I turned to where the Kaos and Carnis had occupied to find an earthen wall had been erected around them, with no sound heard within. Author sat against the wall, drained and breathing heavily. He raised his thumb up at me again.
“I trapped em.” He said, gesturing back to the wall with his raised thumb.
“Good job.”
I threw his arm around my shoulder and helped him walk over to a section of the box wall that hadn’t been broken by the Kaos. As I set him on the ground, he took out his pen and wrote in the air again. As he finished the spell, it flowed into him, and his breathing returned to normal
“I’ll just need a sec to recover.”
“Can you let me into the wall?”
“Sure thing, Nil. Send im to the Void.”
“Yes.”
The section of the wall in front of me slowly lowered and raised back up after I entered, revealing Carnis covered in bites and cuts, standing above the corpse of the Kaos. As he turned and saw my approach; a grin grew on his face. He raised his arms aloft and blabbered yet again. I did not pay attention to his words as I continued my approach, slipping on Soteria’s brass knuckles.
Item now available! Would you like to set your Subclass you Brass Knuckle Bearer (Rare)?
Absolutely Yes
Hidden Buff Activated: A Mother’s Last Will and Testament.
I stood in front of Carnis as he continued to speak, and I continued to ignore whatever nonsense he spoke. I raised my fists to my face and copied Soteria’s stance, integrating her teachings into this moment. Carnis’ eyes changed just as Soteria’s did but in a different way. The blood that ran down changed as well, matching his eyes. The seed of power inside me expanded as I felt my feet dig into the ground beneath me. Carnis finally noticed me in front of him as his monologue came to a stop.
“What are you doing, frea…” He started, “Y-your ey..”
My fist interrupted him as it slammed into the bruise Soteria had left him. The seed of power exploded within me as the ground beneath my feet cracked as my fist connected with Carnis. The strange blood poured from his mouth and splattered across the ground. He was launched into the wall surrounding us and fell to his knees. He struggled to get up to his feet and I did not allow him. I dashed forward, the distance between us vanished in an instant, and then I continued my assault. Soteria’s teachings occupied my mind as I jabbed twice, launched a straight, repeated and then threw a hook whenever Carnis got too close to being on his feet. My attack pressed him back into the wall and every strike ensured he could not escape. He was durable as always; he would not die from this. However, this time it wouldn’t work in his favor. He woulk feel every single moment, every strike I threw at him.
His blood eventually covered my hands and arms as they became affected by this change in Carnis. My assault continued as I changed pace and strikes so he couldn’t predict the next attack. A right jab at his face, then a left. I repeat, I reverse it, jab twice, throw a straight or two. Right. Left. Left. Right. Right. I keep my eyes locked onto to his as his changed eyes have the same look as I have seen many Bound tortured by him have had. I believe it was called fear. Good, he deserves it. I struck his bruise yet again and he dropped back down to his knees, a pained groan leaving him.
Left, right, jab, straight. Right, right, jab, jab. Bruise, jab, bruise, straight. Left, right, left, right. Right left right left. Rightright left jab. Rightright right. Rightrightrightrightrightrightright! He needs to feel what we all felt. RightBruiseRightBruiseRightRightRight, He needs to feel what she felt. “Nil.” RightRight He needs to feel what I felt! “Nil!” RightRightBruiseRightBruiseBruiseBruiseBruiseBruise, He needs to feel my WRATH! “Nilhil!”
Author POV
Nil turned away from Carnis’ bloody corpse and stared at me. Nil’s right arm was submerged inside his stomach and then I saw their face. Their eyes were no longer the usual white as their pupils were now bright red. Strands of scarlet hair appeared in places where blood hadn’t even touched their white hair. I silently held my gaze with them before I saw the red in their eyes begin to flicker back to normal. Carnis slowly slipped off from Nil’s arm and slumped lifelessly onto the ground. I approached them slowly.
“You doing okay, sib?”
They looked at their hands and back to me. “No. I was…”
“Angry?”
“I suppose so.” They seemed to search their memories for a moment. “Yes, it seems that anger matches with my actions. Strange.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Yeah, your eyes are all red and evil looking.”
As those words seemed to register in Nil’s mind, the red in their eyes and hair receded.
“Red? As in one of the colors you and Soteria would mention?”
“Yeah, like one of those. The color of blood and the eye color of Carnis, ya know.”
They looked back down at their arms and at what used to be Carnis on the ground next to them.
“Interesting.”, they pause in thought. “We need to take Soteria and leave. I made a promise.”
“Let’s get to it then. Can’t start breaking promises now, can we?”
Nil flicked the blood of their arms, and we walked over to where Soteria was laying. They scoped her unmoving body up in their arms and looked at her for a moment. Their eyes changed to blue for a while until they looked up to the sky that matched their color and closed their eyes for a moment.
“And don’t be so blue.” They muttered. When Nil looked back at me, their eyes were back to their original white and filled with their usual focus. As Nil cradled Soteria in their arms. I held my notepad up and told them,
“These Haste spells are stronger than the minor ones, but they take up more mana and have a shorter duration. They’ll get us out of here quick though.” I placed the note on Nil and the air magic flickered to life around them, enhancing their speed. “Lead the way, sib.”
Nil nods and we booked it for the North gate. Whatever buff Soteria gave in her last moments was still affecting Nil as they sped ahead of me before they glanced back and saw me faltering behind. They slowed their pace to match mine, and we sped through the pathways of the Heap. Nil remembers everything they’ve ever seen; the layout of the Heap is ingrained in their brain like a map. They lead us past the Bound who escaped the guard’s initial hunt, many are injured from brief scraps with the Kaosi who got past the guards. They see Nil running with assurance and begin to file in behind us, but unable to keep up with our pace.
