Two deer munched leaves and grass on a hillside overlooking the shattered city of Pherin. As mundane, mostly normal animals the two creatures naturally had no idea what was going on. A sphere seemingly made of the night sky hung suspended a mile over the highest point of the city.
Dark blue beams flashed out from inside the gargantuan thaumatic working, the darkness having a diameter of over a hundred metres.
Goblins poured from the city's walls in their hundreds, the small green monsters were in such a panic they completely ignored the two free meals observing the battle between incarnate and awakened.
Eventually the beams stopped, which disappointed the deer. The light-show had been pretty.
===
Szesis wasn’t nearly dead. And if you told him otherwise he would have killed you. Killed you after he had rested, not because he was the most injured he had ever been. Not that at all, he was simply sleepy.
With a soul so overtaxed it was practically on fire Szesis swapped places with his last remaining shadow clone. It had been strategically placed to allow for an unseen escape, something the orc gladly took advantage of. In an instant he had crossed half the city and found himself in the ruins of a structure so thoroughly destroyed he couldn’t tell what it had once been.
Above, his [Domain of the Night] spun slowly, like a pitch black moon. Its presence shaded the entire city and amplified the darkness spooling from alleyways and creeping from crumbling buildings.
But its true effects were on the inside. The formian called X was trapped within, her attempts to break free from the skill’s grasp were futile.
Eventually the beams of blue light ceased, the other monster had surely burnt through her ability to use that skill.
It must have been one of her core skills. The battered and bleeding orc observed, it would be an important detail in their eventual rematch. Of course the formian had also seen one of his core skills, she was trapped inside it at that very moment.
Szesis fully veiled himself in his aura, and waited. Not hiding.
===
X seethed internally, but externally she was calm and collected. During the fight her face hadn’t shown a single emotion. Such things were weaknesses, and weaknesses could be exploited.
As X hovered within the sphere of light she considered her situation. Her mother was close, she had been tracking her faint presence for months. To be told of the queen’s supposed death had been an insult too grave to let slide.
But now she was trapped within what she knew for certain was one of the incarnate’s core skills. Her [Ray of Annihilation] wasn’t suited to her current situation, and her other core skill absolutely wasn’t.
She launched beam after beam of gravitational power, the skill tore through the shadowy working but failed to create a significant gap. Chunks of the destroyed city hovered around her like debris from an asteroid field, but they too failed to free her.
So eventually she stopped trying. Her insectile wings hummed behind her back, gravity magic keeping her otherwise poorly optimised body airborne. When she was free, X would hunt down the savage who had insulted her mother, her hive. She would rip its feeble limbs from its body and feast on the corpse.
Time within the orc’s domain skill seemed to pass far too slowly. Or maybe that was her impatience talking. X took in a deep lungful of air and centred her mind. It was important for a princess to be controlled and dignified at all times, how else could she control her subjects?
But it was hard. So much harder than it had once been. She truly believed the path her kind had chosen to walk was the right one, and that no sacrifice was too great.
The shadowy domain finally began to fade, instead of instantly leaving X pushed out her aura, her perception spreading down into the city below. It would be foolish to not expect an ambush, the orc had had far too much time to prepare. Now if only she could-
X sensed something beneath her, far below. A familiar presence. The queen. Forgetting about her enemy X let herself drop. Down, down towards her mother, to where she would be home. Down, she could find her mother down.
Down. The voice hissed into X’s mind. Down, come down to me.
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For a brief instant X ignored the wrongness of the pull, she had finally found what she had thought lost. To exaltation of finally, blessedly no longer being alone. It thrummed through her body and resonated with her soul.
Down. Down. Down. DOWN. DOWN. DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWNDOWNDOWNDOWNDOWN
The formian pulled herself out of her dive. The feeling from below was twisted, hungry. She wanted to join it so desperately, to finally be whole once more. But that wasn’t her mother, it was something else hijacking the connection.
Before her mind could be overwhelmed and the ability to refuse the call was robbed from her, X flew away. She felt numb, empty, hopeless, defeated,
She now had two enemies.
Each insult would be responded to with blood.
X would kill them both.
Then she could die. But not before.
===
Szesis felt the moment his domain finally broke apart. But with his aura tightly constrained he couldn’t sense the formian’s movements.
He waited, minutes ticked by. The air thick with tension. Finally he noticed something, a faint blip of mana nearby. The orc cautiously unspooled his aura and swept his immediate surroundings. Almost instantly he detected a flash of spatial mana from a nearby building.
The flash was followed by two figures. Each presence was as familiar as they were weak. A human, and a spriggan. Well, well... What do we have here?
===
You have displayed excellence above your ability!
For befriending, then fighting alongside the natural enemies of the Darkwoods you have gained the following!
+2 to [Intelligence] +2 to [Charisma]!
You have displayed excellence above your ability!
For delving into the depths of an ancient structure filled with dangers, discovering a portion of its secrets and surviving all encounters when many would not you have gained the following!
+2 to [Might] +2 to [Alacrity]
Leif and Sieg lay on the cold, dusty floor. A gentle breeze carried the faint smell of ash and blood through the mostly open structure they sprawled within. Rubble strewn pillars littered the remains of what had once been a magnificent temple.
He blearily skimmed the newest system messages but quickly blinked them away. Now wasn’t the time.
The spriggan hissed and rolled to his feet. He stumbled when he attempted to use the arm that was no longer attached to his body. Where is Marcus? Leif looked around, no sign of the man.
Sieg coughed and blood splattered the once polished marble floor. Leif reached out with his one remaining arm and tugged the man out of the magic circle.
It won’t do for us to be in the way when Marcus comes through. He thought. But as the seconds crawled by the mage didn’t appear. Leif stared blankly at the space the man, his friend, should be. But he wasn’t.
“Marcus…” Sieg wheezed, as the muscular man dragged himself upright. “Where is he? Marcus? Marcus!”
Absently Leif reached out and grabbed the man's shoulder. He pushed lifeforce into Sieg, hopefully it would help him heal from his severe, but not critical wounds. They both stood there in silence, staring blankly at the floor.
Then, finally, Marcus appeared. And blood stained the floor.
Before either man had recognised the state Marcus was in Sieg had darted forward and caught the mage. Instantly his armour and clothes were coloured crimson. Intestines oozed from the sides of Marcus’s torso and flopped to the floor with a wet splat.
“N-no… No!” Sieg stammered. The large man began to tremble. His whole body shaking. Leif rushed forward and grabbed onto the body. He desperately pushed vitality from himself and into the mage.
Nothing.
But the skill kept moving energy, Leif redirected everything he had into Marcus. No longer healing his own wounds he felt his lifeforce drain away at an alarming rate.
Nothing.
Sieg reached for a pouch and withdrew a small glass bottle filled with red pills. He gasped out a sob as the bottle opened, then he forced all the healing pills into Marcus’s mouth.
Nothing.
Leif conjured two ethereal arms. He ignored the spike of pain that ran through his soul and scooped up Marcus’s guts. He pushed them into the gaping wounds and desperately held them shut.
Nothing.
For over a minute Leif flooded the unnerving still body before him with as much lifeforce as possible. His vision began to grow faint and the world began to spin. He grabbed Sieg’s arm and began to drain, transfusing vitality from one human to the other.
Nothing.
The worst injuries on Marcus’s body healed over, patched together in ways that would prevent the man's death. Would have. If only they had been faster, if only they hadn’t left him behind. If only they had been stronger.
Nothing.
Then the mage gasped in a lungful of air.