Titan: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 4) Jez Cajiao (top ten books of all time TXT) 📖

“So, what, the SkinWalker controls them, makes them feed and care for the parent as it breeds more of them? Why were there only a few of them out there?” Stephanos asked, and I pointed to a grim sight.

Next to the smaller cage where the newborns were contained was a slab of metal obviously rigged as a bench, and it was stained black with the inky black ichor the Leviathans had for blood.

“They eat them,” I pointed out quietly.

“Fuck, that’s crazy brave,” Arrin said, the first words I’d heard him say in a while, and I looked at him curiously. “Seriously,” he said, nodding to the gnomes. “I know they’re crazy; gnomes always are, but a species that would subjugate them, turn them all crazy and then live here? Surrounded by them and happily eating Leviathans? Is it too late to walk away?”

“Yeah. Way too late,” I said, pointing to Giint. “Whatever twisted him up that bad needs to be gutted and nailed to the wall by its balls… if it has any.”

“Ah, well, as long as I can hammer the shit out of something with magic? I’m fine with it, I guess….” he said philosophically before pointing at the Leviathans that were throwing the water up at their parent. “One question, though… how come they’ve not reacted to us?” Yen snorted in derision.

“Whoever dominated them didn’t give them orders to do anything if someone came in. Clearly, they’re idiots, whoever they are.” Yen spat on the floor. “Can we go kill them already?” she asked grimly. “I hate this place.”

“What will happen to them once we kill whatever controls them?” I asked, and she looked sick.

“They’ll be free, and they’ll do whatever is in their nature; probably kill the adult, and then go hunting anything else they can kill in the area.”

“So, the weakest die before they can,” I said, and she nodded.

“Want me to start it off?” she asked, then started to cast at my gesture of approval, and Lydia ordered the ranged fighters to get ready.

I stepped aside and peered up the stairs that led upwards in the corner of the room to spiral around the building. There were balconies that lead out to rooms and floors on each level. Somewhere up there, I could hear movement, and my mood had only gotten darker since coming down here.

Inside of my mind, I could hear Amon. I could hear his maddening grumblings, and the worst part was that I found myself agreeing with them more and more.

Since our confrontation, when the fragment of his soul lodged in me had somehow reconnected with the rest of him, floating in unquiet death on the other side of the veil, he’d become more conscious, more rational, and more terrifying.

I’d grown up with his mumbling, screaming, and random crap. I’d learned to live with it, to ignore it even, but now? He was watching and mumbling about how this shouldn’t be allowed to happen, and I agreed. I agreed wholeheartedly, but I also knew that he’d intended to steal my body and live again, to bring fiery death and destruction to the realms, to slaughter everyone, the good and the evil alike, so that he could then grant life again to the good, as he saw them.

The most terrifying part was that when I saw things like this cavern, I felt more and more like it was a real solution. Not that killing everyone would be the way to do it, not really. But these gnomes? If I had to kill them all to stop their actions, as they were all murderers and worse, would it really be that much of a loss?

I considered Giint, and I wondered if it would be better to do that, to simply kill him now, for his own good. To kill them all, bringing justice for the victims. Who knew how many he’d killed…? As I looked at him, I felt it slowly stating to build, the tingle of my magic.

It was uncontrolled,; hell, I’d not done it deliberately, but as I’d focused on killing Giint, it had started, a faint tingling in my body, flowing down to my fingers, where it sparked to life.

As I stared at my hands, entranced, I saw something coming to life. It started as a spark, then a flame, a black flame. It boiled and stuttered, flaring and dying, roiling across my fingers and backs of my hands. A smoke spread from the flame, like an oily, black mist, and it formed into tendrils of… something.

I looked up at a feeling and found Oracle hovering before me. She gazed into my eyes, and I felt the soul-bond between us pulse. I felt the love she felt for me, and the trust, and I nodded slowly to her unspoken request. I lifted my hands and closed my eyes, willing the magic back to quiescence.

It took several seconds, but eventually, it died away, and I looked back at Oracle in silent question.

“Jax, I’ll explain when we have time, but for now, please, don’t use that,” Oracle said in our bond.

“What…?” I started to ask, when the ‘whoosh’ of Yen’s Flamespear erupted through the air, a superheated wash of air flooding out as three spears of glowing, spitting, and roiling fire hurtled across the space between her and the Leviathans. The individual smaller creatures took one each, the spears slamming into them hard enough that they staggered, while the third and final one embedded deeply into the caged beast and sank into its maw, blowing a section of the flesh that surrounded the beak free.

“Dammit,” I growled, shocked at myself for getting so distracted. I turned back to join them, and froze, looking up. I’d seen movement up there.

Chapter Twenty-One

“Bane!” I hissed, gesturing upwards to the balcony on the far side of the room.

I got no response, but I couldn’t see him anywhere when I glanced around, and I guessed he’d gone to investigate. Instead, I turned