14/07/337

Audra

How long had it been? How many suns had set? How many moons had rose? How many times had the sky grew to day from night? Where was she? These were all questions that Audra couldn’t answer. Her body was exhausted, she needed to sleep, she needed to eat, but she couldn’t. The only thing she could do was stumble forward, and listen to the voice in her head, dark, angry, demanding. Lusalene was at the reigns of her body, well, what was left of her.

Lusalene had become something else, she had become a creature that wanted nothing more than to release The Storm. It had corrupted Audra, she had, by accident, drank the tainted blood of Runahera, made the corruption so much worse and now she was going to stop at nothing to call it forth, her body acted on it’s own.

After stumbling, for Maker knows how long, she found herself deep within the forest, she could smell something in the distance, past the animals, past the deer and the squirrels and the blooming flowers, she could smell someone. A single person a few miles away, the scent of something unexplainable yet so very familiar.

After stumbling onward for what felt like hours a new smell hit Audra’s senses, a scent she was also familiar with. Vasuki. Was he looking for her? Would he be able to snap her out of whatever hypnotic trance she was in. Maybe she’d be able to sleep after he finds her, he seemed to know what had been happening now, and though it didn’t salvage their friendship it did give her a little hope that they could. Sleep…she couldn’t wait to sleep. To be out of the hypnosis she was in and being able to get some sleep, she couldn’t wait.

Something turned in her stomach, she cringed at what was coming. It began with a coughing fit, strong enough to force all of the air from her lungs and give her the only reprieve from the walking once she fell to her hands and knees. The coughing continued until she felt the sludge begin to crawl up her throat, tiny needle-like claws tore up her throat traveling up her esophagus before the dark corruption within her soul materialized into a physical liquid that poured out like black lightly fermented milk. Vomiting on the forest floor, until the corruption was completely expelled from her stomach. She closed her eyes to blink away the sight of the bubbling mess that mixed with the dirt, killing the grass around it as it was absorbed into the soil.

Opening her eyes she was met with a different sight, she was still kneeling, but she wasn’t in the forest. Of course, where else would she be? Her reflection stared back at her from the Mirror-like water. She looked up to see Lusalene walking down from a black staircase with an obsidian throne at the top. But no, this wasn’t Lusalene, it was whatever happened to Lusalene. Her eyes were that same demonic pale purple as any other demon, four black tendrils flew out of her back, each one around two meters in length and covered in that same black sludge. Black grime covered the ends of her limbs, making them some sick version of what they should be. Hands and feet had turned into these talon-like appendages, dripping the black corruption.

As Lusalene spoke her voice was followed by some kind of distant gurgle, or maybe it was a growl?

“Hello, Stormbringer.” Lusalene said.

“What are you?” Audra asked. The creature began to laugh.

“I am as I always was, I am Lusalene. But of course I have no reason to lie to you. Your soul has been possessed.” Lusalene said, putting her hand on her hip, “But unlike any other possession in history. I am what Runahera wanted for me to be, in a way you are possessed by Runahera himself.” Audra exhaled from her nose.

“That’s what I assumed...so...why me? Is it only because of Lusalene, or is there something about me that makes it so special?”

“You’re asking me, as if I’m not the one you’re speaking to. I’m still me, just a more...vindictive version of myself. When I first found out where I was, I didn’t know how to react. I had always wanted to be free of my sense of duty. Nuul let Kalano put his leash on me, and made me his dog. Obeying his orders without a single thought to question it, I had hoped that once I won the War of Dominion that I’d be free...instead I died and was put next to your pathetic soul.” Audra looked away from the monster in front of her, she felt a grime-soaked talon grab her chin and yank her face to look at her. Lusalene’s eyes were mere inches away from hers, she could feel the cool air coming from her breath.

“I asked myself so many times, should I kill her and get it over with? Should I force her into a living hell? Should I take the anger that I felt at the injustice of my life on her? Or should I be kind, guiding…” Her hand was slowly shrinking from the talon into a normal human hand soft skin was eventually all she felt against her chin, before it moved to her cheek. “I decided to be the person I was in life, even if I was a commander of an army, I still tried to be caring, no matter how desensitized to terrible situations.” The tendrils on her back began to fade, “I still tried to be as caring as I possibly could be.” The pale purple eyes faded from her face to reveal the sunset, tears were in her eyes, “I’m sorry….Audra.”

“For what?” Lusalene, the real Lusalene, pulled her into a hug.

Before Audra had a chance to react she felt a sharp pain inside of her chest.

