*TRAMPLING

A grey wolf with red eyes paraded through the forest from the east in search of the waterfall. It was Zifaira, almost immediately after losing her possession over the bird she had already possessed another animal and was in search.

Scampering below the waterfall on a ground level above the caverns, she ran through the trees listening as closely as possible for the sound of the water crashing into the pool would definitely guide her to him.

However, all these trees on the surface level with seemingly no end made it extremely hard to even distinguish which was the right direction, if she had possessed a bird it would have been easy to find him but she would lose the possibility of pulling him out of the water if he had fallen unconscious or exhausted to the point where he would be paralyzed to the point where he would have no self-control.

From the aerial view she had before she could tell that the waterfall's drop lead through a gap in the earth leading to caverns under the forest indicating that this entire part of the forest she was running through had another level directly below it, the only thing that was close to a landmark for the waterfall were extremely thick, short oak trees which were greatly spread to great circumferences however she was nowhere near that point at all, at least that was what she thought.

She dashed through the tall pine trees of this sector in overdrive and then she could hear the cascading water to the west and she immediately changed directions and carried onwards.

Running like there was no tomorrow she ran and finally could see the oak trees with huge gaps in between, she was mere moments away from reaching and by her calculations he should have at least jumped into the river by now and would be moving down towards the drop.

If she made it in time when he would fall with the water straight down into the pool below, she would time it right till the point where he would be eye to eye with her on this ground floor and then she would jump in directly after to get him out of the water as soon as possible and into the caverns below depending on his state of consciousness.

The trees of this part were huge with large barks and monstrous branch width however they were extremely spaced out making it easy to navigate through and allowing her to run in one continuous direction without having to make any movement changes which would slow her down and before she could tell, the water began to pitch down from above through the trees, slowly wetting every fiber of her body. 

Looking ahead, the water gushing downwards into a huge gap in the land leading deep down to the cavern floor could be seen and she put all energy to force out as much speed as she possibly could and soon enough, she was at the edge of the land completely soaked, looking directly up above at the trees and river. At the corner of her eye she could see the aterna at the waterfall's edge waiting to pick the boy off and two seconds later she could see a glimpse of the boy with his hand raised and the aterna leaping into the air with its arm fully extended back to gather the momentum to rip him in half with a slash.

"NO" she shouted, but those words were far from anyone's ears and failed to even exit her mouth.

*BOOM

Suddenly she could see a silhouette pass through the air from the sky above and by the time she had finished blinked she could see the trees up above on the other side of the river completely torn down and the sound of two explosions.

It took her a second to even realize what had happened next to her only a couple of meters away to her right. 

A cloud of brown dust raised from the ground being dug out completely blocking the view of anything and as the dust cleared she could see one of the oak trees completely pushed aside on the verge of falling with its roots ripped out of the ground, leaving a massive hole with the ground around it showing signs that it collapsed to the cavern floor which looked to be about 15 meters down.

Immediately she ran over to it, peeking, she looked down the hole to see a massive heap of rubble on the cavern's floor.

Looking closer she could see an arm with a white shirt hanging out from the pile. She immediately realized it was the shirt the boy had taken from the corpse before due to the blood stains on it.

What the hell is happening right now? There's no time to think about that, I have to get him out of there. Please be alive.....

Putting one paw forward she was ready to make her descent and pull him out the rubble but that was immediately halted by the sound of a loud squeal from above where the trees were broken down like sticks. The squeal wasn't human, it was the sound of the aterna in pain.

More squealing could be heard and then it completely stopped and a silver plated figure could be seen flying out with magnificent blue bird-like wings from the torn down trees above and then immediately it vanished and she could feel a gust of wind hit her along with warm moist breathing in the ring of her ear.

"Oh, a possession? How quaint" a male voice whispered in her ear, sounding muffled as if it was being spoken through something.

