Chapter 18: Final Dance
The Mountain Lord looked at the scene in front of him with perfect glee on his face.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA, you idiot. Now get over her, pick up this sword, and stab yourself to death," he shouted, not caring for his injuries at all.
Morden remained frozen in his spot, his eyes slowly, gradually losing their light.
"Ohhh shit, shit, shit, I...messed up. I had concluded that he couldn’t use them that day," Morden said to himself.
"But why, why would I make such a baseless conclusion?"
"Nowwwww, w-h-a-t... do.....I..... do?" Morden could feel his thoughts slowing down at an increasing pace, and before he knew it, he had started moving.
His first leg moved on its own, raising up into the air and falling back on the sand.
"Oh my God, he is actually doing it; he is actually going to kill himself," one villager said.
"I knew he couldn’t resist the Mountain Lord," another villager said in a loud voice while stealing expectant glances at the Mountain Lord that was still lying down flat on the ground.
"I... am... moving. I... am... going... to... end myself," Morden thought.
Though he couldn’t control his body and his mind was also slowly slipping out of his grasp, Morden didn’t give up; he didn’t stop fighting.
Only a single thought was slowly dominating his mind.
’I can’t feel my hands, I can’t feel my leg.’
But all of his internal shouts meant absolutely nothing to his body; it was slowly crossing the distance one step at a time.
Seeing his plan work so cleanly, the mountains’ lord couldn’t help but open his mouth again to speak.
"This is how it was always meant to be,"
"This is how it was to end."
"Since the day I have seen those eyes of yours, I had thought you would be my last obstacle."
"Who would have known you would end up being my fortuitous encounter?"
"In that regard, I thank you."
"I thank you for not allowing me to kill all of the people, just for that goal."
"I thank you for allowing me to access another option."
Morden’s trudging body remained unresponsive to the Mountain Lord’s words, but his mind couldn’t remain quiet; if he could speak, he would have cursed him out completely.
"Kill the one who shouldn’t be to attain your ultimate goal."
"Of course, I would kill you. I must,"
"I must become real," he added in a maniacal voice.
All the surrounding villagers watched this in total silence; they all remained completely immobile as if they had been frozen. Even those who had spoken up not too long ago were quiet.
They had heard the Mountain Lord say he wanted to kill all of them a bit earlier, but they didn’t pay too much attention until hearing him say it again.
With happiness and no shred of remorse, they all felt something vanish in them.
"Kill him, outsider; kill that monster," one old woman suddenly shouted from the back of the crowd.
"Yes, get yourself together, kill him," another person added.
The whole crowd suddenly changed their voice; they moved from singing the Mountain Lords’ praise to becoming Morden’s number one fan.
At this point in time, Morden had slowly but steadily crossed the distance between the two of them; he could faintly hear the chants of the villagers, but at this point he couldn’t care less.
"Something is wrong?" Modern thought.
The Mountain Lord’s belief that he would soon be dead seemed to be getting slowly averted.
Though he still had absolutely no control over his body, somehow it already had changed.
His slowing down thoughts had been gradually recovering, and at this point he could think without too much hindrance.
"But why? What changed?" He wondered.
The mind has undergone enough tempering. New stat unlocked.]
[Intelligence]
All of the events of the past day have been extremely taxing on Morden’s mind: using clues to get to answers, making plans, tracking routes, and sourcing for more information. All of these have been unknowingly piling up and tempering Morden’s mind, and now he has seen the results.
"New stat? Intelligence?"
"Does that mean I can be smarter?" Modern thought.
"But that still doesn’t explain how I recovered from completely losing myself."
It might be due to the presence of the new stats or something else completely, but Morden could now do something he couldn’t before, at least after he finished his first infusion.
During the first infusion, Morden was able to view his genetic tree that is checked inside him, but after that, he couldn’t anymore until now.
Though he still couldn’t completely check through his body like he had done that time, he could still get a good feel of what was going on in him.
"Ohhh now I see, I see it all clearly."
He could feel the change in his vital energy; it wasn’t spread throughout his body now; in fact, it was barely in his body.
All the vital energy in Morden’s body has slowly moved to his brain, and following the rule of his ability, Morden saw the effect.
[Intelligence +20(temp)]
Though Morden could tell that intelligence didn’t just mean how smart he was, he knew it was absolutely part of it, and the new boost took effect immediately.
In less than a few seconds, Morden’s mind had gone through multiple scenarios and events, and soon after,
"I have a plan," he thought and then immediately proceeded to completely give up resisting.
He didn’t try regaining control of his body; he just rested and waited.
All while everything was happening in his mind, he had arrived just a few steps besides the Mountain Lord.
"You are a strong one; taking you so long to get here means you resisted really hard."
"All well, it’s all over now; take the sword out and stab yourself to death," he ordered again.
Morden, who was now right beside him, did what he said, placed his hand on the sword hilt, and in one smooth motion, pulled it out.
"Careful bastard," the Mountain Lord cursed as pain shot through him again.
But Morden remained unresponsive; the sword that was raised high in the air was brought back down with astonishing force, but at the last moment its path changed slightly.
Pwisshhhh!
He felt the sword stab him, piercing through him with no resistance at all.
"What are you doing?" the Mountain Lord shouted while he stared at the sword stuck in Morden’s body.
It wasn’t stuck in his stomach, not his chest, not even his head; it was stuck in his hand.
The red patterns on the sword suddenly started, followed by a loud wailing sound and a sizzling noise.
It had worked; Morden’s plan had worked.
"What have you done?" the Mountain Lord shouted.
"Taking back my body," Morden responded before pulling the sword out of his hand with gritted teeth and bringing it back down.
This time he didn’t aim for the heart; the sword entered the wide-eyed mountain lord straight in the head, killing him instantly.
"I did it," Morden thought while staring down at the dead body in front of him.
He wanted to jump up in joy, but he could feel his head slowly heading straight for the ground while he felt his eyes catch sight of something sitting silently not too far away.
It was the White Cat, but that wasn’t all. He could see its mouth moving, not to meow, but to speak.
"You made me do this."