11/07/337

Vasuki

He was washing in a nearby stream, or was he? He wasn’t sure where or who exactly he was. His mind was back to the time he and Lusalene fought side-by-side, his hands were aching for battle. The strong scent of iron hung heavy in the air, his hands shook from the fear of another demon being right around the corner. The next moment he was back in the river, shards of ice were beginning to form on it’s surface.

Vasuki’s memories weren’t his own anymore, where Audra had been given flashes of Lusalene’s past, Vasuki was bombarded with nearly a century of a life that wasn’t his, all in the span of a minute. From being a small boy, being trained by an uncaring father to learning how to take down powerful demons all on his own, before he was considered an adult. Then cutting off one of his own arms to prove to his father he was dedicated enough to fight against Noelem’s army. Watching Lusalene die by Noelem’s blade, in the middle of battle. Then finally getting stabbed by thousands of shards of ice as he tried to calm a giant dragon...the dragon he knew as his own father.

Separating the mixture of who Boreal was and who Vasuki is was keeping him too occupied to be able to do anything like he was supposed to be.

“Are you done yet, Vasuki?” Liz asked. Vasuki’s head shot in her direction, he could feel the twinge of his hand readying to call his weapon to him. He breathed a sigh before pouring more water into his hair and face, water stuck to his light beard as he looked to the sky. He walked up the hill nearby and behind a set of bushes before answering.

“You may do as you please.” He felt odd saying that, how much of his manners were his own. He looked down at his left hand it felt unnatural, it hadn’t been covered in human skin for so long, but at the same time he knew it was his. He grunted as his head began to ache, sorting through the memories like this was near impossible. He shook his head in confusion before getting dressed.

After a few minutes he heard Liz approaching his location, from the river below.

“So what happened to you last night? I was expecting to see you near the camp we made, why were you all the way out here?” Liz asked.

“It’s complicated.” He replied. She appeared from behind the bushes, wrapped in a pitch black towel that was undoubtedly Erefus. She crossed her arms.

“Well there’s plenty of time in the day for you to tell me.”

“On the condition that you tell me where you met Erefus, and under what circumstances.” He replied, she eyed him strangely.

“You’re acting...weird…” she commented.

“How so?”

“You’re not usually this...how do I put this...you’re usually less forward. You’re more of a shy guy, and you never have your back straight like that.” She said, pointing up and down at him. He examined his stature, and found that she was telling the truth. He was standing straight, but it felt natural, yet didn’t. He could tell it was another change but at the same time he could have swore he had been doing it for his entire life.

Vasuki shook his head, he had to get his mind straightened out. He took a few seconds to focus on who he was, who he is. Things that didn’t feel right, he’d filter them out of his system by seeing if they felt completely natural.

“Last night, I...was contacted by a being that is...controlling… yeah, I guess you could say that. It’s controlling my Ascension.” There, now he was back, but it was taking a lot of mental energy, “I met my ascender, for the first time after that. We didn’t have a lot of time to speak, so he put all of his memories into my head. And...now I’m...trying to sort through nearly a century of another life and my own.” Vasuki explained, he took a deep breath, doing his best to clear the knot that had formed along his brow.

“That sounds...rough.” Liz said, it was clear she didn’t really know what to say, “If you need help clearing your thoughts I was taught a lot of different ways to help in the...monastery I was in.” Liz claimed.

“Where was the monastery?” Vasuki asked. Liz seemed to freeze up.

“I...I was born and raised in Hareandine. My parents were abusive, and would beat me at night.” She crossed her arms.

“You don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want to.” Vasuki said, regretting his curiosity.

“Thank you. I like to keep my life to myself.”

“Quack.” Their gaze shot over to a duck staring up at them, he must have went through the bushes to where they were without them noticing. Almost instantly, Erefus came off of his master’s body to examine the creature. Liz looked down at her body and put her hands on her hips.

“Erie! Do you mind?!” Liz asked. Vasuki turned away to give her some privacy but he had gotten a good look at her body, whether or not he wanted to, “It’s just a duck!” She exclaimed.

