Interception

Leora has seen her share of horrors and how they acted during her quest to take over the Curse Kingdom, but compared to the scenes in Pain, the atrocities she had seen in Curse seemed like child's play.

“Why are they not dead, even in this condition?” asked Leora.

“Their bodies had died, having all their blood drained, but their souls are still being kept inside that dead shell by the horror locked here. The more time they spend in this miserable state, the more the horror in here can feed on their suffering to grow stronger,” replied Seth, extending his hand forward and using his energy to cleanse the blood-red fog covering the city.

Leora nodded and spread some of her light around, allowing it to kill the tortured souls hung onto pillars all over the city. Seth sighed, adding, “We’re not here to kill this thing yet, nor to save these people.”

“Huh?” Leora paused and looked confused at Seth.

Before Seth could answer, a river of blood erupted from the ground right before Seth and Leora. The blood fell from the sky in the form of a waterfall and parted as a young woman slowly walked up, her red eyes fixed on the two before her.

“It’s been a while, Seth, Leora,” said Elise.

Leora frowned and didn’t answer Elise, instead turning to give Seth a bewildered look. She knew about Elise’s identity as one of the horrors but didn’t know much about her. What caught her off-guard was why she was feeding on people, and Seth already seemed to be aware of it.

Seth rubbed Leora’s head, knowing what she might be thinking about, but decided to explain later, “It truly has, Elise. I see you’ve been doing well.”

Elise looked at the tortured people around before noticing the look in Leora’s eyes and lowering her head, “This was the only choice I had….”

“I know, and I’m not judging you. I think you did well, all things considered.” Seth could see how much of a toll what was happening in Pain took on Elise, but since it was her choice, there was also nothing he could do about it. Time was also a constraint at the moment.

“What I came here for is that I need your help. Are you willing to lend me a hand?”

“Oh?” Elise’s apologetic expression disappeared, and she asked with a serious look, “Did something happen?”

“Show me your Sun,” said Seth with a smile, and Elise allowed the Blood Sun to leave her chest. Just one look at it was enough for Seth to understand it was no longer a simple treasure, but it was starting to change with all the sacrifices it has received.

Its normal soft red light was gone, covered by a layer of complex and almost black blood. Veins covered its outer shell, extending and mixing with Elise’s form.

“You have managed to form a body for yourself,” exclaimed Seth, having just realized Elise was using the Sun to form a body. Lifting his eyes from the sun sticking out of her chest, Seth glanced into her red eyes and asked, “Why?”

Elise frowned and asked, “Didn’t you need something?”

Seth felt awkward and said, “I have a few pestering gods chasing me, and I want your help to face them. I need your support in keeping one of them under control.”

With her frown deepening, Elise asked, “Let me get this straight. You’re in trouble with a few gods that you can’t defeat and want me to help? Against a god?”

Seth smiled wryly and nodded. “That god is a special case. It still has a physical form, and I’ve seen it bleed in the past. Isn’t a bleeding god just a plaything for you?”

Elise’s frown eased up, and she sighed as she whispered something strange under her breath, words not even Seth could understand.

<Language of old. Want me to spread its knowledge inside your soul?>

‘No.’ with the system’s help, Seth understood Elise was speaking to Pain through her blood.

After a few more minutes, Elise nodded and said, “Give me a minute.”

Elise rose high to the sky, and more blood geysers rushed out of the earth, all gathering toward her body.

Leora, who had been silent this entire time, finally spoke. “This is disgusting.”

Light’s will also took form, and she agreed, “I’ve only seen such darkness twice before. Your lover is one of them, and the other is my sister.”

“It’s easy to judge what’s on the surface, but once you look deeper, things are not as simple as you might believe,” said Seth with a sigh.

“What’s there to see? She’s been working with one of the horrors to torture people,” said Leora matter-of-factly.

“Has she?” asked Seth back.

Leora frowned and looked again at the suffering city, not understanding how all that could be any different from Elise torturing people.

“Mistress, a living body is necessary to propagate the continuation of a species like humans, but all the people here have been killed in body, having all their blood extracted,” added Light.

Leora initially didn’t understand what Seth and Light were hinting at. Eventually, her eyes widened as she asked, “You’re saying that Elise has killed them all to prevent other humans from being born in this suffering?”

“Indeed. It’s a mercy for the future generation,” said Seth with a sigh, looking at the gathering blood high above. “She must have come here and started consuming the blood in these people to end their suffering, but Pain could still keep them alive despite all that. I don’t know what deal they made, but I know Pain was the one who lost.”

