rrin again grabbed the nullity and ford from it a stoneknife. A weapon of cracked brown with a hilt of tal black. He was to fight as an Ashman, and he would kill this as one. This was the reconciliation. He saw it first as a Saiden, and knew the life of his brother taken. Now, he would avenge that…Oh, he would continue to avenge that.
He spun in the air, grabbed a chain, another, and descended. The creature spotted him and shot forward. Speed, a flash of monts. Coming. Yet, rrin whirled the chain, hearing the whistling of wind as the creature smashed into a mountain. A crater imprinting onto where it struck.
It was strong, but Ashn killed the strong. He gritted and jumped and heard the howling of the wind, the chillness that would never co in the real world. Internally, he viewed this as a ga, and he would play it well.
The monster bared dark fangs and took to the sky. A mistake. rrin fashioned a chain, swung it. It coiled around the creature's bony legs. And with one pull, it ca hurtling to the ground. Anything normal would have died to that. Not this. Not that it mattered.
The inevitability remained the sa.
rrin now drew knowledge from the capsule of isolated mory. There, he called upon the dance and faded into its boiling stew. Once more, his mind floated above the rage—the emotions. In this state, he observed himself, his actions, and noted it with authentic correctness. Control beca manifest. And so he moved with this pattern of self-predetermined actions, and jumped. He cut through the air, piping down as though he moved through so invisible tunnel. Distractions. Distractions.
The fallen raised its fingers, swinging up. rrin weaved the chain, grabbed it in the instant of still forming. It strained, but held. That sprang him, dodging the swift attack. A thing of the eye, perhaps, but rrin saw the markings of a cut in the air. He rolled, landing feet-first.
It moved, instincts controlled, and rrin rolled to the side and dashed into a cave. The dark tunnel, lit by base-placed lamps, brought the path to clearance. How powerful he felt in those monts. Control, precision. He raised the mountains, made the tunnels within them. The caves. The world. Creation at his whim. How intoxicating this promised to beco.
He tore from the thought, dove to the side, into another cave, and rounded through what he envisioned was the lower base of the mountain. Now, the creature would wonder. Where is he? What is he doing? Secrecy, confusion, that was the ans of the Ashn. And none has ever bested it.
He arched into an underground pathway, propping up from beneath the ground. Beads fountained on his outburst. The creature offered its back, still unaware of the sudden event. Another Mistake. Corrupted Fallen were never known for their intelligence. He pierced the back, saw the trembling of the creature, and the spilling of black, oily blood.
It roared, and its furrowed wings opened. It desired the skies. Never! rrin raised a mountain—a large form that blocked the skies. The mysterious illumination. And now they shadowed in darkness.
Both now existed in their known states. Ashn, humans of the dark. Fallen, viles of the sa. A loud defiance ca from the creature, and it flapped its wings, a macroburst of wind that dispelled the beads. Likely, the realization of the beads' function had fitted into the creature. Not that it mattered.
rrin moved in the darkness, tracking the noise of the fallen. He snuck up and pierced the creature's side. Blood spewed out, and more rage surged in its fervent actions. More more. Hurt more. A thought, and more mountains circled them. Puncturing from the earth, springing up, the dark rocks were everywhere. The creature was a caged thing.
It roared, scanning for its attacker. Then a different roar ca, a more pitched sound doubled over a layer of deeper one. rrin sank into a half-state.
This novel's true ho is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
"Why won't you listen?" The Audacious eidan said, pressing close to him. The sky above was dark, sparked with lightning and churning with the sure storms. rrin observed this, observed her, and said,
"Sa thing again."
She frowned. "What do you an?"
rrin pushed her from the peak and jumped after her. In that, his awareness broke through the half state, and full cogitation returned. He groaned, looking ahead through the darkness of the mountains.
The creature had tried to plague. It won't work again. He ran, and again, the veneered voice ca, and his awareness drowned. Again, the peak of the ash mountains. Again, he pushed the young eidan and leaped in.
