The Cursed ones

Chapter eight

Vandal’s thoughts flashed back to the moment he had crossed eyes with that innocent-looking child who seemed to be his age mate. Her eyes were so clear, and she had a lot of fighting spirit in her demeanor.

“That was the girl these bastards locked in a cage full of poop.” 

That memory made him retch in disgust. He could still remember the stench, and he could only imagine how she had managed to withstand it during her time of punishment.

“Damn it, I can’t allow him to give her the Mawrot essence. She would certainly die — a very painful death.” 

His mind frantically searched for a way out of this predicament, a way to prevent her from taking the Mawrot poison.

After a while, Emeka returned.

“Boss, I think she has escaped. I can’t find her. She might have escaped somehow during the commotion when we got attacked.”

Vandal breathed a sigh of relief. *Good girl. She was able to escape. That’s very good.*

“Fine, I will organise a search party to bring her here. She can’t have gone far. She’s just a kid — a hungry, lost kid,” Kennedy said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

“Shit… I really hope she’s well hidden by now. These people can’t get to her. She will definitely die if they catch her.”

“For now, bring another slave,” Kennedy ordered.

Emeka went and immediately brought another slave — a man with a bald head and a slightly muscular but skinny frame.

Kennedy then gave the man a bowl of Mawrot essence to drink.

“I can’t drink that thing again. I don’t know if my body can recover from it this time.” 

Vandal felt a rising panic as he heard Kennedy approach him with another bowl of the sticky black liquid.

“Please, whatever you are, help me. I can’t die right now,” Vandal pleaded with the eye, hoping and praying it would listen, but no reply came.

And so Kennedy once again forced the poison down his throat.

“I can’t allow this poison to reach my organs. I might really die this time! This damn eye won’t answer me!” 

He frantically channeled all of his resonance energy toward stopping the poison from reaching his stomach, but the liquid seemed to absorb and even pass through most of his resonance energy.

Just then, time in his mind seemed to slow to a crawl, and he was sucked into that inner space where the black hole lived.

*Give me… your body…*  

*I will… protect you…*

“Never. I won’t surrender myself to you. I don’t even know what you are.”

“I have goals I need to achieve. You can’t have me.” Vandal was determined.

Yes, he wanted the full power and protection of the eye, but not at the cost of his freedom.

*Then… you will… die.*

Suddenly, his mind was kicked out of the internal space as his consciousness returned to reality.

The poison flowed heavily into his intestines with no resistance whatsoever. This time there was no regeneration and no resistance. He felt a pain so intense that he could no longer pretend to be unconscious.

“Aaaaaah! Aaaaaah!! You will pay for this!!” 

Vandal’s veins bulged as he screamed. His insides were melting. He felt his blood struggling to flow, but it was turning thick like tar. His heart felt like it was being squeezed by the cold hands of death. A sharp pain shot into his skull.

“I finally got you. I knew you could not resist my poison in the end,” Kennedy said, clapping happily.

On the other side, the other slave had begun to scream too, but before long he passed out. Green veins had already formed like a tattoo all over his body and were spreading rapidly.

As soon as that sharp, knife-like pain shot into his brain, the agony stabilized into a feeling of being pierced by a thousand tiny red-hot needles in every part of his body, including his brain.

“I… I can’t feel my blood flow,” Vandal spoke weakly. His lips were a deathly pale color. Veins had also formed all over his body like a tattoo, but unlike the other slave, he didn’t pass out.

Kennedy burst into laughter.

“You thought you were special, right? You thought you were immune?” Kennedy laughed so hard he had to hug his body tightly.

Emeka finally had a very wide grin on his face.

“Finally, he’s going to die,” Emeka thought, feeling a great sense of relief.

“I can’t let it end this way. I won’t let it end this way,” Vandal screamed internally.

He forcefully activated his Echo Beast transformation ability. He felt his nails lengthen into claws and his internal organs morph into those of the golden striped snake. On the outside, there were no physical changes apart from his long black nails, but on the inside he had become a poisonous snake.

“I will fight poison with poison!” Vandal gritted his teeth, channeling his own poison into all the areas where the Mawrot essence was wreaking havoc and finally directing it toward his own brain.

A bright green acidic poison clashed against the sickly, almost black-green Mawrot poison. Both poisons continuously burned against each other, fighting for dominance within Vandal as he struggled to keep his consciousness from slipping away.

Boom!!!

Kennedy heard the explosion, followed by his clansmen screaming.

“Black-glass spiders! Run!!”

“What the hell?” Kennedy frowned.

“Black-glass spiders are not supposed to be on this side of the forest. They stay in hot climates. The nearest volcano is to the east.”

“Emeka, go and find out what’s going on,” Kennedy ordered.

But Emeka hesitated.

“But… Boss, those things… once they see you, they chase you relentlessly,” Emeka replied sheepishly.

“And so? Do you want to become one of my test subjects too?” Kennedy retorted coldly.

A loud crash echoed as several members of the Seven Cloud Clan were flung through the air. Lips were torn off, and blood splashed across the ground and tents.

Several razor-like footsteps stabbed aggressively into the ground, moving like the wind as screams followed wherever the footsteps landed. The sounds soon converged on the location where Kennedy and Emeka were standing.

“Boss… they are coming!” Emeka pressed his ear to the ground and heard the rapid, sharp footsteps thundering toward them. They were being surrounded.