Vyx sat alone in the small wooden cabin in the backyard. She was sprawled out on an old yellow couch decorated with faded white flowers, and she covered her eyes with her hands. Suddenly, she came to a firm resolution and shot up from the plush cushions and reached underneath the thin space between the bottom of the couch and the wood-paneled floor. Her body twisted awkwardly as her arm rummaged under the couch, but she eventually grabbed the rim of a grey bin and yanked it out into the naturally lit space. The small glass jars in the bin rattled against each other, and their varying shapes, sizes, and colors created a fluid mosaic.
Within each jar was a glowing sphere. Some spheres were bigger than others; some glowed more intensely while others were dimmer, but each one radiated with traces of vita. Vyx unscrewed the lid of a tiny clear jar and shook the sphere into her palm. She looked at it closely, observing the wiggling vita. The core had belonged to a tri-horned wolf that had unfortunately found its way into Vyx’s backyard. It was the middle of the night, but Vyx had been awake and brushing her hair by her bedroom window when she caught a glimpse of its shiny black fur. She vividly remembered setting her brush down on her vanity before leaping out her window. At the time, her ability to ‘pull’ vita was not nearly as good, so she landed heavily on the ground. The large wolf had glanced at the small girl with its fierce, golden eyes, which was its mistake. Vyx felt a rush of adrenaline in her veins when she made contact with those beautiful golden eyes and sprinted toward the wolf at high acceleration. She lunged forward to grasp a thread in the air that connected to the wolf’s tail but missed and tumbled into the dirt when the wolf dashed to the right as fast as the wind. She played this game of chase and grab until she finally managed to slice a vita vein in the wolf’s leg, rendering it stupid. Vyx had prowled around the wolf until she saw an opening to grab a string of vita flowing out of the wolf’s heart. She yanked harshly, and the wolf howled in pain before collapsing to the ground, shallowly breathing.
That was the first time Vyx had killed a beast without slicing its core or eating its meat. She found that the glowing golden orb she had only ever seen with her vision was a physical orb in the wolf’s chest, and she had pried it out with blook-soaked hands. Eventually, with more hunts with Rowan, Vyx realized that only stronger beasts manifested a physical vita core, and she came to recognize how strong a beast was based on how dense the vita strands flowing out of its core were. At a high density, Vyx could easily grab onto the vita strands but had trouble cutting them with her own vita, which she manifested into a blade on the tip of her pointer finger. She had kept as many cores as she could through the years, each one its own beautiful wonder that she enjoyed watching. Her collection quickly grew as she became a better hunter, and now the large grey bin had been filled with the cores of hundreds of beasts.
Vyx raised the golden orb in her hand to the window pane and smiled as it grew brighter, wrapped in sunlight. She turned the orb around slowly, watching the vita writhe.
With a glunk sound, Vyx popped the orb into her mouth and swallowed. She felt her belly warm with energy. The golden threads of the orb unraveled and mingled with her own unique vita until they blended in like melting chocolate. Slowly but carefully, Vyx unscrewed the lid of each glass bottle and swallowed the various orbs one by one. She had to wind up the larger cores into smaller, denser beads in order to swallow them.
Vyx saved the biggest orb for last. It glowed a rich, dark green and smelled mossy. She fondly thought back to her hardest-fought battle with a tree-root-thing that had annoyingly shot its sharp wooden roots from the ground. Luckily, Vyx could predict the trajectory of the roots based on sudden increases in vita concentration from the ground. She had not escaped unscathed, however, and had nearly gotten her left arm sliced off. She was bedridden for days after Laurel had found her bloodied in the backyard. When she woke up, Vyx admitted to Rowan and Laurel about sneaking off to find beasts at night, and Rowan promptly widened and strengthened his illusion barrier to seal up the area.
Vyx concentrated on the green orb. The vita thrashed wildly under her gaze. Vyx felt the familiar sensation of her own vita flowing to her hands, although much stronger than just a few hours ago. She concentrated her vita on her fingertips, and when she felt her nails begin to burn, she grabbed the whipping green strands of the large green orb and wound up the threads as tight as she could. She clutched the orb in one hand and reinforced her throat with vita before swallowing the dense orb. It clawed at the insides of her mouth and sliced her throat raw but eventually melted into her stream of vita, meeting the same fate as the other cores. Vyx stood up, pained, and clawed at her stomach, which felt like it was on fire. She fell to her knees on the wooden floor and passed out on the old couch, sending jars and lids rolling all over the floor.
