[BIAW] Chapter 167 - Long Overdue Family Meeting (Patreon)

I launch myself forward and swim towards the battle as fast as I can. Right under the three silhouettes duking it out in the middle of the water, I can see the three distinct armies entangled in a small war. Previously, it was only Sahuagins versus the joint forces of the sea people that arrived here to aid us, but now, a third group has joined in, the prisoners.

There are way more people who have been locked up by those bastards than I would have honestly guessed. One thing that isn’t surprising is the fact that the majority of them are females. We’ve seen what becomes of most males of most races with our own eyes, and it’s nothing pleasant.

Still, a small percentage of men can be spotted in their ranks, leading the mad charge against the enemy that has wronged them so much. The women don’t lack the drive to take revenge either, not falling that far behind their men, but it’s obvious from a single glance that the male half takes it very seriously to handle the punishment in the name of their families, friends, relatives, and generally their kins.

Everyone is equipped with decent weapons and I’m glad that my idea to put the supplies on their path worked well. The angry mob is like an enraged beast, going after any Sahuagin in front of it without any remorse or hesitation. The ferocity and savagery surprise both the fish bastards and the joint forces. But, after everything these people went through, who is going to blame them?

Thanks to their help, the scales are now tipped even more in our favour. It looks like our side has already noticed the unresponsive corpse of the Kraken and its demise raises the morale of our army by quite a lot. I can imagine how it appears to them. A legendary monstrosity that should announce a pitiful end for anyone involved has now become a symbol of hope.

My precious ladies are naturally still assisting the mixed forces however they can, covering their weaker points and mistakes. Neira and Cornelia are equally as fierce and fearsome as my two evolved Slime beauties. Each pair supports a different group while wreaking havoc on the battlefield. I have not even a shred of doubt that I will be fine leaving it to them.

Therefore, my main focus will be the fat, ugly bastard calling himself the Sahuagin Emperor. I move my gaze away from the clash of clans happening close to the sea bed, where the enemy is being pretty much toyed with at this point, and lock my eyes on the fight right above everyone. From time to time, a flash of different colour appears from that direction whenever Meru activates the elemental functions of her new weapon or the evil Shaman casts a vile spell at them. While the Nershark-Diva duo is hanging on alright, it’s clear that they won’t be able to finish the boss alone.

I’m close enough to notice some finer details thanks to my sharp senses. My charming shark lover’s skin is singed in many places. Her swimsuit is barely clinging to her body with the number of cuts and holes present in the material. If not for the extremely dangerous situation, the way her perky breast pokes out of a torn opening, or the way her precious place almost peeks out from a slit on above her nether regions, would both be unimaginably arousing and sexy.

But, knowing how those rips and tears came to be can currently only make my blood boil. And not in a positive sense. Even if the fish asshole is in an equal state, he is going to pay for hurting my mate in such a shameful way. I can see very clearly that most of his attacks were meant to strike her privates as if his goal is to toy with the girl in front of him for his own amusement. I have no doubt that Cir would be in a similar situation if she already wasn’t pretty much nude right from the start.

I watch as the Shaman causes an explosion of black ink to obstruct the duo’s vision and hastily prepares himself to cast another spell that will surprise them when they try to go around the distraction. I’ve already seen this move and I reach out to the two proud warriors through our bond to warn them, sending a few quick Whispers to both women. They react immediately and a proud smile blossoms on my lips.

Their opponent is the surprised one when Meru suddenly pierces through the ink instead of going around, getting caught in the middle of his cast. He has to forgo his spell to block her well-aimed swing that leaves an arc of lighting behind the blade of her spear as the other spokes of the trident are currently retracted. Their weapons connect and he recoils in pain as the electric current ravages his body.

But, that’s not the end as Cir appears above them, right over the still-expanding cloud of dark atrament, and starts a quick, angry song. Water starts swirling at a few spots around her and forms spinning, vicious javelins. They all aim themselves at the emperor and she switches her tone into a single note. All deadly lances shoot forward with their goal more than obvious.

