The upside to needing to use magic to move is that she’s gotten a breakthrough in her understanding of how a soul works.
The stronger it is, the faster it heals.
So long as she doesn’t cross the threshold that would lead to damage, Alex can still strengthen her soul. Albeit slowly.
The downside is the constant lethargy that only gets worse. How does this fit into her understanding of magic? no idea! She doesn’t particularly care anymore either, choosing to just roll with the punches.
She really needs to take some notes on this shit so she can find some connections and make it make sense. Or just ask Banzan, whenever she sees that giant again. She was kinda hoping he’d show up during the brief period she was in Lost Hope, but no, she wasn’t so lucky. Looks like she’ll just have to figure this shit out herself.
Someone shakes her shoulder.
She turns to see Aki giving her a questioning look, “Are you okay?”
Alex blinks away the stars in her vision, “I’m fine.”
He scoffs, “you look dead on your feet, and that’s saying something ‘cause i’ve literally seen you cosplay as a corpse not that long ago.”
Alex grunts, “just tired, it’ll be fine. Once we head back I can get my beauty sleep.”
Aki scrunches his brows, “is it related to your magical shit?” he asks.
She nods.
“Then maybe you should tone it down a little.” He says.
Alex chuckles, “and what? Be immobile in the combat zone?”
He shakes his head, “I know you’ve taken extra rations.” he accuses, “you’re healing right now, aren’t you.”
Alex sighs, “I’m not gonna slow down my healing Aki, I need to get back into top form.”
“You’ll never be back to ‘top form’,” Aki says bluntly, “the amount of muscle you lost can’t just be regenerated, you’ll need to get entirely new ones, and that takes money you don’t have.”
Alex looks down, “It’s magic Aki, maybe they could still heal back.”
Aki’s face softens, “no Alex, unless you can make new ones yourself, they're gone.”
Alex sighs, damn him for being right, she…stops her healing and feels something in her body lighten, but the fatigue stays the same.
“Better?” Aki says.
“Yeah.”
-
They’re set up at a warehouse, a small thing with only a few loading bays. The dragons use this as a kind of forward operating base in the combat zone, so they don’t have to constantly cross the border to rest. They get more than a few sneers as they pass by, but honestly Alex’s too tired to give a shit. Without her healing running maybe sleep will be enough to recover.
Here’s to hoping.
Too bad someone decided to be a bitch before she could do that.
“Of all the things I thought I'd see in the combat zone, children wasn't one of them.” says a woman with a smooth voice, “what’re you doing here little lizards? There are less convoluted ways to commit suicide.”
“We’re here to sleep.” Takeshi replies, staring her in the eye, “just have to report the patrols we took care of first, now if you’ll kindly get out of our way.”
The woman looks amused more than anything, “was it you or the zombie trailing behind you who came up with that?”
Alex feels anger flare up in her chest, she just wants to sleep, not deal with whatever the fuck this is. She takes a step forward and snarls at the woman as Takeshi stops her with an arm.
“Zombie?” she hisses.
The woman lets out a little chuckle, “have you looked in the mirror lately girl? You’re not winning any pageants, I can say that for certain.”
Alex tries to push past Takeshi but two pairs of hands grab her shoulders and manage to hold her back. It’s not much of a struggle, considering she still can’t use her full strength.
“Calm down.” Aki whispers into her ear, “she’ll beat you to death in your state.”
Alex growls but acquiesce, the woman has a smug smirk on her stupid face as Alex is pulled back. Alex takes in her features, caramel skin, button nosed, small cleft chin on a long face. Red eye’s and arms of silver.
“Let us through,” Takeshi whispers dangerously.
“No thanks, i’m having too much fun with this nepo-kid”
Instantly Takeshi’s eyes go yellow, the woman raises a brow before her eyes go wide and she draws a gun on him. She doesn’t pull the trigger, because she can’t. Her arms shake violently as the gun is slowly brought up to her own head, Takeshi is mimicking her motions.
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“What the fuck” she says, fear threaded into the fabric of her voice. The barrel reaches her temple. The surrounding dragons watch in amazement.
“You will let us through,” Takeshi says, “or you will die.”
It is silent as she stares at the boy.
“Ok, ok. I’m sorry alright? Let go of my arms and I'll leave you alone.” She says.
“No,” Takeshi says “I think not.”
Then her arms go limp and the gun clatters to the ground.
Takeshi walks up to the woman and pats her on the shoulder.
“You should be careful who you mock, little lizard.”
-
“Was that a remote control and a shutdown script!?!” Aki gushes, “and the speed they went through her defenses! Are you a netrunner?”
Takeshi scratches at his cheek, slightly embarrassed, “no, it was commissioned work by one of the gang’s members”
Aki deflates, “does that mean I can’t look at it?”
“Sorry.”
-
The routine flows like water through a canal, three days they go and hunt, three days they stay and rest. Alex stays on her mattress when it’s rest time, focusing all her magic on healing, making the moving less expensive, and more effective. Now she can go on a light jog, and it’s only been three weeks! She’s making tremendous progress all things considered.
