Chapter 383: The Madness of {Desire}

Desire.

There’s this funny...thing about [Desire].

It can serve as the ultimate motivator, allowing one to take up the courage to conquer seas, the passion to help the dying and make the impossible possible.

But if you indulge in an [Desire] to deeply, you can very easily go mad because of it.

In that way, [Desire] could be considered the world’s oldest narcotic.

It matters not how "noble" or "altruistic" a desire maybe, it can still drive one to madness, all the same.

Heroism can be suicidal.

Regret can devolve into despair.

Resolve can be...stubborn.

________________________________________________

’That magma bitch should be here...but why does it feel wrong?,’ Balos thought to himself as he arrived at his destination.

As Balos was making his way to this particular part of the formation’s space, he made use of the red horned woman’s aether signature as a guiding light/bullseye.

Up until this point, it was pretty straightforward, like a moth to a flame, but once he reached the point where the source of heat and light should have been...he found nothing.

’Perhaps I went in the wrong direction? But that should be impossible...unless...’

Balos was just about to turn about and try one of the other aether signatures that his compatriots were dealing with, when a most insidious voice began to whisper in his ear.

{Do you know?}

*FWOOSH!*

’What?’

The moment Balos felt the whisper at his side, he swung out an empowered blow, aiming to incapacitate or decapitate whoever or whatever was messing with him.

But much to his surprise, there was nothing behind him and his swing went wide.

’It didn’t feel like aether transmittance, or anima usage...it felt like it was right at my ear! What the fuck?’

The [Five Shadow Kings] formation should have suppressed things such as sound...so how the fuck did he hear a voice in his ears?!

{Do you know?,} the voice repeated again.

Balos didn’t answer the question being asked of him. He wasn’t entirely sure, but his own instincts told him that it would be a bad idea for him to answer such an innocuous sounding question.

’Wait... instincts? Why am I listening to my instincts, that’s not how I usually-.’

{Do you know?}

"Know what?! Shit!," Balos answered in anger seconds before realizing he had fucked up.

As soon as those words left his mouth, Balos began to feel that the air around him was becoming hotter and hotter by the second.

{Oh. So you don’t know...}

"Don’t know what?! How can I not know something if you don’t tell me what that something is!," Balos shouted back, partially insulted, partially compelled. He had no reason to answer this voice, but something inside him forced him to answer.

’Wait...how am I hearing my own voice?’

Balos’s head uncharacteristically darted back and forth in a manner similar to a frantic search, as if he truly forgot that he was locked in pure darkness.

It was during this frantic search, that he somehow came face to face with a horned skull made of solid jade, burning with an unearthly fire, staring into his eyes and soul.

Somehow, in an area of pure darkness, he could see something.

But at this point, something was pressing itself so strongly on his psyche that he couldn’t make this observation, instead, it felt as if something was pressing on his mind so strongly that he couldn’t muster anything except responses to this weird ass skull.

{So...you don’t know...what makes a hero?}

"What...makes a hero?’

{Exactly...want to find out?}

But before Balos could respond, negatively or positively, the skull’s jaw became impossibly wide and...

________________________________________________

’Alright mammoth man, let’s see how tough you are,’ Fili mused as he approached the "coldest" spot in the formation.

This wasn’t the same kind of cold one might feel when surrounded by snow for example, instead it was more of a...emotional cold.

That feeling of cold one gets when they’re near someone that just doesn’t want to be sociable in the least bit.

As Fili approached this cold spot, he could feel a chill crawl up his spine.

’Yeesh. How unapproachable does someone have to be cause this kind of effect even when essentially invisible?,’ he thought to himself. However, what he failed to realize was that this chill up his spine wasn’t because of an emotional coldness, but one that was very physical.

’Hold up...why am I feeling snowflakes on my arms?’

{Do you remember?}

’Whoa! What the fuck?!’

Just as soon as Fili realized he was surrounded by literal, physical coldness, a deep booming voice, like a glacier spontaneously breaking and reforming all at the same time, that seemed to have come from nowhere and everywhere all at once, suddenly asked him a question

For the life of him, Fili couldn’t determine where that voice was coming from exactly, but it was all the same...concerning.

