novelraw Chapter 166: Sleep
Chapter 166: Sleep
’Jump!’
That was good advice, because the soft carpet suddenly bulged beneath Ignotus and erupted, its spikes bursting up in rapid-fire rows.
A whole maze of polished black spikes surrounded him, all angled inward... at him.
Ignotus, now high in the air, in the middle of it all, stared at the nearest spike and said the most reasonable, well-thought-out thing:
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
His blood burst out of his body, surrounding him in the form of chains. He’d created a shielding dome moments before the spikes shot at him from all directions, wanting so desperately to make some holes across his entire body.
To further support that claim was the Demon’s laughter that echoed everywhere.
"Getting tired yet, weak human? Please say no, you’re quite fun!"
Ignotus braced, withstanding tens and tens of spikes at once.
"Trust me, you don’t know just how much fun I’m having!"
That would’ve sounded like negative sarcasm from anyone else, but that was far from the case with him. Seizing a small stutter between bursts of spikes, he jumped out of his falling dome and, once far enough, exploded the blood, blasting him away from the trap.
Slashing upward, he critted a spike, shooting it onto another to clear his path. He then stabbed his sword down, piercing through a spike that was shot from below, and rode it away.
Of course, Ignotus’s struggle didn’t end there; more were coming.
Blood welled at his palm, his [Living Ligature] pulsed through him, and from the blood, more red spikes shot outward—THUNK, THUNK, THUNK—breaking the three approaching spikes.
Ignotus kept riding the spike’s momentum before suddenly the spike trap shifted, and a gargantuan doorway appeared.
SNAP!
Once it opened, an ocean fell upon him, drowning him in the deepest of waters.
Cold swallowed him whole, a black ocean that had him see almost nothing.
He wasn’t alone in such an ocean, however, as directly beneath him...
The water moved.
A shadow passed, then another, and then twenty.
These were giant shadows, no doubt belonging to creatures bigger than the towering dead he slayed a month or so ago.
Ignotus, far from panicking, used his blood spikes like harpoons, letting him maneuver fast through the water, away from the creatures of the depths... He knew better than to fight here, at least not without preparation.
Capitalizing on that, the Demon tried its best to trap Ignotus once more, sending massive whales, serpents, and giant octopuses, their limbs grabbing at the water all around him.
Never did they get close, however, revealing that Ignotus had a very unusual level of skill in swimming and navigating the depths... another addition to his long list of hidden skills.
Yet he knew that escaping wasn’t enough, so while he did so, he prepared a single attack.
One that was strong enough to deeply hurt the Demon, and yes, the Demon was close. He could sense its corruption somewhere around him... chasing him as one of the sea creatures.
Shoving both hands forward, blood leaked from Ignotus’s fingertips, forming dozens—no, hundreds—of needle-thin spikes, dying his part of the ocean red.
SHOOOM!
His face paled as the blood spikes fired all around him, targeting every single monster.
They pierced through their numbers, popping holes through them, and made a serpent...
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Scream in a way it absolutely shouldn’t.
That was the Demon, and Ignotus wasn’t about to let it go.
Using the recoil from his attack, he jetted forward through the water—
’I need some air, Gods dammit!’
Straight at the serpent.
He slammed shoulder-first into its scales, his sword dragging along its surface. [Wise Fool] pulsed, and his blade found itself tearing the serpent’s body as though it were soft fruit.
The ocean shook, and the illusion shattered.
Everything popped...
"Ah."
Ignotus could breathe again.
Though only for a moment, as he suddenly found himself somewhere familiar...
A realm with no sound, no light, a perfect black that even his Divinity couldn’t pierce.
The Void... the essence of what all knew as Corruption.
’Eris?’
He had to ask, to know if he was alone.
"...I’m still here, but this place is too... unstable. The Demon is desperate; it can’t handle conjuring such a concept for long.’
’Yeah, no kidding.’
As if confirming their conversation, a light appeared below him, breaking through the Void.
Another came from above him and also beside him... thousands of them broke through, swirling into a vortex of floating shapes.
The spade-eyed Demon appeared in the middle of it, all bleeding and roughened up. Still, Ignotus could see the same grin on its face remain, as if it were sure of its victory.
The Demon snapped its fingers, and every shape turned into a giant centipede.
"Oh, COME ON—!"
KRKRKRKRKRRKRKRKKRKRKKKKKRRRRRK!
The centipedes rushed him from all sides in their thousands.
It was an army of monsters against a single man floating in the void.
Yet, even now, when no hope of winning this fight remained, Ignotus remained unfazed.
Holding his sword’s hilt with both hands, he put his all into [Wise Fool] and stabbed it downwards... piercing the very Void.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"
As the Demon’s scream echoed, a very bright light emanated from the Void’s wound, swallowing everything. Ignotus tried to resist, but he too was sent through the crack.
Around him, realm after realm appeared and went.
Everything was broken, and yet it kept rebuilding itself.
Stone, water, fire, and sky.
A battlefield, a child’s room, a throne hall...
A grave, one marked by his own damned name.
He saw it all flash before his eyes, only for him to suddenly crash into the dirt.
Dirt that was real... dirt that he saw as true.
’...I’m back.’
Ignotus saw the trees around him snap from the impact, the ground quaking with dust exploding into the air.
He quickly staggered up, panting hard. His Divinity reserves flickered dangerously low; he was on the cusp of turning Hollow... and it didn’t matter that this wasn’t his first time.
Everyone knew not to face those illusions with low Divinity.
It was a death sentence... and the bleeding Demon seemed to have banked on that.
Standing before him with no spade eyes and a missing arm, it raised what remained.
A thin finger pointed at what was around them, revealing a forest that was gone.
Flattened, burned, and warped for at least a mile in all directions.
Yet its finger didn’t only point at the wasteland of its making...
No, it pointed up to the dimming sky.
Ignotus looked up and froze.
The sun was gone.
In its place...
A colossal, spade eye stared down at him.
Its iris was a slowly turning spiral of black and gold.
Right after, a sound vibrated through the air, through the forest, through his bones.
"Sleep."
Ignotus’s vision wavered.
’NO! IGNOTUS! DON’T!’
His sword dropped.
’PLEASE KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN!’
His knees buckled, and he...
’I CAN’T LOSE YOU! I WON’T!’
He fell to the ground.
’I WON’T LEAVE YOU!’
’DO YOU HEAR ME?!’
’SO... ALIVE!’
’...UNDERSTAND?’
’IGNO...’
Eris’s screaming was swallowed by darkness.
And Ignotus fell, blacking out before he hit the ground.