Ewan’s Ryvia dimmed down only a few steps into the cave and flatlined after he crossed a couple of rotten and festering corpses. The rank and the putrid stench with an underlying tone of sickening sweetness blasted his sensitive smell without his Ryvia blockage. Kidd vomited at the third encounter while Ewan had to concentrate to tolerate the passive assault. He took his time to get used to the repulsive condition and only walked forward when his nose was numb.
Signs of destruction lay around the dead spell circuits, and the damage to the floor and the walls intensified the further he went. Exploded potholes, chipped stones, cracked ceiling, chopped walls, they all conveyed the final moments of each mortal who died for it.
The success of his tactic eased Ewan’s tensed nerves, but another matter still nagged him—the Kyrons’ had juiced out the traps, yet the cave suppressed his Ryvia. It was a matter of concern and sparked hesitation, but he still chose to walk in. As long as the cave’s ability to counter him didn’t cross his tolerance limit, he wouldn’t back down.
“Boss, I can't see anything,” Kidd said, sticking close to Ewan. The echoing clacks of their boots shot back at them and melded into the ghost-quiet background, as if it was always a part of it.
Ewan halted, and stopped Kidd behind him, and the hushed cave only left a sharp ring in his ears. Even he lost his vision now, let alone Kidd. The path ahead was pitch dark. He couldn’t see any end, neither could he see his steps, and his heart thumped. The hostile factors were stacking up, and the malice thickened in the air.
The wind carried the distant murmurs, and they cursed him for their misery. He denied their right to live, he took away their right to struggle. Even if they survived at the bottom of the barrel, they still wished to see the sun, they still wished taste the salt, and they still wished to live another day…
The perished damned him for their deaths, and they only wished him agony in their whispers.
When the wave passed, they left him in dead silence. Their synced breaths had never felt this loud. Something caressed the back of his neck, and a gentle yet frigid touch crept up his arms. His scalp numbed; they weren’t alone in here…
Ewan wondered whether the cave had tricked him into coming in by using the man’s vitals. And if it did, its implications were grim—it meant that the cave was alive and sentient enough to use his spell against him…
Unlikely, he determined after a barrage of wishful thoughts. If such was the case, then defiance wasn’t an option, he wouldn’t be able to resist.
To err on the side of caution though, the idea of backing away sparked in his mind. And when it took root, his instincts blared the sirens, the warning bell went off in his head, and his spine shivered. He gulped, his parched throat stung, and licked his dry lips. He regretted coming in, he regretted spending so much time and resources on it. He fed the monster, and now, the monster would feast on him.
His reasoning spiraled down, the threat muddled his mind, and his body grew colder and colder. Soon his senses deadened and his connection to the world snapped. Once again, he’d encountered death in all its glory, and once again, he was powerless against it.
The fear of death gripped him and stretched out its hand towards the last wisp of the flickering fire. However, he fought back and resisted his end. He wanted to live, he had to live, he must live, his stubbornness charged the fire into a raging blaze….and the illusion shattered. The darkness waned away, the cave lighted up, his senses returned, and the threat vanished. There were no curses, there were no monsters. The dead were long gone, and their whispers echoed no more. Near the end of the ill-lit tunnel, only Ewan, Kidd, and the man stood.
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“Mystic,” Ewan murmured, running his fingers through the dense Mystic-Anima around him. Yet again, he fought this element, and yet again, he barely won. They cheered around him, but their glee reeked of mockery. Even at the Favored level, he fell deep into that illusion. How high the caster’s affinity and control level had to be to push him that far…
When his thoughts settled down, when he checked and confirmed both Kidd’s and the man’s safety, the skepticism flooded Ewan. He met the cave by coincidence, he chose to break it by his own will, then why did it relate to the one element that currently mattered to him the most.
Accidents only happened once or thrice; the fourth time would announce the existence of a conscious design.
“Pa, is it you?” Ewan said under his breath and took out the glowing medallion that Mr. Thain gave him.
He happened to meet May when he needed her to break Nana’s fog; he happened to encounter the ship that was heading back to Drarith; he happened to meet Kidd on that ship; and Kidd just happened to find the cave that concerned the mystic element.
Four cracks ran on the medallion, each threading with one of the coincidences. It stayed in a corner inside his claw-ring for so long, he never suspected it, he never had a reason to—until now. For better or for worse, it was affecting the world around him. The sugarcoated version paved the road for him and made things easier, but the crude interpretation tightened a leash around his neck and led him on a prefixed turns and corners.
Ewan sighed, rubbing the medallion, nostalgia drowning his emotions. He was now even more sure that this was from his Pa, and he meant for him to follow this path. Because this level of interfering with his choices had that control freak’s fingerprints all over it. Only he had the emotional motive to burn the resources and create an item that could manipulate the possibilities and imitate Toast’s ‘Luck Roulette’ to control his insignificant self…
Parents had good intentions, but they seldom translated to a pleasing reality, the different perspectives rarely agreed. And if forced, it always resulted in a clash between the generations. Ewan didn’t break this tradition either—even with his Pa dead, he still wanted to knock that old man’s teeth out.
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Status: Healthy
Step-0 Severynth [9th Awakening]
Subtype: Step-0 Elementalist
Name: Ewan Ayres
Species: Human
Vitality: 2.0
Spirit: 19.9
Anima: [Fire – 19.9 | Ice – 19.9 | Blood – 19.9]
Astylinds: 4 [Potential: 0]
Rolling Cat [Toast]: Step-0 [9th Awakening]
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Fire Monkey [Orange]: Step-0 [Level-9] [Grade-B]
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Imp [Frost]: Step-0 [Level-9] [Grade-B]
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Blood Lotus [Iris]: Step-0 [Level-9] [Grade-S]
Equipment: Common Clothes; Yurn [Neck Gaiter]; Moonkeeper [Crystal-Ball].
Storage: Journal; Elementalist—The Path of Anima [Subtype-Book]; Spellbook; Bloodlust [Spell]; Transmute [Spell]; Anima-Crystals [Novas Coins]; Obsidian Dagger; Hub-Connector; Ingredients.
Novas: 173,412
Crelith: 1,340