Chapter 3201 For the Jugular (Part 1)

Even after decades, Derek still hated Ezio like the first day.

"I have no father! I raised myself without any help from a pathetic excuse of a-" The second pang brought to his mind a scene in front of a fireplace where a young boy wrote with his stubby finger on a tray full of ashes.

From there his mind went to the Hogum Mansion, where Raaz's mutilated body lay down on a table akin to Carl in the morgue. Derek remembered the fear of losing that unknown man and the following struggle to save his life.

"Raaz!" Derek grunted, shaking his head to clear his mind.

"I'm Rena. Your big sister." Rena stepped forward. "I took care of you until you were four and then you took care of me. You've done so much for me that I've named my firstborn, Leria, after you.

"You've saved the life of my baby, Falco. Do you remember them?" She pulled out a Rememberer and projected the images of her children laughing with their uncle.

"I'm Tista, your other big sister!" She cried, punching the golden sphere to get in. "I wouldn't even be here without you. You cured me from the Strangler!"

A third pang brought back memories of the time spent with Rena, then with the children at the Hot Pot, and with Tista while alleviating her symptoms.

Derek sprawled on the floor, incapable of resisting the flood of images coursing through his brain and the pain they caused him.

"Let him breathe. Take a step back and give him a second." Quylla said, but no one listened to her, and she had to pull everyone by force with Bloodbind.

As soon as the Void stopped panting but before he could recover from the shock, Quylla and Friya approached him.

"Hi, Lith. Do you remember us?" Friya asked.

"How could I not? You are the bastards who put me in here!" He snarled, clawing at the construct while breathing a burst of blue flames.

"Damn, they got him really pissed." Baba Yaga grumbled as she increased the mana output to keep the prison from being breached.

"Correct, but we also have been your friends since the academy. Do you remember that?" Quylla swallowed hard. Back then it was always you..."

She had a hologram of a young Lith appear by her side.

"Me, Friya..." Two holograms of their younger selves overlapped with the two

women.

"Yurial, and... Phloria." The holograms of their late friends completed the group. "No, I don't." Derek recognized the young Friya from his training session during the tutorial but he was sure to have never met the others.

"What about now?" Quylla clenched her teeth, bringing the figures of the holograms up to date.

Quylla's and Friya's holograms just disappeared while Lith's turned into an adult. Phloria grew up too whereas Yurial remained the same. Now, however, he and Phloria stood over their respective graves.

When Lith didn't react even to that, Quylla opened a hole in Phloria's chest and projected dripping blood on Derek's right arm. The Void Demon Dragon screeched in horror as the memory of Phloria's death returned.

He clutched his chest in pain, looking at his right arm as if it had betrayed him. "And I'm Kamila, but you always call me Kami. I'm your wife." She knelt in front of the sphere to be at Derek's eye level and put her hand where his was. "Kami?" There were just too much memories associated with her, turning the pain into agony and then into indifference as he discarded them all in outrage. "You did this to me! I remember your face. You are the Kami I was supposed to find. If you really are my friend, my wife..." Derek spat the words out like rotten food tainting his tongue. "Then here I am. Do your thing. Save me or whatever." "I can't do it, only you can." Kamila shook her head. "First, you must regain control of your body and shut down the blue flames. Then-"

"Don't you think I've tried, you stupid bitch?" He punched at the construct, making the room tremble. "I don't need you to state the obvious. If I could do that, I wouldn't have been cooking myself like a prime rib!"

"Don't talk to Kami like that, young man!" Elina stepped forward. "I've raised you better than this."

"You didn't raise me at all." Derek laughed in her face. "From what I remember, you let me starve. You made me suffer from cold. You neglected me for your stupid farm. What kind of mother does that?

"It's no surprise that Poopie turned out like that if you 'loved' him as much as you loved me."

Elina broke down crying, her greatest shame and regret thrown in her face by one of her own children. Raaz wanted to scold Lith but from the Dragon's cruel gaze Raaz could tell Derek had something for him as well.

Raaz ignored his son and took care of the sobbing mess his wife had become. "Lith, we are your family. How can you say that to Mom?" Rena said. "What kind of family locks family behind bars and let them burn?" He replied. "You talk about your sob stories while I'm here, suffering. How do I know this isn't just a ruse? That you're not planting these images in my mind? "Show me some sincerity and set me free. Tell me what you have to in my face instead of from outside my cage!"

"It's not working" Quylla and Baba Yaga said in unison. "Lith has lost his memory but his paranoia is alive and kicking. Unless we gain his trust, he won't do anything we say and won't believe his own memories."

"It's hardly paranoia when a bunch of strangers lock you up and let you burn while they take their sweet time preparing whatever this is." Derek scoffed. "Do you think I'm stupid? I've recognized the pattern of your attack.

"You left me literally simmer in here and then brough these people to gang up on me. I don't know how you get inside my mind, but it's my mind. I won't let

you control me."

"This is our last chance." Baba Yaga used a tendril of Spirit Magic to prepare Kamila and then Warped Elysia in her mother's arms.

"Mama!" The baby girl said with a joy that lasted only until she saw the tears streaking down Kamila's cheeks. "Mama?"

Elysia looked around, noticing her grandmother curled up on the floor, crying. The atmosphere in the room was the gloomiest she had ever seen. Her confusion grew even bigger as she looked at the figure trapped in the sphere of

light.

He was familiar but also scary. The trapped man had a cold gaze and a cruel smile that made Elysia seek the protection of her mother's embrace.

"Lith, this is your daughter. Elysia." Kamila swallowed at every word to keep her

voice steady, praying to the gods for mercy. "Say hello to your dad, sweetie,

he's back."

"Dya?" Elysia turned from Kamila to Derek in confusion.

"That's Elysia?" The The Void Demon Dragon scoffed. "Okay, Larry. I've got two

out of three. What's next?"

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