Chapter -40: In Dimension's Shadows
It had been an exhausting week of walking from place to place, but finally Solomon could enjoy a day of quiet in his palace.
"Enjoy" was a word he'd never thought he'd use, but there was…some fleeting sense of satisfaction from finishing his journey around the world.
The only places his footprint went untouched now were Arc Hurricanos and Caimanabel.
Curiosity, perhaps a sense of yearning from the paternal half of his blood, tried to nudge him towards the city in the sky.
But Sarajin did not pursue the subject. Perhaps he knew.
Irregardless, Solomon had learned more about his world in closer detail over this last week than he had from the word of mouth his cohorts had spoken of in the last year.
There were…curious people among Sarajin's allies. He listed the likes of Cecilia Frost and Valic Ioncharger as people worthy of his utmost interest.
But his travels also revealed an irritating truth.
Throughout most of these lands the imprint of the Ten Sages could be seen or felt.
Borealis Aurora was still active, the crushing weight of his ambition stretching as far as the blue horizon.
Solomon had matched wills with that man but once, but the humiliation of a triumph denied lingered in him like a canyon sized scar.
"How has Sarajin let that man's cohorts remain untouched?" Perverted Solomon's mind, "They have even been allowed to converse with his associates as though they are…allies."
There was no doubt in his mind that something must be done. Borealis Aurora's will shall not go unchallenged.
He was an enemy of 'peace', and thus a direct obstacle to Solomon's desires.
Thus, out in the open, when even the spider hung in the room like a fickle web, Solomon remarked, "How can we strike a decisive blow against Borealis Aurora."
The Vizier shivered and grinned. Finally, it was her time to prove her worth to her lord.
"You're finally doing the right thing, Lord Solomon. I have a simple answer…" Her grin grew wider and oozed with cold vapor, "His heart…he showed how vulnerable it is when his dear princess is involved. So-"
Two sources of anger pierced her through gaze alone. One was her Lord, the other was tamer, but she knew not where it came from.
"She will NOT be touched. Understand me?"
The Vizier was confused, "D-Do you still have feelings for her?!"
Solomon stirred with a long hum, "...I have made myself clear, Vizier."
"Very well…Lord Solomon," She noted, straining to not disagree vehemently, "Then perhaps he harbors a precious memento of equal value."
"If he does I wouldn't know." Solomon remarked.
"I can peer through the shadows." The Vizier suggested.
"It would be a waste of time." Declared Solomon.
The Vizier bit her teeth, intensifying as Solomon turned his gaze towards the lingering spider.
"You. Have you nothing to offer but your ghastly presence?"
"Give me a moment, I'm thinking." The spider, for now at least, seemed willing to cooperate. But Solomon did not expect trustworthy ideas to spill out.
In the meantime Dimentio flipped into the room, naturally inserting himself into the conversation by suggesting, "Why, I could transport him into this palace, leave him at your mercy like the hanged man awaiting the fatal drop."
Solomon leaned his fist against the side of his face and narrowed his focus towards the past. Just a mere remembrance of that man's silhouette sent him into shivers, and he dug his fingertips through the wood of his throne.
"He is stronger than me." His admission drove the room to silence, leaving room for the parasite to worm his way in.
"Is he?" They chuckled, like a soothing melody of darkness, "You're the only one who sees it that way."
Solomon's gaze lingered on the parasite with a pulsation like a heartbeat forming out of dark fog.
He then brushed his sight of the parasite and looked towards the others, "It took careful planning to escape Borealis Aurora last time. He will not be caught unawares again."
After a few more seconds, Atrax presented his hand in service to the lord of darkness, "There is…Something we could take from him."
Solomon rose and remarked, "What do you know?"
"Of his greatest accomplishment, or in some eyes, his greatest blasphemy…The Anti-Genesis Theorem."
"Is that not in the possession of his daughter?" Solomon noted.
"One of them is. The other was put into the survivor of the Wyverns and Dragons."
The parasite stirred with mild disbelief, "One lives…?!"
Atrax continued unflinching, "And the thirds location has been locked away in Borealis' Atelier."
