Chapter 8

  Gimme Three Steps

  The Leviathan’s axe gleamed with beast blood. It had been 9 days since Elora’s death. Fay was no longer human. He does not sleep and he does not eat. He only. He only slaughters. He pursues strength alone.

  They took her from me. I will kill every last one of them. Man, woman, child, whatever the hell I find down here is dead.

  He cut the head from a beast that appeared in front of him. Then another. An intelligent begged him for its life. Fay painted the walls in its innards with a swing of his axe. He would give no quarter, no mercy. He would drown the world in an ocean of blood in Elora’s name. Fay collected the cores from the beasts with a tendril of mana, a skill he had learned from Eintex. Fay hated it. Using that beast's magic. But it had made him stronger. With every core he consumed he grew in strength, and his hunger deepened, driving him mad.

  His eyes were bloodshot and dry, and his mouth pleaded for water. Fay would not answer its prayers.

  If it did not involve slaughter, he was uninterested. Fay made use of the mana stream teleportation and mana manipulation he had learned from his battle with Eintex, but that was not all he had learned. Fay had discovered that with every exceptionally strong beast he dominated, their core would awaken in him a new use for his mana. New magic.

  Fay had learned from one how to survive on mana alone, using it to pull nutrients from the air. From another he learned how to shoot condensed and sharped mana from his hand at blazing speed, a sound replacement for his lost piece. From another he learned to produce mana shields. Fay had learned much, and he had eaten many.

  He had recovered another scale 6 days after his departure from the East River at the bottom of a beartiger labyrinth, and had reached the 50th floor of another in 3. He carried himself down the stairs to the 51st floor, and collapsed from exhaustion.

  Fay awoke in an instant, unsure of how long he had been asleep. His hand moved to his heart.

  They didn’t just take Elora. Barron isn't here either. Tears streaked his face. He commanded the axe to his hand and proceeded onto the 51st floor.

  He found many beasts on this floor. With his axe he cleaved and eviscerated any that stood before him, and any that fled away. He found the steps to the 52nd in only an hour.

  I’m awake now, he thought.

  Fay pushed the Leviathan’s dark mana into his body, and zipped along the mana lines, tearing anything that dare move in his presence apart. Any beast that encountered him was split without a trace of its predator approaching. Fay continued to eat. He had reached the 75th floor.

  His mind was dull. He did not think. He acted on instinct alone. He had truly become a beast. The Leviathan had not spoken to him since he had left East River. It knew that Fay was at a crossroads. It was not his keeper. It would allow him to become strong or fall weak. It did not care if he lost his mind, as long as he continued to eat. Eat he did. With every swing of his axe, with every piece of flesh torn from bone, he grew. He would not stop growing. He would fight and eat until the strain of the overwhelming power incapacitated him. When he awoke he would continue onward.

  He reached the 86th floor.

  He reached the 92nd floor.

  He reached the 99th floor.

  Fay descended the steps to the final level of the unnamed labyrinth.

  This is a lionape labyrinth. It won’t be as easy as the last two.

  He pushed open the massive stone doors, ignoring the message etched into them.

  In the room was a man beast. Fay found it funny, the stronger a beast was, the more human-like it looked. It was not a man that stood before him. It had no head, and instead housed a massive mouth in the center of its chest. It spread its arms to its sides with its palms facing towards Fay, eyes embedded into them.

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  “Order-breaker come down me for?” The beast said in broken speech.

  “Happy me, I want kill something. I want eat” it growled as its mouth salivated, pooling globs of saliva at its feet.

  What the hell?

  “Exar, the child they call him. He has only been in existence for 10 years, but he stole the scale in his possession away from his predecessor. You two are not unlike in that regard. Both newly awakened creatures with overwhelming strength, and a hunger that cannot be satiated.” Lev spoke in his mind.

  Now you talk. I ain’t nothing like that thing.

  “So you say, boy.”

  The beast would not allow Fay to stand ideally by, and charged at him. Face commanded the axe to his hand and rushed to meet the beast head on. A small shattered crown of black mana appeared above his head.

