"E-Eli, You don''t need to--"
"Mariel, move aside" Eli interrupted Mariel.
"N-No, I won''t let this bastar--mmffff" Wei, who was about to pull his wife, was suddenly restrained and pulled to the ground.A single nce from Eli''s crystalline eyes made Wei shudder in fear, recognizing the presence of a ''FIEND!!''.
"Eli, it''s fine. I can kill h--" Mariel tried to talk to him, expressing her responsibility for Mei''s death.Although she was somewhatforted that Eli was trying to ease her guilt, she believed she must take responsibility for what happened.
She was the one who let this happen so she must kill Mei with her two hands before she bes Fiend.
Yet,
Eli kissed her forehead before saying, "It hurts when you are crying" pointing to his heart. He continued, "Killing that thing is easy for me, so don''t worry" and moved towards Mei.
Mariel was taken aback by his words. This was the first time she heard someone say they were hurt seeing her cry.
"I--I...." She reluctantly nodded, "Please give her a painless death" as she stepped back.
Eli, who sat before Mei''s ckened body, looked at Mariel and said, "I am not going to kill her".
"What?" Mariel frowned, not understanding what Eli was trying to convey.
"I am going to kill what''s born inside her" Eli rified as he put his hands on Wei''s sternum and muttered.,
/"Soulvorax"/
The veins around Eli''s hands suddenly pulsed, their usual translucent appearance transforming into an ominous shade of ck.It was as if an unseen force surged through his veins, sending dark ripples across his skin.
"What the....?" Mariel''s eyes widened in disbelief, and her breath caught in her throat, as she observed the unsettling transformation on his body.
Mariel''s eyes widened in terror when she saw it. For a fleeting moment....she was certain she recognized the same reddish-ck entity that she had encountered before. The memory shed vividly in her mind, "What in the name is he...?" she muttered to herself, unable toprehend the extraordinary nature of Eli''s being.
And she noticed something, the once vibrant grass beneath Eli''s feet now withered, losing its vitality, as if the very life force around him sumbed to an invisible drain.
"AARRRHHHH!!"
The motionless body, Mei suddenly screamed as the ckened areas slowly reverted to normal. Wei''s eyes reflected disbelief, his gaze shifting between Eli with astonishment and his wife with a spark of hope.
Veins around Eli''s body pulsated as if absorbing something, the ck colour diminishing entirely, leaving only lingering darkness at the sternum where the Soul Crystal might be attached to her heart.
Eli, in the process of absorbing Mei''s corruption, felt his soul entering her Soul Crystal.
Inside this metaphysical space, he encountered two distinct figures:
One was arge, white entity, while the other resembled a small, curled ck figure like an infant, both hovering in a realm of white with ck mist.
"Hmmm..." Eli contemted as he gazed at the ck figure.
"I am sorry, child" He uttered, and with an unusual act, he opened his mouth as deformed into a reddish-ck void and...
"MUNCH"
He ate the dark entity, and the ck mist in the metaphysical space began to dissipate.
Outside, Mariel witnessed the vanishing ck spot, her disbelieving eyes following the spectacle.
Old Mei returned to normal, her pale, wrinkled face slowly gaining a rosy hue, though she remained unconscious.
"I-It will take-ha-sometime for her wake up..." Eli, standing unsteadily, was caught by Mariel just as he was about to stumble.
Feeling her embrace, Eli managed a smile, "I killed her, so don''t cry....." he said before sumbing to exhaustion and fainting.
Mariel looked at the man who aplished something unprecedented. The veins on his body continued to pulse with darkness.
"It must be painful" Mariel muttered before tenderly kissing his forehead.
Her eyes turned red teary remembering his sad voice asking her not to cry and her heart felt relieved and longing for his....''Love''.
Before she might have been attracted to his charming face and mainly to his mes but now.....She was attracted to a man named Asher Eli, not stepson, not daughter''s brother or daughter''s lovers....Just the man, Asher Eli.
Just because she cried, he did something that could harm himself.
After a long time, she felt she wanted to own something for herself.
She had everything in her life, wealth, power, and daughters(though they hated her) and...now she wanted to own this man who was ready to do anything for tears.
"Your love...is heavy,~Eli, My Love~" Mariel''s expression turned dark as the thought of holding him in her room for eternity made her legs tremble.
"~Ahh~" Mariel shivered, ''I-I need to change my panties..''.
Calming herself, She nced at the now-normal Mei, breathing calmly, while Old Wei remained on the ground, only his nose and eyes visible.
Looking up at the sky, Mariel knew that others mighte if she didn''t inform them, Before that happened, she needed to call them and allow Eli to rest for a day.
.....
....
