Chapter 289: Vaelira’s Swift Decision
The Countess’s words were still dripping into the air when another sound cut through them, a scream.
It was Leon.
They turned just in time to see him crumple to his knees.
His back arched unnaturally, every muscle in his body straining against itself as if some unseen force were trying to rip him apart from the inside.
Dark veins erupted across his neck and face, pulsing in time with the Countess’s glowing Heart. His eyes rolled back, the whites flooding with inky black until no color remained.
“Leon!” Sasha’s cry sounded as she moved to him, only to freeze when his head snapped toward her. An expression twisted across his face that didn’t belong to him. His lips peeled back in a snarl, and when he spoke, it wasn’t his voice.
“Finally… Took way too long.”
The parasite’s tone was outright triumphant.
Bastet’s eyes narrowed. “It’s feeding off the artifact’s pulse.”
The Countess laughed. “I can feel it. Such a good little invader, so eager to join my family.” She tilted her head toward Leon. “He’ll make a fine addition once it finishes hollowing him out.”
Leon’s body convulsed, his breath coming in ragged, animalistic bursts. The parasite was no longer whispering but pushing, pouring its will through every fiber of his being.
The shape of his silhouette warped, as if the thing inside were testing the limits of his bones. His fingers ended in hooked talons now, and a thin trail of drool laced with black ichor dripped from his mouth.
He slammed his fists into the ground, cracking the floor, then raised his head.
“Get… back…” he forced out, but his real voice was buried under the parasite’s guttural echo.
But while the man and parasite were fighting for control over the one body, both inhibited, a third voice sounded. It was cold and feminine, devoid of any warmth.
“Kill him.”
Part of Vaelira’s summoned minions left the Heart behind and descended on Leon from all angles.
Talons raked across his chest, spectral spears pierced his skin, and a dozen clawed hands went for his face, trying to injure him anywhere they could. The floor trembled under the sheer force of the assault.
Leon hissed with pain, but there was a second voice layered over his, the parasite’s. Both of them were equally stunned.
“What?!”
“What the hell, Vaelira?!” Leon cried with agony rushing all over his body. “I’m your ally, you crazy lunatic!! Arghh! Stoppp!!!”
“You dare turn on your own?!” the parasite demanded in utter disbelief.
But Vaelira’s eyes were glacial, her expression unmoved by the agony-riddled cries of the man with whom she spent years training for dungeon descents.
“We simply can’t fight three enemies at once,” she explained, her tone almost bored. “Two is already pushing it. Especially considering we lost our swordsman.”
Her gaze remained on him. It was cold and assessing. But then, something far more dangerous bled through for but a mere moment.
Euphoria.
Her lips parted, showing a bit of teeth as her eyes drank in his sufferings. The corners of her mouth twitched upward in rapture as if this were a scene she had long fantasized about.
“Leon…” she purred, voice rich with the thrill of dominance, “be a dear and die for our sake.”
Leon’s guttural scream tore free from his throat, which, due to the parasite’s voice merging with his, transformed into something monstrous. Blood streamed from his lips as his body convulsed under the crushing onslaught of her summoned hordes.
“I… regret…” his voice cracked, breath hitching as the pain surged higher, “…ever meeting you…”
Vaelira’s lips, which were euphoric for the briefest of seconds, returned to their previous cold state, after which they immediately transformed into a grieving one.
“I’ll remember you as a brave hero.”
Leon’s body jerked violently as the last of his strength bled away.
His eyes, still tainted black, dulled to lifeless glass. With a final shudder, his head sagged forward.
That was when a small and slick creature slithered from his mouth, no bigger than an insect. The parasite, fully exposed at last, turned its eyeless head toward the Countess’s Heart, only for one of Vaelira’s summoned blades to shear it in half. Its body twitched twice before dissolving into greasy smoke.
Jack and Sasha stood frozen, stunned by what they’d just witnessed. It was enough of an opening for the Heart to attack them.
Jack’s armored frame absorbed most of it, with his boots skidding back across the stone as he released a deep grunt of pain. But Sasha… she was lifted clean off the floor and slammed into the far wall with a sickening thud. She didn’t get back up.
“Sasha!” Jack bellowed as rage ignited in his heart. He turned his attention to Vaelira. “What do you think you’re doing?!”
Vaelira’s eyes shimmered with sudden, restrained tears. “It’s my duty as a leader to make the hardest of decisions. Leon was sacrificed so the rest of us could live.”
The words were sound in logic. They even rang with a certain grim truth. But the speed with which she’d made the choice and the utter absence of even a token effort to save him left Jack’s chest burning. He couldn’t shake it. She hadn’t hesitated. Not even for a second.
Vaelira saw it clearly. So her tone hardened, knowing exactly how to get the man to do what she wanted him to. “We’ll discuss what happened here once we’re outside. If Tessa deems I should be punished, then I won’t protest. But for now, Jack… You must stand up and fight. Don’t let the sacrifice of our comrade go to waste. Killing these monsters is how we can avenge Leon.”
“…” Jack observed the woman for a second longer, after which, with a loud scoff, he turned his attention back to the Heart. “Tch!”
His bulk became a moving wall as he barreled straight back into the fray, intercepting a volley of blackened tendrils. The impacts created resounding thuds against his armor, but he kept going, forcing its attention away from Sasha’s crumpled form.
Though that was mostly achieved thanks to Vaelira’s giant army.
The blond woman didn’t watch him for long. Her gaze moved toward Kaiden. “I’ll leave that thing to you. A monster that can be attacked by so many summons at once is my ideal opponent. I’ll take care of it.”