Unfortunately, their pretty much perfect combination attack doesn’t seem like it’s going to be enough for this persistent bastard.

Even under the sparkling effect of Meru’s attack, he manages to shrug it off just enough to send a burst of dark energy right into her stomach, gathering it with his webbed feet. The violent ball smashes into my mate’s belly and smacks her away from him just in time. A few javelins graze his scales and rip a bit of flesh from his limbs and sides but he repels most of them with his bone staff, quickly increasing the distance between him and my companions.

What a tenacious bastard.

But, it looks like he has missed one crucial detail.

A detail that is speeding right towards his neck from behind with a greatsword eager to separate his ugly head from his hideous shoulders.

Before he gets a chance to counter the two beauties with some quick spell, I charge at him from his blind spot as silently as I can, aiming to finish this entire thing in one move. As expected, though, it doesn’t exactly work as I intended.

His battle awareness is truly out of this world as he somehow senses or notices the blade craving his demise and succeeds in twisting his body at the very last moment. I make an instant correction to the path of my sword but it misses its mark. At the very least, it still shaves off a good deal of the guy’s face, going right through his cheek like a butcher’s cleaver through a piece of ham.

I obviously try to barrage him with concurrent strikes so that he slips up in this disadvantageous situation but he barely blocks all of them, receiving some more shallow wounds and cuts. Dark green energy travels up his staff and I back away, not wanting to risk remaining close to him when he is planning something sinister. There’s no time to be overconfident and fuck everything up.

My decision proves to be correct as the skull at the top of his magical focus glows with the same colour when the energy reaches it and a sphere filled with dark emerald blades of wind surrounds him. Hundreds of those bounce inside that orb of protection and would have turned me into a sliced sausage in a blink of an eye if I kept pushing forward.

Seems like this Shaman knows how to use quite a few elements connected to nature even though he comes from an aquatic environment. And all the water around us doesn’t impede his spellcasting in the slightest.

“You! What are you doing here?!” he shouts at me with an annoyed but also confused frown.

“What do you think? Trying my best to pass my regards on to you. Unfortunately, you don’t seem to appreciate my noble efforts.” I smirk at him and regroup with the two strong ladies.

“You should have been dead! Where is—”

The fat bastard glances over his shoulder and spots the motionless carcass of the giant octopus floating in the background. Some kind of a surprised wail escapes his throat and his horrible mug snaps back to us with an unsightly sneer.

“What have you done to Belle, you surface barbarian!” He lashes out at us with visible rage, gesturing vividly.

I barely hold back a snort.

Belle? That’s the name of his fucking overgrown squid that could crush entire cities just by dropping onto them? Not what I expected from an evil overlord working with Umbra to destroy the world. Though, I guess he works with her just to take it over, even if that won’t ever be where it ends.

“Should have trained that stupid pet of yours better.” I smirk at him. “Not stuffing living beings in its mouth is the first lesson it should have learned. Even a dog can die from being stung by a bee it chomped on.”

“Impossible!” The Shaman continues his furious outburst.

“Yet it happened.” I shrug. “Who comes up with an idea to house a massive fucking Kraken under their city anyway? Both are now ruined thanks to that. You could have at least saved that poop town if you were a tad smarter.”

He swings his staff with pure wrath in his eyes and a few bolts of dark blue energy rush my way. They crash into a sound barrier before I can react and I glance at Cir who is holding a high note with her voice. As she finishes her technique, I nod at her appreciatively and turn to the evil bastard once more.

“This is the end for you. We can do it either the easy way or the hard way, your choice. Your pathetic army is slowly falling apart. It will soon be one versus hundreds.” I gesture with my eyes to our side.

The Shaman follows my gaze and looks down too. I swear I’ve thought it’s impossible for him to turn even angrier but quite a few thick veins pop up over his shoulders, neck, and face. The Sahuagins are getting annihilated and I wasn’t bullshitting him about that last stand.

