Chapter 5

Zuphaiross read the human woman's mind. Her desperate proposition was definitely within the realms of possibility. It had taken fifty million years, battling against these chains to gather enough mana to bring someone over to this dimension, and Zuphaiross did not have the energy, nor the time left to bring another person over. It contemplated, weighing its options. It began to formulate answers to questions it had never once asked itself. It knew how it was tied to its mission till death, chains far heavier than the ones that imprisoned him, but beyond death what purpose would existing serve?

It dug deeper into the human's consciousness, never experiencing such strong emotions before, but as it tried to dig deeper, Zupahiross was thrown out of its depth. The strong waves of emotion: sadness, guilt, regret that only recently plagued her were washed aside by hope and excitement. Zuphaiross swam deeper. It found itself above a trench that seemed bottomless. Dark murky waters surrounded it. So these are the human's deepest emotions. A massive mixture of random memories and raw feelings tied to each other, entwining dreamily, as if they were alive spun around Zupaiross gaining speed until Zuphaiross was thrown back, sending it reeling among the undercurrents that smashed ferociously against Zuphaiross. It righted itself, fixating towards that which had thrown it.

A blinding light pierced into its mind forcing it to shrink back further. Zupahiross saw faces in the light, recognising them from Yena's thoughts, Jinah and Jiwoo. The strong emotions involving them pushed Zuphaiross from probing any further within this dark terrain of Yenas mind. So it was these two that kept her from being overcome by this black ocean of negative energy. Zuphaiross returned to the surface level of consciousness aware of Jinah and Jiwoo's attention on him from below but felt the stirrings of a new feeling within itself. A mixture of compassion and loyalty. It searched through Yenas thoughts finding its name. Responsibility. It felt responsible for dragging this unassuming creature to its doom, and after having looked at the very essence of the human, it felt pity at its plight.

This newfound sense of responsibility added a whole new variable in Zuphaiross’ contemplation, tipping the scales in favour of Yenas proposal, and her survival. Zuphaiross sighed inwardly, the action surprising it. Zuphaiross had never made such decisions before, having lacked the autonomy they required, but responsibility and curiosity, stemming from Zuphaiross's insight into Yena, as well as the sign most definitely from the Silkine, forced it to accept the human's idea.

It reflected to the stigma within Yenas memories; she had been shown the temple of gates, most definitely for Zuphaiross eyes. It went over the vision again not understanding its meaning. The most important thing then would be to keep this human alive until I decipher what the message was, Zupahiross decided, and with this conviction, it reached out with its mana once more to speak with the girl.

Yena read through the description of her ability once more. The only problem with this idea is that I have no way to actually kill this creature. She looked at the imposing figure, hopelessly realising that it was beyond her to even scratch this Ettral. 'Yena.' It had used her name for the first time. 'I have thought about your proposition and come to the conclusion that it is the most beneficial course of action for the both of us.' Yena held her breath waiting for more, 'as for how to go about killing me, on the stone slab behind you, is my Shasind, which you will use to kill me.'

Yena jumped up onto the altar and feasted her eyes on the weapon, the system echoing Zuphaiross'swords. It reached along the table, a white carved bow, around 10 meters in length. Gold engraving laced around the white exquisitely chipped off at certain areas. She looked at the black strings. Three in number, no doubt created for the exclusive use of Zuphaiross. Yena ran her eyes across the bow once again. Apart from the Shasind the table was devoid of anything else save cuts and chipped off bits of stone. Where are the arrows? And how do you expect me to even lift this, Yena thought tracing her index finger along a portion of the engraving. She tried to hold it and found that it took both her hands to only barely close around the cool surface.

'Listen carefully,' Zuphaiross voice pierced her mind. 'We only have one chance at this, so pay attention to what is going to happen.' Yena gulped, nodding, 'I will use the last of my mana that I've gathered these 53 million years to firstly break the bond between myself and the Shasind, leaving it untouched so that you may imprint on it.' How will I do that, the imprinting? Yena interrupted,' Just touching it should work.' It paused momentarily, 'thereafter, I will pour all of my mana into myself to open up a wound over my heart. You will kill me with the Shasind, and then we will form the contract and escape.'

Yena could feel the undercurrents of fear that hid within those words. She felt a sense of respect towards Zuphaiross, knowing how hard it was to bring harm to oneself, let alone take your own life. Her feeling sorry for the creature only lasted a moment. It's making it seem as if it's my fault that it's in this situation, 'Pay attention to what I am saying.' Zuphaiross shouted in her ear? Yena took the hint and cleared her mind only focusing on what had to be done. 'I'm going to start on the bow now.'

Yena looked down waiting for something to happen. Nothing did. The bow remained inert on the altar, unmoving and without any change to its colour, size aura. Nothing. She waited some more, glancing at her small watch. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Half an hour. Panic slowly began to creep up on her, enhanced by the silence and stillness. Had Zuphaiross failed? We've got stuck at step one, so how can we hope to escape? A low rumble startled her. She snapped her head round to the bow. It was the same. A second rumble rocked her body, Yena realising with embarrassment that it was her stomach making the noise, not that it matters anymore. She checked the time. It had been over five hours since she'd last eaten, and her body's protests for food fueled the panic inside Yena, letting her know that time was running out.

'Okay, it's done now.' The sudden reemergence of Zuphaiross made Yena jump. 'If you now just touch it, it should automatically imprint itself onto you.' Should. She wasn't put at ease at Zuphaiross's choice of words. Nevertheless, she reached out her right arm and placed it on the Shasind.

A burning shock of pain shot up her arm, the now yellow bruise that decorated it, absorbing the pain and sending it back out multiplied. Yena instinctively tried to move, to pull her hand back but found that she couldn't move her arm. The pain intensified for a few seconds before her eyes were blinded for a split second by a golden flash of light. The pain had gone, replaced by a burning smell. She rubbed her eyes with her cuffs at the system notification.

-Shasind equipped (Mythic Grade)-

Mythic grade. Yena stared at the palm of her hand. A small white C was etched on her skin. A miniature version of the weapon. It was tattooed in her pale skin like a white crescent moon, the skin around it a burnet red as if the weapon had been branded onto her skin, which is probably what has happened. She flexed her palm wondering how to use the Shasind. 'Now that it has bonded with you, just calling the weapon will make it appear. And as for how to use it, you will inject your mana into it and fire.' Zuphaiross was silent for a while, 'judging by the amount of mana you possess, you will need to inject almost all of it at my heart. Do you follow?'

Yena nodded. yes, I understand. “Shasind.” The word echoed in the cave immediately followed by a comfortable weight, making its presence known, in her right hand. The weapon fit perfectly in her grip, a meter in length and engraved with the same gold pattern as before, but seeming even more incarnate and detailed due to its smaller form. She touched the single bowstring, unlike the triple bowstrings of its previous iteration, but under a close inspection, Yena saw that the three strings were braided together, like a steel wire to form the single bowstring that she held between her fingers.

'I'm going to start cutting open my chest now.' Zuphaiross telegraphed the morbid statement into Yenas brain, in the same tone it had used to tell her its name. It seemed that the previous it had been feeling had disappeared, replaced by a cold, callous conviction. Yena gulped audibly and felt her hair rise as she saw a massive hole begin to form on the Etterals massive chest.