11/07/337

Vasuki

The life of the fire erupted, he enjoyed the warmth of the fire. He threw another piece of wood into the flames. His stomach was full of Erefus’ hunt, the untouched piece next to the unconscious Royal Knight was wrapped in large leaves and sat off the ground on a structure of sticks that Erefus made, due only to his master’s instructions and no part of his own want to help.

“Erefus said some people are just a few miles north of us. He recognized Noelem in the group. Two other women are with him.” Liz claimed, sitting next to him. Skari, the duck, waddled over to Liz’s lap and sat down, giving out a small quack at Vasuki.

“That means we’re approaching my target.” Vasuki said, “Or they’re approaching me...you want to share your story before we meet with them? No telling if I’ll make it out unscathed.” Liz contemplated the offer.

“I guess...it would be nice to get it off my chest.” She began to pet Skari, “Such a soft duck.” She commented, absentmindedly. There was a quietness that hung over them, Vasuki didn’t mind. He was still reliving the memories of his sparring matches with Lusalene, and the memory of his racing heart and the love and desire that Boreal had felt towards the warrior.

Liz was about to open her mouth when the unconscious woman began to stir. Vasuki brought his eyes over to her, he didn’t feel it was completely necessary but he prepared the calling of his weapon. She grunted and sat upright before rubbing her jaw, her eyes looked around at her surroundings. The glossy look in her eyes became one of focus when she spotted Vasuki. She quickly jumped back away from them, calling electricity to dance in between her hands as her spear formed within her grasp. Vasuki sighed, annoyed at the woman’s actions, then went back to throwing bits of pieces of wood in the fire.

“There’s food for you. Unless you want me to eat it.” Vasuki claimed.

“Why did you spare me?” She asked.

“Because I have more respect for peoples lives than you do. Don’t make me take back the gesture.” He retorted, “I’m not a threat to you, just sit and eat dammit!” The woman stared at him in confusion. He hoped she would take this opportunity to relax, he wanted to be in top shape when he met with Audra. A wave of relief washed over him when her weapon vanished and she began to remove her chest plate, breathing a sigh of relief as the dented metal fell the ground. She sat down, unfolded the leaves from the deer meat and slowly began to eat.

“Thank you...I don’t know why you did it...I know I didn’t deserve your mercy but I do know that I owe you for it.” She claimed, after swallowing the bite of food.

“You can make it up to me by learning to be a better human.” Vasuki claimed. She nodded.

The woman ate while enjoying the heat from the flames, though she sat much farther away from it to stay away from Vasuki.

“So what’s your name?” Liz asked, “The dragon you fought, here, is named Vasuki. And I am Liz Agano.” The woman swallowed another bite of food before answering.

“My name is Nekane Tova, and I am a fresh Royal Knight. Got out of basic training just a few months ago.” She claimed.

“And the first thing you decided to do was work with some rich bastard to hold a bunch of variants in an underground prison so you can sell their parts to the black market? How amazing.”

“I am sorry, I saw you as less than animals. I didn’t think you were capable of something as complex as mercy.” Nekane said, sadly. Vasuki sighed in annoyance.

“Liz...you were going to tell your story?” Vasuki asked, doing his best to change the subject. She nodded sadly.

It took a while of contemplation before she began, all the while scratching the ducks back.

“I grew up in Kiener. My parents were alcoholics and lived well below the poverty line. My brother and I had to steal to survive. One day I came home from a night of stealing to find my brother standing over their bodies, he was covered in blood, it was like he was controlling it…” She paused. “Then I ran. I ran to the docks and smuggled myself onboard one of the ships. It ended up being a supply ship for the Southern Isle. Where I grew up for ten years.” When Vasuki heard that she grew up at the Southern Isle he was a little shocked. But he held back his questions. Darkness swirled around her shoulders, giving her a comforting massage. Thankfully Nekane didn’t question it.

“Then what?” The Royal Knight asked, curiosity taking over.

“Five years ago, when I was 22, someone showed up, pretending to be monk from the Eastern Isle. He stole our artifact and slaughtered everyone...except me. He left me dying, but expected me to survive. That’s when Erefus saved my life, and our contract was formed.” Vasuki watched Nekane’s reactions. She seemed engrossed in the story more than the fact that Liz was a summoner.

“Why did he let you live?” Nekane asked.

“Because the man that stole the artifact known as ‘Wilted Flower’ was my brother, Zadkiel Agano.” Vasuki’s eyes went wide, “When Noelem told me about a Zadkiel being with him, I knew I had to see if it was the same Zadkiel.” Zadkiel Agano...Vasuki recognized the name but he hadn’t put two and two together until that moment. Fear rose in his chest, but something else as well. Worry.

“What does Wilted Flower do?” He asked, blankly. The words that Audra had spoken that night were beginning to come back to him.