"The formula itself would serve you no use, but snatching it out from under him would deliver a credible blow to his psyche."
"How so?" Asked Solomon, pining for more details.
"His Atelier operates on a multidimensional plain folded together through multiple intersecting layers."
When his listeners went silent, Atrax elucidated at a slower pace, "In other words, there exists numerous copies of his space, all present in the same coordinates, but detached into separate dimensions."
Dimentio remarked, "Ah, in other words, he shifts the construction of his room out for spares in order to safeguard secrets."
"That is correct."
"And one holds the Anti-Genesis Theorem?" Solomon deduced.
"That is what I suspect anyways. I have been unable to check. The other dimensions are incapable of creating light, ergo, have no shadows."
The Vizier was quick to offer herself to this cause, "Then let me tail Borealis from the shadows until he reveals its location!"
"It would be a waste of time," Solomon uttered coldly, "He will sniff you out in an instant."
"However," When Dimentio opened his mouth it was the moment the Vizier was dreading, "He should not be aware of me. I will be able to slip between the layers, like butter between two slices of bread."
"He cannot be trusted!" The Vizier screamed.
Solomon paused at the thought, then turned to the floating jester to tell him sternly, "I will do this your way. And put our hands around Borealis Aurora's neck."
The Vizier started to growl and hiss through their teeth, "Fine…if that is what you desire, my Lord."
Xiark finally stirred to life with a yawn, "Yes yes, you're a clever little group of schemers…but you take that cursed formula, and then what?"
"I will fight fang and jowls to ensure that wretched thing not touch my realm."
Atrax was ready to reassure him, "Rest assured the formula is contained within a binding crystal to keep its power from leaking."
Xiark sat on his hind legs and murmured, "That Borealis does reek of paranoia. Assuming…your word can be trusted."
Atrax sighed long and ragged, "Must I keep proving my sincerity to you lot?"
Solomon took one last look at Dimentio and told him, "Take the rest of the day to prepare. Scout out from a distance if you can."
Dimentio snapped his fingers, "Ah, such beauty. The limelight awaits me at long last."
While the rest plotted in the privacy of their chambers, the Vizier stewed in their scowling putrid disgust towards the jester.
"Take his respect away from ME will you…?!" Her body began to act on dark impulses and with a casual brush of her hand she created a corridor of darkness.
She then grinned with mischief as she walked through, "I will show you just how worthy I have become…"
In the darkest recesses of Caimanabel, the likes of Lilith continued to try and nurture the maturing lunar goddess into her perfect killing machine…
Though her efforts have been stalled by irritants, she held her head high that she was superior.
The news of Sarajin's resolve weakening renewed her spirits like a dip under a fresh waterfall.
With Lunis trained properly to keep pushing her body to the breaking point, Lilith did not have to monitor her forever, and could resume basking in the splendor of worship under the guise of Mother Divine.
As she exited the concealed chamber and made her way through the lightness black, she paused, feeling a twitch at the back of her neck.
In a flash her sword was aimed over her shoulder and touched the nose of a lithe figure breathing down her neck.
The Vizier grinned and began cackling, to which Lilith demanded answers, "I knew I smelled a foul weed…How did you get here? There are no shadows in these lands."
"I don't need such…amateurish means. You cannot conceal me from the darkness in your heart…Lilith of the Ten Sages."
"You're sneaky, but I pity your weakness." Lilith said with utter scorn.
"Hmph, I could make you regret that foolishness. But wouldn't you rather relish in a chance to make your most hated enemy kneel at your feet?"
Lilith turned to face the Vizier directly and scoffed, "What could YOU possibly use against Borealis that I cannot?"
"Not just Borealis. The other one. The current bane upon both our existences."
A vein popped over Lilith's brow as she growled, "Sarajin…"
She then tilted her head back and smirked, "I'm listening."
"My lord has employed a vermin capable of squirming between the cracks of Borealis' Atelier to acquire the remaining Anti-Genesis Theorem."
Lilith flinched with eyes wide with intrigue, "Is that so?"
