ILIAS VAN PAYNE

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The bright blue sky that once painted the peaceful landscape fled from the ominous grey clouds. The farmers said it would remain like this for a few days.

I’m not a superstitious person but I’ve a feeling the weather is trying to warn us of something.

According to legend, when a person died, their souls travelled to the clouds. For a few moments after their deaths, you could see their souls floating towards the sky. The weather was their way of communicating with us.

I don’t believe this because it never happened to me when I died as Decan. But I’ve never doubted that disbelief until now. Maybe this legend is true and my reincarnation turned me into an outlier.

Even to me, whatever happens after death is still the greatest mystery in life.

The village was ready for battle. The wall stood proud; covered with hardened mud to make it more difficult to set on fire. Spikes were lined up within the inside section of the wall. If the bandits scaled it, they’d hesitate for a moment before jumping down—one or two might even impale themselves. Battlements were built at the entrance of the main road so we could throw rocks and get a better view when we began letting them in one by one.

Today marked the last day of the harvest, which meant the day of the battle inched closer. There were only three more fields of wheat to harvest and once that was done, we would be barricading ourselves behind the walls.

The seven of us sentinels had been helping out, making sure every body that could was helping with the harvest. None of us knew how to harvest wheat. Jaime and I watched Gilead farmers tend to the fields back home so we had an understanding, but that wasn’t enough to make us experts.

This got to the farmers’ heads, bossing us around as we had been doing to them. They went through a lot of labour the past two months, so we allowed them this one-time chance to push us around.

“We’re still going to flood the fields, right?” Jaime asked.

“Of course,” Askeladd said, organizing baskets. “And we’re going to connect the fields to the trench to make a moat.”

“What about my sword?”

“I’d suggest picking it up soon. When we diverge the lake to flood everything, your sword might get sucked into the deeper parts.”

“That’d be bad.” She grabbed my hand. “Come on, let’s go and collect my cursed artifact.”

She is getting her hopes up.

The two of us took a boat to the middle of the lake, circling around until we found the floating log attached to a rope. Jaime dove into the water, swimming back up with her sword at hand.

“Found it.”

She cut the rope with her dagger and attempted to climb back into the boat, almost capsizing it. Before that could happen, I had her stand still so I could levitate her back in.

No way…

That sword. There was mana emitting from it.

“Jaime, could I see that for a second?”

She handed it to me before removing her outer layers of clothing and drying herself with wind jynx.

Now that I was holding it, there was no doubt. “Jaime, I think you just used up all of your luck for the next decade. This thing is a cursed artifact.”

“Yes! I feel it!” she cheered, grabbing the sword from my hand and unsheathing it. “I want to test it out.”

“Woah, woah, woah! Not here! Not on the boat! Idiot, not here!”

We ended up rowing to the other side of the lake for the experiment. Just in case her sword was destructive, we didn’t want to be anywhere close to the village and risk destroying everything we worked for.

Once we reached shore, I raised an earth wall to hide behind, instructing Jaime to aim away from me. Jaime grasped her sword with both hands, channelling mana through it before screaming and slashing the air.

Nothing.

She did it again. And again. Swinging and slashing and thrusting until she was out of breath.

“Useless!” she said to her sword. “Ilias, you liar! You said this turned into a cursed artifact.”

“It did. We both held onto Askeladd’s sword and know what a cursed artifact feels like. You even said so yourself that you felt it.”

“Then how come nothing is happening?”

“Maybe there are prerequisites to activate the ability. Like how the colonel can only activate his sword’s ability if he returns it to its scabbard.”

“Wait, the colonel showed you what his sword does? That’s not fair, he never showed me. Between us, I’m the swordsman. Why would he show you and not me?”

“He used it when we were going to the Capital.”

“What do you think the requirements are?”

I thought about it for a second before swiping at the earth and sending earth spikes towards Jaime. I didn’t make them that sharp so if a couple hit her, which I doubt, they would just bounce off.

Jaime wasn’t paying attention, inspecting her scabbard to see if it had anything to do with the ability. But without even looking, Jaime raised her sword and, with inhumanly fast reflexes, deflected the earth spikes into my earth wall.

