Novel Full Chapter 1072: Found
Chapter 1072: Found
A spike of pain lanced through Quinlan’s skull, so sharp it nearly drove him to his knees. His vision blurred and breath hitched as something vast pressed in, invading his personal space. It was something, an entity that should not have been watching.
And then came the voice.
Feminine, but wrong. Twisted, frayed at the edges. A melody of whispers layered atop one another, scraping his soul raw.
’I found you, killer of Venthros.’
Quinlan staggered. The pain worsened until the world tilted. He would have hit the ground if not for Vex. She darted in, supporting his weight with both arms, worry etched across her usually composed face.
“What’s wrong?!”
He didn’t reply to his Hexwitch just yet.
’Who… are you?’ Quinlan forced the words out, not aloud, but with the barest push of thought. Speaking even in his own mind felt dangerous. His head pulsed like it was being cracked open.
’I am Sel’Ashra,’ the voice replied without pause, not caring for anonymity. It was a ruinous echo that sent splinters of agony racing down his spine. ’They call me the Withered Flame. I’m the founder of the Withered Pantheon.’
The pressure intensified, and Quinlan had to lower himself onto a nearby bench. It felt like his very thoughts were being invaded, peeled apart by an entity far above his station. His hand clutched his temple as if he could keep his skull from splitting apart, and Seraphiel even began chanting spells, but he stopped the elf. He was fully aware that his pain was not physical.
’You killed my subordinate,’ Sel’Ashra continued, each syllable dripping with venom. ’So revenge is what I want, of course.’
“!!”
Quinlan’s heart skipped a beat with alarm. He forced his gaze upward, scanning the sky, the horizon, the mansion grounds. His instincts screamed of incoming divinity, of godly retaliation, yet nothing came. No divine light, no rupture of heaven and earth. Only the voice inside his skull.
’I can’t believe Venthros lost to a pathetic existence like you!’ she hissed. ’Do you know why I struggled to find you? You are using the power of corruption so poorly that I could barely sense it. You aren’t spreading it. You aren’t feeding it. Your signal was weak, pathetically so.’
Despite the hammering in his head, Quinlan let out a low, wry chuckle. ’It hasn’t even been that long since I killed Venthros…’
’It should not have taken any time at all!’ Sel’Ashra snapped, her voice fracturing into a thousand overlapping tones. ’But that meddling Lilyanna, your goddess, has been hiding you. Shielding you. And your dreadful misuse of corruption only made my task harder.’
After killing Venthros, Quinlan had inherited two concept seeds: the seed of elements and the seed of corruption.
The latter seems to be giving him major problems right now. He didn’t even want corruption powers, so it was no wonder his signal was weak. One could argue that necromancy was associated with corruption, but his power was soul necromancy, which was a significantly less invasive power than digging up graves and desecrating corpses.
Quinlan assumed that corruption could also come from non-power-related actions, but even there, he wasn’t one of the corrupt. He didn’t corrupt other people around them, at least not on any serious level. For example, if one were to ask King Alexios, he ’corrupted’ Felicity already, based on the foul language and disobedient actions she’s shown recently.
But her corruption was probably far too innocent to matter on a scale these divine entities existed, hence why the woman called him horrible at using corruption.
’I don’t even care for this corruption seed or whatever,’ Quinlan said flatly. ’You can take it back. I just want to be left alone. I had nothing personal against Venthros; our paths just collided, and we were forced to fight each other, that’s all. If I could’ve looked the other way, I would’ve.’
It was a lie. Venthros had been a disgusting entity, happy to torment the locals of a world he invaded using his innate advantages, parading through Zhenwu like it was his private stage. He was there to extinguish all life on it, raiding the world of its soul reserves and then leaving the world to die miserably.
Quinlan had hated everything about that god. But he wasn’t about to admit such a thing now. Not when half of humanity already wanted his head for the bounty. The last thing he needed was a faction of gods joining the hunt. That would truly be game over.
