Trash: Chapter 138 Death's Destroyer (Patreon)

Chapter 138

Death’s Destroyer

Crackling static and the scent of ozone and more, those are the sensations that my body is processing as occurring from the world around me. Those sensations and of course a natural revulsion to the dark cloaked apparitions of death flowing seamlessly in the ground before me.

Apparitions that look to be the embodiment of death itself, at least the embodiment of death how it was portrayed in my past life. Now though, now the threat was made real, but it had flaws. It wasn’t a god, far from it, but rather it was just a construct, a combination of bones, an untiring spirit, and of course mana.

To the average person, such a being would be impossible to deal with. Even for those who had a proclivity for the light magic, it was often too much to fully destroy them. Seals help, but they are only part of the process of protection. For the ultimate way to protect ourselves from the unmitigated violence that are Death Eaters is the ability to destroy them completely.

Seeing dozens of them being released set something off deep within me. A protector’s instinct, one that has been trained in me since I went into nursing, and now there was something more. Something deeper, as I could feel a boiling hatred burning in my blood at just how close I was to these mindless murderers. Monsters whose sole purpose and desire is to kill and feed from the dead. Creatures who have far outlived their natural lifespans and now run amok, threatening my friends, and those whom I now consider my own.

I am already running, my body and mind reacting to the threat, running towards the problem while others run away.  Only now that I am back on the ground, back on solid earth, I feel the world come alive once more and begin filling me with information. I can feel the panicking movement of hundreds of feet all clamoring to try to escape. The way, the guards are bracing themselves into fighting stances. Most importantly, I can feel the movement of the Death Eaters, as they try to ooze their way through the shadows on the ground. It is the Death Eaters that send a slimy oily image of movement to my mind. Their movements and very natures so repulsive that even the ground they move upon cannot seem to stand them.

Each step forward, I feel a pulse and jolt of electricity generate towards my heart and pulse down to my feet. I know it is not electricity, it is my mind’s interpretation of Light energy building up and leaving me, but the closest sensation I can get to describing this phenomenon is electricity. With each step, I feel my skin tingle slightly, as my hair begins to rise up on its own and stick to the inside of my veil. I feel all of these sensations, but it is the earth that tells me where to go. Turing right, I reach out and stomp the ground, my foot piercing through the protective coating of shadow protecting the nearest Death Eater, thanks to the energy infused from my Holy Sword of Slaying seal*. A seal that now accounts for three of my seven seal slots.

“GHAAA!” A wrihting shriek pierces through the cries for help and horror that are going on around me, as a Death Eater is forcefully ejected from the ground. My first attack similar to the stomping of the tail of cat and producing an equally violent shriek in response. However, unlike my times with cats, I fully intended this strike. Seeing the cloud of dark smoke rise up, revealing a dark malevolently red beating heart before me, I didn’t focus on the lack of a weapon in my hands and instead felt my Holy Sword of Slaying seal* seal within my chest erupt outwards, filling my hands just as it had for my sword strikes earlier. This time, the force of energy stopped at my fingertips, which was perfect for me, as I used those same fiery fingertips to burn their way through the protective coating of the Death Eaters, and pierce their way to the very heart of the Death Eater.

Badump, badump, badump. Being this close, my fingers could feel the oddly cold heartbeat of the monster before me. A monster that was defenseless against my strike as I had managed to pierce through its back. Realizing there would not be a better chance at vengeance, I struck. The boiling blood within me, automatically activating and sparking with rage that seemed to fuel every part of my bloodline. Without even having to focus, I felt a surge of energy as my bloodline’s Soul Devour Skill activated on its own and allowed me to burn my way through the brittle bones of the Death Eater. My burning fingers forcing their way through the ribcage and finally grabbing the violently pulsing and throbbing red heart of the Death Eater.

I had to be careful, last time I encountered this particular organ, I wasn’t aware of the dangers. Leading to a near violent result as it exploded, sending corrupting crystal shards into my body. Thankfully I managed to remove the shards and heal the wounds before anyone was the wiser, but had I not been faster, then I too would likely be serving trial right now.

As it was, I felt the heart beating and pulsing in my hand. Feeling like grabbing a still living fish from a fishbowl with your bare hands before you attempt to clean the tank. Fortunately, my bloodline Skill was more than a match for this pulsing stone, as I felt the power of my bloodline instantly quell the stone and make it slightly less slippery and slimy, allowing me to pull it free from the body it was in and fueling.

The moment my hand holding the cold beating crystal was free, the energy that had been fueling the abomination of a monster stopped, causing a cascading failure of the monster, as it collapsed into a clattering pile on the ground. The shadows that had been serving as a protective cloak, began to fade like fog being melted away by heat. As for the stone, I held it up, burning it away with a combination of Trash, and Soul Devour. Trash helped to burn away and dissolve the outer layer of protective crystal faster, while Soul Devour consumed all the remaining energy within the heart almost immediately.

My only mistake was holding the crystal at near eyelevel so I could have a better insight into what I was doing. Only after the last fleck of red light dissolved and the chance for an explosion was gone did I realize just how close I had been to possibly pull a Madame Voyou and losing an eye thanks to shrapnel.

Fortunately, I worked quickly, destroying the heart in moments and then even dissolving the remaining ash, before it could be picked up and scattered by the wind.

