The Southern Wilds were a maze of twisted trees that oozed black sap and air so thick with bad smells it felt like breathing sandpaper.
Mina tripped, her hair streaked with silver all matted with sweat and dried blood. On her back Elara was a weight-not because she was heavy but because she was getting colder while her tummy pulsed with a weird golden heat.
*Warning: Vitality at 4%.*
*Status: Soul-Freeze in Progress.*
*The Heir is entering 'Hibernation Mode'-Eating Hosts Remaining Marrow.
"Elara, stay with me!" Mina wheezed, her silver spear getting dimmer as she cut through a wall of bushes. "Lucian said the Well is past the Canyon of Whispers. We're there!"
Elara didn't answer. In her mind she wasn't in a forest. She was standing in a black ocean. Under the surface a gigantic golden eye the size of a city block was staring up at her.
Mother, a voice vibrated through the water. It wasn't a baby's voice. It was the sound of a thousand dying stars. Feed me. I am hungry. The sun is too bright.
"No " Elara whispered in the dark. "You're killing me."
I am keeping you alive the voice countered. Without me you're a girl in the mud. With me you're the end of the line.
The Ambush at the Canyon
"Halt, Sentinel."
The voice didn't come from the front. It came from the shadows of the canyon walls.
Six huge wolves, their fur the color of dried blood stepped out of the mist. They weren't Southern Enforcers. They lacked the marks of Kaelen's pack. These were Rogue Alphas-outcasts who had been kicked out of their packs for being too violent, too hungry or too crazy.
At their center stood a man with a missing eye and a fake arm made of obsidian. Varg the Devourer.
"I smelled it " Varg said, his tongue flicking over his teeth. "The Abyssal Scent. Kaelen is a fool to want to 'bond' with that thing. I just want to eat it. Imagine the power of a Monarch's heart in my belly."
*Target Identified: Varg the Devourer (Rogue Alpha).*
*Power Level: 9,500.*
*Threat Level: Lethal (Cannibal Buff Active).*
Mina shifted Elara's weight her knuckles white around her spear. Her legs were shaking. She had been running for sixteen hours without rest. "Step aside Varg. I've killed a High Alpha this week. I don't mind adding an escape goat to the list."
"You're tired, girl " Varg sneered. "Your energy is low.. The woman on your back is already half-dead."
He lunged.
He didn't shift. He moved with a hybrid speed his obsidian claw swiping toward Mina's throat. Mina raised her spear to block. The force of the impact sent her spinning into a jagged rock wall. Elara slid off her back hitting the ground with a sickening thud.
"Elara!" Mina screamed, trying to stand. The other five rogues pinned her down their heavy paws crushing her silver-clad shoulders.
Varg walked toward Elara. He looked down at her sweating face and the golden glow emanating from her belly. "Such a small body for such a god. Don't worry, Healer. I'll make it quick."
He raised his claw aimed directly at Elara's stomach.
Suddenly time slowed.
The "seed" inside Elara didn't throb this time. It screamed.
*Emergency Protocol: Direct Neural Link!*
*The Heir is taking control of the 'Healers Hands.*
Elara's eyes snapped open. They weren't violet. They weren't brown. They were a swirling mix of liquid gold and absolute void. She didn't stand up. She simply reached out. Grabbed Varg's obsidian wrist with her human hand.
Sizzle.
Varg let out a sound that wasn't human. Where Elara touched him his obsidian arm didn't break-it melted. The stone turned into flesh. The flesh turned into black, rotting liquid.
"What... ttt …What are you?!" Varg shrieked, clutching his melting arm.
Elara didn't speak. Her body rose from the ground suspended by threads of shadow. Her right arm-the one that had been gold-began to crack revealing a limb made of pure white-hot starlight
*Skill Activated: The Healer's Curse. 'Over-Growth'.*
She touched Varg's chest. Of killing him she forced his cells to multiply a billion times a second. Within heartbeats Varg wasn't a wolf anymore. He was a mountain of cancerous flesh his body expanding until his bones snapped under the weight of own sudden growth. He became a mindless pulsing mass of meat before exploding into a spray of red mist.
The other rogues moved away in horror releasing Mina. They didn't see a girl. They saw a Goddess of Decay.
*Warning: Vitality at 1%.*
*The Heir has exhausted the Host.*
Elara fell. The starlight arm. The golden eyes dimmed back, to a glassy lifeless brown. She hit the dirt her breathing shallow it didn't even stir the dust.
"Elara!" Mina scrambled to her her hands glowing with a failing silver light. "No, no no! Stay with me!"
"Mina..." Elara whispered, a tear of violet blood tracking down her cheek. "The Well... It's right... There..."
Behind a veil of leafed trees, a pool of water glowed with a soft primal blue light. The Well of Ancients.
As Mina dragged Elara toward the water a shadow fell over the pool. Lucian was sitting on the edge of the Well idly dipping his silver-headed cane into the water.
"You made it " Lucian said, his eyes scanning the carnage Elara had left behind. ". I have bad news, Mina. The water isn't free. To stabilize the Heir the Well requires a sacrifice of 'Pure Alpha Blood'."
He looked at Mina at the dying Elara.
". Since your sister is human and the rogues are trash... That only leaves one Alpha heart in this canyon."
Lucian pointed his cane at Mina's chest.
"Yours, Sentinel. Are you ready to die so your sisters monster can live?"