Pov Eclipse
Ugh, why does everything feel so... heavy.
I was still surrounded by the darkness; it reminded me of home. That was until a blue rectangle appeared from nowhere as it usually does, the rectangle I have learned to not hate, even though it would spout random words that had no meaning to me and was generally annoying.
Evolution Success
You have gained a new Skill X3
Your Stats have increased
You have unspent Stat Points
Ah good old blue rectangle, cluttering up my view for no apparent reason. Anyways, I’ll deal with you later, right now I want to get out of here...
I expected the darkness to be infinite again, yet as I tried to move, I felt that my entire body was surrounded by something hard. I was currently curled up and yet it was still so cramped.
Not this again...
I was generally tired of being unable to move freely, once I’m out of this, I’ll show the humans or whatever is constricting me here that I am my own being.
With anger and determination, I shoved and pushed. My anger increased with each failed attempt, until finally light engulfed my being and I tumbled out of my enclosure.
Success! Woah why is everything so weird?
I had no time to celebrate as my vision was... stronger? Before I could see quite a lot in front of me, but not I could focus on things in the distance giving me more clarity, though sadly if I wasn’t focusing on something, it looked blurry.
I also felt bigger and stronger, something that excited me quite a bit.
Maybe those humans won’t bother me anymore!
Distracted as I was, I did not see the see through human of sprinkling darkness float over to me, but when I did see it, my body reacted without a thought as my now larger and more powerful wings flapped and I uncontrollably leaped backwards, since I was not that far away from the place I escaped from, I promptly hit my enclosure and it fell apart easily.
I tried to piece together what had happened, but was promptly distracted once I saw Arrogant, Knight, and two humans of sprinkling darkness were staring at me, what interested me the most however was that Knight regrew its arm.
“It seems you’ve evolved, Eclipse.”
Arrogant said, a bit of amusement escaped his rather stoic voice. If I could, I would answer, yet all I could do is raise a single leg.
“Huh?”
A sound of confusion sounded from Arrogant, allowing me to remember that Silven choose a rather strange way of communicating.
I just slowly lowered my leg, the room going silent until Knight started moving. Its armor rattling with each step. Once it reached me, I finally had a way of knowing how much bigger I’ve grown. The answer is: not by much, I was still fairly small compared to humans, but I was now big enough that humans would have difficulty carrying me.
Knight thankfully didn’t continue to tower over me, rather it bent its legs so it would be closer to me and placed its armored hand on the top of my head, something that I’ve grown used to. After a minute of the continued movement, Knight stopped and pulled out a yellow-colored square in between us and showed me a bunch of random lines.
More silence followed.
“Told you it won't work, its fairly young from what I can see.”
Arrogant said smugly as Knight curled its fingers on its hand and raised with a finger in the middle extending at Arrogant which made Arrogant make a weird inhaling sound.
“Eclipse what Sister Knight is asking if you would accept it as your mentor once you reach a suitable evolution. Of course, since you can’t answer, you can break this crystal amulet to contact Sister Knight in the future, but do not lose this.”
Arrogant said as it crossed its arms, nearing the last part, Knight brought out a transparent rock, well amulet, with a large amount of blue swirling around chaotically, the amulet was connected to a silver line that sagged. Knight carefully placed the amulet around my thorax, and it disappeared underneath my now gray fur, something that I’m surprised I didn’t notice until now.
“Sister Knight here may not be able to talk at the moment, but eventually she will be able to talk using either a skill or an artifact. We don’t know which one will come first.”
Arrogant continued as Knight once again curled its fingers with the finger at the top extending.
“Thats all, the human named Jack should come by any second now to pick you up.”
With Arrogant still talking, I saw the door open and in stepped Jack; it was wearing black wavy armor on its lower body, the wavy armor extended to its upper body as two thick black lines went over the white wavy armor on its upper body. Jack seemed a bit tired, it must be skipping torpor for an odd reason.
The tired expression went away, not completely, but mostly as Jack showed me its creepy crescent.
“Woah you sure changed, but how did you receive enough levels for an evolution?”
I saw the crescent falter as Jack saw me.
“... Ah whatever, I shouldn’t be surprised by you anymore, let's go home.”
Home...?
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When I thought of home, I thought of the infinite darkness surrounding me with my only comfort being Mother. Yet that didn’t seem to be Jack’s definition of home as I was brought back to Jack’s room of the large building.
Thankfully, Jack didn’t carry me around and allowed me to explore a little if I didn’t get in the way of other humans or got too far from Jack.
I saw many more flowers on the way, with an entire building being covered with them, I [Appraised] each flower just in case one of them had traces of bees or other pollinating insects, which should’ve been easy to find considering how common they are. However, I found nothing.
I also had time to think about the strange movement I did back in that room, I couldn’t repeat no matter how many times I tried. What was weird however was the constant state of feeling something pushing down on me.
Once we reached Jack’s room, it walked behind the elevated surface in its area, its foot being covered in black armor which caused its steps to echo.
