Chapter 451: Halfmortal [1]

Chapter 451: Chapter 451: Halfmortal [1]

Chapter 451 – Halfmortal [1]

Cassius acted fast, trying to pull Sarah away from Meadow. But he was still not fast enough.

The Clouds of Worms spread through the meadows, their numbers increasing as if they were being multiplied by something none of them could understand.

He cursed, yet still thrust his hand, wrapped in an armor of blood, into the storm of worms, grabbing Sarah, who was struggling.

Isolde in turn grabbed his collar and yanked both of them away from the clouds of worms, putting as much distance between them as they could.

"Queen’s breath," Cassius hissed, landing far away. He watched the disgusting, nightmarish sight in front of him and felt his skin crawl with repulsion.

Sarah was kneeling on the ground, coughing up pieces of worm that had managed to get into her mouth, but fortunately, she was safe.

The air inside the meadows was now dry, salty even. The sky was suddenly shrouded in shadow, and a sense of wrongness seized the guts of the three sect members.

Isolde, standing beside Cassius, watched the same scene with furrowed brows, seeing how these worms were wrapped in a chilling power. "What just happened?"

[This is a Characteristic obtained from a dead god.] Ananke said, her voice dead serious. [I wouldn’t say it has never happened, for who knows in this cursed world, but it’s certainly my first time witnessing a mortal swallow a piece of a god. No matter what happens, you’d better be ready for every possibility.]

Cassius stayed silent, but his body tensed.

He had known from the beginning that it was a dangerous endeavor. The others had known too. Yet Meadow hadn’t hesitated to take this power inside her in order to grow stronger.

He had accepted her decision since, truly, he had no right to stop her, but Cassius would have been a bloody fool to allow such a thing without a plan to intervene if things went to hell.

He summoned the Coin of Maybe, turning it between his fingers, and asked inwardly,

’How much Luck do I have in store, Tysche?’

[You have exactly 76,909 Luck Value.]

’High enough?’

[Higher than a random person inside the Elysia Academy, despite them being lucky enough to enter such a prestigious academy.]

’That doesn’t exactly answer my question.’

[Because it depends on how severe the situation becomes.] Tysche replied. [I can’t know, alas.]

Cassius nodded calmly with a silent sigh and turned his attention back to Meadow, who was now nothing but a cloud of worms slowly gathering together.

Isolde looked at him, then said, "Don’t worry. I can most likely tell whether Meadow is in real danger of dying or not."

"How?"

"Her Sound," Isolde replied. "Just like your scent is unique, so is the Sound each person produces. For now, Meadow’s Sound is still the same. If it starts to change dangerously, I will intervene."

Cassius smiled. "Alright."

They then fell into a tense silence and waited to see what would happen.

While the three of them were wondering what was happening, Meadow herself was going through something completely different.

The moment that worm had entered her mouth and her body had exploded, her mind had found itself in another place.

"Where... is this?" she whispered in trepidation, looking at the wide expanse of green garden she found herself in.

But this was not a garden, in fact, if she looked at it clearly.

All this green grass was... worms, twisting and churning around and between each other in such a way that Meadow felt the sickening urge to throw up, but found herself unable to.

She looked at her feet in haste and saw those very worms climbing up her body.

She cried out, swinging her legs and arms in every direction to fend them off.

It was useless.

The worms were everywhere. Even the air itself was transmuting into worms, entering her nose and mouth and eyes and ears.

Meadow’s fear and horror grew, and she began to scream, only for her voice to be muffled as hundreds of small worms were born within it and sank deep into her throat.

She coughed, pain finally exploding inside her brain. Her knee hit the ground, making it even easier for the worms to cover her from every side.

’Am I going to die?’ she thought hazily, her mind growing weary. ’I am going to die!’

That realization made her body spasm, and her mind pumped adrenaline at the fear of Vorn’s embrace.

Meadow ripped the worms off her body, crunched the ones inside her mouth, and swallowed them with a hint of lunacy.

She stood back up, swaying, the world tilting upside down. Still, she summoned all the strength she could and began to run through the world of worms without knowing where she was going, or even why she was doing any of this.

All she knew was that she wanted these worms off her body, and moving helped shake them off.

Her glasses were gone, and her eye was covered in worms. Only her right eye, for some reason.

She reached for the worms with her hand and ripped them out of her eye.

The pain was mind-boggling, and she almost toppled over.

Yet doing so helped her see her surroundings more clearly, and there it was.

Far ahead of her stood a huge green and yellow tree with hexagonal leaves, wide and seemingly made of crystal.

But the first thing Meadow noticed was that around the tree’s perimeter, the ground was free of worms.

That realization gave her one last surge of resolve.

She ran straight towards the Tree with everything she had, falling and rolling on the ground multiple times in the process, only to stand up again, her mouth drooling blood and pieces of crunched worms.

’By the Queen!’

Meadow gritted her teeth, swam against the worms, and finally reached the tree’s threshold.

And the moment she stepped inside the boundary, all the worms that had been on her body began to burn in green fire.

They let out a loud, pained screech before turning to ash.

Thud.

Meadow’s knees hit the floor, which was made of transparent crystal, and she groaned in pain.

Her eye, the right one to be precise, the one the worms had been so eager to eat, was bleeding profusely.

Her body was aching, and the disgusting taste of the worms was still in her mouth.

She coughed, spitting them out, but some were still inside her stomach.

’Queen! What... just what...’

"A mortal eating a piece of me. How bold."

Meadow’s thoughts halted coldly at the strange, magnetic voice that echoed around her. She slowly lifted her head, her right eye still hurting and red, and looked ahead.

Her mouth hung open as she saw an achingly, so damn bloody achingly, beautiful and cute girl who looked about 9 years old, sitting right at the root of the Tree.

The young girl had stunning green hair cascading down, and equally green eyes slitted like a snake’s.

Thick black roots of the tree were wrapped around and inside her body, making her look as if she were being swallowed by the Tree itself.

Her mouth was small, her lips green, and she was staring at her with a neutral but curious look.

But it was not her beauty that made Meadow pause.

It was the fact that the girl’s head was barely hanging on to the rest of her body, more than half severed, green blood seeping from the wound down to her shoulder, then her body, until it reached the ground and kept flowing beyond the Tree’s zone.

Meadow followed the blood and saw that the moment it left the Tree’s area, hundreds of worms wriggled out of the blood itself, over and over.

She swung her attention back to the young girl and knew exactly who, or rather what, it was.

"The dead god," Meadow whispered as the god’s blood continued to gush out. "Worm of the WorldTree!"

The young girl, the dead god herself, now seemed to smile coldly, and answered, "A Title that certainly does not encompass my whole majesty and lineage, I am afraid, mortal. I am not simply the Worm of the WorldTree. I am more, and you should know that, having dared to swallow a piece of me."

The Dead God’s eyes narrowed, and Meadow felt her chest tighten, and at the same time, her right eye exploded.

She wailed in agony, her hand pressed flat over the now empty eye socket, and amid that wail, the Dead God continued, her voice as sweet as if she were singing.

"I am one of the Seven Royal Monsters of the Queen. I am Rayel, worshipper of Inara Serpentine, the Womb of Monsters. The sister of all monsters. And the Worm that will devour the WorldTree, even in death. And you, mortal, have entered my dying, broken half-mind."

Meadow was gasping for breath.

"Do you so wish to be corrupted by a Dead God on the edge of Madness?"

—End of Chapter 451—