Re:Cursed

Chapter 134 - 133: Devour

Plumes of smoke burst out from a thousand criss-crossing cracks as they formed along the ceiling. First, tremors shook the earth. Then, the black stone crumbled all around her.

Nyxil leapt away from a slab as it slid free of the ceiling. Not a second passed before she was dodging another. Then again. All around her, the tomb fell apart. Massive blocks dropped from above, either striking the earth and coming to a stop, or crashing through to some cavity below. With each crumbled stone, two more fell. The effect mounted until the only place that was safe, was at Sekhhath'Ra feet.

The ancient pharaoh stood, what remained of his arms held wide, unbothered by the entire pyramid that was about to fall on their heads. This was entirely his effort. Something that was only driven home when the crumbling black stone suddenly decided that it no longer cared for gravity.

Black stone slabs continued to fall, but instead of striking earth and coming to a stop, they ricocheted off and flew sideways. A block that had already stilled suddenly ground along the earth sideways, as if down was no longer down. Nyxil, distracted by the sight, was almost struck from from the air as a boulder slid free from the wall.

Nyxil's wings worked on overtime to keep her twirling through the air. Her heart let her keep up, and her spine contorted in any way she wished. She wasn't entirely sure what had happened, but now her back bent freely… even without the immediacy of Ossuul.

Her curiosity would have to wait. For now, she could flow around the storm of stone, but the intensity was growing.

The walls and ceiling were already collapsing, but soon the ground fractured and joined the raging torrent around the pharaoh. He was the epicentre. As he stood still, the world around him grew chaotic. His power flowed through stone, and soon Nyxil couldn't see a single unmoving brick.

The throne room was gone.

Unlike what she had seen in the nascent Dark Star, the pyramid wasn't filled with blood diamond. But right now, that hardly mattered. Stone was as deadly as diamond if it crushed her.

Thick darkness still clouded Nyxil's sight, but it wasn't hard to guess that the entire pyramid was crumbling. With all that stone spinning around Sekhhath'Ra, she had no option to approach. Instead, she did her best to reach the peripheral. Nyxil had already been pushed a distance away, so it was only a matter of keeping her senses strained for any sudden changes in the flying boulders, and she gradually moved outward.

Nyxil didn't enjoy being forced back, but it was either that, or gruesomely crushed within the shattered remnants of Sekhhath'Ra's tomb.

Her tentacles flicked from stone to stone in an effort to give her some sort of counter against the pharaoh's telekinetic grip. And she always remained prepared to thrust her claws through any surprise rocks. But… Sekhhath'Ra had yet to grip her again. The lack of such an obvious effort was making her uneasy.

No matter how far she flew, the storm of boulders never seemed to thin. It was looking less likely that anyone remaining in the pyramid would survive.

…That was a lot of dead kids.

A bright light finally pierced through the dark. Filtering through thousands of flying slabs, the sulphuric yellow cast the storm into full view. It ate through the clinging dark, yet, Nyxil noted, not entirely. The shadow of each stone was thick and impenetrable. It created a strange effect where Nyxil's human eyes could only see up; not to the sides, through shadow.

Finally, with enough light filtering down that there was no doubting how much of the pyramid the pharaoh had destroyed, Sekhhath'Ra's grasp landed on Nyxil. She was as prepared as she could be, yet she hadn't been prepared for the sudden shift in half the boulders. From a synchronised orbit, the huge projectiles became true chaos.

The Eternal Pharaoh snapped an arm down, and Nyxil felt the tug on her back. It felt like her skin was trying to peel itself free. Her preparations were made moot. The sudden change in boulder directions threatened to tear her tentacles off, and the moment they let go, she was flung backwards uncontrollably. Straight towards the eye of the storm.

Nyxil's wings stretched, putting on a decent opposition. It almost looked like she was going to fight off the pharaoh's telekinetic grip… until a boulder slammed into her. By all means, her wing should have been crushed on impact, but the activation of her name at just the right moment let the bone and ligaments flex unnaturally. She came out bruised, but with a wing still able to fly.

Which would have been good if Nyxil hadn't been thrown into an uncontrolled spiral. Again.

