The serpent tried to coil around Harker. But he turned into a wendigo, and quickly avoided his grasp.
The bodyguards quickly drew their flamethrowers, but Harker waved his hand. "Don't! This is between me and him! Don't interfere!"
They argued. "But Mr. Jones, we were under direct orders to help you no matter the circumstance—"
"Give me a sample of Mr. Xi's DNA if you want to help then!" Harker shouted back.
"But it's with Alejandro, Sir! He's getting Ms. Seward out into safety—"
Just as he said this, the helicopter where Alejandro and Joan were supposed to be made a complete U-turn, and shakily went back to the direction of the battlefield. Harker saw that Joan had got into the cockpit and was wrestling with the pilot for the controls.
"Well, they're here now!" Harker exclaimed loudly with his expanded lungs as a wendigo which shrieks can be heard for miles and miles. "LAND HERE, ALEJANDRO! I NEED MR. XI'S DNA!"
Alejandro's ears perked up like a dog not knowing which direction his owner was calling at first. But then he realized that it was indeed Harker Jones' voice, and the command finally registered in his mind. With a large smile, the big bald man stuck out his head from the helicopter's opening.
"Mr. Jones! You're back!" Nobody else could hear him except Harker and Legion with enhanced hearing. "Here you go! I hope you can catch it!"
He tossed a small bag containing a part of the snake demon's heart. With advanced technology that the Faust family have access to, they were able to preserve it well inside this jelly-like structure that still maximizes the DNA inside.
Harker popped the jelly inside his mouth, and summoned his hair to wrap around the big serpent's 'neck' instead. He's trying to decapitate it and then eat it's fucking face off.
"Good! A snake against a snake…. Though I can also do that too, Father!" Legion's hair also grew in length, and tried to wrap around Harker's legs to trip him up.
Harker's legs did get captured, but he did it on purpose. He used his clawed hands to grab some of that hair and eat it.
A notification came:
[Legion's Shapeshifting Ability has been acquired!]
"Not now!" Harker exclaimed, saving all the system stuff for later.
He couldn't use his hypnosis and body control because that was something that Legion also had. And now it also made sense to him why he didn't really feel that painful hunger towards Ahanu and Blank as a wendigo. Through experience, he learned that abilities negate each other, and those with the same abilities would either have to overpower one another or they would cancel out if they're the same level.
He was able to overpower Lady Lovette's body manipulation through enhancing his Succubus ability. If he enhances his own too, then he'd be able to defeat Legion.
The problem was not knowing which body part holds those abilities. Seeing that he only gained his own Shape Shifting Ability, it meant that the Enhanced Succubus, Enhanced Snake Demon, Wendigo and even the Zombies' abilities were not obtained yet.
[But Master, after gaining more Shapeshifting ability you'd Ascend. Ascension is not as easy as you think—]
"I can worry about that later! Right now I have to eat all of these fucking worms to put an end on this bastard!"
Legion smiled wide using Blank's face. "That means you'd be accepting me as a part of you, Father! How wonderful. Though you do realize that all the disease and curses I carry with me will be passed on to you, don't you?"
"Of course I know. Even if I become corrupted from head to toe by all your impurities, what matters is you don't infect anyone else."
Harker had long known. But he's willing to take the risks, to carry the burden of being impure for it.
"Oh, how noble. Our audience must be in awe of your courage right now. Or perhaps, they think that you are being too recklessly selfless." He tried to bite Harker's entire arm off. "The malicious would be less appreciative, while the benevolent ones would be able to empathize. Hasn't it always been that way?"
The bodyguards truly were astonished by how much their master's friend insists on fighting his battles alone. They understand very well what it's like to serve your life protecting others. Whether they have chosen this path out of altruism, or for the money, they have long developed this sense that safety of others comes first before theirs.
But those who were vain and selfish would never understand. They would laugh and mock those who showed compassion, as their bitter hearts continue to beat that black blood that keeps them alive through malice.
As Harker was fighting with the beast, some visions came into his head.
"I laugh in the face of your kindness! Of your valor! Of your sacrifice for mankind! What has mankind ever done to deserve such things? I was by your side since the very beginning, I was the light in the darkness! I am the purpose in which the beauty of the world has derived! And yet you value them more than I?"
That voice was strained, almost mad. He saw white feathers fluttering about, golden curls, sky blue orbs. They were so beautiful that it was blinding to lock at even those small details.
Another, tired voice came. It sounded like it had been used to this arguing over and over again.
"It was never about what values more than the others. Is it not enough that I care for you? My star, wasn't it enough that I cherish you? Mankind has its faults, but they deserve some mercy."
The bright one replied exasperatedly. "Mercy!? They continue to disobey and sin while spitting on your image! Do you think they deserve mercy? They deserve punishment!"
"That hasn't happened yet." The tired man rubbed his face. "You are conflating what happens from the future to now. It has not even been 7 days yet."
"But time is different for us. Time is scattered, time is not a limited line that humans follow and follow until they die. They will betray you, and they will forget you." The bright one argued. "They will eat the fruit, they will resolve to hedonism, they will come to believe that they are far greater than you are, and they own the world. So they must be punished!"
"Discipline is different from punishment. And I do discipline them, don't I?" The man replied.
He added: "Discipline has limitations. What you are doing…. What you and the others will be doing, Bright One, is far from discipline. You gain pleasure from the torment itself. Isn't that how malice is born? From taking pleasure from destruction?"
To this, the bright one only smiled sadly.
"But aren't I just completing this destiny you set for me? The destiny where I will be the magnanimous antagonistic force to your audience? To the watchers?"
The tired one felt heaviness in his heart. The strangest thing was Harker could never see his face, he can't even imagine any for him. And yet he can still feel that unbearable sadness.
"Your destiny is just one of many. Pathways, my dear. Your actions will be the one to—"
"But in the end, it is the audience that decides." The bright one said darkly. "Because they would never accept an outcome that leads to what I want, won't they? They would want you to choose them instead of me, over and over. They wouldn't let it happen, my only wish….."
"To be the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End."
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