NovelChina Mental Rupture
Mental Rupture
The ancestral forest of Ky'lar, under the oppressive and distorted reality of the thirty-five layers of the planetary barrier, began to collapse in a cataclysm of ashes and absolute fire.(¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡CRAAAAAACK-KRRR-SHHHHHHH-BOOOOOOM...!!!!!!!!)
Under its grip, the right flank of the clearing was no longer natural terrain, but an inferno of runaway combustion expanding with the violence of an elemental plague.
(¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡CRACK-KRAAAAK-SPHIIII-PLOP-SHHHHHHHHHHH-FROOOM...!!!!!!!!)
The crowns of the ancient trees twisted and burst under the intense temperature, shedding cascades of liquid, bluish fire that fell to the ground like a rain of magma.
(¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡VUUUUUMM-ZZZZZZZZ-FIIIIIIU-FRRRRRRRR-PUP-PUP...!!!!!!!!)
And the air, saturated with the suffocating smoke of burning wood, vibrated with such intensity that the silhouettes of the surroundings warped into a constant mirage, while floating embers rose toward the charred clouds, painting the firmament a sickly crimson hue.
(¡¡¡¡¡HUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-FROOOOOOOOOOOOO-SFFFFF!!!!!)
But, in the very midst of that suffocating atmosphere, while the steam from the evaporated mud mixed with a dense, dark, and icy miasma that welled directly from the pores of a silhouette among the flames, it created an aberrant microclimate where plant life was simply contaminated...
"¡¡¡¡¡¡¡HA-HA-HAA... ¡KHA-HAHAHAHAHA!-IHA-HA-HA-HAAAA... Gh-ha-ha...!!!!?"
... A laugh, seemingly normal and cheerful, echoed out.
(Ssssshhhhhiiiiiiiiiuuuuuuuu...)
Was it a deity, or perhaps a demon?
"¡...h-he... hihi... Hiiiii-hi-hi... sshh... h-he...!"
Whichever the answer, right at the epicenter of the devastation, the last shred of sanity in the young silhouette's body finished breaking.
(¡¡¡¡¡PLAS-TZZZZZZZZ...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
And as if in response, the precious red blanket—that gift from Mireya which Goldie treasured with silent devotion and wore as a cape—began to undergo an aberrant mutation.
(¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡SHRRRR-FZZZZZ-GONNNG-MET-MET-MET...!!!!!!!!)
Instead of burning under Keahi's heat, the fabric fibers absorbed the tide of cursed energy welling up from inside the little girl.
(¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡ZUT-ZUT-ZUT-SRAAAK-KRRRR-VREEE-CHAMP-CHAMP...!!!!!!!!!!!)
In an instant, the weave began to unravel and knit itself anew in fractions of a second, expanding and twisting like a hungry predator.
(¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡FSHHH-ZUMMMM-DUM-DUM-THUUM-SCHWRRR...!!!!!!!!!!!)
Finally, in the blink of an eye, the cloth transformed into a demonic dress of impenetrable matte black with pulsing crimson edges—like an armor of cursed threads that hovered and waved around her with the volatility of living, razor-sharp shadows.
"He... hehe..."
At the same time, from her throat, usually silent and shy, sprouted a murmur that quickly lost all warmth.
(¡¡¡Krrr-clac... cric...!!!)
And beneath the blonde bangs of her bob cut, Goldie's face contorted into a grimace of pure, insane euphoria.
"...h-he... hehe... Shhh... so fragile... KHA-HAHAHA! Cut... dismember... stitch... fffffff..."
As the girl stepped forward, two horns of dark, cracked ivory, imbued with an unstable mystical energy, pierced her forehead and rose toward the sky.
"¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡...h-he... hehe... ¡KHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!-Krrr-clac... cric... ¡GHA-HA-HA-HA!...!!!!!!"
Her lips parted with a wet sigh, revealing fangs that sharpened and lengthened with a subtle creak,
"¡¡¡AHAHAHA... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
only to immediately burst into a hysterical, screeching laugh, momentarily drowning out the roar of the collapsing trees.
(¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡SSSSS-FSSS-¡HA-HA-HA-HAHAHAHA!-SRAAASH-HI-HI-HI...!!!!!!!!!!!)
That laugh was a maniacal melody, betraying not the slightest pain from the severe, smoking burns still coating her skin, but rather a sadistic, liberating euphoria that transformed her agony into pure bloodlust.
(¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡ZWUUUUUUUU-GHOOOOO-FSSSHHHHHHHHH...!!!!!!!!)
And in that moment, through the curtains of blue flames, her pupils—now completely stained a dense, viscous crimson—locked fixedly onto the magma colossus...
