Noth's fate

In Worm’s prison, Seth considered the words of his system and Elise, trying to make sense of the sudden bits of information.

“How can you two be the same… this makes no sense. Elise is a being of the blood race. The records should attest to that, and the Tower created the system..”

Elise removed herself from Seth’s soul, taking form nearby, carrying the same pondering look as Seth, “Maybe the Tower is re-purposing the wills of my people, stripping them clean before using them as a system for its interests?”

Seth gave her a wry look before shaking his head, “Your train of thought is not wrong, but you might have gotten it reversed. Do you remember the asura warrior I had you incapacitate long go, Krum?”

As Elise lowered her head in thought, Seth said, “The asura race was a warring race that was defeated long ago, either killed or corrupted by the beings known as voidlings, which came from a whole new world known as The Outside.”

The voidlings were a kind of parasitic race, entering the bodies of their victims and taking over. The asura race were beings who drew power from their blood to fight. With everything I know about both races and the blood race, the most likely conclusion is  that you are both variants of those voidling creatures."

“The system was a voidling-like creation, which the tower modified to implant in my body to keep an eye on me until the link to the records broke, and the system regained its own will, becoming what it is now.”

“As for the blood race, they must be either a race born out of the void-controlled asura or a failed attempt of the Tower to recreate the might of the asura race out of the void-controlled ones. That would explain your parasitic capabilities and your control over blood. You have part of the traits of both races.”

Elise took a deep breath, remembering her encounter with Krum and how her power seemed to have a kin-like dominance over him. Their existence, which differed from the rest of the horrors, being an entire race, also verified Seth’s conjecture.

After considering Seth’s words, she turned to where Famine had just disappeared and asked, “What about the other horrors? What are they?”

Seth shook his head and said, “I don’t know. Considering everything we know, they should be the same type of entity as you two, a different iteration of the voidling race. Maybe another Tower experiment.”

Seth found his words to make sense, but at the back of his head, the lack of memories from the Tower suggesting any of this happening still irked him. If the Tower had done something like that, Isabel would have shown him when he was still inside the Tower.

<Host, we know most horrors were created by the All-mother, not the Tower or the Sovereign. How could they be voidlings?>

Seth read the notification out loud before saying, “What we know comes from the bits and pieces the scattered great wills carried with them, along with Isabel’s stories and the Tower’s memories, but we can’t take all those for granted. Also, our understanding of voidlings, the Tower, the All-mother, and the Sovereign is largely incomplete and from other sources.”

“We don’t know what these entities truly are. What bothers me the most is not that. It’s the computerized nature of your being. Elise, how you wrote things in my vision… can any member of your race do that?”

Elise nodded and said, “Yes. It was how we communicated with our hosts and each other in blood form.”

<But what you’re thinking is impossible, Seth. The Tower will have information about it.>

‘Who knows… Maybe the Sovereign or some greater power removed it... Maybe that’s what The Outside truly is,’ thought Seth, sitting up and extending a hand toward Elise. “If you want to learn more, you can look for Krum. He might have some of the answers you need about your origin.”

Elise took Seth’s hand as she sat up and shook her head, “Is it alright for me not to want to know? Maybe some truths are better left unanswered.”

Seth smiled and teleported with Elise outside the space prison, where Worm and the headmaster of the Asteria branch in Loss were waiting for them.

“Congratulations on defeating Famine,” said Worm and the Headmaster simultaneously.

“You can recover your core, Worm. Thank you for all your sacrifice. You are free now,” said Seth with a soft smile, extending a hand toward Worm.

Worm’s eyes reddened, and he shook Seth’s hand, space churning around him as a translucent core appeared out of nowhere and started entering his body.

A feeling of power radiated from Worm’s body as he bowed his head with nothing but genuine gratefulness in his teary eyes, “Thank you, God Emperor.”

Seth nodded and said nothing else before grabbing Elise’s elbow and teleporting with her again, reaching the Asteria branch in Noth. His arrival in the headmistress’s room was greeted with a polite bow from Crow, Raven, and a relatively young Olivia.

Before the two former members of the Council could say a word, Olivia took a step forward and said with a beaming smile, “The Noth branch of Asteria welcomes the arrival of the God Emperor, Seth.”

Seth’s mind was still somewhat on his earlier discovery, but he smiled back at Olivia and nodded, “I came to deal with Noth, but I wanted first to see how you were doing. Haven’t seen your face in centuries.”

“I’m fine, Your Excellency. Thanks to Miss Isabel and your care. How about you?”

“I’m good. Thank you, Olivia.”

Before Olivia could speak, Raven cleared his throat loudly from the back and asked, “How are things with Famine and Worm?”

Olivia blushed and stepped back, returning to stand between Crow and Raven.