“The Corruption needs a host, and if I didn’t move it to you it’d kill both of us.” She claimed. Audra’s back burst open as black tendrils burst out of her, the black snakes revealed themselves from her arm and soaked it in black grime, a dragon-like talon covered her arm. Deep purple scales erupted violently, with an explosion of skin and blood, along her tired limbs. She tried to speak but found that her throat wasn’t working, making her unable to speak at all, only a raspy wheezing sound escaped from her lips. Lusalene pulled her closer.

“It’ll leave you soon enough, the taint will always be here, but the corruption will leave. As soon as we release The Storm.” Audra didn’t want it, and she knew that Lusalene didn’t want it, but what other choice did they have. It was either that or living a life of pure hell, not like they had a choice in the matter. Audra had already lost grip of her body in the real world, what would happen to her now? Would she still be stumbling, or had the corruption metastasized enough for it to make more complex movements? Or had it just gotten close enough to the door that needed to be opened for The Storm and Runahera couldn’t wait any longer? Whatever the case she felt one more stabbing pain, this time coming from inside of her stomach, like thousands of burning needles, building up until it needed to be thrown out. She blinked and found herself in a village, the sky was an inky shade.

Audra found herself coughing, her hands and knees on the ground before vomiting more of the black sludge-like substance, burning her throat as it came up. She could feel it, the corruption that had overtaken her body. How long had she been going toward her objective without realizing it? It was long enough for the corruption to fulfill it’s duty and completely change her into he same creature that Lusalene had become, or a similar creature at least. She could feel the tendrils coming from her back, the darkness that enveloped her left hand to create the talon, she could feel the black serpents that were usually on her left arm were coiled around her shoulders under her clothes. She was sure if she looked in the mirror she would see the same pale purple eyes that were on most other demons. She could also feel scales in newer places, she assumed it was the scales that had erupted out of her skin while speaking with Lusalene.

Audra, or whatever she was now, came to a stand and she mentally screamed at where she was. Whatever had planned The Storm to begin with had planned it to fuck with Audra’s mentality. The wooden buildings, the stone city hall that would normally host combat lessons for them. Her old neighbors homes, still scuffed with burn marks from so long ago. She had come back to the place she was warned not to so that she wouldn’t put others at risk along with herself. The only difference today was that Kiaveen was completely devoid of life, as if everyone had been evacuated. She sniffed the air, the same familiar yet unexplainable scent filled her senses, Vasuki’s scent was farther away but it didn’t seem like her body gave a damn about him. Why was she after him?

Audra’s body jumped onto the roof of a nearby building and began to race over the top before she felt the tendrils on her back shift and bend to the corruption’s will shaping two giant wings, no doubt they were black and dripping with that same black sludge she kept coughing up. She flapped her wings and began flying through the air. Oddly enough, for those few seconds of flight Audra felt free, as if nothing was holding her back, though she would have much preferred to grow wings and fly on her own terms the experience was something she couldn’t complain too much about. Within just a few moments she planted herself on the top of the city hall, next to the bell that slightly swayed from the force of the wind that came off of her body. She retracted her cursed wings and sniffed the air, the scent of that man was coming from the North, she felt her head turn to the right to look down the streets to see him in the middle of the road, he wasn’t bothering to hide himself from her. The green scarf wrapped around his neck was flapping wildly from western winds. She narrowed her eyes, then exhaled from her nose before dropping from the top of the fifty foot tall building, landing perfectly fine on her feet.

Felix wore thick leather armor, nothing too heavy, but enough that it would protect him from normal strikes. Felix stood with his hands to his sides, his back was straight, his face was stern and cold. He watched her with the eyes of a hunter as she approached him. Only when she stopped, fifteen feet away from him, did he decide to speak.

“So it’s finally time, isn’t it?” He asked. Audra didn’t speak, only let out a low guttural growl, “Not like you can respond, but I know you can Destroyer.” Audra’s new voice sounded even more distorted than Lusalene’s had. It was as if there were countless voices mimicking hers but all of them were followed by that demonic echo.

“You know you can’t run from this, Phoenix. It was part of the deal. And I will release it, no matter what, no matter how much my consciousness fights back against this will this version of me will always prevail.” Thunder banged nearby, a flash of light struck behind her.