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When Vyx woke up, her head throbbed angrily. She grasped the armrest of the couch and flopped onto the couch cushions. The sun was long gone, and the quiet chirping of crickets filled the air. Vyx laid still as a rock, but inside her body, her vita ran wildly, threatening to burst from the seams or, instead, explode her organs. Vyx curled into a ball, forcing her vita to withdraw into her core. She felt her core condense until it weighed her down into the couch cushions, and she finally let out a breath she wasn’t aware she was holding. Her red knit sweater was soaked with sweat and tears.
Outside the cabin, Rowan leaned against the door with his heavy arms crossed. His white tank top was soaked with sweat from his sprint back to the cottage when he felt a vita disturbance in the air. Although Rowan wasn’t able to see the vita strands in the air dancing wildly, he was at the caliber that he could feel shifts of it in the air in the direction of his family. The large man sighed into his chest, thinking about his reckless daughter. He knew for a fact neither he nor Laurel had told Vyx about eating beast cores, but the fact that his daughter had tested it out herself and snuck off to hunt beasts on her own made his stomach turn. Part of him was proud, seeing that Vyx was stronger than any girl her age he knew and naturally curious. The other, fatherly side of him was scared. Scared of how naturally Vyx could hunt. How ‘useful’ she could be.
“Rowan…” Laurel’s soft voice lingered in the cool night air. She appeared from the cottage's back door, wrapped in a flimsy nightgown. She rubbed her eyes and stepped onto the back porch, shoeless and yawning. Seeing his lovely wife, Rowan’s nerves calmed. He rushed across the grass to sweep Laurel off her feet and into the warmth of the cottage.
Sitting by the crackling fire in the living room, Rowan gingerly held Laurel in his lap. Even though they had been married for quite some time, his heart still raced at the sight of his wife’s hazy green eyes looking up at him from underneath her long, raven eyelashes. Laurel’s signature cruel smile crawled onto her face. She reached one of her ivory hands onto Rowan’s chest and grazed her finger in between his two covered pecs. Her beefy husband jolted and glanced down at her hand, and his ears reddened as his gaze drifted to her legs, which were barely covered by her sheer nightgown.
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Rowan suddenly looked up as he felt, suddenly, that the fire had gotten hotter.
“Ahem,” he coughed, “I think…we should keep an eye on Vyx tonight.” Rowan strengthened his will as Laurel’s milky hand drifted to his stomach.
“Why?” Laurel asked sweetly, “Because she ate all those cores?”
“...So you knew.” Rowan sighed at his wife's coy habits. She always cheekily pushed Vyx, even if she knew one day she wouldn’t be able to protect her anymore. Laurel had felt the vita in the air shift, too, earlier that day. It was as if all the vita in the area came swarming to their backyard. Laurel and Rowan knew that Vyx was keeping cores. They weren’t always aware of how she had gotten them, but a few months ago, when Vyx returned with the glowing orb of C-class tree sentential, they both knew that their peaceful times were coming to an end. To be able to defeat a C-class beast with no proper training was not unheard of, but rare, and most who were pushed into the unfortunate circumstance did not return alive.
“Hmm.” Laurel hummed and drifted her hand lower. She looked up at her embarrassed husband.
“Look at me.” She purred. Rowan felt his head involuntarily bend down.
“She will be fine.”
“I know, I’m just worri-” Rowan sucked in a breath as he felt Laurel's cold hands slide underneath his top. She drew circles on his abdomen.
“Laurel…” Rowan warned. He gripped the sofa armrests, leaving indents. Laurel’s cheeks were flushed, too. She planted a small peck on Rowan’s chest.
“Fuck.” Rowan scooped up his energetic wife and carried her towards the stairs. He felt her cool arms wrap around his neck as she licked her lips and brought her face up to his. Her cruel smile widened.
˙˙˙˙˙
Rowan woke up exhausted. He sat up and rubbed his arms, which were sore after a long, demanding night. He glanced over to the empty side of the bed. His wife was scarily energetic.
