"Kahr, come in, Kahr. Can you hear me." a pained voice entered Kahr's ear from the tiny piece of enchanted metal.
Kahr pulled on the ice that was restraining him, shattering it after a bit of struggling. The chains had vanished soon after Straun had blown Mask away.
"Ye, I hear yuh. What happened? Coulda used a bit uh support during that." Kahr held his hand to the piece of metal, sending a tiny bit of mana through it while he spoke.
"Well, good to know I didn't hit you. Skip to phase three; we're withdrawing." Straun's voice came through with clear hints of strain.
"What bout the little hero?" Kahr asked, a small bit of agitation at the change of plans seeping into his voice.
"Well, ignoring the amount that events deviated from the information we were given, I think it's prudent to withdraw for now considering that I HAVE AN ARROW IN MY CHEST." The Sudden bout of yelling was followed by a series of coughs cut short by the line going silent. "Outside of those two things, all the readings I'm getting say you should be fine to go through with phase three. Hero's death aint needed, unlike what the boss thought." Straun's voice remained strained, but the strength wasn't fading in any meaningful way.
"Are yuh sure yuh didn't just hit too many people?" Kahr asked, humor in his voice.
"Don't treat me like that freak; I did my best to avoid hitting the noncombatants." Straun's voice contained not even a hint of humor. "Just get the job done and come help me." Straun closed the conversation, leaving no room for Kahr to make more jokes.
"Yeh yeh. I'll get it done." Kahr said before releasing the plate of metal.
Kahr reached into his pocket, pulling the purplish-black crystal he'd been given by the boss out and raising it into the air. >Break it and run; I guess I could throw it against a wall. It shouldn't be too hard to break.< Kahr Vaguley knew what the crystal contained; he also understood what they were trying to do to this city; neither was a pleasant thing. But he didn't care. It wasn't his job to mull over morals and ethics, nor was it his place to have an opinion on either. So, he filled his arm with spirit and chucked the gem across the plaza at a wall.
Or at least, that was what he tried to do.
At some point between Kahr swinging his arm and opening his hand to release the crystal, the feeling of it against his palm vanished entirely.
Kahr took a second to look at his palm, then looked toward the wall he'd intended as a target. Neither had any evidence of a broken crystal or its contents. Turning around revealed a stark lack of crystals as well; the entire plaza was just as it had been moments before. Broken, frozen, and empty.
Placing his hand against the metal plate again, Kahr contacted Straun. "I've got a problem."
"What kind of problem? Can't you solve it without me?" Straun's voice came across irritated, but Kahr chose to interrupt him before he could complain. "The crystal vanished," Kahr said flatly.
A moment of silence followed Kahr's statement. It wasn't that Straun wasn't sending anything through the link, but he was actively sending nothing. "Hah?" Straun finally said, confusion filling his strained voice.
"Ye, it's gone, vanished," Kahr repeated.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN VANIKuh kuheduhuh ku?" Straun started screaming again, but a bout of coughing cut him off before he could get going for real.
"Well, I had it, then I didn't," Kahr said shortly, as it was the best way he knew to describe what happened.
"THAT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE. How does something just vanish? You must have just dropped it. Look around for it. Find it. Don't fuck up our entire mission like this. LOOK AROUND. It has to be there somewhere. I HATE THIS JOB SO MUCH." Straun seemed to get enough air in his lungs for one of his standard bouts of complaining. Knowing that the endless stream of complaints, useless instructions, and half insults would continue for some time, Kahr ignored the other man and started looking around once more for the crystal.
This time Kahr put a bit more effort into looking, overturning rubble, and inspecting the wall he'd had as a target. But, as he moved about, he noticed something strange.
"Shut up," Kahr commanded the man, spouting complaints in his ear.
"WHAT FOR? I'M NOT THE" Straun tried to keep screaming. "SHUT UP." Kahr bellowed, cutting off the other party. "I need to listen."
Straun obeyed for a second before he opened his mouth again, his tone now much more severe. "what is it?"
"What happened tu the sound uh the people, the flames? Whys it so quiet?" Kahr voiced his concern about the oddity he'd discovered.