“Audra, I know you can hear this, I knew this would happen, and I knew it would happen here, no matter what we did differently this place was where the first Storm appeared and it would always be where the second appeared as well. We stand at the center of the beginning of the first War of Dominion, and now we stand at the center of the second. I evacuated the city, but if I don’t hold you back they will all die before they make it far enough to escape the horde.” Felix reached up and grabbed the scarf from his neck, pulling it off it began to harden and shape most of itself into a black shortsword with a small bit of green cloth at the base of the pommel.

“You wish to face me?” Audra asked.

“Only to hold you back for a time.” Felix said, his eyes began to go wild with color, as if she were staring into a rainbow, then as soon as she noticed it they were back to green “I know I can’t win.” Electricity seemed to bounce off of every part of his body. Mentally she was almost at tears with how much power was bouncing off of him, but physically she was unfazed. She felt herself smiling before reaching to her left waist with her left hand, then she watched in shock at what her body did next.

Audra held the body of Keen Piercer's scabbard before beginning to squeeze it within her powerful talon before it and the blade underneath shattered like glass. She felt overwhelming power begin to torment her body, for those few moments everything in the world felt wrong, everything spun around her wildly before came crashing down in a wild wave, finally her mind recovered and she saw the final remnants of the rapier being absorbed into her arm. Felix looked at her in complete shock, a new emotion for her to see on the Royal Knight. Her body laughed, all of the demons behind it creating an echo of her. She reached forward and a long black tendril shot out of her palm sculpting into an ebony cutlass as she grabbed onto it. Her wings flapped and she felt herself flying towards Felix.

Felix put his hand out to fire a bolt of lightning at her, she rotated her flight as she came down upon him with her cutlass. It came down hard and cracks formed under his feet in the stone below as her blade collided with his. She followed up by attacking him with her talon. He back-stepped the attack and let loose another bolt of lightning she felt her wings fire her to the right, and quickly coming to his flank. He side stepped her downward strike and plunged his blade deep into her chest before kicking off of her grabbing onto the green cloth which seemed to stretch out allowing him to pull the blade back to him where he expertly caught the blade she felt darkness covering the wound before the injury faded into nothing more than a distant memory. She flew towards him, as he landed. Darkness began to surround her field of view and she preemptively began to stab behind her. The world came back just as her blade began to pierce Felix’s back he somehow knew to jump forward to avoid the full extent of her strike. Rain began to fall.

Felix breathed heavily as the air around her began to feel electric, she entered the rift then came out ten feet away from her previous spot, appearing just in time to see black bolts of lightning come down to the earth, shattering the stone walk way and sending rubble into the air. She felt his hand against her neck as lightning began to course through her body. She called upon the rain to sharpen and fly towards him. She grabbed his throat with her talon her body convulsed but she was still resistant enough to act. She felt black snakes crawl down her left arm he grabbed her arm and she began to feel a heat unlike anything she had felt, even putting some of the heat from her time spent in The Nightmare to shame. She pulled her arm away, the snakes hissing in anger. White hot rain began to fall towards Felix, yet unimaginable heat came off of him, melting the stone under his feet. Her left wing turned itself back into tendrils and shot out towards him. He grabbed one of them, which quickly shot a black blade out of its body into his hand. He gritted his teeth and pulled her to him. She folded her wing in the way of the stabbing sword. She pushed her wing towards him having enough force to send him airborne, his impaled hand tore away from the tendril with a pinky finger falling to the ground. She smiled before the tendrils returned to it’s wing shape and she flew off after him.

Felix landed against the side of a building and just as he got to his feet her balled talon landed hard against his chest, forcing him through the wall. While the dust was still settling she saw a black shortsword being thrown at her. She hit it away with her cutlass only for a bolt of black lightning to hit her chest, as her body tensed she began to see a ball of blue flames come through the dust. She screamed as she felt her skin beginning to melt as if she were being cooked over a roaring fire, she brought the white rain onto her, almost immediately extinguishing the flames. She looked at Felix, as he ran towards her, blue flames in each of his palms, he jumped at her only for her wings to all turn into tendrils and pierce his chest, he grabbed the tendrils but before he could properly melt them she slung her left hand at him, a shockwave similar to that of Keen Piercer, shot out and flung him out of his predicament, though no longer impaled he kept his hands wrapped around the tendrils. Then something she didn’t think possible happened to him. Giant wings tore through the back of his leather armor. The arm of each wing was made of silver metal armor with a metal circle at the very end, along these arms were holes where a transparent sphere floated within. The feathers were teal with blue and green reflexes. In a large burst of power the feathers immolated in azure fire, as well as the circle at the end of each wing. He flew forward still holding on to the tendrils, she felt the world below leave her feet, she felt the world spin then come crashing back down to her face. Leaving a small crater in the stone floor.

