Crusader King-Chapter 125: Beneath the Statue(10)

Cades hand that had began cramping after it had been burned by the searing metal sword, a design that seemed to be quite bad in hindsight, was now fisted around a seemingly very fragile stone containing the new active, one that seemed to be much more fragile and intricate than all of them before, and as such, realizing what it was, he smiled ever so slightly, the edges of his mouth bending slightly upwards, not in anticipation of his new active, but in anticipation of exploring the insides of another active, something that he did indeed to do right away once he had taken a good loke at the active that was still clamped inside his hand, though the pressure of his hand had mostly been released by now, with just a few jet-black streams of energy resembling a kind of vapor having entered his body already.

As he carefully thought, trying to figure out how this happened two times in a row when Manug had claimed the chance to be only about one in twenty, or five percent for each being killed, he began to look forward, slowly moving his head upward and looking at the ceiling created by the tall, white trees, a ceiling of blood-red leaves that, now as Cades was looking at them, almost seemed as if they were breathing, moving without there even being sound.

Well, of course there wasn't any sound, but to Cades it was still a bit unsettling, however, still, in many ways he found it calming, he felt at peace in even more ways, he was safe here, he was almost completely certain of that, though that might also just have been because of his own desperation to find safety projecting itself into reality, a false illusion of hope if one may will.

But either way, this was the reason for which he decided to stay here, on this island dominated by endless silence, alongside the gravel thirsty for his blood, longing to cut apart the feet, alongside the seemingly breathing leaves that had probably gained their colour through their own thirst for blood, alongside the trees of bone that had been strong enough to almost withstand him being thrown against them by the monster, and had even managed to somehow withstand the impact as the even bigger monster crashed against it.

Perhaps this would turn out to be a terrible decision, but right now he didn't really care, he simply wished to do what he wanted now, he simply wished to explore the inside, the intent of this active, just as he had done previously, to look at the active still held within his tightly closed hand, still ever so slightly starting to break and turning into the black vapor that sunk into his hand, and he wished to create himself another arm, something that he had truly realized the importance of during his fight with the monster, seeing as he was indeed more powerful than it but wasn't capable of putting enough force into his attacks to really defeat the monster, something that was indeed because of his current situation.

However, now, he discarded those thoughts, already having finished his thoughts, having concluded that he would indeed stay here, deciding to finally work on the prosthesis to regain some of his lost force and power, something that would however have to wait until he'd had analysed the active that he now held within his hadn't that he had already raised up, still forming a fist around the small stone, about as big as the golden marble containing the warp-step had been.

Cades slowly opened his hand that was now just a few inches away from his face, something that was destined to make it difficult for him to be able to view the stone itself, something that he did however resolve by moving it about half a foot further away just to be able to see the seemingly beautiful stone, that looked as if it was made out of beautiful crystal, with a slight bit of a dark blue glow on the inside, somehow illuminating the jet-black onyx material, something that was a bit confusing to him, but still rather normal.

Now holding it within two of his fingers, ready to really analyse it, he could see that the onyx material actually consisted of countless tiny strings, made out of an incredibly fragile material which had been exactly that that had broken off, being absorbed into his body already, in the form of the black vapor, it looked as if it was a nest made out of detailed, separately kept, thick hair all twirled around a dark blue core illuminating the darkness and yet sending out barely any light, resulting in the shadows of the small strings doing a small dance within his two fingers, something fairly entrancing, but what was much more entrancing for Cades, was the intent that he could feel, an intent that he had never felt before.

The intent itself was not complicated, it wasn't powerful, actually it was fairly weak, but it was incredibly unique, the intent was to stick, the intent consisted of a grave intent to connect something, probably the bodily part that it would connect to, to something else, probably armor, weapons, or even the ground itself, with the last one being the most likely seeing as the spider, with it's immense weight had been able to crawl all around the islands, seemingly dismissing all laws of gravity, as if it had no reason to care about them.

Cades, thinking this, began to close his eyes and calm his breathing, feeling the intent that oozed out from the stone that he had now brought even closer to his head, something that he had learned from experience, including his act of getting as close to the corpse of the monster as he could, pressing himself into the still-warm flesh of the mighty beast to quickly regain his self should he use it again, sitting there, with his back in the soft tissue, lotus position, the stone half an inch in front of his face.

And slowly but steadily he began to perceive it once more, he began to perceive that which was contained within the stone, within the active itself.