"Crush the rat. Poison him, trap him, I do not CARE. I'm sure a schemer like you could sow enough chaos to take the Theorem for yourself."
"And you want me to use it to eliminate Sarajin from the board."
"If everything goes right, my lord will be free of any further distractions."
"Anything else I should know about your…rat?"
"They're a jester, a slippery fool. So long as you can catch him, he'll be easy pickings."
The Vizier then slid back, vanishing into the pitch black expanse to leave an echo behind, "Eh heh heh heh…!"
Lilith's eyes fell under shadows as she mumbled callously, "Conceited amateur…Only thinks as far ahead as what her heart wants."
Her smile rose up her cheek for a moment and with a "Hmph!" she began whispering to herself, "This is a great opportunity that's been delivered to me."
Lilith nudged her head over her shoulder and remarked, "Brother…it's time for you to be of use to me."
Atrax had been behind her for a while now, receptive to her plot already, "I will tail this vermin to the location of the Theorem. What will you do with it though?"
"It is obvious. Despite his utter failure to slay the Sky Titan, Nimus proved that the blood of an Anti-Genesis Theorem user can be infused into conventional weaponry."
"I may give it to our little goddess. Provide us with another means of drawing that blood. Or maybe it will give us our own invincible warrior, entirely under my control."
She then smiled wider, "Failure…IS an option this time too."
"If the Theorem is lost or destroyed, we can spin this knowledge to feed into Borealis' paranoia and set him against that beastly fool on Obscura's throne."
"Ho ho ho, you've thought this through quickly, sister." Praised Atrax with a light bow.
Lilith smirked and held her head high, "That…is why I will outlast all the rest."
All the pieces had been moved onto the board. All that was left was to execute their plays.
The following day, Dimentio used his powers to easily slip into the general area where Borealis' Atelier resided, thanks to Solomon's prior knowledge of the area.
There the jester floated in place with a light air surrounding him and laughed, "Ah, deep inside enemy territory. How thrilling."
A quick look told him, "So far that spider seems to have been telling the truth. This space is disconnected from our dimension."
Nothing really stood out in this room besides all the books littering the shelves.
The jester snapped his fingers and rattled his body with joy, "All eyes are on me. Time to give them a marvelous show."
It felt obvious that he would know he was in the right area from the way the Theorem was described.
He could slip from dimension to dimension with the finest of ease. Each variation had subtle differences to trick the mind.
Some dimensions housed entirely new setups such as a cathedral for a wedding.
"Mmmmm, this feels familiar…and annoying." Dimentio snapped his fingers to create a few boxes around the pillars holding this place together and then blew them up, causing untold property damage after he left.
A few more slips later, and the jester was stunned silent by a pale crimson light bleeding into the sky.
He waved his hand over his face and then parted his fingers to gaze at the sinful delicacy wrapped for him over a table in the center of the room.
The crystal confining it barely held back its glow's heart-like pulse.
Dimentio slowly floated down and the light wrapped around his body, filling him with the whispers and gurgles of primordial temptation.
He took the crystal between his palms and held it over his head, feeling a twinge of nostalgia.
But then he brought it back down before his face and wondered what the voices he heard were offering.
Honestly…it sounded like a bunch of dull gibberish, and he quickly lost interest.
"Hmmm…" He paused in place and looked around. Was this really all he could do here?
He began to raise his fingers and thought about running rampant through the dimensions to cause some damage to Borealis' property.
This acquisition left him…unsatisfied.
His fingers began to press together, the light off the Anti-Genesis imprinting his shadow on the wall.
And from that shadow…wiggled a series of pointed, stick-like appendages.
They stiffened towards the jester and then thrust at him in a weave.
Dimentio froze and then quickly flipped into a two-dimensional state, letting the appendages rip through the table and floor.
The Theorem fell out of his hand and hit the ground.
Dimentio floated to safety and then flipped back to greet the spider poking their mask through the shadows.
"You…" He said, a little unsurprised.