Audra wasn’t in control but even the creature that was making her actions seemed to be in pain from that as she came to a shaky stand. Felix was breathing heavily, the transformation was probably taking a large toll on him, just as she began to move forward she froze up. His eyes were like every color the human eye could observe, constantly moving, changing colors at a steady pace. And as beautiful as it was, she felt fear, true fear, she felt weak and insignificant. Those eyes held something that shouldn’t be in Tristal, no, not just Tristal. She felt that whatever was behind the colors of his eyes was something chaotic, the creature she was staring at was something that should not exist in general, not even in myths or legends. Blue flames erupted from his back, she had thought the sword from his scarf was his ascension but this seemed to be it instead.

“Maybe now I can….put up more of a fight.” He claimed, though his words were slow. He held his hand out to the side, calling the sword he had from earlier into his grip. Audra shook her head, taking her out of her reverie. She flew forward, her wings changing to tendrils, all of which struck at him at different times. Though he was able to dodge them all, and block one with his wing she was able to get through his defenses, he reacted by folding his wings around the two of them and expelling hot blue flames into the space around her. She felt a spot quickly form on her chest before a tendril came out and pierced his neck, quickly followed by another and another. She felt his sword enter her side, but all she did was laugh through the excruciating pain. Her sword cut into him as she wailed against his body over and over again, relentlessly. Mentally she was screaming and crying out from the immense pain. Any normal person would have died within a few seconds of what she was experiencing, but instead the creature controlling decided the best course of action was an all out assault on Felix’s tired body.

Soon enough she won out and Felix’s footing failed him when he stumbled back. She took the moment of him trying to regain balance to grab him by the throat and jump onto him. Forcing him to the ground, both of his wings fell to the ground as she began to squeeze the breath out of him.

“Even the mighty Phoenix, falls to my might.” She claimed, all of her burn wounds regenerating completely.

“It seems the Stormbringer….is far too strong.” He wheezed. Audra noticed that her allies’ scent was getting closer, she could smell Vasuki, Cabana, Noelem, and the girl that showed up after Vasuki in the battle against Zadkiel. But that fact didn’t matter to the creature that had taken over her body.

“How does it feel Felix? To go back on the deal that was made? Only to be humiliated when you tried to fight it.” She stood up over him, two tendrils escaping her chest and impaling his body before bringing him to her.

“Fuck you….” He said tiredly. She threw her cutlass to the ground and held him by his throat, two tendrils lifted her off the ground so that they were both suspended off of the ground and eye level with each other.

“May this world and all that live within….” she reeled her left hand back, dark corruption began to wrap around it, all of the tendrils excluding the two holding her up vanished, somehow she knew this was to accommodate for the power being poured into her left arm, “find solace in knowing that their beautiful garden no longer has fruit to bear.”

“AUDRA!” She heard Vasuki yell but he couldn’t stop this, no one could. Her left hand entered his chest, a pale purple light began to expel around her arm. His eyes bulged outward and his entire body tensed in her grip.

“Live upon the word that Zaurah promised Runahera so long ago and be the gate!” She ordered, driving her arm deeper within his chest, a wave of power burst out from around the two of them, windows and stone shattering around them. A black pillar shot out of Felix’s back and straight into the sky. The rain turned black and a flash of purple lightning flashed around them.

The corruption was quickly leaving her, being transferred into the gate that Felix’s body was. He looked down at her arm, entering his chest, then smiled like an axe murderer that just found his next victim. Instead of trying to get away from her he grabbed her arm and pulled it deeper into his body. A trail of spittle began to leak from his mouth, the colors in his eyes began to change at a much more rapid pace.

“Yes, Audra! Know that you were the one that has ruined this world!” He claimed, and as the corruption began to leave her, the tendrils lifting her fading into nothing and the two of them fell to the ground on their feet. Once her actions became her own she tried to pull her arm out of him and leave, but his grip was too strong, even if she could get away from his grip he had folded his wings around them. She turned to see his face mere centimeters away from hers. She could feel the steaming breath coming from his lungs as he spoke.

“Watch what you have wrought! Creation of Kalano, child of humanity. You will be one of the few that get to see this world enter it’s darkest day!” His wide eyes bore down into her very soul, the chaotic entity within him had finally shown it’s terrifying face, and then he whispered something she could barely hear over the magical beam coming from his back.

“The Storm….is finally here.”