Book 8 Chapter 22

Joan groaned when her eyes opened. Where was she?

Wait, no, she knew where she was. The Realm of Dreams. Ow. Her entire body ached. Worse, things felt weird. Normally when she came here she could access all of that power. Now, however, she just felt…

She couldn’t describe it. It was like she was here and wasn’t here at the same time. She really hoped that spell actually worked correctly. In retrospect, maybe trusting a random lich’s spell to function entirely the way she wanted was a little too much, even for her. But the fate’s directed her here, so that had to make it fine.

Unless she’d grabbed the wrong spell and only gotten both of them messed up in some other way.

Joan shook her head and took another slow, deep breath. She was here, now. There was nothing else she could do but keep going. She’d been in the Realm of Dreams enough times to know she was at least there. So that was successful.

But her body was, too. SHE was here. Physically here. That was what was weird. She’d always come here with Korgron, brought over in mind only. This? This was physical. Weird. Had Korgron ever done this? Had Korgron ever tried?

She’d really need to talk with her later about it, maybe exchange notes. It did fall under her domain.

But then again, if Korgron knew exactly what she was trying here, she might have tried to stop her. No, definitely would have. But they’d already done the hard part, this was her task. They’d saved the world, brought everything to this point. She just had to finish what they started.

Which meant first she needed to find Arta so she could separate the two. She wondered what the Demon Lord would be like without the Hungry One inside him. Oh, he was going to be so grateful. So--

Oh. Oh no.

Joan was suddenly incredibly aware that it was so, so much darker than it should have been. As if there was a great shadow over her. The biggest issue with that was that there was no sun above to be blocked out. Slowly she looked up, readying herself for whatever awaited her.

The Threads of Fate, or at least that was how it looked like to her at first. However, the threads seemed dark, sickly, tainted. As if they were made of some strange poison, rather than the lives of those woven from them.

On the threads, however, she saw him. Arta. Not the Demon Lord. Arta. He didn’t look at all like she recognized him, but she knew it was him. Bound in the web, trapped. Helpless. Not moving. He was--

Joan went still and tried to calm herself. Dream Realm. Even if she was here physically, it was still a strange place. She needed to be calm and careful. Otherwise she risked causing a disaster for herself. First she had to get onto that web witho--

And now Joan was on the web. Not falling onto it. Just on it. Worse, the world was upside down, or rather she was. She lifted a hand to her mouth and tried to calm her stomach down. She hated when dreams did that, but at least there it made sense. Kind of. She was still physically here, feeling her real body go through that didn’t feel...

Actually, it didn’t feel that bad. While there had been a few moments of nausea and confusion, now that she focused on it, it didn’t feel so bad. She wondered if it only made her feel ill because she expected it to make her feel ill. Was that what all of this was? Some kind of strange mixing of reality? Great, she could barely figure out how things worked when they made sense, how was she supposed to figure them out now?

Right, nothing in her life made sense. Maybe she should just accept that. Maybe--

Or maybe she should focus on the task at hand before the Hungry One showed up. Arta was here, these corrupted threads of fate were here. So where was the Hungry One? Were they these threads? No, they didn’t feel hostile. She was tempted to touch one, to see what she’d learn, but she doubted it would do much.

“It wouldn’t.”

Even if she was able to see things, it would probably hurt anyway. She needed to focus on freeing the soul of the Champion, before…

Before…

“I notice that you’re here?”

Joan turned around, drawing her sword. But there was nothing there. She turned back around to see Arta before she slowly started walking along the tainted webs towards him. Where was it?

“So this was your last gambit? Truly they were desperate to allow such a thing.”

Where was it? It was--

Pain erupted from Joan’s chest and, slowly, she looked down. A claw protruded from it, piercing her through the back. The claw pulled back a moment later and she crumbled, dropping onto the threads. Her sword fell from her fingers and she stared, helpless, up at the god.

She’d seen it before. So long, long ago.

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The Hungry One. Or, as she had seen it listed, the Corrupter of the Weavers. The Fallen Fate. With the lower body of a spider, the upper body like a human.

“Hardly,” the Hungry One said, flicking the blood off its front leg. “You didn’t really think I wouldn’t notice you, did you? That I wouldn’t suddenly see I had a form?”

Joan tried to speak, but all she could do was gurgle blood. She was dying. She tried to climb back to her feet, to move, but her body refused to move.

How?