"Stretch your web, and you will snare the biggest pests…" Atraz slipped out onto view with an arm over his chest and his appendages crawling back over to him as they shrank down to normal size.
He then strutted towards the jester, an unholy chill following in his wake.
Dimentio rubbed his chin and remarked, "So this was a trap. But whom might the trap master be?"
"You're looking at him," Atrax said with a subtle proudness in his voice, "I honestly didn't think it would be executed so flawlessly on such short notice though."
Dimentio paused and then fanned his hands out by his hips, "Ah, now I see. This was all a clever ploy to isolate me."
"You're too perceptive for your own good, and too much of an unknown variant…" atrax stopped a few feet away from the jester and hardened his spare appendages in thick, webby darkness, "I bear no grudge towards you but…you must die now."
Dimentio landed and scooped the Theorem into his right palm, "Oh, like the cockroach, you'll find I'm difficult to put down."
"You have no choice," Hissed Atrax in a deep, raspy voice, "Your script has been written, your last line spoken…Time for you to exit stage left permanently…Luigi."
Dimentio shivered and then rose with a foul hum, "I don't know who you think you are, but I imagine you just offended a lot of people with that name by comparing them to a clown."
One snap of his fingers and he had Atrax trapped in a foggy box, "Ciao~"
The appendages stabbed through and tore the box to shreds. Then they impaled the ground behind the Sage and propelled his body at the jester.
Dimentio flipped into the two-dimensional world and flipped back after the Sage stuck to the wall with their feet.
They then started walking down it, their head pulled back enough that the chin was aligned with the neck.
The appendages spewed out chunks of thick black webbing, but both flew past Dimentio without him needing to move.
They latched onto multiple books and flung them back into the jester.
Atrax then propelled off the wall and hovered close to him like a ghost, using a flurry of precision strikes from his appendages to loosen the Theorem from his grasp.
An appendage was able to poke out and take it back to their owner.
"Farewell." Whispered the spider, leaving the three remaining appendages to create a black orb with devilish red energy bleeding out of the center.
Dimentio performed a quick snap and the two were surrounded in a two-dimensional plain that swapped their places.
The energy dispersed into a cone shaped beam with black mist trailing around it, leaving a hole through the wall that led out into the infinite abstract void beyond.
The destruction was eerily silent, disarming Dimentio to the possibility that Atrax was already moving to strike.
The Sage's shadow moved over him, with appendages stretched to fling his body into the jester and send him flying towards the hole.
Two appendages then spit out gobs of webbing ahead of him to seal the hole and snare the jester.
Atrax kept one appendage down for balance and armed the other two free ones with mass quantities of dark energy.
"No 1-UP to save you this time…" His whisper echoed through the thick dark fog spewing out of the energy cascades, "Die as you lived…in the shadow of a better man."
Dimentio grunted until just two fingers were loose, all he needed to snap his way free.
The twin beams of devilish energy crossed where he was and consumed the sounds of destruction in a collapsing sphere.
In the aftermath there wasn't even sound from their breaths.
Dimentio reappeared behind Atrax and the Sage's appendage turned around and started thrusting while the rest of the body caught up.
He floated around and then flicked his wrist at the Sage to gift him with an explosive party favor made of warped energies.
The explosion splashed against his appendages and held them back, so Dimentio kept flicking his hand out and backing away, focusing on the Theorem's glow through the smoke.
When he had his chance the jester snapped his fingers to surround the crystal.
Atrax's attempts to keep it away caused the plane to wipe away the tip of his appendage.
The moment the crystal was in his hand, Dimentio was preparing to escape when Atrax attempted to pincer him between the swings of his appendages.
He uses one to propel forward and then the last to hook into the jester's top with a glob of webbing.
Then he proceeded to float around and drag him across the shelves and floor, seemingly at random.
"Die already…" The Sage whispered in a nasally tone before pinning Dimentio against the floor.
The jester chortles, "Sorry. Tried it. Wasn't a fan."
He flicked his wrist to send out a couple explosive orbs, then snapped his fingers to warp one behind Atrax while he sliced through the other.
