Heart of Darkness
Chapter 24
Zelgadis stood on the edge of the ruins of the small town that had the sheer misfortune of being there when he was looking. The inhabitants had been terrorized, a night of fire, ice, wind, earth, all the elements turned against each other in the oldest war known to eternity. That the people who lived within were unwilling participants only made the terror all the more exhilarating. It was better when it was a nameless, faceless terror.
He used his thoughts to turn the townspeople on each other. Unspeakable acts of violence rang terror through the night as the elements warred. They were things that even Xellos would have hesitated over, for there was a harsh brutality over the way the hapless people were forced into acts beyond reason or caring. Blood was spilled with reckless abandon as people were callously turned against each other.
It was fierce, fast, and hard as iron, breathlessly tantalizing. Zelgadis could enter their minds and feel what they felt, the pain, the panic, and the terror. It filled his senses, overflowed into his soul and carried him deeper into the darkness.
And he embraced it, coveted it. Eyes that were once a soft aquamarine hardened, darkened, a brilliantly deep sapphire taking the cold hard edge of diamond. He welcomed the darkness, reached out with both hands and took it, the sheer sensations pushing him to what seemed the edge of all Eternity.
It was better than anything he’d ever experienced in his pathetic mortal existence.
And he wanted more.
So he took it.
His thoughts flew from one mortal mind to the next, skating across the surface of thought as if it were a perfectly frozen lake. He nudged this way and that way, never quite releasing the mortals but allowing them to watch what they were doing. His own senses sharpened in dark delight as the panic rose within them, filling him with the sweet taste that stung so acridly in their throats. How easy it was to incite terror into these pathetic beings! How stupidly simple their little world was. They rose, worked, slept… all without truly feeling the emotions that their little lives went past.
But he was fixing that. He showed them terror like they’d never felt, things beyond the mortal mind’s ability to comprehend. Some of them broke, cracked like fragile eggs, some of them simply shut down in self-defense. A rare few became caught up in it, feeling waves of ecstasy not unlike his own, as if perhaps they were beginning the shift, beginning to become lesser Mazoku. He nurtured several of them, feeding them the darkness, curious to see if they were capable of becoming lesser Mazoku.
When the third one’s heart burst within his chest, Zelgadis grew tired of that and moved on to the slow and luxurious anguish that rolled away from another mortal.
It was sweeter than having an unwilling woman fighting him in his bed.
It was despicable, hedonistic and sordid.
He reveled in it, yielding to it, allowing it to take him fully.
In what seemed all too short a time, Zelgadis had drunk his fill, glutted himself on the rampant emotions, and sat idly picking off the lesser Mazoku who had dared come near to try to feed from his actions. That in turn fed his needs and desires on yet another level, leaving him drifting lazily through his own hazy thoughts as the remnants of the town smoldered below.
A flash of red hair.
Crimson eyes blinking.
Purple eyes shot through with obsidian, widening.
A woman’s voice, soft.
The scent of smoke-kissed pine.
Crystal blue eyes.
Cold eyes.
Jedah’s eyes.
With a snarl at the memory, Zelgadis threw a bolt of magic out, wiping the remnants of the town off of the map. This game wasn’t fun anymore. He wanted to find Jedah. Wanted to find the Mazoku brat son of the Beastmaster and show him what true terror was. There were ways of making Jedah pay for his actions against Zelgadis… and then there were ways of making Jedah truly pay.
Eyes were watching him. He spun, dark blue-diamond eyes glaring across to the watcher, a snarl on his lips as perfect teeth glinted in the light like a feral animal threatened. Dark power with no focus built around a simple thought, like a lazy snake that knew it had no chance of failing in its attack and so chose to take its time in the hunt.
The purple eyes from his memory snapped open in shock and the General-Priest of Zelas Metallium lifted his staff and willed himself away, vanishing into the night like a whispered memory.
“That’s right,” Zelgadis breathed darkly to the vanishing figure, his voice harsh and sinister, a far cry from the soft-spoken man he was once upon a forgotten memory. “Run. Run to your mistress like the lapdog you are, begging at her heels, answering her beck and call. I know who you are, Xellos Metallium. I know where you go and what you do. And like it or not, no matter how hard you refuse it, you are mine. And you will lead me to the one that I cannot yet sense; yes, you will lead me to Jedah, son of Beastmaster. And then the fun can truly begin.”
The old game had ended. It was time for a new one. Time to play Hide and Seek… followed by Tag. Because Zelgadis was It.