CHAPTER 92: ENCOUNTER WITH A THREE-HEADED ABOMINATION.

"Aisha, can you hear me?"

"Are you okay?"

Nero gently rubbed her hands and fingers.

On rainy nights, when his fingers turned cold, his mother used to do the same, gently rubbing his smaller fingers until heat returned to them.

He watched as the light slowly returned to Aisha’s eyes and the shaking stopped.

He breathed a sigh of relief and quickly called out to her,

"Can you hear me? Are you okay?"

Her eyes became misty and the corners of her eyes became wet with tears.

But she nodded.

Nero grinned, "Then that’s good."

He turned to Garrick and Geor who had looks of plastered into their faces.

"She’s fine now."

Geor broke out of his daze and quickly spoke,

"We need some light, Aisha. The brighter the better."

Sniffling and drying her eyes, she nodded.

Then, Nero watched as she began chanting something in a low voice and in a strange language he couldn’t understand.

However, as she chanted, he watched several things unfold,

Aisha stretched her hand out.

Them, a small ball of light began to take form. From absolutely nothing.

He stood with his mouth slightly open as the light began to grow brighter and brighter.

Then she lifted her arm and it floated until it was a few meters above their heads before stopping.

Aisha turned to Garrick, "Is that enough?"

Garrick huffed then turned around.

Although the fire had been put out, now, there was more than enough light to drown out the darkness.

With this much light, Nero didn’t have any difficulty seeing very far into the distance.

And what has saw, caused him to turn stiff with fear.

The same was true for all the others.

I’m the distance, not too far, but not too close as well, was... something.

Its body was strangely formless and black like the surrounding night, but its head, or rather, its heads, were like that of a human.

The eyes on all the heads were closed. However, the central head was turned in their direction.

For a moment, no one made a sound.

Then, Garrick’s voice cut through the silence,

"T-that is a Defiled Cherub!"

"You know what that thing is?!" Nero couldn’t help but ask.

This time, it was Obed that spoke, his face pale and his expression dark,

"It’s one of the fairly more common apparitions that have been spotted several times in Malady’s Garden. However, it doesn’t appear frequently. The last time it was spotted was two years ago."

Nero’s eyes narrowed, "This... How dangerous is it?"

Obed grimaced, "This is the worst case scenario for us."

"The Defiled Cherub is a being that is neither physical or spirit. Instead, it is a being that is said to exist between planes. It has a physical body, but has mystical abilities that can affect the soul."

Aisha sucked in a deep breath. Then she spoke,

"According to the stories, these things were originally angelic beings that accompanied the Fallen Ones from the heavens. When the Gryghori became corrupted, these things were corrupted as well."

’Well, that doesn’t sound good at all. That means this is an ancient existence!’

This level of danger was much greater than encountering random Abominations.

He could sense it already...

This thing as bad news.

Garrick cursed again then turned to the others,

"Our only chance of escape is running. From what I know, not all of them are extremely powerful. From what I can tell, this one doesn’t seem too interested or powerful either."

Obed grimaced,

"It’s a good thing it hasn’t fully noticed us yet. I heard they are blind and deaf, so they only rely on some strange sense to locate their prey."

Hearing this, Nero curiously activate Heretic Eyes.

The moment he did, blood burst out of both his eyes and nose.

’Eh?’

The world seemed to phase out of existence.

Everything, even sound, became blurry.

With a groan, he fell to the ground.

"Nero!"

He heard some voices, but didn’t know where they were coming from.

His throat tightened.

His chest became heavy.

’I-I’m dying.’

It felt terrible.

It was a horrible experience.

Suddenly, the image of the Defile Cherub filled his vision.

This time, its closed eyes were open and it was staring right at him.

All six eyes of the three heads were staring at him.

Then their mouths stretched open and they began to speak.

Things he could understand. Things, he couldn’t make complete sense of, and complete and utter nonsense.

The curiosity within him sprouted and blossomed,

’What is it saying?’

He tried to listen.

Then he froze, stopping himself before it was too late.

With a groan, he placed both hands over his ears.

If he listened to the words of this horror, his soul would be corrupted and he would die terribly or turn fully into an Abomination himself.

He couldn’t let that happen.

However, it was hard.

The more he fought against it, the harder it was to fight.

The whispers were like the sweet promise of home and warmth, urging him to let go.

They reminded him of the caring voice of his mother and the carefree, joyful voice of his father urging him on to take one more step.

Bloody tears fell down Nero’s face as he endured, the bitterness in him rising to the surface like gall.

"Damn this crap!" He roared furiously.

However, yelling into the empty void wasn’t going to do much in this case.

He roared again, this time, more helplessly.

But he was rapidly slipping. He needed something to grasp onto.

And so, he cling onto his true name.

If the words of corruption were like a turbulent sea of madness, his true name was the anchor keeping him tethered.

He called it again and again and again.

The image of the Defiled Cherub before him began to turn faint, as the words of madness began to fade away.

In a moment, all that was left was darkness.

Nero felt himself floating within this darkness for a long time.

And then, his eyes snapped open.