Suta POV
“The Elder hearts. Five hearts from five Elder Dragons. At some point, the complete version of us stormed the world and captured five elder dragon hearts. At that point, nobody, and I mean nobody, could stand against us. In the past, we obtained a power that made the so-called Gods Quake.
A power so one-sided that they summoned, conjured and evoked all powers to stop us. And yet...they all failed. Time and time again."
Suta was assured he could hear his heartbeat beating fast. The story was identical to those visions he saw before he found himself stranded on that island. Up until now, those memories appeared in fragments, but now..." everything...looks clearer."
" Struggler, Avenger, Trespasser, now I need you to begin your transcendence into a new being. An overcomer.”
At that moment the entire crypt rumbled again, this time Suta felt whatever it was, had almost arrived upon them. Whatever his role in this sordid tale, Suta held no reservations about the unlikelihood of him avoiding it. From the mana storm to the dark oath he swore with that deity. To understanding the existence of Mana, about Skills, ranks and these strange, powerful abilities and finally. This strange girl and her equally strange counterparts. All of these mysteries were united. Suta held no allegiance to any of these peculiar beings. Nor did he care what they did to one another. He only had one goal in his heart. And nothing was going to stop him from fulfilling it.
With a heavy heart, he gritted his teeth firmly and clenched his fists tightly by his side.
“Ok, I’ll do it. Whatever it is you need me to do. These el-elder hearts? You need me to find them, and that’ll free you from this prison, I’m guessing? Good! I'll do it, I'll find them all and scale whatever hell I must scale. But then you’ll honour me this…”
Celina's gaze flickered. An air of seriousness seemed to cloak over her bones.
“What do you want from me?” She asked in a sweet tone.
“Power, unstoppable power. Can you promise me that? You make me the strongest, and I’ll free you. I'll find you wherever you are and break the chains, not just for you but for Cel and Celine as well. I’ll find a way to do it…trust me!”
Silence, a strange cold silence, ensued between them. Suta felt nervous, almost as though he was awaiting a decision with implications that would thoroughly alter everything.
“If you truly understood what you were asking of me, I wonder if you would still consider it your best option. Sigh, nevertheless, I agree to your demands.”
‘Strange, her eyes looked sad saying that.’ But he nodded his head slowly in agreement. Power was necessary, growth and elevation were the only way.
“One last thing, a small warning. Do not be so freely trusting of little Cel.” Her words surprised Suta, who pictured the cute round face of the shy little girl, so instinctively asked
“Why not?”
“Cel carries the parts of myself which I understand pretty well—anger, cunning…revenge. She is the worst of us three, so to speak and the best.
“W-wait, what are you even saying? Didn’t you tell me you were all one and the same at some point? Now you’re making it sound like she’s an enemy.”
Celina's scarlet eyes folded to one side in deep thought.
“What the mind wants is grossly different to what the body needs. I say this so you are not mistaken about what this is between us. You must bring me the elder hearts; do not allow Cel to get her hands on them. My way is for freedom and salvation, and Cel wants to trample on those who wronged us.”
With things only getting more complicated, Suta could only massage his temple silently, trying his best not to overthink this madness.
“Listen, I understand it must be difficult. But I’ll allow you to see it for yourself. It's a fraction of what losing control looks like. And why it’s in all our best interests for you to trust in me. Come bring me your hand.”
Suta stared at her slender hand, slowly reaching out. His cautiousness felt slightly disturbed by his silent admiration of her smooth, porcelain-white skin. He held no trust in her, but he was curious—he certainly was curious.
Sigh, what's the worst that can happen? No, that’s a terrible thought. There are quite a lot of terrible things that could happen.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
He shook his head from side to side in an attempt to free his thoughts. A soft exhale eventually broke free from his mouth, and he slowly succumbed to his curiosity. Walking forward, Suta only realised how spacious this oval platform was. The crypt was mysterious, and dark shadows cast against the walls cloaked whatever strange outline of stoned faces he could barely see. He was sure he noticed horns.
Once he arrived by Celeste’s side he knelt down onto a single knee, the position she was in forced him into this awkward stance. Suta tried to avoid showing his face was turning warm. He met her outstretched pale hand halfway. She caressed her bony fingers in his palm, her pale skin an intriguing contrast to his own rich brown. Her cold touch was slightly surprising. Before Suta held a moment to gather himself, his eyes widened slightly, watching a golden rune beginning to crawl down her snow-white arm.