Startled, she quickly turned her head to the side only to see a blurred figure make its way down the hole. She could finally see what had whispered in her ear before down below standing up and looking down at a seemingly lifeless arm sticking out of the rubble.

A tall and bulky figure at least three and a half meters in height stood over the body covered in rubble gazing down at the body in the rubble in a seemingly full armor set made of silver similar to that of a knight's yet vastly different. Just the armor set the man wore scared her, all over the set were protrusions, which were curved in shape with spiked ends similar to canine teeth, with each protruded curvature possessing symbols never before seen in different colors making her feel somewhat disturbed within. Not a single chink could be seen in the armor where the figures joints were supposed to be, whatever it was seemed to constantly mold to the body of the figure, it looked to be a perfect defense system. His helmet mimicked that of a knight's, however, there were no openings by the mouth nor the nostrils for breathing, just a sole slot exposing the man's deep blue eyes.

To his sides, she could see what looked to be two longswords sheathed on each side of the man's waist strapped on with a material similar to leather. She blinked only for a split second and when her eyes reopened she could see it, stuck on the man's back like a piece of metal to a magnet, an unsheathed scimitar with a black hilt and a gray blade which looked to be made of stone but as the light from the night's sky hit it, a frightening gleam presented itself.

"You would still sleep in this situation like a baby? Am I not worth your attention Rex?..........No, that name doesn't suit you....maybe Glutton is more appropriate......... you filthy piece of shit" the man said as he looked down at the body in the rubble.

He walked over and grabbed the boy by his arm and pulled him out of the rubble and tossed his body on the ground aside him.

"Watching you in this form.......looking like a nasty human...........you disgust me as usual........." he said as he drew the scimitar mounted on his back and walked over to the body.

"My king told us all you are an invaluable asset we need.......but I beg to differ.........I know the truth and I think it's in the best interest of all worlds that I should kill you here but this is like taking advantage of a cripple, not even in your primal form...........then again, I might as well get it over now since you can't put up a struggle" the man muttered to himself as he tightened his grip on the sword.

Goddamn, he is really going to do it......Can I even do anything to stop this guy?

As the man swung downwards at the unconscious body all he could feel was a kick in his gut.Glimpsing down, he could see a black leg emerging from the boy's shadow at his feet, it startled him to the point where it caused him to drop the sword and back away.

The sword began to fall only to be grabbed by a black arm which shot out at an incredible speed from the chest stopping the falling sword from impaling the unconscious body.

Slowly, the leg which was now stationary in the position where it kicked the man bent its knee down making contact with the ground and then using it as footing another foot flew out and made contact and then they pushed down and using the momentum the shadow's full body emerged similar to a ruler being bent and upon releasing its momentum, shoots it into a fixed position.

It turned around quickly and snatched the scimitar from the arm holding it and immediately turned back looking the enemy ahead in the eyes.

As the sword left the other one's arm, the arm retracted into the boy's body and a pool filled with darkness left his body and moved next to the one with the sword.

Two arms ripped through the pool from beneath and dug their nails into the ground and then it pulled itself up from the pool like a man buried man digging through the dirt to reach the surface.

The one with the sword nodded his head and with that, the one at his side immediately turned around and walked towards the body and picked him up in his arms and moved towards the coursing water. It looked at the course of water and found the point where it tapered off and the water was slow moving and shallow to the point where it could only cover its feet and placed the body into the pool of water, taking a seat in the water next to the body, looking at the shadow in front of him.

"These things.......are they soul templates? How disgusting........."

The shadow clenched the sword in its hand yet it didn't move.

It walked around the man placing both the other shadow and the boy in the opposite direction from it, ensuring they weren't directly behind it and were within eye view.

It placed one foot on the ground in the direction of the man as if it was going to take a step.

Directly before its other foot was even planted firmly into the ground, he could see an immediate change in the shadow, its eyes went from pitch black to a deep orange and a gray smoke began to be emitted from both shadows bodies.