"What are you talking about? I can still hear everyth... No, I can't, It's all gone." Straun said, likely encountering the same thing that Kahr had.
The sound of the people evacuating the area had disappeared. The roar and crackle of the flames visible in the distance no longer reached Kahr's ears. The tinkling sound of water from the melting ice didn't exist. The world had gone silent, like existence itself was holding its breath. Kahr looked around, trying to find the source of the silence that had gotten so bad that Kahr began hearing his heartbeat. When sight failed to identify any suspects for the anomaly's cause, Kahr started to walk around trying to find something that would produce a sound. As he moved, his footsteps sounded oddly muted, like he was hearing them through a wall or from off in the distance. But, as he walked, even the sound of his feet on the ground started to fade, like each step increased the unseen dampening.
The longer Kahr moved, the worse it got, his heartbeat growing louder, the sounds of his surroundings growing more distant. After a time, even snapping his fingers beside his ears only produced a sound at the volume of someone tapping on a table. The silence forced Kahr's senses to turn inwards. His ears were already drowning in the sound of his pulse; his skin was starting to crawl at the situation. His eyes revealed nothing, only a scene that now grew familiar. He could sell the smoke from the flames in the distance, but even that became something he grew accustomed to. And, as his mind finally recognized that it was no longer receiving any new information from the outside, Kahr felt something foreign.
This feeling was different than what Kahr had felt at the hands of that masked bastard. That was like red hot spikes jutting through him. This feeling was like a soft hand caressing every part of him, like an unseen entity poking at his mind and body, trying to find the spot that twitched first. Slowly the feeling grew to something more, like false claws, digging into Karhs minds, prying at obscure walls. This started to leave a seed of fear in Kahrs mind, which only grew worse when he noticed that whatever he was feeling didn't seem to care that Kahr had noticed it.
As Kahr was falling into that foreign fear, a sound from the metal plate drew his mind back from the edge. "Kahr, I don't give a damn about the mission anymore," Straun's tense voice came from the plate as loud as before, but it sounded deafening in the silence. "Something isn't right. We're both far worse off than even the worst projections said we would be; now we have this silence to contend with, I don't like it. I say we get out of here." Straun left the statement open for Kahr to give his opinion.
"I'm with yuh. I'm out." Kahr voiced his agreement while turning to leave the city.
"Leaving so soon?" A series of words stopped Kahr in his tracks.
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"Lost at Sea" Sefahn's domain burst into being around the world. A salty mist tainted the air, a sourceless wind wafting through space, and the ground began to sway like a boat on stormy waters. The location of all the priests in the building entered Sefahn's mind; details on their position, readiness, and strength were all made clear to him. Anyone unfortunate enough to be designated as an enemy lost their natural sense of direction like a boat stranded in a storm.
This would have satisfied Sefahn in his prime. On the open sea, this was enough to capsize some of the more ill-prepared ships. But, now, Sefahn felt the need to push further, demanding a change from his domain. He'd heard of domains evolving to fit the creator better; he'd even attempted it once or twice, but never with any success. But, now, maybe through desperation, rage, or something else, his domain became something new. Like a whirlpool sucking everything to the bottom of the sea, Sefahn's domain crashed inwards around him, spiraling down to a point under immense pressure. When a vortex stilled, the seafloor beneath would typically be a graveyard of broken ships and corpses, But this time, the ruins of what once was were used to create something better.
"Flooded Labyrinth."
The corridors of the building warped, becoming interconnected in impossible ways. The priests were divided, each separated from the rest, each now lost in a maze of impossible corridors. Water flooded in from nowhere, filling the halls up to the knees of a grown man. The salty mist returned, now so potent it dried the eyes and skin rapidly, and with the mist came a directionless wind, constantly blowing through as if the walls and mist didn't exist.
Sefahn called upon his old arms causing them to settle into their once comfortable positions. A black doublet coat with red patterns and gold inlay settled over his shoulders, a scaled tricorn hat appearing on his head, the golden lines of its enchantment flickering to life. A black belt tied the coat shut, and attached to it, a midnight steel cutlass hung at his hip. Around Sefahn's left wrist hung a silver-colored rope with a deep blue gem and a jagged-looking claw. When all of Sefahns's old garb settled into place, the red pattern of the coat started to shift, as if it was a living thing, swimming through the material of the doublet. Drawing the black blade, Sefahn rushed down a corridor toward the closest priest; the wind's pushing at his back to assist him.
