Shards of the Broken Heart

My body was aching as I had over-exhausted myself. There was a deep gash on my shoulder, including many cuts all over my body. Callum and his men had overwhelmed me with their strength. But I had a smile on my face.

The Luna sisters had taken Alice out of the realm, and I could now use some drastic measures. I took out a bottle from my storage space and uncorked it.

Noxious fumes were released from the bottle and covered me as well as my surroundings, including Callum’s party. They covered their mouths and stopped inhaling, thinking it was some kind of respiratory poison. But they were grossly mistaken. These fumes had corrosive properties.

Everyone present inside the effective range of the fumes started bleeding profusely, and their skin began to melt.

The spirit beast saw the horrible effects and dared not enter near the fumes. Callum and group tried to use their internal energy to heal their damaged body and dispel the corrosion, even if a little. But the idea backfired as the influence of internal energy instead amplified the corrosive effects.

I endured the decay myself and attacked the group with my sword. I only used pure brute strength, which I had trained for many years, to attack them. Due to the favourable situation, I had killed all of them by the time the poisonous fumes had dispersed in the atmosphere.

After killing them, I uncorked another bottle from my storage space and drank another poison. This poison was very mild, but it countered the previous corrosive poison. It would not have been very difficult to withstand the effects of the new poison with a strong body.

But I was injured severely, so I could not contain the toxin and collapsed on the ground. I felt an excruciating pain all throughout my body. It was like being burned alive from both inside and outside.

The new poison did its role properly and countered the corrosive poison, and I was able to heal myself by taking medicine pills slowly. But now that the fumes were gone, the beast was not very patient. It jumped at me when I had just lifted myself up after fighting against the poisons.

As I was weak, a single claw from the beast sent me flying like a kite with a broken string, completely destroying the shield I created by externalising my energy. I took the chance and let myself fly for a long distance so as to distance myself from the beast. It noticed my plan and chased me. By the time it caught up with me, I had completely eliminated both the poisons from my body, with only the injuries and the molten skin on my body.

My eyes darted towards the portal, but the beast stopped in front of me, blocking my way to the portal. I still hadn’t regained my energy and thus could neither attack the beast nor block its attacks. Therefore, I planned to ‘kite’ it by running away from it. I ran towards the island to use the forest terrain to my advantage.

I used the trees to lose the beast and dodged its attacks. In the meanwhile, I regained a little bit of energy through natural regeneration. I tried to formulate various plans to lose the beast and enter the portal. I knew that the beast could easily overtake me without the cover of the forest.

But even by then, the beast had started breathing on my neck. Before I could do anything, it clawed at my back and sent me crashing into the trees.

I had turned into a bloody man. All the previous cuts and wounds that were slowly healing burst open. The last attack had put a high toll on my body. I lost all my energy and was losing a lot of blood. I knew that my end was near. The beast loomed over me, but it did an unbelievable act instead of killing me.

The beast healed my injuries!

I was sceptical of the beast’s action. After looking into myself, I found that although my wounds were treated, my cultivation was sealed simultaneously. The beast definitely had a use for me and wanted to force me into that. So, it sealed my cultivation to prevent me from creating any trouble.

I frowned, thinking about the various uses I could have for the beast. Seeing my expression, that beast said with a slight hint of amusement in its voice.

“I will take control over your body. It will finally help me leave this realm that has bound me for many centuries.”

The beast’s words sent a chill down my spine. The thought of anyone else controlling my body made me feel cold.

(What if he tried to harm mother and Alice with my own body?!)

Perhaps thinking about the same, the beast had a disgusting smile on its face. It said in an amusing voice.

“Oh! Don’t worry about those girlies. After taking over your body, I will take good care of them. It will be very exciting to watch them getting tortured to death by ‘you’. You will have to wait a long time. I will play with them to my heart’s content before uniting them to you.”

As soon as I heard its words, I tried to destroy my body by forcefully absorbing the energy present in the surroundings. But the beast had been prepared for it as it sealed all my meridians and tied me up. I then felt a piercing pain in my body. It was not a physical type of pain but rather a spiritual kind. I tried to look into my soul, and what I found greatly alarmed me.

My soul was getting devoured by another entity. I tried to protect my soul from the invasion, but it was in vain. The beast’s soul had consumed most of my soul, and only a small part of it was remaining.

At that moment, the part of my soul, which was a weak wisp, looking like it could vanish into smoke at any second, suddenly turned into a beautiful black fire. The fire raged and increased in size. I felt the darkness cover my whole mental space.

And this eerily beautiful trying to engulf the beast's soul was the last thing I witnessed before I lost my consciousness.