Despite her heart rate, the world move too fast to react. Pain shot through her arm as it snapped backwards. Nyxil flipped, trying to reset her orientation, only for another slab to strike her back. The sound of ribs shattering was all too familiar, unfortunately. If only that were all. Without a second to scream in agony, two boulders flying in opposite directions decided to meet with her leg in the middle.

I only just got that leg back.

Her tentacles were taking a beating, but at least they could handle the impacts somewhat easier than the rest of her human form. They scrambled to gain control. While her arms shielded her head, the four long limbs desperately struck at stone. After what might have been only a few moments but definitely felt longer, her chaotic trajectory was finally calmed.

Just in time to watch the huge golden summit crush Sekhhath'Ra.

Nyxil thought her third eye was mistaking her, but peeling open her human eyes as dirt fought to cut through them, she found that no, it was no illusion. Shimmering with the barely suppressed light of the sun above, the sharp pyramid tip had dropped through the storm and buried the Pharaoh.

For a moment, the hurricane of stone hung around her. No longer chaotic and destructive, but also resisting gravity's eternal call. Of course, that didn't last. The boulders rained down on her head.

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With a slower and far more predictable rock fall, Nyxil had no problems flying through the gaps provided to her. Her body complained, but those glowing veins in her chest let her push through the worst. She didn't stop until nothing but star remained above.

Scorching heat was the only welcome she received. A burning that only grew stronger with each metre she rose through the air. Nyxil ceased her wingbeats and settled into a hover. She'd taken a beating by all those boulders, and yet it was her chest that hurt the worst. The muscles in her torso clenched so hard, she was sure she was on the verge of exploding.

Nyxil took this moment to calm her heart. The relief was instantaneous. A thick knot uncoiled. She didn't want to ever have to push her heart that hard again.

Black dust rose from the earth below, where there no longer stood a pyramid. The sun-burnt dunes surrounding her were no different than when she'd seen them earlier, but without the numerous Trial participants, the land had become so lifeless. Silent. As she hung over the collapsed Tomb, Nyxil heard not a scream.

Anyone who had remained inside the pyramid when it collapsed, was dead.

She should be happy; that meant there wasn't anyone to witness her mutations… but the feeling was hollow. That was a lot of people unaffiliated — or not yet indoctrinated — with the cults, dead. Just like that.

And worst of all, Sekhhath'Ra wasn't dead.

Nyxil could still feel his name. She continued to claw open his curses so that they could wreck havoc across his body. And this golden summit crushing him? It wasn't a freak accident, or the pharaoh simply forgetting to inflict his telekinesis on it. This was a curse.

With all the space provided to her, Nyxil didn't waste time. She raked at his mountain of curses until it were a gushing torrent that his tendrils couldn't slow. Even if she wanted to, she couldn't tear open the curse any more than it already was.

Predictably, Sekhhath'Ra wasn't happy.

The Eternal Pharaoh's enraged roar cut through the kilometres of stone and air that separated them in an instant. Nyxil's heart-rate shot through the roof in an instant, and even then, she was almost too late.

Gold crashed through piles of black stone and a rising cloud of ash like a bullet from a gun. Nyxil doubted even K'Thorn's rifle shot this fast. The huge, thirty metre thick pyramid of gold careened towards Nyxil.

She dodged.

No matter how much her eyes desired to follow the hulking projectile, as it tore through the sky behind her, she dared not turn away from Sekhhath'Ra. Not even at the roar of a solar flare knocking it back down to earth. And for good reason. The Eternal Pharaoh speared out of the earth, fury apparent in each motion.

Nyxil met him head on.

Pushy, trying to deflect the insectoid's blow for her head, vaporised. Blood and meaty chunks slapped her face, but Nyxil continued on. Her sole intact claw snapped forward, towards the thickest, bleeding hole in the pharaoh's thorax. Yet in an instant, his hand caught hers. He hardly even needed to squeeze and her chitin shattered like glass.

She didn't back down. As her hand fell apart in his grip, her wings beat her deeper within his guard. Nyxil hardly even thought. Never before would she have made such an act so naturally, but her mutations were never so close. Her instincts knew what to do.