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The water turned red as the first body fell. The fool's head separated from his shoulders before he could even recover from the change in environment. The second priest fell in much the same way; his body bisected, spilling his guts and other viscera into the waters of the corridor. The third priest could have posed more of a challenge, as he'd collected himself and prepared for an assault. But he lacked the strength to defend himself, only able to raise his arms to protect his face. Sefahn cleaved through the nameless priest's arms and then his neck; his meager defense only amounted to causing him more pain before his inevitable demise.
And so it went, one, two, three more clergymen fell to Sefahn's blade. Each as bewildered by the sudden change in environment as the last, none strong enough to defend themself from Sefahn's cold rage.
Fifteen of the twenty priests died like this, lost, confused, clearly ill-suited for whatever they thought they'd come here to do. Their blood died the water a dull red across the entire domain, the scent of their deaths permeating the winds that flowed through the walls.
"ENOUGH" Kerith's voice carried through Sefahn's domain like a tsunami, causing the walls to shudder and the water's to churn. "HALLOWED LANDS" Kerith's own domain slammed into Sefahn's bolstered by that use of Holy Word.
The two domain's clashed, each trying to take the area as its own. Stefan's domain shuddered, returning the hallways to their original layout, placing him in the building's entranceway. The water's remained, now ankle-high, but beneath the blood-stained current's, the ground shined with a golden light. The five remaining priests, Kerith at the front, stood opposite sefahn, by the front door of the building.
"I wondered why the church deemed it necessary to send someone of my strength for a measly cleansing. Now I get it. The abomination has quite the protector. Tell me, what is your name, your real name?" Kerith's voice came out in a disgustingly confident tone, that vocal skill attempting to compel Sefahn to answer. Sefahn kept his mouth shut; the compulsion was easy to resists, a combination of Sefahn's experience and Kerith lessening the impact with his constant skill usage. "Not willing to talk? Not matter. you will die like every other sinner who had the fortune of crossing my path." Kerith brushed aside Sefahn's refusal to answer as if it was something he'd seen several times before. But, Sefahn had a feeling that it shook the priest more than he let on.
"PROTECTED WATERS," Sefahn bellowed the name of his second domain, forcing it into the cracks between his first and Kerith's. The priest took the appearance of a second domain from Sefahn with only a smidgen of decorum, his posture collapsing and his face contorting into a scowl. The location of everyone Sefahn considered friend or ally entered his mind, the children, Torren, Fairgarth, Hal, and a few individuals around the town. Almost instantly, Sefahn cut any connection to Hal and those in town, restricting it to only the children and the two men. >Torren, Fairgarth< Sefahn addressed the two men, who stood, guarding the children. >I have failed. I cannot continue to protect those who reside here.< Sefahn pushed his domain, expanding it in a single direction. >I beg the both of you, take them. Take them and run<
Kerith didn't stand idly by while Sefahn conveyed his thoughts to the two men upstairs. After recovering from his shock at a second domain, he rushed strode toward Sefahn, his hands open but filled with holy light.
>I will create a moment for you to escape. Take it as soon as you see it.< Sefahn continued to push his domain towards his goal, straining his soul in the process.
Not waiting for Kerith to initiate the engagement, Sefahn called upon his domain's water to accelerate him toward the priest.
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The Husk struck down towards the face of Grey, its clawed hand ripping through the air towards its target. But, instead of tearing into the skull of Grey, as The Man expected, The Husk's hand slowed the closer it got to the face of Grey. Or, that is what The Man thought for a moment before he felt a familiar sensation. He'd experienced this feeling in one place before. When he opened the first locked door in the black tower, he'd felt as if time stretched the closer he got to the nob. Like one moment became two, then four, then eight. That was what The Man felt once more as The Husk's hand swung towards Grey.
