"Boss, I've found the target!"
From the high-altitude feed of Edith's drone, an image flickered before Duke's eyes.
In the pitch-black night, a thin figure squatted atop a lonely burial mound, black mist coiling all around. The drone only captured a few seconds before the image froze,
The figure seemed to sense something, tilting its head toward the sky.
The screen froze on a pair of cold, lifeless eyes.
Seeing this, Duke clicked his tongue. "So this guy's been guarding that tomb all along?"
"And judging from the looks of it, he's completely taken over the anchor's body!"
"Boss, the surveillance drone's been shot down. Do you want me to deploy another one?"
"Send them. Keep remote eyes on the target. Mark me a route, I'm heading over now!"
"Yes, boss!"
Once the orders were given, Duke turned to the two at his side, Gluttony and Pride. After a moment's thought, he commanded, "Gluttony, you're with me. Pride, you hold this position."
"Yes, Father!"
Pride's breath cut through the heavy night like the first light before dawn. Whatever nightmares lurked nearby were instantly reduced to ash under that radiance.
At Duke's signal, Gluttony strode forward. Duke leapt onto her shoulder. In the blink of an eye, Gluttony's form shifted, transforming into a sleek sports car that roared forward, carrying Duke away from the plaza.
But nightmare shades surged in waves, blocking the road ahead, slamming into the car transformed from Gluttony's body.
Inside the driver's seat, Duke narrowed his eyes. "Original Sin Release, five percent!"
"Received."
Gluttony's voice grew colder, tinged with a feverish hunger.
Zzzzzzt,
The red-and-black sports car hissed, releasing clouds of searing steam. The cobra markings on its body glowed ominously.
Everything the steam touched, living or not, was corroded in an instant, dissolved into vapor, absorbed back into Gluttony.
The Original Sin Release, Duke's unique transformation for the Seven Deadly Sins.
Each sin had three forms: vehicle, combat, and sin form. The release meant unleashing the third, its purest, most devastating power.
Even at just five percent release, Gluttony crushed through the nightmare tide like a beast tearing into prey. These shadowborn monsters, made of darkness and fel energy, stood no chance, the steam consumed them, and the car shredded the rest beneath its wheels.
The speedometer screamed at its limit, yet the car only accelerated.
Where Gluttony passed, the world was left in ruin, as if gnawed upon by something unseen.
This was Gluttony's gift: Universal Dissolution.
Everything, stone, soil, flesh, magic, whatever the steam touched, was broken down and devoured, becoming a part of her.
She tore through Fosbayro's city gates in a single violent crash, rampaging along the route Edith fed back, never swerving, never slowing, only charging forward.
Soil was eaten, plants decomposed, creatures digested, stone pulverized, nothing endured.
All that stood in her path dissolved into nothingness.
Trees became streaked shadows left behind, barricades shattered like glass, nightmare shades collapsed into drifting black dust.
Gluttony's innards were made from void-creature material; she had inherited their traits, though without a void will to guide her. That was precisely why Duke dared to create her.
For the void devours all, matter or magic alike.
And so, the nightmare shades of shadow and fel were dissolved by steam.
Soon, a fern-covered trail appeared ahead. Duke felt his senses stretched, a chill creeping into his heart.
His vision warped.
The trees wept black resin, their twisted branches shaped like claws. Gaping cracks in their trunks grinned with fanged maws. Venomous spiders spun thick webs across the highest boughs.
The ground grew soft and swampy, until all around was nothing but stagnant marsh.
But when Duke blinked, the vision vanished like smoke. A soul-born nightmare's attempt to corrode his mind, yet Duke's magic brushed it aside with ease.
"Such a worn-out nightmare. Not even trying."
Smirking, Duke's car burst from the shadowed forest into an open clearing. Before him stood a grassy burial mound, a solitary stone stele jutting before it.
Above, black smoke swirled, nightmares of unimaginable horror circling, waiting for their chance to descend upon the world.
Dark lines writhed like serpents across the stone stele.
Atop the burial mound sat a frail boy of no more than five or six, rocking back and forth as if entranced.
Black mist coiled around him like shackles.
The instant Duke laid eyes on him, a pair of cold, merciless eyes stared back.
Gluttony immediately reformed into her particle-combat state. Steam snaked protectively around Duke, who now stood tall on her shoulder.
"Well now… hello."
Duke crossed his arms, Edith's shadow obscuring his gaze.
"You shouldn't have come here, human."
The boy's dead-black eyes glimmered, lips curling into a cruel smile.
Darkness swelled within him, nightmares stirring, eager to feed on mortal weakness.
Duke felt the scrutiny, cold, cunning, like knives scraping across his skin. A reminder that he now stood in the heart of darkness itself.
Death could come at any moment.
"If I hadn't come, you'd just sit here and devour everything, wouldn't you?"
"You're too greedy, Nocturne."
"Nocturne?" The boy's smile twisted, stretching unnaturally wide until his lips split at the corners, blood trailing down his chin.
"What a nostalgic name… No one's called me that in so long. You're the first since I awoke."
His eyes glazed with rapture. "It's been ages since I last fed. Mortal fear is the sweetest meal!"
"And now you've delivered yourself into my nightmare's embrace… ah, I'm overjoyed."
"I've missed the sound of blood running, the music of it, it intoxicates me, drives me mad!"
He plucked a stone from the mound, weighing it in his palm. "And I'm ready, ready to carve a nightmare with my own hands."
The black mist around him surged, hoisting him like a puppet on strings. He drifted toward Duke.
"Confident, aren't you?"
Duke cocked his head. Gluttony's cherry lips split wide, revealing jaws of whirring teeth. Steam spewed forth, dissolving everything it touched.
But Nocturne halted, eyeing Duke warily. "You're not going to save him?" He gestured to the boy he possessed, his tone cruel.
Humans were always the same, foolish, bound by "justice," sacrificing themselves for others.
"Exorcising demons always requires sacrifices. One child or two, it doesn't matter. He's not mine anyway."
Duke snapped his fingers. Beneath the stone stele, water seeped from the earth, spreading quickly.
"You fool!" Nocturne's eyes widened. His hard-won anchor couldn't be allowed to crumble.
"What was that?"
"I'm not from Demacia. I don't follow Demacia's stale commandments."
"If you like this boy so much, then take him with you."
With a sweep of his hand, Duke willed the anchor's collapse, forcing Nocturne back into the spirit realm to await another nightmare.
But Nocturne sneered. "Do you think I fear you? Humans will always be my prey!"
Black mist surged as the boy's arms spread wide. "Embrace the darkness!"
But before the shadows engulfed Duke, a whirlpool opened beneath the boy's feet.
A massive tongue lashed out, wrapping his waist, yanking him down into the vortex.
"What, another demon?!"
Nocturne roared in fury.
Duke chuckled darkly. "That's right. Another demon."
Tahm had told him: in the spirit realm, he couldn't touch Nocturne.
But here, in the material world?
Tahm's answer was simple: "Give me a second, and I'll slap him seven times with my tongue without missing once."
That was the oldest demon for you, brutal, arrogant, untouchable.
And now, with Nocturne anchored to a child's body in the physical plane, Tahm could knead him like dough.
"Ah-hah!"
From the whirlpool rose a monstrous leviathan, its jaws yawning wide. "A new flavor!"
(In the game, Tahm Kench can devour almost anything except certain jungle monsters. This scene builds on that rule.)
End of chapter....
🔹 Hexcore Initiate – 15 chapters ahead
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