Threads of the Soul

Chapter 479 - 479: Nothing left to save

Woe landed in Seth's arms as he quickly spun his younger brother around and inspected him. However the slight brush of the stone became incredibly evident, as Woe was holding up his hand in confusion as his fingers started to turn black, starting with the one that had touched the crystal.Hunter immediately got between Seth and Woe, shoving Seth away from him - feat he was only able to do from the pure shock Seth was in - before doing his best to keep him away.

"Get away! Don't touch him!"

The Hunter shouted, as the blackness spread across Woe's hand and down his arm. His flesh started to pulsate and warp, as if something was wriggling underneath his skin and about to burst out.

A second was all it took for Seth to get over his moment of shock. Threads wrapped around Hunter in an instant and, with a flick of his hand, the Hunter was launched through the air. However, even if his eyes never left Woe, and his expression never changed from one of horror and worry, Seth had not completely lost his mind.

Hunter stopped in mid-air, squirming against the same invisible bindings that had held him previously, as Seth made sure to keep him away from any Crystals. Staggering forwards, Seth reached out to comfort his brother as the blackness spread from his arm to his torso, and began to crawl up his neck.

"NO!" The Hunter shouted again, fighting against the bindings, "There is nothing you can do! If you touch him when they sprout, you will die! All of you!"

That emphasis on 'all' finally caught Seth's attention, pulling his eyes away from Woe and to Hunter. His face twisted, morphing through a flurry of different emotions. Understanding, sorrow, rage then morbid acceptance, all in the span of a few seconds before finally he stopped in his steps, out of arms reach of Woe.

"It's okay," Woe said as he looked into Seth's eyes with a warm smile, "It's all going to be perfectly fine. I can handle it."

Seth's words caught in his throat as he saw his brother putting on a brave face, trying to reassure him. But then, before his very eyes, the spreading blackness started to retreat.

Woe rolled his neck, letting out low grunts of exertion as he focused. His flesh continued to bulge and writhe, as black patches appeared on different parts of his skin and faded a few moments later.

But as Seth took a closer look at it, he realised something. It wasn't something trying to break free of his skin. It was something trying to stretch it out underneath, as it turned into different skin.

Woe's actual muscles were growing and shrinking, like air being pushed through different sections of a long balloon. Occasionally, Woe's eyes would disappear as they were absorbed into his flesh, before the upper half of his face would engorge and turn hard as bone. Then as if it never happened, the hard bone plate would soften and turn back into his brother's usual face.

Woe wasn't being infected... He was switching between his normal form and his defensive form, the mutation he had received from his transcendence.

Seth's eyes, filled with confusion and disbelief, whipped towards the stone that Woe had touched, only to find the space occupied not by stone, but from a pile of black dust that was being absorbed by the ground.

After a few more seconds, Woe returned to his fully human form, his skin the same pale white as it had always been, and the smile still painted across his face as he let out a satisfied burp.

"Oh, sorry. That was a little more filling than I expected. See though, I told you I could handle it."

Seth laughed, pulling his brother into a tight hug as Ava clapped from the side. Omelette had been completely obsessed with catching a digger beetle the size of a house cat that had been running around, thus had missed the whole thing.

As for the Hunter, well he was staring at Woe with absolute disbelief, unable to process what he was seeing before him as it was literally impossible. He was not the only one, all the miners who had overheard the commotion and turned to look, were staring at Woe with the same expression.

It was as if someone had told them that you could mix blue and green to make orange, and then proved it to them. It was simply... impossible. It had to be a trick of the light or some kind of ruse to deceive them, maybe into buying some kind of snake oil that was supposed to make them able to do the same thing.

It just wasn't possible. Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines and creeping crystals kill people. That was how it was supposed to go... so why didn't it?

Before their shocked eyes, Woe walked over to one of the many statues of people who weren't as lucky and placed his hands on it. That action alone caused a chorus of gasps to sound out, followed by the entire room turning silent.

Everyone stopped their work, alerted to the boys actions by their neighbours. The guards didn't punish them, because they too were enthralled by the impossible event.

With his hands firmly on the fatal crystal, the same thing happened. Woe's hands turned black and began to pulsate, this time it was more even. The pulsations travelled up his arms in waves, rising and falling like the tide, as he absorbed something from the crystals.

Then, after a few seconds, cracks manifested across the statues body before it collapsed and promptly disintegrated into dust.

Everyone in the room stared silently at Woe in utter amazement, except from Omelette who was digging into his freshly caught beetle and filling the silence with the sound of crunching.

Yet as everyone stared at Woe, the boy in question was focused on the pile of dust that was evaporating and disappearing before his very eyes. A depressed and disappointed expression filled his face, as he let out a deep sigh.

"I thought after the first one I could save them, undo what was done. But there was nothing left to save."