“____” speaking

‘____’ thoughts

*____* telepathy

translated from Eldritch

---------------------

A few days had passed since Maka and I had created our link; it was purple and teal in case you’re curious. Having a link that someone else had access to was strange since it was different from what I was accustomed to. The slight pull of wherever Maka was located directionally was both annoying and a tad distracting at first but I got over it. Interestingly enough, we were able to talk through the link with just thoughts, a more advanced form of Ormonde and I swapping what we felt and emotions.

Our conversation about the link had been tense for lack of a better word. Maka was in a position where she wanted to create the link for Ormonde’s safety but at the same time a slight underlying and unconscious repulsion was present. I wanted to make it for similar but more selfish reasons yet was resistant because of fear. It was something I had finally come to terms with. Maka scared me as did my lack of know how when it came to dealing with her and what she knew. Yet despite all of that I trusted her, even if it was only a tiny bit.

I needed help and the encounter with the Eldritch dog had proven it. My strength alone was not enough at the moment and I was going to have to rely on someone else until I was stronger. What really threw me off though was when Maka explained a little about Seelenehe to me after I asked her about the exchange of feelings. It was an uncomfortable conversation to say the least and to say I was horrified to learn what I had actually done would be an understatement. The shared emotions were only the beginning and it seemed I had inadvertently opened a flood gate that was now impossible to shut.

Ormonde was, at some time in the future, going to have access to my memories whether I liked it or not; my greatest fear was now just waiting to occur. This meant I was going to have to make him resistant to Eldritch influence a.k.a. Edin and the power of the Eldritch language. Of course doing this meant two things; I needed the approval of all parties involved and I also needed to use some of my Eldritch power since words spoken in Eldritch do nothing unless spoken by an Eldritch. All of this meant I needed to talk with Ormonde’s parents and also finally deal with Akhan.

I didn’t remember what Ormonde’s parents looked like since I had only seen them briefly when I first woke up to find myself in this situation five years ago. So it was much to my displeasure that I ended up in my current situation, waiting with Maka in the kitchen so we could talk with them.

“How much longer till they get here? It’s not like they can get lost in their own house.”

I hopped up onto the counter and lay back, tracing the cracks in the ceiling with my eyes to try and stay sane.

“It’s early in the morning; they’re just moving slowly so try and be patient. Please?”

“Ugh. Fine, but if they’re not here in the next ten minutes I’m leaving.”

The murmur of distant voices became slowly noticeable around the time I had finished tracing the ceiling for a third time.

“Sounds like they’re here.”

“Finally!”

I sat up and watched the door intently.

A woman was the first to enter but she wasn’t focused on what was inside the kitchen and instead was looking behind her. She was average in both build and height and had hair the same color as Ormonde’s in a neat bun. There was little doubt as to the fact that she was Ormonde’s mother; the family resemblance was there in both the way her face was shaped and the general air she carried herself with. While she physically wasn’t interesting I had yet to talk with her and currently my attention was instead focused on the one who followed slowly behind her.

The man who followed her was barely taller and mirrored his wire frame glasses, a stick with almost nothing on his bones. Fingertips blackened from ink reached up to take the glasses off his face brushing aside some of the dirty blond hair on his head as the other hand closed the book it was holding with a resolute clap. He moved forward, each step planned and deliberate with no excess movement visible, and scanned the room with experienced brown eyes that stood as a stark contrast to his sun deprived skin. The calculated nature of everything he did was unsettling.

“Right. So what were we doing here again?”

He turned to look at Ormonde’s mother completely oblivious to everything around him.

“Sir, we’re here to talk to Ormonde’s spirit.”

A voice came from nowhere as Tanzi walked through the wall.

“I apologized for being late. I had some last minute things to attend to.”

“It’s fine Tanzi. We didn’t wait for too long.”

‘If almost thirty minutes of waiting isn’t too long I don’t know what is.’

I huffed at Maka’s response before speaking.

“Can we get on with this already?”

The wireframe man looked at me, a smile appeared on his face.

“You must be Ormonde’s spirit. To be honest I was expecting one that looked much older than you. I’m curious as to the comatose state you’ve been in as well.”

“Honey, you’re being rude. Introduce yourself first before you go off on tangents.”

