Chapter 48: Asharaina
Vina materialized on the fields west of Randar, her equilibrium reeling from the traversal. Ann's hand clasped hers, banishing the nausea. The cacophony of a battlefield—flames roaring, stones shattering—assailed her senses, with the distant screams of creatures piercing through.
Surveying the chaos, her gaze locked onto Haco, her aspect lighting up the surrounding area while her body was barely visible in a cage of flames. She directed a relentless bombardment of incendiary arcs, decimating the approaching lines of creatures.
Amidst the mass of creatures, she saw Adir’s imposing figure moving, cleaving through the masses. He swept his arms in wide arcs, sending dozens of creatures flying with each swing. Those that resisted, he grabbed and ripped into pieces with his bare hands before moving on again.
Then she spotted Riza, Oyna, Caja, and her soldiers strategically positioned away from the carnage, but they too worked to pick creatures off from a distance. Oyna stood at the front with her massive two handed sword at the ready. Caja mysteriously seemed to pop into existence around the creatures, stabbing anything that got too close before disappearing again.
"Stine!" Etana's voice cut through the tumult as she charged towards the enemy. "Stop!"
Ann, unwavering, ran alongside Etana towards Adir.
"Ann!" Vina's cry was lost in the battlefield's fury as the creatures before Ann disintegrated into dust, a surge of energy coursing through her.
Indecision gripped Vina. Who do I help? She weighed her options as her allies seemed to hold their own, yet Ann and Etana were diving into the heart of danger.
Title Under Threat: Asharaina You have become aware that some of your people are in danger. You have an obligation to help them. Failing to try will risk losing your title.
Before she could tell who the warning was for, her focus was shattered by a dark presence that descended with a crushing force, nearly toppling her. Instinctively, Vina summoned a blood sword, the loss of hemovore rendering Selenia unusable.
"What are you doing, Stine?" Vina demanded of the two-faced flying creature, her voice edged with ire as she backed away, a blood claw forming in her free hand.
Kaliq's visage, on one of the creature's faces, conveyed an ominous message in a voice she hated, "The one I do not speak of is on the cusp of victory. Zel'alor will slay Trina without your intervention."
Vina suddenly felt Etana appear beside her, but Siany’s face spoke next despite her presence, “Zel'alor will kill Trina in a matter of moments unless you are willing to try to stop it.”
“We talked about this Stine.” Etana said in a warning tone. “You don’t get to talk to her anymore. After the Marf…” Her rebuke was drowned out by the harmonized voices of the creature, causing Vina to shiver at their unity.
"Our squabbles are irrelevant," the dual voices scolded. "While you bicker, Zel'alor readies the final strike.” Kaliq’s voice went silent as Siany’s continued on alone, addressing Vina. “Go. To. Trina."
Vina shook her head, “But the Gloom… it should have protected her.”
“I reduced the guard in order to strike Prosit and Termily. Zel'alor exploited this. Now, Vina! Go!"
Vina looked sadly over at Etana, desperately hopeful her sister could somehow go with her so she wouldn’t be alone, but their moment was incinerated by a blast of fire from Haco, exploding The Kaliq creature’s head and covering them in viscera. Vina's heart ached, tears welling unbidden as the creature moaned with Siany's voice.
"No!" Her scream was raw, torn from her depths involuntarily.
Etana, hands smeared with black blood, grasped Vina’s now blood covered face. “I know you don’t want to go. I may not understand everything, Vina, but we can’t let Zel'alor win. I don’t know if we should save Trina, but we can't let Zel'alor have all of her aspects. Go to her and take back the aspects that you gave her. Bring them to me!” Etana pointed at the blood dripping from her necklace. “I can fix this! All of it!”
The next moment something physical and hot slammed into Etana sending her tumbling to the side. Vina screamed and reached out to her sister as Haco appeared in her place. Two golden eyes stared down at her. “She’s fine, Vina! She has life to spare.” Haco assured her.
Vina caught a glimpse of Etana's prone form, noting the minor loss of life as Haco had claimed.
“Listen to me!” Haco shouted as she grabbed Vina’s shoulder firmly, bending down until they were face to face. “I promise you Stine has just broken Valtor’s lines. I promise you The Siege of Randar has commenced. I promise you Stine is not only after Zel'alor but this entire world. I promise you, it wants to control everyone. I promise you Etana is right about you needing to go to Trina. Give Trina the Aspect of Nature and try to keep her safe. But you need to go now.”