For a moment, Sel’Ashra said nothing. The silence stretched, heavy and suffocating. Then…
’Ahahaha!!’ A sound ripped through his skull. A laugh. It wasn’t human, wasn’t even divine in any familiar way. It was shrill, layered, broken. A chorus of banshees shrieking with wild abandon. Quinlan’s hand instinctively went to his temple, gritting his teeth against the noise.
’You truly know nothing…’ she mocked once the laughter subsided, her voice dripping with cruel delight. ’An ignorant little primordial, that’s all you are.’
The tone shifted. Her voice dropped lower, every syllable laced with venom that slithered straight into his bones.
’There is no peace to be had between us. A primordial has slain a member of our faction. That humiliation can only be mended by your blood.’
Quinlan’s stomach sank.
’As for your little offer… returning the seed?’ she hissed. ’That is impossible. The seed of corruption does not leave its host unless the host dies. So, if you wish to give it back, you’ll have to perish.’
Quinlan gritted his teeth in frustration and gnawing anxiety. He truly didn’t need this in his life right now. All he had done was kill the invader of Zhenwu because the primordial trial demanded it, because the world and its people had needed him to. He hadn’t cared about some divine politics, hadn’t even known about this “Withered Faction.”
Seeds, corruption, factions… it was all noise. All he knew was that after Venthros’ death, two seeds had appeared in the wake of his disintegrated corpse, and when he got close to them, they entered his soul, which prompted his soul realm expansion to house them properly. The seed of elements. The seed of corruption.
These were the string of messages he got afterward:
[The Primordial Entity Quinlan Elysiar has successfully absorbed the Corruption Seed and Elemental Seed previously embedded by external divine force: Venthros, the Corrupted Element.]
[Status: Corruption Seed — Dormant. Highly unstable.]
[Status: Elemental Seed — Fragmented. Tainted by Corruption.]
[Integrity Thresholds: Below minimum viability for Divine Concept Conversion.]
[Warning]: Divine Concepts cannot be housed in the current state of the soul.
[Directive]: Further evolution of the Soul Framework is required before divine architecture can be supported.
[Soul Tier: Proto-Ascendant.]
[Soul Realm Stability: 17% — Crude Dimensional Structure formed.]
[Next Phase: Purification and Nurturing of Seeds Required.]
[Method: Unspecified.]
Sel’Ashra’s suffocating weight suddenly lightened in his head. He felt the weight of a mountain leaving his body from one moment to the next.
’Your goddess is here…’ she growled with hatred.
’Lilyanna, if you think this is over, think otherwise! I’ll see to the end of this pest!’
Her presence thinned, but Quinlan didn’t feel anyone enter in her place, despite him thinking that if Liliyanna was here, he should feel her presence. But there was just… absence. A quiet moment.
And then it came. Sel’Ashra noticed her arrival long before Quinlan had.
A new atmosphere spilled into his head. It was soft where Sel’Ashra had been jagged, stable where she had been chaotic. The sensation was akin to stepping from a storm into sunlight, roots taking hold beneath his feet, strength filling in the hollow places.
The voice that followed didn’t shriek or grind. It bloomed. Flowery. Dreamlike. Something he could listen to forever. Each syllable seemed to scatter petals through his mind, carrying warmth that filled the cracks Sel’Ashra had clawed open.
’So long as he is a member of my world, it is my duty as Thalorind’s goddess to protect him from invading forces.’
At first, she was a lullaby. But then the notes deepened. The warmth condensed, no longer a drifting fragrance but weight, substance. The meadow of her presence rooted itself, becoming stronger. A gentle stream became a current, flowing steadily and vast.
Sel’Ashra’s presence quivered as the dreamy haze crystallized into an undeniable authority. Lilyanna’s voice, once airy, now carried command.
’Begone, Invader. You are not welcome in my home.’