Of course, I can’t guarantee that some other unit won’t suddenly return to their capital for whatever reason and bring in reinforcements, but the ugly monsters present on the battlefield are definitely all he could gather for this trap-turned-defence from the capital and nearby regions while we were sneaking around the palace.

If the rest of his army that is currently conquering the waters received any notice about this, they won’t be able to come back fast enough to save his ass. The chances that any forces are in our close vicinity instead of far, far away are extremely slim too. He is royally fucked and he seems to realize it. That doesn’t make him any less dangerous, though. I don’t want him to desperately throw around lethal spells to take down as many of us as possible. I need to protect this abrupt gathering under my leadership. They aren’t supposed to lose their lives here.

“So, are you going to surrender or do we have to dismember you down to the last scale?” I ask him, crossing my arms over my chest.

Of course, I have no intention of sparing him, but he doesn’t have to know that. The very moment he actually surrenders, I’m blasting the hell out of this dude without leaving even the tiniest trace. I’m not taking any chances of him reviving from a speck of flesh or blood to bite me in the ass in the future.

And also, it’s not like I’ve been monologuing like an idiot protagonist just for the sake of it, alright? I’m not that stupid or lost in my own ego either. Suffering from the main character syndrome is the worst possible disease that leads to premature death. No matter how strong I might have gotten over the course of the last few months, how much support I received from my companions and even the Goddess herself, I’m not losing my head and thinking of myself as the hero of this world.

Well, setting aside the fact that I technically have been summoned here as a Hero, even if by an accident. Now I wonder at what point in the story would Shino and the others have to deal with this guy if it was your typical isekai novel. Going against an entire race of evil monsters usually comes up when the characters are decently OP already, right? To the point where they can sweep whole armies with a single skill.

I’m so lucky to have so many incredible companions to make up for the power that I’m lacking.

Anyway, forgetting all of that for now, let’s focus on the current issue. Meru has managed to avoid his attention the entire time the two of us were speaking and she is hiding her presence behind the fat idiot, slowly inching closer to him. I know that a normal sneak attack won’t work so I hope for him to surrender and then let her kill him off. In case that doesn’t happen, I’ll just rush at him first and distract him before she goes for the lethal blow from his blind spot.

“Do you think I care about those pathetic excuses of a Sahuagin dying to a bunch of lesser lifeforms?” he asks me back in turn with a chaotic laugh. “They all should die if they aren’t even able to beat a few breeding slaves that banded together!”

His comment clearly makes Meru despise him even more, I can feel that much through our bond, but my amazing mate manages to hide her rampaging killing intent, preventing it from leaking out of her small but unbelievably ferocious frame. If looks could kill, though, this dude would have been long full of holes she would have drilled through him with her disgusted and infuriated gaze.

“I’m more than enough to deal with all of you. Our plans might slow down due to the decrease in the number of available soldiers and workers, but that’s not an issue. Even if I will be the last living member of our tribe, I’ll just slowly repopulate our undefeated empire on my own. We’ve been preparing for this conquest for decades, a few more won’t change anything.” He proudly puffs his muscular but still ugly chest.

Great. It doesn’t sound like they are super close to finishing whatever they are doing with those blood formations, scattering gates over the entire sea bed. It’s not like I take failure as an option today but it’s reassuring knowing that we aren’t fighting on top of a ticking time bomb.

Granted, he can’t actually activate them out of a sudden, making it work with whatever percent of their operation is finished. But, I don’t think he can just snap his fingers and do something on this scale this easily. I would expect a huge ritual synchronised with multiple other Shamans, Priests, and so on, present in the locations of the created gates.

“Then we just have to kill you first. Can’t stick your dick anywhere if it doesn’t have a body attached.” I spread my arms with a grin. “Well, I guess that isn’t true or our toys wouldn’t be that popular. But still, no hideous fish mongrel will come out of that.”

“Can’t we just castrate him?” Cir suggests, tilting her head and pressing her finger into her chin. “I feel like killing him would be too easy. That way, we can torture him forever and it won’t be a problem even if somehow finds an open. Not like there would be any chances for that.”

