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Book 2: Chapter 44: Already Won and Won\'t Lose

"This shall be our final meeting like this, Lone," Darkness said in a chilling tone as he opened his eyes.

The primal had taken the form of Breena this time but apart from that, everything else in the dream version of Urd Grun was exactly the same as it always was.

"So the nightmares return..." Lone mumbled.

The Darkness version of Breena shook its head. "No, no they do not. This is the final one. The next time we meet, you will become my host. An honour really. The last to bear the weight of my existence on their soul was a dragon of all things. I expect your name to spread all throughout Altros while I do my bidding through your vessel."

Lone didn\'t care much for the sweet smile the being was displaying as it wore his friend\'s flesh.

"No more mind games? No more subtly trying to fuck with me? Make me question myself?" Lone asked with a tinge of anger in his tone. "Just gonna repeat yourself like a broken record over and over?"

"Haha, look at you! So strong! So brave to question a Primal! The very gods of this plane! Hah..." Darkness shook its head slowly. "A broken record has a certain level of... creepiness to it, no? It can be rather eerie... But no. No more meddling from me. For why should I meddle, when my work is done? Lone, Lone... Lone... you\'re already mine."

"... Who says I don\'t just leave this place when I wake up?" Lone challenged. "I have no obligation to venture into the actual urd, especially since you killed half of my reason for even being here."

"Ah, my little guests? The Milor are dead as well, by the way. I enjoy a strong host just as much as the next godly being, trust me, I do, but where\'s the fun when you abuse your unique talents in such a crude manner?" With Breena\'s tongue, the thing made a clicking noise of disapproval.

"No," it said, smiling cruelly. "You won\'t leave. Baseless threats are beneath me but the truth isn\'t. If my perfect vessel just walks out of my web as if it has any agency of its own, well, I\'ll be forced to kill and slaughter more potential victims to find the next being capable of hosting me."

It cackled as Lone silently listened to its claims. "Why, I already have a few hundred souls just waiting to be released onto the world as my agents. Four-twelve served me well, perhaps one of them will have his luck also? Perhaps not. You\'re the one deciding if that\'s necessary."

\'The missing dwarves... It\'s going to manipulate them like it did to Four-twelve... Did it set up his team in the first place? Was his meeting with the demigod orchestrated? No... maybe just his survival?\' Lone wondered in a hurry before saying,"... Things won\'t go your way."

"Hahaha, you make it sound like they already haven\'t. Lone, from the very moment that dwarf touched your shoulder, my victory had been sealed. None of your plans will work. And yes, I know of them. Do recall that I\'ve been pulling faces from your mind all this time," the Primal declared.

Lone could see the sense in that but at the same time... he had a feeling the being wasn\'t being entirely truthful. Something just felt... off about its claim.

Lone wore a stern expression on his face as he replied, "Void and Sky don\'t control me, neither will you. You\'re a pathetic and evil creature. So desperate for a physical form, are you? You try to act like you know everything but you know nothing. You haven\'t won as much as I haven\'t. We\'ll see who the one laughing is soon though, I can promise you that."

"Pathetic and evil? Hmm... I suppose that\'s something we have in common then, child-killer," Darkness retorted with a giggle before it faded away into the shadows. "We are simply so compatible..."

Lone\'s eyes snapped open and he jolted upright. His entire body was covered in sweat.

He clenched his fists but he didn\'t allow his mind to be shaken, nor his convictions. Darkness would not claim his body as its own.

Kyuubi had been sleeping on his chest but had slid down to his lap due to him suddenly sitting up. She slowly peeled open her eyes and looked around in a daze.

When she had regained her bearings, the plump fox nimbly jumped atop his shoulder and wrapped herself around his neck like a big scarf. A heavy big scarf.

"Hey, Kyuubi. Must be nice to live as a fox, huh? Free of worry and stress," Lone asked as he reached up and stroked her soft golden fur.

Kyuubi purred in response. "Kyuu..."

She nuzzled her face into his cheek before licking him affectionately.

Lone chuckled a little. Slowly, a look of resolve entered his eyes. "No more innocents die because of me."

"We\'re going to the urd now," Lone declared while the whole group was having breakfast.