The explosion hit the back of his mask and formed a minor crack. Dimentio then snapped his fingers to flip out of his hold and appear behind him, where he flicked another explosion at him.
Atrax spun his appendages back to slice through it. Dimentio flipped flat horizontally to slip between them.
Atrax kept swinging away at that space, thickening the appendages with dark violet-red aura until there wasn't even an atom's worth of space for Dimentio to hide in.
But he didn't need to hide anymore. He had already snuck behind Atrax, flipping out with an explosive orb growing overhead.
However, Atrax turned his head back a full ninety degrees and murmured, "Nothing but parlor tricks…"
One of his appendages then extended uncontrollably and bent at multiple different angles to spear Dimentio in the chest and send him towards the hole.
The orb and crystal were lost, and the Sage scooped them both up after turning around.
The explosion expanded within a weave of aura, but Atrax crunched it down, infused it with darkness, and then flung it at the jester.
Dimentio regained focus right as the explosion glowed in his face.
"Ah."
The wall was blown apart in utter silence and Dimentio tumbled into the void.
Atrax latched onto the sides of the walls and slingshot towards the jester.
He then sprayed webs from his appendages to latch onto walls of aura and bounce around, pummeling Dimentio with his entire body.
And commenting to him throughout, "I may have been a little rusty this time…But I am still a pureblood Aurian and YOU…"
The webbing ran across Dimentio's body to strangle his movements completely. Atrax, now floating over his web, gathered energy into all appendages, putting his mask in a grim, cold light.
"Are a redundancy…"
He slashed multiple energy blades out with a wispy trail at their back.
The webbing disintegrated and Dimentio began spewing up small geysers of hellish red energy across scars over his body.
Then he became consumed in explosions, ending off on a magnificent flourish of green.
Then there was no one but Atrax in the void, breathing a sigh of relief. He then held the side of his mask and started muttering in a trance, "Hold onto it…hold onto it…"
He started to look at his prize…but it had vanished.
He began twisting and turning his head all over to find it in the void.
A slow, mocking clap started up behind him, leaving a chill on the back of Atrax's neck.
Dimentio floated there, the crystal hovering in front of his body.
Once the clapping slowed he fanned his hands out and remarked, "Ha ha. I, too, am still adjusting to a little rust on the bones."
He then took a slight bow and took upon a more flowery tone, "Now! Let us pull back the curtain on this opening act, and begin the ultimate show…!"
Atrax stabbed his appendage at Dimentio but they quickly flipped out of sight.
Dimentio went into another dimension similar to the last, still completely intact but not where he wanted to be. The presence of floating unlit candles tipped him off.
"Mmm, now to make my way out of this maze and-Oh?"
The shadows below him began to grow outward and Atrax's appendages grew out of the edges like a gaping maw with sticky strands built between them.
Dimentio flew up as the appendages snapped together and then continued to move until inverting and stabbing the ground, pulling Atrax free to fling him at the jester.
Dimentio warped to another part of the room and flipped around, flicking his wrist around to fling explosive orbs at the ceiling.
Atrax had stuck to it and shrunk his appendages down to a manageable size, swinging them around in a wild flurry to slice apart the explosions.
"Ah ah!" Dimentio wagged his finger up and created a slightly larger explosion from it, then snapped his fingers to send the orb within the space the appendages covered.
The explosion knocked Atrax through the ceiling and Dimention snapped away to another dimension, still far off from his destination.
And the moment he arrived his own shadow rose up and ensnared him in sticky threads. Atrax then rose from the edge, his lower body consumed in thick darkness as his appendages were already fully charged with hellish light.
Dimentio and half the room were erased, but the crystal endured, ready to be snatched up in Atrax's limb.
But then it was knocked out by a few explosions hammering his back. Dimentio flipped into view in front of him, took the crystal, waved, and then flipped off into another dimension.
He wound up in a room with a spare cauldron and upon taking a quick glance at it snapped his fingers to swap places with it.
The cauldron caught Atrax emerging from the shadows and bonked him on the mask, making more cracks form.
