Chapter 29: A Life Dies for Another.

Chapter 29: Chapter 29: A Life Dies for Another.

"Elfin."

After saying that, Draven tried to understand what was happening, so the deity, with a low laugh, answered.

"So you know my name as well."

Draven clenched his jaw.

The god of destruction, the enemy around whom some of the worst events in Valkaen revolved, was right there.

"What an unpleasant situation."

Elfin said, to which Draven did not reply.

"One arm less..."

"..."

"...a friend dying..."

Draven looked at Taliah.

"...and you practically without mana."

Elfin let out another small laugh.

"I must admit I expected something more impressive after watching you fight."

"Shut up."

"What?"

"I said shut up."

Elfin stayed silent for a few seconds and then spoke with clear amusement.

"Still giving orders even in that pathetic state."

Draven ignored the comment.

"Can you help her?"

"So you’re going straight to the point."

"Can you?"

"Of course I can."

Draven went still, because the answer had come too quickly.

"How?"

"That shouldn’t matter to you."

"Then I don’t want your help."

Elfin laughed.

"You didn’t even hear the proposal."

"I don’t need to."

"What a brave decision..."

Greydarn’s corpse began to deteriorate faster and part of one of his arms started to come apart.

Draven watched it while the deity kept talking.

"...but quite a stupid one."

Elfin continued.

"I can save her."

Draven looked at Taliah.

"I can rebuild what is destroyed."

"..."

"Stop the bleeding."

Draven clenched his hand.

"Repair her organs."

"What do you want?"

Elfin took a few seconds to answer.

"That’s much better."

Draven waited.

"I want a vessel."

Draven stopped breathing for an instant.

"That useless Greydarn died."

Elfin spoke with complete calm.

"That’s obvious."

"So you want me to..."

"You to be my new vessel."

Draven felt a strong rejection.

"No!"

"What a quick answer."

"I won’t do it."

"You don’t even want to think about it."

"I’m not going to become your vessel."

Elfin laughed.

"Then don’t."

Draven frowned.

"What?"

"I won’t accept for you."

"..."

"The decision is yours."

Elfin paused.

"You’ll just have to accept the consequence as well."

Draven looked at Taliah and Elfin continued.

"She’ll bleed out, but well, at least she’ll serve as food for the beasts."

"Stop."

"It probably won’t take too long."

"I told you to shut your mouth."

"Her breathing is getting worse."

Draven looked at Taliah and it was true, she was already very weak.

"Maybe she has a few minutes left."

"Shut up!"

Elfin laughed while Draven tried to think, because there had to be another way.

He could wait to recover mana, but there was no time.

He could carry Taliah, but with one arm, wounded and bleeding out, he wouldn’t make it.

He could look for help, but the fields were enormous and he didn’t know if anyone was nearby.

He could try calling other gods, but the most likely outcome was that he wouldn’t get an answer.

Draven looked at what was left of his wounded arm and his own blood kept falling, so he was going to lose consciousness as well.

’Think.’

He needed another option.

’There has to be another way.’

He couldn’t find one, so then Draven looked at Greydarn’s corpse.

"Why?"

Elfin did not answer immediately.

"Ask more clearly."

"About Greydarn."

"..."

"If you could do something like that..."

Draven breathed with difficulty.

"Why didn’t you save him?"

Elfin let out a small laugh.

"Does that concern you?"

"Answer me."

"You’re talking about a corpse."

"He was your vessel."

"He was."

"Then why didn’t you save him?"

Elfin stayed silent for a few seconds and, when he spoke again, there was no longer as much mockery in his voice.

"Because you’re a better vessel."

Draven went still.

"What?"

"I can feel it in your blood."

Draven looked at his own amputated arm where his blood was seeping out.

"That doesn’t make sense."

"Not to you."

Draven clenched his teeth.

"I’m human."

"So what?"

"I don’t have anything special."

"That’s what you think."

Draven did not answer, to which Elfin laughed.

"What an interesting expression you must have right now."

Draven felt a different kind of unease, because throughout his entire life in Valkaen he had assumed something.

His mother had been a demon, but she had become human, so Draven had been born human.

He didn’t possess the advantages he had expected when he discovered Kali’s origin, and his natural mana talent had even been disappointing.

So... what was Elfin sensing?

"What’s in my blood?"

"That’s not part of our negotiation."

"Answer me."

"No."

Draven clenched his teeth while Greydarn’s corpse lost another part and the skin darkened, so the body was disintegrating rapidly.

Draven watched it and Elfin spoke.

"You need to decide soon."

"Why?"

"My vessel died."

Draven understood.

"Without one, maintaining my physical presence is rather uncomfortable."

Another section of the corpse came apart.

"I can’t stay like this for too long."

Draven looked at Taliah, then at Greydarn, and his own vision darkened again, but this time it lasted several seconds.

When he regained clarity, he was breathing with difficulty and Elfin spoke.

"And it seems you can’t stay conscious much longer either."

Draven did not answer.

"But what a convenient situation."

"For you."

"Of course."

Draven felt rage.

"All of this benefits you."

"Now you’re thinking correctly."

"And you’re using Taliah to force me."

Elfin laughed.

"Force is a very strong word."

"That’s what you’re doing."

"No..."

Elfin answered immediately.

"...I’m offering you a choice."

"A choice where she dies if I say no."

"Exactly."

"That’s not a choice."

"Inferiors always say the same thing when none of their options please them."

Draven clenched his jaw.

"I hate you."

"That doesn’t matter right now either."

Elfin seemed completely calm.

"You can hate me in an hour, tomorrow, or for a hundred years."

He paused.

"As long as you have a body to do it in."

Draven looked at Taliah and remembered his childhood.

The training, the arguments, the times she had mocked him, the times she had protected him, the journey, until he remembered the conversation before finding the vocier.

’I don’t just mean that. I want...’

Taliah still had something to tell him, and Draven felt his throat close.

He couldn’t let her die, but becoming Elfin’s vessel... he knew what that meant.

He had seen the future of the one who was the vessel and it had not ended well.

Elfin was a threat to all of Valkaen.

Accepting could mean becoming exactly what he had tried to avoid since arriving in this world, but refusing...

Draven looked at the blood around Taliah, so there was no more time and Elfin spoke.

"Decide."

Draven closed his eyes.

"Five seconds."

"What?"

"Give me five seconds."

Elfin laughed.

"How curious."

Draven breathed while Elfin counted the seconds.

"One."

He needed to think.

"Two."

He couldn’t trust Elfin.

"Three."

He couldn’t let Taliah die either.

"Four."

He had to find a way to accept without giving him everything.

"Five."

Draven opened his eyes, looked at Greydarn’s deteriorating corpse, then looked at Taliah, and finally spoke.

"I..."