The Lost one's journey

Part 41: The Shadow King act-2

The dancing man starts to sing a small ballad as he sees Voda struck by the water dragon. "Moonlight covers the kingdom. As the source of darkness falls to the ground, the one born of shadows is now the light of this land. Will that light be kept? Or will that light collapse? A father and a daughter, but family they are not." As he reaches the crescendo in his song, his dance becomes more and more intense. The red ink under his legs was being swept up in waves. "This tale can only end in death." As he finishes his song, Voda flies back high into the air. His body, eclipsing the moon of Kruha. Two holes in his body regenerate and form new ones. Ikati stands on the red ink, breaking three of her fingers as four angelic black wings appear on her back. Two on her upper back and two on her lower. She flies up to the air, seeing Voda and meeting his intense, rage-filled gaze. Voda speaks no words as his shadows build up around him and surround him, creating a ball of darkness that covers the moon. Ikati heals, then shatters all of her fingers. She claps her hands together, creating a large dome of water that encloses the entirety of Kruhabelt. Dark clouds build up at the tip of the dome. The dark sphere surrounding Voda shatters, revealing Voda's changed body. His body now appears smaller than it once was. His beast-like appearance is gone; now he looks more human than ever before. His robes cover his body with a panther jewel on his waist. His long black hair reaches down to his knees. His arms are smaller now in his new human form, but the back of his palms are still lined with fur, and his nails are long and sharp like a panther. His skin is tan, and his eyes are still a deep purple. His tail wraps around one of his legs; its immense length is hidden by his body. He looks towards Ikati with eyes racked with fury. He snaps his fingers, and with that simple snap, he creates an entire army of panthers, each the size of a building. "Kill her." He calmly states this as the panthers quickly dash towards her. "He became human? How odd. I wonder why." The man says this as he watches the fight from the ground. As the panthers dash towards Ikati, she claps her hands once more and shouts out from the bottom of her soul gem. "RAPTURE!" Beams of light fire down from the clouds, disintegrating most of the panthers, but some dodge them. Ikati attempts to clap her hands again to finish the spell, but suddenly everything appears to spin for her. She looks around, seeing her body floating in the air with Voda behind her with his arm turned into a blade. The man catches her head before it falls into the ink. "He was just too fast for you." He says this with a chuckle as he holds Ikati's head up to see Voda plunge his hand into her throat and pull out her soul gem. Ikati's eyes shake in fear, but everything seems to go gray for her. "Are you going to let this be your final resting place? Death at the hands of the man who's caused you so much pain? Death without saving the one you love?" The man says this to her as he walks in front of her despite holding her head behind her. "No, no, no, no, no, NO! I can't die here! Pocu needs me, and I have to save Galdur and kill Voda!" The man shakes his head. "You can say these things, but what happened? Voda cut your head off, then grabbed your soul gem. You can heal from almost any injury, but even that almost instant healing takes time. Voda awakened; he's no longer just playing around; no, now he's trying—well, he did kill you." Ikati's eyes shake in rage as she hears the man's words. "Why are you even speaking with me then!? Who the f**k are you!? How are you doing this!?" The man sighs and seemingly teleports without any clear focus for the spell. He stands in the sky beside Voda, yet Ikati can still perfectly hear his voice. "I don't really have to answer anything now, do I? I just wanted to have a small chat with you before you died. I was always so curious about you. I was sleeping for so long." Ikati is confused by the man's words but ignores them. "Stop this! Let time flow again so I can heal and kill that demon!" She shouts out once again to him. The man teleports back to her. His face is right next to hers. Ikati can see a bright white eye, but also their red eye, which is hidden under their hair. "I'm not the one doing this. There's a god making sure that this death of yours is slow and painful. Take a closer look at Voda." The man says it with a grimace of pure joy on his face. Ikati, while still skeptical of the man, does look closer at Voda, only to see that he's moving. It's incredibly slow, but he is slowly crushing her soul gem. She starts to feel every small crack, split, and fracture on her gem all across her body. The pain is immense and slow. cutting along her body inside and out as though someone were cutting her open. She can feel her body cracking and breaking all throughout her very cells. "You only noticed now because I pointed it out. Maybe I'm the god? Or maybe there is no god doing this? Maybe you're the one doing this? Or maybe none of this is happening, and you're already dead, and your mind is just trying to comprehend death." The man says this as he starts to pace forward and backward with an insane look on his face. "I don't know, nor do you. Hell, I don't even know how I'm here!? Maybe it's because of what I just naturally am!? Maybe there is no f**king explanation!! I don't know!" The man lets out a crazed laugh while Ikati suffers from pain that's so immense she can't even speak. "That's the best part, goddamnit! I don't know anything, and that means I can learn it all!!! I can learn about all these things now that I didn't even think could happen!" The man then lets out a breath of air, calming down. "Tell me before you die. Do you regret anything? You may not be human, but you're very close to two of them." Ikati, while still suffering through the pain, looked up at the man. "N-no." She says she is struggling with the pain until she lets out a sudden yelp of pain as her soul gem in Voda's hands suddenly gains a large crack. "Hmmmm. I wonder why. I haven't been awake for too long, and I already have several." The man then sits on the slowly swaying red ink and summons a canvas to his hand with his paintbrush. He begins to draw something as Ikati dies behind him. "De mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est." The man says to himself as everything regains its color.