Nyxil's head snapped forth. Her neck stretched with added flexibility from her spine and Ossuul had her strike like a viper. Acid slid over two rows of incomparably sharp teeth, and the skin of her cheeks peeled back as her jaw unlatched. The skin where she'd earlier jabbed with her claws snapped open, unable to handle how wide she opened her mouth, but Nyxil didn't care. She only had one thing on her mind. And it was soon in her mouth.

She bit. A wave of power flowed through her chest, up her throat, and ended with her jaws crashing down on Sekhhath'Ra's damaged arm with enough force to create a snap loud enough to deafen her own ears. Her teeth crashed through exoskeleton almost too easily.

The pharaoh now found himself with not one, but two severed arms.

A wave of telekinetic power threw Nyxil far across the dark dunes. She didn't need to hear to know the being was screaming in rage. Even as her wings caught her, Sekhhath'Ra's curses continued to unleash on him.

Nyxil dabbed her bleeding ears with mould. Well, Cuddly did; both her arms were as out of commission as the pharaoh's were. She swallowed. It wasn't until a moment after it hit her stomach that she realised what she'd done. Surprisingly, despite how absolutely ancient Sekhhath'Ra was, his flesh didn't taste horrible. She licked her lips. In fact, it almost tasted good.

A shiver ran down her neck, and suddenly her spine locked back in place. No matter how much she accepted her mutations as a part of herself, eating people — even twenty thousand year old ancient ants — was a bit…

Sekhhath'Ra had raised what remained of his arms. The many black boulders rose from the earth, once more spinning into a massive storm. His eyes were gone, but it was clear what he intended.

Nyxil flew back, giving herself as much space as she could to avoid the mountain that would come her way… but it she needn't have bothered.

The Eternal Pharaoh threw the stumps of his arms towards Nyxil, but the flying stones didn't listen. There was a moment where he stood, antennae twitching as nothing happened, before the first boulder crashed into him. From there, it was a downpour. Enough stone to crush entire armies, now flew in on their master. Sekhhath'Ra was quickly buried.

Again.

If only that were all, Nyxil would have thought the Eternal Pharaoh would escape relatively unscathed. Instead, the black boulders began to bleed. Pale, yellowy crimson slid from the surface of the former pyramid. The blood pooled for only long enough to form a distorted mass of mandibles and arms, before it all dove towards the buried pharaoh.

When Sekhhath'Ra finally escaped the depths of his tomb which had turned on him, he had to fend off the bloody swarm. He kicked, and leapt away, but the vestiges never relented. When the blood parted, it would simply swell and snap at him an instant later.

Desperate now, his attention returned to Nyxil. She felt the tug on the sceptre strapped to her back. Her wings clutched both air and space itself to hold herself back from being pulled in. He would not gain his weapon again.

The tug of war ended far too quickly. Sekhhath'Ra's telekinetic grip slipped away, though he made no physical indication of having given up. Considering the way he kept his broken limb held toward her, it was as if he was still trying.

As if to punish him for trying to touch the solar fragment in the sceptre, the sun unleashed its own retribution. A rain of fire swept the land, but the moment it struck the ancient being, its locked in place. Much less a solar flare, and now more a thick yellow lightning bolt, power crashed into Sekhhath'Ra. It pulsed, over and over. A million times in a second.

When the intense light finally faded, the pharaoh of nothing fell to the ground. His body charred and telekinesis failing him.

If they weren't burning from the light, Nyxil's eyes would have widened at what she'd discovered. One of the strongest curses had just eaten a name. His ability to control the world around him had disappeared because one of the curses she'd unleashed preyed on names. A — what? — fourteenth evolution name, gone. Just like that.

Nyxil had never thought curses could reach this scale. It was terrifying. Greater than even the lethal ones.

"This is wrong!"

Oh, look. My hearing is back, Nyxil was happy to note.

"Fate is unchangeable. It was written in stone that the Eidolons would descend. I was to ascend into their realm." Sekhhath'Ra was losing himself. He directed his fury at the sky itself. "Why have they not come? This is no invitation; this is an execution. My fate… I should be a god."

The Eternal Pharaoh was beaten. If his soul hadn't been crushed by realisation, then the curses would do so soon enough. She would take advantage of this opportunity before he wasted away.

Nyxil began to sing.