His searching gaze moved towards her scarlet eyes for answers, but instead, the sweet smile from the blue-haired beauty graced him affectionately. Suta felt butterflies briefly, but he steeled his heart quick enough to remain focused on the approaching gold runes, which shone over her skin like dozens of golden webs.
“Should I be worried about…that?” He asked slightly anxiously
“No, stay still. It’ll be over quickly.” Celina smiled
Suta braced himself for what was going to be something uncomfortable. He could already sense it. A strange rejection towards the incoming rune. The first golden pattern touched his skin. It felt as though a strange, wiry, warm dust fell against his skin.
The second he made contact with it, Suta felt his entire body go numb. A hot and rushing brightness crashed upon him, and he took a startled gasp.
Converging upon his mind was a series of fast-moving images. Suta met himself staring at a familiar pale, bone creature with ferocious-looking claws and a half-torn iron visor covering its bestial face. He knew that creature immediately, Ser Ector's, from beneath the eclipse. But something else startled his attention: not so far away from the beast stood a strange fog. There was a constant burning grey. A shroud covered in burning grey flames, Suta watched the peculiar figure for a while now. But then the spectral shroud raised its head. And Suta felt his blood turn cold. A pair of scarlet eyes glared right through him. The burning fiend creased a smile so vast Suta couldn’t imagine what kind of maniacal creature could pull its mouth that far apart. An impending sense of danger chased his sanity. There was nothing Suta had ever felt close to this feeling of doom.
The spectral fiend bent its neck back and howled resoundingly into the air. A baleful aura skyrocketed into the heavens, sending a cold chill practically freezing the air. Just before Suta suffocated beneath its strangling embrace, he met the blinding white light again, forcing him to gasp with fright as though death had seized him whole. In the next few moments, Suta realised he had returned to the beautiful Celeste’s side again, the frigid dimly lit air as peaceful as he had left it, as though nothing had happened.
He quickly snatched his hand away from the girl’s delicate touch. A look of horror was masked over his ragged breaths as his eyes bounced from her open palm to the runes, shimmering with life wrapped against her snow-white skin. He unconsciously felt as though he knew who that fiend burning in grey was, but it made no sense how that thing came to be. So, to Suta, how in the world could it be true?
“Did you…did I do-“
“Suta, I need you to attune your mind towards reality. If you want to grow strong, you must learn to understand your abilities. You can no longer walk around in blindness. And now, shan't we arrive at the point of why you have come here?”
“I don’t understand. Wh-why have I…”
“Mastery, the first goddess, has made it so. Her sufficient grace allowed mere mortals the chance to arduously practice skills to turn them into abilities.
You must understand yourself and know there is always a key to a hidden door.”
She held out her dainty arm again, but this time, her almost spotless jade hand began to douse in a shimmering emerald light—a soft glow which slowly began to caress over her entire arm.
Suta was too entranced by its glamouring light to swiftly realise the pain contorting against her face. Before his lips would move, she had already creased an affectionate smile, telling him to hold his worries for now.
“I can only do this once. After you have seen it, you will wake up again. And that would conclude our fated meeting. Touch my hand, and you will find the answers to understanding the power that alludes to you.”
‘The power that alludes me,’ Suta recited consciously. The more he stared into the empty space with wonder, the closer his mind was to the problem—the one constant that revealed itself to him in unexpected moments. A curious worry at first, by now, it had truly shifted into a meticulous pattern of thought processing.
Suddenly, Suta understood where her riddles were steering him towards.
“Could it be that? The Gl-glitch ability? " he mouthed slowly before shifting his gaze towards the gracefully poised scarlet-eyed girl. Celina never broke her cold demeanour this time, but she softly nodded her head.
Suta had already guessed that the play here was to make him stronger somehow, but he had no clue how that glitch ability would accomplish that.
“And what about you? H-how do I…save you?”
His earnest tone was honest despite not possessing the faintest of understandings towards any of these strange mysteries. Suta genuinely wanted to solve this red-eyed girl’s problem. If he could, of course, then he would.
“I told you before that, at this point, the location of this body is far out of your current abilities. I even took advantage of this thread between us to meet you. But it has its constraints and consequences. It may seem like it, but you are not alone. Come, take my hand, and Suta remember this well my heart…I will always be with you.”
Suta sucked back in his doubts, his worries and the perpetual sadness nestled deep in his heart. He layered his resolve, his ego and his unwavering will against it. Pushing those emotions deep down into an abyss.
Suta opened his eyes again with a deep exhale and stretched out his hand to meet Celeste’s own.