Novel Full Chapter 824: Painful Memories
Chapter 824: Chapter 824: Painful Memories
Kain stood over Airalai in the interrogation cell, his hand twitching on whether or not to signal a death blow to the Vespid guards, their stingers poised like loaded guns at her neck.
Chewy, his young spore contract, clung to her shoulder, its small form swelling as it absorbed the pulsing sigil’s energy, dimming its glow but not extinguishing it.
Perhaps because Chewy wasn’t so tiny that he was invisible after swelling up with energy, or perhaps the Black Dawn didn’t realize the full diversity that was the ’Etherites’, but Airalai could never have imagined that one of the terrifying creatures she’d just described to Kain was now latched onto he shoulder.
The team—Darrius, Malzahir, Jax, and Miya—watched from outside the glass panel, their silence heavy with anticipation of an impending attack if they don’t block the signal.
Kain’s mind churned, weighing his options with cold precision:
Option A: Get it over with and kill her.
Killing Airalai would hopefully stop the beacon’s signal since a source of spiritual power must be powering the sigil, and Kain is assuming that the source is herself. Killing her would cut off Black Dawn’s homing path to the HQ.
But it would cost him her knowledge—secrets about their operations, their continent-wide search for the tiny ’Etherites’, their plans against the looming Abyss, lost historical knowledge. Keeping her alive risked everything: the sigil’s persistent pulse meant Black Dawn was closing in, and Chewy’s absorption was a temporary stopgap.
Option B: the Pangea awakening ceremony.
He recalled the ritual room upstairs, where he’d transformed Darius and the others into beast-tamers, their arrays shifting to bind powerful contracts. This array didn’t seem to fully follow the rules of traditional arrays and its appearance/function changes on its own. Perhaps if he carved a Pangea array over her sigil, it could overwrite the beacon, severing its signal.
But the risk was monumental—exposing Pangea and his ability to create new beast-tamers from those without an affinity to a Black Dawn operative could put himself and everyone around him in danger if she escaped.
Kain’s jaw tightened. It’s the only way. Killing her was too final, keeping her as—like a homing beacon—is too dangerous.
The ceremony offered a solution, however risky. He turned to the team outside the panel, his voice sharp. “Darius, Jax, Miya, Malzahir—get the supplies from the ritual room upstairs. The enchanted pen and the ink. Now.”
Darius nodded, his strong leadership kicking in as he rallied the others. Jax raised an eyebrow, muttering, “Ugh. I don’t even want to see that pen again.” Miya shot him a glare, her voice dry. “Less talking, more moving.”
Malzahir, sneeze-induced guilt that his ’allergies’ may somehow have activated that sigil now alleviated, scurried after them, his muffled voice trailing, “I’ll grab the ink!” They vanished up the steel stairs, their footsteps echoing in the HQ’s quiet corridors.
Kain faced Airalai, who tilted her head, her smile sharpening. “What’s this, Kain? Playing artist now?” Her tone was condescending, like scolding a child. “Drawing on an active sigil won’t just turn it off. You’ve got a lot to learn about sigil-craft.” Her voice carried a mocking lilt, but her eyes betrayed a flicker of confusion, unsure of his intent.
Kain didn’t respond, his focus unwavering. The team returned swiftly, Darius holding the enchanted pen—its tip modified to tattoo flesh, not cut stone, humming with latent spiritual energy. Malzahir carried a vial of special ink, its surface shimmering like liquid starlight, used in the awakenings that had bonded Darius’s team to their contracts. Miya was thoughtful enough to bring a stool for Kain since the time taken to tattoo the full array on them in the past had been quite long. Meanwhile, Jax leaned against the panel, watching with a mix of curiosity and skepticism about this plan.
Kain took the pen and ink, and then sat on the stool behind Airalai’s shoulder and nudged Chewy (who was still covering the sigil and draining it) out of the way. He began carving the awakening array over the pulsing sigil on her shoulder, his movements precise, each stroke guided by hundreds of times carving the awakening arrays on paper and test animals for practice, and then people.
The pen’s tip hummed, the ink sinking into her skin, forming intricate patterns that wove around the beacon’s glow. Airalai’s initial mockery gave way to a hiss of pain, her body tensing as the ink seared into her. “What are you—” she started, her voice rising in alarm, but Kain ignored her, his concentration absolute. The array took shape, its lines pulsing faintly, resonating with Pangea’s distant energy.
