"A clumsy attempt… but a bold one. You have potential."
The voice of Lho Rho, the Second Contender, was both deep and soft -- such that you had to carefully listen to catch his words. With a peaceful expression on his face, he released the grey sword in his hand and let it collapse back into dust. Eyes made cloudy by cataracts looked down sightlessly at the defeated girl.
She looked back up at him, her face twisted by rage and frustration. The sword she'd been using lay shattered at her side, and the impromptu armour she'd put together was a wreck.
When the girl had first been told about these Contenders, this blind man hadn't been what she'd imagined. He was in his mid-thirties, slight and thin, with dark skin and dreadlocks. The war-robes he wore were ancient-looking, moth-bitten, probably older than he himself. They were loose, too, making him look like a child who'd gotten into his parents' wardrobe -- if not for the sheer dignity he exuded.
Those eyes saw nothing, and yet they were still looking down on her. Damnit. Damnit.
"What did you hope to achieve here, child?" Lho Rho squatted down next to her. "My Supreme rests in the next room. Surely you didn't intend to target him?"
"Shut up," the girl hissed. Child? She was fifteen, not ten.
Rho sighed. "So you did. This was not wise. My strength is significant, but my Supreme eclipses me by far. You are fortunate it was I that was standing guard, and not the Avaman. You would be dead by now. He is not as discreet as I."
Discreet? The girl could have laughed. The walls of the palace antechamber were covered in great gouges, marks left from their brief bout, deep scars inflicted by Lho Rho's dust manipulation. It was a wonder the ceiling hadn't collapsed in on them, and he called this discreet?
"But as I said… you have potential." Lho Rho continued quietly. "The bravery to challenge a Contender, and the spark of talent. It would be wrong for me to snuff out such a fire before it can blaze. That is not the way of the Tree of Might."
He reached out a hand, and the girl looked at it as if it were a loaded gun.
"What is your name, little one?" Lho Rho asked.
She came up with the answer on the spot. "...Paradise. Paradise Charon."
----------------------------------------
Bruno created a shield, and Serena crushed it into a sword. They'd practiced this so much that, by now, it was nearly automatic.
With a slash, they severed the massive branch that had rushed forth to impale them -- and kicked off the severed section to launch themselves towards Charon. As they flew, two more shield-swords were created in their hands. Warped screams and laughter rang out from the Forest of Sin around them, but they paid it no mind. Within this inner sanctum, at least, they were safe from the worst of the ability.
It was three-against-one, but Bruno still couldn't help but feel uncertain. This was a Contender they were dealing with, after all. One of the five strongest people in the Supremacy, people basically considered demi-gods. But even if he was afraid, he couldn't allow that to slow his blade or his step.
She's a human just like us, Bruno, Serena said encouragingly. She has a heart that beats and a brain that thinks. So long as we can get one of those, we can win!
"Right," Bruno mouthed silently -- and in that same moment, he was upon Charon.
With a resounding war-cry, he unleashed a flurry of slashes upon the massive woman -- but each was dodged with contemptuous ease, his opponent moving with the languid grace of a gymnast. That last swing of her body transitioned into a mighty kick -- and even with a last-minute shield, Bruno was sent flying.
Belias of the Black, the Cardinal Beast with the Guardian Entity Genbu, leapt in to cover Bruno. Even with his massive size, the former Regulator was blindingly fast, moving with such speed that every movement appeared like a blur. He swung his massive greatsword again and again, but flexible branches and vines lunged in from the walls to seize hold of and restrain the blade.
With a mighty tug he tore it free, but his overhead smash was caught by Paradise with one hand.
The Contender smirked. "Two against one isn't exactly sporting, but I suppose it's the only way you have a chance of winning. Still… I don't think it's something I want to deal with right now." As she held the sword in place, her eyes flicked over to Bruno. "You can wait your turn."
There was a massive creaking squelch, and the wall of branches Bruno was heading towards opened up vertically into a grotesque orifice. Bruno went to create a shield he could use to stop his flight, but too late -- a barrage of thorny vines surged out of the hole, seizing them by the limbs and pulling them out of the sanctuary.