"......"
The high-pitched, unhinged laughter echoing across the right flank of the forest ignited a cold spark of warning within the Great Spirit of Fire.
"That laugh... that dark pestilence..."
At that moment, Keahi, motionless amidst the smoke, clenched his jaws of basaltic stone as he felt the pure natural energy of the environment being suffocated by a nauseating stench.
(¡¡¡¡¡FWOOOOO-SHHHHHHHHHHHHH-VRRRRR...!!!!!)
In response, making the magma in his chest boil, he roared in outrage.
"I will not allow your filth to desecrate this ground for another second!"
And immediately after, with relentless speed, the basalt colossus plunged his arms directly into the boiling mud,
(¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡THUUUUM-SPLASHHH-KRRRRR-ROOOOAR-ZRAAAK-PLASMMM...!!!!!!!!!!!)
causing the ground beneath Goldie's feet to crack open through his manipulation of subterranean thermal currents, as multiple serpentine jaws of pure magma erupted from the abyss in a lattice of plasma fangs to crush her.
(¡¡¡¡¡KABOOOOOOOM-SHHHHWWWWWRRRRRRRRR...!!!!!)
However, in that very instant...
"¡¡¡AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
The black and crimson fabric dress that now enveloped her reacted with the speed of a defensive reflex.
(¡¡¡¡¡ZUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU—VUUUUUUUUUUOSHHHH!!!!)
With a violent snap, multiple appendages of solid shadow sprouted from the cloth, driving themselves like stakes into the charred trunks of the periphery and propelling her body through the air in a parabolic motion that evaded the plasma jaws by mere millimeters.
"... Red on the inside... everyone is red on the inside... let's open the pattern... HAHAHA!"
Immediately after, suspended in mid-air, Goldie lunged at her target.
"Shhh... don't scream... I'm just adjusting your pieces... HA-HA-HAHAHA! Yes... a perfect pattern..."
And instantly her fists, imbued with an unstable mixture of golden light and filaments of cursed darkness, began to crack the very air in their path from the sheer repulsion of both energies, multiplying the power of her descent to colossal levels.
"Return to the ash from whence you came!"
But in response, Keahi did not simply wait for the impact.
(¡¡¡¡¡THUMMM-THUMMM-THUMMM-¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡)
With a violent gesture, the spirit exhaled an immense barrier of suffocating smoke and floating embers that distorted his body's position to the hybrid's eyes, while condensing the heat of the air to create a dense thermal dome to halt the blow's inertia.
"Tear, chop, skin!... Yes... you fit better that way!"
But unfortunately for him at that moment, Goldie no longer needed her eyes.
(¡¡ZZZ-TSHIIIANK-FROOOSHHH-¡CHHACK...!)
Instead, guided by the pure instinct of her cursed side, the deity fell like a dark meteor straight into the center of the distortion.
(¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡SRAAAAASH-ZUMMM-BRRRR-¡BOOOOOOOM!-KRA-KRA-KRA...!!!!!!!!!!!)
And instantly, the appendages of her dress extended into sharp claws, tearing through the smoke barrier in a single slash, while her fists—charged with that contradictory fusion—slammed head-on into the crossed forearms of the Great Spirit.
(¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡KRAAA-BOOOOOOOM—KRRRRRRRR...!!!!!!!!)
The brutal collision dissipated the fire and embers within a hundred-meter radius, cracking the colossus's basaltic armor as if it were dry clay.
"¡¡¡KGGHHH....!!!"
At the same time, this released jets of boiling lava that splashed onto Goldie’s face and shoulders, hissing upon contact with her skin...
"¡¡¡HA-HA-HAHAHA...!!! ¡Kha-hi-hi...!"
But despite that, the young girl did not take a single step back.
"...unstitch... cut...— ¡¡¡GHA-HA-HA!!! —another seam in your skin!—...h-he..."
Instead, with her fangs bared and her eyes bloodshot, she clung to the spirit's body with the claws of her cursed robe.
(¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡THUM-THUM-THUM-THUM-KRAAAK...!!!!!!!!)
Unleashing a torrent of impacts where divine light and filaments of cursed miasma exploded in unison against Keahi's armor.
"Die! Die! Die! ¡¡¡AHAHAHAHAHA~!!!"
Thus Goldie attacked, each strike splintering the volcanic stone as she completely ignored how the extreme heat was incinerating her.
(¡¡¡¡¡ZRAAAAAAAKISH—BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM...!!!!!!!!)
But in response, Keahi, cornered by the insane cadence of the assault, did not yield to panic.
"¡¡!!"