...
Asher Eli''s POV
"..arrhh.."
My eyes fluttered, gradually adjusting to the surroundings as I opened them.The first sight that greeted me was a white sky, seemingly stretching to the ends of the world.
"Sigh"
With a sigh, I observed my hands, which seemed to be nothing but a reddish-ck void. Leaning back on the Ice throne, my gaze drifted to two empty seats beside me.
This wasn''t my first time in this ce. Rising from the throne, I descended and walked straight until I stood at the edge. Peering down, I witnessed the never-ending mountain base below, its declivity slopes covered in glistening ice that seemed to stretch into infinity.
''.....''
The whole environment was serene.
As I gazed down the never-ending declivityslope, an unexpected surge of difort seized me, and suddenly,
"VAAWWWWW!!"
I expelled a torrent from the depths of my being.....Yes, It wasn''t just any substance; it was a thick, ck, sticky liquid poured out of my mouth and it cascaded down the icy declivity slope.
''ssshhhhh''
"krrkkrrryyy"
The sound of the ck, sticky liquid meeting the cold, unforgiving ice resonated through the deste mountainousndscape.
"-Ha-" I wiped my mouth, feeling an unsettling sensation lingering. The view around me remained silent, except for the echoes of my abrupt expulsion.
I stood atop the mountain, a ce devoid of anyone except for the solitary throne, and the aftermath of my mysterious discharge marked the icy slope below.
The reason I was brought here to this ce, was all because I had absorbed Mei''s corruption....."Absorb" was not the quiet word; it was more like devouring or consuming that newborn entity.
Because what ''ck sticky substance'' fell was nothing but the newborn child I had eaten before.
While others struggled to understand why Fiends tended to forget their past, here''s a simplified version I understood from my experience:
When someone gets corrupted, it''s like a second soul emerges up next to their original one.Over time, this new soul tries to take over the original, like gradually degrade or consume the original soul.
The new soul sought to assert its dominance, taking control of the body like a ghost controlling the body, but here the original was already deleted from the body.
In Mei''s case, I did something drastic....I ate the new soul. Something that could not done by the current technology or even possible by any kind of magic... That''s what I knew.
It was like hitting the reset button to keep Mei from turning into something dark and scary.Just trying to save her from a bad fate, you know?
I returned to the icy throne, a structure sculpted from cial elegance that cradled me in its chilly embrace.Despite its frozenposition...a peculiarfort enveloped me as I settled into its frigid contours. The throne, an ethereal creation, seemed to be created by liking someone.
As I took my seat, my gaze involuntarily gravitated toward the two empty seats positioned beside me,
"Mother.... Ava...." The names slipped from my lips like whispers carried by the snow wind,den with a profound sense of longing. Closing my eyes, I felt my time was up here when a certain pull washed over me.
"Ashy~"
"Dear~"
The voices, filled with an undeniable yearning, echoed from either side. A bittersweet smile yed on my lips as I sumbed to the embrace of slumber.
As I drifted into dreams, my body felt heavy and also my senses here.
The reddish-ck figure within me stirred, slowly rising from the icy throne and,
''p''
A resonant p echoed, and the space around the ethereal world fractured like an illusion and,
"KIIIKKKIIII!!"
A majestic white phoenix that soared into the white endless sky.
"HELP!!"
"NO!!!"
"FORGIVE US!!!"
...
Desperation and anguish reverberated from the unseen depths of the mountain below, adding a hauntingyer to the surreal happening below.
''ng, ng''
A pink chain manifested in the hand of the reddish-ck figure, apanied by a delicate cor around its neck.
Seated upon the icy throne, the reddish-ck figure cast a discerning gaze at the two white figures now upying the adjacent seats. They had materialized seemingly out of thin air, mirroring the mysterious nature of their surroundings.
''ng, ng''
The pink chains in their hands and pink cors mirrored the strange dance of connections in this otherworldly realm between ethereal ces.Each chain connected to the reddish-ck figure''s hands and it connected to their hands, a silent testament to connections that transcended the boundaries of understanding....
With a nonchnt flick of its fingers, the reddish-ck figure conjured a peculiar sight...an amorphous mass of ck sticky liquid that hovered before it.
"WVAVVAAA!!!"
The eerie cry echoed, resembling the intive wail of a child.
The figure shook its head as if amusing and.....warmly smiling?In an oddly tender gesture, it extended a hand to pat the sticky substance, causing it to swirl and disintegrate into minuscule particles.
"Swoossshh"
Soon the figure looked at a white crystal bird.
A sudden gust enveloped the scene as a colossal snowstorm materialized, obscuring the movements within before dissipating into the vast expanse of the endless white world.