Chapter 7: Solos
"Human… thou art strong. What is thy name?"
Solos's voice hung in the sulfur choked air of Mount Gahena, eerily calm despite the volcanic steam curling around them like grasping fingers.
With slow, deliberate motion, he reached up and lifted the blood soaked veil from his face.
What emerged was no divine visage nor serene glow of celestial perfection but a grotesque abomination of flesh melted and reformed in uneven layers, eyes sunken into pits of writhing veins, mouth stretched impossibly wide around jagged teeth that dripped ceaseless crimson. The face pulsed like a living wound, beautiful only to those who worshiped decay.
Such a sight,Dax tilted his head, studying it with clinical fascination rather than revulsion.
"I am the black researcher, Dax Godfall." His lips curled upward, a high, fractured laugh slipped through unable to control himself he held unto his face. "But you… hihihihihi…"
Solos stared, unblinking. Arrogant human you come from that wretched clan. Those fools who thought they could look down on god. Godfalls… they all deserve to die.I don't know why he other gods never took action.
"Good," Solos whispered, tears of warped joy spilling down his ruined cheeks crimson trails carving fresh scars into his flesh. "Then let us kill each other…. oooooh thy shall sacrifice you to appease the heart of thy God."
His palm turned upward, fingers splaying like claws.
In an instant, the flesh of Dax's right arm peeled away unzipped by an invisible force, sliding off like a discarded glove. Tendons unraveled in neat coils and muscles sloughed free in glistening ropes.
Only pitch black bone remained, gleaming unnaturally in the dim light. Dax murmured, tilting his exposed arm for a better look. "How Neat."
Above Solos's head, the discarded flesh reappeared hovering above his mouth which widening grotesquely as blood dripped, he siphoned every drop of blood from Dax pealed of flesh. He swoll, forming a shimmering orb of pure, concentrated red energy he brimmed with stolen vitality.
{Stupid master!}
Inerous shrieked inside his mind, voice sharp with rare panic.{Don't let him drink your blood!}
"Inerous, You've gained an independent consciousness, how wonderful." He ignored her words and instead focused her changes.
He raised Cil, the scythe hummed eagerly in his grip, In a single, clean motion, he unleashed an unrestrained attack.
A crimson arc tore through the air devouring light and sound itself, a void slicer that warped the volcanic peak beneath them.
Solos didn't even glance at it.
His entire focus locked onto the glowing orb of Dax's blood, hunger eclipsing all caution but that was a fatal mistake without an ounce of struggle the black arc passed through his neck in silence.
His head slid free of his shoulders tumbling lazily to the ash strewn ground. Silence descended, broken only by the distant rumble of lava flows.
Mmm… interesting. Dax stepped toward the fallen body, eyes alight with scientific hunger. I must study this thing.
Before he could get to the severed head a divine voice boomed across the entire mountain,making it shake loose avalanches of superheated rock free.
"Thou hast trespassed upon the holy lands. Depart.. or die."
A radiant figure floated a mile away golden hair flowing like liquid sunlight, golden eyes blazing with unyielding judgment, a blade of pure, world cleaving light aimed directly at Dax.
"Another one?" Dax's eyes gleamed, his pupils dilating with predatory interest. "are you back up for that thing?" They don't look the same tho maybe it's a different faction. While he observed he distant figure he noticed a flicker of flame danced in the angel's grasp small and dying,on closer observation he noticed it was a man.
"I've seen that flame before, just like that of that mad man but different. I want it."bis voice as barley a whisperbut to the figurein the sky he was mad.
In the next instant, he no clipped appearing beside the golden angel, he unplugged the unconscious man from his arms as effortlessly as harvesting ripe fruit from a low branch.
Then he was back where he started, holding unto the limp old man clad in heavy amour by the collar like a lazy thief sauntering home with his prize.
The golden angel froze mid hover, blade still extended in empty air.I didn't… see him? What is going on? What s his purpose? That was when he noticed the white hair.
Just then a dry, ugly laugh echoed through Mount Gahena rasping, infectious and laced with madness.
"Hehehehe…"
Blood surged upward from Solos's decapitated head, pressure followed crashing down like a mountain had collapsed.
"Ah. So you didn't die." dax had deep amusement in his eyes.
While Solos's severed head floated upward, wrapped in writhing strands of crimson hair that lashed like living whips. Arteries burst outward from the neck stump, weaving frantically into a new torso, new limbs, new wings flesh bubbling and reforming in grotesque acceleration.
In seconds, a regenerated body stood tall a twisted echo of Vabon's earlier form, but far bloodier: skin translucent over pulsing organs, crowned with a blazing crimson halo that wept droplets of molten red.
"Forgive me for showing thee an uglier side.. and I thank thee… for thy blood. Thy blood has given me life." Solos voice trembled with masochistic ecstasy.
His halo erupted.
An endless river of blood poured forth pouring to the volcanoes edge as it sizzled s it filled a small portion this action alone seized the golden angels distraction,as it lunged forward with blinding speed, as his blade created trails of holy fire.
Dax frowned faintly, irritation flickering across his features. "One tastes a drop of my blood and believes himself unstoppable." trully what is happening inerous? Why is my blood making is stronger?
{it's all thanks to the evolution f insatiable hunger to origin eater. And because you don't know the full prospects of the origin body you let him eat your flesh.}
Origin Body?
He stabbed Cil into the scorched earth, then gently laid the unconscious Micah beside her blade.
"Protect him."
Dax spread his arms wide. So my blood special? So much to understand what have I become?.
Above his head, a halo materialized a mixture of black and red, studded with drifting stars like a microcosm of devoured galaxies. It rotated slowly at first… then faster… then hungrily, emitting a low, gravitational hum that rattled bones and bent light.
He rose from the ground, levitating effortlessly into the sky.
The pull began subtle at first, a light suction then a world-breaking vortex that clawed at everything with mass.
Solos and the golden angel ignored the mounting danger, blinded by their obsessions to their duty to god but solos began to feel something he had never felt.
If I devour his blood again maybe…
Solos licked his regenerating lips, eyes manic. I might just ascend, I must have more, I have to have more.
Meanwhile rage boiled in the other, you dare interrupt my duty to my lord The golden angel's resolve hardened, wings flaring brighter.
The mountain cracked under the strain fissures spidering outward. Trees shattered into splinters. Even the blood dripping from his halo defied gravity spiraling inexorably toward Dax at the vortex's eye.
ESCAPE!
Vabon's soul screamed inside Solos's mind primal and filled with animal terror overwhelmed the angel's divine thoughts, a mortal echo clawed for survival.
Solos staggered mid charge, eyes widening in disbelief, this… this is impossible! A mortal soul is overpowering me!? why?
His body betrayed him before his will could protest instinct seizing control. This is my body! Vabon yelled from within withouth hesitation like he had done before he turned.
Fleeing to the sky his wings beat desperately against the devouring force, racing toward the horizon as the event horizon of Dax's hunger closed in.