Primordial Conquest

Chapter 66: Damaged soul

Commander Norman Sagitta's brows furrowed as he held the elder's gaze for several moments.

"What?" He asked calmly.

The female elder snickered.

"I am sure you heard me well, Commander Sagitta. We wish to kill the Reincarnator that has caused so much death and destruction to our village."

"It is only just, is it not?"

Norman remained quiet for several moments as a frown appeared on his face.

"No it is not, wise elder."

"Once again, I am truly sorry for what has happened to your people. But I cannot.... Will not fulfill your request."

"This child is now under my jurisdiction. She will be brought before the Renegades and judged by the authority of the High Commanders and our recently appointed Sentinel."

The five elders faces shifted visibly in contempt as the Tarokian warriors behind them erupted into furious screams directed at the commander.

"Oi! Stop spouting that bureaucratic nonsense, you red bastard! Do you have any idea how many of my friends this little monster slaughtered!?" A towering male Tarokian warrior roared in rage.

"He's right! Don't feed us that regulations garbage! We were about to finish her ourselves before you interfered!"

"You have no right to steal our rightful kill, you despicable Mornan!"

The crowd went into a wild frenzy as they threw all sorts of insults and profanities at the commander. Norman's expression remained impassive as he watched them.

After several minutes of this, the female elder finally raised a hand, silencing the warriors with a single gesture.

"You see Commander Sagitta? The rage of my people have not been quelled!!" She howled in dissatisfaction.

Norman said nothing for several moments as he glanced around him. He would be lying if he said he was surprised by the level of greed these Tarokians possessed. It was quite clear that they did not care about vengeance. The only reason they wanted to kill the girl was to bolster the prestige and fame of their village, and by extension themselves. All so they could be held in high regard by the larger and more powerful settlements in Tarok.

Finally he turned back to the elder with a blank expression. He was completely unfazed by the constant hollowing that had gone on for the last few minutes.

".....As I said before... I will be taking her with me now."

The elder's eyes widened slightly at his casual dismissal of them.

She gritted her teeth in resentment as she glared at him.

"Listen here you worthless morna-"

"How despicable. How vile." The elder's words caught in her throat as Arora finally spoke up again after being quiet for so long.

Norman's attention snapped to her immediately, his brows furrowing slightly.

'something's wrong.'

"Look at you all, chattering away like birds on a windowsill. Discussing how you'll kill me."

Her voice echoed out as she chuckled loudly.

"Truly... you're no different from humans at all."

"You're just as twisted. Just as evil."

"You merely have different appearances, that's all."

The female elder looked down at Arora in pure contempt.

"A human child who has slaughtered dozens of innocent souls dares to speak of evil?"

"Do not make me laugh, you little monster!" she spat, her entire body trembling with rage as her hand clenched around her cane.

"You and your accursed kind are the very embodiment of evil itself! All we citizens of this planet — no, this universe! ever do is defend ourselves against abominations like you!"

"How dare you speak of evil after what your kind did to my precious son!" she added, her face contorting in hatred.

Norman observed the elder solemnly. He wondered if he had been too quick to dismiss the Tarokians feelings despite the immense suffering humans had inflicted upon them all.

Arora remained silent for several long moments.

"It seems I was correct about this reality, after all. It doesn't matter which universe I find myself in."

"Pointless wars. Countless meaningless deaths. The innocent doomed to suffer endlessly, just like me."

"Reality itself has been fundamentally flawed from the very beginning."

Norman's expression shifted dramatically as he noticed the white highlights in Arora's hair beginning to spread. One by one, the brown colour of her strands slowly faded away until all that was left was pure white.

His eyes widened in alarm as he felt the strength of his negation weakening with each passing second.

'shes growing stronger!?' he thought in panic as he reactivated his Heart shard.

He scanned her thoroughly as his expression fell.

He could sense past even her physical form and into her very soul. It looked, ruined.

Gaping holes filled every part of it, as if pieces of her soul had been ripped away forcefully.

"By the emperor" Norman muttered as he clenched his fist. He felt sick. He wondered how something like this could happen to a child. And what sort of monster would do it!?

'What unimaginable torment could she have endured?'

He realised that her soul was destroying itself even more to unnaturally boost her power beyond what she could reach right now.

Arora gaze slowly turned towards him as he noticed her pitch black eyes. The natural orange colour of her Iris had been completely erased.

She now resembled a Mornan that had completely given in to the profane and insidious power of corruption.

"Which means all I need to do... is destroy it all. So that a new and better reality can finally take its place."

Norman suddenly gritted his teeth as he felt Arora slowly begin to rise up, almost completely ignoring the force he was applying against her back.

The elders all moved back in disbelief, their expressions filled with horror.

"K-kill her, kill her now!, before it's too late!" The female elder shouted. The Tarokian warriors surrounding them immediately began retreating as well. They were terrified of how strong she would have become to suddenly overcome the power of a Commander.

Then suddenly.

ZING!

Norman's eyes went wide as he watched his foot cease to exist.

His negation, had been negated.

She had reactivated The Interitus.

"Everyone get back NOW!" Norman roared as he immediately activated Sagittarius.

A moment later, another explosion of pure destruction consumed the entire crater.

Every single Tarokian warrior that had survived the fight against her had still been in it.

They were now erased.

Along with their elders.

Norman materialized from an ethereal arrow high above the crater with an expression of absolute horror and disbelief etched on his features.

He believed he had everything under control. He thought he had already negated the threat she posed. But it turned out that he was wrong. And now, all those Tarokians were all dead. All because he had kept her alive.

He gritted his teeth in pain and frustration as he focused on taking care of the wound on his leg first.

The attack itself had already cauterized the wind left behind, but he could feel a poisonous energy travelling upwards through the injury.

He concentrated his negation ability on the affected area as he managed to stop any further corruption from spreading.

"Damn it all!"

Suddenly, he froze in shock as he noticed the human girl floating right beside him with an unsettling smile spread across her features.

Her eyes were as dark as space without the illumination of the suns.

Arora deactivated her interitus around her head for a moment as she grinned in satisfaction.

"Tell me Commander... Are you afraid?"