Atrax then pressed his face against it and used it to fling the cauldron towards the jester, obscuring his appendages' ensuing strike.
They stabbed through the metal together and then sliced them apart, immediately using webbing to keep a hold on them.
He slowly moved forward while lashing these makeshift hammers around to tear apart the room, the debris flying around making for convenient enough distractions to keep the jester from slipping away again.
"Tsk tsk, isn't this tantrum a bit much?" Dimentio said, weathering the attacks until Atrax was hovering inches in front of him.
He was taking in breaths like he was trapped underwater. His body did not move save for his appendages.
Said appendages stretched back hundreds of feet and then snapped together to impale the four corners of Dimentio's body. They then kept squeezing him down, suspending him higher up. His body expanded, then popped like a balloon full of confetti.
Atrax's breathing got heavier, he twisted his head back ninety degrees and one appendage stabbed through an incoming explosive orb, then filled it with darkness to send it back to its master and erase him.
Dimentio then floated in front of him within the void and snapped his fingers to take back the crystal he left behind.
The moment it was in his grasp a web latched onto his wrist and tore the hand off.
Dimentio tried to snap his fingers but another web tore his hand off. Then more and more of this continued to pile onto his body, tearing him apart one piece at a time until there was naught but air in the void.
Atrax silently craned his head back and watched explosions rain from the sky like a meteor shower, bombarding his dangling appendages and breaking them apart.
Dimentio appeared amidst the clouding smoke, snatched the crystal, and ran for another dimension.
New appendages shoved out of the old, dripping with sticky, black fluids, and Atrax's breathing grew heavier.
Dimentio appeared in another Atelier and felt oh so close to where he needed to be.
Only for yet another appendage to spear him through the chest and extend to pin him against the wall.
Atrax pulled himself out of the shadows and towards the jester, who then snapped his fingers and commented with delight.
"Ah, wait no, this is EXACTLY where I want to be."
Light flushed into the room over the empty ceiling. The walls holding this room together fell one after the other.
Behind them, a flood of Dimentios each readying an explosive orb.
Atrax eviscerated the Dimentio in front of him and turned around, pinned by the cacophony of laughter.
All the Dimentios fired their orbs at once, creating a massive explosion to build up on top of the spider.
One voice spoke through thousands, taunting the helpless spider as they were pinned down by a second volley, "One rat is just a nuisance. Two rats are a problem. A thousand rats…are a plague."
A third salvo was being prepped as the jester no longer spoke with amusement, "Next time you want to stop a plague, bring better bait to trap the rat."
"Now…The grand finale!" The explosions this time glittered and fired off a series of fireworks into the void. The Dimentios clapped in unison and bowed.
Suddenly, strands of webbing hardened and speared through the entire flood, save for one, who was exposed when the appendages parted the flood.
The smoke cleared and Atrax was now breathing like he was taking in water. His body was messed up and his mask was on the verge of breaking.
"I. See. You."
Dimentio calmly snapped his fingers to trap Atrax's head in a box, "With that thing on? Doubt it. Here let me remove it…and your head along with it!"
One more snap signaled the end.
Atrax started to murmur in an increasingly unhinged and faster tone. "Nonononononono…Hold on…hold on…!"
The moment the explosion went off, there was utter silence.
Then a thick dark fog spewed out from behind Atrax's mask, flushing Dimentio down into an abyss so deep the Theorem only illuminated his hands.
There were a series of clicks, then a gurgling, choking sound.
A gasp of relief broke free, prolonging itself on the lucidity of ecstasy.
Then, spoke Atrax, as calm and unsettling as the darkest night, "Ok…I will…let you…take your treasure to your king."
"Buuuuuuut…you will swear to me…that you will not say a single thing about our meeting…or what you've seen."
Dimentio was unable to move even a hair on his skin. It was as though his whole body had been bitten and encased in frost.
"You're more mad than I if you think I wil-"
"Yes or no jester I didn't permit a monologue." Atrax spoke in a giddy haste.
"No, obviously."
"Aaaaaah see, that was my greatest trick…Making you assume you had consent in the matter."