“[Absolute Silence]”
With those words and the surroundings turning blue outside the zone, Jack shuffled around behind the elevated surface and pulled out a [Status] Reader and placed it on the floor in front of me. I extended a leg above the Reader which Jack poked with a thin metal line which caused a translucent grey blood droplet to fall and activate the Reader.
Name – Eclipse
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Age – 5 days
Species – Insectoid
Sub-Species – Young Moonlight Moth
Level – 0/25
Stats:
[Strength – 3↑] [Endurance – 4↑] [Dexterity – 4↑] [Wisdom – 3↑] [Intelligence – 10↑]
[Unspent Points – 5]
Skills:
[Flight – Lv1↑] [Intimidation – Lv3] [Pain Resistance – Max] [Mental Fortitude – Max] [Translator – Max] [*New* Starfall – Lv0] [*New* Essence of the Moon – Lv0] [*New* Dodge – Lv1]
Titles:
[The Last of Your Species] [The Path Filled with Ruin] [Child of The Dark and The Light] [Pain is an Illusion] [The Unseen Has Been Seen] [Traveler of Dimensions] [Curiosity Killed The Cat, But Why?]
[*New* Unorthodox Helper]:
You have helped killing a powerful enemy using an unorthodox method, this first assist will give you a significant boost to your leveling, fairies find your method amusing.
Jack was silent for a bit, it took a deep inhale, as it moved its hand through its hair making it messy.
“There is a lot to unpack here, we found out what caused you to level up so quickly, yet that’s all we know. As interested as I am in learning how you got such a strange [Title], I am more interested in the two new [Skills] you got, excluding [Dodge]. I’ve never heard of such [Skills], and since both are at level zero, we’ll have to find out the hard way.”
Jack paused and walked to the elevated area and grabbed at the empty air there, which caused an object with two thick brown blocks on the outside and white in-between to appear? I was confused about how it appeared, yet just as fast as it appeared, it disappeared once again as Jack walked back to me.
“Alright Eclipse, do you want to have some fun?”
Uh oh I have a bad feeling about what's coming next.
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It seems I was proven wrong, whatever that bad feeling was, was simply incorrect. It wasn’t even remotely bad, rather it was starting to get quite exciting. We were finally doing what I wished to do for a long time now.
We were exploring the outside of the walled human territory and back into the trees and grass. With the sunup high, shining down bringing its warmth.
With my enhanced sight, I was in awe. Everything was more vibrant than before. Jack allowed me to examine most things again, but the human did rush me slightly. I wasn’t going to complain since Jack isn’t forcing me to go to places.
But what is this weight?
Every step I took felt uncomfortable but I tried my best to ignore that. Rather I focused on the surroundings, allowing me to see unknown creatures soar through the sky that made annoying noises the entire time, rarely would I spot a brown furred creature with an equally brown horn speed down a tree, letting me only see them once they reach the ground.
The grass here wasn’t as short as when I was moving with Silven to the human territory, rather it was tall, the grass here went halfway up my legs. Jack seemed to be struggling with the grass as well as the human taking careful steps in the grass that reached up halfway on the lower part of his lower body.
Jack was now wearing different wavy armor. The human had thick black armor on its feet which reached just above where the grass reached to and had a curved square with its corners dragged down go a bit further. (Author Note: This sentence might confuse some people, the grass reaches just halfway up Jack’s shin, and his boots are just under his knee, with a part covering his knee.) Jack lower body was covered in a brown wavy armor, which was covered mostly by a two brown squares on both legs.
The brown squares were attached to the upper body armor which was the same brown but with many intersecting black lines. Jack had the sword I’ve seen on its wall placed into a brown smooth rectangular object. Jack also had a brown cloak on it with the hood off.
Jack said something about being filled with nostalgia once it put on the armor, another word that I don’t understand.
In a quick manner, we arrived where Jack wanted us to stay. It was a large clearing devoid of grass, rocks or trees. The large oak trees stopped cleanly on the edge of the clearing, but their branches filled with dark green leaves spread far past the start of the clearing.
At the far edge of the clearing was a massive stone wall, not made by human hands, but made by nature. It was a cliff face, which stretched far on both sides. Where the cliff face met with the clearing, was a large burrow in the cliff.
“Alright Eclipse let me give a little lesson about life and death, I’ll make this somewhat easy to understand.”
I just turned to look at the human who suddenly bent its leg to be closer to me and placed an armored hand on my head.
“Life is what you are experiencing at the moment, it is what you’re sensing and the emotions you are feeling. The sights you see and the exploration of what you want and need. People and creatures alike are alive this way.”
Jack turned silent, before continuing.
“Death is...”
Another stop, but this time Jack stood up, and pulled out its sword from the rectangular object and swung it downwards at me.
A crimson liquid splatted against me and stained the ground I was standing on.
Instead of the sword coming in contact with me, it came in contact with a grey human larger than Jack. The strange human in turn made a strange noise.