*BOOM

It all happened so quickly, but the magnitude of the force that the shadow kicked into the ground to propel itself completely destroyed the ground beneath's it feet and completely cracked the earth behind it as well from pushing off.

It was something the man was not expecting and although he could clearly see the movement of the shadow, it felt unreal and shocked him, all being reflected in his eyes as soon as the shadow could make eye to eye contact.

Grabbing his helmet with one arm by placing its nails on the it for traction, it pulled his body downwards into the ground and right as he was about to hit the ground face first, immediately it redirected itself to his side only leaving the sound of the air being cut through giving away its movement, although the man had caught back himself mentally and was about to prepare to counterattack with his hand already going in motion for one of the swords strapped to his waist, it was too late.

The shadow's leg was already coming upwards at his abdomen and it kicked him like a football sending him flying through the roof of the cavern.

Dust and debris flew in every direction obscuring everything from Zifaira's sight.

As the dust cleared she could see the man standing on the surface under a tree and the shadow below standing in a position looking up at him.

"Was that mana you just used to reinforce your attack?........No, mana isn't capable of producing a physical force like this and a soul template shouldn't be able to use any other energy source besides mana" the man said looking at the sky.

Something felt off, Zifaira was slowly beginning to feel weak but as she turned and looked at the trees directly above of the boy and the shadows positions, it was as minute as a couple of leaves falling from the trees but it was evident to her.

Those two things.....are pulling in all the lifeforce from the surroundings, the trees are starting to wither...... I have to get away from here or else this vessel will die in soon.......I can always come back and these things seem to be protecting him and I have no idea what they might do to me.........

"Although this man may look like him, it's clear he isn't, I can see it already, he's going to become worse than Rex........{stares at shadow} and I see, YOU aren't a template but from the looks of it, the other is. SO, what are you?" the man asked as he placed his hand on the hilt of one of his swords.

All of a sudden the shadow looking up at the man gave a smirk and its once lifeless eyes similar to that of a puppet transformed into a menacing gaze.

In the man's armor, there was a major indentation in the position where it kicked him in the mid-abdominal region.

"You piece of shi-"

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The man glanced down at the indentation then redirected his eyes back to it only to see its attention wasn't on him but it was staring at something in the distance to the south with a wider grin on its face than before and turned his attention in the same direction.

"All those people........is it already that time of the year already? No............ those don't look to be for us but I guess it doesn't matter, its better for us anyways"

The shadow by the pool of water snapped its fingers and suddenly the grin on the other shadow's face vanished, leaving behind only a look of distraught.

It dashed over to the other one and passed the sword over to it immediately.

What it did next shocked both the man and Zifaira, using the sword the shadow impaled the other in the heart with it and immediately after doing so, it committed suicide by driving the sword into its own chest and tossed the sword to the side on the ground.

The two quickly exploded into a black smoke which then condensed into two balls and rushed back into his chest.

I could hear it, his heart rate was beginning to drop and the other one made a signal immediately........

Abruptly, the clouds in the sky parted with what looked to be a large fragmented hole deep blue in color, making the sky around its rim look like cracked glass forming up above them at least 150 meters in the air.

"*Hmph* Looks like the gate is about to close, count yourself as lucky, or maybe unlucky because it seems I've found something to play with " were the man's last words directed at them.

He raised both arms into the air and began chanting and the hole slowly began to open up showing something green in nature on the other side. 

*BOOM

Making a great leap at an absurd speed, the man jumped straight from the ground into the hole within a second leaving behind only a sound similar to that of glass being broken to bits and the hole vanished without a trace with the clouds slowly beginning to fill the space which was once torn apart.

Was that grass I saw on the other side?

