Desecration Chapter116: Words Of Honey From A Tongue Of Horrors

Rhode took longer to show up than I would've liked.

Kogan seed to fancy himself a social butterfly, jabbering on as though he found the sensibility of silence offensive. He talked more like a caricature than a person. Imagine a roman philosopher mixed with the cadence of a gangster. Well, that was Kogan.

"Shouldn't we be setting up an actual ambush?" I grumbled.

"Nah," he said in between bites of deer at. "No need to. The fancy celebrity dealt with most of the monsters when we were chasing you. Doubt he can use enough mana to fend us both off. Unless he decided to just straight up kill you, but he won't do that."

"How could you possibly know that?"

Kogan glanced up with a toothy smile. "I know his type. Plenty like him in the gang. He'd find no pleasure in eating a corpse."

I stared at Kogan.

I sighed.

"Why do I always have to deal with the comically evil?"

"Oh? You got stories?"

"None for you."

"Co on!" Kogan smiled. "Don't be all grumpy, it'll fuck with your health. You know I'm considered the gang's therapist? Not a very effective one but for whatever reason the goons like to talk around ."

I didn't respond to that.

"It's not healthy to let hate eat you up. It'll overtake all the other lovely aspects of your being like a parasite."

"Your friend killed my ntor not even a week ago, and you helped end three of my friends," I growled. "So you'll have to forgive , but take all that fancy advice and shove it far enough up your ass that it cos out the other side. It'll sound the sa, but at least the sll of horseshit'll be accurate."

"Last I checked I'm not half horse."

"Go fuck yourself."

Kogan scoffed. "C'mon! Conversation's boring if all you can manage is insults. A al with only one flavour can only go so far."

"Are you under the impression that I want to talk to you?"

"Not nearly," he chuckled. "But that's how ti passes the best, isn't it? Better than all that gunk populating your mind at least."

I glared at him. "Is that what you're doing? Being all considerate and trying to keep my head in the ga? Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not so fragile flower. We'll kill Rhode then find the others, we don't need to talk during any of that."

He humd.

"Even the strongest of diamonds break under pressure."

I sighed. "You don't know . Stop pretending like you do."

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"Enlighten then."

"No."

Kogan shrugged and continued to munch on his chunk of at. He tried to offer so. Emphasis on tried. I knew it wasn't poisoned, what would be the point? I just didn't want to share a al with the man.

I focused on healing instead.

My kidney was...not well, per se. If I left it alone then it wouldn't get worse at least, so I could focus on the chunk torn away from my back. Missing a sizeable portion of muscle made certain movents difficult if not impossible, and I didn't know how much mana I wanted to use for my spell. Couldn't afford to max out.

Speaking of.

"How co you three can use so much mana?" I said despite my disgust.

"Hm?" He flicked his eyes to . "Oh. Did no one ever tell you? I'm in the first circle, a proper mage. You haven't entered them yet so you're basically just a normal shit with so cool tricks."

I sighed. "You gonna tell what the difference is?"

"Sure."

I blinked, then shot my head up to look at him. He chuckled.

"It's not so grand secret. The first circle refines your soul to more closely match your magics. Whatever effects your soul changes your mana, so you end up with sothing that stresses the body less. Can use about ten to twenty tis more after that."

I stared at him. "What?"

"You need to find better teachers," he said with so amusent.

Well, I couldn't deny that. For different reasons though.

"Why ten to twenty? That seems like a pretty wide range."

Kogan shrugged. "No idea. Never went to the universities. So people just get a head start I guess. Doesn't an much since the second circle's paraters don't change."

"And those are?"

"Focus on your Words girl," he said. "They all have different criteria but that's the fastest way to get through all of them. At least that I know of. Iona could only attest to the third, since that's all the knowledge she managed to source."

I humd and stared at the fire.

That made...so sense. Maybe I'd double check with Alvir, maybe I wouldn't. He must've heavily curated my studies for sothing that seed so basic to be glossed over in each. Why would he do that? What difference did knowing make?

I didn't know if I cared.

It was spring, early spring but still spring.

There wasn't any reason to stay in Anik anymore. Especially with recent events. The image of glass poking out of Aira's skull made nauseous. Made want to find Rhode and tear open his arteries with my teeth.

It made want to die.

I wouldn't though. Couldn't let myself.

There were so many reasons to live and keep living. A promise that once this was all over I'd finally...rest. Take things slow. Enjoy it all. That was why I kept fighting, that was why I kept training.

Hope.

That life would get better. Eventually.

And it would. The ti I spent now would be nothing in the eternity that awaited . Just a blip. Sothing to share around the campfire with the children born after the fall of Taiman and everything else. Maybe so of them would be mine.

That would be nice.

But my story hadn't reached that point yet.

Right now I had to kill a mage and find Xae. Her injuries...Kogan didn't say much about her and whatever the fuck Umoa did, but I was under the impression that if she wasn't already dead from infection then she would be soon.

Ken could deal with that. He could deal with anything.

But first the fire mage.

That was why I didn't miss the snap of a twig to my right, loud in both senses of my hearing. I turned my head and saw a man covered in cuts and claw marks walking towards us between the trees. He was looking at with a smile.

I sat there as he got closer and Kogan kept chewing his at while we waited.

"Why? What manner of blessing graces my eyes?" Rhode smiled.

He was close enough that I could've grabbed my sword and pounced on him. I stayed still instead. Kogan kept eating.

Rhode tilted his head. "Did you give up?"

I didn't say anything.

"Well. Your body doesn't look overly damaged, so that's good. I will have to tie you down though just in case. You have my apologies in advance."

Silence.

Kogan kept chewing.

"You said you knew my mother," I said, it ca out colder than I thought it would. "How?"

"Oh! Wonderful story that is. I t her when she was still pregnant with who I now know would turn out to be you! She was fascinated by my magics and a great conversationalist. Such an insightful mind in that head of hers."

"Were you planning on eating her?"

He didn't even have the decency to seem fazed. "Hmm. Eventually? Was going to wait until you were all independent, so I didn't leave a child helpless."

I stared at him and sighed.

Then a spike of stone jutted from the earth and impaled his foot.