Blessed by Night

Chapter 212: Blood, Water, N'Kai

Mal found his way out onto the dark mountain peak that made up his home and slowly worked his way towards the 'guest' that was already waiting for him.

Just like before, the nightmare was in the form of a young boy with deep black skin and unsettling red eyes.

He wore a kid's 'Paw Patrol' t-shirt with matching blue shorts and dirty tennis shoes that lit up whenever he took a step.

He would have looked unbearably cute if he were not the most frightening thing that Malachi had ever seen in his entire life.

"...You fear me." The child noticed.

"Kinda hard not to."

The child seemed to take some offense to Mal's words, as his brow crinkled in frustration.

Mal's entire life briefly flashed before his eyes and he realized that he probably shouldn't shit talk the one being on his earth capable of killing him.

"...Sorry."

The child seemed to relax if only just a little, and it's face quickly returned to normal.

"I wish to understand your origins and how exactly something like you came to be. It took me several hours to pinpoint your precise location through your lingering psychic waves. Why can I not recognize you?"

"Jeez, right to the hard questions, huh?" Malachi said as sweat formed along his brow.

"I was not aware that they were difficult... And you are unusually expressive for a N'Kai."

"Is that what we are called?"

"You... truly have no knowledge of us? Of all that we are?"

"...No." Mal admitted honestly.

The alien boy gave Mal a sort of 'wtf' look before immediately deciding that he would not allow him to put off the explanation any longer.

"Start talking. Now."

With no other option, Mal divulged the story of how he became the living nightmare that he was today.

Starting with how he and Cami were accidentally bonded when she was still a full nightmare and the relationship the two of them formed as a result.

The child listened to everything without saying a word, although he did place his hand to his chin and mutter some things to himself.

Malachi's story ended with the telling of how he absorbed Shear's corpse to memorialize her, but ended up integrating her instead and keeping her soul housed within his body.

Upon realizing that she was living inside of him, the two came to a meaningful understanding and Shear left his body for good, only to be reborn as his daughter who was part human, vampire, and n'kai.

When it was all over, Malachi was staring at the child with somewhat of an expectant look.

If he was honest, he was sure that the creature was going to attack him for being an abomination.

And he had already made certain contingencies incase that were to happen.

"Miraculous… So you are a new bloodline then? How very unique indeed…"

"…Is that…all you have to say?"

"You were expecting more?"

"Little bit, yea."

"I told you that there would be no violence. Why would you think I would harm you?"

"I'm… a little different from you."

Again, the child nodded with a thoughtful expression that was well beyond his years.

"This is true, but no matter how you came to be, you are now N'Kai. N'Kai is blood. N'Kai do not harm other N'Kai."

Malachi figured that he must have looked like one of those really old cartoon characters with the way that his jaw nearly fell off his face.

No fighting, no struggle, no running, there was nothing.

All that he had to do was tell the scary little boy his life story and he was given a lifetime pass to keep his neck.

It was so difficult to believe that he felt like his brain needed to be rebooted.

"Do you have any questions for me?"

Malachi stared at the child, a bit less afraid of him now than he was before.

He sat down on a nearby rock overlooking the waterfall that ran down his home as he tried to think about the overwhelming sea of information he wanted to know.

Eventually, he settled on the most basic question.

"What is your name?"

"...You may call me Tsath."

"Alright, Tsath... What are we?"

"We are N'Kai. Our purpose is to expand across various dimensions and worlds and make others N'Kai."

"...And why do we do that?"

"Left to their own devices, other beings are destructive. Greedy. They abhor all that is different from them, so we strip them of all that they are and make them N'Kai."

Tsath went on to explain that there are two different types of N'Kai.

Lowbreeds and Highbreeds.

While it may sound super elitist and stuck up, the truth is it was less divisive than one would have thought.

Highbreed N'Kai are those who are born with their own ego and personalities (although they admittedly are not that much different from one another).

They have a short list of abilities, but shared among them is the ability to parasite beings and make their own personal hive mind of creatures, effectively turning them into lowbreed N'Kai.

Mal asked if they could choose how much of a creature's ego they could leave intact within them, and he responded by saying, 'Yes, but why would you want to?'

It seemed like a question of genuine curiosity that Mal couldn't really hope to answer right now, so he just elected to keep going with his questions for the sake of time.

In addition, Mal learned that the strength of a highbreed N'Kai is proportional to the amount of beings it has parasited.

"And, just for clarification.. How many beings are within your hive mind at the moment?" Malachi asked suspiciously.

"Exactly 62 Trillion. Approximately four world's worth."

"Jesus fucking christ..."

Now, Mal understood why he was so afraid of Tsath before.

He couldn't catch up to his strength in thousands of lifetimes, even if he tried.

"This is all... so damn craz-"

"Ah, they're coming."

Tsath suddenly looked up into the sky from the north and a barely noticeable light of excitement shone within his eyes.

Suddenly, Mal heard multiple sonic boons coming from the distance and four figures like comets started to close in on their location.

"Who is coming exactly...?"

"The other high breeds on this world. They wanted to meet you and they bring gifts."

"...Gifts...?"

"Ah, well we had no knowledge of your birth beforehand, so now we celebrate the arrival of another new lineage into the legion of lightless day."

Mal stuck his fingers in both ears to ensure that they were properly cleaned before he rephrased his question to ensure that he hadn't misheard something.

"Are you... throwing me a birthday party?"

"I suppose you may say that, yes."