Chimaera's Conquest: The Legend Of The Devourer
Chapter 64: Despair (3)

Chapter 64: Despair (3)

Adrian’s bloodshot eyes slowly opened. He finally gained consciousness, but that was the end of good news for him. From what little vision he had left from his puffy eyes, all he saw was blood.

Slowly, Adrian began assessing his situation, and it wasn’t bad... it was horrendous. He couldn’t feel either of his hands, his head hurt like he was caught between two wrecking balls, and there were countless other wounds on his body that he couldn’t bother about.

’Why isn’t any... wound healing...’

Adrian wondered what the troll blood in him was doing and got his answer when he looked down. He was pinned to a tree by a sword that had pierced through his heart. It seemed the entire attention of his troll blood was on healing the heart, but it was a losing situation.

As long as the sword was lodged in his chest, his heart wouldn’t heal enough for the blood to focus on healing the rest of his broken body. But he couldn’t pull the sword with his numb and busted hands and his hand won’t heal until he got rid of the sword.

It was a vicious circle of misfortune all around him.

But that wasn’t the end of his troubles. He got worse news when he used [Analysis] on the surroundings to see if something could help him. The hallucinogen that Red had used was about to disappear from the air.

When that happened, nothing would stop the creature of the night. To make things worse, the smell of Adrian’s blood would attract them, and given his state, it didn’t take a genius to figure out what would happen to him once the beasts reached him.

"Fu...ck..." Adrian mumbled in his groggy voice.

It wasn’t how he expected his second life to end, but he knew there wasn’t anything he could do in his situation. His only hope was that someone from the tribe would find him like Akila did. But Adrian knew it was just wishful thinking and nothing more.

As the situation looked grim, help arrived from the most unexpected place in the form of a system notification.

[The Higher Entity, ’Faithful Spouse In An Unfaithful Marriage’, looks at the User with a pitiful gaze and asks, Is this your limit?]

"Get lost... I want to die... in peace..."

[The Higher Entity, ’Faithful Spouse In An Unvowed Marriage’, asks, you think this is peace?]

The question made Adrian angrier. No, he wasn’t at peace. How could he be at peace in his situation? But he was trying to be because he could do nothing about it except curse his luck.

[The Higher Entity, ’Faithful Spouse In An Unvowed Marriage’, reminds the User about the reward from one of his previous victories. The Minotaur’s heart.]

Adrian’s eyes widened as soon as he read those words. How could he forget about it? His human heart might be failing, but if he could get a new heart, then it would solve his problems.

But there were some catches. First, Adrian already had his organ slots full. Absorbing Minotaur’s heart meant he would have to sacrifice something.

Second, even if he were to sacrifice his existing organs, there was a risk that he would still die during the assimilation process, as he had been warned about it before.

"Absorbing the heart before reaching level 35 could kill me-"

[The Higher Entity, ’Faithful Spouse In An Unvowed Marriage’, scoffs and says, Aren’t you dying already? What difference would it make even if you died during the assimilation process?]

Strangely enough, the entity’s words made sense. If he was going to die, it was better to die trying rather than pitifully hanging on to a tree. Still, there was another problem.

Even though Adrian owned the heart, he didn’t have it with him. Instead, [The Mother Who Loves Her Plants] was keeping the organ safe for him.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have a way to reach out to her, and even if he did, Adrian knew an entity wouldn’t assist him without wanting something in return.

[The Higher Entity, ’Faithful Spouse In An Unvowed Marriage’, summons the Lesser Entity, ’The Mother Who Loves Her Plants’.]

"...or you could do that."

Adrian would have laughed at the conversation between the two beings if he wasn’t on the verge of losing his life. Clearly, a Lesser entity didn’t have the will or strength to refuse a Higher one, but [The Mother Who Loves Her Plants] did her best to say no.

She wanted to help Adrian because she genuinely cared, not just because someone told her to and knew the higher entity had some hidden agenda.

But it didn’t look like the higher entity gave a shit about her reasoning and ordered her to hand over the heart to the system so they could carry on with the assimilation process.

In the end, the Lesser obeyed the instructions and gave the heart to the system. Adrian wanted to begin right away... but he couldn’t.

Something or someone was getting in the way, and it turned out to be none other than the higher being who had been so willing to assist him mere moments ago.

’What’s going on?’ Adrian wondered, confused, why someone who wanted to help him was interfering now.

[The Higher Entity, ’Faithful Spouse In An Unvowed Marriage’, laughs and asks, how naive can you be? One shouldn’t expect rewards without making suitable sacrifices.]

"My eyes... I’m willing to sacrifice the Kitsune eyes in exchange for-" Adrian said, realising that the entity was probably referring to his organ limit, but he was wrong.

[The Higher Entity, ’Faithful Spouse In An Unvowed Marriage’, asks what I would do with his eyes? Play marbles? I desire something precious to you, something that you can’t live without, something that would make a great addition to my collection.]

"What... do you want?" Adrian asked, not liking where their deal was heading, but he couldn’t do anything because of his desperate situation.

[The Higher Entity, ’Faithful Spouse In An Unvowed Marriage’, smiles and asks for a part of your humanity, your soul, your memory of your loved one.]

"You don’t- I can’t..."

Sophia was part of why Adrian held on to his humanity or whatever was left of it. With her gone from his mind, there’ll be nothing to stop him from going berserk on his path of vengeance. But if he didn’t accept the deal, then he would die, and he couldn’t let that happen.

"I... accept..." Adrian replied, gritting his teeth.

[The Higher Entity, ’Faithful Spouse In An Unvowed Marriage’, asks you to speak louder.]

"I accept... your deal."

[Louder!]

"I ACCEPT YOUR DEAL, YOU FUCKING BITCH!"

[The contract has been signed. Proceed with the terms of the said deal. An additional organ absorption slot will be provided to the User.]

"ARGH!!!"

Adrian screamed, feeling like his head was ripping apart. One by one, his memories of Sophia were torn away, replaced by thoughts of vengeance.

He tried to hold on to something... anything, but even the tiniest bit of Sophia’s memories was ripped out of his mind until there was nothing about her left.

[Proceeding with Minotaur’s Heart integration.]

[Integration failed... retrying...]

[Integration Complete.]

[Incorporating a ’Skill’ into Chimaera physiology... Please hold on.]

[The User has obtained the passive skill: Soul Devourer.]