Vina saw the notifications pop up in her view as Haco gave her promises. When not a single promise was broken, Vina’s own will started to crumble. For the first time, everyone was united against her in a decision to protect Trina. No matter how much she did not want to return to that place where Trina awaited her, countless people were depending on her now to protect what they considered to be the most important person in the world.
She looked over her shoulder, seeing Riza, Oyna, and Caja still fighting from a range against an onslaught of creatures. Then she nodded at Haco. “Promise me you’ll keep them safe.”
Haco smirked, and gave her a little push, letting go of her shoulder. “I promise I’ll keep your people, who are here with me, safe from Stine’s creatures for as long as you are protecting Trina. Now go.”
With one last look over her shoulder, she heard Caja yelling out to her. Vina closed her eyes, initiated her refuge recall, and made her choice.
~~~
Vina's eyes fluttered open, her gaze immediately captured by the ethereal light of the barrier that shimmered in the gloom. Trina's hidden sanctuary was as she remembered, yet the chorus of otherworldly creatures that once filled the air was now a haunting echo of its former self. “Stine wasn’t lying…” she whispered. “It did empty the gloom.”
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A creature's voice pierced the silence, pulling Vina from her thoughts. "Vina," it called, a hint of urgency in its tone. "The time to prepare you was scarce, a mere fraction granted to your parents to prepare for me..."
“Shut up!” Vina snapped at Stine, her patience at an end. “Where is your kaliter body? You should be here with me!”
"I am beyond reach, unable to return hastily. The one made of stone seized this moment, knowing our vulnerability," Stine confessed.
“What about Shan? I want to speak with him,” Vina declared harshly.
“Oh, he is quite busy teaching children songs, I believe,” came a sarcastic knowing response.
Vina's eyes narrowed, her voice laced with scorn. "You've broken Valtor's forces, haven't you?"
“You’re learning Avathari. You should call him Kalenar.” Stine responded as the creature’s face formed into a twisted grin. “Your growing anger is tempting, Vina. It nudges me closer to teaching you. Do you want to learn the truth right now?”
She glared at the creature for a moment longer. “Teach me Zel'alor’s weaknesses.” She tried to say through a more measured tone as she turned to survey Trina’s spotless field of blue grass. Her gaze drifted over the pristine expanse, pausing at the sight of the golden axe still embedded in the field. But it was Trina who captured her attention. Trina, with her newly sprouted mane of blue-white hair—a stark contrast to her bald appearance.
Vina gasped and ran to stand before her, noticing another difference. "The aspects are inside her!" The stones that once adorned Trina's neck and chest were now amalgamating with the swirling essence of her being, her skin a canvas of translucency. Amidst the spiraling hues, Vina discerned an unfamiliar stone—an Aspect she surmised belonged to Tacey. For a moment she paused, trying to figure out what was happening.
"Do you ponder her actions?" Stine's voice tinged the air with foreboding. "Your adversary harbors no weaknesses of which you alone can take advantage. None of us do—Langternem, Anomos, myself, nor Trina. We are nigh immutable, nearly as eternal as the axioms of reason."
Without even looking at Stine, Vine muttered, “Great… no weaknesses.” Vina pointed at Trina with a finger and said sternly. “You better help me with Zel'alor! I don’t think I can kill it on my own. You owe me after your system tried to kill me.” She pulled her backpack from her shoulder and reached in, taking out a blood red aspect. “Here. This is the aspect of nature. Zera would be really upset if I don’t get it back to you.” She placed it into Trina’s hand and stepped back. “You better appreciate it because you’re not getting another one until I can guarantee you’re not going to kill me with them.”
World Quest Updated: Return the stolen Aspects 4/127 World Quest Updated: Destroy the fake Aspects. Fake Aspects remaining 321,303,098
You have been granted The Garnet Synthesis Boon
Vina felt a ripple of soothing power within her. "What now?" She almost opened her boons to see what benefit she had received, but she froze when Trina’s eyes flicked open. “Holy shit…” Vina muttered, captivated by the maelstrom of colors dancing in Trina’s gaze. They moved and shifted, changing colors as well as form as they looked to the left and then right before focusing back on her once again. The swirling irises shifted, a tempest of shades, assessing her with an intensity that felt almost tangible. Seeing them stirred something within her that she struggled to control.