----------------------------------------

He slowly opened his eyes with a heave and a cough with a cold piercing gaze looking to the sides with the destroyed terrain and sword lying on the ground, confirming that what he dreamt wasn't a dream, and it all happened in real time, leaving him befuddled by the events that transpired. In the dream, he wasn't in control but was in the backseat of a soundless ride. He saw everything from the shadows point of view, his brain felt overloaded with information, it was too much data that was inputted from the two shadows viewpoints making it extremely difficult to process making him feel paranoid and borderline insane. It was all so bleak, the world itself looked different, it was pitch black as if everything was covered in smoke and they saw no one as people, all they could see was a glowing black light in the outline of the man they fought with a blue light in the form of a wolf looking at them from above.

It all felt so hopeless with his willpower feeling as if it was constantly being drained but amongst this bleak perception of reality, there was one thing they saw that inspired a feeling within that shook even him. It was what the shadow saw in the far distance, a bright gray light which was slowly getting brighter from afar and the feeling it instilled in him, fear. Something was going on but he had no idea if it had already happened, he had no idea of how long he was out, it still looked to be nighttime as he looked through the holes up above and as he shifted his leg he could feel something soft lying on top of his legs and as he looked down he could see a wolf cuddled up on him with his body on the shattered ground, pulled out of the water.

"Calm down, it is me Zifai-"

"Get off me," he said extremely agitated, to which she immediately got off upon seeing the look he had in his eyes and moved over to the side.

'Whats wrong?" she asked.

"How long?"

"What?"

"How long have I been out?"

"A full day's rotation" she answered.

She said nothing about the events that happened before unknowing that he already knew what happened, she thought he would ask but he said nothing after that.

He tried to get up but his body felt frail and hot, as he made his way up, he could feel an overwhelming pain in the shin of his right leg where the shadow kicked the man, it felt as if it would crumble if he walked causing him to theorize that what they felt he felt but there was no time to waste, something was calling him, whatever that light was, it seemed to be stuck on his mind.

Limping he moved towards the pool of water and stuck his fist into it checking the temperature, it was cold, cold enough to numb his hand.

He moved inwards to where the water was no longer shallow and fell headfirst into the pool and submerged his entire body into the freezing water.

Forcing himself to stay underwater for as long as possible on and on, only coming up to take short breaths then head under once more, it was borderline unbearable but the longer he continued the more he grew number and number to the point where he could no longer feel pain and then he decided it was time to exit this icy grave to which he casually walked out of as soon as his feet got placed on the shallow dirt below the water.

A strong breeze blew making him tremble but his leg was numb to the point where he could walk without a care in the world but with one problem gone, two more popped up.

His stomach grumbled, he was famished and he had to get a move on soon, with each second he stayed there, it was a second too long, his gut wouldn't allow it, with every moment that passed he grew more unsettled, he had to get a move on quick but he needed to eat.

Looking around the waters pool, it was dead empty of any life and the surrounding cavern seemed to be the same, that is until he saw Zifaira at least, she seemed to be possessing shit, so it wouldn't have made a difference but not only that, since he woke up, all he could feel was this hate that settled in his heart, just her speaking agitated him, he had no clear idea of why but his body hated this woman.

He walked over and grabbed the sword which laid on the ground and looked at the wolf laying on the ground looking up through the hole up above at the moon.

She could feel a shadow cover her body and as she glanced up, it was the last sight she saw as he cleaved the sword through her head, beheading her with a single swing, feeling nothing in the process.

A cloud of purple smoke leaked out from the beast and the sword's silver blade's edge became covered in a foggy black and gray mist.

It looked cool to him but as he tried to touch the mist covered blade he could feel it in his brain, a sense of danger, his body was screaming at him not to do it, as his finger grew closer to the mist he could feel a shocking sensation and he began to cold sweat, that was enough he drew back his hand and shortly after the mist slowly thinned out until it completely vanished into the air.

What was that?

With the sense of danger soon gone he touched the blade, to see it had returned to normal but with that he had another feeling, the urge to run the blade through his chest, he had no desire to end his life yet but his left arm couldn't stop shaking with excitement followed by a warm feeling in the center of his upper abdomen which began to tingle, spurring him to do it.