“Huh? What happened?” she questioned.

“I think I’ve figured out what your sword can do. Close your eyes.”

She did. “Now what?”

“No peeking.”

“I’m not peeking.”

“I can see that your eyes are barely open.”

She sighed, using her arm to block her vision. “There, you happy?”

Again, I swiped at the earth, shooting out earth spikes at Jaime. This time there were more spikes and they travelled at twice the speed. Without a struggle, she effortlessly parried the earth spikes away.

“Okay, that’s enough. What does my sword do?”

“You know how Roxanne’s ability is to attack anything that steps within her domain?”

“Yeah. Re-Flex.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Your sword gives you that ability, but the opposite. Without even seeing your targets, you were able to deflect all my earth spikes with ease. Her ability is used offensively. Yours is defensively. Your ability is the ultimate defence for a swordsman.”

“Yes! That’s actually a good ability, right?”

“Definitely, but you still have to rely on your own skills through attack. This sword just gives you a fast reaction defensively.”

“Do you think I can deflect bullets with this, or will my sword break?”

“It won’t break. Your blade is made of a stronger metal than bullets. I’m not so sure if you’d be fast enough to block bullets though.”

“That’s fine, I’ll test it with Tony when we get back.”

“What are you going to name it?”

“What do you mean?”

“You can’t just not name your sword, especially if it’s a cursed artifact. Decan had Thorn, the colonel has Slash, Askeladd has Sting, even my staff has a name. Name your sword.”

“Hmm…” Jaime slipped her blade back into its scabbard and buckled it to her belt. “When the ability activates, my sword clashes against everything that’s trying to attack me. Clash. That’s a good name. Clash.”

“Yeah, that definitely fits.”

She grinned at me teasingly. “Now you’re the only one out of the seven of us that doesn’t have a unique ability.”

“About that…”

“Don’t tell me you actually developed something.”

“Okay, I won’t.”

Jaime waved her hands in regret. “Wait, but you’re just stealing other people’s abilities. And they have to die, right? And you can only steal three abilities! Who agreed to the contract?”

“I’m calling that ability My Way—but it’s not that one. I can still activate My Way if I want to, but I’ve chosen not to yet. I thought of another ability.”

“Let’s see it.”

I closed my eyes, making sure Jaime saw no whites. “Get right up close to my face and stare at my eyes to make sure I can’t peek.”

Suddenly, I could feel her warm breath hit my face.

“Now, hold up a number using either hand. Tell me when you’re ready.”

“Go ahead.”

“Epitaph!” I screamed, activating my ability.

One second.

I opened my eyes and found Jaime literally half an inch from my face, staring me down. But even though I opened my eyes, she wasn’t reacting. She was frozen and everything else was a shade of grey.

Two seconds.

Jaime stared right at me, but she couldn’t see me. Her mind couldn’t even process what was happening. Once everything returned to normal, it would be like nothing happened. From her perspective, what I was experiencing never even happened.

Three seconds.

But I was frozen as well and no matter what I did, I couldn’t move my body. The only thing exempted were my eyes and eyelids. Observing was the only thing I could do. I couldn’t even sense anything with my other senses. Smell, hearing, taste, and touch were useless in stopped time.

Four seconds.

I rolled my eyes around and found that Jaime was holding up two fingers to the side of my face.

Five seconds have now passed.

Time will now resume!

Suddenly, all feeling came back. The smell, the noise, and even Jaime’s breathing tickling my face.

I kept my eyes closed and held up two fingers. “This is how many you’re holding up.”

Jaime thought I was cheating, so she had me do it over and over again. She ended up covering my eyes, which I couldn’t do anything about.

“What does your ability do?” she whined.

“I call it Epitaph. Once I activate it, time will stop—even for me. I can open my eyes and look around, but this ability is meant for observation. I can’t do anything during stopped time.”

“You can stop time but can’t move in it? It sounds like a waste of an ability.”