Her comment seems to have riled the emperor up quite a lot as his grip visibly tightens on his bone weapon. Perhaps any talk about his royal tool is a very sensitive topic. I’m very grateful that his attire has still somehow survived below the waist and I’m not graced with the sight of his ruling sceptre and the jewels adorning it. I’ve seen enough of those on the other ugly fishmen.

“You will be the first one to become my new breeding slave and I won’t stop using you until your body withers from giving birth to our soldiers!” he snarls at the matron and suddenly launches himself towards her.

I smirk victoriously and thank the dazzling Mermaid lady in my mind for giving us this opportunity. Putting myself between her and the charging Sahuagin Emperor, I take his glowing staff onto my greatsword with a grunt. The deathly yellow energy coiling around it burns my skin to some extent but I don’t back away and keep our weapons crossed.

Then, Meru makes her move and swiftly stabs her spear into him from behind, enhancing her speed with wind energy contained in one of the elemental gems embedded in its long handle. I notice the bastard’s eye twitch before she plunges the tip into his flesh and I let go of the draconic hilt. He slams into me with the force remaining in his swing and I wrap my arms around his bulky body, locking him in a tight bear hug to prevent the fucker from slipping away.

Still, he turns out to be strong enough to shed my legs off his tail and make a single flap to tilt himself just a little. Meru’s strike misses his head and goes into his back instead, right under his lungs. Unfortunately, while I’ve moved my own head out of the way of her initial aim, the altered stab pierces into my own stomach after going out of his from the front, making me hiss in pain.

I sense a note of worry in my ferocious sharkgirl’s mind and quickly berate her to ignore it. She listens to me without a second of hesitation and continues with her plan, now slightly derailed. I arch my back far enough—not the sexy way but in the opposite direction—just in time to pull the tip of her spear out of my guts right as she switches the mode of her weapon.

The emperor bellows in pain as two more spokes extend from the spear’s sharp end and cut through his inner flesh during the motion of becoming a trident. I had no idea that was actually possible with how tough he seems but it looks like whatever Siriga makes just doesn’t submit to the usual rules and common logic.

In any case, quite a big chunk of his side ends up violently torn from inside into a vertical slit. Meru doesn’t stop there as he attempts to kick me off him even while being violated this hard and she gives it her all to twist the trident counter-clockwise. The emperor wails in agony even more as she literally rips a head-sized piece of his body off, revealing his guts and even the bottom end of his ribs.

At that point, I back away on my own and so does she. And what does he do? Well, that bastard immediately casts some kind of purple fire into his right hand and literally cauterises the wound to stop it from bleeding. That entire fucking cliff in its side which looks like a massive pitbull has just bitten half of his abdomen off.

I have to admit it, he does have balls. But, things are going downhill for him from now on for sure.

“Cursed Nershark! I will have fun breaking your imprinted body right after that Mermaid scum!” he bellows at Meru while shaking his staff viciously.

From the frown on her face, I assume he somehow is able to tell that she has already taken a mate and her reproductive organs moulded into my shape.

What a creepy thing to be able to sense.

“I won’t give you that chance,” I say and receive my hilt from Cir.

As I shape up a heavy greataxe to chop the fucker down right where he is chipped, he raises his staff above his head. But, instead of activating some kind of a spell, he brings it down… and stabs its butt right into his chest. He impales himself on his weapon so hard it comes out of his back at a perfect forty-five degrees and makes us all pause in confusion and shock.

The eyes of the skull atop his staff glow with a sickly mix of yellow and green before a violent gust of energy of the same colours surrounds him. We hear the sounds of bones cracking and muscles snapping as the two shades illuminate all his veins and organs from the inside. His body expands like a caricature and we watch him grow about five to seven times in size. He gets big enough to squish a person inside his palm if he would want to.

