Cleansing the continent

Seth watched the scattered pieces Noth was left in with interest, the wriggling of its flesh as it tried to gather back and recreate his body, the blood that had not dried despite being outside the body, and those eyes that never closed the entire time.

Seth was astounded to find that Noth’s body was still alive, without a source, core, or soul to back it up.

Turning his head to the side, where Elise was sharing in his amazement, Seth asked, “Do you think you could possess him? He should be quite weak right now.”

Elise shook her head. “If he had a soul, yes, but there’s nothing for me to possess, as he only has a body and a will.”

“Just kill me already….” Noth’s tired voice resounded in the duo’s ears, prompting Seth to ask, “As I’ve already told you, I can do that, but I want you to tell me everything you know about your origin.”

“What is there to say? I was not here, and then I was.”

“And you never asked yourself how you came up to be? Why you’re so different from humans or other species? Why can you use energy naturally when others have to work for it?” asked Seth.

“I did not. There was no need for any of those questions. I wanted to grow strong enough to leave this place, and the power to do that came to me. If not for you and that council, I would have succeeded. I know it.”

Seth raised an eyebrow, asking, “And what pushed you to want to leave?”

“Who knows anymore?” replied Noth, his voice filled with regret. “Not that it matters. We have lost.”

Seth sighed, knowing that Noth won’t be able to give him the answers he was looking for. Compared to Famine, Noth had been too long under the control of a greater will, which had completely reshaped his will.

Standing up, Seth’s hand moved through space and reached all the way into Endora’s capital, where he pulled Henrietta right out of a meeting with the other girls toward him.

Henrietta looked confused at the surrounding space before her eyes landed on the mangled flesh of Noth lying on the ground, and she felt the heart treasure inside her stirring aggressively.

“Is this a horror?” asked Henrietta, lifting her hand to look at the sword mark that had appeared on her hand.

Seth nodded and took a step back, away from Noth. “Yes. This is Noth. I want you to kill him with the treasure.”

Henrietta’s mark flared up, the flames extending over her hand until they formed a curved, fiery sword. The sword's flames did nothing to Seth, but Elise immediately floated some distance away, and the blood on the ground started sizzling, despite the sword still being a distance away.

“Sure, but couldn’t your divinity do the same?” asked Henrietta, looking at her sword with a smile. The treasure of the heart recovered its power a while back, but she had never used it before.

“I could, but my destruction will remove everything. I want to see what will happen when a treasure kills a horror.”

Henrietta nodded and looked disgusted at the blood and flesh littering the space before her. She could see a pair of eyes blinking as they stared at her, making shivers run down her back, so she didn’t waste any time doing as Seth had asked.

Lifting her sword, the flames forming its blade flared up before she eventually waved it across the floor. The flames forming its blade passed over Noth’s remains, and in seconds, the ground was left with only some small sparkling lights floating a few inches above it.

“It’s the same as Famine,” exclaimed Elise, but Seth shook his head, looking more carefully at the lights. “Not exactly. Watch what’s happening to them.”

Elise refused to get any closer to the heart sword, but after paying closer attention, she could see the sparkles of light were not disappearing, as they did in Famine’s case. Instead, they were being absorbed by the flames forming the sword.

After removing Noth from the world, Henrietta lifted her sword and allowed it to dissolve into a strange energy that returned to the mark on her hand before it disappeared completely.

With the sword fading away, Elise also returned to Seth’s side, able to see the last traces of small lights entering Henrietta’s hand after the sword.

Henrietta also looked at the strange things entering her hand and asked, “What is this?”

“That’s what we’re trying to find out….” muttered Seth. “Are you feeling alright?”

Henrietta nodded, feeling the condition of her soul, “The treasure feels even stronger than before, but other than that, nothing has changed.”

Seth kept watching Henrietta’s hand while asking inside his soul, “Lust, what do you think?’

‘Me? I do not know.’

‘Lust? Our deal. Perception has once absorbed one treasure inside her will. I doubt you don't know anything about it.’

A sigh resounded inside Seth’s head before Lust spoke.

‘I really know little. From what I observed, when Perception absorbed what you call the human hope treasure, she only did so with the emotions tied to it, patching the missing holes in her will and allowing her to manifest.’

‘These treasures and horrors are definitely emotions given form, and I’m sure those emotions come from the All-mother, but emotions can’t exist without a foundation, and those lights that appear once the emotions are cleansed are that foundation.’

‘As for what that foundation is, I don’t know, but their strange existence shows they might come from The Outside.’

Seth pondered her words momentarily before asking, ‘So, you’re saying that they come from the same world the Sovereign originated from?’

‘Most likely, yes. As far as I know, the All-mother never created such strange entities or constructs, so they could only come from the Sovereign or his world.’