With the first Death Eater dealt with, I looked down to see an old corpse at my feet that wore clothes that were oddly modern. Or at least more recent than one would think, given the state of the body. The bones looked as if they had aged dozens of years due to the decomposition, while the clothes were relatively fresh and intact by comparison.

I only had a moment to be distracted by the body at my feet, before the earth once again warned me about the sickeningly wrong movement of bodies. Bodies that seemed to swim and glide along the surface of the earth. Each movement sends waves of revulsion through me as I could feel their approach.

These two seemed to recognize the threat I posed and decided to face me head on. Which was great, as I felt myself lowering back into my fighter’s stance. My movement is natural, as I let my body fall into its natural rhythm of movement.

Leaning back, waiting for the precise moment to strike. A fire burning deep within my chest, as I could feel my body all but tingling with newfound resolve to fight. While I had an inherent fear of these monsters, I used that fear to push me onward, to force me to fight back.

While the two Death Eaters tried to strike as one, they were slightly off, the one to my right was slightly faster. Its ability to swim in shadows was slightly better, allowing it to slither farther with each push and ultimately surge forth from the shadows faster than the one to the left. This was perfect for me, as I used that moment to sidestep right, planting my right leg into the ground, then channeling energy from my Holy Sword of Slaying seal* into my left foot I kicked. My leg arching out and striking the first Death Eater almost as soon as it began to emerge from the bubbling shadow that was barely able to conceal it in the noonday light.

The force was so violent that I felt my feet burn their way through the protective cloak and shatter the skull of the Death Eater. Off balance from the blow, the Death Eater stumbled and fell to its left, my right. At that same time the second Death Eater emerged from my left. I had already been anticipating this, as I regained my balance and quickly swung my still raised left leg back to my left. Using my heel to grab and hook the skull of the second Death Eater. My foot grabbing and guiding the second Death Eater closer and straight to the ground, its body face down in a prone position, with my foot burning away the layer of protective coating and revealing an exposed neck.

I kept my weight on the neck, but used this moment to drop down, my right knee digging deep into the spine of the Death Eater, who tried to escape to submerge into my own shadow, but couldn’t. I could feel its attempt, an oddly cold tingling sensation that caused a deep chill to fill my very bones. It was an unnatural feeling, and one that filled me with revulsion. Realizing that it couldn’t enter my own shadows thanks to my protective Seals that had been put into place. I found myself thanking Third Prince Fiamatta, and the Seal master who injured himself to protect me. Only now did I realize how much of a blessing this was, as I could feel the unnatural response trying to worm its way into me. Resisting the sudden urge to vomit at the absurd attempt for the monster to try to enter me, I instead used the moment of confusion to make my own strike. Taking my right hand, I reached back, and struck out, a wave of violent Light energy coursing through my arm.

My body was already feeling the intense strain of using Seals, just as I had the other day when I was clearing out main street, but this time it was a deeper ache for I was using Seals in combat, which was far more draining than I had imagined. Still, persisted, knowing that if I stopped now, I would die. Or at the very least I would let others die, while I attempted to catch my breath. That is why I pushed on, and struck out, my hand burning through the dark cloak, only to switch to my bloodline Skill seamlessly as I hit bone. Only to then burn my way through that same bone, grabbing the slimy still beating heart from the second Death Eater.

A sickening popping sound occurred, as I pulled my hand free, revealing a slightly smaller in size, but still rapidly beating heart. Holding it up at eye level, I made a mistake.

Well, truthfully I made multiple mistakes. I focused too much on the one downed opponent, going for the sure kill, rather than keeping track of the world around me. There was also the fact that I now had what was the equivalent of a biological hand-grenade in pulsing and counting down within my hand. A hand grenade that I now needed to defuse before biologically contaminating shrapnel fired out and infected dozens of nearby victims. Victims that now included some of the now advancing Royal Order of Watcher Officers who were charging forward to assist me.

But the most glaring thing was, that I didn’t keep track of the first Death Eater, one who was dazed but clearly not out. I missed the warnings from the earth below telling me that the monster was advancing upon me in secret. A scythe made of shadows slashing out towards me.

Turning at the last moment, I was caught completely unaware of the danger behind me. My body moving on reflex, before I took a shadow strike to the back. My body ducking and moving, spinning out of the way, only to realize that in my haste to move out of the way, I dropped the beating heart of the second Death Eater.

Realizing my mistake, I tried to go back towards the beating crystalline heart, only to be stopped by the Death Eater who also had their glowing green eyes set on the pulsing crystalline heart.

With deft movements, the Death Eater dove forward, diving face first at the crystal, then I could only watch on in horror as the Death Eater let out a vortex of force from its mouth and sucked in the still beating heart.

The third and final Death Eater dropped into the shadows, but I could tell something was happening. It was absorbing the energy of its fallen comrade, a fact that was shown to me through my connection to the earth below, as I could feel an intense radiation of cold washing out from the earth and into me through our odd connection. Additionally, I could see how the intense glowing red light of the beating heart of the last Death Eater seemed to glow brighter as the second absorbed heart wormed its way down the dark shadows and melded with its own heart, causing an even brighter light to erupt.

In less than a moment the final Death Eater rose from the ground and began to grow in both size and shadow thickness before me. That’s when I knew I had messed up, and things were about to go from bad to worse.