“It’s a wonderful specimen, the feathers look fluffy enough to be used for a pillow. And the meat would be wonderful!” Erefus explained hungrily.

“Oh please, it’s probably lost and confused. Did you lose your family little guy?”

“Do you mind getting dressed? Then we can talk about the duck!” Vasuki yelled.

“Are you really so meek? I’m just naked, have you never seen a woman before?” She teased.

“Do you mind?!” He asked, he could feel the blood rushing to his face. At least he wasn’t occupied with sorting his memories out at the moment.

“I’m fine with it, in the monastery we were taught that clothes were the first thing to remove when we wish to be closer to the natural order of the world. Of course it’s never a good idea to wear nothing during battle but that’s neither here nor there.”

“You were taught to fight?” Vasuki asked.

“We were taught martial arts with every weapon under the Maker’s sun. I’ll get dressed. Erefus don’t eat the duck!”

“I am your beacon of peace, young master.” Erefus claimed, making Liz scoff at the idea.

Vasuki led the path towards Trudid, still doing his best to ignore his mixed memories, but his actions would sometimes come directly from his memories as Boreal. He could feel the prickle of ice coming to his left hand, that was odd, Vasuki was right handed. Perhaps the scent that came directly from Erefus was what was putting him on such high alert, and the fact that the familiar was right behind him looking after the following duck.

“Quack.” The duck said. Vasuki looked back, the bird had stopped walking, “Quack.” It said again.

“I think it’s tired.” Vasuki pointed out.

“I’ll carry it, don’t worry!” Liz said, before anything could be said she picked up the duck and held it in her arms against her chest.

“I wasn’t going to argue with you on the subject. Though it is strange that a duck would be following a summoner with an immensely powerful dem…” Vasuki was taken aback, he sounded like a cunt, “It’s odd that it’s been following us around like this. You think it’s lost?” He asked. Liz shrugged her shoulders.

“Don’t know, all I know is that it is soft, fluffy, and cute.” She claimed.

Vasuki sniffed the air, more ice began to form on his left palm, there was something nearby. He heard the rustling of trees, the crackle of leaves as someone, or something, approached them.

“Liz, put the duck down.” Vasuki ordered, a small tent of ice appearing next to her. She quickly followed his orders.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be safer in here.” She claimed.

“Quack.” replied the duck.

She stood up, almost guarding the duck, Erefus turned into shadow and vanished into Liz’s body, though Vasuki noticed the darkness in both of her hands.

The spark of electricity was what gave the attacker away. Light seemed to be absorbed into the brush to the right, the area around them darkening. Vasuki rolled to the side as a black spear flew where he was standing, even from a few feet away he still felt his muscles tense up. It stopped mid-flight and returned to it’s wielder, the woman that he fought in the mansion, revealed herself. Her left eye was a bright purple and her blonde hair had a bright green highlight. The spear looked normal enough, except for the double headed tip and the gold accents that flowed down it’s body. Vasuki quickly stood up and slung his arm outwards, making the blade form in his hands.

“Well look who it is.” She said, grabbing a hold of the spear. “Been a while money-maker. And where are your little friends? Did they abandon you? Now you’re stuck with a variant sympathizer.” She said, before examining him. “Still not finished with your Ascension? How pathetic.” She crouched as black electricity came from her body.

“This is my fight Liz, stay out of this.” Vasuki demanded.

The woman dashed forward, Vasuki quickly responded by hitting the spear to the side, then bringing his blade towards her. She ducked under the swing and brought her palm to his stomach, electricity burst through his body, he felt his stomach cramp in response. The woman then swept her feet at his ankles, the ground quickly approached him, he put his left hand down and caught himself with a pedestal of ice. He felt rusty, but his memories were quickly coming back, or what were his memories now.