“It allows the wielder to control what people can see, hear, or feel. It’s not perfect and the wielder can conjure a hallucination that might be too weak and it’ll need to be strengthened depending on other people's natural senses. Why do you ask?”

“Zadkiel’s with them!” He yelled, coming to a stand.

“I would never hurt you, Vasuki. You’re my best friend for fucks sake!” Audra’s words echoed in his head like a bell of guilt ringing in his chest.

The next thing he knew he was behind Liz on the back of Erefus.

“Take care of Skari!” Liz said to Nekane, who was looking at the giant Hellhound.

“Enjoy it while you can, Skink! This is the first and last time you will ever ride on me!” Erefus yelled as he began to run Northward, leaving Nekane behind shivering in fear as she held onto the small duck.

Audra

The heat approached her back as her footsteps crossed over the shallow water. Audra quickly jumped behind the broken wall of a ruined building. As soon as she got behind her cover the wave of hellfire ran by her, the wind forced her hair to fly away from the explosion. Audra noticed a drop of ink dropped at her feet, she dove away from the ink as another explosion sent water flying in every direction. She quickly got up and jumped over an arrow covered in corruption. She summoned a wall of ice in between her and what had become of the Maker’s Chosen Warrior.

Black oozing limbs spread away from Lusalene’s body like the legs of a spider. Her body was coursing with the black corruption that had overtaken Audra’s soul, and the creature before her was the only thing keeping her from being overtaken by the corruption itself. Orange and red dust hung in the air around her, slowly entering her when commanding her twisted magic. And it did so as Lusalene put her arm up, black eyes glaring daggers into Audra’s very being. A large bolt emerged from her hand at frightening speed. Even though she was behind a wall of ice she still moved out of the way, a good thing she did since the wall of ice shattered like glass.

“Release me! Audra Sandalious!” Lusalene ordered. A deep demonic echo vibrated from within her throat, giving her voice an otherworldly sound. The black spider legs finally stood up straight and began to sprint towards her. Audra jumped through the Rift and emerged behind the abomination that was once her Ascender. She barely had time to react, as soon as she found her awareness she felt one of the black legs entering her chest. Her breath was stolen from her lungs and she could feel herself absorbing the inky ooze. She hated to admit it but the whole process felt euphoric, albeit a little uncomfortable.

She sat up right, tears streamed from her eyes, her hair was wet and matted against her sweat covered face.

“Audra!” Faust yelled, she shook herself from her stupor. “Vasuki is on the way to you, as well as that powerful force! You need to prepare yourself, he’s moving fast!” Faust warned. She snapped out of her tiredness immediately, grabbed her boots, quickly put them on and ran out of her tent.

The campsite was quiet, the fire had gone out long ago. She opened up Cabana and Noelem’s tent only to see the tent was completely empty. She went to Zadkiel’s tent to find that his was empty as well.

“The hell?” She said aloud.

“Don’t worry.” She quickly turned and looked at the man behind her. Zadkiel was standing straight up, his eyes were like those of a hunter stalking prey.

“Zadkiel, what’s going on?” She asked. He smiled softly.

“Tonight is a night of change. Cabana and Noelem are gone. Vasuki and my sister are on their way. Much will happen tonight.”

“What are you talking about?” Audra asked. Then he vanished and she felt his hand trailing across her shoulders. She got away from his touch and turned to face him.

Only to back up into him, his hands grasped her shoulders from behind and she could feel his breath on her ear.

“Tonight, everything changes. You, me, the state of this world will be altered.” Audra felt her heart skip a beat.

“It was you? You’re behind all of this, aren’t you?” Audra asked, now treating him more like a threat than an ally. He laughed.

“Oh, no, not at all. We’re both simply pawns on different sides of the chess board. Trying to get to the other side of the to put everything into checkmate.” She withdrew Keen Piercer.

“You put Vasuki into that prison, didn’t you? You’re the reason I was in this vendetta!” She yelled, she began to have a coughing fit, coughing violently into her hand, she felt some kind of thick substance come up from her throat. She examined her hand and saw it covered in a thick black ooze. She quickly began to shake it off of her hand.

“Seems you swallowed some demonic blood. That probably will hasten the corruption process.” Zadkiel commented, “Yes. I made it seem that you, Cabana, and Noelem were the ones that beat him, then generously donated him to a rich old man in the northern side of Daemerall to put him into black market. It produced astonishing results.”

“You bastard!” She screamed, her throat ached and hoarse. She lunged forward and found her sword digging deep into his neck, he smiled then vanished before her eyes. She looked back to see Cabana’s dagger just inches away from her eye, stopped just in the nick of time.

“Audra?” She asked, perplexed at the situation.

