Chapter 263: Book 2 Chapter 170 - Redemption or Revenge

Zoe’s fingers twitched in the air. Stacks of rage erupted in her lungs, smoke and fire billowing to fill the hollow in her heart. She could devour the universe and it wouldn’t be enough, but maybe Ben would be.

Maybe this revenge, this small, insignificant revenge could fill She looked down at Ben, cut in half but still smirking, as though everything was ok. He always smiled like that no matter what she confronted him with. Nothing ever felt real when she looked into those eyes. Had everything been ok? The things he said, she didn’t remember it being like that at all. She wasn’t controlling, she just wanted to trust him, and when he started acting suspicious. He wasn’t innocent, but was she also responsible for the wedge between them?

Her hand wavered.

“I know that look,” Ben said with a smile. “That’s the Zoe I remember, why don’t we —”

“Shut up!”

Zoe’s Mirrored fingers clawed down and struck Ben’s face. She gouged into his flesh like it was paper and tore ragged strips through his malleable bones. He sputtered once as rich red blood flowed, but her hands continued down as she tore his body to pieces. She wasn’t thinking, she was mauling like an animal. Ben thrashed, but Anton held him back with a savage grin.

The flesh on her ex-boyfriend writhed and restitched itself. A new face developed with a sound like knitting maggots. He raised a reforming eyebrow.

“Want to know why I could always outlast you? Because I was always —.”

She punched him in the face and his head exploded. Liquified brains and fragmented skull painted the labyrinth walls. Her friends blinked away the gore and spat out pieces. Ben’s body shuddered, the ragged stump of his neck boiled, and a new head emerged.

“Right…” he blinked damp eyes. “Your powers are disgustingly crude. What even are they?”

Zoe raised her fist.

“The ones I needed to survive. What are you, some kind of Vitality freak?”

“I’m a doctor.”

“So am I.”

“Hardly, you’re —”

She punched him again and vaporized his head and collarbones. It took a few minutes for him to reform. His arms grew back and Anton pinned them down. The head grew back slower.

“How many times do you want to do this, boss?”

“I’m trying to end it,” she said with a huff.

“Ok.”

Bella waved a hand across her face and the gore wiped away. She did the same for Skidmark, before walking over to assist Anton and Zoe. Ben’s head had regrown about halfway. Damp slime coated his face. His eyes remained closed, and there was a waxiness to his features.

“I could try with my sword?”

“I could zap him,” Skidmark offered. “Shortcircuit his healing.”

“I want to be the one to do this,” Zoe replied.

Lush golden hair grew like flowers from Ben’s bald head as it expanded to full size. He opened his eyes and smiled at Zoe.

“Nothing but a brute. You always were a bit of a mad dog, weren’t you? That’s what attracted me to you in the first place. You might be riddled with abandonment issues, but at least you had teeth.”

Bella’s sword came down and sliced through Ben’s head. He blinked, and then his halves split apart like a banana peel. A thin black line hung down Ben’s vertical axis. The portal flickered out.

“Nice sword,” Trinch said with an approving nod. “Oriz taught you that move?”

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“Yeah.”

Bella stepped away from Ben’s corpse. She shot Zoe an apologetic glance.

“Sorry, it was just too vile. I know you said you’d handle it —”

“It’s alright,” Zoe sighed.

“It’s fine,” Skidmark said. “He’s bubbling back together again. You can still kill him, Zoe.”

Ben’s head peeled back together. His lips fused while the halves slapped like fishtails.

“You’ll never kill me,” he said through strained teeth. “I know you. I know what you’re capable of.”

“You know nothing,” Zoe said as she ripped off his jaw.

Blood flowed and splashed onto the ground. Ben slumped to the side as his body twitched with pain. His gurgling grew quiet, but never entirely stopped.

A rhythm grew. With Ben recovering, and Zoe ripping him apart. She started out destroying his head entirely, then in pieces, then ripping out his organs one by one. Nothing seemed to stick, but she didn’t stop trying. Bella and Skidmark hung against the wall, staying clear of Zoe’s intent, and trading stories with Trinch. The three of them kept glancing back at Zoe’s methodical butchering. They were losing time, but the thought of the race to the core, of anything beyond this crossroads room was lost against the scene of repetitive murder.