“During the State Jynxist Exam, all the other jynxists I met were able to quickly think on their feet and figure out the abilities of their opponents. Not me. It took me while and I got lucky that I was matched against someone who preferred to keep his distance. It gave me time to think. This ability does just that. It gives me time to think and observe the fight.”

“Moving in stopped time would make the ability better. Imagine sneaking behind someone and punching a hole through their chest. They won’t even know they’re dead.”

“I can move in stopped time, but I put a heavy limitation on it. Moving while everyone can’t perceive what’s happening is a powerful ability.”

“What’s the limitation?”

“If I choose to, I can move for only one second of my choosing within stopped time. However, I must sacrifice a year of my lifespan to do so.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, I’m a terran so I only have a hundred years to live. Actually, at most, it’s eighty-eight now. But in life and death, a second is a big difference so I don’t think I’d hesitate to use it. If I’m going to die in a situation, at least die trying, right?”

Jaime stood there for a while. “Can you promise me something then?”

“What is it?”

“Don’t move in stopped time for my sake.”

“Hold on—”

“I have a thousand years to live and you only have a hundred. Don’t use it to get me out of trouble. If you’re going to sacrifice a year of your life to move for one second, don’t waste it on me. Use it for yourself.”

“I understand.”

I’m Jaime’s first and arguably only friend. But at most, I’m only living a tenth of her life. I can see her reasoning.

As we were talking, I noticed an aura disappear. Mana was all around us and those who trained in mana such as myself could notice a change. So when an aura disappeared near the woods, this could only mean one thing—someone or something was trying not to get noticed.

But they made one mistake. If you were going to mask your flow of mana, you should do it long before you arrive at your destination. Because if anyone skilled enough to feel mana suddenly felt a disappearance of an aura, they’d know immediately that someone was sneaking around them.

I looked at Jaime, who stared at me as if she knew we were being watched.

“Book!” I yelled, summoning Talking Book and flipping to an empty page. “Here, now that we’ve visited this lake labyrinth, let’s see all the other ones in the area.”

I pretended to write notes of the labyrinth, but I was actually writing instructions for Jaime: I’m going to spin and stop time to see where this person is. Twelve o’clock is towards the village so I’ll tell you where to attack and only do so if I say the word ‘charisma’.

“How many more labyrinths are in this area?” she asked.

“Where’s west?” I asked as I spun around. “I’m sure—”

Epitaph!

Time will now grind to a halt!

Everything, including my body, froze as the world again became shades of grey.

One second.

With time stopped and my body frozen, the flow of mana had stopped as well. I lost where this intruder was. However, I knew he was somewhere in the woods behind us.

Two seconds.

If someone were to just glance at the forest, nothing would seem wrong—especially since everything was grey.

Three seconds.

But there was one thing that gave away their location—a gleam of sunlight bouncing off amour. The only thing found in a forest that could bounce off light was a large body of water and fish scales. Light bouncing off this area of the forest was impossible.

Four seconds.

He was hard to spot, but there was what seemed to be a scout hiding behind a boulder. He was crouched low, eyeing us with a pistol ready to fire. Then I noticed it—an eagle emblem on his armour. It was the Eagles! They sent out a scout to see if the harvest was ready. This meant that they’d be attacking soon!

Five seconds have passed.

Time will now resume!

“—the map said there’s another labyrinth nearby,” I said as I continued to spin. “If we had the charisma, we could get to the next labyrinth by seven o’clock.”

Jaime instantly spun around on her heel, drawing her sword. She changed her breathing to give herself more speed. She arrived at the edge of the forest before the bandit even reacted.

He aimed his pistol and shot at Jaime, who was able to deflect the bullet back to the bandit’s hand and disarm him.

The bandit clutched his wounded hand. “Aaaaaaah!”

“Jaime, don’t kill him!”

Her reaction was quick, leaping onto the man and kicking his head against the boulder. This knocked him out instantly.

“Ilias,” she said. “He’s—”

“I know,” I said as I binded him with arcane jynx. “I saw the eagle emblem during stopped time. Let’s get him back to the village for questioning.”