanished as quickly as they had come.

Jackson regarded the portal that had opened up just to the side of the lava pool. He awaited his final challenge of the dungeon. At this point, he expected to be tackling it with Melanie and Lazarus by his side. Instead, he would be facing it relatively alone. If you didn’t count the destruction-addicted primordial angel next to him, that is.

Lilith had assured Jackson that he was as ready for the encounter as he could be. He could train some more; the angel knew of other monsters in the area he could fight to gain some levels, but it would mean little. He had approached the limit of what he could gain in this dungeon, since apparently it was just at the beginning of journeyman rank, and he was just slightly past that.

There was also the fact that the longer he waited, the more powerful the demonic abomination that was now Lazarus grew. He needed to face him fairly early or risk being no match at all.

Jackson took a deep breath. The biggest deep breath ever, in fact. He steeled himself.

I’m coming, Lazarus. Time to be put to rest, my oldest friend.