Bruno started screaming as the thorns tore at his arms and legs -- and Serena took over the scream, forming blades after blades and slashing at the restraints. They fell limp to the ground, but the damage was done.
They were in the Forest proper now. They were in Hell.
A wretched, warped landscape of trees winding around each other like tentacles, uncanny faces straining out of the bark, twisting and writhing. Red light shone down from unnatural and eldritch vegetation, bathing them in a bloody glow, and from everywhere there was the sound of screaming. The real screams of the Forest's victims, and the false screams of its own mocking impersonations.
Serena turned to head back towards the sanctum, but it was long gone. The wild undergrowth beneath their feet was moving, too -- like the surface of a treadmill -- and it had already taken them far from their original location.
"Darn," she muttered.
There was no time for despair. Serena leapt up as a tree trunk the size of a train smashed down, narrowly avoiding being crushed. As she jumped, she seized hold of one of the tree's branches and flipped backwards onto the top of the trunk -- and from there she ran along its surface.
The Forest of Sin attacked from all sides. Vines and tendrils stabbed towards her from the darkness. Toothy maws of bark opened up beneath her feet, barely slow enough for her to avoid having her legs chopped off. Glowing red specks, like fireflies, flew towards her eyes, mandibles eager to nibble at the soft tissue there.
Through the vast crimson landscape, Serena could see this same hellscape stretching on and on, trees writhing through the air. She leapt off the trunk of this tree as the tendrils grew too close, hopping from shield to shield to stop herself from falling, and descended to the ground.
A flurry of jagged leaves, like a blizzard of shurikens, rushed through the clearing -- and Bruno took over, projecting a massive multilayered shield in front of them to defend against the barrage. As the leaves battered against the forcefield, Bruno remained on one knee, putting all of his focus and Aether into protection. Just one of those leaves would be enough to slice through human flesh and bone -- he could tell just by looking.
Ting. Ting. Ting. Ting. Ting.
The leaves bounced off the shield like bullets against steel, the omnipresent voices jeering in dissatisfaction, but Bruno paid it no mind. He had to think of their next move.
Just running forever wasn't an option, and neither was getting back to Charon. They'd have to exit the Forest entirely, then prepare some other kind of attack. They'd have to --
"Yo, Bruno," said Cott, standing right behind them.
Concentration wavered -- and with it, so did the shield. Blood flew up into the air.
----------------------------------------
When Paradise Charon had been young, she had been called Perda, and they had put flowers in her hair.
It had only been natural that her village had adored her. As she'd grown up, she'd become beautiful and intelligent, with a keen understanding of people and the world around her. She'd used a bow like the best of their hunters, she'd thrust a spear like the best of their warriors, and she'd brought her people together like the best of their chiefs. Back then, she hadn't even conceived of things like Lilith Worlds or the Supremacy. As far as she was concerned, that tiny planet of hers was the extent of the universe.
Even now, those memories were infuriating. The sole thing that planet had ever accomplished was producing her.
They'd known about the crash landing even before seeing it. The forest they’d lived in could think, after all -- passing thoughts between its roots like the neurons of a human brain. Those who knew how it worked could read it like a book. It was simplicity itself for the chief to sense the star that had fallen from the sky, and send her best warriors to find it.
Needless to say, Perda had been among them. She had led the group as they made their way through dense undergrowth, through caverns and caves, across vast fields, on their quest to find the one who had fallen from the heavens. Looking back, Paradise knew now that was the first thing she'd done that had mattered during her fourteen years of life.
The starship -- even if they hadn't known to call it that yet -- had formed a crater as it landed, but was mostly unharmed. They’d found the pilot unconscious, clad in a strange suit, and nursed him back to health over the next few weeks. As he recovered, he spoke -- and those things he told them shook them to their core.
Those things he told them made everything else meaningless.
They were not alone in the universe. They were a tiny dot in a galaxy that they had long since forgotten, and that had long since forgotten them. They were irrelevant. They were laughable. They were savages.
