Chains of Vengeance

Chapter 198: Death and Courage

Narinder was collapsing. Not physically, not in a scream, not in a fit of rage. No. His collapse was internal, invisible, and absolute.
Ramael's request was absurd, unacceptable, and irrational. It required him to touch a wound that had never healed, to tear off its scab and expose it to the sun as if it were nothing. And yet, he couldn't scream at him, he couldn't run away, he couldn't refuse.

Because there was no one left inside him to react.

Narinder was just an empty shell. A body of shadow. He didn't hear any of the voices that used to inhabit his interior:
He didn't hear his instinct, that primitive whisper that used to drive him to act.
He didn't hear his conscience, the one that reasoned, the one that analyzed.
Nor the moral voice, the one that spoke from principles, values, or love.

Only the emptiness remained.
A bottomless abyss that, when asked, was answered only by the echo of nothingness.

On the outside, Narinder seemed serious. Imperturbable, even. But his body betrayed the illusion. A slight tic ran through his head repetitively, as if an invisible current were stirring it. His eyes... had no pupils. Just two dark, empty spots. The dark circles under them trembled like deep cracks, representing that something inside him was cracking beyond repair.

In front of him, Ramael watched him silently. He didn't back down. He didn't tremble.
His eyes were filled with a mixture of respect, firmness... and reckless courage. He knew what he had asked. He knew it could cost him his life. And yet, he remained there.

In the temple, only their breathing could be heard.

Slow. Tense. Like two worlds on the verge of collapse.

And in that absolute stillness, in the deepest emptiness, the emptiness itself spoke within Narinder.
It was not a voice with emotions. It was not anger. It was not sorrow. It was not judgment.

It was the very nothingness of his being.

A hollow, robotic voice, without inflection or soul. As if following a forgotten protocol in the depths of his divinity, he said:

"The ram was a mistake. It must be eliminated.
If the ram was a mistake, then so was the goat.
If the goat was a mistake, then so was the lamb.
If those three were mistakes, then it is a mistake to give life a chance.
We are the god of death. The opposite of life.
We must show death to all life.
We will eradicate all life from the world.
Not just thinking beings.
Thoughtless animals.
Plants too.
Even the earth itself will be wrapped in a sterile blanket.
We will accomplish what the bishops feared.
That is the only option.

And in that instant, though he didn't understand it, Ramael felt it.

A terrifying chill ran down his spine. It was the same fear he had felt during the Great Test, when death itself had stared him in the face... but now it was deeper. More visceral. He didn't know why, he didn't know how... but he felt it. And yet, he didn't back down.

He stood.

Firm.

Waiting for Narinder's response.

The one who was now only an echo... on the verge of becoming an apocalypse.

Narinder took a slow step forward. His every movement seemed like that of a shadow pulled by the gravity of an invisible storm. His eyes remained bottomless pits, and his voice... his voice was a straight line, without inflection, without warmth, without soul. He answered with chilling neutrality:

"Do you want me to open a portal to the worst place there is? Do you want me to walk with you through the place where I have suffered the most... as if it were a tourist tour? I went to Purgatory to rescue my brothers, and it is nothing compared to the horror of the Veil."