The Hungry One was supposed to be dying. They’d all but killed it. They’d freed so many. She’d seen the wounds. She’d seen the broken, shattered body. Yet it looked fine. No wounds, no damage, it didn’t even look tired. It looked…

“Like you failed? Like, in the end, everything you did was for naught? It is, it was and it will be,” the Hungry One said before lifting a leg up and then driving it down.

Joan tried, desperately, to crawl away. But she couldn’t.

She died.

Joan laid there, the tears going down her cheeks. She couldn’t die. She COULDN’T! It couldn’t all just be for nothing. She dug her hands into the ground, wishing so desperately there was something she could do. There had to be something.

“There’s nothing. You failed from the beginning, from the moment you tried to oppose a god,” the Hungry One said. “Your thread is gone, your time is over.”

Joan whimpered and closed her eyes. She’d tried so hard. She’d given everything. They’d all given so, so much. What happened when she was reborn this time? Would she remember who she was? Would she realize what she had to do? Would she--

The Hungry One was supposed to be wounded and dying. Just like she was.

Wait.

Why wasn’t she dead? She’d been torn to pieces. It hurt so much, but she wasn’t dead. No. It felt as if it was hurting less. Why wasn’t she--

“DIE!” the Hungry One yelled before the claw came down on her head, crushing it.

It hurt. But she was alive.

Joan just groaned, giving a soft whimper. How was she still alive? She died. She knew she had. She’d died so many times before, she knew she died when it happened. Yet she wasn’t. She was still, somehow, hanging on. How? It didn’t make any sense. She couldn’t still be alive.

Except they were in the Dream Realm.

Of course. It--

Pain shot through her for a few moments before it ended, making her cry out again.

Realm of Dreams. That was why the Hungry One didn’t look wounded. Why it looked fine. It wasn’t fine, it was just how it tried to show itself. Some kind of terrible nightmare. “I… I know your secret,” Joan said softly. “You’re not… you’re not really… like this… you’re hiding…”

She heard a soft, annoyed sigh. She looked up and saw the front leg come down again, cutting her in half.

“S-stop it,” Joan said softly.

“Just die already!” the Hungry One yelled, its voice agitated and furious now. She was tossed up into the air and torn to pieces.

“I-I can’t yet,” Joan said before she tried to crawl to her feet. She let out another scream when she was enveloped in lightning, incinerated a moment later. “I… I won’t.”

“Give up,” the Hungry One said before, slowly, a leg picked her up off the ground. “Surrender.”

Joan slowly raised her head to look the monster god in the eye. “Let… him… go.”

The Hungry One lifted its hands, before stopping. “Very well. Then will you take his place?”

Joan blinked and stared up at the fallen fate’s face. It couldn’t mean that. Could it really be that simple? Surrender to the Hungry One and then everything was better? She’d be gone, but Arta would be saved. They’d managed to break the spell over the world, so that was one piece done. The Chosen had managed to destroy the Inferno God, so her first duty was done. All she had to do was take Arta’s place and--

“No,” Joan said softly.

“Oh?” The spider legs began to squeeze and she could feel bones snapping, but she’d felt worse. Besides, she’d already died a few times since arriving here, what were a few more? “Then perish.”

“N-no,” Joan said, far firmer this time. “I… will… s-stop you.”

“An impossible fantasy,” the Hungry One said before crushing her completely.

“I’ve already done one impossible thing today,” Joan said before she was picked up again, only to be impaled and shredded to pieces. “T-the Inferno God w-was stopped. I’ll d-defeat you. N-nobody else i-is going to suffer. I-I won’t… I won’t let you w-win.” She felt herself be crushed a moment later and she laid there, giving a soft whimper.

Everything hurt. She couldn’t even move anymore. But she couldn’t give up, either. She had to do this. Everyone was depending on her. No matter how many times she was torn apart, crushed, impaled, shredded, anything.

She wasn’t going to give up.

Eventually, she didn’t know how many more times she died, she was lifted up into the air and looked into the eyes of the Hungry One. “Surrender. Die. You cannot defeat me. You are a mere mortal. A pathetic, insignificant little thread.”

“I-I don’t… c-care,” Joan said weakly before giving another whimper when one of her ribs cracked. “I’ve died more t-times than I can count. I’ll die a million more times if that’s what it takes. I’ll defeat you. Everything I’ve been through h-has been to bring me to this point.”

“Oh? How?” the Hungry One asked.

“I’ll f-figure it out,” Joan said before, once again, she was crushed.

Joan laid there, panting with exertion. There had to be a way. Some method. Something she could do. She didn’t come this far just to fail now, had she?

No. She refused. She didn’t come all this way just to give in now.

Everyone was getting their happy ending this time. And she would be a part of it.