There was a world of wonders out there, and she had been content with flowers in her hair.
It was humiliating.
----------------------------------------
Bruno clutched his ravaged arm as he took a step back from the sight before him. The limb had taken the brunt of the barrage, and now -- along with the damage it had already sustained -- it looked like a red bleeding piece of meat. Even with all that, though, the pain was the furthest thing from Bruno's mind.
Cottian del Sed stood there, just as he'd been when he died, wearing that damn blazer and tie. He looked at them inquisitively, eyes framed by long ginger hair.
"What's wrong?" he said, voice clear. "Cat got your tongue, Bruno?"
Cott, Bruno thought, a chill rushing over his body. His legs trembled beneath him.
Serena replied quickly. What do you mean? she asked.
It's Cott!
Her confusion was unchanged. No it's not! Just look at him!
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Bruno looked -- he looked -- and saw that she was right. Looking at the boy before him, at first, Bruno could only see Cott -- could only see his old friend and enemy, strolling casually towards him. But if he moved slightly, if he adjusted the angle of his gaze, he saw something else entirely, as if this thing was some kind of magic eye puzzle.
That was not Cott. That was a collection of vines and branches and roots, wrapped together in the vaguest approximation of a humanoid form, with a 'face' of pale tubers. That was a monster, lurching towards him, glowing with a red light from its unnatural innards.
Bruno narrowed his eyes, plucking another shield-sword from the air, and the creature stopped in its tracks.
"Oh?" it gurgled, still in Cott's voice. "You can see through it? It seems you can see through it. That's surprising. This trick gets most people. Maybe there's something different about your psychology?"
"Who are you?" Bruno demanded, shifting into a combat stance, invisible sword reared back like a snake. He had some idea already, but…
"Isn't it obvious?" the thing chuckled harshly. "I'm the Forest of Sin -- or a part of it, anyway. It really is surprising, though -- right now I should be looking like someone else entirely. You're pretty special, huh?"
It was bizarre. Even though Bruno could see the thing for what it was -- an indistinct mass of vegetation, shifting and changing each moment -- he could still hear Cott coming from it. Not just his voice, but his words -- the way he spoke, the way he put a sentence together. Like a verbal version of the uncanny valley.
"Get out of my head," Bruno growled.
A mouth of jagged petals grinned. "But I have a proposition for you. You don't want to listen?"
Before Bruno could answer, Serena spoke out of their mouth. "You look like a liar," she said simply. "You sound like a liar. Why would we believe you?"
The thing's 'head' popped off and swung down like a pendulum, still attached to the rest of the mass by a thin green strand of tissue.
"We?" it echoed, before chuckling again. "Oh, I get it. That's great. There's two of you in there, right? And I can only read one, so the disguise is half-assed. That's actually kinda genius, you --"
Serena swung the shield-sword at the Sinner with all her strength -- but it just launched itself off the ground, latching onto the branch of a tree above. It hung there, upside-down like a bat, as it continued to speak.
"You don't need to be so violent… Serena?" it said, tasting the words. "It's Serena, right? I think I've got a bead on you now. Your Aether changed, didn't it? Just now? I saw it. I saw it."
Indeed, it had. At the very moment Serena had taken the driver's seat, Bruno's purple Aether had brightened into a vibrant violet.
Serena pointed the sword up at it. "So what?" she demanded, frowning.
The image of Cott flickered back into place, replacing the Sinner, but imperfectly. He hung there, body warped and stretched, folded into itself like origami, the only thing unmarred being his grinning face.
"Aether is proof of consciousness. You need to think to use Aether, right? It's the basic requirement. Like the height thing on a rollercoaster. The fact your Aether changed proves you're a different consciousness. That's how I knew. Anyway, like I said, I have a proposition for you," it breathed. "A proposition. Pro-po-sit-ion. It's one I think you'll like. Very advantageous for you."
Serena's eyes flicked around, making sure no attacks were coming from the sides, before she looked back up at the Sinner.
"What kind of proposition?" she muttered.
