The win in the South left a taste, like copper and sand in my mouth. The 5.4% Divinity wasn't a hum in my ears anymore. It was a strong beating pressure that wanted one thing: the truth about those who had wronged me.
To find it I had to go to a place that didn't exist on any map. The Forbidden Archive, a library hidden between heartbeats.
The air here was dead. No wind, no sound, not the smell of dust. We stood before a door made of dark steel hidden under the ruins of an old temple.
Isabella stood close her breathing the thing breaking the silence. Elara was practically shaking, her fingers white as she gripped her black-bound book. This was her dream. A place where every forbidden thought was kept.
"The doors only open for someone who has nothing left to lose " Elara whispered. Her voice was strained, a crack in the silence. ". Someone who has already lost everything."
"I lost my soul ago Elara. This is a visit " I said.
I didn't use a key. I pressed my palm against the dark steel. The 5.4% Divinity surged, the violet veins on my arm flaring as they recognized the Archives energy. The door dissolved into a mist of black particles.
Inside the Archive stretched into infinity. Shelves of stone reached upward into darkness packed with scrolls of human skin and books bound in dragon scales. Standing in the center was the Silent Keeper, Mnemosyne.
She was a creature of symmetry. Her eyes were sewn shut with thread and her skin was covered in tattoos of a thousand fallen civilizations. She wore a dress of shifting parchment that crackled like a dying fire. She didn't have a weapon. She was the sum of all forgotten knowledge.
"You have come for the God-Slayers Codex " Mnemosyne said. Her voice didn't come from her mouth; it was in our minds, heavy. "Many have tried, Alaric von Valerius. Their bones are now dust on these shelves."
"The others came seeking power, Mnemosyne " I said, walking toward her. The floor groaned as if the stone itself was afraid of me. "I didn't come for power. I came for whats owed to me.. I'm not leaving until its balanced."
"The price of the Codex is a memory " she hissed. "The one memory you hold dear. Give it to the Archive. The path is yours."
"I don't give gifts " I replied.
I signaled to Isabella and Elara. They moved out their magic creating a pincer of shadow and frost. Mnemosyne raised her hands and the scrolls on the shelves began to fly their edges sharp as razors spinning in a whirlwind.
"Viper! Helga!" I called into the dark.
From the shadows my assassin and blacksmith emerged. Helga slammed her hammer into the stone grounding the flying scrolls while Viper moved like a blur, her daggers seeking gaps in the Keepers parchment robes.
I stepped through the chaos my gaze fixed on the woman. "You've kept these secrets for long Keeper. It's time to see what happens when the library burns."
The air in the Archive vibrated; it bled ink. The silence was replaced by the sound of parchment tearing. Mnemosyne lay pinned against a pedestal of bone her tattooed skin shimmering with a pale light. The Bedchamber manifested here as a tomb of obsidian and ink.
The Silent Keepers parchment dress was shredded, leaving her exposed. Her body was a map of every secret kept. Delicate skin covered in intricate tattoos that pulsed with a faint heat. I stood over her my torso a canvas of glowing veins the 5.4% Divinity making my skin steam.
"You... You cannot brand the wind " Mnemosyne whispered, her eyes weeping ink. "I am... Nothing but a vessel for what was."
"Then I'll fill that vessel with what's " I said.
I stood over her my dick a dark intruder. I didn't reach for a quill; I reached for her hips. I forced her legs wide the thread of her blindfold snapping as her head hit the bone pedestal.
I drove my cock into her vagina in one brutal thrust.
Mnemosynes mouth opened in a scream that shattered nearby vials of memory. My thickness filled her to the limit the violet mana of my seed clashing with the ink of her blood.
I began to pump, a rhythm that ignored her twitching limbs. Every thrust felt like a collision between the physical and metaphysical.
"Is this the 'Silence' you guarded Keeper?" I growled, my teeth sinking into her silver-pierced breast.
Isabella and Elara moved in their hands working the rhythm of the ritual. Isabellas cold fingers traced the tattoos on Mnemosynes belly turning the ink into fire.
Mnemosynes resistance dissolved into a search for the heat that was erasing her history. Her vagina began to gush. A silver-and-violet fluid that smelled of old paper and ozone.
"I... I am losing... The past! Master! Give me... The now!" she shrieked, her mind unraveling into the dark.
The climax was a collapse. I felt the brand ignite in my bones feeding on her stolen knowledge. I pulled her head back. Erupted. A massive torrent of my cum flooded her womb hitting her cervix with force to make her seize in a soul-shattering orgasm.
The brand seared into her inside turning the Silent Keeper into a living library.
The ink-heavy atmosphere of the Archive began to settle the fluid dripping from the obsidian altar like rain. Mnemosyne lay broken her tattoos glowing with the pulse of my brand.
The silence that returned wasn't empty anymore; it was expectant. I adjusted my tunic, the 5.4% Divinity humming in my blood. Beside me Elara was on her knees her fingers trembling as she dipped them into the silver-ink pool tracing runes into her book.
Isabella stood at the edge of the altar her eyes fixed on Mnemosynes gaze. "Shes hollowed out Alaric. The secrets aren't just in the books anymore. They're, in her."
"That was the plan, Isabella " I said.
I leaned down grabbing the Keeper by her jaw. Her blind eyes rolled toward me. "The Codex, Mnemosyne. Don't make me go inside to find it. Give me the name of the lock."
Mnemosynes mouth. For the first time her voice wasn't a telepathic echo. It was a sound. "The Gods... They didn't create the world from light. They stole the Aether from the Void. Your curse... The Divinity... It isn't a gift. It's a tracking spell."
She. A silver liquid stained her lips. "To kill them you don't need a sword. You need to reach 6.0%. At that point the parasite becomes a bridge. You won't just see the Heavens; you will be able to bring them down into the mud with you."
[CURSE STATUS: 5.5% DIVINITY]
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: GOD-SLAYER'S CODEX. UNLOCKED.]
[NEW ASSET: THE ARCHIVE'S EYE (Ability to see weak points).]
The weight in my chest changed. 5.5%. The jump was big. The more secrets I learned the more the world felt like it was made of glass. Fragile and ready to break. I could feel the presence of the entities above now a annoying heat in the back of my mind like the sun on a closed eye.
"6.0% " I whispered. " 0.5% Left before I can reach their throats."
"Master " Viper came out of the darkness of the stacks her blades covered in the ink of the librarys guardians. "The 'Old World' isn't waiting for you to get stronger. The Holy See remnants have joined with the Mercenary Kings of the Iron Coast. They've built a 'God-Wall' across the passage. They think they can trap us in the ruins."
"They're building a wall against an army that can walk through shadows " I said, a cold mocking smile on my lips.
I looked back at the altar. Mnemosyne was being absorbed into the Bedchamber's architecture becoming a living part of the Archive. She would spend cataloging my victories.
"Isabella, Elara—get the legions ready. We're not just taking territories anymore. We're clearing the path to the sky."
I turned my back on the Archive. The ink, on the floor was already drying, turning into a road that pointed toward the final fight of the mortal world.