Darius winced from behind the viewing glass in sympathy. “That pain… I remember it. Like fire under your skin, burning everything away.” He rubbed his own shoulder, where his awakening array had scarred. “She’s tough, not screaming yet.”
Jax nodded. “Yeah, I yelled like a banshee two minutes in. Thought my arm was melting off.” His voice was light, but his eyes held a flicker of respect—and unease—as Airalai gritted her teeth, sweat beading on her forehead.
Miya crossed her arms, “I cursed enough to make a sailor blush. Tears too, by the end.” She glanced at Malzahir, who shifted uncomfortably now with his mouth wrapped behind a mask to prevent any more sneezing ’incidents’. “You held it together better than most, Mal. But her… she’s acting like it’s a scratch.”
Malzahir mumbled, muffled through his gear, “It felt like my soul was being ripped open. She’s hiding it well, but look—her hands are shaking.” The team fell silent, reminiscing their own awakenings, the shared pain forging a reluctant empathy, even for an enemy.
Airalai’s breath hitched as the pen dug deeper, her mocking tone fracturing. “You’re wasting time, Kain. Whatever you’re doing won’t work.” But her voice wavered, the pain building, her violet eyes beginning to unconsciously fill with tears.
With the array pretty much finished, he shifted his attention to Bea who had remained on his shoulder this whole time. “Now, Bea,” he thought, directing her to seize Airalai’s mind. Bea’s presence surged, a subtle pressure enveloping Airalai’s consciousness. Against her will, Airalai’s spiritual power flowed into the array, her body tensing as she fought the intrusion. “What are you—” she started to ask again, her voice rising in alarm, but the array flared to life, glowing brighter than the beacon beneath it. Her eyes widened in shock, then fluttered shut, her consciousness sinking into darkness.
Kain’s own awareness shifted, redirecting into Pangea. He materialized on a lush plateau, bioluminescent flora casting an ethereal glow across rolling hills, the air thick with a greater concentration of Source energy than on Earth.
Airalai’s soul fragment hovered before him, a shimmering violet wisp, pulsing with her essence. It darted forward, rushing enthusiastically toward a distant shape—a dark-attribute serpentine dragon, its obsidian scales glinting under Pangea’s aurora-like sky. Coiled around a jagged spire of black crystal, its wings folded like shadows, the dragon exuded raw power, its aura rippling the air with dark energy. Not an overlord like Aurem, the land’s supreme ruler with his four guardians (including Gabriel’s contracted black tortoise), nor the Kraken dominating Pangea’s oceans, but still high in potential—a fitting match for Airalai’s cunning soul.
Unfortunately for her, Kain had other plans.
Kain raised a hand, his will as Pangea’s ruler manifesting an invisible barrier. Airalai’s soul slammed into it, quivering like a bird hitting glass, its momentum halted. “Not that one,” Kain muttered, his voice cold. “I’ve got something better for you.”
He’d hesitated to perform the ceremony, wary of exposing Pangea, but remembered a creature suited for his purpose—a parasite that would bind Airalai, not empower her. As Pangea’s master, although he tended to just let the entering souls bind to the creature they had the highest natural affinity for, he could override it, forcing a bond to a creature of his choosing (that wasn’t too much stronger than what their soul could handle), especially for someone he didn’t care to strengthen.
With a snap of his fingers, the plateau vanished, replaced by a desolate, death-energy-filled clearing on Pangea. The ground was barren, cracked soil devoid of life, the air heavy with decay that clung to the skin like mist. No plants grew here, no wildlife stirred—the clearing was a cursed void, where even Pangea’s vibrant energy faltered. Kain waved his hand, and the soil churned, revealing a writhing black worm, its segmented body glistening with an oily sheen. The System profile materialized in his vision:
Species: Deathleech Worm
Description: A parasitic creature with limited potential that burrows into its host’s spiritual core, sapping vitality and weakening their power. Incapable of growth unless it evolves, it exists solely to drain.
Quality: Gold-grade
Skills: Sapping Bind (latches onto host, reducing spiritual output), Vitality Drain (siphons life force, causing fatigue and weakness)
Bonding Airalai to this worm would cripple her strength, reducing her status as a threat.
Kain’s lips curled into a faint smirk. “How do you like the contract I carefully picked out for you?,” he said to the trembling soul fragment, its violet glow flickering in futile resistance. As he prepared to force the bond, the clearing’s deathly energy seemed to strengthen, the worm wriggling eagerly.