He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled as he bent down and began to skin the wolf. As he skinned the wolf quickly, he realized something, when he killed the kiskadee before, she had possessed it before and reformed its body, so why didn't she do that with the wolf? He had no clue and the thought of it made his head hurt with his brain going into overdrive to find the answer.

Working faster he tried to soothe his mind by taking it off that topic and focusing on the task at hand, it took time but it worked and his suicidal urge slowly passed along with the overthinking he was suffering from. All he could think about now was his hands soaked in the wolf's blood and the raw flesh which laid before him.

Again he could feel a pulling sensation from above, making him feel dizzy and nauseous, his body was telling him it was time to move.

Like a feral animal, he bit into the thigh of the wolf and ate the raw flesh till he was full with his mouth going numb from the metallic taste of the blood.

He got up slowly and wiped the blood from his mouth with the palm of his hand and picked up the sword and walked over to the pile of rubble which led up to surface. 

He couldn't climb up the rubble with the sword and he had no intention of leaving it down in this shithole, he could use the wolf's skin and fur to make a temporary strap or sling to throw over his shoulder but he had no idea of how to do it.

Glancing up, he could see a tree overseeing the hole. He picked it up like a spear by the handle and tossed it at a tree above, impaling it in a lower region of the bark which would allow him to reach and pull it out when he ascended.

Grabbing onto the rubble, he slowly began to climb up.

----------------------------------------

As he pulled his body out of the hole, his feet and palms of his hands bled from minor cuts and scrapes from some of the sharpened debris but he was met with new sight, the moon looked slightly tinted pink and the light being reflected off of it seemed to make everything glisten with a light pinkish color making him want to gouge his eyes out due to the same color tinting everything within sight inspiring an extreme feeling of discomfort from being unaccustomed to it.

Turning around he gazed up at the waterfall he was falling from previously, witnessing all the trees on the other side of the river above completely torn down. All he could do was gaze at it and put the pieces together of what happened.

He moved over to the tree he impaled with the sword and grabbed it by the handle and pulled hard expecting it to be stuck in, it slid out like if it was buttered up and he fell on his ass to the ground from the force he put in.

.................

Dusting off his ass, he got up and walked around the holes over to the footprints embedded in the soil where the man stood and looked over to the south, but looking in the same direction, he could see no bright gray light, he was confident it was the correct direction he was looking in but he wasn't sure if it was all this pink shit light which was fucking with him or if whatever was happening at that time was already over but he had to go in that direction his senses told him.

The gashes on his hands made it hurt to even hold the sword as his palms dripped blood and the cuts and bruises on his feet made it difficult to walk with each step with the grass agitating the wounds from him walking barefooted.

He took his time and made his way to the south with the dizziness and nausea he was feeling before almost completely gone.

It had to be at least an hour he was walking in the same direction and the trees were slowly becoming more clustered but directly ahead he could see the ground becoming sharply angled upwards about 80 meters away. He was about to ascend a hill from the looks of it.

Continuing to track onwards, he began to walk up towards the base of the hill all of a sudden his legs began to feel heavy. Glancing backward he could see a trail of his bloody footsteps in the grass glowing with a deep red color.

*RUMBLE

A slight tremor below his feet could be felt and before he could react all he could feel was the sensation of falling down into the ground.

*THUD *CLANK

"What the fuck is it with me and FUCKING FALLING DOWN FOR FUCKS....{looks around}........... sake" he said in anger.

It was dark and cold with the only thing light shining on was a marble pedestal embedded into the ground which extended up until his waist in height supporting what looked to be a white stone tablet with a blue orb which could fit in the palm of his hand.

As he placed his hand on the ground to push himself to get up, he could feel the material was smooth and hard like stone. Upon standing up he immediately picked up the sword at his feet and looked at the pedestal in the center of the room.

Huh....What is this shit?