Time stalled, the world seemed, to push against the idea of The Husk's hand, stretching what should have been an almost instantaneous strike into an infinitely approaching event, with no end in sight. The Man watched for so long he thought nothing would change, The Husk's hand getting ever slower the closer it got to its target. And, just when it started to appear as if it had stopped moving entirely, The Man heard it.
"Soul who was lost to time," A voice smoother than silk, the voice of a trickster and a showman. "Soul who's prison scattered their mind," The voice was ethereal and like that of an old friend, who you'd almost forgotten. "You were bound for a crime you did not commit." The voice permeated everything, like The man could hear it from every pore of his skin and every fiber of his muscles. "Because when your leader fell, you would not submit."
The Man saw something start to form in the hand of The Husk. Staring at it hurt his mind, and attempting to describe it only resulted in garbled nonsense about wisps of nothing.
"You were never the target, but you suffered nonetheless." The voice was inhuman in a way that made it almost pleasant to hear. But, that inhumanness was amplified to uncomfortable levels by its apparent strength. "Given a form that all would detest, you walked this land in search of a final death." The voice contained a power The Man failed to comprehend as if it was beyond the passage of time, but still present in this moment. "Death was a freedom your warden could not permit." The voice continued to fill the almost frozen world. "So, they scattered your mind and forced your soul to split." The voice started to carry more concepts than that of sound, filling The Man's mind with images of a battle's won, leading to a war that was lost. "But, your warden is gone, long since deceased. So, it's long been time for your curse to be released." The images became emotions, struggles, hatred, desperation, and resignation. "So I free you from your sentence, I end your service. For your crime of association, I will now acquit."
The something in The Husk's hand started to become something recognizable. If only for short instants before returning to the wisps of incoherence. Like it was a creature from some abyss, who only had small parts of its body a mortal could comprehend.
"You fought for freedom instead of glory. But you would not spread their story, so they named you a heathen" The voice conveyed a final struggle, a mass of people whose leader knew they couldn't win. "They made you a monster, whose instincts are abhorrent and gory, leaving your mind in a million pieces." The images buried in the sound of the voice became a dark abyss, filled with thousands of suffering souls. "BUT I SAY FUCK THEIR STORY, DAMN THEM." The voice stopped bringing any images forward, only conveying ancient anger. "LOYALTY EARNS REWARD, AND YOUR'S WILL BE FREEDOM"
Something in The Man's mind clicked into place about the words, and the nature of what he was seeing. Why it had to happen in this frozen world, and why the voice sounded somehow familiar. Everything became clear, like a book you'd only ever read through thick glass, but now held in your hands.
"YOU LOST YOUR MIND YOUR LOST YOUR FACE YOUR VERRY BODY DROVE YOU INSANE. YOU EXIST AT THE EDGE OF TIME, BUT I BRING YOU BACK BY CALLING YOUR NAME." The voice bellowed, piercing through history, drawing out whoever it was looking for.
The something in The Husk's hand finally formed as something almost recognizable. Switching between a featureless face and a glowing orb like the one The Husk had claimed was a soul, the objects seemed to exist as two things simultaneously. As that face came into being, time accelerated back to normal almost instantly.
"LILLIAN VISROYALE" The Husk's rasping horror of a voice boomed outwards as it slammed the ever swapping object into the flat face of Grey.
An impossible light flooded the area around the contact point, Both darker than the black of the night but brighter than the sun, it obscured the area around The Husk's hand to such a degree that only The Husk's head was still visible through the obstruction. The binding around the head of The Husk ripped open, that horrid darkness underneath revealed once more. Like a pulsing heart of something beyond the world of man given a form, it should never have had. The darkness reached out from within the binding, clawing at the impossible light, grasping at the blackened white, attempting to take hold of something.
When it found what it was looking for, it yanked back into the flat now hollow face of The Husk, sucking a purplish-black liquidy fog from the blinding light. As it dragged in more of that fog, the light became more and more white, like it was being purified and returned to a natural form.
When the light became a pure white, all of the purple-black liquid ripped away from it, the darkness pulsed again, like a beast swallowing its meal. Apparently satisfied, the darkness reached forward once more, grabbing the ripped edges of the bandages and pulling them together once more, closing the opening of The Husk's face.