The grin widened. "You're an Aether-user, a very talented Aether-user. That trick you do with the shield and the sword? Inspired. I like it. I like you guys a lot."
They didn't have time for this. Belias and Wolfram were taking on a Contender, and here they were -- chatting up her ability. Serena's lip straightened into a tense line.
"If you've got something to say, say it," she said firmly. "Last warning."
Broken fingers, bending the wrong way, grasped leisurely at the air as the Sinner spoke.
"I find myself dissatisfied. Dis-sat-is-fied. Paradise is powerful, yes, but her attitude… haha, no thank you. I think it's time for a change."
The face flickered -- from Cott, to the plant, to Cott again. That familiar expression stretched out unfamiliarly like a sail.
"How about you guys become my users, instead?"
Serena blinked. “What? Really?”
“Sure,” the Sinner purred. “It’s a good deal for you guys too, right? It’s basically a guaranteed win against Charon.” It inched just a little bit closer, drooping down from the tree. “I just need to make some adjustments, and we can go about --”
Serena swung the sword. She didn’t like to swear, but at this point she knew bullshit when she heard it.
----------------------------------------
For ten years after the day she had tried and failed to kill the Supreme, for ten years after the day Lho Rho had defeated her, Paradise Charon did nothing but train. The Second Contender took her under his wing and taught her the ways of the sword and the gun, the ways of the warrior and the killer, the ways of Aether. For those years, Lho Rho was as good as her parent -- that was the depth of their bond. He was a hard teacher, but an effective one.
She drilled with the sword until it felt like her arms would drop off. She drilled with the sword until she could take a head off with a wave of her hand.
She fired the gun until she thought she would go deaf, even through the protection of noise cancellers. She fired the gun until she could hit a bullseye at a hundred yards.
She meditated, finding her Aether fully, discovering and clarifying the core of adoration that dwelled within her. She meditated until she could tap into that core with just the slightest thought of the suffering she'd endured.
Even as she trained, though, those words still echoed in her brain.
A clumsy attempt…
Even as she stood on her burning homeworld, recording the Forest of her youth, remembering with humiliation the flowers they'd put in her hair.
A clumsy attempt…
Even as she kneeled alongside Lho Rho, before the Supreme, her ultimate target, pledging her service to him until the day she died -- ignoring that disinterested dullness in his eyes.
A clumsy attempt…
Finally, at the close of those ten years, she stood -- an apprenticeship all but completed -- across from Lho Rho, in the dark hall of the Shesha. The time had come to repeat their duel from so long ago, to see how far Paradise had come, to see if she was ready to make a true attempt on the Supreme and join the ranks of the Contenders.
She held her sword out in two hands, the blade long and thin, perfect to stick between ribs. She'd had it specially made -- a trigger built right into the hilt. Slow sweat trickled down her forehead.
"Before we begin," her mentor said. "I would like to say something."
He held his hand out, and the ambient dust coalesced into a sword for him to grab. At the same time, more grey swords appeared in the air above him, aiming at Paradise -- ready to launch.
"Your progress has been astounding, your strength even more so," Lho Rho continued. "Were you to have joined the Tree of Might, I have no doubt you would have already attained the rank of First Branch. That is more your own talent than the virtue of my teaching. Paradise… you are my pride."
Words of praise were rare from the lips of the Second Contender. An equally rare smile tugged at Paradise's lips. "Thank you," she said softly.
"Now…" Lho Rho drew his blade back. "Shall we --"
Paradise pulled the trigger.
Lho Rho's Aether ability, Kingdom Come, allowed him to manipulate the dust around him. He could use it to form swords, shields, even additional limbs -- but that was not the extent of his prowess. He could even place dust inside his own body and control it, providing automatic defense against internal threats. Paradise had tried to poison him three times over the years, but Kingdom Come had always repelled it. His ability was so proficient that Lho Rho himself hadn't even noticed the attacks.
This time, however, she was confident -- and she had good reason.