Where did you come from?!
I never heard the human approach me, nor did I see any human in the clearing with my enhanced sight. It was bigger than Jack, so the fact I didn’t see it is weird.
Its upper body was barely sticking together as the sword Jack used went through the top part of the body and ended in the middle of the grey human’s abdomen. A large and messy sword dropped from the green human’s hand, kicking up a brown translucent thing into the air as it and the human reached the ground.
The grey human looked vastly different from Jack, but that wasn’t very surprising considering the number of different humans I saw in the human’s territory. This human was large in the abdomen and not so large in the arms and legs. It had no fur and it had long oddly shaped with pointed tips at each side of its head, something most humans had, but not to this extent.
I couldn’t see it’s face due to it having its face down, but oh well.
I watched as Jack pulled it out and whipped it to the side, causing any of the crimson liquid still stuck to the sword to fly off and splatter the ground. Jack then placed the sword back into its rectangular object, before going back down to my level and continuing.
“[Absolute Silence]. This is death, the process of taking away that very same life from a living being. They will not experience the beauty of this world, they won't feel, they won't see, they won't hear. I have killed this goblin.”
Jack once again turned silent, I looked over to the ‘goblin’, but instead of the sleeping human I have thought of before, I saw it in a different light. I waddled over and poked it a few times.
“The goblin will not get up again, as I said before, I’ve taken away its life.”
I was confused.
So, you took away its life... and life is what I’m experiencing at the moment? Huh? How does that work?
The crimson liquid kept pouring, turning a darker and darker shade of crimson. Jack continued.
“Here I’ll try to shorten the wording, life is what you are feeling, it is everything, and death is the opposite, it is nothing.”
Death is nothing? Oh...
I remembered the time in my true home, the infinite darkness, just before I was created... I was dead? That sense of absolute nothingness. Is that what the goblin is experiencing now?
But why did you do this?
With the language barrier still up, I had no way of asking.
“Never kill things without a reason to, I killed this goblin because it was attacking us to kill us.”
That goblin was trying to kill us? But why?
I thought Jack took away its life because it just could, but as I’m looking at the now dead goblin, the large and messy sword it carried. I couldn’t help but ask myself what it was going to do with that.
Knowing what swords were used for now caused me to go through a multitude of emotions. Without knowing it, I have seen so much death.
The wind blowed through the area, causing the surrounding trees to shake their leaves making a horde of noise.
I felt something touch my head which snapped me out of my thoughts.
“It seems you understand, it is quite sad you had to learn this at such a young age.”
Jack said softly, before going quiet.
“Welp that's about it, let's go back. You can think about it all you want, but you need to accept it soon as that’s how the world works”
Suddenly Jack spoke up, its voice going up an octave as it stood up and moved its arms back and forth a few times. While Jack started moving away from me, I could only think of one thing.
This was not fun.
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Pov Jack
I did not want to be the one to tell Eclipse about death, but it evolved too fast from helping kill something, it better if I tell it now so it could understand what it's doing least it's too late.
Silven is not going to be happy.
I couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle, I’m sure she wanted to give Eclipse a lighter description of death, but this is the best way. I sneaked a peak on the moth strutting behind me.
Its evolution came as a surprise, in the span of two days Eclipse was stuck in that weird egg thing. After the two days Eclipse came out new but recognizable. Its prior stark white fur turned grey with splatters of red, which was not part of the evolution rather it was blood from a certain goblin. Its wings turned a slightly darker shade of grey with the same pitch-black lines still in view. Its two big wings grew bigger, while its smaller wings grew smaller. Its legs are now longer and sharper. And a white pupil appeared in both eyes which constantly moved around, showing how much Eclipse likes to look around. But right now, the two white pupils were looking off into the distance.
Eclipse’s body also grew and is about the size of a medium-sized dog now, which is quite the growth spurt.
I chuckled once again once as I thought of what Silven’s reaction would be once she wakes up.
That chuckle died short.
If she wakes up...
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A Certain Cave
The sounds of growling, gnashing, and puffing emitted from a certain room in a cave. A loud snap and an equally loud snarl sounded out, with whimpering sounding out immediately afterwards. Another snap sounded out and the whimpering ended. The snarl emitted again, but this time it was followed by puffing and growling.
Something was running out through the cave, followed by two others.
As they ran, making greater distance from the certain room, their run turned into a slow walk. Growling sounded out from one of them as the others gnashed back.
Outside the cave exited three grey humans, the moon high above shined its light down on the large clearing they find themselves in. Yet their faces were covered in shadows. Their long-pointed ears twitched with the sounds of the forest surrounding them as they made their way towards the large bloodstain still visible even in the moonlight. Their forms were disturbing to look at, their body proportions coming straight from a nightmare.
With a sniffle and a puff, they made their way into the dark forest without a sound.
They didn’t care that their brother died, that was one less mouth to feed, they cared that their leader was going to kill them if they didn't complete their task.