“Where’s that bastard, Zadkiel?!” Noelem asked from in front of her, her rapier stopping just short of his powerful chest.

A strong smell of rot overcame her sense of smell. She looked around for the source, then felt something grab her ankle. She looked down to see a giant snake coiling around her leg, she stabbed at the python only for it to fade away into nonexistence as her sword went through it, she recoiled as the tip of her sword cut into her leg. The sound of heavy footsteps came approaching them from the forest. A large dark shadow appeared overhead, she looked but didn’t see anything except for the moon shining through the treetops. Something landed behind her and the sound of metal scraping together sounded from behind her. The smell, the cold chill in the air, she knew who it was before she even turned around. Vasuki had clashed blades with Zadkiel. Though Zadkiel had a weapon she had never seen before, its blade was pink, with a blooming black rose coming from the top and bottom of the hilt.

“That was a close one, Vasuki, will you be as quick next time?” Zadkiel asked, a sadistic smile plastered on his face. A woman appeared behind the man, her arms covered in black war talons. As the talons reached the man he vanished.

“He has Wilted Rose, he’s controlling our senses!” He said. Audra wanted nothing more than to stab him but she could wait for a much better time. He walked out of the forest then five more of him began walking beside him, all in perfect sync. The pink blade outstretched to his right.

“To an extent, yes. But what is real, and simply-” Him and every single copy vanished before their eyes. “manipulation?” She heard him whisper and she jumped back. Vasuki grabbed her shoulder with one hand and pulled her back while swinging his weapon behind her with the other.

Cabana and Vasuki’s blades met each other.

“Mmph, that’s got a lot of force behind it.” Cabana noted, “We can’t keep fighting him like this!” she claimed as they pulled their weapons away. The pink mist that Audra had noticed on the carriage appeared behind Cabana. She pushed past the feline variant, and felt her blade begin to vibrate with power before releasing a shock wave at the invisible man. He let out a loud grunt, before falling to the ground. Just as she jumped at him he raised his hand and she felt herself stop mid-air. Her muscles stopped listening to her and she felt herself begin to contort. The girl from earlier jumped on him, the war talon on her right hand stabbed into his cheek. She felt his control over her release and she was surprised to see a large axe head form on the woman’s left hand. Though he kicked her away before the axe head could come down on his neck. He made a pulling motion with his hand and blood came from her leg and shot towards him. By the time the blood had vanished into him, his cheek had almost completely reformed itself.

“That hurt, my dear sister. Did you really feel the need to do that?” A halberd fell on his position, but he was gone.

They all looked around, constantly for where the man could have gone. It was all much too quiet for her to be comfortable.

“Nice timing to join our side, dick.” She commented as she stood next to Vasuki.

“You’ll get your chance to kick my ass. I should have listened to you, we can discuss this later.” Vasuki replied. The girl with the black morphing weapons quickly spoke up.

“The best way to counter Wilted Flower is to fight him one on one, the more spread out we are, the harder it is for him to manipulate our senses. If we know we’re not near each other we won’t be at risk of hitting each-” A pink blade erupted from her chest. Her eyes began to glow red. Audra ran forward until the black substance pushed her to the ground. The girl then grabbed Zadkiel by his hair and pulled him over her head, the sword coming out as she threw him. Audra watched in horror as her chest closed up with the same dark substance that she was using to fight.

“The fuck is she?” Audra wondered aloud.

“Questions for later! Everyone spread out, keep running until you know you’re not near each other!” She may have been small but her voice was commanding enough that Audra couldn’t help but agree, as she then began to run in a completely random direction. She could see Noelem running off on her left side, and Vasuki on her right.

Audra panted, she was exhausted due to the lack of sleep, but the chaos of what had just happened was making her even more tired. She couldn’t believe it, Zadkiel, this whole damn time was the one behind all of their problems. He was the one that put Vasuki in that hell and forced them to go after each other. But why? What had been his end goal? She sighed, her stomach growled, and she continued walking. Keen Piercer tight in her grip, just in case. But hunger wasn’t the only problem she was experiencing. She was being watched. She could feel Lusalene, those dark tendrils from her dream was still pouring into her. She could feel it. She didn’t know how much longer she had, but she could feel the corruption overwhelming her. She began coughing and the black phlegm from earlier came out, its smell was thick with rot and decay.

“I will...release you…” She could feel her legs moving on their own accord to a destination she wasn’t sure about. She felt Keen Piercer become lighter, her legs stopped moving and she held the weapon out. She coughed and sputtered, keeling over in pain, black ink poured from her mouth and landed on the ground.

“I will...find...you...release...you. I...need this out of me...” She began to have a coughing fit, each cough letting out more and more of the ink colored substance on the ground. She slowly stood up and began to stumble forward. To where? She wasn’t sure. Nor did she care.