“Right sorry. My name is Cecil and this is my wife, Twila.”

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. Though I wish my husband had let me name myself instead of doing it for me.”

I was about to speak but Maka beat me to the punch.

“We can skip the pleasantries for now and move on to the actual reason for being here. We need to finish before Ormonde wakes up.” * Vio, how much do you want to tell them and how much do you want me to tell?*

*As little as possible. I don’t really trust them and I’m sure Tanzi knows some of this already.*

*He knows very little as I kept my word and said nothing about what we talked about.*

*Alright. I’ll tell them what I can comfortably but I’ll need you to back me up when I can’t continue.*

*I can do that. Just let me know when you need me to jump in.*

I took a breath and began.

“I’m Vio your son’s spirit as you already know. Since he was born I’ve saved his life twice and nearly died both times. It took me four years to recover from the first time and, before you ask, I’m not going to tell you what I did or how I did it. The second time was when fighting an Eldritch and I don’t know how long I was out for.”

I looked over to Maka for the answer; I hadn’t asked at the time since I hadn’t cared.

“You were out for four days and I was healing you for the first three days nonstop.”

“Thanks.” I returned my attention to the now astute individuals who were staring at me. “I’ve been teaching Ormonde different things, Maka has helped with this, and after this last incident I want to make him resistant to Eldritch influence. How I’ll do this I’ll keep to myself but, aside from the occasional nightmare, because I’m doing it there will be no other side effects. I want your permission to do this and I will be asking Ormonde if he is okay with it as well. Any questions?”

Both of them just stared at me blinking before Cecil spoke at an almost unintelligible speed.

“Tell me if I’m wrong here but you want to expose Ormonde to Eldritch influences and think that the relatively small introduction you gave was going to be sufficient to convince us? Before you try and offer a rebuttal let me tell you what I’ve figured out about you and you can verify anything you wish to. In order to even handle Edin you need to be corrupted or an Eldritch.”

“Or a very strong spirit.” Tanzi interjected.

“That’s true too. However, you Miss Vio are not a strong spirit, that is easy to see from the size of your links, nor are you corrupted; Maka would have gotten rid of you by now if that was the case. This means you have to be Eldritch to some degree; again, Maka hasn’t killed you so it must be within her range of tolerability, and your red eyes prove this. You’re not fully Eldritch then so you must be part Eldritch and in order for that to be the case you’ve either made a deal with them or you were around Eldritch energies for too long. If the first case holds true you are not to be trusted but in the case that it is the second possibility then there is a chance we can work something out. So before I continue, tell me, which of those two cases holds true?”

He stopped and I continued to stare wide eyed with confusion finally voicing the thought running through my head since he started.

“What?”

Maka was holding her face in her hands and shaking slightly while emitting what sounded like little huffs and snorts.

‘Is she trying not to laugh? I don’t see why that would have been funny.’

Maka calmed herself and everything seemed to be returning to normal until she fell victim to a full bout of laughter after seeing my face contorted in confusion. Tanzi just sighed and began to re-explain what Cecil had said in simpler terms. Once I understood what I had been asked I was able to think of a way to respond to it.

“I guess the overexposure situation fits the best.”

Cecil nodded in approval.

“In that case I have one final question for you.”

“Only one?”

“Correct. I’ve pieced together most of the other bits of information I would need by watching how you act. The question is fairly important though, what do you get out of this?”

“It’s not that I get something out of it; I get to keep something instead if I do this.”

“Vague at best but it will do if my thoughts are correct. Maka we need to talk later so you can verify if my suspicions are correct and no Vio it won’t break the agreement she made with you.”

“How do you know about that?”

A weary smile adorned Cecil’s face as he leaned in closer to me causing me to tilt myself backwards to keep my personal space.

“When you’ve known someone long enough, changes in their behavior, no matter how subtle, are easy to pick up on.”

He straightened himself and turned to leave the room opening the book he had brought with him in the process.

“As long as Twila is fine with letting you go ahead with it I have no problems. Tanzi can you join me for a moment, I have some questions regarding the most recent changes you suggested to the thesis I wrote.”

“Is it really okay for him to be that nonchalant about this?”

My question was directed at Twila, she was still watching the door with a wry smile on her face.