“You think they’re holding the tournament right now?” Alex asks from her mattress.
“Probably not, who's even available to fight, the toddlers?” Aki says.
“That would be pretty entertaining though, I think the seats would still fill up just for that”
“As much as I want to disagree, Arthas has some fucking cruel people”
-
He is following a trail.
Death does not make trails.
It’s simply not how it works, once you die, movement is made impossible. The only scenario he can think of that makes sense is that someone is dragging a corpse all around the combat zone. Perhaps there are those deranged enough to do that, but unfortunately for Kite, this isn’t that. That would be simple, this? This is different.
Death doesn’t stay forever.
Sure the trails fade, but whatever is making them is still moving, and just as strong as ever. This doesn’t make sense.
Unless whatever is making these trails is still alive.
Which raises so many questions that Kite can’t help but follow the anomalies trail all the way to a little warehouse.
-
The first sign that something is wrong is the screams, the second is the gunfire. Alex curses under her breath as she gets up from her mattress. Not again. She checks her Reison, as her friends go through the same process of checking their guns before running into the fray.
“They fucking found us” Sasha curses “It’s the fucking supply job all over again.”
Takeshi flinches at that curiously enough, but now isn’t the time to dissect that. They hurry to the main loading bay, and what they see is not an ambush, it is a slaughter.
There is only one, carving their way through the crowd like a scythe through wheat. It cannot be human, it is a thing of steel and guns and chains. Eight legs sprout from something like a spider's abdomen, but with sharp edges, barrels poke out and fire bullets that curve to whomever the thing fancies, and so many fall, but those in front of it get a worse fate. On each wrist are manacles, connected to an iron ball the size of a truck's wheel. It swings the chain and removes everything above the abdomen of one dragon. She can see what remains of his heart and lungs crashing alongside bits of bone. Takeshi is the first to act, he takes his sniper and shoots the thing in the head. It doesn’t so much as acknowledge the shot as it continues to mow down dragons, each one scrutinized by its eyes, and oh, there are so many eyes. Round orbs of emerald littered around its entire body, creating a panoptic vision that a human brain surely can’t understand.
Then it stops.
It turns, every so slowly, towards them.
Alex shoots it with her Reison and nothing happens, it just pings off the things chest as it slowly skitters towards them.
She shoots again.
Then again, and again, and again, and again until her gun clicks empty. Then she shakily draws her katana as it crouches down to her level. It isn’t shooting anymore because the only things left to kill are Alex and her friends.
“You,” it says in a voice that is surprisingly human. “I have been following you. I saw your trail, it was…impossible. Cannot be. Unfathomable. But I look at you and here it is, right in front of my eyes. What are you?”
Her katana is shaking like a leaf in the wind as she stares at the monster that will surely kill her.
“I’m Alex.” She manages.
It ignores her as it tilts its torso to one side, then the other, sizing her up.
“You look normal.” It says, “unmodified. Untouched by steel. But you cannot be normal. Cannot be. I can see, you see? I can see it on you like a cloak. A blanket. A shield. But it cannot be any of these things. It is never any of these things. Never. Do you understand? You must. It is you after all. How could you not understand? Could you tell me?”
“If you tell us what you’re talking about,” Aki says slowly, “then maybe we could.”
The thing regards him with an annoyed expression before tilting its head and smiling like it discovered something important. “I talk about the end. The reaper. Solace and pain. I speak of a thing to grieve and to grow. Fertilizer. A tree chopped down and a sapling crushed. I speak of DEATH.”
The air trembles with the word and blood flows out of their ears and eyes as they fall to the ground, clutching their heads. Alex, being so close to her soul as of late, can sense something shift. A seed that is not of her comes and plants itself next to her mark, and the pain of it is remarkable. Not the worst she’s ever felt, she cannot feel something greater than PAIN, but it is still enough to elicit a scream.
The thing watches them writhe on the ground with a smile on its face.
-
Eventually, Alex manages to get on her knees as comprehension of something fundamental invades her mind. She knows what it wants now, but she still doesn’t understand how it found her. A trail of death? That doesn’t make sense, death doesn’t leave trails, she doesn’t think so at least. She doesn’t know how much of this is her own thoughts. But she knows what it wants, and that’s all that matters.
Its face is almost touching hers as it leans down to stare at her.
“If I tell you, will you let us live?” She says.
It’s face softens “Everything wishes to live, for most death is not a choice. Fate. Chance. I do not know. But yes, it will not be the end for you or your friends.”
Alex breathes in, then breathes out.
“I’m haunted.” She says simply.
Its eyes widen as it pulls back from her. “Haunted?” It says.
She nods.
It grabs its head and scratches at its eyes, “Ghosts? No, death is the end. There cannot be more. But it makes sense. Logical. Reasonable. There is no other way. But that means that death…Is it not the end?”
It groans as it continues to paw at its head, “I must go. Must think. Must understand. We will see each other again.”