IT WON'T WORK AGAIN!
rrin ford the chain, tethering it to a large mountain. He swung, flew into the air, rolled, and landed with a slash on the creature's back. Blood spewed. More cuts. More blood.
That was not the end. He dropped the knife and cut it in monts before it touched the ground. He slashed the heel of the creature. It tumbled, and rrin gribbed the left of the wizened wing. His blade ca down and tore into it.
Blood ca, and rrin knew the creature now a grounded thing. Good. And in that mont, he knew the Ashman within had been satisfied. At least in the desired amounts. He heaved a breath and walked, fronting the fallen.
It still bore audacity in its dark eyes, snouted face, and large fangs. What a horrendous thing. rrin slapped it. The sound like that of thunder. It scread, and rrin fell again into the half state. This was easier. He broke free and slapped once more.
Surely, he had killed it as an Ashman. Now, he would do so as El'shadie.
rrin waved, and the mountains subrged into the earth, like stone in water. He watched this, breathed a sigh, and said, "Wake them."
The beast offered a growl. A thing that was not the wanted response. rrin issued it a slap and repeated the order. It did not respond. And rrin knew the beast incapable of it. He said to the ardents, "Hold it!" And they descended, pinning the beast with their strange, dark hands. Slender. Heads a mass of swirling darkness.
"What do I expect from sothing like you?" He looked ahead and saw the castle. Strange, perhaps, but an early mory bubbled into his ntation. Symbols took physical forms. The beads were one, unknown, yes, but one nonetheless. This world was one, or many, and so was this castle. Why else would a fallen need it?
"That is it, isn't it?" rrin did not require an answer—the self-imparting knowledge told him this. "This is your selunn plague. Your castle of dreams, where you trap and what? Feed."
What a vile creature. Why would the Almighty allow for such things….
"I will take this from you." rrin looked to the side. An instinctive gesture, and saw the large bird. Its wings were down, offering a strange impression of a hunched man. One with cloth armor, perhaps.
"Can I take this place?"
It stayed in its usual silence, then, "This world is a locality adjacent to the grayworld, as you call it."
"So they are together?" That was a foreboding thought. He and the fallen, close.
The bird's laughter was dry—cut with sothing soft. "Where mind-forms congeal into scapes, adjacency is inevitable. Think not in terms of separation. Think in strata. One world nested within another, as skin to flesh. This is one such layer. And look—already, you are assimilating it."
rrin followed its gaze and saw the skies drowned in the familiar grayness. The skies of the gray world. My intrusion brought the gray world with . So it takes it? The knowledge blood into several potentialities, but he dismissed those for now and shifted to one. Taking this world.
Sohow, he identified this as the sole ans of freeing his people. rrin said, "How can I take that castle?"
The bird frowned—a strangeness in its fowl face. "Don't you already have the ans for that? Shouldn't a bond, a seal, be the right ans?"
rrin surged in a recalling thrill of mories. Servility. Servility. The word looped with a certain combustive effect. A ntal one. He smiled and said, "And I can bring it here?"
"Yes," the bird said.
And so he did. Produced from an aspect of thought he did not understand. In there, he felt the ring and pulled it. To life. The ring ford from nothing above his palm, spinning. The fallen grew fervent. It knew. Sohow, it knew what was to happen.
"I shall take your place. " He said, "Now watch as you lose everything!"
He saw the ring brighten. White, force flowing through his fingers and swirling into the wheel. It began to spin. Faster. And rrin felt the symbols within. The chains. And he pushed them. Into reality, they ca. Iron links the size of mountains tore into the great castle, shuddering.
rrin felt the addition of a presence within, an oscillation, but a sure one. Like the ardents, he was becoming bonded to it. An odd sensation. Naturally, the resistance ca. A push of aweso force that battered against his cognitive self. Weak in comparison. He rebelled, slamming back with the tides that were his own power.
Reviews
All reviews (0)