  Sparks rained as the head of his axe connected with the claws of the beast again and again. Fay kicked at it with his lead leg, but the beast intercepted the strike with its own.

  Fay lifted his hand and pointed it at the beast, mana daggers exploding from his hand.

  The beast retreated across the room with a leap, and the two eyed each other as they paced the outskirts of the room.

  “You strong. Me want to get strong. I want eat. I want strong. I hungry, I so hungry.” The beast cried as he charged at Fay again.

  I guess we ain’t all that different after all.

  Fay pushed mana through his body, and teleported along the mana stream, what he called “dashing”, and appeared behind the beast. When Fay appeared, he was met with 7 eyes encased in its flesh. They immediately turned their gaze to him, and unable to dash in quick succession, was in a position to take a hard blow.

  With no time to pull the needed mana from his core, he raised a fragile shield with all he could muster in the short time before the strike. Spinning around, the beast kicked its thick leg towards Fay. It shattered the shield of mana, and folded Fay in two at the hips as it impacted his torso.

  Fay was sent across the room and slammed into the wall, blowing it apart on impact. Still stuck in the wall, Fay spat the blood from his mouth and eyed the beast with his animal-like eyes.

  Fay was not angry. He was ecstatic. This beast was strong. It was an opportunity to gain strength. The hunger in Fay’s mind overtook his own. He did not care about his body. He did not fear death. He was hungry. He let out a howl no human could mimic.

  Like a rabid dog, Fay launched himself from the wall with his axe pulled above his head. He swung it down at the beast, and the screech of metal on metal rang as it connected with the beasts claws.

  “You hungry. I hungry to. We same! Only one get eat!” The beast said in an almost sing-song manner.

  Fay was hit by another kick from its leg, but he had managed to put more mana into the shield this time. He still received the blow to his side, but in his crazed state, he did not seem to notice it.

  EAT EAT EAT EAT EAT EAT.

  The word echoed in Fay’s mind. At this moment he was no longer human. He had given himself to beasthood in the pursuit of strength. Fay dashed behind the beast once more, and arriving with his arm outstretched, shot black mana-daggers into the eyes encased in its back from his palm. The beast lurched in pain and let out a cry.

  “Hurt!! wahhhhhh it hurt! You hurt me!” The beast screamed, much like a child who had been hurt roughhousing.

  Fay did not listen to the beast. He did not call out his axe. Manipulating his mana, he stretched it into razor sharp claws around his fingers. He raked his hand across the back of the beast, the claws ripped chunks of flesh from its squishy body. The beast cried out in pain. Fay continued to dig. He ripped ligaments from bone, and flesh from muscle. Fay had tackled the creature and sat with his hips on its, mindlessly digging at the creature's mouth with his claws. Blood covered him, and the beast continued to wail in pain as Fay shredded it.

  When the madness in his mind calmed, Fay’s mind returned to him. He sat atop the beast, his hands covered in its blood and viscera.The claws on his hands radiated wisps of flowing mana, unstained by the blood. The shattered crown disappeared from his head. The beast's mutilated body sat beneath him, a small ember of life still in it as it breathed laboriously.

  “It hurt me. I just want to strong. I not strong. Me no want die. I just hungry. I don't want hungry. I no choice but eat. No choice to be hungry.” the beat cried and croaked.

  Fay was sickened by the sight before him. This thing was just a child. It was like the old him. It did not choose to feel hunger. It did not kill because it pleased it. It had not chosen its place in order.

  Fay brought out his axe and stood from atop the creature.

  “I’m sorry” Fay said as he put it out of its misery.

  He removed its core and the leviathan scale from it. Fay saw the beast's eyes embedded into its hands. They were wet with tears. Fay clenched his jaw and consumed the core and the scale.

  The power rushed to his core, but instead of the usual stabbing pain, Fay felt as if he had been covered in a wet blanket. An overwhelming sadness rushed into his mind and permeated his body. Fay looked at the beast’s corpse.

  So you were sad too, huh?

  Fay stayed in the room for some time seated next to the body of the beast. He studied it. They were the same.

  Who was a human and who was a beast?

  Fay stepped to the circle at the center of the room, and proceeded to the next labyrinth.