In her meditative state Anisha could feel the mana coursing through her. The Oracles magic seemed to guide her through the dark. An unseeable hold on her leading her to an unknown place. The empty void moved around her, but unlike Hmota it wasn't a raging torrent of forces trying to break her down and grind her to nothing. But instead was a still calm fluid that, to her disconcert, still had the taint of Hmota in it.
She shouldn't have been so surprised about that, he is from Hmota. So of course there would be signs of this within him, a magical residue that marked him as a summon.
"Yes, feeling for the taint of Hmota is one of the main determiners used by royal courts to determine if a living being is actually a summon." The oracles voice sound like it came from every direction in the void. And the sudden introduction of sound in the void made Anisha heart jump a few feet.
"How are you-?"
"You haven't entered his gate yet, you are in a inbetween state between your mind and his. I understand you struggle to control your gate, so I will handle moving you into his mind. But once inside you will be on your own." The Oracle didn't let her finish her first question, but now she had even more. Like how is she supposed to help his mind accept his new body, what will it be like in his mind, can she even use magic here.
Making it obvious that the Oracle could read her mind she began to answer those questions.
"Unlike a normal healing where all you have to do is supply mana to his gate for his gate to start using his own memories to heal him.You will need to find him in his own memories before he got that injury. Then use your own memories to guide his body to repair itself. But you must be careful Anisha. Your summon is currently stuck in a unending memory of the day he died..." The oracle trailed off for a abit before continuing.
"You must stay out of those memories. Because if you and his own mind remember his death in detail, then he will die. You Must Not Let that Happen."
As the Oracle made her warnings clear Anisha began to realize just how difficult the task at hand will be. Some part of her stupidly thought that it would be easy to fix him like how it was easy to summon him. But no, clearly she was way out of her depth here. And it didn't give her comfort that the Oracles direct insistence on her summon survival unnerved her even more, why was the Oracle helping her.
Anisha waited for a response, as she knew the Oracle knew what she was thinking. But her voice didn't come again, also choosing to remain silent Anisha tried to ready herself as the Oracle continued to move her about the darkness.
It took a few more minutes but Anisha saw something appear in the distance, a large ring spun in the darkness. Its true size becoming apparent as it got bigger and bigger. The whole ring was the size of keep they were in now. Large walls stretched upward.
Around the ring were thirteen circles, or thirteen gates. twelve of them were sealed shut, but the thirteenth... Approaching it a light shown threw large cracks in the gate, large chunks of rubble floated around the broken sections of it.
And going straight through the gate, a green chain. A chain that lead right back to her.
"I- I broke his gate..." Anishas guilt began to rise again.
This, this was unrepairable, there is no possible way to repair a broken gate. For the rest of his existence, for every thirteenth life he'd live he would be born with a broken gate.
"There is nothing you can do for him for that Anisha, what's done is done. Now please hurry, enter his gate." The Oracles words pushed Anisha forward towards the gate. She stood before it like a massive castle gate, reaching out her hand she touched the gate.
The darkness that once enveloped Anisha flowed over her like a wave and disperarced. When she reimerged she was no longer in the black void but in a large open field. The sky was red and orange, and the air smelled horrendous, and she choked on the thick clouds of smoke that endlessly poured from large craters that surrounded her.
"Wh-what is this? Where am I?" Anisha said this outloud hoping for some answers, even from the Oracle. But she didn't get a response, instead the ground shook so violently that the ground beneath her feet broke apart and sent dirt flying into the air covering her. What came next was an absolute definting crack of thunder that caused her to instinctively cover her ears and crouch down seeking cover from the lighting.
But no bolt of light appeared in the sky. Instead there was a crash like a mountain collapsing followed by another earthquake and deafening crack of thunder.
She tried pressing her hands harder against her ears and pulling in her legs tighter trying to keep out the sound, the absolute painful sound, and trying to make herself shrink to not be a bigger target.
The ringing in her ear faded slowly, but when it did she could hear something else out there.
Foot steps, someone was walking close by stepping through the loose dirt. Which now closer to it, Anish could see the very ground itself was burnt, there was no soft soil or a single blade of grass to be seen. Risking a look, she uncovered her face and ears and peared up.
