Authors Corner

Caught up today. Awww yeah.

As usual, thanks for reading!

Chapter 21 – Too much for one, enough for two

Wil

At the sound of the voice I stop my swing and pivot on reflex. Those birds have ingrained the pattern into my mind.

As I whip around, I think it's a good thing that I did.

The other twin is behind me with their blade drawn. It's smart. They'd need to corner me if they wanted a chance to hurt me. I can't believe it worked this well, they would have had me, if not for my Ethul. They've always been fast and stealthy, but this level is frightening.

I keep backing up until both of them are in view.

They've been hunting me. I'm prepared. I'm going to kill them.

They are both watching me with a predatory gaze. No... the subtle differences that make them individuals is gone. The gaze of a single being is upon me, and it is inhuman.

I'm going to kill it.

I rush forward and bring my sword to bear in the hardest overhead chop I can manage. I have the element of surprise, due to my hidden strength, so I'm not going to waste it.

As soon as I had started moving, one of the twins moved in to deflect my sword before it could gain momentum. A look of surprise crossed both the twins' faces as I overpowered the block. Then it was my turn to be surprised as a quick adjustment of the blocking sword deflected all of my momentum into the ground. My sword got stuck there.

Hahaha. Oh well.

I shouldn't have used a sword anyways, I know nothing of swordmanship.

Time to use my fists.

The twins were backing up, however, and they began to speak in sync.

““Wil, hold on.””

Hahaha. As if.

I start approaching them at a careful pace, imagining a re-run of my encounter with the sassy Walruses.

'Pop goes the head. One pop here, one pop there. Pieces everywhere, everywhere.', I hum to myself.

It's a nostalgic song. It was an original Wilson creation.

“”Wait a moment, wait!””

The twins identical expression shows concern now as I don't seem to believe their farce.

Hahah, this will be so much fun! I'll punch the liars to death.

Then they decide to spoil the fun by putting down their weapons.

…

What?

Put down their weapons?

Not going to kill me?

…

I look down at the sword in my hand. Do you want to kill them anyways, Mr. Sword? What? Is that a yes? I think you're right.

…

But as I look up, a part of my desire has left me. Filling the void it created is regret and uncertainty.

…

I can deal with both of those. The danger has passed. I'm myself again.

“Why did you attack me?”

“”You've no idea? As I thought, you're not with the Mages.””

Oh.

“Mages? What do you mean? Why should I wait to kill you? Explain yourselves.” I deflect, knowing full well what they are referring to. Somehow they've mistaken me for a Mage. Did they see my Mirage the other day when we were hunting Albargs?

Blast it.

“”You haven't been sent to kill me?””

“Hunt … you? Aren't you two different people? Why do you keep talking like that?”

“”Were you made by the Mages then? No... but then you would have attacked...”” they say in a creepy tandem rumination.

“Hey!? I'm talking to you two creepy genderless bastards! If you don't talk I'm going to kill both of you. I want answers.”

But as soon as the word genderless left my mouth, the twins snapped out of their thoughts and started making a move to grab their weapons on the ground.

I dig my toes into the ground and launch myself over to where they stand, putting myself between them and their weapons.

“Stop. Answer me.”

“”Ah.. I shouldn't have dropped the weapons.””

I'm getting impatient. I don't care about your blasted circumstances.

I don't care.

Without looking, I drag my foot back low along the ground until I nick one of their weapons with my heel. Following through, I balance the flat of the blade on the nook of my heel, carrying it upwards in a backwards kick, off the ground and in a forward arc through the air where the blade then skims my hair and the handle lands in my deft hands. It all happens in an instant.

How is this even possible? Why did I even do it? I have no idea.

I instinctively tried to reach a weapon without thinking about such things, and somehow I did it. It's a feat that is close to impossible, but in this moment, using the remnants of the vigor that the Ethul gave me, I made it happen.

The effect on their mindset is profound. Both faces of the twins are stupefied. It's not a question of having more strength. It's impossible unless your body and mind has more … everything.

While I'm busy pretending not to be as shocked as they are, they're busy picking their jaws up off the ground.

“”Sorry. I have to say that I'm sorry, Wil. This was certainly unfortunate. It's clear that whatever the source of your strength is, it's not based on my research as I had thought. I'll explain, so don't swing that sword around so much.””

Finally.

“Good. Start with explaining why you are talking like that. I don't need to hear everything in surround sound. Rather, can't you just stop that?”

Oh, a faint whisper of the past worked its way into my speech. The words feel totally wrong though.

