Kamila pondered for a while before answering.
“You should go.” She said. “To truly start her new life, Solus must come to terms with the old one. More importantly, she needs you. Not only because she can’t move around alone, but also because she needs your emotional support.
“Just like you needed her as a kid as your moral compass, she now needs you to be her strength. We owe Solus a great deal of gratitude because without her, you would have been an insufferable asshole and we would have never met.”
“Thanks, Kami.” Lith replied. “But I want you to be honest with me. Are you doing this out of gratitude or just to get me out of your hair for a while and Solus out of our bed?”
“Both.” Kamila chuckled. “Jokes aside, I have conditions.”
“What do you mean?”
“I want you back here for lunch, dinner, and for the night. I don’t care where you are, find a mana geyser and Warp here. This is still our honeymoon and I want more than just seeing your hologram a few times a day.” She said. “Besides, Solus can use a bit of time away from Bytra to recover.”
“I can do that.” Lith nodded.
“Also, keep it short. Do what you need and come back to me the moment you are done.” She wrapped her arms around his neck, missing him already.
“Deal. Are you sure you don’t want to come with us? I mean, with Zoreth and Bytra we should be safe. I don’t expect to play a big role either.”
“I would love to, but I’m too weak.” Kamila sighed. “This is still a mission and I want you to stay focused on protecting your life, not mine. On top of that, I want Zoreth to feel comfortable enough to open up with you.
“I need to know what Vastor is up to and if his plans can affect Zinya. She and you are all the family I have. I like Tezka, but after learning what Bytra did in the past, what every one of those Eldritches did, they scare me to death.”
“Damn, keep being such a thinker and I’ll call you Jirni the second.” Lith kissed her.
“I wish.” She giggled. “Now let’s go to the kitchen and make something good together. I’m starving and I bet that once Solus wakes up, she’ll eat both of us if we don’t appease her hunger.”
***
Verendi Continent, a nameless cavern in the middle of nowhere.
A humanoid figure lay on a small patch of withered grass. Just a few hours ago, the soil had been moist and soft, the grass green and tall, but now it had become barren.
The man stirred in his sleep and then jumped to his feet screaming.
“Stay away from me!” His hands shone with the black light of Chaos, making the darkness of the cavern deeper and killing the insects that had been buzzing around.
“Rise and shine, sleepyhead.” Another male figure stood up.
He had been sitting outside, keeping watch on the landscape at a safe distance from his companion.
“Dolgus, is that you?” The sleeping man came to the light, revealing the figure of a young man in his early twenties, about 1.82 meters (6′) tall with alternating patches of black and pink skin.
His hair was disheveled and covered in dirt. He had hair so black that it almost looked blue, green eyes, and he was completely naked.
“What’s left of it, but yes.” Dolgus turned around, revealing a blackened withered right hand that he was still healing with magic.
“What happened and where are we?”
“You had another fit of blood madness.” He replied with a sigh. “You revealed your true form, blew up our cover, and I had to fight both you and the humans on our way here.
“As for the where, I have no clue, and with a bit of luck, neither do our pursuers.”
“Did I do that to you?” The naked man asked.
“Sort of.” Dolgus shrugged. “It’s not exactly easy to hide a 30 meters (100′) tall hybrid, Theseus. I had to hold you to use Body Sculpting and shrunk you to a human size before dragging you inside this cave.”
“Can’t you heal yourself with Life Maelstrom or something?” Theseus asked.
Dolgus looked like a man in his early thirties, about 1.9 (6’3″) meters tall, with red hair, green eyes, and a muscular figure. Yet his real nature was that of a Griffon, and one of Tyris’ firstborns at that.
“Why do you think we are both still alive?” He pointed at the withered patch of grass. “I used everything I had to survive the contact and provide you with enough to eat for a while. I couldn’t risk you sleepwalking for a snack.”
Only then did Theseus notice that they are the only two living beings left in the cavern and that he didn’t feel any hunger despite the days spent on the run with barely any food.
“Thank you. You shouldn’t have gone this far for me. I don’t deserve it. You should have healed yourself first.” The Eldritch touched Dolgus’ shoulder, making the Griffon flinch at the memory of the deadly Abomination Touch.
“That’s bullshit and you know it.” Dolgus shook his head. “I came to Verendi to continue my mother’s work and help life to thrive. You are a new form of life and deserve a chance, just like anyone else.”
“I’m a monster. I killed thousands of people. Some because of hunger but most just to have some fun.” Theseus shivered as the memories flooded his mind, guilt and self-loathing brewing another fit of blood madness.
“For the love of the gods, not again so soon!” The Griffon shook the Abomination’s shoulders, making him snap out of it before the pink of his skin was completely overtaken by the blackness.
“Listen to me. You are not Paquut the Eldritch, you are Theseus, a newborn clone just two years old. You are a hybrid, an innocent new form of life. Otherwise I wouldn’t have hesitated to leave you behind.”
The blackness subsided and so did the blood madness.
“Can we resume moving? The borders with the Desert and the Kingdom are still afar.” Theseus asked.
“Do you really want me to move while I’m still like this?” Dolgus pointed at his gangrenous hand. “First, I need to heal. Then, I need to store enough Life Maelstrom to stop you in the case you go wild again.”
“I’m sorry.” The Abomination lowered his gaze in shame. “You tried to help me and got hurt. Maybe you should’ve left me to rot in the hands of the Council.”
“See? That’s proof that I’m right. An old monster like Paquut would never apologize for feeding on a lesser being. He would never put someone else’s life above his own.” The Griffon smiled as a bolt of silver lightning coursed through his hand and regenerated it.
The innate power of life fought the effects of the Abomination Touch, restoring the flesh that would have otherwise needed amputation and regeneration.
“Now, how do we find your new friends?”
“They are not my friends!” Thesues snarled. “They contacted me right after I devoured my original, asking me to take part in their Organization. Yet I had assimilated all of Paquut’s memories, including those related to my birth.
“I saw the experiments they performed on the monsters, how many lives they sacrificed in order to create others like me just to feed them to the Eldritches and increase their strength.
“They didn’t care who would’ve won between me and my original, only that the survivor joined their ranks.