Thankfully, his past wounds do not regenerate and the gaping hole in his side still remains there as a perfect weak spot. The small skull from the staff ends up attached to the centre of his chest, poking out of it like some kind of a gem or core, still glowing in those two hues.

Perhaps we can abruptly end his transformation by shattering it. That would be convenient.

“It’s time to end this!” The overgrown emperor’s voice echoes around us with a much mightier, lower tone.

“This is going to be troublesome.” I sigh. “Be extremely careful not to get grabbed, Cir. I’ll do the direct fighting while Meru annoys him.”

The voluptuous matron nods at me and backs off a little as I block the giant dude’s fist with the blade of my greataxe. His strength has certainly risen alongside his height and size. The only plus side to it is that he doesn’t have the staff anymore. Or that he is a much bigger target now, I guess.

But, my first guess proves to be wrong as he suddenly covers his hands with the same flames that cauterised his wound and shoots two condensed jets of fire at me from his palms. It turns out that he is the staff now. I should have thought about that considering the fact that they literally merged.

Meru decides to fight fire with fire and shows up behind me, an amber glow surrounding the head of her trident. She pushes it forward and a helix of orange flames rushes ahead, meeting the combined jets of purplish fire right in front of me. They don’t manage to overpower each other any soon and that gives me an opportunity to strike.

Spinning around my own axis, I take a big swing into the emperor’s hurt side. He can’t do anything to stop it besides flapping his tail to push his body as far away as possible, but my blow still connects. Yet, my blade sinks only half as deep as I wanted it to, clearly stopping against his spine. Even if it has to hurt like a bitch getting almost split in half, it doesn’t kill him and my weapon gets stuck.

Before he can squish me with his large hands, I cancel my pretty creation and dart away with just the hilt in my hand. His claws leave a few shallow cuts on my back as I escape his reach but that’s a small price to pay for the damage I have caused.

Then, Cir directs her offensive, incapacitating song right at him and I watch the powerful soundwaves encase his entire frame as they travel ahead, forcing him to cover his ears and even partially opening his wound with the insane vibrations. It’s like in those movies or cartoons. Multiple thin rings of air rush at him while gaining in size with distance.

What an enchanting sight.

But, my attention is stolen by the sudden movement I spot in the corner of my eye. Just as I hastily glance its way, something speeds past me right over my head. I turn back to the emperor and see his massive body getting smacked by a massive eel, sending him spinning. Its rider guides their steed to me as more and more of those scary but also equally awe-inspiring creatures make an appearance.

I quickly recognize Fei on its back and she beams at me from up there. “Greetings, Great Patron! The cavalry's here!”

I snicker at that line while shaking my head. Fei giggles back at me, definitely unaware of the reason behind my own chuckle, and she pulls the reins of her eel. I follow them with my gaze as she charges at the hideous bastard alongside a few of her friends. He instantly gets surrounded by an entire squad of topless, bombshell Mermaids riding giant, long aquatic beasts.

Cir joins me as we watch their assault. The eels slam into the Shaman one after another, always taking a different angle to keep him spinning and unable to gather his bearings. He does scrape the scales of some of them with his sharp claws but he suffers much more. Now and then, one of the eels chomps on his body or limbs, sinking its teeth into his tough skin and flesh. It’s like watching a swarm of piranhas toying with their food.

It doesn’t take long before he is full of holes, missing a foot, missing a leg below the knee, half of his arm, and part of the other shoulder. It actually becomes kind of pitiful, but as I said, he has just become a bigger target. And as a very wise man once said, there’s always a bigger fish.

The women all stop their attacks when he ceases moving. When they leave him alone, his mistreated body floats almost lifelessly while bleeding profusely from all those injuries. I take a quick glance at the battlefield below us and confirm that our forces are finishing off the remnants of the Sahuagin army, and that’s why the eel corps are able to be here without a worry.

When I return my eyes to the emperor’s dying body, I frown a little. While he remains completely still, I definitely catch his wide fish lips moving. A sudden chill rushes through me from top to bottom and I get an intense bad premonition.