"So I will say it again…"
"You did not see Atrax today."
Dimentio floated there as the darkness faded and left him in the void.
The crystal was in his hand, the scattered remnants of Borealis' alternate surrounding him.
He felt a little dizzy but came out otherwise unscathed.
Now, he safely tucked his prize into his pocket and chuckled, "All too easy…"
A few more snaps and a few more jumps later and he was back to his native dimension, where he made his way back to Obscura, dreaming of the red carpet rolling out for his success.
Instead he arrived at the palace with a silent audience. Curiously, that spider was here among the guests.
Dimentio floated up to Solomon and presented the crystal out over his palms.
"Here you go, easy as pie." He spoke nonchalantly.
Even constrained by Borealis' best efforts the Theorem left an ill glow throughout the room.
"Hrrrmmm," Growled Xiark, eyeing the spider carefully, "You were telling the truth."
Atrax shrugged it off, and the Titan faced Solomon with an ultimatum, "Now, you WILL decide what to do with it."
Solomon looked at the Theorem and it seemed to pulse in tune with his heart beat. A shapeless mass of crimson wiggled inside the crystal.
He started to hear deep whispers in his ears that overlapped with one another and looked up at Dimentio curiously, "You took a while, was there any difficulty?"
"Mmm, a few traps here and there, but nothing too exciting." Dimentio said with a humble tone.
The Vizier was fuming from a distance, blurting out a shrill "How?!" towards Dimentio.
Dimentio paid her little heed and snapped his fingers at Solomon, delighting in an idea, "Oh, I could hide it away in another dimension."
Atrax voiced an objection, "Don't be cocky, jester. What if you can never find it?"
Dimentio turned around and looked like he was raising his brow behind that mask, "Isn't...that the point?"
Atrax shook his head, "You've witnessed what it's capable of in the hands of our dear princess. Who can say? It may be the decisive tool you need against Borealis. Best to store it away for safekeeping."
"There is NOWHERE safe for it." Xiark proclaimed.
"Then do something about it, oh noble Titan. Isn't that what your kind is here for?"
Xiark began to split open, "By all means...give me another reason, Aurian."
Solomon continued to stare at the Theorem. The whispers were growing louder, more coherent. His heartbeat quickened, his gaze began to burn, until all he could hear was the echoes of something dire in his soul.
Without a second's hesitation, he gripped the crystal tightly between his fingers with all his strength and began to grunt.
Atrax and Xiark turned on him, the Titan growling loudly, "Suicidal fool...!"
Atrax could be heard gritting his teeth with a nasally hiss.
The crystal cracked and the Theorem burned into Solomon's armor and spread throughout his body as a thick, deep crimson aura.
He moaned deeply in pain as the Theorem continued to seep into his skin and bones, penetrating and perverting the deepest recesses of his body.
His whole being was soaking in hellfire, the agony indescribable and yet so very, very cold.
He widened his eyes as far as they'd go and with one final grunt, finished squeezing his hand to make the aura compress into his body.
With all eyes on him, he gently laid his hand back atop the arm of his throne and remarked, "...If Borealis Aurora wants his property back, he is welcome to try and take it."
Dimentio was the first to break the silence and wonder, "Mmmm, shouldn't something have...happened?"
Xiark was stunned, "You're...unaffected?"
He then took a sniff and though confused, began to relax, "...The contract is still intact. You are still the present vessel for my Wellspring."
Atrax lowered a hand before his chin and muttered, "His Wellspring didn't have a negative reaction to the Theorem...?"
"Then this would mean..." There was much to consider...
Solomon, however, knew only the sting of utter disappointment...And he couldn't explain why.
He didn't even know what he was expecting to happen, that was a moment of impulse and nothing more and yet...for a brief moment, his heart did stir.
The Anti-Genesis Theorem wasn't conquered but rather tamed. It was etched into his soul and it burned faintly inside.
Just another sensation...to occupy the hollow space inside his body.
"Thmph...!"
"Thmph...!"
"THMPH...!"
Next Time: The Fall of a Shooting Star