Chapter 34 The Nullifier's Wake

Chapter 34 The Nullifier's Wake
The Hall of the Fallen was a stage of paralyzed violence. The air had thickened, turning heavy and humid with the scent of ozone and copper.
On the obsidian floor, the stalemate held. Kael was pinned, his body arched in a jagged bow as Noah pressed his full weight onto the demon’s chest.
Noah’s eyes were entirely white, the pupils and irises vanished behind a milky, sightless film.
 His mouth hung slightly open, a thin string of saliva and dark, bile colored drool tethering his chin to the stone.
He was a vessel, nothing more, his physical form held in a trance like lock by the Vhalir’s corruption.
A few yards away, Chayton gripped the cedar shaft of his bow, his knuckles white. With a guttural, wet grunt, he pulled the obsidian blade from his hip.
Fresh, dark blood bloomed across his tactical shirt, dripping onto the floor with a rhythmic tap-tap-tap. He staggered, his vision blurring, but Enyeto was there, shifting his stance to shield the younger hunter.
Enyeto’s hands were tight, his eyes flicking across the room, tracking the subtle shifts in the hooded figures’ posture. He was coiled, waiting for a single muscle to twitch.
From beneath the elevated platform, a figure emerged. He moved with a glacial, ceremonial solemnity.
His hood was sparsely dotted with black, and the other cultists didn't just step aside, they bowed, their heads touching the stone until he had passed. He was the High Proctor.
In his gloved hand, he carried a reinforced glass box. Inside, a Zhil koro-ni the size of a man’s forearm writhed against the glass, its skin a mottled, shifting violet that pulsed with an ominous, rhythmic light.
The Proctor stopped beside the pinned Kael. He looked up at the Vhalir, bowed low, and murmured, "I shall begin."
Kael’s instincts screamed. He thrashed, his muscles corded and veins bulging against his dark skin as he tried to buck Noah off, but the boy’s grip was absolute, unnatural.
Kael channeled a violent, concentrated surge of zhil vae into his chest, intending to blast Noah away with a kinetic pulse. The energy built, glowing a fierce violet behind his ribs.
BOOM.
The force threw Noah three feet into the air, his body tumbling back across the stone. But before Kael could even suck in a breath of air to recover, a heavy, gloved hand clamped over his jaw from behind. The Proctor’s grip was like iron. With a fluid, uncaring motion, he tipped the glass box.
The parasite slid out, a mass of wet, wriggling violet flesh. It struck Kael’s tongue, sliding down his throat before he could even choke.
Kael slammed back onto the floor. His hands clawed at his neck, nails raking bloody furrows into his own skin.
His body began to spasm, violent, jerky tremors that racked his frame. Dark, charcoal-black veins ignited across his neck, spreading downward across his chest and arms like a wildfire.
Enyeto and Chayton surged forward, teeth bared, but the hooded figures surrounding them moved in perfect unison. They didn't strike; they simply raised their hands, and a crushing, localized gravity slammed into the hunters. It was like being buried under a mountain.
Chayton dropped to his knees, his jaw grinding as he fought to keep his spine from snapping. Enyeto gasped, his knees buckling, his internal mana struggling to resist the immense, suffocating pressure.
Above the floor, Kael’s body began to lift. He hovered, suspended in the air, his limbs thrashing in a rhythmic, agonizing pulse. A loud, bone deep grunt of pain tore from his throat. A sound of pure, primordial suffering.
Noah blinked.
The smell of sterile tunnels and blood vanished, replaced by the scent of lavender and old paper. He was standing in his apartment. Sunlight cut through the blinds in sharp, golden slats, warming the floorboards. The air was cool, still, and quiet.
How? He spun around, his heart hammering against his ribs. I was in the tunnel. I passed out.
A soft tap on his shoulder made him jump. He whirled around, ready to fight, but the breath left his lungs.
Standing before him was himself.
But it wasn't the Noah who had been hunting the Vhalir. This Noah had a military grade buzzcut. A sharp, white scar ran in a straight line from his eyebrow to his cheekbone. He was leaner, jagged, and sporting a thin, small, rough beard that made him look like he’d been dragged through a decade of war.
"You are…?" Noah whispered, his voice trembling.
"You from a few months into the future," the rugged man said, his body language infuriatingly casual as he leaned against the wall. "And you? You're me, from the past."
"Time travel?" Noah gasped, his head spinning. "How is that even possible?"
"Time hopping," the rugged version corrected lazily. "It’s largely unstable. Uncontrollable. Don't worry about the physics, kid."
"I have to get back!" Noah shouted, stepping forward. "We’re in the middle of a fight! Kael, Chayton, Enyeto! They're dying!"
"You're dreaming, Noah," the older version sighed, looking at his fingernails. "You got knocked out after you pinned Kael. If my memory serves, you’ve got about ten seconds before the Vhalir’s pet parasite turns his heart into mush."
"You have to let me out!" Noah roared, lunging for him, but the rugged man just stepped aside with a bored expression.
"Can’t. Not yet. I need to know, did you find the book?"
"What book?"
The rugged Noah sighed, plopping onto the couch as if they had all the time in the world. "The book you used to summon Kael. Where is it?"
"I don't know what you're talking about! Please, wake me up!"
The older Noah looked at him, his face tightening for a split second, a glimpse of hidden, heavy sorrow breaking through the carefree mask. "Something terribly bad is coming. A man… he unleashes horror into the world. Corrupts everything."
"Who?" Noah demanded, his fear spiking. "Who is it?"
"It’s-" The rugged man said a name, but it came out as a static filled, corrupted hiss: "XNFTSL."
"What?"
The older man furrowed his brows in genuine confusion, trying again. The sound was distorted, as if the universe itself was muting him.
He muttered something about time stopping him from messing with the timeline, then stood up, his eyes hardening for the first time.
"You'll find out soon enough. Good luck. Oh, one last thing. Do you know what we are? We are not just human, Noah."
Noah’s eyes snapped open.
He gasped, a dry, ragged sound. He was back on the hall floor. Above him, Kael was suspended in the air, his body twisting in a silent, agonizing dance.
Deep purple zhil vae swirled chaotically around him like a storm, and the black veins pulsed under his skin like living sludge.
Noah didn't think. He didn't plan. He dragged himself across the obsidian stone, his fingernails scraping raw against the floor.
The Vhalir stood, watching the struggle with an amused, hungry smirk. He gestured for the High Proctor to stand back, laughing at the pathetic sight of the boy crawling toward his doom.
Noah reached the center of the hall, directly beneath the floating, spasming demon. He ignored the Vhalir. He reached out a trembling hand.
It wasn't glowing with dark energy. It was glowing with a soft, warm, white light, the light of a pure, absolute negation.
He grabbed Kael’s ankle.
FLASH.
The reaction was instantaneous. As soon as Noah’s skin touched Kael’s, the purple storm of energy was sucked into Noah’s palm.
The air crackled with a sound like shattering glass.
Kael dropped from the sky, hitting the floor with a heavy thud, the black veins on his skin fading to a pale, ghostly grey.
The Vhalir leaped from his throne, his face twisted in a mask of genuine, shocked horror. He pointed a trembling, golden finger at Noah.
"You... you are--"
The voice of the older Noah echoed in his mind, clear and cold:
"You are a nullifier, Noah."
Noah looked up, his eyes finally clearing, and whispered:
"A nullifier."