“It may seem like he made a quick decision, but that’s not really what happened. I’m sure you know about our family’s unique ability since that’s what brought you here. Unlike my husband, I only have a basic contract with Maka. She’s not bound to anything nor obligated to do anything she doesn’t want to but I get access to Arcane and in exchange we provide her a place to safely stay. Tanzi is actually bound to Cecil in the same way Ormonde was bound to you.”

She turned to face me, her smile growing even larger.

“And being bound has some interesting perks from what I’ve read and been told. Can you guess what one of them is?”

“I have no clue so you might as well just say it.”

“Cecil can see souls and links just like a spirit. Does that answer your question about his carefree nature regarding this?”

“So he knows about . . .?“

The question died in my throat as an affirming hum came from Twila followed by a soft chuckle.

“I must say that from what I’ve seen of you, you’re harmless unless provoked and from what Cecil has told me I know you won’t be doing anything to Ormonde that would hurt him intentionally. So you have my okay to go ahead and do what you want. However. . . ”

Twila, like her husband, leaned in uncomfortably close, her green eyes boring into my eyes before whispering in my ear.

“If something does happen to take my baby away from me, I can tell you that there is nowhere you could hide to escape my wrath.”

She drew back with the same serene smile on her face that she had had earlier; I shuddered unconsciously from the unchanging mask she was able to keep.

“I’m off so you two have fun here.”

Twila left the room while humming, leaving me in silence aside from Maka’s stifled giggles.

“Do I want to know why you’re laughing?”

Maka took a deep breath before speaking.

“Nope. Anyways, what’s next on your to-do list?”

“I’ve got to win against Akhan.”

“And you don’t think you can?”

I stared at the ground while contemplating my chances of victory.

“Want to talk about something else?”

“Please?”

We moved on to other things and I fell into the normal rhythm that we had built over the course of our time knowing each other. Everything was fine until Maka started to hum. I knew the tune; it used to be my favorite.

“Maka? Can you not hum that song please?”

“Why?”

Maka turned to look at me and was able to easily see that I was uncomfortable in a very familiar way that she had seen before.

“Got it. I’ll sing something else if that’s alright?”

“Yeah. Just not that one.”

Maka started humming a different song, one that I didn’t recognize thankfully, and I was able to move again, my body returning to my control instead of being paralyzed and in pain. The tingling on my back and stomach had made themselves painfully apparent in the interim before I was able to speak enough to get Maka to stop.

“When I do fight Akhan I’ll send you a message through our link. If I never send you another but you see me again, kill me. It won’t be me anymore.”

It was the best time to get it out of the way and I ignored the stare that Maka gave me for bridging such a sensitive topic despite the situation that had just passed.

“Okay. And I’ve said it before; if you ever need to talk, about anything, I’m here.”

“Thank you.”

Our conversation ended there and we continued to work until breakfast was done. I retreated to my pond and waited for Ormonde so I could tell him that I would need at least two weeks without him visiting to take care of things. He didn’t need to know what it was that I was doing though.

It was a quick conversation that I held at the end of our fun. Ormonde didn’t really understand but I wasn’t going to try and explain in detail; it wasn’t information he needed to know.

Content with everything I had prepared, I sent Maka a message via our link before I sat down against a tree and relaxed. It was finally time to face Akhan again. Sitting for what seemed like an eternity, my surroundings slowly faded. The first things to go were sounds, leaving me in a quiet void that would send even that sanest person to an asylum. Smells and taste followed very quickly, my only way to know I was still alive was the feel of the environment and what I could see. More time passed as my body became numb and unfeeling until I was unable to tell if anything was touching me, almost as if I didn’t have a body at all.

Then my sight started to go, the ground faded into a white plane that stretched on for as far as the eye could see with only plants and animals giving it any distinction from the Highway. Once the ground and sky was gone the things furthest from me started to blur and fade like someone was erasing them out of existence by smudging them until nothing was left. The whiteness closed in and became suffocating, everything was gone except for my thoughts and I didn’t ever want to be left alone with them if I had the choice.