“”Sora Sonck? I don't know what that is?”” ... “Ah, sorry Wil, I'll stop.” one of the twins says while the other closes it's eyes and sits down.

Extra creepy.

“It sounds like you might understand this already, but I'm one person in two bodies.”

“You two are connected with some psychic power, right?”

“Psychic? Well in a sense yes, but that's not what I mean. I'm originally the same person, but I am now split between two bodies.”

“What, so like a clone?” Again, a weird noise came out of my mouth. The concept of a clone itself is something that I wasn't even aware of until the word showed up right now. My memory is annoying as always.

“Kuaron? What is that? Ah, sorry I'm getting distracted again... May I ask how you see me right now?”

“Why?” I ask, brandishing the sword in the twins direction.

“Ah it'll make it … easier to explain.”

“Creepy white haired genderless weirdos.” I spit out, without worrying over being nice anymore. They tried to kill me, after all.

“Then you are in fact seeing me as I am, that makes it easier indeed. I was once a man, many many years ago. A man dedicated to research. I wanted to solve the intricacies I found in the world, but I always found more riddles. One of the riddles I sought to solve was that of life itself.”

Wow, okay. So he is super creepy.

“Get to the point.”

“Ah, well. The Mages didn't appreciate me … meddling in matters of the body and soul, because some of my research happened to touch upon the nature of Mana.”

Mana? He knows about mana? This is getting interesting, I smell Ted, version two.

Calm, Wil, calm.

The twin must see my face and my excited twirling of the sword because he expedites his explanation.

“The Mages killed me. Before I died, I managed to split myself between these two bodies that I had been experimenting on. They are superior in most physical ways except they were never meant for the mind of a human. Hence, I am split.”

I think I heard something really dubious right now. Human experimentation? I don't like the sound of that.

And I thought I was the one with issues... maybe I should kill him anyways?

“I'm really am sorry about attacking you right now. I was actually looking for you to see if you were alright.”

Sure you were.

…

“Sure you were. Less excuses, more explaining.”

“I'm certain that the Mages found out about me by now, and when I saw your Ethul the other day at the Inn... I thought you might be one of them, but I wasn't sure. Your Ethul is a strange one, I wasn't even sure it was an Ethul. I'm still not sure, and I have seen far more Ethuls than most.”

Oh. They must have seen the Ethul on the ground that day. I wasn't that discreet in answering my door because I had just woken up. It doesn't matter, it's not my fault. Stop trying to shift the blame!

“Why. Did. You. Attack. Me. Then.” I don't know how I can be any more clear.

“The speed of your body and your physical ability has always made me suspicious of you. Coupled with the Ethul, I thought that the Mages started using my research instead of destroying it. Finally, when I saw you coming towards me with your sword out... I became certain you were sent to kill me. You were oozing malice.”

Okay. It might be partly my fault.

I sigh inside my head. The twins have never caused me harm. No one knows much about them, and there are far stranger people in this world than them, I'm sure. They're people I would have been tentative to call my friends before this...

I lower the sword and point it at the ground. There is no point to kill them over a misunderstanding. The past is already the past. My headaches keep growing, however.

“In that regard, I'm sorry … wait, what do I even call you? Nem or Ilorem?” I reply.

“You can call me Nirolem. Nem is fine though.”

“I see, Nem then. I'm not going to kill you.”

I drop the sword onto the ground. Nem's relief is quite visible.

“Ah, I guess I should thank you? Since you are not going to kill me, could I ask how your body is like that? Is it some sort of experimentation? Is that an Ethul?” his eyes shine as he starts asking me questions brazenly. Not even a moment ago he was nervous that I would kill him, and now he is being pushy again.

The resilience of the people in this world astounds me.

“The answers to most of your questions is that I don't know.” I state with honesty.

“What do you mean? Don't you have any idea?”

“The only answer I have is that it's my fate.” I reply with a smirk and a shrug.

“Fate? What-”

“Shouldn't we be getting back? I'm getting tired.” I brush him off with a lie, tired of this conversation, exhausted from questioning one of my few acquaintances and drained from being lost earlier. I can find out more about this later after I've had time to come to terms with my team leader being a weird hybrid human.

Nem looks at me for a moment in thought.

Come on, Nem. We've been here for a while and it's only getting darker.

“You're” “right.” he says in tandem as his other self gets off the ground.

“Thank you. That is still creepy though.”

He lets out a small laugh and I join him with a small smile.

“I wouldn't mind talking about these details later” “but for now it's time to go kill some Stone Totems...”

“”Wil?””

“Ya?”

“”I'd prefer if we could keep all of this between us.””

“I couldn't agree more.”

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