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Kahr froze at the sound of those words, or more accurately, at the horrendous imitation of a voice that spoke them. He recognized it, but it should have been impossible for that thing to be here or for it to speak.
"Oh, you seem unsettled. I wouldn't have anything to do with that, would I?" That grating voice seemed to crawl along Kahr's shoulders, moving around him like a beast circling its prey. "No." Those invisible hand's caressed across his mind, finding purchase in the memory of that thing, pulling it to the surface. "This isn't your first encounter with one of my kind."
Kahr saw a man he didn't know the name of sitting, bound to a metal chair. Fear filled the man's eyes, but the gag in his mouth stopped him from saying anything. The man had an open wound in his stomach, just below the sternum. It was surprisingly bleeding very little for the size of the injury. The boss stood in front of the man, holding a gem just like the one Kahr had lost.
With a strange amount of glee on his face, the boss reached forward, slowly pushing the crystal into the open wound, eliciting a muffled scream of pain from the bound man.
"GET OUTTA MUH HEAD" Kahr screamed, trying to shake away the memory before he was forced to relive that scene.
"Touchy touchy. Well, it's to be expected." That horrendous, not a voice wrapped around Kahr, somehow feeling like a sheet of mud on his mind. As it spoke, the hands pulled away from the memory, letting it sink back below the surface for the moment. "Well, we can always play in other ways. I believe you mentioned to father that you like a good fight; why not entertain me a little?"
"Sorry, I ain't got any interest in dealin with sometin like yuh, or whatever yuh think is yo daddy," Kahr said, resuming his walk to the far edge of the plaza.
"Oh, but aren't you forgetting something?" The grating sound was punctuated by the purplish-black gem falling through Kahrs field of view before vanishing yet again.
"Fuck that thing." Kahr Exclaimed. "I ain't dealin with something like you, for that," Kahr said, continuing to walk away.
"Fine, fine, fine. I could always go have fun with your friend instead." The horrific imitation of a voice sounded almost humored as it spoke.
Kahr lurched forward as two things happened to his mind at the same time. The first was one of those hands yanking on the memory of the boss pushing that gem into the bound man. The second was another one of those hands forcing a foreign memory into Kahrs mind. Straun lay against a tree, a pool of blood gathering around him. The arrow he'd complained about before lodged almost entirely through his chest, having ripped a hole straight through the right side of his body. Despite his wound, straun still held his rifle to his shoulder, aiming it toward the city. "Who the fuck still uses a bow and arrow?" Straun muttered under his breath.
"DON'T YOU TOUCH HIM." Kahr bellowed, understanding the implied threat from the two memories.
"KEHAHAHEHEHAHA" A piercing, mocking laughter filled all of Kahrs senses, forcing out even the sight of the pavilion. "Well, I will admit, I don't exactly care for such things; the fun would end too soon. So, let's make a deal." The atrocity placed its voice directly behind Kahr before continuing. "Intertain me till the enforcer get's here, and I'll guarantee you both get away alive."
Kahr considered the offer; at first glance, it appeared fine. But, whenever Kahr thought of accepting it, something felt off about how it was worded.
"Tick, tock. I don't have all day; I will need you to answer sooner rather than later." The unseen abomination pushed Kahr to make a decision.
"be a whole lot easier tu choose if I knew when that enforcer was gettin here." Kahr voiced a portion of his concern.
"I'll put it this way, the only reason they aren't here yet is that they haven't noticed I'm here; that will change as soon as we start." That disgusting imitation of speech slithered through Kahrs mind, somehow conveying that it didn't intend to deceive.
Kahr debated for only a second more before recalling the sight of straun with an arrow in his chest and a pool of blood around his seated position. The realization that Straun had chosen to leave the arrow in his chest instead of removing it and closing the wound told Kahr everything he needed to know about his chances of getting there in time to help him.
"Fine, less play, you freak." Kahr voiced his agreement and readied his weapon all at once.
"KEHAHAHAHA, good, good. In the spirit of giving you a fair chance," The abomination drifted its voice once more around Kahr's head before pulling it in a particular direction. "we'll start this by facing each other."
Kahr turned to face the sound and found a sight outside of his expectations.