White in turn faded into black and every sense I lost began to return in the order they dispersed. I could hear the crackle of fire and the drip of water echoing in a cave, the smell of burning wood and blood, the taste of myself, the blood, the fear, the salt from tear and phlegm, the rot. When my physical senses returned it was nothing but pain. It was always pain. There was never the warmth of the fires that I would see before me or the wet chill of the water I would wake up in. My soul remembered every injury I had experienced and it refused to let me forget a single one of them. Maybe that was just me deep down being unable to let go, to accept, but it didn’t matter since I could never, would never, shoulder that burden.

Three different fires began to take shape when my vision returned. In front of me was Mark’s, the dull blood red casting an unholy light around it. The smell of blood would become more and more pronounced if one were to get closer to it as would the desire to taste and revel in blood. Mark was the most blatant about his desires, his wants, and what he would and could do to fulfill them.

To the right of Mark was Akhan; the same sickly yellow that could turn a man’s stomach with only a glance. There was no light from Akhan’s soul, just the smell of rot, the feel of nausea and the fetid water beneath it that was littered with torn papers covered in an unreadable scrawl. He wanted knowledge and he made it so apparent that it had begun to affect me. There was a hidden agenda though, and it made me afraid of him.

The remaining soul was to the left of Mark’s. I had never seen this one awake but I knew what she did and what she looked like. No light, no emotion, no anything came off her flame; she was just there. I had told Maka I’d won against Akhan twice, a lie that also containing part of a truth and helped to get her to the next question. It was the inhabitant of the blue flame that had done the work. She had won against Akhan; merely looked at him and he submitted. I knew nothing about her. No name, no motive, no voice, no ideas or opinions. It drove me mad not knowing and that was without the influence of Akhan. She was able to crush Akhan like a bug yet never tried to get control; why? I asked this question so many times regarding so many things and never a single answer was given.

I had no self, no representation, in this place since it was inside me. No fire to emanate light or heat, or lack there of, or to easily display my desires or animalistic needs. What there was, however, was a mirror. It was always behind me when I came here and, after the first time I looked into it and stared into the cracked and worn glass encased in faded metal, it had nearly broke the remnants of my mind. I had yet to gaze into it again. The mirror showed me as I was, separate antagonistic parts forced to be whole, and I didn’t want that. I wanted to forget the damage, the pain, the hate and fear, but the mirror was like an inescapable well of truth; it would never forget and in turn wouldn’t let me forget either.

With my vision finally back I looked into the abysmal area around me. Each member of my soul had a slightly raised path covered with a mix of wet, mossy, and fuliginous gravel that sloped down into dark near black water leading to each other and the mirror behind me. I would need to go to Akhan’s soul and enter it to fight him. My steps were heavy with hesitation; should I try and bring some of Mark’s power or her power with me? In the past the connections I made to borrow outside strength had been cut off after materializing before Akhan. He had absolute control over everything that tried to enter his soul; we all did.

The crunch of gravel shifting underneath me became louder with each step accompanied by the continued crackle of fire, the sordid dripping of water, and the sharp yet shallow sound of nerves and fear. When amplified by the tension hanging in my gut, the noises seemed to signal a death march. Standing before the yellow flame that signal ruin for everything around it, I raised my hand, pressing it against the flame to gain entry.

At first there was resistance, a force that pushed back just as hard as I tried to enter, but then it gave way and I was all but sucked into the flame. My vision swum as I was flipped and twirled in various ways before being spat out into a pool of water that very quickly became murky and fetid from my Eldritch form. The ground underneath me was a white chalky rock that refused to let any liquids through it leaving different sections stained in various colors, mainly of the red variety.

“Agdaio avetoing ohoey sou.”

The words hit me like a hammer to the gut and the contents of my recently made stomach joined the pool I was in; my mind had yet to adjust to the forced change it had gone through. Once my brain had rewired itself and I could see straight again, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand before brushing away one of the four liquid tentacles that had come closer to my face in a extremely tentative manner.

“”

I was still staring at the ground; the dizziness had yet to leave and I couldn’t be sure I would be able to avoid another bout of vomiting from nausea. Akhan spoke again and the effect was less pronounced this time inducing only a small gag since my brain was able to translate the words for the most part.

‘This stupid tentacle is still hovering around my face.’