Rowan hopped in the shower and felt the cool water slide down his body. A few drops slipped into the crevices between his muscles and paused at the long scar on his back. He shaved away his stubble and threw on a comfortable pair of joggers. He picked out a plain, grey shirt from his drawer and stepped in front of the mirror, only to see a few marks of his wife’s possessiveness peek out from his shirt collar. He quickly changed into a sleeveless turtleneck sweater that complimented the crimson blush creeping onto his face.
Laurel was singing in the kitchen. She flipped two blueberry pancakes on the griddle. The sweet scent of wild blueberries wafted out into the backyard, rousing the sleeping Vyx. She groaned as she pushed open the wooden door of the cabin and slinked into the cottage.
“G’morning,” Vyx yawned. Her entire body felt sore, not like a post-workout session, but more like a small tribe of rabbits had repeatedly stomped on her internal organs. Laurel set a steaming stack of pancakes in front of Vyx and pushed the maple syrup bottle to her. Vyx knew she knew. Laurel knew she knew she knew. Rowan jogged down the stairs and knew that the girls knew something he didn’t know. Breakfast was silent but not uncomfortable.
As Vyx and Rowan each swallowed the last buttery goodness of their large pancake stacks, Vyx set her silverware on the table and looked out the window.
“Yesterday…” she started, “I ate a lot. I am very full now.”
“We know, sweetie.” Laurel laughed lightly. “Just tell us next time.” Her voice hardened, and she thought back to the cold fear that ran through her veins when she felt the large shift in vita.
“And…” Vyx glanced shyly at her parents, “I want to go to the tower.”
Everything in the room stilled. The only things preventing the ringing depth of silence were the birds chirping outside.
“Vyx…” Rowan’s low voice echoed in the large space, “we just don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I know. I’m not saying that I don’t like it here. You know that I don’t like crowded spaces because the vita is too overwhelming, but I think I could make it work. Nobody would recognize me anyways, and I’m not particularly interested in teaming up with anyone.”
“What do you mean?” Laurel thought of her old team. She grimaced internally.
“I-I was thinking of hiding my identity. For my safety and our safety. I am only really interested in the tower, nothing else.”
Rowan thought of the idea of his daughter leaving the forest alone. He was worried about her fighting monsters alone. He was worried she would get lost. He was worried that weird men might approach her. He only felt a small amount of relief knowing that she would not be betrayed.
“Realistically speaking, how far up do you think I could climb, right now.” Vyx looked at her parents, former hunters.
Laurel pondered the question. She had never thought about it before. The tower had been cleared to the 16th floor by now, but she had only climbed up to the 10th. In her recollection, the first 10 floors of the tower had been cleared in 6 years. She heard that the most recent floors had been getting more and more difficult, with the first appearance of an S-class beast on the 15th floor.
“Maybe the sixth?” Laurel shocked herself by answering. An excited chill ran down her spine. She glanced at Rowan, who was lost in thought.
“How about now?” Vyx grabbed one of Laurel and Rowan’s hands in her own. She willed her vita to flow to her hands to press against their palms. Laurel was shocked. Her daughter’s vita felt much more domineering than she remembered. Just how many cores did she eat?
“How many cores did you eat yesterday?” Rowan asked what Laurel was thinking. He, too, had been shocked, and now his face was filled with worry.
“Um, maybe a hundred?” Vyx thought back to the half-empty bin of bottles. She scratched her cheek with her fingernail. Saying the number out loud made her realize how reckless she had been.
“A HUNDRED?!” Laurel shrieked. She clawed at her hair in disbelief. Sure, twenty or so E-class cores could be fine, but a hundred of varying strength was really a lot for a beginner. Laurel sat back down on her cushioned chair.
“I guess if it’s you…” she mumbled.
Rowan said nothing at all. He looked at her daughter like she was an enigma. Amazing, he thought to himself.
“That would make sense.” Rowan coughed and rubbed his temples. “You have gotten a lot stronger. I think…the eighth floor would be a reach for you.”
“That’s because you don’t have a lot of experience in the tower.” Laurel chimed in. “The tower is very different from the forest. Beasts attack in groups and can plot together. Starting from the fifth floor, they even have elemental abilities. There are many beasts that don’t exist out here that rule each floor. It won’t be like any hunts you’ve gone on before.” Laurel felt an excitement she hadn’t felt in a long time with all this tower talk. She glanced at Rowan, who shared a knowing look. Rowan cleared his throat.
“Let’s figure out a plan.”