“Kill him!” I shout in panic while rearing my arm to the back and shaping up a javelin with the hilt.

Everyone looks at me in slight confusion, save for Meru and Fei. They immediately rush forward, one bearing her precious trident and the other leading her eel.

But, none of us makes it in time.

He finishes whatever evil chant he has been doing and violently bites into his tongue, cleanly splitting it into two. Then, the yellow-green flickering in the skull’s eye sockets goes off and the water around us becomes completely silent. Not a single noise besides my loud heartbeat reaches my ears. It’s so heavy that I can’t shake off this eerie feeling of something bad going to happen.

A fraction of a second later, the eye sockets come to life again, this time with a flash of purple fire, and the entire skull cracks through the middle. Falling off his chest, it reveals a rhomb-shaped, dark, ominous gem embedded in the emperor’s sternum. Meru and Fei reach him right as it glints with a horrific, abyssal shade.

An explosion of energy knocks us all away as ominous, dark tendrils smack the water all around the emperor, originating from the crystal. His body turns from a horizontal to a vertical position and the evil energy starts forming a cocoon around him. Everyone is so scared by the sinister vibes it gives out that nobody is moving even a finger. Even I’m somewhat suppressed while my intention to thrust the javelin in my hand is more than clear.

Unfortunately, whatever is happening to him, reaches its culmination point. All the sinister, obsidian mana forms what seems to be a feminine silhouette without any specific details besides the general figure, and the shape of long hair flowing down from its head. The mysterious being then opens its eyes, which are just two oval, deep purple, glowing spots over its eye sockets.

“Pathetic fool. I’ve given you so much power to dominate others and you still failed. I knew I shouldn’t have used that dumb race in the first place.”

The woman’s proud voice echoes directly in my head, sending a shiver down my spine. Everyone is even more frightened just by her sole presence, but I freeze for another reason. This energy, this general figure, and this voice… are more familiar than I would have liked them to be.

But, there’s no way she can be here.

Is there?

“Nevertheless, since Vessel Sacrifice has already been used, I should at least clean up this mess. You are all a dangerous variable to my plans if you were able to stop my pawn into which I’ve risked so much to invest.” The evil woman sighs lightly and raises her hand above her head.

Before she has a chance to do literally anything else, I chuck my weapon at her with all my strength, aiming just to hit her.

She turns her face to me without a hint of worry. “Resistance is futile, mortal. Your—”

Yet, she flinches right before the tip comes in contact with her shadowy form and she tilts her head to the side. The blade leaves a faint cut on her dark cheek as the weapon soars further into the background.

“—weapons can’t hurt me…” she finishes with her glowing eyes as wide as possible inside their sockets. “You!”

Her voice booms so loudly and powerfully that everyone recoils into a fetal position, grabbing their heads. I wince too but try my best to keep myself steady in case of an incoming attack.

“How are you able to wound my avatar!” she shouts with the same intensity, each word carving into my mind like a chisel into a clay board.

“Shut the fuck up, bitch!” I mutter through pain, but even if my response is quiet, I know she hears it perfectly well.

Somehow, I sense the draconic hilt right next to me and quickly grab it. It turns into the simplest longsword as I charge at her with the power of all my stats. She easily swats it away and grabs me by the throat. I snarl at her while trying to free myself, and even with the completely blank face right in front of me, I can tell she's shaken.

“Impossible…” she whispers to herself.

I use that brief lapse in her focus to swing my sword at her arm, but she sends me flying to the back before it connects, suddenly afraid of being near me.

“I have no idea how you managed to hide from me for this long but this is where you die!” the woman screams at me with a clear hint of anxiety in her voice.

Evil energy erupts around her and multiple tendrils of pure darkness rush towards me from her shape, faster than I can react. They wrap themselves around me, starting to cover my entire body bit by bit. Cold, sinister sensation permeates through my flesh, reaching deep for my very existence. Before even my sight gets blocked off, I catch a glimpse of Meru pushing through her paralysis to throw herself at me with a terrified expression, reaching out while mouthing my name.