“ ota nth beto sheft ”

I didn’t reply and instead stood up and stared at Akhan. He was large to say the least, easily the size of a small mountain. His head, or face really, looked like a book that could close on the elongated and jointed neck that connected it to his body. There was no mouth, nose, or ears on his face, just eyes. Hundreds of thousands of eyes that would stare into nothingness until something got close.

From the neck sprouted the remnants of Akhan’s head, a brain that took up a third of his remaining girth. It was covered in overly pronounced veins and tumors that bubbled like magma, sometimes spraying out small fountains of blood whenever a tumor would pop. An exposed spinal cord lay on his back, a layer of thick vine like nerves twisted their way across and around it. The spine didn’t end where it should have; instead it continued and formed what would have been a tail if there were anything but nerves holding the pieces of bone together.

Everything else about Akhan resembled a starved human until you got to his hands. At the end of each finger, thousands of smaller arms branched out from it and the process continued until the hands reached the size of a human’s. This is where Akhan’s mouths were, on the human sized hands. They had no symmetry and each mouth opened in a random direction revealing small nub like teeth and an overly long tongue. His hands had three uses; holding the books that he read almost non-stop, interacting with things to eat them, and seeing. He could move the eyes from his face to his hands to see, a necessity because Akhan was near sighted.

Those hands had grabbed me once, the first time that I had entered by myself, and they went everywhere. It was thoroughly revolting and violating.

“”

“”

“”

“”

One of the tumors on his head grew and fell off. It hit the ground with a splat and nearly flattened before slowly pulling itself into the shape of a small brain. Six legs punched their way out of it and an eye pushed itself out of the space between the two halves. The brain spider began to walk towards one of the thousands of bookshelves that dotted the area, climbing up it and pulling a book from the shelf before returning to it’s creator.

Upon reaching Akhan’s hand, the book was taken and the brain spider was hidden behind hands for a moment before the separated, now dyed a light red that salivating tongues were cleaning. An eye on one of the hands noticed me.

“”

“”

“”

“”

“”

I brushed away another of my tentacles from my face, they had come closer after my angry outburst.

“”

“”

A thunderous clap resounded as every book Akhan was holding shut simultaneously followed by a unison thud as they were put onto an empty bookshelf that had formed in front of where Akhan sat. Creaks and pops of disused joints being forced into action filled the air as Akhan began to stand while shrinking to a size closer to my own.

Anything that Akhan had in excess was reduced to what would now fit on his shrunken body leaving him with two normal hands, normal for him, and three eyes on each side of his face. While he shrunk, a suffocating amount of Edin filled the area making me choke on nothing as my body struggled to adapt fast enough to match the increasing density. The tentacles on my back had been whipped into a frenzy trying to attack something they couldn’t touch and had subsequently scarred the ground around me with a mix of shallow and deep gashes. He had never release Edin to this extent.

“”

“”

Akhan shook his head in resignation and started to walk closer. His exposed brain began to bubble once more; another brain of similar size fell to the ground and started squirming before turning into a brain spider. Once the first was finished, Akhan’s brain bubbled again and the process repeated; he would have a small army by the time he crossed the thirty odd feet between us.

I was still having trouble breathing but I could stand and move freely, a good enough start in comparison to the last encounter. The time I needed to adapt was getting smaller each time we fought, given a few thousand fights I may not even feel like I weighed several times as much or was moving through tar.

“”

“”

I barked out my reply and it in turn was answered by the chittering of a few dozen brain spiders answering my challenge to them.

“”

---------------------------------------------------

The brain spiders charged, I was still on my knees and unable to do anything as the swarm reached me. These tentacles around me are flailing wildly in order to keep them off, always using swiping motions to knock back as many as possible.

I’m attacked in waves and the tentacles can’t hold back every single brain spider. A few have made it through and are crawling on me while chittering. The smashed brain spiders have slowly turned the tentacles red and the area around me is being stained with each thrash, my own blood joins the creation process as the first of many stabs comes.

After a relapse of such similar pain I fall, unable to hold myself under my own control any longer as the spasms start to kick in. When I awake to the world I find myself pinned to the ground like a bug would be pinned in a collector’s box; Akhan, the name sets funny on my tongue, is reading in the same place he started at. I’ve lost.

