Chapter 921: Chapter 922: Break The Rules His body felt heavy. His tongue had started to regenerate, but when he felt it inside his mouth, something was wrong. This was not how a tongue was supposed to feel. Damon stuck his tongue out of his mouth in hopes of getting a good look at it, or whatever was left of it. He expected to see blood and regenerating flesh. What he saw was both astounding and terrifying. His tongue was longer. No, not just longer. It was really long. Long enough that it extended slightly farther than a dog’s tongue. When he gazed down, Damon suppressed the raw urge to scream at what he saw. His tongue, or what should have been a tongue, was now a pale white maggot like thing with a human face and a mouth like a beast filled with serrated teeth. It had its own smaller tongue writhing inside, and small beady dots in place of eyes. Damon could feel it. His nerves still controlled it. This was without a doubt his tongue. Then his tongue moved with a disgusting crunch. It spoke in a voice he hated. Smooth. Calm. The voice of Damon Grey himself. The creatures that mimicked human voices were the worst of the worst. He truly hated them and their mind games. "You’re still alive... that’s too bad. Here I thought you wanted to die. Can’t believe you let a measly little curse stop you." Damon did not say anything. He ignored it completely and turned to Seras. Her own tongue had grown one of its own, but hers was different. It was made of blood and leaked small flickers of fire as it writhed in the air. He wrinkled his nose at the rotten stench coming from his own mouth. ’Does that mean each person’s tongue manifests differently..’ "Ha ha ha how smart..." the rotten tongue laughed, the vile stench growing stronger as it lifted itself closer to his face. "Smell it yes smell it this is the vile stench of your mouth.." The tongue rose higher, almost brushing his nose. "A mouth of a liar and a deceiver... this is the mouth of someone who hurts and—" Damon sliced off the disgusting tongue with one clean swipe of his blade. It fell to the ground, twitching. This was not something new, and he was not interested in hearing a lecture from his own tongue. He forced his head down and stepped forward, crushing shrubs beneath his boots. The greenery around them was enormous, making the whole place feel like a labyrinth of plants. Worse, they could not look up. With each step they took, the entity in the trees called out to them, urging them to look up. Damon was unsure how to react or how to retaliate. Seras was enduring it, just like everyone else, but enduring was not solving anything. He glanced at her. She only shook her head slightly, telling him not to engage. Damon gritted his teeth and continued walking, his face cold with suppressed rage. They continued walking until sunset. When the sun was gone, the tree line glowed faintly. From that dim glow, Damon could make out the vague shapes of something in the trees. Something that did not seem human. Something that did not make sense. The more Damon stared at its vague silhouette, the more its shape began to feel real. The more real it felt, the more curious he became about its nature. The more he tried to piece together what it was. As he did, his eyes slowly began to glaze over. Thin white lines formed around his dark irises. More white lines began to appear. Damon’s soul slowly weakened. His face paled. He slowly began to hear the voice of his mother beckoning him home for dinner. It was warm. Soft. Gentle. It gave him the feeling of her warm embrace as she held him close, her body soft and comforting, a reminder that he was loved and wanted. His eyes slowly began to whiten further. The shape in the trees cemented more clearly as it whispered. "Look up." Damon slowly raised his head toward the faint light above. Just as his gaze was about to meet whatever was there, his shadow shook violently and rose, spreading upward to blanket his face. His face paled as realization struck him. He quickly forced his head down, breaking the line of sight. He turned around and saw that a few members of the expedition force were missing. They were gone. Just like that. Damon did not know when in their journey they had disappeared. Only that they had. A cold dread washed over him, making his thoughts sharper as fear tightened around his chest. Lana stopped walking, her face pale when she saw Damon’s expression. She slowly turned her head and realized one of the knights was gone. She remembered he was from the Sunflower Division, a unit different from the one she was part of. They had known each other for quite a while, having served under the same battalion. Now he was gone. Her mouth was bound with ropes, but even then she let out a muffled gasp of despair. Her reaction alerted everyone. A fog of fear spread through the expedition force. They shifted into a defensive formation as the creature picked them off one by one. And as if to add insult to injury, pouring salt into their wounds— Blood fell from the canopy. Along with it came organs. Severed limbs. And then a piece of human skin fell onto Lana’s head, sliding down into her hair and making it sticky. When she reached up and pulled it down, she saw it was a hand. There was a small silver wedding ring on it. She recognized that ring. It belonged to him. He would brag about how he had three children and a beautiful wife waiting for him at home. During the Demon Wars, his greatest fear was dying without leaving them anything behind. He hated the thought of not being able to see them again. Even though he hid it well. Now he was gone. Taken by the canopy. She heard mocking laughter in his voice. "Adelaide is the prettiest girl in my town... I was so lucky to have married her... in fact I beat up every man who tried to woo her until I was the only one left... her hair... you should hear about her hair and her eyes..." Lana trembled. That was his voice. Laughing. Bragging. Yet now the Listening Canopy was mocking them, repeating words he had said many times. She used to hate how he could not stop bragging. But she liked how happy he sounded when he talked about his family. Lana kept walking even as more blood rained down on them. The sounds of human bones being crushed and mangled by something massive echoed through the air. In the tree line, the faint glowing light cast deep shadows across the ground. Its vague shape held another person in its hands. It squeezed. The body popped like a melon. Blood poured down. The sickening stench of fear and human waste mixed with the metallic scent of blood. Lana wanted to turn around. She wanted to run. She was scared. She was really scared. She was so scared she could not even remember to be angry. This was different from fighting demons. At least demons were something her mind could understand and comprehend. This was not. She could not even look at it. She could not even see it. "I want to go home... I’m scared..." Her eyes widened. Her own voice echoed from the trees. Her eyes watered as dread crushed her chest. Her legs buckled and knocked against each other. "I want to run... where should I run... I’m scared... I don’t want to die..." Her voice echoed again. But it was not only hers. The voices of the knights. The entire expedition force. "If I die who will take care of my aging mother..." "I’m going to die like this here in this forest without any honor without any glory..." "A nobody that’s all I am that’s all I will ever be no one will remember the name Silas Arcborn because I don’t matter my father was right I am nothing my ideals are nothing even if I save a thousand people I will never amount to anything..." The voices continued. Until she heard Damon’s voice from the canopy. "So what if I die... it doesn’t even matter the most significant thing in life is death... even so... whoever wants to kill me should prepare to join me in hell." Lana paused. That was the only voice that stood out to her. Of all the voices projecting subconscious fear and desperate wishes to survive, he alone did not care. It was as if hearing that depressing and arrogant voice was a beacon in this illuminated hell. She was entranced. She wanted to look up and see what expression he was making when he said that. But Damon Grey was not up there. He was in front of her. His face was cold. Controlled. Then at last the voice she had been dreading was heard. The voice of Seras. It was calm. Dull. "Its all the same it doesn’t change... the war never ends the battlefield just changes from one cloud of dust to another sea of blood is there a purpose to this war why am I fighting for something so tedious so hideous... death why do you accompany war...and leave me in solitude." Damon moved toward her and grabbed her shoulder firmly. He shook his head once. Then he reached into his coat and downed a potion. His tongue regenerated properly this time. Raw flesh knitting together. He inhaled once. "Lets kill this son of a bitch.." he spoke with his own voice, deliberately breaking the rules of the Listening Canopy.