Chapter 318: Monologuing
The world was spinning. Keeping her eyes open for even a moment made Vanessa feel like the entire sky was orbiting her head while the ground was slipping out from under her. Nausea gripped her tighter than a grudge, and all her limbs felt as heavy as led.
Amidst all that was happening to her, she found it incredibly hard to spare a single moment for any thought at all, yet the panic that was filling her chest was stronger than any of her afflictions.
She channeled her aether, trying to activate one of her cards, but discovered that her control over her aether was abysmal. She could cause her aether to stir, yes, but she could do not much else. Her head was too clouded.
Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she could feel a rock in the ground digging into her side. She could smell the bile in her breath, stuck inside her mask. But it was only in the back of her mind. She squeezed her eyes shut tight, hoping to find a moment’s respite, before opening them again and looking towards Dave.
"Poison," she said, her voice slurred, her cognition slow. It was as if saying the word out loud would help her realise what had happened.
"You should see your face," Dave said, wearing a bright smile, his expression filled with immense relief. "You don’t look so haughty now, you dirty skinned bitch. You’re just a worm on the ground, at my mercy."
Dave smiled wider, taking in the moment. The past few weeks, for him, had been such a torment. The stress, the anxiety, eating away at him as he tried to do everything right under the army’s noses. Now that the task was finally on the cusp of completion, all the tension had flooded away.
Based on his judgment, that freak would take at least forty minutes before returning. Considering everyone but the retards had been successfully poisoned, that was more than enough time to finish everything up.
"Why?" Vanessa managed to say, her head bobbing up and down as she struggled to look at him. "How?"
She didn’t know why, but Vanessa’s mind was focusing on odd details. She could hear the wind. It was so clear, so consistent. She could even hear how it changed as touched upon the opening through which Nero had gone, and turned to flow inside.
Nero. If only she had a way to contact him. She didn’t doubt for a single moment that he’d be able to save them, if only he knew what was happening here.
"Why?" Dave repeated, as he kicked Bael’s body, turning him over. The brutish teenager’s body was still limp, his eyes shut.
"Don’t act like you don’t know why. You picked a side when you came to Kolar, didn’t you? That means you also picked your enemies. Don’t think for a second that no one knows what you did in Lumina. The Ascendants have been watching. Since you so graciously helped some of them, why not help the others too? Such a shame that the others had to die because of you. Can’t leave any witnesses, now can we?"
Though Dave was talking, he was not wasting time. He bent down and removed Bael’s mask and cut open his suit, separating him from his Eldrim cards.
Dave realised that he had been a little careless earlier, probably due to his anxiety. He couldn’t be the one to kill Bael directly. Bael’s father was an Ascendant, too. He had to let the brute die on his own.
Then he turned to look towards Noman. His father would be troublesome too, but fortunately, he wasn’t an Ascendant. Things were still manageable.
"I’ll have to admit, it wasn’t easy to pull this off," Dave said, as he dragged Noman’s body away from Vanessa, and broke his mask, too. "I had to poison all of you in advance. Had to do it back in Fordham, and let me tell you, it wasn’t easy. Everyone’s on the lookout for poisoned food, so I had to come up with another way. As it turned out, getting assigned to laundry duty one day solved all my problems. I directly lined the inside of all your uniforms with poison.
"None of you suspected a thing. Of course, I had to use different poisons for all of you. For example, can’t have you dying on me just yet. Bael, on the other hand, could probably resist all poisons because of his innate ability, so I just put him into a deep sleep. Nothing to heal if he’s just sleeping. I didn’t get a chance to poison the seven retards here, but something tells me that won’t be a problem. All of it was so easy... except that freak."
Dave’s expression suddenly turned ugly the moment he thought of Nero. But he recovered almost immediately and merely chuckled when he saw that Vanessa had noticed his slip up.
"Can you believe that Nero burned all his clothes with his blue fire before putting them on? I poisoned his weapon, his food, his clothes, but none of it worked. I know because I have a way to tell. After all, the poison is a two-part poison. Without the second part, the poison just stays dormant in your body - absorbed into your fat cells. No doctor can detect it, because it does nothing, and even healing cards ignore it. Isn’t it genius?"
Dave seemed particularly proud as he spoke and took his time now that he had pushed Noman and Bael away. He stood triumphantly, looking down at Vanessa.
Of course, those seven retards were still standing there, in their defensive stance, because he hadn’t poisoned them. But Dave wasn’t worried about them.
"I had to pay a pretty penny to get an Archanist to poison him while he was training with his team in Fordham. Fortunately, that freak is addicted to going solo, so I don’t really need to deal with him myself."
"You’re... afraid..." Vanessa said hoarsely. Her condition was not improving, but she was getting used to it. She tried to keep Dave distracted as she crawled towards Lina and the others.
"Afraid?" Dave repeated, his leisurely voice suddenly turning low, his relaxed expression suddenly contorting. "Do you know why I keep calling that freak a freak?"
Madness filled his eyes as he glared at Vanessa.
"What’s my innate ability? You know it right? I sense danger! I sense danger to my life! Do you know what it’s like walking next to that freak? No matter the place, no matter the time, no matter the circumstance, as long as I stand within 2 meters (6.5 feet) of him, I feel as if there’s a blade on my throat!"
Dave nearly screamed the last part, though his raised volume seemed to wake him from the trance that gripped him when he talked about Nero.
He fixed his gear, as if fixing his clothes, before continuing to talk in a normal tone.
"He’s a freak because he’s always thinking of ways to kill anyone near him. I can’t sense danger to other people, but I’m certain he’s always thinking of ways to kill anyone near him. My danger sense wouldn’t be acting up all the time! It’s almost as if he wants me to betray him. Like he’s hoping I do something, so that he has a chance to attack me. If that’s not a freak, I don’t know what is."
Dave saw Vanessa crawling. It was obvious. With her condition the way it was, it was impossible for her to be subtle. But he didn’t care. In fact, he walked up to her and squatted right next to her, staring at her face.
"But he looks at you differently, doesn’t he?" Dave asked. "I bet he’s not thinking of ways to kill you when he looks at you. I wonder what he sees in you. I mean, who can really appreciate such dirty skin?"
Dave removed her mask, though she tried to struggle, and gently rubbed the back of his hand against her cheek. He was wearing a glove, so it wasn’t like he could feel anything anyway, but at least he removed the hair covering her face.
He looked into her dark eyes, at her maple hued cheeks, at her thin lips...
"Then again, I suppose you’re not without your own charm. So then, what is it? Did you get him to fall in love with you or something?"
Even without waiting for her to reply, Dave scoffed, as if he had said the most unrealistic thing ever.
"Well, lover boy can’t save you now. Come on, let’s get going. We need to find a more private place before I can begin my interrogation."
Even through the dizziness that had gripped her, Vanessa gave Dave a hateful glare as he grabbed her arm to pull her away. She tried to struggle, but her control over her body was even worse than her control over her aether.
Dave simply smirked as he lifted her body, yet his pupils suddenly constricted as he sensed danger. He dropped her and leaped away, just in time to avoid the tip of a spear.