Soph scrunched up her face at him. "What about the mining? I thought you wanted to rank up your Mining Mastery at least before we made any moves."

"I can\'t. I\'m too focused on Darkness. All I can think about is killing that fuckin\' thing," Lone stated as he stared into the campfire.

Hamish frowned. "Ah\'m nae gettin\' involved in any o\' \'at shite. Ah dinnae even ken if ah god can be killed. If what ya said earlier is right an\' everythin\' in the urd\'s already deed, then ah\'m collectin\' ma brothers an\' leavin\'."

Lone nodded. "That\'s fair. Breena can help you and you can take her with you. I don\'t want her coming with Soph and me in the search for Darkness."

"... Is it because I\'m weak?" Breena asked, surprising Lone.

Still, despite his shock, he replied, "Yes. I\'m also worried about it possibly succeeding in taking me over. I don\'t doubt I\'ll win in the end as I did with Void, but Sky helped me back then. I\'m a lot stronger now than I was in Milindo, but still, I could go out of control for seconds to minutes if it manages to weasel its way into my soul."

Hamish\'s frown only deepened. "Ah\'m leavin\' now. All ah this talk is givin\' me the heebie-jeebies."

The dwarf then got up, checked his gear quickly, and stormed out of the camp.

Lone put his hands on his knees and reached over to Soph\'s lap. He stroked Kyuubi\'s head then unsummoned her. "I agree. The sooner this is done, the better."

"I\'m worried," Soph admitted though she still rose to her feet. "Your plans will work, won\'t they?"

"I don\'t know, but I have no other choice," Lone said. "I can\'t have more innocent deaths on my hands. I\'ve enough mental burdens as it is."

Soph bit her lip but nodded nonetheless. She put on her helmet and then also left the cave. Breena followed her without saying a word.

Lone took a deep breath then summoned some water from his Dimensional Storage to put out the campfire. With that done, he, too, left this little spot of respite deep within the Farwinds to willingly face a Primal.

An outlandish thing to do, he realised upon thinking on it a bit. Still, do it he must.

"Really? Collecting up the demons despite yer self-decided mission?" Hamish asked with a raised eyebrow.

Lone simply nodded as he continued to store all of the bat corpses. "I know nothing of these creatures besides what you\'ve told us but surely someone, somewhere, will have a use for them. Time is stopped in my Dimensional Storage. They won\'t rot so I can sell them or trade them at a later date if need be."

Hamish shrugged. "\'At\'s fair \'nuff. It\'d take ah while fae \'em tae got sour though. Higher ranks dinnae only lengthen yer lifespan, but yer deathspan tae."

"Really? Sounds like a necrophiliac\'s wet-dream come true," Lone noted in a dry tone.

"The feck\'s ah necrophiliac?" the dwarf asked.

Lone shook his head. "If whatever language you are speaking doesn\'t have a term for the act, I shall not explain it. You have a brain though. Maybe you can figure it out."

"Ah\'ve ah feelin\' ah dinnae want tae," Hamish replied as he looked around, always maintaining his vigilance.

Suddenly, Soph stopped in her tracks. "That way," she said as she pointed down a main road of the town. "Fourteen corpses, all your size, Hamish. They\'ve all been torn up pretty badly..."

The dwarf nodded grimly. "Ah didnae expect \'em tae be lookin\' like roses. Their armour\'s likely fecked beyond recognition. Ah already ken but... do they still have faces?"

Something in the dwarf\'s tone resonated with Lone. He could feel the immense pain it brought the man to ask such a morbid question.

The wonder if his brothers, his family... if they still even resembled the people they once were... He was suffering silently. A part of Lone instantly forgave the man a bit more for his uncalled-for aggression back in Krieg Moor.

Hamish had known the fate of his company the moment he had fled alone. No, perhaps even before then, when they were ambushed. His suffering ran deep and Lone had gained some more insight into that truth.

"N-No," Soph admitted a bit tensely. "Everything their claws could reach... its all gone."

Hamish smiled. "Thought so. Well, Breena, let\'s go, shall we? Ma brothers await."