Then, just as I start losing consciousness in the pure darkness that has enveloped me, something flashes inside my chest with a golden glow. It glows thrice with a faint light before exploding with blinding intensity.

“What?!”

I hear the woman’s surprised voice as the surroundings come back to me. Everything is fortunately just as I remember it, including Meru’s horrified face, now actually by my side.

Well, maybe not everything.

I feel somewhat distant in my own body. Additionally, it clearly emits light. Even though I really want to, my head and eyes do not follow my wishes so I can’t exactly examine myself. I’m forced to look straight at the shocked entity, whose identity I’m pretty sure I’ve guessed correctly.

“Long time no see, sister.” Another familiar voice echoes in my head, or more like it originates from it.

“Luminaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” The woman in front of me screams in fury; her entire shape billowing in response.

As my body moves its hand to the front to protect me from the outburst of abyssal energy, I finally notice what is wrong. My arm is much more feminine and is of a solid, golden colour, similar to the other girl’s. As my face tilts a little due to what I assume is a light chuckle, I notice that my chest is a tad bigger and more bulging forward than I remember.

That explains it.

I’m an avatar now too.

And it’s clear whose.

“You bitch! What do you think you are doing interfering with the world’s order to save a single soul!” Umbra growls at us.

“Bold coming from someone who has descended into the said world by making a contaminated vessel for her soul.” Lumina shakes our head. “Thanks to your actions, I don’t have to hold back. You have disturbed the world’s balance, I’m just restoring it by mirroring your method.”

The evil sister seethes in rage, even without a mouth. “I’m going to destroy everything you love while having you watch helplessly from above. You don’t have the heart to stop me.”

“I wish you luck, then.” Lumina smirks with our lips. “I won’t be the one stopping you.”

Umbra snarls at us before suddenly calming down. I recognize an equal smirk on her faceless visage.

“I wonder if you are still going to be talking big after your little toy gets broken right when you are so deeply connected to it.” A sinister chuckle resounds in my head.

The mood changes in my mind, becoming more serious and partially angry. “You have already overstepped your boundaries too many times. The world won’t let you cause any more harm here. Even you should know that.”

“I never said that I would do anything, though.” Umbra snickers again and a sudden realisation washes over me, coming from Lumina. “I wonder how long this vessel will be able to endure your divine soul without suffering permanent damage. Mine is just a useless pawn already at his death door, but yours…?”

Our hands suddenly shoot forward and a beam of golden light emerges from them. Umbra dodges it with an evil giggle and starts swimming away faster than my eyes can follow. Or rather, faster than they could usually follow.

Lumina wastes no time and teleports us right in front of her. Umbra comes to a full stop right as our hands smack into each other vertically and two giant platforms of light try to squish her. She slips out of the deadly trap a fraction of a second before it fully closes, but Lumina somehow predicts where she will emerge and grabs her sister’s avatar by the throat.

Before Umbra can try something else, Lumina fills the shadowy figure with her divine energy and it quickly turns bloated while a furious scream echoes in my head. Umbra’s frame bursts into tiny particles with a blinding flash of light and reveals the completely dried-up body of the dead emperor. It’s so thin that it looks like an ancient mummy.

A brief feeling of dread overcomes me as I wonder if that’s how I’m going to end up too.

~Do not worry. You will be fine with this much exposition to my true soul. I can’t stay here any longer, though, or you will be seriously hurt. Come and meet me after you recover, then we’ll talk about this properly,~ Lumina's soothing voice pleasantly reverberates in my mind.

Soon after, I feel a pull and something disappears from my body. The golden glow fades, uncovering the real me, as I retrieve full control and feeling of myself. Though, I could go for a little longer without the latter.

Intense, searing pain hits every fibre of my existence and I twist myself in agony for a second or two before I start losing consciousness. The last thing I see before the world turns dark are my beloved wives and mates rushing to me from afar. Reaching out to them as everything fades away, I succumb to the silent night.