This is the worst!

Espoir narrowly avoided another heavy blow from Simon. His fist shattered the wood paneling of the observation deck. As Espoir stepped back, he could sense the Eldritch lurking near the ship. "Listen! I genuinely do not care about whatever reason you have for wanting to rob the ship. We are in a rift. There is an Eldritch that doesn't care whether we're rich or poor. It will kill us."

"So?"

Espoir paused, as Simon went to punch him in the face. Rather then dodge like he had been, Espoir ran towards Simon Something's off about this. Simon thought to himself. He felt his entire demeanor had changed. Espoir effortlessly parried the punch with his forearm and countered with his own strike to the face. Blood dripped down Simon's face. "So I've been wasting my time. If you're content damning everyone on the ship then it can't be helped. I'll stop using reason and wrap this up."

Had he not been taking me seriously? Simon thought to himself. Espoir's speed increased. His body glowed green as he activated [Accelerate] on himself. Simon tried to counter his approach with a gravity-enhanced side strike, only to have his hand collide with Espoir's palm. Unlike before, sparks appeared as Espoir covered his hand in aura. To his shock, Simon's had recoiled back towards him.

What was that?!

During the recoil, Espoir kneed him in the chin. While rising, Espoir planted his hand on the man's shirt. Appearing on the back his palm was a blue downward facing triangle 🜄 "Cerulean Edge." A circle of water formed around his hand in the shape of a spell circle, once the shape fully formed it cascaded the man in a small barrage of slashes. The attacks cut down to the floor of the deck in an indiscriminate path. As Simon tried to retaliate with a gravity-enhanced punch, Espoir punched him in the chest.

Snapping his fingers, the blood coming from Simon began to whirlpool around him. Espoirs hand-symbol turned from blue to red. "Rosè Edge." A spiral of blood formed around Simon. The vortex cut through everything before dissipating quickly. Espoir had a neutral look on his face as Simon was still standing. His clothes were torn and he had blood dripping from shallow slashes. "Hah. So you're taking me seriously now?" Simon scoffed, trying to recover from the attack. On instinct, he used his own aura to protect his body from the barrage. What would've torn him completely only scratched him. He took off his coat revealing a black tank top and his muscular arms.

"You realize letting the Eldritch destroy everyone will also kill you and your friends right?" Espoir couldn't understand him. He wanted a comfortable life, yet he seemed content to risk everyone's lives for his own benefit. Was he stupid, arrogant, or truly that uncaring towards others? "With an ability like yours, why not join the military? You know they give State Mages a salary right?"

Simon scoffed. "You think I didn't try that?! I got rejected and told my ability 'had no use' to them."

"So you're robbing this ship out of spite?" He cocked an eyebrow. Simon paused at Espoirs words. His gang came up with this plan to rob the ship and sell the shipments of chroma to the black market. After living in poverty for so long, they started committing crimes to make it by. The final straw was Simon being rejected by the military. It’s not like they are overstaffed with members, mages with strong abilities were in high demand, yet they rejected Simon. Turning to a life of crime felt like the only option when trying to be honest failed.

Class.

That was the reason he was ignored by the military. He wasn’t from a noble family. He didn’t have military connections. They took one look at him, saw he was from the slums, and decided that was it. It didn’t matter if he had a Spell Art. It didn’t matter that he had taught himself how to use aura or amplify his ability. He even developed his own Spells, something that some state mages couldn't do. None of that matters if my social standing is low.

As these thoughts went through Simon's head, the Eldritch slammed into the side of the ship. Despite not having a good look at it, Espoir saw the Eldritch had a pair of massive wings and a 'body' that extended almost infinitely into the void below. Its face that resembled a skull with moving tentacles draping its front. As the two went overboard, Espoir used his aura to amplify his strength and stabbed his dagger into the side of the ship to keep himself from falling. At the end of was a small metal wire that he kept hold of. As Espoir's wire tightened, he bounced slightly from the inertia but stopped his decent. Looking down, Espoir saw Simon free falling into the void below. While he could've risked his life to save him, Espoir decided to save himself. Simon had tried to kill him and was fine letting everyone else on the ship die. Espoir wouldn't risk his life for someone like that when the people on board needed help.

As Simon fell into the unknown, he had a horrified expression on his face before something that resembled contentment. Espoir didn’t see him as a particularly evil person, rather a victim of circumstance. Espoir had felt some sympathy for him and his friends. Despite them fighting, Espoir felt nobody deserves to die like that. Maybe he'll survive and become a better person. In truth, Espoir had no idea what would happen if you fell into a rift like that. All he could do was hope he'd survive and change for the better.

Pulling himself back onto the deck. Espoir glared at the Eldritch's silhouette. Espoir extended his hand outward. “Appear! my Grimoire between light and darkness!” The Silver Grimoire materialized in his hand. Espoir quickly flipped the book's pages desperately trying to find a way to analyze and break the rift. He didn't see any other option since the Eldritch was too far away to weaken. The best-case scenario would be to break the ship out of the rift and hope the Eldritch was stuck here for a time.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Espoir,” Aria called out as she ran to the deck. “What the hell is that?” Aria saw something in the fog. It looked like a pair of ominous purplish eyes was stalking them like prey.

“Oh hey Aria. Long story short we’re now in a rift and that dragon-looking thing wants us dead.” Espoir said, almost a little too casually. "That won't help..."

“Wait. What?”

