“What changed?” Ewan asked when their ribbing settled down, as they shared some sips of frosted water with unpleasant ice chips to moisten their throats, and the crunch accompanied the gulp. “Did you check the rune?”
Nana wiped her mouth with the loose sleeve of her faded-indigo top. “It’s…different,” she said with some pause. “My Anima has changed; it has a trait now.” She closed her eyes and her frown tightened and loosened. “Heavy, dense…”
“That should be from the natural rune you absorbed,” Ewan said, capping and putting away the bottle. “Every natural rune, even of the same element, has a different trait. Heavy and dense…you probably can't cast healing spells now, but your offensive spells should get a boost.”
Her eyes widened with a sad curve in her brows. She tried out a
“You can get another rune once you reach Step-1, we’ll look for a different trait then,” he said and glanced over his shoulders. The hosts of the island must’ve guessed Nana’s success, for the forest hushed down again. The natural rune that chained them to the woods was gone now, the caged birds must be eager for the open sky, however bleak it had become. But his business here still remained, he couldn’t let them fly yet.
“Sir Algernon.” Ewan called out. “I ask you to be patient for a little longer.”
The forest only quietened further in his reply, and the eerie silence blared the snowy wind. The cracking frost climbed the ice walls, the frozen sand rained on them with the squall, and the compressed water around the island let up—the Anima began to dissipate.
Nana clenched her fists and steeled her eyes, standing beside Ewan. She prepared for a fight, but he couldn’t let her, not yet. Even though she had the foundation of a Severynth, she was still an infant as a Seaborn, her capital couldn’t support a simple combat let alone against a whole tribe.
“I need you to do something,” Ewan said in a nigh whisper, rubbing and loosening her pale white knuckles. “The accumulation of Anima around the natural rune creates treasures, go dive down and look for them. You should be a fish in that water now, take as much and whatever you can. I’ll handle here.”
She looked at him with wavering eyes, her hesitation lasted a long moment. “Okay,” she said finally.
“Don’t worry.” Ewan smiled for her relief. “There won't be any fights here, you won't miss out on anything.” He extended the ice hall to the ocean, and when Nana sank in after a worried stare in his direction, he took the walls down and hovered before the woods.
“This is our home, Lord Ewan.” Algernon’s voice echoed out from the forest with a lingering hum. “Surely you don’t mean to rob us.”
Ewan clicked his tongue, the roaring flutters of his overcoat drowning the sound of his annoyance. He bet on the gap in knowledge and targeted the accumulation of the natural rune, hoping to quietly make away with the loot. But he still fell short.
“Sir Algernon, your tribe has become free after so long, it must need stability right now. You know this better than I do,” Ewan said, taking out his staff loaded with dark element coins. “It will be unwise to create an enemy out of me at this time.”
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The trees trembled, the leaves rustled, and the forest buzzed with a comforting drone. It smoothened the spiking tension and mellowed Ewan’s nerves, almost dragging him into a light drowse. But the waves triggered and collided against his Bralek, the two tails of the fox curled and embraced his soul, and the attack fizzled out.
“Is that your answer then…” Ewan squinted and ballooned his Ryvia to cover a chunk of the island, and he cast the spell.
Deadlife!
“Awaken, my soulless,” he breathed the words, clutching the Rainwarden, the Dark-Anima seething around him. “The living awaits you.”
A tremor ran through the woods, the vines and the ropes snapped, and the skeletons tied on the trees screeched with life. They rose within his Ryvia, the pitch-black hole for their eyes flickering with a haunted blue. And they thudded down and marched ahead with a systematic chaos, their bones rattling against the susurrating grass, the ghostly whispers lingering with their presence.
“No…No! What have you done!!” Algernon roared in the forest, and a shockwave blasted out and pummeled Ewan, hurtling him back in the air. His Varos cracked and shattered, then restored and cracked again, as his ribs groaned and smothered his breath. He inhaled a whistle when he steadied himself, gulping through the burning throat. His estimation of Algernon’s strength wasn’t off by much, he could handle this.
“Sir Algernon, you should reconsider,” he said, mapping the area of the island through his undead, moving them towards the tribe. “Today should be festive for you, do you want to stain it with needless blood?”
“Our ancestors…You have broken their sleep!” Algernon raged again, his voice cracked, and the flame in his lantern rampaged, declaring its flickering existence through the overgrown jungle.
“When I cancel my spell, they’ll go back to their slumber, Sir Algernon,” Ewan said, the soft hum of his voice laced with hints of suggestion, the sparse Mystic-Anima drifting towards the forest. “But if you keep this up, you will lose the living. Are the treasures worth your people’s lives? If so, whose death will you choose first? Whose sacrifice is the cheapest for you, Sir, and who will you protect till the end?”
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Status: Healthy
Step-1 Severynth [Spirit-Nebula: Zeroth Surge]
Subtype: Step-0 Elementalist
Name: Ewan Ayres
Species: Human
Vitality: 7.0
Spirit: 25.5
Anima: [Fire – 25.5 | Ice – 25.5 | Blood – 25.5 | Mystic: 25.5 | Dark: 2.1]
Astylinds: 5 [Potential: 0]
Rolling Cat [Toast]: Step-1 Severynth [Spirit-Nebula: Zeroth Surge]
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Fire Monkey [Orange]: Step-1 [Level-10] [Grade-B]
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Imp [Frost]: Step-1 [Level-10] [Grade-B]
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Bloodthorn-Lotus [Iris]: Step-1 [Level-10] [Grade-D]
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Necros-Crow [Ghost]: Step-0 [Level-4] [Grade-D]
Equipment: Common Clothes; Yurn [Neck Gaiter]; Moonkeeper [Crystal-Ball]; Rainwarden [Staff]; Blackfeather [Overcoat].
Storage: Journal; Elementalist—The Path of Anima [Subtype-Book]; Spellbook; Bloodlust [Spell]; Transmute [Spell]; Unknown Book [Radon’s Legacy]; Anima-Crystals [Novas Coins]; Hub-Connector; Ingredients; Lantern.
Novas: 24,285
Crelith: 1,014