---------------------------------------------------

The brain spiders charged. I was doing better than last time despite still being on my knees. The swarm still hadn’t reached me but I was able to move my arms this time. Like last time, the tentacles are flailing wildly in order to keep the brain spiders off of me. They’re an ugly reminder of what’s been done to me but there’s nothing I can do to change that.

Wave after wave of the brain spiders are battered away and the tentacles have turned red in a quarter of the time. Once again the tentacles can’t hold back every single brain spider and three of them have made it through, but this time I can fight back.

My hand goes through the first brain spider’s eye with ease, but it doesn’t come out. The flesh has attached itself to me somehow and I’m down an arm. The second brain spider goes down in a similar manner but the third is free to stab me whenever it wants. Without missing a beat, the stabbing beings only to be followed by another relapse of spasms.

When I wake up this time only the tentacles are pinned to the ground; Akhan is reading in the same place he started not even paying attention to me. I’ve lost for a second time.

---------------------------------------------------

We talked little this time before fighting; I’ve learned why he has the books now. He’s an Eldritch that seeks knowledge but can’t remember anything. Life really isn’t fair to anyone I guess.

Akhan starts off the same way as our first two encounters and the brain spiders charge into the fray while Akhan just watches. I’m on my legs since I had more time to get used to being in Akhan’s soul, but moving is hard especially with the tentacles on my back shifting my center of gravity constantly. The eyes were a trap and this time I would be going for blunt trauma damage like the tentacles used. It’s ironic really, the tentacles are a reminder of what I lost two years ago and I hate them for it but they're useful.

The swarm reached me and the tentacles began turning red almost immediately. I waited until a brain spider made it past the whips of death that were cloaking me and tried smacking it out into the area that would carve it into chunks. While the brain spider didn’t stick to me its blood did. It was thick and pulpy and hardened faster than I could remove it.

For every brain spider that was killed another took its place and the number around me only grew. After so many waves the tentacles, now solid red, had slowed down. I hadn’t thought that they would get tired, but their strength seemed to reflect my own and I was exhausted from swinging around the build up of congealed blood that covered both of my arms like casts.

I collapse this time on my own when everything caught up to me, the brain spiders are still in a ring around me and I see them walk away back to Akhan as sleep takes me.

I’m still tired and sore when I wake up and nothing is pinned down this time. I don’t move from the slimy puddle I’m in. Akhan is once again in the same place he started, reading his damn books as if nothing else in the world exists. This third defeat is the start of a bad trend. I also realized I’ve understood him as he talked in Eldritch and that I too was speaking it. I don’t remember learning Eldritch; I’ll have to ask Akhan about it next time.

---------------------------------------------------

We talked more and Akhan tried to sway me away from fighting him by saying something about needing to accept thing as they were. It’s as if he dislikes having to hurt me. I know what works against him now and I know I have a time limit.

Akhan’s first move is always the same; the brain spiders charge. I’m on my legs and moving but I’m sure I could go faster through solid ground at this point. The tentacles are no longer a problem since I’ve gotten used to the shifting weight. At some point I started calling them a part of me and mine, even if it took me almost seven years to get to that far.

I reach the swarm before they would normally reach me and blood once again stains the whitewash world Akhan inhabited. There is no waiting this time and the brain spider’s attack with more fervor than every other time combine. Akhan’s holding back, he has been every time.

The tentacles lose their strength much faster this time as the blood they absorb is hardening and weighing them down. I don’t kill any brain spiders that make it through though. Instead I break their legs so they can’t pursue me as I advance closer to Akhan.

Non-stop fighting has gotten me close enough that I can almost attack Akhan directly. The brain spiders are being issued commands and are no longer attacking randomly like before.

The fight gets harder and harder with Akhan participating and I find myself being stabbed again and almost falling into a relapse. The second stab seals the deal and I’m down, twitching uncontrollably as the spasms take control. I thought I had gotten better.

Akhan’s world has no sky to it now that I’ve looked; it’s just pure white everywhere. My tentacles are puddled around me, a layer of filth that can never be removed float through and on top of them. I don’t have to lift my head to know that Akhan is back reading in the same place he was before. One more loss and it’s finally over.

---------------------------------------------------

Akhan charged.