She was inside one of the craters, and above her on the ridge. Stood her summon. His white armor and gray under cloth apparent, standing out even in the dark smog. He wore a helmet now. A bizarre design that had a single orange eye, a flattened beak at the front, and two wings sprouted from both sides.
He held an even bigger version of the weapon he had used in Hmota. Where that one was the size of her forearm, this one was almost as tall as she was. He held it loosely with two arms at hip height.
"H-hello..." She said this in a voice so low she even wondered if she had actually made any sound at all. She cleared her throat and pushed herself up straightening her back.
"H-hello... Do you remember me?" Anisha wasn't sure what to really say to her summon, especially here.
But to her confusion her summon didn't look at her instead, his gaze scanned the the thick fog as if able to see through it.
"Verden Ennhet!!" Her summon yelled through his helmet before hefting up the weapon, and unleashed its terrifying power.
Hundreds of red projecties shot out of the end at unbelievable speed. Instead of the single crack of thunder she heard in Hmota, it was a continuous roar of power and sound. She covered her ears again. The ringing returning and the continued exposure to it was extrucating to her.
When it finally went quite again she couldn't stop herself from trying to get away from him. She desperately crawled up the side of the hole and ran a good few spans before turning around and truly seeing what was around her.
He wasn't the only one there. Behind him large metal contraptions opened wide, spreading their wings like a protective eagle, and from behind it hundreds, no thousands of similarly clad in white armor warriors emerged. All of them tall and imposing and to her own amazement, many of them were female. Distinguished by two flaps on the side of their belt harness. Though even with the few key feminine details she could hardily tell the difference between the men.
There was another call of "Verden Ennhet!!!" Echoed by a thousand voices. The metal birds joined in the war cry by lifting their heads. And thunder exploded from their throats. The ground shook from the sound, and as Anisha stumbled trying to keep her footing. The thousands of warriors didn't so much as flinch or lose their footing from the shaking.
Anisha knew what was coming next, preemptively covering her ears she waited for the second shake and explosion that always followed the first.
When it came it was nothing like she experienced before.
A invisible force a thousand times stronger than the Oracles, threw her back 10 spans. A wave of air slammed into everything around her knocking the air right out of her lungs. On the ground she struggle to get in any air from the polluted fog.
Pain, fear, and adrenaline were all that got Anisha back to her feet as quickly as she did. Her chest hurt, it hurt to even breathe. Her ears no longer ringed, but were completely silent. She couldn't hear anything anymore. Not the thunder, not the shouting. Not even the footsteps as the line of warriors charged out into the smog. She felt the beat of their boots through the ground like a charging calvary line.
But no noise.
She moved her hand to feel her ear but pulled them back when she felt something warm and wet. Blood was on her finger.
She can get hurt here.
Her heart pounded in her chest. It was a weird sensation, she could hear her own heartbeat inside, but nothing else. Its fast beat only seemed to increase the more she realized that that's all she could hear. What happened to her hearing? How could being thrown to the ground take away her hearing Was this some kind of spell?. And how were all of the other people here unaffected by it?
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Then a more concerning thought crossed her mind.
What kind of enemy must they be facing in order to need such weapons.
The burnt ground, choking smoke, and magical spells beyond her comprehension made her consider the possibility that what they were facing was a dragon. yes that had to be it.
Then as if to confirm her suspicion, fire. Liquid fire poured from the sky. The heat was so intense, that even a good ways back Anisha could feel her skin start to burn.
The flows of fire fell like water but synged both machine and man caught in its path to nothing.Yet the white armored warriors didn't flinch or falter. They continued their charge, few stayed behind to pull their injured allies from the pools of fire however.
The site of the carnage made her sick.
Bodies half burnt away were pulled out of the flames by their allies. She couldn't hear any scream of agony but she knew that's what she would hear.
Anisha couldn't watch it anymore. She turned and ran. She didn't care where she was running to as long as it was not this memory. This gods forsaken memory.
---
Malissa Pedals rose and fell with every loud footstep that echoed in the stone chamber. Like a clock, counting every second that went by.
She didn't like this, she didn't like any of this.
