LEVEL 0 IMMORTAL-Chapter 90: You Shall Deliver Judgement
Too many things had been happening to Elias in a time period that was just too short, and so he was still destabilized by everything, and he had made mistakes, and was still generally a bit confused, but there was one thing that could wipe away all the distractions, and that was the fear of death, or for him, perhaps it was the allure of death.
His body was in free fall, and his mind, which was filled with countless queries, sharpened and threw everything to the side. He was falling from a great height, and perhaps this fall would not kill him, but he would be grieviously injured, and his crash would draw attention to him, and he did not want those cannibals below to find a virtually inexhaustible source of flesh, even though he knew that this might literally be the best option for him when his Ascendant Swarm was placed into the picture.
’Oh, you want to eat me... Come, eat more, I can always grow more flesh, but be careful about the things you eat, my blood is poisonous, and my flesh shall kill even the gods.’
Elias was realizing that he may be higher than the ground by three miles, but it would not matter either way.
The wind tore at his robe, whipping the hem upward like black wings, with the gold edges flashing in the sun. His mind instantly fastened unto this changes, and his mind entered his whipping robes, pouring his intent into it, and because his mind at this point was incredibly focused, the swarm responded to him, even more quickly than before, and he could feel that the loose robe became firm, catching the air in its grasp.
Elias felt a dull punch in his stomach as the air resistance suddenly quadrupled and his falling speed drastically reduced. His scarlet hair streamed behind him, like a comet tail of fire against the blue.
Below, the oasis forest grew larger with terrifying speed; even with the speed of his descent greatly reduced, it was still approaching much too fast. With his perfect control over his body, it did not take long for Elias to figure out how to maneuver in the air, as he did not forget that he had a target, and his body shifted towards them as he ate the miles.
Elias did not care if this was a test or what the Commander was thinking when she dropped him from this high up; all of that was nothing, as this moment where he was falling from the heavens was everything.
He briefly recalled the feeling that his Ageless Echo had felt when he launched his wispy body into the sky, and Elias felt his beating heart grow steady, and his descending body aligned with his target below.
Commanding his robes to tighten around his body, Elias turned his body in the air, this motion was incredibly easy for him to accomplish with his Agility and incredible control over his body.
He aligned his body like an arrow, with his knees slightly bent, and his arms loose at his sides. Most of his mind was focused on the swarm inside him that surged to follow his instructions, and the skintight robes around his body thickened across his chest and thighs, cushioning joints, and reinforcing bones.
His bare feet flexed, toes spreading as though already gripping earth that was rushing towards him, and for a second, a thought passed through his mind,
"This... this is the life I want."
Then, the forest swallowed him.
㉫
Elias crashed through the canopy in an explosion of leaves and splintered branches. Wood cracked like gunfire as vines tore apart. His descent was slowed down by all of these impacts, and he hit the forest floor in a crouch, his knees absorbing the shock of the landing with one palm slamming down to steady himself. The ground trembled once, then there was stillness as the light of the sun surrounded him, having torn a hole through the forest canopy.
The first thing that entered Elias’s senses was the smell, like copper and decay, and his green eyes flashed; nothing inside them seemed human. This was the eyes of a predator.
He looked ahead at the seven targets who stood in a ragged clearing twenty paces away. They were naked to the waist, skin painted in streaks of dried blood and ash. Their hair was matted with filth and bone fragments, and Elias observed that their eyes were sunken, with black pupils blown wide with hunger or madness.
Elias had seen descriptions of sharks, and the eyes of these men were the closest he had seen to a shark.
One held a femur still glistening red; another clutched a loop of intestine like a rope. Three fresh corpses lay at their feet, two men, one woman, their ribcages cracked open, hearts missing, faces frozen in the rictus of terror.
It was amazing that, with the commotion he had made during his descent through the forest canopy, the cannibals had not noticed him yet, but they seemed to be too busy feeding, and a sense of disdain rolled through his mind, but he crushed that thought immediately.
He could sense that these cannibals were all at the Fury Forged Stage, and from the amount of Lumina he could see running through their muscles, they must be at the peak of this stage.
One knelt over the woman’s body at his feet, teeth tearing into the soft meat of her thigh with a wet ripping sound. A low, animal moan of pleasure was emerging from his mouth.
For a moment, Elias thought that these must be animals wearing the form of humans, but then one of them laughed, a high-pitched sound like a hyena as he sucked marrow from a shattered femur, making a crude joke to his fellows.
Elias had seen enough, and he rose slowly, his robes loosening and settling around him like spilled ink.
The rose at his hip pulsed... Elias thought that this was interesting. He should have asked the Commander what this flower was.
He had made no sound, but one of the nearest cannibals had chosen that moment to look to the side, and he had seen Elias, and his eyes widened. It was unknown what thought passed through his head at this moment as he went still, before he screamed and, without any hesitation, began to charge at Elias.
Elias smiled, his beautiful face lighting up, and he moved forward. He did not summon any weapon; his prey was weaker than him and held no weapon, so why should he?
The cannibal was a few feet away from him, and he lunged. Elias stepped forward, his feet sinking into the ground, and met the cannibal mid-leap.
His right hand lashed out, fingers stiff, and drove straight through the man’s open mouth, shattering his teeth as the back of the skull exploded outward in a spray of bone and brain.
The body hung suspended for a second, impaled on Elias’s arm, before he twisted and flung it aside like a rag doll. It crashed into a tree trunk, spine folding backward with a wet crunch.
Elias was a bit surprised at how fragile the man’s skull had been, and then he shook his hand, flinging off any bit of flesh that clung to it, and he turned to the other six prey who were frozen in place.