Lho Rho immediately fell to one knee, the swords around him collapsing back into dust as he drew in a sharp and tortured breath. It had only been seconds since the tiny capsule in his body had opened, and already his eyes were so bloodshot they looked like twinkling rubies. As he tried to pick himself up, the skin on his hands bubbled, and his fingers began to slough away to the floor like clumps of grease.
He wheezed with lungs that were not long for this world. "What… did you…"
Paradise smirked as she sheathed her own sword. "The venom of a Gene Tyrant isn't easy to acquire," she said casually. "But I've made friends over the years, Mr. Rho. Favours exchanged for favours exchanged for favours eventually put what I wanted in my hands -- and from there, it found its way into your drink. Not even Kingdom Come can defend against that. You're done."
The skin on Rho's face began to sag hideously, drooping down over his throat, but the look in his eyes was unmistakable. That arrogant disapproval. Paradise couldn't help but scoff.
"As if I'd risk fighting you," she said. "This entire room is your sword. I'd be cut to pieces. I'm happy just to wait and watch. Besides… this is much more like what you deserve."
When Rho opened his mouth, blood poured free, but he spoke all the same.
"Why…?"
Why? Paradise felt her blood boil -- and before she could stop herself, she had lunged forward, seizing the disintegrating Rho by the collar and pulling him up to her face. She could see the reflection of her own enraged expression in those rubied eyes.
"Clumsy?" she hissed, spittle flying from her lips. "Clumsy?! How dare you speak to me like that. How dare you."
Paradise could see it in his eyes, though, and that only caused her anger to rise further. He didn't even remember, did he? Unbelievable.
Before Rho could say anything else, or take another putrid breath, Paradise hurled him down to the ground -- and that was enough to finish him. There was a sickening crunch as his bones collapsed in on himself, his corpse resembling little more than a pile of bloody slop.
Paradise wiped her shoes clean of the mess before composing herself. A position was now open among the Contenders. She had never intended to serve alongside Rho, never serving, but to replace him. She would take the place that had belonged to him…
…and then, in time, the place of the one above all.
Then, and only then, would her humiliation be avenged.
----------------------------------------
"You were quite good, if that's any consolation," Paradise said mildly, looking up at her prey with half-lidded eyes. "Unfortunately, 'quite good' doesn't cut it when you're up against a Contender."
Belias of the Black, the strange Scurrant who'd challenged her, hung in the air -- his body pierced by half-a-dozen branches that had surged in from every direction. His shell had been hard, and he had been fast, but her Forest of Sin always found soft flesh eventually.
Even now, she could see black veins spreading out from the wounds, the Forest making its influence known.
"Your ability is weight manipulation," she said, putting one hand on her hip. "Manipulation of your own weight, to be exact. It's how you crashed down through the firmament of my Forest, and how someone like you can move so quickly. You're formidable… but it was a clumsy attempt."
Belias strained against the branches, but to no avail. They had already drained most of his strength -- and several more branches speared into his armpits just to drive the point home. The massive tortoise-man grunted in pain, but that was all he could do.
"You're a useful shape to have around," Paradise smiled. "But I don't need you to be alive for that. I'll take that heart of yours and give you a bundle of roots instead."
With a mere thought, her Forest responded. A massive appendage, like a thick wooden spear, descended from the ceiling -- its blade-like protrusion pointed directly at Belias' chest.
Paradise licked her lips in anticipation, and then --
"Farewell."
-- there was a resounding crash as part of the wall collapsed inwards, right to her side. A collection of loyal vines plucked her from the ground and pulled her away from the debris before it could hit her, but the distraction was still enough to prevent her from delivering the killing blow. Paradise clicked her tongue as she looked up at the interloper.
“I thought I’d sent you away,” she glared. “Clearly you don’t know when you’re not wanted.”
Yakob del Sed breathed heavily -- standing in the hole they’d sliced through the wall -- their face covered with scratches, their limbs oozing blood from deep wounds. In one hand, they clutched that invisible sword. In the other, they held the severed head of one of the Forest of Sin’s protrusions.
Their glare was nearly as intense as Paradise’s. “Negotiations fell through.”