He had broken the mold, what was different this time? The air grew even thicker as he got closer and he stopped directly in front of me, my tentacles bouncing off him harmlessly despite their effort.

“”

His hand blurred and seconds later I was a few thousand feet from him with a broken neck and jaw and a very swollen cheek. The Edin in my body was doing everything it could in order to heal me as fast as possible.

‘The bastard backhanded me!’

I wasn’t going to be able to move until my neck fixed itself so the only clue I had to what was happening around me was the skitter of brain spiders. While I wasn’t aware of any attackers my tentacles were and they began to move and impact things once the noise of the brain spiders became too close.

Akhan was coming. I didn’t need to be able to see to tell, the density of Edin in the air did that for me. One minute was all I needed in order to move again without crippling myself, but I didn’t have a minute.

“”

Fingers wrapped themselves around my head, saliva dampened my hair and ran down my neck while I was jerkily lifted up to look Akhan in the eyes. My neck popped back into place as it finished healing as fast as possible in an attempt to keep me alive.

“”

Akhan punched me in the stomach; the blow would have sent me flying back even further but I was being held in place so it resulted in a hole the size of my head being created instead. I was brought in closer as his arm bent only to be thrown away like I was garbage. The brain spiders closed in on me pinning both my limbs and my tentacles down.

The whitewash world was silent until the footsteps of a gargantuan creature shook everything.

“”

Akhan stood over me still the same size as before but with an unseen weight residing in and around him. He leaned in and moved my face to look at him before releasing me. The hand retracted while running down my face as if caressing it.

“”

He straightened and brain spiders moved in to cover everything engulfing me in darkness. Then the stabbing began.

Every brain spider was stabbing with at least one of its legs; I was being turning into a pincushion again. My limit was getting closer and closer, there would be no turning back once I lost to the spasms. I lashed out. It didn’t matter why or at what, but I was going to fight back.

A blue tinted light shone at the corner of my vision when I lashed out. The light get even brighter and I was now looking at the sky without anything obstructing my vision. The same tentacle that had turned clear when I was fighting the Eldritch dog, the top right one, had done so once again and now glowed.

“”

The few living brain spiders returned to Akhan and were eaten. He continued to ignore me, returning to the same place he did every time we finished fighting. The Edin in the air thinned as Akhan returned to his normal size and resumed reading the books he had put down before we fought. My body and mind were still on an adrenaline high and refused to accept that it was over.

“”

“”

Akhan waved his hand, ejecting me from his soul and back into the black abyss.

‘I did it. I won. But if that’s the case then why do I feel like I lost? And what was that spiel about light? And what about what happened to my tentacle? I’ve never felt what powered that attack before, it wasn’t Edin or Arcane.’

With all the questions floating around my head and no answers to any of them, I sat down and began the lengthy process of leaving my soul. Just like with entering it I slowly lost all of my senses and then regained them while being in the same place and position as when I left.

*Maka I’m done.*

*Welcome back. I take it you won?*

*Yes but Akhan let me so it feels like I lost.*

*But you’re safe now right?*

*Yeah. There won’t be any danger with Akhan for a long time.*

*Good. Are you going to come back to the mansion.*

*I think so.*

I stood up and headed towards the mansion. The journey would give me time to reconcile with the bitterness that was replacing the happiness I should be feeling.

Akhan’s POV------------------------------

‘’

The small brain I sent out to get me a blank book had returned and I took the empty tome and ate the deliverer. Every book had a title that let it be placed with others of the same type. This one would be about Vio’s progress and what her Eldritch ability would be.

I wrote everything that had happened and what I had seen before closing the book and placed it on a shelf that held only six other books. I read the covers of the seven books, the nostalgia of simpler and better times made what passed as my heart ache; The Fourteen Ancients, True Eldritch, Nix the Embodiment of Nothing, Volm the Creator and Destroyer, Kal the Evolver, Vio the Child of All, and Akhan the Seeker of Knowledge.

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AN: Hello readers! Writing essays killed my writing drive so this chapter took much longer than I was happy with. I think it turned out quite well though and I have solid ideas down for later. Would a character or author Q&A be something you would want to see? As always feel free to voice any questions, comments, or concerns and for now I'll bid you adieu.

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