"Trina?" Vina asked cautiously. "Can you understand me?”
Those mesmerizing eyes blinked for Vina, the simplest of gestures, yet it unleashed an overwhelming flood of recollections within her upon seeing them move once again. She remembered now, those eyes had been her sanctuary, her guide to a better life until they had betrayed her. At the same time, they seemed as distant as the stars because she was seeing them for the first time with her own eyes.
Vina’s whisper bore the weight of internal strife, “Just five aspects… to revive you.” Her gaze implored Trina, desperate for a trace of the empathy she once fabricated in her ignorance of Trina’s harshness towards Siany. Vina's eyes searched Trina’s face, yearning for the compassion she witnessed sharing Shan’s demise—those tender moments of vulnerable tears, their mutual grief over a bond now shattered. But Kaliq's intrusive recollections were merciless, transforming Trina's once-commiserating tears into a facade of empathy, revealing her as an impassive tormentor reveling in Siany's anguish despite Vina’s pleas. Her heart pounded against the icy judgment in Trina's gaze, a silent scream surging in her throat.
“Your system punishes us for discovering the skills and abilities you hid away." Vina accused. "Did you try to kill me for learning Blood Bloom Insight?”
The silence hung between them, pregnant with unspoken truths. Trina’s eyes weaved their cryptic dance before blinking twice—sharp, deliberate. A message? A denial?
“N…?” Vina’s question was cut short as a ghost of a notification flickered before her eyes, then stolen away before it could be read. “What was that?” Panic edged her voice. “Was that a deception notification? Are you lying to me?!” The question tore from her in a shriek, a raw sound full of betrayal.
Trina’s expression shifted minutely, brows furrowing in what seemed like a silent echo of sorrow. But Vina was drowning in memories of empty solaces, too far gone to grasp at straws of sympathy.
“I helped you! I’ve bled for your world!” Vina’s scream shattered the eerie calm. “And you… you ensnare me with Langternem, as if my life is but a plaything for your system! My people have died from your persecution! Thousands more are scarred from when you stole their experience! And you think you get to sit there and lie to me?!”
She stood, a tempest of despair and fury. “Why do you hate us? What is so vile about the blood that runs in our veins? Your world crumbles at the hands of true monsters!” Vina looked down on Trina as she stood over her. “Why not kill the Twelve with forced promises? Are you blind to the death and suffering caused by Haco?”
Trina looked up at her as she blinked twice more. When she opened her eyes, however, tears began to form. These were not tears of pain as Vina had witnessed before, however. They were red, making long treks down her face as they slowly bled from her eyes. Vina stared at her long enough for one of the tears to drip from her cheek and fall to the ground between Trina’s knees.
“Vina,” Stine said gently from the side. “They’re almost here.”
But Vina barely heard its words, her gaze locked on Trina and the new notification that appeared before her.
Title Under Threat: Asharaina You have become aware that one of your people are in danger. You have an obligation to help them. Failing to try will risk losing your title.
Vina's heart turned to a hardened stone within her, heavy with the dark sediment of betrayal and resentment. She knew the system message for what it was. Trina was not one of her people. If anything, the opposite was supposed to be true. The message from the system was a shackle fastened coldly around her wrist, an unyielding chain to a duty she, for the first time, despised but could not forsake.
As she beheld Trina’s bloody tears, a bitter laugh broke from her lips, a sound that was more a snarl than a sign of amusement. “The irony,” she spat, the words dripping with venom. “Every gift I was given in Halos was a lie.”
She stood over Trina, a looming shadow rather than a savior. Vina’s hand moved not with tenderness but with the calculated motions of one performing an unwelcome task, wiping away one tear of blood to see clearer the face of her false ward. “I will protect you,” she declared, “But when I am done, I will go back to my people and help protect them from you.”
Stine's second warning was a distant tolling bell, but Vina was already standing at the gates of her own fury, ready to unleash it upon anyone who dared approach.
“I’m coming, Stine,” she murmured softly. “I will use every weapon at my disposal—even Trina herself.” Then she slowly brought Trina’s blood to her mouth and licked it from her hand.