Chapter 13: Invisible Apparition

‘What’s she up to?!’

The moment Sophie melded into the darkness, I expanded my light to see if I could reveal her position, but it was to no avail. I couldn’t see her or anything else.

In my panic, I shouted, “Sophie!”

…

My voice echoed in the darkness, and an eerie silence filled its place. A feeling of dread hung over me.

‘This feeling… It’s like I’m about to be devoured!’

“Cura! Can you locate Sophie?”

…

“I’m afraid not.”

“What do you mean?!” I lashed out.

Sophie’s sudden disappearance and the bloodlust in the air was getting to my head.

“Your light isn’t being distorted. She’s simply gone.”

“Forge—”

“Jump left!”

*Pause*

My brain went into overdrive and everything around me slowed.

‘What’s happening?’

I could not see it, but I felt Cura creating a barrier above my head. My mind was trying to comprehend the situation, but it was not fast enough and my body was not cooperating. Even though my brain demanded more information from Cura, my body moved with a mind of its own, tumbling to the side. As my body twisted, my arm was nicked by a falling blade. When I looked, I saw a sword was chopping down where I had been standing moments before.

When I hit the ground, time resumed as it once had.

My mind was racing and my breathing heavy. I lifted my head and stared at the sword that had threatened to slice me in half.

‘Isn’t that Sophie’s sword?!’

“Gratus, please be careful! That sword cuts through light!”

I was stunned by the aftermath of the sword drop. The light I had been emitting was cut in half, and on the other side of Sophie’s sword, the light that had been severed from me was being swallowed by darkness.

‘Where’s Sophie?’

My eyes darted around but I couldn’t see anyone or anything.

“C-Cura?”

My mouth was dry, and my voice was shaking.

“Nothing,” she replied.

I scanned my surroundings once again before taking a few more breaths to calm myself down. After I had regained some of my composure, I stood up to take a closer look at Sophie’s sword.

‘What should I do with this sword?

Cura responded, “It’s risky to leave it here.”

I nodded and reached out to grab the sword, but before I could grab it, it melted away into nothingness.

‘What the heck. Did something happen to Sophie? What does this mean?’

“Gratus, something is coming from above!”

At Cura’s warning, I lifted my head and saw something descending from the darkness. It did not look like it had any weight or substance. As it drew closer, I felt the temperature decline with its descent, and I realized that the apparition had no body, at least, not a visible one. Even though I could not see what the transparent apparition looked like, I was able to make out a thin outline that surrounded it.

“Sophie?” I called out, but there was no reply.

The only feedback I got back was the same killing intent from before, but this time, it was enough to make my legs wobble. I felt my knees giving out on me. I wanted to move aside and run away, but when the apparition landed, the ground I was standing on shattered like glass and I entered into a free fall.

My stomach rose as I tried to steady myself during my descent, but before I could orient my body in the proper direction, the side of my body smacked into a solid platform.

“Ugh!”

‘My head…’

My head was spinning. I tried to recover from the shock of smashing into the ground and keep tabs on the invisible apparition, but by the time I managed to get back on my feet, it was too late. The apparition was looming over me, surrounding me with a transparent quilt.

‘Crap. I need to get a grip on myself. What’s it trying to do?’

“Salvus!”

A barrier of light surrounded me and hindered the transparent quilt from drawing closer to me.

‘Cura? What’s happening? My head’s still a bit dizzy…’

“Gratus!” Cura shouted, “Don’t let this thing surround you. I think it’s trying to devour you!”

‘Not good!’

I shook off my dizziness and noticed that Cura’s barrier was already cracking. I prepared to jump in an attempt to escape before the apparition could smother me in darkness, but just as I was about to lift off, the apparition somehow grabbed onto my left ankle and yanked me to the floor.

“Gratus!”

My back felt the ground once again.

“It’s not over!” I roared.

I gathered as much energy as I could in the palm of my hands and directed both of my hands at the apparition’s body.

“Adustum!”

Light zoomed out of my hands, but instead of hurting the apparition like I thought it would, my light passed through its body. Nothing happened. If anything changed, it was the fact that the apparition seemed to be more agitated than before. The transparent quilt that was surrounding my body now constricted around me.

