Kai opened a portal above Ilun. Using the link to the remaining masks as a guide, he tore a tunnel directly through space.
They spotted the vast mountain range where Grimnir lived.
“I will have to visit him one day.” Kai smiled as they sped toward the Witch’s territory.
***
“He has arrived to take my power away. I can sense it.” The Witch muttered as she held the Mask of Rage.
Without much hesitation, she absorbed the mask into her being.
“You forced me to do this! You all forced my hand!” She roared as she grasped the other mask, the one Sorrow had worn. His cold body lay at her feet.
“You served me well enough.” She laughed before absorbing the Mask of Sorrow.
Rage granted her control over the speed of time, while Sorrow allowed her to freeze time, and her own Mask of Happiness granted exemption from time itself, offering eternal life.
Her form twisted and grew thinner while her limbs elongated, making her resemble an insect more than a human.
Then she stabbed her elongated fingers into the man who had once worn the Mask of Sorrow and breathed life back into him, returning his stolen time.
“Hahaha, don’t say that Mother never gave you anything.” She laughed.
Sorrow stood up and bowed. “Thank you for giving me life, Mistress.”
He raised his head, his eyes now swirling with temporal mana, his pupils completely gone.
“Bring me the others. We go to war!” She laughed, her form growing longer as more temporal mana seeped into her being.
Her hair continued to grow until it brushed against the floor, while her head twisted from side to side like a wind-up doll.
She dragged her long limbs behind her, her arms scraping against the floor as she moved outside.
Sorrow followed behind, assembling the Voiceless League.
***
“I sense strong temporal powers beneath us. That large mansion down there. Umbra, Scry, I will leave the assassins to you. Have no mercy. Who knows how many lives they have taken? Arthraxius, I will need your help. I need to subdue her and try to find out the truth about the beasts as well as about Tenebria. She is a part of her. I need to know why she started committing all these cruel deeds, even assembling a league of assassins.” Kai spoke coldly.
“I wonder that too. The Nyx Tenebris we knew was never an evil being. The only thing that makes sense is that she broke after Kaleth’s death.” Arthraxius added.
“Well, whatever it is, it’s time to hunt some prey,” Umbra growled. Her hands grew into abyssal claws while her knuckles sprouted black spiked studs. She activated her shadowy armor, now strengthened with Death mana, while Scry grew into his large, winged tiger form, flames dancing around his body.
“I have not fought in a while. This will be a nice practice match!” He chuckled just as hundreds of assassins burst forth from the mansion, their bodies radiating temporal mana.
“What did she do to them?” Kai furrowed his brows.
“They feel like I do. Their time has been extended indefinitely, making them immortal. Though their bodies cannot contain such temporal power. They are ticking time bombs.” Arthraxius warned.
“Umbra, Scry. Can you deal with them before that happens? I need to go find her.” Kai muttered coldly.
“I got this. Come, tiger.” Umbra nodded and descended like a meteor wreathed in black, deathly flames.
“Don’t you ‘come, tiger’ me. I got this!” Scry huffed and activated a massive burning barrier that sealed off every exit.
“Let’s go, young Kai. We have a goddess to subdue.” Arthraxius said and shot toward the mansion’s entrance.
***
Umbra landed with a massive explosion of deathly black flames that devoured the enemies around her, though as soon as they fell, their bodies rose again, repairing themselves, albeit barely.
“We will have to kill them a few times!” Scry shouted as he summoned two enormous blazing Phoenixes that crashed into the battlefield and detonated into waves of Phoenixfire.
Umbra, on the other hand, started clawing and punching her way through the assassins, who swarmed her, trying to stab and cleave through her impregnable armor.
“Damn mindless fools. This is boring!” She growled and flew into the sky, her wings swiping furiously as black winds merged with Scry’s flames, enhancing them further, while she conjured a storm of black lightning that morphed into a Thunderfire Tigerhawk and lunged downward.
The lightning beast ripped and shredded the assassins, while Umbra, high in the skies, began charging her next attack.
Scry, seeing this, chuckled, his eyes glistening with pride as he flew to her side.
“Want to try something new?” He smiled mischievously.
“What have you got in mind, tiger?” She chuckled, clearly enjoying working together with him.
“Let’s merge our flames into a single spell. It will feed on their temporal energy and devour them until nothing is left. Follow my lead.”
He synced with her through Kai’s link and started chanting.
She sensed his intentions and smirked. “Interesting.”
She poured her will into her Proto Spark and summoned a flicker of deathly Origin Mana. Then she merged it into her flames and roared, “Deathly flames of the Nine Hells, black lightning of the Umbral Night, winds of death that carry the souls of the deceased, and that which remains of the Titan God, the earth of lives long gone, Titan God’s Descent!”
She roared, and a ten-meter-tall shadowy figure appeared behind her.
Scry chuckled and added, “In the name of Scryus, the Spiritual Flame, grant this being the everlasting fury of fire. Conjure Flaming Armory!”
A set of burning armor alongside a sword and shield forged from pure flames appeared over the shadowy titan as it began moving through the assassins. Spiritual flames merged with the laws of death devoured the assassins as if they were dry branches cast into a furnace.
“Isn’t that cool?!” Scry laughed excitedly.
“I must admit, it really is. Though I still prefer to use my own hands to fight.” She replied.
“Come on, enjoy something different for a change. Now, for our next skill, I was thinking we could…” Scry continued explaining all of his ideas.