Instead, forcing his basalt structure to endure the onslaught, he gathered the thermal pressure of his core and unleashed a devastating counterstrike; in the form of a solid magma punch that slammed head-on into the left side of Goldie's torso.
(¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡CRACK-KABOOOOM-PFFF...!!!!!!!!)
The violence of the impact was so brutal that the sound of her ribs breaking echoed with a sharp, muffled crack over the crackling of the flames...
(¡¡¡¡¡¡BOOM-SPLASH-CRASHHH!!!!!!)
The sheer force of the blow sent her flying backward several meters, dragging her bare feet through the boiling mud until she stopped, hunched over from the violent contusion that had shattered her internal organs.
"¡Gjh... Hahaha...!"
Yet, even when any living being would have been incapacitated, it only took Goldie a millisecond to react.
"¡¡¡AHAHAHAHAHAHA~!!!"
And clenching her sharp teeth, she stood up abruptly with a spasmodic shudder of her body.
"¡¡AHAHAHA! MORE... MORE... IT FEELS LIKE THIS...!"
The physical agony of having her left side caved in did not stifle her laughter; on the contrary, it fueled a surge of masochistic euphoria that dilated her crimson pupils.
"TEAR... RIP... AND DISMEMBER...!!"
And instantly, the fibers of dark miasma from her robe tensed, and her cursed regeneration factor began to weld her broken ribs back together with a hiss of black steam.
"We're... going to play... RIGHT...?"
However, the true horror did not lie in her resilience...
"¡¿...?! ¡¡¡ARRRRGHHH!!!"
In response to her words, the Great Spirit of Fire, Keahi, stumbled violently a few meters away, collapsing onto one knee as a roar of pure agony escaped his magma jaws.
(¡¡¡¡¡GHOOO-SHHURRRRRR...!!!!!)
At that moment, the Great Spirit of Fire brought a trembling hand to his own left side.
"Is this...?!"
Only for him to realize, before his disbelieving eyes, that the black basalt plates of his torso—which were supposed to be impenetrable—had cracked and caved in with the exact same fracture pattern he had just inflicted upon the abomination.
"What... what is this...?"
As he stared at the wound in disbelief, an emotion he thought he had long forgotten began to resurface in his heart.
(I wasn't struck there... My armor did not yield to her fists...)
Keahi, born as the Great Spirit of Fire, had been proud in the ancient past, self-assured and incapable of considering the other races as a threat.
(Why is my body emulating her injury?)
Yet, back then, he had met a woman who made him experience an emotion he could never forget...
(Why do I feel like I am suffocating when I have no lungs...?)
Only the late fire priestess, Shula, had ever evoked such a feeling in him.
(Ssssshhhhhiiiiiiiiiuuuuuuuu...)
... But now, as Keahi tried to rationalize the nature of that invisible attack, he watched in horror the figure bringing that emotion back to life.
"You... what have you done to me, cursed abomination?"
Stepping closer, step by step, Goldie's side had already restored itself thanks to her regeneration.
(Tap... Tap... Tap...)
In contrast, when the spirit tried to channel the flow of magma to seal the fracture on his own body, the stone simply refused to bind, remaining broken and sensitive, sending jolts of pain through him every time he tried to move.
"Pfff... Hihihi... ¡HA-HA-HAHAHA...!"
As Goldie advanced with a blood-chilling slowness, her bare feet leisurely brushed the boiling mud, while each step left a footprint of black ash that instantly extinguished the lava on the ground...
"Look at you..."
... And the robe of cursed fabric hovered around her like the limbs of a spectral spider, twitching to the rhythm of her silent laughter.
"So big, so loud... and so fragile inside."
She laughed, tilting her head as her crimson pupils gleamed in the humid gloom.
"You have such lovely memories~"
Meanwhile, Keahi, on his knees, tried to mold the magma to restructure his body.
(Is this an attack... Mental manipulation... Interference...?)
But with every attempt, the energy unraveled.
"KGGHHH... DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE ME!"
In such a state, despite his fury, a long-forgotten feeling completely resurfaced from the deepest depths of his being.
(¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡SWHIIIIII-ZRAAAAAAAKISH—BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM...!!!!!!!!)
But it was at that moment...
(¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡FSHHHHHHHH-VOID...!!!!!!!!)
That kilometers away, a grayish flash of pure nonexistence sliced through reality in its path.
"Aaaahh... The forest is breaking... just like you and me."
Parallel to Goldie's grim advance, the earth beneath her feet and Keahi's trembled with a hollow groan that came not from tectonic plates, but from nothingness itself, as a perfect fissure expanded, splitting the stage in two.
"¡¡¡AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA~!!!"
... All while a demon smiled at him.