Jumping back to his feet he went on the offensive. He swung down at her, seeing her side step to his right he called a pillar of ice to hit her in the back. She staggered forward only to meet the back of his fist. Making her go back into the pillar of ice, she jumped over it and formed three bodies of lightning over her shoulder firing them off at the dragon. He rolled to the right, planting the sword in front of him, feeling the force of the lightning hitting the flat side of his weapon. He heard the sound of electricity as she appeared behind him, he grabbed the head of the spear, and gritted his teeth as it coursed through him. He felt his body blanketed by the stone cold ice, scales climbed up his left arm and the electricity seemed to weaken. He grabbed the blade tightly and slung her into the ground. She rolled to the side and black lightning began to strike the ground around her. Her hair had become mostly green and her eyes were completely violet now.

Vasuki quickly grabbed his weapon, noting it had changed since his transformation. It was heavier, longer, and more curved, the edge of the weapon was now more exaggerated and the top and bottom parts of the blade were sharper, the strangest difference was the hole that had formed in the top part of the sword. Meanwhile the Royal Knights spear had grown two blades from the base of the original double-head covering any openings that her defense could have.

“I’m not losing to some amateur!” She screamed. He ran towards her, she threw the spear, he reacted by jumping over it, it came back to her and his sword caught in the head of her weapon. He twisted his weapon, putting it in the hole inside the top of his weapon then forced both of their weapons to the ground, delivering a kick to her face as her balance faltered. She countered by grabbing his ankle and delivering a powerful punch to his stomach. She straddled his stomach and wrapped her hands around his neck as she began to choke the life out of him, all the while ignoring her cramping arms as ethereal lightning coursed through his body. She smiled sadistically until he planted a hand on her stomach and a blast of cobalt colored ice shot against her armor, pushing her off of him. He came to a stand and let his magic go wild causing frost to form on the ice around him.

The woman breathed heavily, she looked down noticing the dent in her armor.

“It’s not too late to back down.” Vasuki claimed.

“Piss off.” She said before throwing her spear at him, he rolled to the side, noting that it didn’t affect him nearly as much as it did last time. As it stuck into a tree the light around them began to fade he looked back and noticed she had charged electricity into her hands. A loud explosion sounded off at the tree the spear was in, he looked at the tree to see it had caught fire. He looked back at the woman to see her jumping at him, the spear came back to her grasp and it collided with the flat edge of his blade.

He flew back, crashing through a tree, dropping his weapon mid-flight. He felt his muscles tense up and relax constantly. He looked up to see the woman approaching, Liz looked hesitant to come help, she kept looking between the two of them.

The woman was nearly upon him when he got control of his body again, he felt ice forming in his palms. He stood, put his hand out and watched as the blade completely melted into a small puddle before erupting in his hands, he spun on his heel, pumping Etherea into the edge of the blade before he swung up at the woman. She wasn’t expecting the amount of ice that would erupt from his swing, creating a wave of jagged ice to slam against her. She flew upwards before landing with a hard thud on the ground.

Approaching the Knight he could see that she was completely unconscious. Her green hair had faded back to it’s normal blonde. He brought his blade up the tip pointing down at her neck. Then he hesitated. Her death would mean less corruption within the Royal Knights, less variants falling into the hands of people who want nothing more than to exploit them. He breathed in aggravation as he let the blade vanish. He then fell next to the woman as his Ascension came to an end. How long had the fight been? A minute? Probably less, but he could still feel the exertion grinding his body down. If he had used more Etherea he would have probably fainted, his vision was blurry enough as it was. Feeling a hand on his shoulder he looked up to see Liz.

“You okay?” She asked, he lightly nodded.

“W...water, please.” He pleaded, rubbing his throat.

After a minute or two, more than a few gulps of fresh river water, and some encouraging quacks from the duck. Vasuki was able to walk once again, though his arms ached as if he had just finished training with Cabana.

“What are you going to do with her?” Liz asked. “It was your battle, you shall make the call.” Vasuki hated what he was about to say.

“Set up camp, if we leave her here she’ll probably die before she wakes up.”

“How very honorable of you.” Liz commented.

“Don’t make me change my mind.”

“I’ll go get some firewood, Erefus you’re on hunting duty.” Liz said, there was a moment as she got a response from the demon.

"No you can't eat Skari!" She yelled, grabbing the duck and holding it tight to her.

“Quack.” The duck said. Vasuki looked at her incredulously.

“Did you fucking name the duck!?”