Chapter 1165: Falling Short Inside this den of madness, those with weapons used them, but mostly it was down to their fists, nails, teeth... no thoughts were placed in their defense, as the lucky ones were pushed from the top of the mountain, and as they fell they screamed not out of fear but hatred as they foamed at the mouth and chomped at the air, up till the moment they splattered into wet pieces at the ground miles below. The sounds of millions of people tearing themselves apart were a hellish symphony that could drive anyone to madness. As the world around him ended, the king could only watch in horror and mostly profound sadness, so much so that it was enough to break him out of the cycle of hatred, because he recognized his hands in all of this, and he knew that horror that this event would unlock in the future, he was watching the beginning of the end. The King suddenly feeling the weight of the world pressing down on his shoulders, fell to his knees, his crown rolling away from his head, and lost under the heaps of bodies that were previously his guards, as efficient killers, even in madness they had dealt with themselves swiftly. Overwhelmed by everything he cried out, "What have you done?... Shisu, you fool, what have you done?!!" Drawn by his voice, from behind the king, his wife fell upon him, using her teeth and nails to savage him like a wild animal, but the king was muscular and she had a small stature, and even on his knees, she could barely tear through his flesh, however in her madness, she did not stop, only becoming more wild, and before long she was covered with his blood and chunks of his flesh. The King did not fight back, his eyes fixed on his kingdom which was beginning to turn red as everything became covered with broken bodies, even the animals were not spared this carnage. Blood flowed like an ocean, and the mad cries of millions of people tearing themselves apart reached the heavens, making it quiver. Even Shisu himself, the architect of this madness, shuddered when he saw the enormity of the slaughter he had caused. He had imagined this scene countless times in the past, how it would sound, how it could feel, even how the very air he would be breathing would taste. Everything was done with an obsessive mind for detail, and still, it all fell short. Nothing came close. No sane mind could ever truly know how such a thing would happen in precise detail, even his immortal mind fell short. There came a brief moment in his heart when he felt a bit of disquietness when he doubted this path he was about to set upon, but it soon quickly passed, and a crazed laughter took its place, as he was the only one who could see the grand design behind the madness. He turned to the sound of weak moaning and groans behind him and he saw the king on his knees, bloody tears pouring down his eyes as he weakly groaned while he was being savaged by his wife, yet he was praying to their ancestors, begging them for forgiveness, knowing that he had a great part in this ongoing horror. The eyes of the king were glazed as if he were deep into his memory. When his son came to him with a mad plan to destroy the Calamity once and for all and showed him that he had a viable plan, he had been beside himself with joy, wishing to become the king that rid the world of this blight, he could hardly imagine the glory that would fall in his shoulders for all eternity. The news that to prime this weapon involves the sacrifice of people, which were to be used as incubators was shocking but he felt thousands of soldiers died every month to barely protect his people, it would be a small price to pay for victory. Ignoring the fact that Shisu had not made this a requirement when he had first proposed the weapon. The King wanted his glory so badly he had chosen to ignore this discrepancy. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞 He allowed himself to be convinced by this lie, he hid from the truth when the news about the scale of murder reached unprecedented heights. He hid behind vast stretches of land inaccessible for thousands of years, finally free of Calamity. He hid behind glory and disregarded the mighty rot growing in the center of his kingdom. He hid behind the endless cheers of his subject and ignored the growing protests in certain corners of the kingdom about their missing sons and daughters. He hid... His head fell loosely to the side, his wife having chewed through much of the connective tissue binding his head to his body, leaving his spine and airway free from massive trauma at the moment, despite his horrifying wounds his eyes could not leave his kingdom, as he watched the responsibility given to him by all the generation of kings that was being swept away in a single hour. Shisu was watching his father being eaten alive and this drew a louder laughter from his mouth, it was this sound that drew the king away from his stupor and he began to speak, but he was already so weak only Shisu's enhanced senses could decipher his words, "This would have been your inheritance by the time I relinquished the throne to you. The truth about history. Heat it now before I fade. Our world is held in place by the grace of the Undying, who holds all the light of Ascendancy in his heart, but it is said that he has grown weary of his tasks. No longer wishing to fight for us, everything he does is to break the hold of the light over him, and breaking our mountain is the first step. Listen to me Shisu, whatever he promised you, he is..." His statement could not finish before his head was roughly torn from his body by the teeth of his wife, who soon collapsed on top of him, dead, finally revealing that someone had shoved his entire arm into her back, and had somehow left the limb that had been cut off at the elbow, hanging on her body. The massive ship above suddenly released a loud sound, like a fog horn, and its shape began to transform, taking the form of a gigantic spear... Rowan recognized this weapon, it was the one that killed him, but something was strange about it, and he quickly realized that this weapon was simply a reflection of the real deal. He had seen the Third Prince perform similar feats where he took the reflection of powerful Primordial weapons and used them in combat. His senses swept through the transformed weapon for the Undying but he could not find him, but instinct drew him to look at Shisu and The finally saw his target. Shisu was still, he seemed to be mulling the final words of his father, as a look of confusion flashed through his eyes. From behind him a large fluffy green tail emerged, and several more followed. The tails seemed small at first, but as they spread like a massive flower in bloom, they dwarfed the body of Shisu, making him appear like an ant before them. Berrion the Undying was here, and he had arrived underneath Rowan's senses.