Anton sent his eyes down the tunnels. The silver orbs scouted as he sat close to Zoe with his legs crossed. He seemed to take great delight in pointing out new methods for Zoe to try, as though Ben wronged him just as personally.

Zoe looped, Mirrored hands dripping gore, never the same, never different, and always the flesh bubbled back together. She thought Moth might argue with her, or the Black Star would say something, but nobody stopped her.

“He’s the reason I was on the plane,” she said as she squeezed his heart to jelly for the seventh time. His body convulsed but kept breathing. “I had a crazy idea to follow him to Australia and… I don’t know. I think I wanted to kill him.”

“That’s insane,” Skidmark said.

“He stole some money from me, but more than that it was the trust. He made me trust him, love him, and then he just…”

“Wow. I haven’t thought about monet in a while,” Skidmark said.

“Me neither,” Anton said.

“Shut up you two,” Bella said. She bit her lower jaw with indecision before she strode over to Zoe. “I’m sorry he hurt you, but you should end this.”

“I want to say something,” Zoe said.

“What?”

“I don’t know. Something witty or cutting, something to make him realize how much he screwed up, how this is all his fault and I’m being merciful by only doing this much. I need him to know this is his fault!”

Bella wrapped her arms around Zoe. She didn’t say anything, just gripped her. Zoe remained apart, stiff, as she wiped at her eyes.

“I don’t want a hug.”

Skidmark crept up from behind and embraced the two of them.

“Sorry, Zoe, hugs are all we have.”

Anton patted Zoe on the shoulder.

“That’s not entirely true, boss, we also have murderous revenge.”

Zoe rested her head against Bella and sighed. Her body loosened, as she let her friends take her weight.

“Thanks,” she said.

“You lot are ridiculous,” Trinch said.

His foot rested atop Ben, who had crawled toward one of the open passageways. Ben flailed and scratched at Trinch’s leg, but his fingers only pulled away furry scraps of skin. Trinch’s peeling technique turned Ben’s very own survival strategy against him.

“We’re on the same side,” Ben hissed. “Let’s work together.”

“You took her power willingly?” Trinch curled his lips in disgust. “Despicable.”

“Anton!” Bella said. “You let him get away.”

“We were having a moment,” Anton said as one of his silver eyes floated into the room. “Besides, I’d find him.”

Zoe walked over to Ben and crouched in front of him.

“Anything to say?” she asked him.

“I forgive you, Zoe,” he said. “I know you’re mad, but you’ve forgotten how good we were together. Don’t you remember? Nobody loves you like I —”

Zoe pressed a finger against his forehead.

“Boop.”

[Mind’s Eye Incision]

The psychic blades flowed from her body with more ease than she ever felt before. Line after line of thin lines unspooled. She shuddered with joy at the technique, as though some burdensome training weight could finally be discarded, and she leaned into her power. Faith burned behind her eyes and the white light pulsed from within Ben’s boyd. A thousand white lines flashed in a perfect grid. The light faded and a faint sigh escaped Ben’s perfect lips before he collapsed into small cubes of meat.

Zoe stood as a puddle of blood seeped from the pile. She stepped away to keep her feet dry.

“I’m done here,” she said. “Thank you for indulging me.”

Trinch plucked a cube of meat from the pile. Skin, fat, muscles, and a sliver of vertebrae sat snug in geometric perfection.

“Were you holding back when you fought me?” he asked.

Zoe shrugged.

“I didn’t feel like it.”

“So were you holding back?”

She raised an eyebrow.

“Does it matter?”

“I think it’s pretty disrespectful is all,” Trinch murmured. “No offense meant.”

“None taken.”

Trinch looked away from her as the labyrinth shuddered again. The walls fairly hummed.

“We should keep moving,” Zoe said. “If all of you came down these tunnels then does that mean they’re all dead ends?”

Anton pointed at the tunnel on the left.

“I came from there.”

“So did I,” Skidmark added. “It’s a dead end.”

“I came from the tunnel on the right,” Bella said. “And you two came from that direction, so…

They headed down the central passageway. The carvings grew wider, looping scawls with faces, flowering lines of geometric intimacy. Negative space bloomed, air wrapped in wire rather than a solid structure.

Zoe wrapped them in her Willpower and flew down the tunnel. She had no desire to match the labyrinth trick for trick. If brute force didn’t work, she would simply use more.