Leora still appeared unconvinced but didn’t voice her doubts, instead asking, “Light, can we kill this horror?”

“We can.”

After her light will confirmed her thoughts, Leora turned to look at Seth, light energy already gathering around her body.

Seth shook his head and said, “I understand what you want to do, but we can’t. Not yet. We need to take care of Krum and our issues before we can worry about others. Killing this horror will do us no good now.”

Leora canceled her energy and lowered her head with a sad expression. Seth also understood she wanted to help, but he needed to finish this as soon as possible and leave to recover his energy and prepare for Krum’s imminent arrival.

After Elise gathered all her blood roots from all along the Kingdom of Pain, she floated back down next to Seth and said, “I’m ready.”

Seth nodded and teleported with the two back to Endora, inside Maya’s quarters, where he allowed Maya out of the seal he made around her source.

Maya quickly reformed her body and hugged Seth tightly. “Thank you. Thank you for not leaving me.”

Her body was shaking so hard, and she had not even noticed Leora and Elise on the side. Seth patted her back and said, “It’s not over yet. I’m going to need you to stay here now.”

Caught off guard, Maya lifted her head, just now noticing Leora and Elise giving her strange looks. Nodding toward Elise, Maya turned to Leora and exclaimed, “Good to see you are alright, Leora.”

“Leave the catching up to later. We need to leave,” interrupted Seth before Leora could answer, kissing Maya’s lips and turning to Leora, “Use your energy to form a shield around this world.”

Leora smiled at Maya and said, “We’ll speak later, Maya. Good to see you too.”

“Wa-“

Maya didn’t even get the chance to speak as Seth teleported himself, along with Leora and Elise, outside the space of his world. Leora closed her eyes, and her body dissipated into energy, forming a light film around the entire world beneath her.

“So this is how it looks from high above…” commented Elise, this being the first time she was ever in space.

Seth chuckled and said, “I’m going to gather all the energy I can. You also get ready. We’ll have to fight soon.”

After securing the world into a film of light energy, Leora also joined the other two in waiting for their enemy. Once his energy recovered, Seth took some time to explain his plan to his companions.

After three days, everyone was in peak condition as Leora finally said, “They’re here.”

Following her words, Krum, Dukbium, and Vayu appeared from the depths of space.

“Great, Gaia didn’t come,” exclaimed Seth in relief. “This makes things a lot easier for us.”

Noticing the party of three waiting for them, Krum stopped while Dukbium and Vayu slowly regained material forms a few steps behind him.

“What tricks do you have this time?” asked Krum with a face laden with suspicion and annoyance.

Seth ignored his question and turned to look at Elise. “How is it?”

Elise’s eyes had never left Krum since he arrived, her expression alternating between confusion and understanding. “I don’t know. His blood is different. If I’m not wrong, it’s like it has a mind of its own… Do you want me to try to control him?”

Her answer made Seth smile widely. “No. Do not control him. I want you to make his blood stop.”

“Huh?” asked Elise.

“You said that his blood moves like it has a mind of its own? I want you to use your art to stop that movement of his blood inside his body.”

Elise still didn’t understand how that would do anything to a god, but she nodded, finding that a lot easier to do. “You want me to stop his blood? No problem.”

“Leora, can you face Dukbium alone for a while?” asked Seth.

“Light said that in a duel we shouldn't have any issues,” said Leora with a serious look on her face.

“Good. I’m leaving Krum and Dukbium to you two while I take care of Vayu. All you have to do is keep them busy,” said Seth, allowing his body to dissipate into energy, which charged right along Leora’s toward Vayu and Dukbium.

Krum scoffed and roared, “Do you think you can ignore me?”

With his swords returning, Krum charged to intercept Seth.

Elise lifted her hand just as he started his charge, a blood-red glow covering her body. Her eyes glowed an even darker red as she clenched her fist and Krum froze, his eyes widening in alarm.

The skin all over his body started wriggling like crazy before eventually stopping, and he remained frozen in place.

With a face covered in pain and struggle, Krum slowly turned his silvery eyes on Elise, and he roared through gritted teeth, silvery blood leaking down the side of his mouth, “Stop that, you wench.”

Despite his struggles, Elise found it relatively easy to control his blood and gave Krum a grim smile.

“Why don’t you keep me company while we just enjoy the show? I’m sure Seth will come back for you once he’s done.”