I didn’t have time to think of another method, so I let my instincts take over.

“Gratus, what are you doing?!” Cura cried.

To be honest, I didn’t know, but the energy in my body swirled and raged like clashing ocean waves during a storm. Once the energy in my body was at its most chaotic state, thrashing about in my body, it manifested itself outside of my body as sparks of light. It was like fireworks were going off with me at its epicenter.

With every flash of light, the invisible quilt revealed itself and the transparent apparition became visible. The monster seemed scared. Whether it was because of my light or because it was being revealed, I don’t know, but it withdrew its cloak from me and leapt away from me. Since it had jumped outside of my reach, the darkness acted to hide the monster once again.

“You think I’d let you?” I shouted in rage while dashing towards the monster.

But just as I was about to reach the monster, I felt a familiar hand grab onto my arm and heard a condescending voice.

“What are you doing?”

I turned to see Sophie holding onto my arm.

“Sophie?! What happened to you?”

“Wait. Stop! Calm down!”

I looked at Sophie’s hand and saw that the light I was emitting was heating up her armor and making it emit a glaring white light. It looked like plasma.

“Calm down! Listen to me!”

I turned to look back at the monster, but it was gone. It had already melded back into the darkness.

I gritted my teeth in frustration and said with bitterness in my voice, “All right. But you have some explaining to do!”

Sophie nodded, “Got it. This isn’t the time to go all out. Even if you kill Turbavi on your own, it’ll be for naught. You are inside its soul.”

“What do you mean?” I asked while trying to make sense of what she was saying.

“Excuse me for interrupting, but we are in a middle of a battle,” Cura’s voice interjected, but just as she was about to reveal herself, Sophie pushed her back into my chest and continued to push me onto the floor.

“Stupid firefly!”

As I fell on the ground, I felt the temperature around us drop and a sharp blade as thin as a cloth cut through the space we were standing in.

“Run!”

Sophie had fallen on top of me and then rolled while holding onto me. At the end of her roll, she lifted me up with her forward momentum and continued to dash forward. Since she was holding onto me, I had no choice but to stumble after her.

“The monster’s still attacking us!”

“Yeah, because of your stupid guardian. As long as you’re not going crazy and I’m holding onto you, I can use my darkness to hide us, but the moment that firefly of yours revealed herself, she revealed us, too!”

She said this all while running.

When I nodded, she continued, “And that monster that’s been attacking you is Turbavi’s soul. Because of its transparent body, it can easily absorb anything into its body, trapping it for eternity.”

“And why did you almost let me get devoured?” I said in bitterness.

It wasn’t like me to hold a grudge, but I had almost died, and the chaos of the battle was not giving me any time to compose myself.

Sophie sighed and stopped running. I followed suit, but she continued to hold onto me.

“We should be safe here for now,” Sophie said while turning to me and continued with an apology, “Sorry, there wasn’t much time to explain since Turbavi attacked us out of the black, and well, actually, you’ve already been devoured.”

Shocked, I exclaimed, “What?! Then what will happen if I get devoured again?”

Sophie chuckled, “No worries. Everything’s going according to plan.”

‘Oh, holy goddess of light!’

I took a few deep breaths to regain my composure and asked, “What plan?”

Sophie looked into my eyes and smiled, “Do you remember the sword that I dropped? Well, that was actually me. Right now, you are talking to my sword.”

‘What?!’

No matter how many times I tried to process what she just said, my brain was not registering her words. It must have shown on my face, because she continued.

“Hold on. Let me finish. In order to destroy Turbavi for good, we need to attack it from the inside and outside at the same time. By doing so, we will be able to cut it open and reveal his true form all while releasing you out of its body.”

“But my light doesn’t seem to affect Turbavi. At most, I can ward him away.”

“That’s why I am letting you borrow my sword. It has the power to distort domains. When you cut through Turbavi, you can escape through the rift, but make sure to hold onto my sword. If you lose it during the rift, you will be trapped in the abyss forever.”