Looking up, Espoir’s eyes narrowed. He could see a black-purple ball of energy forming in the darkness. Espoir could sense the magic inside the ball. It was unsettling and unnatural and above anything else, VERY dangerous. “That’s really bad.”

“Can you please elaborate?” Aria asked, annoyed by his usual cryptic talk. Espoir hummed in thought, not sure how to describe it. “So you know how everything is considered matter, right? Solid, liquid, gas, that sort of thing?”

“Yeah?” Aria wasn’t sure where he was going with this. “Well, 'that' is the exact opposite.” Espoir said, as if that made sense. His grimoire disappeared as he quickly started drawing a circle in chalk. “Honestly, it’s kinda impressive that an Eldritch, which typically are solid when they fully form, can somehow create antimatter. You'd think it would destroy itself doing that. Under normal circumstances, I'd love to deconstruct how it does that because that's pretty interesting."

Aria glared at him before realizing what he had said. “What do you mean antimatter? Is it going to try to hit us with…whatever that is?!”

“Technically I don’t think it can hit us since it can't be soli-.” Judging by Aria's face, Espoir realized this was not the time for jokes. “If that connects we will cease to exist. The bright side is that it'll be completely painless. I think.”

“Can’t you use your grimoire to seal it like you did Blackwell?” Aria assumed something as mythical as the Silver Grimoire could handle this. He was the Silver Grimoire, he must be able to do something! Espoir sighed in frustration. He wasn’t able to break through the rift in time. “I only seal Eldritch when they’re weak enough that I can safely deconstruct them. Like humans, Eldritch have a magic core, which is how I seal them into my book." Seeing that they were running out of time, Espoir's mind raced for a solution.

”I don’t try to seal them in a perfect state because... well I’m not really sure what would happen." Espoir’s eyes widened. He might have a way to save everyone. Rematerializing the Silver Grimoire, a silver crescent moon ☾ formed on the back of Espoir's hand. Unlike his other symbols, a series of bright stars decorated Espoirs fingers and hand as well. "For the record, if this doesn't work, please don't curse me in the afterlife. I'd feel bad knowing you just agreed to join me and died as soon as you started following me." Espoir said with a small smile.

"...No promises."

All magic had costs and conditions to them. The Silver Grimoire was no exception. The Spell Espoir used to seal Eldritch required aura to use it. With a higher cost, Espoir could make it stronger. If Espoir were to use all his remaining aura for this one attack and it collided with the Eldritch, it might seal the Eldritch the same way it does on a weakened one. The worst case was it didn't and they were dead anyway.

As the Eldritch released the attack, a ball of pure darkness mixed with the hazy purple fog of the surrounding void casted a massive shadow over the airship. Holding his hand out, a silver spell circle formed around the base of his palm. At the center of the circle was a glowing crescent moon. As the unholy mass was about to reach the ship, Espoir closed his eyes before reopening them determined.

Ataraxia

Espoir fired a single shot of light into the darkness. As the beam of light went into the much larger ball of darkness, an explosion shook the rift. What came next is unknown. Just that brightness filled the void, fading everything into white.

...

Did it work? I'm not dead, right? Espoir wondered as he slowly opened his eyes. His question was answered as he felt the rebound of his Spell.

"AH!"

Coughing out blood, Espoir had blood pouring from his eyes and mouth. He fell to the deck as a burning sensation filled his chest. Shit! I overextended my aura reserves! He was fortunate he didn't die from underpaying the cost. Mages sometimes killed themselves as a result of being unable to pay the cost of a Spell. They're bodies would burn themselves out trying to fuel the Spell. Magic cannot be cheated.

Rolling onto his back, Espoir decided he didn't want to move for the rest of the day, or year. Staring up, Espoir gazed at the beauty of the night sky. While his grimoire resembled it, Espoir found the genuine article better. Thinking about it, it had been a good while since he truly looked it like this. The more things change the more they stay the same huh? Espoir thought numbly before smiling. I couldn't die here, not when there's still so much to do...

Noticing that Aria was recovering from the light show, it started to sink in how lucky it was that the Eldritch had been destroyed. Espoir began laughing. “BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA! I had no clue if that would work or not!” He laughed. The Easennian swordswoman watched him, slightly startled by the strange man. He’s definitely insane. Calming himself down, a mixture of red and clear tears brimmed his eyes. Espoir slowly shifted to a sitting position, his body still hurt like hell. “Ha. I hope you aren't regretting your decision to follow me.”

Aria thought for a moment before shaking her head. "Even if you are... strange. I don't regret it yet. But, a-are you alright?" Aria seemed concerned that he was bleeding from his eyes. Before Espoir could form a response. Some passengers came up to them. “Miss!” Aria’s eyes widened as a mother and a boy came up to her. “I don’t know how I could ever repay you.” The mother said, lowering her head at the girl as she sincerely thanked Aria. Aria raised her hands defensively, caught off guard by the gesture. “I-it’s no big deal! I just did what I thought was right is all...”

The boy grinned at her. “That was so cool the way you beat all three of those guys! I want to be strong like you when I get older!” As he praised her, Aria frowned slightly. “You shouldn’t worry your mom like that! How are you going honor your dads promise if you leave her. You’d make her very sad if you got yourself killed, you know?” Aria scolded him before a small smile formed across her lips. “Still, I’m happy nobody got hurt.”

To Aria’s shock, or maybe horror, a crowd of passengers from the dining hall had circled her. They were clapping and showering her with praise for how she fought off the thieves and how impressive she was. Naturally, Aria looked completely flustered by the sudden attention. Espoir watched this unfold with an amused smile.