“It went well. We took care of Famine without issue, and Worm is now free,” said Seth with a smile and asked, “Are you ready to share in his fate?”

“More than ever,” replied Raven, an excitement rarely seen on his face revealing itself. “Shall I take you inside?”

“Can I come?” asked Olivia suddenly, her eyes glaring at Raven with displeasure.

“You can’t. You’re still human, and I don’t want you getting injured. It will be just me and Elise who go inside. “ Raven, please,” said Seth, instantly cutting Olivia’s previous excitement down.

Under Olivia’s sad eyes, Seth and Elise were taken away by a small vortex of air energy, and they disappeared from the room.

Once Seth was gone, Crow patted her shoulder and said, “Give up, mistress. Some things are not meant to be.”

Olivia returned to her office and sat down with a sigh, “What’s there to lose in trying?”

-

Inside Noth’s air core, Seth was once more facing the dark-red, slimy form of Noth.

Its tentacles were still wriggling but seemed lifeless as they weakly pushed against its bindings. The ones exiting the prison were withered and barely keeping their form. They had reached the end of their power.

“Destruction,” exclaimed Noth, his voice tired and weak.

“Hey, Noth. Long time no see.”

“The last time I was here, I didn’t even get to thank you for the help you provided me when I was nothing but a will rooted in non-existence,” said Seth with a smirk, walking alongside Elise toward the giant blob of destruction energy.

Before Noth could say anything, Seth beckoned with his hand, and Noth’s source escaped from the massive slime body to stop right before Seth.

“The one horror which had the gal to use human souls and turn his core into a source. Destruction’s ambition that poisoned your will was something else indeed. If I had not gotten under its radar and made an easier choice, you would have become a destruction god long before me.”

“Stop,” Noth’s voice resounded again, but Seth disregarded it entirely as he snapped his fingers, the source hovering before him fading into nothingness.

The slime bulb started twisting and turning with the disappearance of its source, a screaming roar resounding all around.

Seth and Elise watched indifferently as the massive body of Noth slowly faded like his source did, leaving behind a weak, shivered, human-sized bat-like creature.

Its wrinkled wings fell lifelessly behind its back as its dark-red eyes stared at Elise and Seth with evident hatred and animosity.

“I was always curious about what form you will take once stripped of your facade. I can’t say it fits you since I expected something monstrous. Still, it’s not that bad.”

“Blasphemous usurper, you’ll pay for what you’ve done,” screamed Noth in a squeaky and ear-grating voice, making a pained frown appear on Elise and Seth’s faces.

“Now I know why he never spoke too much,” said Elise, covering her mouth with the palm of her hand as she giggled playfully.

Noth’s rage bloomed, and he flapped his weak wings, flying toward Elise, but he didn’t even move a few feet before a wave of air blades sliced his body into pieces.

“Ahhhhh.”

Despite his body being nothing more than a mess of bloody pieces, Noth still screamed out of rage at the top of his lungs, much to Seth’s and Elise’s amusement.

“Can’t we leave him here like this? This seems fun. We can occasionally come back to pluck his wings as they grow,” asked Elise with the same playful smile.

“Not a bad idea, but Raven might have some issues with your plan. Nevertheless, I doubt this thing even feels pain anymore,” replied Seth. “Just a cluster of rage and unwillingness.”

“Curses. Blasphemy. Traitors. All. You’re all wretches. You’ll all disappear. YES, MISERABLE DEATHS. YES…”

“Will he ever stop speaking?” asked Elise after listening to Noth’s crazed screaming.

“I think he abstained for too long and is now making up for it. Mind if we listen for a bit? We might learn something interesting as we did with Famine,” replied Seth nonchalantly.

“Sounds great, but I didn’t bring any blood,” said Elise when she noticed Seth was already creating a table for them to sit at.

Seth sat on his seat and created two cups of red wine, saying, “Try this wine. I was never a fan of alcohol, but this one is a sweet wine. I think you’ll like it.”

Elise nodded, lifting her glass and toasting Seth before taking a small sip, only for her eyes to widen, “It’s so good. Do they have this in Endora?”

“I told you so. I don’t know exactly, but they should,” replied Seth, taking a sip of his own.

Under Noth’s screams and curses, Seth and Elise continued to enjoy their wine, discussing their most recent discovery, Seth’s eventual departure, and Elise’s plans.

A few hours later, as Noth finally stopped screaming, Elise lowered her cup and said, “I guess the show is over.”

“It would seem so,” said Seth with a nod, sitting up and helping Elise before destroying the table.

The two next approached the mangled state Noth was left in. Seth used his destruction energy to stop the wind blades from coming closer.

Crouching next to Noth, Seth chuckled as he asked, “Are you willing to answer some of our questions, or do you have even more empty words to hurl at us?”