“Hey, stop!” calls out a human figure from atop the boxes, “Let us help you, we’ve come to free the Bound here!” He was clad in black clothing, with a cloak adorning their shoulders and wore an emblem of a broken chain with a black cloth tangled within it. Nil paid him no mind, but some of the Bound that filed in with us moved to join him.
“Sorry dude!” I shouted at the figure, “Maybe another time!”
The top of the North gate became visible over the tops of the boxes, we were getting close. We rounded a final corner and saw the gate itself, with guards still stationed at it despite the Kaosi from the center. Some Bound were hiding close to the boxes attempting to evade the arrows the guards were firing from the towers on the side of the gate. Nil stopped and gently handed Soteria to me.
“Follow behind me, I’ll make a path.” They said and I nodded. Nil took out their shield and charged the gate. I followed as best I could, but they accelerated to the point that they became a blur. The arrows hit the ground as Nil dodged them with slight movements. Soon they encountered the gate, their shield slamming into it, and the gate buckled from the force. Nil continued running without stopping and I followed close behind. With nothing but empty plains and the buffs still active, we made it to Nil’s destination. It was a tree with white petals that covered its crown and blanketed the ground. It matched Nil perfectly and if they were to lay down, they would completely disappear as they melded into a sea of white. I laid Soteria down at the foot of the tree and watch Nil summon a shovel they must have picked up from the broken boxes in the grove.
They silently go to work, digging into the ground. I turn back to look at the Heap, its maze-like structure revealed to me in full. The Bound that followed us are now pouring out of the gate Nil broke through, relieved that we were able to do something helpful for the rest. I summoned my pen and notepad, and prepared for anything that might ambush us. I used all the air mana I had and I’m low on earth mana, but I’ve got plenty of water and fire mana left. As I sat there listening to the sound of Nil’s shovel working on the dirt and the shifting of the earth, I remember the times that Nil had dug graves for some of the Bound in the Heap. As emotionless as everyone believed Nil was, they kept the promises they make. The tree’s shadow sway on the ground and see glimpses of my own through the spaces between the leaves. Then, I watched a larger shadow consume it and the land spreading out from the hill. I looked up into the sky.
It was covered in a shroud as black as the Void. Its form blotted out the sun and cast a shadow that covered the entirety of the Heap and the plains that spread out beyond it. The end of the shroud was its largest point, but it slowly grew smaller the closer you got to its origin. The point it originated from was a small humanoid figure soaring through the air. It was barely visible from far away, but I assumed it to be the size of a person. The figure stopped in the dead center of the Heap and conjured barrier magic that begins to envelop the unprotected Rift. This magic was different from regular barrier magic, rather than generating a wall of force, it weaved itself together like cloth. The flood of Kaosi was stemmed as the barrier started to form around the Rift again, and the shroud separated into tendrils that then skewered the escaped Kaosi, as well as grasping the humanoid figures, of what I assume to be invaders and the Bound, all throughout the Heap and plains. The group of people in black fled out of the gates with whoever they had saved, escaping far into the plains. The shroud then shifted, twisting in our direction as a second barrier was quickly erected around the Heap. A light from behind me banished the shadow growing in the plains.
In the sky behind the tree came a pillar of scorching flame streaking across the sky. Oh Void, I knew that flame. I saw the night I was capture all those years ago superimposed to this scene. A large cinder dripped from it, falling onto the plains below, a small mass of fire fell towards our hill. I took my pen and started shakily casting Heat Shield as it fell towards us. Whenever my hand fumbled and made a mistake, I had to recast the spell. I attempted to cast it again and again, the memory of my childhood house in flames came to mind every time my eyes flickered back to the pillar. When the cinder was but a few feet away from us, I finished the spell. A red shimmering barrier appeared over the hill, and the small fire bounced harmlessly off it.
I let out a breath I hadn’t even known I was holding.
The pillar crashed into the Heap’s new barrier with a bright flash and spread across the barrier like a sheet. The flames rotated around the barrier like a maelstrom, waiting for any weakness to appear. After a moment of this waltz between powerful magics, the fire convalesced up into the sky in the shape of a serpent. It looked directly to where the shroud’s master floated, waiting to strike. Then, the barrier around the Heap dissipated, giving the fiery serpent the moment it was waiting for. It reeled back and attempted to strike, only for the black shroud and everyone it had grabbed had vanished in an instant along with its master. The flame roiled around the ground of the Heap, burning the boxes, corpses and guards left behind. I could hear the screams from here.
That. That is the power of heroes and monsters, of gods and legends that my father once spoke of. That is also the power I must face and overcome. However, through the System I will be able to achieve that power. Not even 8 years of being enslaved in that burning trash heap is going to stop me from that. I will become the hero my father raised me to be.
“Author.” Nil snapped me out of my stupor. They kept their eyes on the grave on the foot of the tree. “I think I know what my goal is. The one Soteria told me to find.”
After examining the rampant roiling serpent, I think I know what it is too. I state the goal we share, “To become as strong as they a….”
“I want to get as far away from the Heap as possible.”
“Oh. Yeah, that makes more sense in this moment that what I was going to say.”
----
Nilhil’s POV
I knew what Author was going to say, ‘to be as strong as they are’. That was not a goal however, that was just a matter of fact. This world was run by the System, and the System awarded violence very generously. Violence was something that I happened to be very adept at, and I would use that to my advantage for as long as possible.
We leave the grave and head towards the place Soteria told me about often as her hometown, and the only place I know the directions to. The capital of the Empire, Catena. Before we started our first journey outside the walls of the Heap, I looked back at Soteria’s grave. I saw the sky briefly turn what I now knew as blue before fading away once more. I swear Soteria, I won’t be sad.