The girl nodded mutely as she followed the man since he had immediately begun walking off at a brisk pace.

\'If my MP wasn\'t sealed, I could have restored not only their faces, but their entire bodies... I can\'t extend my cooldown further though without a much more compelling reason,\' Lone thought with a bit of regret.

He felt sympathy for the man over a hundred years his senior. He was an asshole and a selfish man but he clearly had a deep love for his family.

Lone could identify with that now that he had Soph, Sophie, Kyuubi, Grimsley, Gilbert, and Wilbur, in his life. Even Breena reminded him of his younger sister in an odd way.

"Let\'s get going too, I suppose. We can pick up the pace quicker if I ignore the corpses. They can wait until Darkness has been dealt with," he stated.

"Okay," Soph answered as she grabbed his wrist.

The two then teleported all throughout the urd until finally, Soph halted her rapid use of her skill. "There\'s a massive dark purple blob in there, in the basement. I-It... Lone, it\'s look-looking back at me."

Lone gripped her hand tightly. "You\'re safe with me. A hint of trouble, and I mean a hint, and you\'re getting unsummoned."

Some tension left the hand he was holding but that was soon rendered moot by the eery sound of a voice trailing into both of their minds.

"Lovely. And I can simply resummon her when you are mine," Darkness chuckled.

Its voice was clearer now. It wasn\'t an imitation of anyone he knew but it sounded powerful, rough - harsh, even.

"... That\'s my father\'s voice," Soph claimed.

Lone\'s expression shifted to one of surprise. "Your father? As in, the Prince of Novgorod, Vladimir Sviatoslavich, Vladimir the Great?"

Soph slowly inclined her head in agreeance.

"Huh. Your voice is pretty damned silky compared to his if true," Lone noted casually.

She glanced up at him. "You\'re not scared?"

"I\'ve spoken to this fucker for weeks. It\'s just messing with you. let\'s go," Lone said as he tugged her hand and moved.

Darkness chuckled. "Yeah, let us, hmm? Let us all go towards our destinies."

"You\'re the Primal of Darkness. You have some power over dreams, illusions and memories. Fate and destinies aren\'t in your CV, pal," Lone retorted.

"Someone\'s chipper," the being answered, its voice growing stronger as the two of them got closer to its source.

"I\'m about to get the prescription that\'ll cure a headache I\'ve been having for way too long now," Lone said as he entered the building Soph had pointed out - a former opulent residence of some sort. "Forgive me if I\'m a bit excited."

"Witty," Darkness giggled. "Good, you\'ll need wit. Also, I forgive you in all of my magnanimity."

Lone didn\'t respond after that. He instead kept holding Soph\'s hand as they walked through the run-down building\'s remains.

The Primal was just trying to get to him and answering it was exactly what it wanted. \'You won\'t break me, you purple fuck.\'

"It\'s down there," Soph said as she pointed at a set of stairs that led downwards.

"Is it just out in the open?" Lone asked.

"That I am, Lone. come, come and see me for yourself. I\'m quite the carnival attraction..." Darkness interjected.

He ignored the sultry and tempting voice as he stared at Soph. She hesitated but ultimately nodded. "It\'s just in the middle of a room on a pedestal of some sort. It\'s hard to get any details. Its magic is just so... overwhelming. It\'s almost touching us already."

Lone frowned. "I\'m going to unsummon you. I don\'t want you getting put in a coma again."

Soph seemed ready to protest but her aura shifted as Sophie forcefully took control. "Do as you must, Lone. Be careful."

"Ah, the wiser of the two. It\'s lovely to finally meet you, Sophie," Darkness called from the basement. "Care for a friendly chat? One Lone admirer to another."

"Be thankful we do not have our Immunity to all Negative Effects nor Immortality skills unsealed, creature, or we would end your existence as easily as we once did to the god of our own planet. Unsummon us, Lone," Sophie demanded to which Lone immediately complied, leaving only him and the Primal in the house.

"What a rude woman. I can see why you love her now. Peas in a pod as they say on Earth, yes?" Darkness teased.

Lone ignored it as he steeled himself and moved down to finally confront the demon of his dreams. \'My plan will work. It will lose.\'