Blessed by Night

96  This Is Hell!!!

Morgan led Malachi and Bianca to the innermost part of his island. Once there, the trio found a massive clearing that spanned the length of a few miles, making Bianca and Malachi wonder just how large this place was. And just how much Morgan had paid for it.

Once the two trainees were safely on the ground, Morgan finally began explaining the reason for choosing such a remote location.

 "Sorry about bringing the two of you so far out, but I didn't want to worry the girls with the sound of your screaming."

For some reason, Bianca and Malachi could not bring themselves to accept his words as a mere jest.

"Alright young lady, I'll start with you." Morgan suddenly held up a single finger that burned with a bright red flame. Just by looking at it, Biana could tell that the quality and strength of this flame was leagues above her own. She could practice everyday for hours for the rest of her life and she still would not be able to measure up.

'This is the power of a primordial... unreal.'

"I'm going to give you a small bit of my own flame, and you'll need to refine it and make it yours. It will hurt, so are you prepared?"

Bianca glanced at Malachi one last time before nodding her head in agreement. "I am, let's do it."

"I applaud your bravery, young one. Here it comes."

Morgan flicked the small wisp of flame towards Bianca's forehead and traveled inside.

As soon as it entered her, an unbearable heat spread throughout her entire body, threatening to burn her alive.

"I-It's hot!! I don't think I can- Aaaggghhhhh!!"

"Bianca!"

Malachi reached out to take Bianca's hand, but he was stopped by the warning voice of Morgan. Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"Malachi. If you try to help her now, you will only be hurting her. I know that you two care for each other, but you must let her overcome this trial on her own."

Regrettably, Mal clutched his fists as he tried not to let the sound of Bianca's screaming shatter his resolve. 'You can do it, B... but I am going to kick your ass for making me worry afterwards.'

Malachi finally forced his feet away from Bianca, and came to stand opposite his idol. "Do you know the most dangerous part of being blessed by a primordial god, boy?" Morgan casually unbuttoned the top few buttons of his shirt, revealing a bit more of his tattooed chest. "It is ourselves. Despite the fact that our bodies have been upgraded, sometimes they still cannot handle our abilities, which is a given since we are far from gods."

Malachi hadn't realized that, but he quickly pieced together that maybe he just hadn't been pushing his powers hard enough.

"So how do we fix that?" He asked. Morgan smirked as he found it amusing that Malachi was so concerned about Bianca when the first part of his training would undoubtedly be worse. "I am going to break your body completely. Liquify every muscle, crush every bone, rupture every vein. Only by doing this will you not be at such a risk when you push your powers past their limit."

Through continuous healing and destruction of Mal's body, he would become stronger, faster, tougher, and most importantly his body would not explode when he used his powers beyond their limits.

Mal finally understood why Morgan had offered him so many warnings beforehand.

This 'training' was practically torture, and it wouldn't be strange for any number of people to want to back out.

But in all actuality, Malachi was actually quite lucky. If he had destroyed his body through use of his powers like Alex and Morgan had, this process would have been dreadfully slower. "I'll be avoiding your heart and brain so as not to kill you, but everything else is fair game, even your junk. Luna will no doubt thank me later."

Malachi smiled wryly as if he took his idol's words as a joke. "Are you trying to make me rela-"

Boom!

Morgan appeared in front of Mal faster than his eyes could follow, and he used both of his hands to chop Malachi on both sides of his neck, crushing muscles, vertebrae, and windpipe alike.

 Mal's mouth filled with blood as his eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. Since his throat had been crushed, he couldn't even let out a noise to scream and instead all that followed was a choking gurgle. "Try to breathe, my friend. If you don't, you'll die and Luna will have my head."

With blinding speed that was unlike anything Mal had ever seen, Morgan continued his assault on Mal's body, striking and destroying all of his upper body except his heart and his brain. The man blessed by Surtr was terribly efficient in his combat, and he was fast enough that Malachi didn't even have time to fall to his knees. When gravity finally started pulling him down to the earth, Morgan kneed him hard in the jaw and sent him back up into the air.

