Chapter 45: Mounting Pressure

A hypocrite... that’s all Zayn was.

The exact thing he hated most in the world.

He was no better than the people who showed up to his sister’s funeral, who bore nothing but their greedy histrionics, pleading for people to feel sorry for them.

Zayn had loathed the world, but now he despised himself more.

He couldn’t do it...

If he couldn’t leave someone to die on their own, how was he ever going to commit the vile, atrocious act of murder?

’Damn it.’

Had he not said he’d do anything for Fluffles? Had he not promised to try to live?

Zayn wanted to cry. A cry spurred by the unfairness of his situation.

He wasn’t a murderer and didn’t have nearly the capacity he thought he had. It wasn’t like he lacked the hatred — he lacked the cruelty.

Zayn clutched at the dirt, which began to swallow the dead bodies of humans and goblins alike under the terrible song of the trees or whatever was out there. As he stared at the quickly fading dead bodies around him, Zayn knew he’d have to come to a decision soon...

Resolve himself to complete the task, or ignore it...

What would he do?

Upon the knolls just born, flowers quickly sprouted and covered the ground. Each group of flowers spawned from a dead body. When Zayn looked out into the night forest, he could see shadows of the dead or those barely living being hoisted into the air by black tendrils.

’I can’t believe myself...’

He’d just saved a disaster.

At the same time, he was preparing to take another disaster’s life.

’Who am I to play god? Deciding who lives and dies?’

Zayn punched the dirt, sending a small shockwave that sent shivers through his body. He could feel the bones of his fist had slightly misaligned, but he didn’t care.

’I told himself I was resolved to do whatever necessary.’

Looking over at the girl with porcelain skin, that lie was quickly exposed.

Zayn popped his fingers back into place with a quiet grimace on his face. He looked toward Axel, the other disaster. The one he’d been resolving himself to kill.

Then he heard the searing scream of a man outside the camp being hoisted into the air. Zayn spotted the man as he rose above the camp, caught in the black tendrils, and saw his flesh melting and sliding off his body to the ground as the trees dragged him up.

He was one of the fireball’s victims.

...

"Damn it all..."

Once again, Zayn thought of what the disasters could be.

Maybe it was the people themselves. Perhaps it wasn’t the people, but a power within them.

Either way...

Would the disasters turn out as monstrous as these trees, slowly torturing and killing their victims?

Would the disasters themselves cause such a terrible scene?

Such terrible pain?

The man’s screams faded following a devastating crunch.

The damned hypocrite finally came to a decision.

’B-before we leave this place... I will kill Axel. No matter the consequence.’

Especially now that an avenue of mystical power had been discovered, Zayn couldn’t allow that man to cultivate it.

His resolve was still shaky, but he would do it. He had to do it.

He wouldn’t gamble humanity.

The question then became:

’How will I stay hidden?’

It was as he said that to himself that a woman crouched in front of him, blocking his view of Shin Hae-Ryung.

«Are you okay?»

After giving her a wry smile, he whispered and signed at the same time.

"No, not at all." «Yes. Yes, I am.»

***

The days following the fight were slow and painful. The survivors split the shards among themselves and forced themselves to push forward.

They began by raiding the weaker camps, then proceeded to the larger ones.

With each shard gained, the enhancements were minor, but they added up. At one point, Lucas ordered all the shards to be funneled into six people, and one of them was Zayn.

Zayn continued to absorb fragments as they raided fort after fort, pushing toward the goblin castle, which they’d evenutally located.

They were closing in on the decisive day.

The day the remaining twenty-five Summoned would raid the Goblin King’s castle.