One of her Pupils shows up after her first quest went south, carrying a wounded man that no one could heal, a man who's had his memories from a past life override his current gate. And her pupil acting as if she's the one that did that to him.
Anishas struggles with gate control was a thing she and her have worked on for years. While Kameko picked it up at a natural rate, Anisha took twice as long. She knew her Pupil couldn't do any magic strong enough to do that kind of damage to someone's gate. It was simply impossible, like a tiny trical trying to carve a canyon.
And then there's the Avisty Spawn Oracle. Daring to look at her pupil, HER pupil with those accursed eyes. She can't even imaged what that must of done to her.
With every new scheme the Oracle pulled her and Anisha into the more she was willing to end this façade right here and now.
But, something stopped her. Call it a gut feeling, or manipulation from the Oracle, but Malissa couldn't shake the feeling that Anisha was not telling her something. But what?
Malissa didn't like being left in the dark, and she especially didn't like it when people kept things from her. Come the morning tomorrow she's going to visit Murdera and get his side of the story.
With any luck his story will match Anishas. That being they were in some ruins, got attacked by Lants, but were saved by this stranger, who now lies on the ground. Dying slowly.
Malissa bearded her teeth at the Oracle who's eyes open, but covered by the bandana silently sat next to her Pupil.
Hmota Damn that Avisty spawn! Making her question her own pupil like this.
Her anger flared again, pedals rising even higher and further outstretched, but her anger was quenched by a smell. A familiar smell
Blood.
Malissa eyes went wide as she saw blood slowly pour out of her pupils ear, and a new bruise form on her face.
There was no sound, no grunt of pain, just one moment she was fine and the next, she looks even worse than when she arrived to her clinic that morning.
That wasn't all, the smell of burnt flesh permitted the room, and not just her skin showed sign of burning but so to did the man. Blood pooled from his ears, and he had bruises on his fact, and burn marks on his hands.
Malissa couldn't' hold back, her muscle memory took over, quickly crossing the room she kneeled down next to Anisha pulled out a green crystal and started to heal her.
Malissa let out a sigh of relief as she watched the bruises on her face slowly fade, and the blood from her ears stopped flowing.
What was happening to her. Was she straining herself to control her gate. Was she overusing her gate? Malissa didn't know much about what the Oracle was doing from what she pieced together, the Oracle conclusion that the reason he can't be healed is because his body can't rebuild something it doesn't know. So She asked Anisha to help. But help how, how was Anisha supposed to fix a problem that's had no known cure for over a thousand years?
She didn't move over to heal the man however, she knew it would do nothing.
She had to save her strength now, incase her pupil needed healing again.
But she was tired, very very tired, she hadn't got any sleep, and was tending to the man since morning. But she would perciver. She made a promise and she would keep it.
---
Anisha ran, she didn't stop running even when the world around shifted and warped around her. After leaving the field she was in a empty street with buildings taller than the mountains, and bodies everywhere, then she was in a desert that burned like a fire, A Silvery room with a small desk and bed. Her running was only stopped when a person suddenly appeared in front of her.
She was in a small room crammed tight with 20 of those white armored warriors. The room she was in lurched up and down, and there was a loud constant Thrum rattling she could feel through her whole body.
While the world could affect her, she seemed to have no affect on it. No one seemed to be able to see or hear her even when she stood right in front of them. The people were stock still like statures and she had to bend herself around them to squeeze out of the group.
Breaking free from the tight grouping she looked around again, trying to figure out where she was now, she saw light coming from a small corridor in front of the group. She cautiously moved towards it. Just a little further ahead was another small room three more white armor clad humans sat. But these ones were different, two of them had blue markings on their armor as opposed to the red on most of the armor. They also had two large ropes coming from the sides of their helmets that lead to a back plate that lit up with pulses of energy.
The other had tan coloring on his armor. He was off to the side in a small cramped booth surrounded by... Well Anisha wasn't sure what she was looking at. It was transparent and colored like tinted glass but the images on them changed at the mans touch. Thousands of symbols she couldn't read crossed the many glass windows and the man sat there seeming to read them and understand all their meetings.
"LanArm KlaGar." He said.