‘Do you think Henrietta is alright? That thing entered her body after all,’ asked Seth with a frown.

‘Probably. From what I saw, the flames of the heart treasure cleansed the negative emotions bound to Noth before absorbing the strange construct inside itself. The one thing you must worry about is the nature of the treasures. After the emotions inside the human hope gave form to Perception, what was left disappeared in the same form as Famine and Noth did, so the treasures are most likely the same as the horrors, emotions bound to an outside foundation.’

‘Do you think I should destroy them?’

‘Do what you want, but remember the consequences of destroying a treasure. You might create more trouble for yourself if you choose to do so.’

Seth sighed and looked at Henrietta. “You can go back, Henri. Let me know if anything strange happens with your treasure.”

After a quick nod and a peck on Seth’s lips, Henrietta teleported away, and Elise asked, “Is anything wrong?”

“Let’s hope not. We should leave. We have already spent too much time on Noth, and we need to finish everything soon so that I can join the others in the war in space.”

With Elise giving Seth a suspicious look, the two disappeared from Noth’s empty prison, appearing once more before Olivia, Crow, and Raven.

After exchanging words with the three and again pretending he didn’t notice Olivia’s affection, Seth took his leave and departed from the Kingdom of Noth, arriving in Curse, where he skipped visiting the capital altogether.

Deep beneath the lands of Curse, Panther was sitting inside a room Endora’s ascended had created for her. Sitting upside down on a large sofa, she looked to the side when she felt Seth’s arrival and said with a bored tone, “You finally came.”

Seth was amused when he noticed Panther was wearing nothing but underwear and hanging upside down on the sofa. Elise also appeared to share his feelings as she said, “Kitty. If you don’t wear some clothes, this guy here might eat you alive.”

Panther smiled as her body turned into energy, and she then reformed behind Elise, wrapping her arms around her waist and rubbing her head against her back.

“Lissie, you haven’t come around for so long. Who would I even get dressed for?”

Seth was amazed to discover the two’s relationship, and he even saw that Elise's pale complexion now had a hint of blush.

Parting Panther’s hands away from her waist, Elise quickly said, “Why are you like this? Can’t you just be normal?”

Panther poked her tongue out before a long dress covered her body, formed out of earth energy, and she bowed toward Seth. “I apologize for the unsightly display, Seth. The boredom has eroded my manners.”

Seth teleported on the sofa, smiling back at Panther. “Unsightly display? Getting to see Elise flushed is a treat on its own.”

“I know, right? She’s so cute.” Panther wasted no time in agreeing, much to Elise’s dismay.

With a sigh, Elise moved to sit down next to Seth, saying, “Didn’t we come here to take care of those horrors? Why are you two fooling around?”

Seth decided not to mess with Elise anymore and asked Panther, “How are things with your prisoners?”

“Other than eating away at my energy, nothing of notice is happening. They’ve also been more restless after your announcement, but there’s nothing I can’t handle. I want it to be over so I can come and spend time with the others. I haven’t seen Leo for over a week, and Elise here also didn’t come to visit me either.”

Seth chuckled and asked, “You know we’re leaving to fight outside this planet, don’t you?”

Panther grinned and nodded. “So what? I will also come. It’s been a long time since I’ve stepped into space.”

Seth nodded and decided to be done with it. He only needed to test one more thing about the strange existence of the horrors, and the mass of them locked inside Panther’s soul was the best subject to do so.

After having Panther lead them to each of the imprisoned horrors, Seth used his destruction divinity to remove all traces of the horror. Still, to his surprise, the same sparkling light appeared even through his destruction energy.

When he had destroyed the entire world before, Seth paid no attention to little things like that, but now this intrigued him even more. An energy meant to destroy everything, supported by a divinity, couldn’t eliminate those strange white lights left in the wake of a horror’s demise.

This didn’t bring Seth any new information but more or less confirmed Lust’s thoughts. Whatever those constructs were, they could only have come from The Outside.

With Panther released from her duty, Seth and Elise departed for Sorrow and took care of the horrors there before ending up in Pain.

Sitting at the edge of the seal created in Pain, Seth sighed and placed a hand on the dome of energy forming the seal. With a small push of his energy, he created a tiny hole inside the seal, which he flooded with destruction energy.

Once the seal was filled with destruction energy, Seth activated that energy, wiping away all traces of souls, bodies, or energy inside, cleansing the Kingdom completely.

After canceling his energy, Seth watched as the dome of energy dissipated before sighing again and turning to the silent Elise watching from the side.“I know you and Pain had a history, but I felt a clean start for this land was the most appropriate.”

“History? We only had a deal. You won’t see me shedding a single tear for him,” said Elise indifferently. “What now?”

“Now I need to meet Death and try to form a deal of my own,” said Seth, his gaze moving toward the far north.