Chapter 75
Malakar smiles and watches how Morven is flying all over the place trying to avoid the incoming big as a house blood spears, but Morven starts to make some black smoke so much that everything is just darkness, no one can see anything anymore, Malakar tries to make light by making a few red energy balls, but the Darkness is so thick that he can only light a few centimeters around him.
He feels like he is watched from all directions, this darkness is like a living thing. The spears and the mercenaries losing their target completely.
Malakar calls his spears back, but he waits and waits, and no spear is coming, he feels the blood he can still control them but is like they are at the other side of the Universe.
This darkness messing with his mind, or it really made the space stretch in an unbelievable massive void. 'But that is not possible, how could he make something so unbelievable.' thinks Malakar, this thing that he is fighting against, what is it? Who is it?
Then he sees two gargantuan eyes opening, he looks only for a millisecond but those bigger than a sun snake eyes, made him feel like a small speck of dust, he closes his eyes immediately not daring to see for a moment longer.
But he feels those eyes inside his mind, is like even with his eyes closed he can still see those giant eyes. He loses control of his blood spears, then he starts to become more and more agitated, those eyes making him feel, real fear. But then a cool feeling overcomes his mind, calming him.
The Artifact working his magic and helping him, he calms down enough to think clearly, they are still inside the mountain, the space is still the same size, everything is inside his mind. Is not real.
He opens his eyes and sees the darkness still at power, but those gargantuan eyes are not there, he takes a relieved breath and starts to control the blood again, he wants to make his blood spears, but for a moment he feels something wrong, like someone or something is not right.
He looks down and sees something unbelievable, half of his body is not there anymore, he has only his chest and arms, the darkness is like a parasite that is eating him, his body is just vanishing slowly, he blocks for a second his brain not reacting, not feeling any pain, not knowing what is eating his body, because he doesn't feel anything wrong. But then his brain is catching up with the Reality he is in. He starts screaming and a fear like never before overcomes him. He remembers he has the pagoda; he takes it out and concentrates everything he has on it, to heal him. He says;
"Why isn't my healing working anymore, what is this Darkness? Why aren't the powers of the pagoda working anymore? What did you do?"
His fear making him lose his mind with each passing second, but no one answers, he sees, he feels, he... 'IS' becoming Darkness.
And that makes him lose his mind even more, but then he sees Morven appearing in front of him, he hears him say;
"What happened little wolf? Why the 'Ssssscreaming'? Where is the bravery from earlier? Don't tell me that a little snake like 'ME Ssssscared' you?"
Malakar sees the Gargantuan eyes appear for a second behind him, and that makes him lose his mind even more. The fear completely taking control of him, but he can't do anything, the darkness like a prison around him. Then his arms disappear and only his head remains, but he doesn't die, the darkness keeping him alive even if he is just a head floating.
Then Morven's eyes start glowing and in a second Malakar's eyes lose their shine, and he stops completely, he just looks ahead like a soulless body.
Morven dives into his memories and finds easily what he needs, because Malakar's mind is now with no defense raised, or even a will to fight back, he is just like a one-year-old child with no power.
Morven sees him in an underground cave fighting with wraiths and undead, he fights his way to a secret room and there he sees all kinds of treasures and riches. But Malakar doesn't even look at those, he goes directly to the pagoda and takes it, then the other treasures all disappear from the room, now is just an empty cave with nothing in it, he looks again at the pagoda and then he uses his soul to touch the pagoda.
Immediately as he does that, his souls is sucked inside the pagoda and there he sees an unbelievable large white space filled with clouds and fog, and between this fog and clouds some white orbs are floating around.
Malakar looks around a little bit and then he goes towards a floating orb. A small one the size of a Ping-Pong ball. He stops in front of it and uses his soul power to hold it in place. Then he uses his hand to touch it, the moment he touches it, he feels another energy flowing inside his soul, but this energy is mild and calm like a cloud.
But after a few moments he feels his soul almost full, he tries to take his hand back, but he can't let go, it's like the ball grabbed his hand like a vice, he tries a few times to pull it harder, the energy still flowing, and it starts to flow more and more, until is like a river flowing. Then he feels like someone is trying to take over his soul.
The more energy enters the more it overtakes his soul; he starts panicking and he starts to understand how the pagoda works, if he doesn't do anything he will become just a floating orb just like the other millions of orbs. The pagoda uses souls to feed.
If he doesn't take control of it, then he can say goodbye to his life. He starts to calm down, because he knows that panicking doesn't help at anything.
He knows that his soul isn't strong enough to overcome the pagoda strength, but he has something else to rely on. He can still control the blood in his body, so he starts making his body go in overdrive by circulating his blood faster and faster, he makes his heart pump the blood like a race car. His brain becoming faster at thinking, his body like is on adrenalin. It starts to break his limits.
That makes his soul also enter a state like 'Overdrive', that gives him enough power to take control of the energy, and that gives him some breathing time, but he also can't hold this state for long, or his body will give out first before his soul.
So he needs to do something fast, he looks around him and sees that around are even smaller floating balls, he doesn't have a choice but to do what he shouldn't even think to do.
He uses his soul power to call the smaller floating balls the size of cherries and grapes to him, then he uses his free hand to touch one of those smaller balls. He feels again an energy flowing inside of him, but now this energy is the same mild and calm, but he feels like he can absorb it completely.
In a few seconds he absorbs the energy and this absorbed energy can be used to nourish his soul, and he sees that his soul is a little bit stronger, he smiles and continues to use the smaller ones, after a few dozen he feels like he can absorb the ping ball size ball in front of him, he concentrates and knows that this is his only chance, because his body can't hold on much longer.
He lets the energy flow freely again, at first, he feels like is too much, but after a few seconds the feeling goes away.
Now he absorbs the energy with no problem, after a moment the ping ball size ball disappears, and his soul now feels double as strong. He looks around him and now he sees a little bit further inside the fog, his senses a little bit stronger, he stops the 'Overdrive' to his body, and he gets out of the pagoda space.
He again looks at it and knows that he is not strong enough to take control of it, but with the souls inside he will be. After, Morven sees him entering and a few times a day inside the pagoda space and using the souls inside to strengthen his own. After a few trips his soul is almost ten times stronger than at the beginning. Then he goes further and further inside the pagoda space, until he finds a magic circle floating in space, immediately Malakar knows that that is the key to control the pagoda, he goes next to the circle and touches it, but the moment his hand touches it, he is flung away like a broken doll, his soul almost disappearing. He lies there for a few moments until he finds the strength to get up.
Then knows that he is still way too weak to try and take control of it. But he has time, so he again goes towards the floating balls and starts to absorb them, after a few months of doing that, he goes again at the magic circle.
But now he manages to take control of the first level of the pagoda, that is only the outermost part of the magic circle.
Morven gets out of his mind and knows that this pagoda is even more powerful than maybe Melody's cube.