"ForSta." Replied one of the blue marked ones. He raised his hand to a lever that was above his head, grabbing it, the other blue marked one that sat right next to him said something too "BraEce BueFel UtgVelLse."
At the pull of the switch Anisha suddenly felt weightless. Her hair started to rise up, and her side bands that hung off her belt lifted up too. Then her feet actually lifted off the ground! And not just her, small items around the room that weren't secured down slightly raised up, a small metal cylinder rolled out from somewhere and floated up to her.
Then as suddenly as she started 'Floating' She was actually falling, she hit the hard metal floor when the blue marked man pushed the lever forward again.
"Ow.." Anisha pushed herself off the ground again, but she now felt the opposite of her weightlessness before, now she felt twice as heavy, as if her own body weight was threatening to keep her pinned to the ground.
"W-what is going on?! I don't understand any of this!!" Anisha said outloud, but she still couldn't hear her own voice.
All she could do was hold tight to the ground and wait.
The room she was in faded away. The rattle of the floor ceased, and the magic glass with symbols vanished. She was now, alone. In a dark cold tunnel.
No longer crushed by her own weight she didn't try to stand up but instead crawled over to the side of the tunnel she was in and raised her knees to her face and held herself in a tight ball.
She couldn't do this.
"What was the Oracle thinking sending me here? I can't do this, I can't"
Did the Oracle know that and send her in here anyways... Why would she...
Anisha held tighter to herself as a thought occurred to herself.
"Unless this is my execution..."
The Oracle could kill her using her own summons memories, and her summon would die from his wounds.
Yes, that had to be it.
She was a fool for trusting an Avisty. The Oracle didn't tell anyone what she did because she wanted to kill them herself, in a cruel way, and would be able to get away with it. Afterall, everyone knowns she's no good at magic, so they could just chock it up to an "Accident."
Anisha wouldn't fight it anymore, she couldn't. Every part of her hurt, her skin burned, her hearing gone, her face was bruised from hitting the ground. Everything hurt. And she was just exhausted from it all.
In the dark tunnel she sat for a long time. She waited for the inevitable to come. She felt very faint vibrations through the ground and occasional dust fell from the metal struts that supported the roof of the tunnel. But nothing as bad that happened before.
Another vibration that shook the ground a lot harder jolted Anisha from her seated position. Lights, hundreds of them appeared, going in a line down the tunnel. But just as quickly they appeared they vanished and Anisha was left in darkness once more.
Pushing herself up again, she stood looking down the long dark tunnel, one of them leading up while the other lead down.
She wasn't sure what pushed her to the decision, but Anisha started walking again. Following the path that was once illuminated she slowly made her way through the cave. As she walked she realized that it wasn't really a cave, but a mine.
Murdera had had her delivery supplies to mines before so she got to see some of the common tools and look of how mines operated.
Their were large chunks of metal that protruded out of the wall, they didn't look natural however. They were more like a piece of worked metal, melted and twisted by immense pressure. She couldn't tell what it was but the mine was clearly designed to extract it.
Not only did she see the ore that was harvested but the tools also to break them out of the hard stone walls. There were pickaxes and chisel, and many other tools that she couldn't make heads or tails of. One looked like a large chisel with an absurdly large handle and two more handles came out of both ends. Another looked like a stone cutters blade, but was attached to a small handle, and had no clear way to spin the blade.
The ground shock again, they had gotten stronger the farther up she goes. So that means she was getting close to the surface again. She wasn't looking forward to reemerging, and at this point she truly didn't know what to expect here anymore.
Trying to make sense of her summons memories was like trying to read a book in... well whatever language those glass tablets used. Thinking back to the first time she saw him she did remember him speaking a different language. But it was no language she had ever heard of.
Growing up in the Adventures Guild hall exposed her to just about every language, dialect and culture on Borotone. And yet, he and his people were completely unique. How could that be? Could he be from a much older civilization, does anyone on Borotone even speak that language?
The more she thought of all that obstacles that lied a head of her the more overwhelmed she was by everything. She needed some time, time to rest. Murdera always said to any adventurer whether new or a veteran, that "Pushin ya body to the point of collaspen is a good way to kill ya self for the monsters."
Well for once she was gonna listen to the dwarf and take time to just rest.