A bladed tendril managed to slip through the watery defense and with its wicked might, began slashing the boy’s back and injecting its toxic venom into his system. Black veins again formed on his body, this time much more visible as the venom burrowed into his ethereal form. The boy yelped but did not stop to pick it out, determined to focusing on the dragon’s core.

Before he could return to this, though, the entity shouted in his head, his voice bouncing off of the solidity of the darkness with the void.

You think that you can save this erroneous thing? Such worthless folly unbefitting of a primordial! Not even your own brethren would dare sully themselves to attempt such a futile effort!

He ignored the voice, and continued to reach for the core. Another wave hit, but Amrielle/Arethenaeus didn’t look back, instead shouting a command ‘hold it back’ as he pressed onward waving away nebulae and puffs of dust.

You will find no solution to the inevitable feckless child! You and this creature are destined to fail, forever cursed to wallow in despair and suffer for a purpose that is yours by existence. You are alone, and you are naught but hollow and ash. You should’ve accepted your fate before boy, now with my will encroaching upon your like the whispering kiss of death, you shall be one with me, and I will embrace your existence with eternal damnation!

“Be that as it may”, rebutted the boy, “whether or not I choose to believe you makes no difference. I won’t be a part of you.”

It chuckled; you dare to insight a baseless platitude against me? Yet here you are groveling at your feet, clinging to the lifeless husk of a worm hoping to salvage its soul in attempt of remuneration? You will find none but you will find me.

Amrielle, she noted, your body is being corrupted; you’re wasting too much time. You must hurry.

Tell me something I don’t know, his mind fired back annoyed.

Please hurry, she continued, the corruption is not unlike anything you will ever experience. It is a toxic poison, an infection that was decay within you the longer it remains in your system. Find the soul and claim it as your own, speak its name, and the two of you will be bound together becoming one in the process.

How is that supposed to help me? He wondered, what will I become?

You will become a new being, the first of his kind, and heir to all the stands before you should you choose it.

He paused at the sound of this. What does that even mean? I just don’t want to fucking die here!

His hesitation was his undoing, as the burning sensation of the shard began to creep even closer to his heart. He lurched, clutching his chest as the searing pain burrowed into him like maggots inside a rotting corpse. His eyes glinted and the creeping pain subsided, as silvery lines drew themselves across his body erasing the corruption and soothing his flesh. Amrielle gasped, amazed as the lines began repairing the damage to his form, solidifying his liquified, rendered transparent by his awakening.

What? he thought. But how?

It is your power accepting you, answered his mother, your awakening has triggered the nature of your soul, causing the power you’ve always held within you to react and respond. It is your purity that protects you, and will remain with you always.

Dazed by the brief info dump, Amrielle snapped out of his stupor by the crackling howl of lightning. He looked up at the origin and even in his godly form, a cold shiver ran down his spine at what he saw. 500 meters away, a towering mass of pure darkness, chaos, and unspeakable horror loomed over the void as it formed the shape of what appeared to be a face. Its outline constantly distorting, the mass began to solidify creating more discernable shapes and protrusions associated with facial construction.

Resembling a human skull, the face was emaciated and smooth, with thin high cheekbones and no nose, just its nasal bone. Its forehead was big, but not wide, giving its head an ovalish curve, and adorning it were four eyes sitting in a widely layered double V-line. The skin that was visible was coarse and the color of charcoal covering the canines with wide pointed full lips, while the bicuspids and molars were exposed. Those teeth, sharp and gleaming, were a pale smoky gray, which almost clashed with the bony exterior that covered the rest of the creature’s jaw, if the teeth weren’t faded and porous like volcanic rock. In all, it looked as the entire lower half of the creature’s face was ripped off, save for its lips, which poked and pruded in offense to the presence of Amrielle.

Red veins glowed across the skeletal face humming with power, while 4 massive horns jutted outward from its head like curved swords glowing a metallic blood ruby color. Hundreds of symbols of an indiscernible language rotated in small pulsating circles across the left side of its face while lines of them wrapped around its right. What was even more chilling was it the creatures eyes. Its large pupils were of living marigold, while pure flames burned intensely in place of its iris making it hard to focus on any of the 9 of them.

Yes, 9 irises in each eye.

The pupula duplex in this creature had truly been dialed up 11, as each individual eye had one vertical beaded pupil, while the main iris itself was surrounded by a ring of 8 other smaller versions of it.

Perfect, just fucking perfect.

This thing, whatever it was, was not friendly, and it wanted to kill him.