He moved over to the pedestal and gazed down at the stone tablet. It was riddled with impressions in the form of symbols, soaked from blood which had now dried up that gave him a bad feeling in his gut, it felt like a danger warning was being given off, and he understood perfectly well that it was time to leave this place but the moment he looked into that blue orb, he could see within it, blue light moving in circles.

His attention was immediately stolen, he couldn't stop gazing at it, his mind kept telling him to stop but his body refused. A small black dot of light could be seen in the center getting larger and larger with each second and the blue light immediately shifted to the left half of the sphere and the black light occupied the right half.

It began to pulsate and he could feel the vibrations coming from it and then suddenly the two lights began to mix like paint forming a black light with a deep blue tint which he could feel pulling him in. First time had he ever felt a desire this strong to touch something.

His arm moved towards the orb and as he laid the palm of his right hand on it, the top of the orb opened, like a shell being cracked and from the darkness within, all he could see was a silver blade move at tremendous speed, slitting the palm of his hand. 

The orb immediately closed upon his blood falling within it.

It dripped from his hand onto some of the runic symbols which were embedded deep into the stone tablet, it didn't take much but the impressions were filled with blood.

*VOOSH

Spontaneously in front of him, two lines of fire slowly lit up parallel to each other but he could feel no heat being emitted from it. He could clearly see a corridor made of white stone with blood smeared all over the walls with symbols similar to the ones on the tablet rooted in the walls.

The orb suddenly sunk into the concrete slab as if it was water. He had no idea what laid at the end of the pathway and he had no intention of finding out but it looked like he was about to find out anyways.

The lines of fire converged to the center of the corridor and a massive flame ball formed illuminating the entire room. He could hear the sound of stone being moved and as he looked at the walls within the room, unlit torches began to emerge on the walls, pushing what looked to be stone slabs camouflaged into the walls to the side. Unprompted, the ball exploded with miniature globes of flame spreading out to each torch making the once cold and bleak room, warm and grim. 

At the end of the room laid a figure with its entire body was wrapped in a black cloth similar like that of a mummy but its body was massive,laying on top a gigantic black stone slab, with massive bone spears with black stone tips impaled on the ceiling with a black chestplate, rough and seemingly scaly in nature laying on the ground with bones embedded on the gauntlets which looked to be sharpened and on the chestplate possessed two bones on each shoulder projecting upwards laying directly on the ground before the body with two white greaves scattered on opposing sides of the slab. The spears distracted him but as he looked closely at the body he realized something, this body was about the same size of the man the shadows had fought before, it was huge, how could he have not noticed it properly.

He slowly raised his head up at the hole which he fell from.

"I think its time I took my leave," he said slightly worried.

To reach the opening above he would need a boost but he couldn't use the pedestal in fear that it would stab him in his feet or he could risk some other dumb shit happening.

Nows a better time to try it out than ever I guess........

He began to focus forming a clear image in his head of the shadow and low and behold one of the two shadows crawled out of a pitch black shadow pool.

It did nothing but stand there as he imagined it. There were things he wanted to know about them but he couldn't dwindle here any longer.

I wonder if it can take verbal commands?

"Uh, gimme a boost?" He asked unsure if it would work.

The shadow crossed the palms of its hands and took a knee. He did not stick, quickly he put his foot on its hands and he could feel the push it gave and he paired it with a leap and flew upwards into the air through the hole and maneuvred his body to fall upon the grassy land being careful with the sword he held not to stab him as he fell.

"Thanks" he muttered as a black ball flew from the hole straight into his chest making his arms feel weighed down momentarily but it wouldn't stop him from getting the fuck out of this area immediately and continuing up the hill.

He glanced up at the hill but as he turned around once more to look at the hole, it was gone as if it vanished into thin air, making him question if he was hallucinating but the slit in the palm of his hand proved it was no hallucination, this pain was real, this blood was real and this fatigue in his arms from being pushed up through a hole from the shadow was real.

*MMMMMHHMMMM

It was faint but he could hear what seemed to be muffled screaming coming from higher up on the hill within the thicker trees above.