Chapter 137: Ch174. Ouroboros curse
"...And to say goodbye." K said, with a hint of solemnity in his voice. "You’re doing everything you can to stop this monster, but we know you’re not yet ready for the challenges that lie ahead."
Kurt looked at K with a question shining in his eyes.
Unable to speak, it was as if his eyes were the only communication tools he had left.
"Ah, you don’t know yet, but this won’t be the end of your journey. Even if you forget, or refuse to remember for a while... After your plan succeeds, Octavius is defeated, and Kha’Ur If you are silenced, you will still have a role to play..."
"The cycle of eternal rebirth and transformation, death, life, and revival that begins within yourself..." The Red Oracle knelt beside Kurt, gently touching his forehead with the comfortingly cool palms of her hands. "It is a cycle that only you can end. But you do not yet have the power or knowledge to undertake this journey."
"Focus on finishing off this monster, and when you’re ready, come say hi." A strange Kurt, with violet eyes and dark hair, half short and elegantly disheveled, said.
Kurt felt like this guy was both strange and familiar, but he didn’t feel like questioning it.
It seemed like there would be countless questions to be answered, and each of them could only be processed properly after the battle.
"Here, take this, and get up. I think you can use ’that’ now." K said, opening a vial of vibrant red liquid, which Kurt immediately recognized as a [FULL HEAL].
K poured the liquid over Kurt’s lips, who immediately drank every drop, immediately feeling the effects of that miraculous potion.
In that tiny, eternal instant where time didn’t flow, Kurt felt the pain dissipating, his bones mending, his muscles regenerating, and every wound in his body being healed.
Overcome with a sense of relief, Kurt stood up, facing his counterparts from other echoes one by one.
"Did you guys just come here to give me moral support and say goodbye for a while?"
K laughed, touching Kurt’s shoulder.
"A little more than that, but you still won’t be able to understand what we did here today." He said, giving Kurt a wink. "Someday, who knows. Ruun, you might send us back."
Ruun?
Kurt had never heard of that name before.
Who would own that strange name?
Another alien?
As if to answer the silent questions that loomed in his mind, the strange, violet-eyed Kurt nodded, saying.
"See you one day, Kurt Blake. It will be a pleasure to work with you..."
And with a lopsided smile, the one K called Ruun snapped his fingers, and a crack opened in space.
It was different from the bubble that permeated the entrance to the Nests.
She emanated a kind of power that Kurt had never felt in his life.
’Magic?’ He thought, frowning.
However, immediately after everyone crossed the strange dimensional rift, Kurt felt that time was about to start flowing normally again.
He flexed his fingers, stretched, and felt energy crackling, sparking around him.
’It’s showtime...’
Octavius’ fists crashed into the ground, causing countless cracks to spread across the stony sand in that part of the desert.
The sun was still shining, imposingly, illuminating everything around it, and casting shades of yellow, pink, and red on everything it touched.
However, Kurt wasn’t there, beneath the monstrosity’s fists.
With a look of astonishment, the thing’s inhuman head turned in all directions, searching for its target.
"Again, man...? Up here!" Kurt said, seeming to fall little by little, quickly and forcefully, towards Octavius’ head.
The shock wave that originated from the blow caused the ground beneath the monster’s feet to crack, forming a deep crater, and burying the monstrosity in rubble and boulders.
Once again, the fight ensued, more insane and savage than before, and, strangely enough, with Kurt in a pretty tough match against the reborn Dread Paladin.
It was almost as if, after being beaten almost to death, Kurt had been reborn with powers far beyond human imagination, allowing him to follow the monster’s movements and blows as an equal.
"You know..." Kurt said, not caring if that obnoxious, horrifying spawn of hell would hear, or even understand his words. "Knowing that you’re in there, and that it was all your fault, made me very, very angry." He followed, throwing a punch that caused a shockwave that reverberated to the completely astonished spectators of the battle. "But there is a good side to all of this..." An evil smile spread across Kurt’s lips, as he blocked the beast’s bestial hand, about to launch one of those invisible cuts, so particular to Octavius. "I memorized every one of your movements. Monster body or not, it’s still my father in there. And I know exactly how you think."
"Maybe not quite like that." The monstrosity that had once been Octavius said, tongue out, grinning, suddenly intelligent.
The monster decided to receive the full impact of Kurt’s blow, which came next, exactly like the attack that started the fight, but much more devastating.
So much so, that a huge hole opened up in the monstrosity’s chest.
However, it still remained capable of moving, enveloping Kurt in an iron hug, which would certainly make Rodrick’s arms envious, if that had any other meaning than pure and simple murderous intent.
"It turns out that as we fight, I adapt more and more to this body..." The thing in Octavius’ body laughed. "Which means that maybe I don’t need you as much as I thought... Now... How about you prepare to die...?"
Pressing Kurt’s body more and more against that thing, the monstrosity took flight, quickly reaching the skies, after unfolding a massive pair of leathery, almost demonic-like wings.
Kurt tried with all his might to use what little darkness there was around to travel through the shadows to the ground again.
However, the more he tried, the more he realized that physical contact was a natural requirement to use Kurt’s ability with him.
There was no way he could travel through the shadows without taking the monstrosity with him.
Kurt remembered when he had fought Zaval, back in K’s world, and how he had managed to break free from a similar situation.
But that only made Kurt understand that either his powers had weakened somehow, because of the sunlight...
’Or this bastard has some unconscious way of intensifying the requirements for using my [SHADOW TRAVEL]...’
"How does it feel, to finally understand that no matter where you go, I’ll be right along with you...?" The thing inside Octavius grinned.
But Kurt was persistent.
Each time he tried to travel through the shadows, he managed to free a part of his body, be it an arm or a leg, and used it to attack the monstrosity with every ounce of energy and raw strength he possessed, in that restricted and confined space. .
To the point that Kurt had managed, with a few movements, to cut off one of the creature’s arms, watching as the limb fell to the ground, while he and the inhuman beast that had once been his father, ascended towards the stratosphere.
And only then, when they reached the highest point, without freezing to death, did the monster finally stop, still holding Kurt with the only arm he had left.
However, much stronger and determined than before.
"However, there’s been one thing bothering me ever since we started fighting..." The voice of what had once been Octavius was drenched in a deep, ominous tone. "You seem to be able to destroy this body far beyond the point at which I am able to regenerate myself... And you also seem to be able to suppress my ever-growing consciousness within you..."
The tone of the monstrous thing descended, becoming darker and darker.
And as he spoke, Kurt felt a mix of emotions overflowing inside him.
Part of it was fear, because Kurt knew that something even more terrifying or painful than the beating he had received earlier was cooking inside that perfidious mind.
The other part was an exultant, almost insane curiosity.
Because he knew, felt it in his bones, that the moment of truth was right around the corner.
"That makes me come to a sad conclusion..." The monster continued speaking, without any sadness in his voice. "That if I can’t have this body, I can’t even be able to have yours... Then none of you will have anything..."
Kurt felt the wave of energy flowing from that monster’s core.
An ultimate, devastating power that could only mean one thing...
"I may die here, and perhaps even permanently... But I will take each of you with me to the eternal Red Flood!"
And the monster began to glow, pulsing, ready to explode.