’I heard that...no, wait...I felt that?!’

{Do you remember?}

"Remember what? ...hold up...why did I hear that?"

*SLAM!*

"WHOA!"

Before he could comprehend the strangeness in his situation, a giant foot came crashing down from above and stomped right in front of him. From what he could see, the foot and the leg it was attached to, was covered in strange runes that seemed to break and reform into new ones every couple of seconds like it was nothing.

Fili felt as if he stared at this foot he could unlock some weird secret of the universe, but before he could, the booming voice asked him the same question as before, but with a little bit of detail added this time.

{Do you remember...what it means to regret? To feel despair over a mistake?}

"What? No, never!"

{Are you sure?}

Before Fili could argue back at the disembodied voice, failing to comprehend that this shouldn’t be possible in the first place, the ground beneath suddenly broken apart and...

________________________________________________

’Hold up, something’s wrong.’

’Huh?’

Ogrim and Dane were making their way towards the "electrical" aether signature and were just about to engage. However, the latter of the duo proceeded to stop while signalling the other two stop as well.

Of the shadow leaders present, Ogrim knew that Dane was the most sensitive of the four when it came to unusual fluctuations in aether, so when he requested to stop, Ogrim knew it was smarter to listen.

’...Fili and Balos disappeared.’

’What?! How?’

’I don’t...wait...they haven’t disappeared...it’s like they’re...being suppressed? It feels as if they were both swallowed up by...something.’

’Something? What do you mean something?’

’I...don’t know. I just know that it’s not aether, it’s not anima and it’s definitely not dragon force...but I don’t know what it is.’

{Have you felt it?,} a voice sounding as if it was tinged with lightning suddenly asked.

This voice had the immediate effect of causing both Ogrim and Dane to go on the defensive.

"Who’s there?!"

"Why are you yelling? Wait,how did I hear that? Why can I hear myself?!"

"What the fuck?!"

{Hey, hey! I just asked, have you felt it?,} the voice again with a tinge of annoyance to it this time.

Ogrim and Dane didn’t know how to answer such a strange question, and every fiber of their being told them not to ask for more information.

But something else seemed to pry the words out of their mouths.

"Felt what?," they asked in unison.

Ogrim and Dane looked at each other in surprise, realizing in consecutive shocks that they could see each other and that they both answered the exact same thing like it was nothing.

{Oh? You haven’t felt it then? That feeling of determination, resolve, that boils in your belly and cook your insides to cinders when you want to achieve something?,} the voice asked in more detail.

Ogrim and Dane had no idea how to answer this question. It was then, that they felt something wrap around their respective shoulders and the voice seemed to get close to their ears.

{Would you like to know that feeling?}

Before they could respond or lash out, feeling of electricity coursing through their veins began to press against the shoulders and...

________________________________________________

"What’s taking them so long? They should have killed those bastards ages ago!"

"We don’t know, Miss Venus. But we can still sense that they’re alive."

"Hmm, no shit."

Outside the formation, Fia Venus was watching the sphere of darkness intently, waiting for the Blue Shadow leaders to exit with their respective kills, hopefully somewhat intact.

While she wasn’t entirely sure, but she had a feeling that the corpses of "demons" could probably sell for a nice profit.

"Tsk! If only that Marquis de Howlite guy didn’t kick the bucket a few months back. Could have sold it to him for a lot coin."

As Fia stood and watched the scene, Victor, Simos and Graff were sitting off to the sidelines, discussing their next course of action.

"So... y’all think those leaders will kill those demons?," Graff asked

"I’m going with...fuck no. Did you see how freakishly strong those things were? Their rankings might have been equal, but I know an unfair fight when I see one," Simos responded.

"Then that is all the more reason why we should bail," Victor reiterated, "But we can’t exactly leave without everyone noticing."

"Right...so what do we do?"

"We need a distraction, but what?"

It was in that exact moment, the sound of cobblestones audibly shattering could be heard as if something concentrated yet dense landed on them.

"Ask and ye shall receive."

"Sup jackasses!"