I nodded in understanding, though I didn’t understanding everything she said.

‘Sounds easy enough, but I doubt it’ll be as easy as slash and escape.’

“Just wait for my signal.” Sophie said, or her mirror image said, as she reverted back to her sword and fell to the ground.

‘What signal?’

“I don’t trust her,” Cura said, voicing her concern.

I shrugged, “But what else can we…”

Mid-way through my sentence, I felt the temperature drop once again, and it dawned on me that we were no longer camouflaged in the darkness.

‘Crap. No time for doubt.’

I kneeled to pick up the sword as fast as I could and readied myself for any sudden attacks, but as soon as my hand grasped the sword’s handle, a surge of dark energy invaded my body.

My grip weakened and the sword threatened to slip out of my grasp.

“Let go of the sword!” cried Cura, but before I could, I felt a wave of energy slice through the air and pass by me.

‘Holy… Sophie wasn’t kidding…’

I was lucky to have the sword raised in front of me. Just before the wave of energy was about to slice me in half, the sword split the wave in two and the wave passed me like river water being split by immovable boulders in its way.

“Cura, I know how incompatible we are with Sophie, but I don’t think she is our enemy.”

Cura admitted with reluctance, “I understand…”

“Good. Now, can you do anything about this sword, Cura?”

“Yes. I will prevent its darkness from entering you, but while I am doing so, I will not be able to assist you against Turbavi.”

“No worries.”

As soon as Cura’s focus was dedicated to preventing the darkness in the sword from invading my body, I felt strength return to my hands.

‘Good. Now, what is the signal?’

*Flash*

A flash of darkness blinded my eyes for a moment and the sword disappeared from my sight.

‘Is this it?’

It was weird. Even though I could not see the sword, I could still feel its hilt within the grasp of my hand.

*Flash*

Another flash of darkness blinded me, but this time, the light surrounding me and the light in my eyes disappeared. The sword had eaten my light.

‘This is…!’

Without any light in my eyes, I thought that I would not be able to see anything, but for some reason, the image of a monster appeared before me.

‘Turbavi!’

But it was clearer than before. Instead of a faint outline, I saw its mutilated body. It had muscles twisted here and there like the grotesque body of an operation gone wrong and then some. The transparent quilt that I thought was a cloak were actually long bandages that dangled off of its body.

When I looked it in the eye, the monster seemed to be taken aback. It turned around to run, but I chased after it while slashing at its legs. When it fell to the ground, I did not relent and continued to hack at the monster until it was a pile of minced meat.

‘Is it over? Maybe it was as easy as slash and dash?’

…

‘Or maybe not.’

The pile of flesh that I had minced rose into the air and reformed.

‘This doesn’t look good. If slicing it doesn’t work, then what can I do? Wait! Didn’t Sophie say that I was in Turbavi’s soul? I got it!’

I dashed forward, but instead of dashing at the monster, I lowered the tip of the sword so that it would drag along the platform I was running on and ran away from the monster.

When it had regenerated, it started to chase after me, but just as I expected, the floor beneath him shattered upon his weight. By dragging the tip of the sword on the ground, I was able to weaken the ground. When the ground shattered, I let myself free fall while pointing the sword downwards under me.

*Smash*

When the sword hit the next platform below, the force of my fall along with the power of the sword shattered the platform and we continued to fall. Even though smashing against the platform took away some of my momentum, I continued to accelerate faster.

*Smash*

*Smash!*

*Smash!!*

I kept descending into the darkness while shattering all the platforms beneath me. After breaking through the seventh platform, the surrounding darkness twisted and churned.

‘This is it! Turbavi’s soul is becoming unstable!’

The sword was affecting everything around me now.

*SHATTER*

At last, after breaking through the eight platform, I entered into an abyss. For an instant, there was nothing—no light, no darkness.

*BOOM*

Then I smashed into a platform that did not break.

The vibrations from the impact transferred into my hands and the pain made my hands jerk away from the sword while I screamed.

I wanted to wallow in my pain some more, but a familiar voice brought me to my senses.

“Get up!” exclaimed Sophie, “This is where the true battle begins.”