"M-Mal- Aaaaggghhhh!!!" Bianca was concerned about Malachi just as he was about her, and the sight of him being brutalized before her very eyes was almost too much to bear. But the moment she lost focus, the heat within her body worsened and she felt like she was going to burn to cinders. 'No... I have to focus... He's doing his best to grow so I can't stay the same either!'

Closing her eyes, she fell to her knees and tried her best to concentrate, and act as if she was oblivious to the terrible pain.

Her body was dripping with sweat as she tried to take the powerful flames that were foretold to end the world, and use them to enhance the power of her own. It was radical and dangerous, but Bianca knew that it was far from impossible. She just had to want it bad enough.

With Malachi's body soaring into the air, Morgan reached out and grabbed him by the ankle, before whirling his body around and slamming him hard into the ground. A myriad of cracking sounds were heard as Malachi's spine was shattered on impact, while his leg was broken from Morgan's otherworldly grip. 'I truly hope that you forgive me for this, Malachi. I know this is far from pleasant, but it is still far better than the alternative.... Hm?'

All of a sudden, Morgan's sense of danger went haywire. Ever since he'd had these powers, he had never felt this terrified of anything. All he could feel was an overwhelming amount of maliciousness emanating from Malachi's broken body.

Suddenly, the mark on Mal's forehead changed from white to a purely black color, and a horrifying creature leapt out of it.

"Screeee!!!"

"What?!"

Shear used her bladed appendages to swipe at Morgan blindly and without end, and even someone who was as frighteningly fast as he was had to admit that this creature was extremely quick. 'This is his contracted beast?? I hadn't heard any reports of it hatching! And what the hell is this thing anyway!?!' Shear was already scary enough in daylight, but the scene of her coming after Morgan on a moonlit night like this one was terrifying enough to make him want to piss himself.

Given that he was sure that this was Malachi's creature, Morgan figured it was best if he did not hurt it too much. But still... the creature did not seem to have any qualms about hurting him.

'Shear, c'mere.' Just as Morgan's tattoos began to glow with a fiery red color, the beast suddenly ceased all movement and looked towards the area where Mal's body lay. Morgan nearly shit his pants as he watched the creature warp away from him and appear directly by it's master's side. While Mal could teleport, he could only do so through the use of darkness as something like a doorway. But whatever Mal's contracted beast was... it did not seem to have any such restriction. Morgan wasn't sure if it's range was short distance or not, but it didn't really matter. The fact that the creature could appear anywhere within a millisecond had terrible implications for a full scale battle. 'Seriously... just what else can that thing do...What the hell...?' Morgan looked down at his chest and saw that he'd suffered a very shallow cut across his torso. It was bleeding lightly and it was nowhere near fatal, but still...

His body wasn't healing the damage like it should have been.

When Shear appeared beside her master, she let out some kind of monstrous whimper at the sight of his body's horrible condition. She was still just a baby so she couldn't speak yet, but she understood that this man's life was tied to hers and it distressed her to see him in such condition. Since talking was impossible for Mal at the moment, he relied on his mind to communicate with the monstrous creature. 'I can feel how upset you are, you know? But there's no need for that. That man is helping me get better so that we can go against our real enemy.' '...ene...my...?'

'Aww, your first word. Wish I had my phone to record.' Mal joked.

'...'

'A-Anyway, yea an enemy. It is someone like that man from earlier who was trying to hurt my girlfriend Anna. Remember? You let her pet you?'

Shear didn't have many memories so it was easy to recall the event Mal spoke of.

'Morgan is helping me so that I have the strength to make sure nothing like that ever happens again, or at least that he can't get away with it. You have to let him do this, alright?' The creature fell silent for a moment as if it was weighing the risks and rewards of obeying such an order.

Eventually, Shear floated off to the side and curled up on the ground, signaling that she would allow this to happen but she wasn't leaving any time soon. Morgan's head was on a continuous swivel between the broken man lying on the ground and it's strange monster sitting a few feet away. He finally noticed movement from Malachi's fingers that were curled up into a beckoning gesture, asking him to continue. 'By the gods... what a crazy kid.'

I like writing these stories and all but bro I miss being able to READ I used to be able to spend all day reading novels and now it seems like I never have the time or energy anymore. It’s somewhat heartbreaking AnathaShesha