Meanwhile, within the mansion, Kai and Arthraxius landed before the horrific creature that was the Witch of Ilun, or, as Kai knew her, a fragment of Nyx Tenebris born from grief itself.
***
“What did you do to yourself?” Arthraxius gasped.
“If it isn’t my other self’s pet lizard. I did what was necessary!” She screamed, her long fingers clawing at the ground while she stood hunched over.
“Why did you absorb all the masks? You are but a fragment of Nyx; you cannot handle that power.” Kai cut in.
“SHUT UP! YOU STOLE! YOU STOLE EVERYTHING!” She roared.
“I did nothing but defend myself. What you did, on the other hand, is unforgivable. You caused so many lives to be lost, for what?” Kai shouted back.
“What do you know? I am nothing but a shell, a mere imperfect copy, but she stuffed all her pain into me. I needed to find a way to live with it. First, I wanted to recreate him, so I searched for anything linked to him. Those useless beasts. When that failed, I tried to look for him, for any sign of his soul. That’s why I created the League. And when it all failed, when I had nothing left but pain, I tried to give birth to him. But the only thing I got was that ungrateful bitch of a daughter. What do you know about my pain?!” She roared and released a wave of thick temporal mana.
Kai waved his hand and raised a thick barrier around himself and Arthraxius, negating the attack.
“I know. I saw your memories, but that still doesn’t change the fact that you lost your way. Let me take the masks away. There may still be a chance for you to live again, maybe even be a mother to Cecily.” Kai pleaded.
“You just want to steal more from me! NO MORE!” She roared and swung her long limbs, summoning thick chains that lashed toward Kai.
Kai and Arthraxius took flight, avoiding the attacks. One froze the space around her while the other unleashed a blast of draconic fire that struck her directly in the face.
Her body twisted as she screamed in pain, yet she remained unharmed.
“We won’t be able to destroy her like this,” Arthraxius warned.
“Help me bind her!” Kai urged as he clapped his hands together. The floor turned into living sand from which cold waters emerged and swallowed her up to the chest while he layered frozen space and time around her.
Arthraxius followed, summoning shackles of Origin fire that bound her neck and arms, while nine sets of nine flaming serpents bit into her body and transformed into additional chains.
Kai landed quickly and grabbed her head, pouring his divine sense into her mind and trying to separate the power from her cracking soul.
“You will not take the only thing I have left! You will not!” She roared.
Then the mask covering her face shattered, revealing the tortured face of Tenebria. Her beauty was long gone, replaced by hollow eyes and ashen skin. Her nose had caved in, and her lips were dry and cracked.
Arthraxius gasped, but before he could act, the other two masks within her shattered as well and the entire continent froze.
The laws of time twisted into stillness.
Only Kai and the Witch remained aware of what had happened, the two of them standing upon a lonely shore within her mind.
“I hope you’re happy. This is going to be a bitch to fix.” Kai exhaled.
“You don’t know how it was. You have no idea!” She screamed again.
“I know. I know. Here, come. Let me show you.”
Kai appeared instantly beside her and coldly grasped her throat. Locking eyes with her, he poured every experience, every memory, and every ounce of pain he had accumulated through the lives he had lived.
She twitched and screamed, cried and begged, until finally he shared the memories of Kaleth, Tenebria, and Progenius, leaving everything behind.
“Do I know?” He asked coldly.
“A part of him lives within you?” She asked, tears now properly flowing down her face.
Kai released her throat and tossed her backward.
“In a way, yes. I hold his power and his inheritance, and above all I hold remnants of what remains of all three of their souls. I can absorb you as well and make you part of that Tenebria, but you do not deserve it.” He said coldly.
“I know. I know.” She fell to her knees. “I was what she discarded, while the other me was the one she entrusted with the power to search for him. But I couldn’t sit still and do nothing. Somewhere along the way, I lost my path. The men I believed to be him, I bound to me, making them my assassins. To gain influence over Sacra, I created the League. We controlled the underbelly of Sacra, and we controlled the flow of information. Yet I could not find even a trace of him, and it would seem not even my better half succeeded. What a farce this life is.” She laughed through her tears.
“That doesn’t excuse what you did. You had your daughter’s husband killed, for fuck’s sake. Your own granddaughter almost died because of your actions. Did you ever stop and think? Did you even try to live? Maybe you were meant to be her next life, not a monster hell-bent on chasing something that was already lost!” Kai shouted.
She raised her head and gasped. “Granddaughter? What?”
“Yes. Cecily had a daughter in Eastsun. Her name is Lisa, and she is the brightest kid I have ever met.” Kai spoke gently as he sent an image of Lisa into the Witch’s mind.
“Lisa... She is the spitting image of little Cecily.” She cried even harder. “I didn’t know. How could I? I was lost in my own pain.”
Kai stared at the broken goddess, his heart clenching. He knew better than anyone how twisted this entire situation truly was.
“I will take all your mana away. And your power. From now on, you will be a mortal woman. If you can, with the time left to you, find a way to create a new core and walk this path again, then so be it. But for the time being, you will be taken to Fallhaven to be judged by Cecily and Lisa. I leave your punishment, or your forgiveness, entirely up to them.” Kai spoke.
“You are merciful. Just like he was.” She smiled and closed her eyes.
Kai approached and laid his hand upon her head as a branch of lightning merged with Source and pierced her forehead, beginning to absorb all her power.
His draconic serpent appeared outside and started spinning faster as a new spell emerged within his mind.
World Eater: Absorb.
The Witch screamed in agony as everything that made her was torn away.
Outside, Ilun remained frozen in time.