Chapter 25
“The practice of Soulbinding, be it to a loving spouse, a battle bonded companion, or to a trusted creature is one that has largely fallen out of favor in recent centuries, and for no real surprise either. Yes, there is no denying that such a binding is powerful, or can become so, as both entities Ascend together. However that strength could become a weakness, and a fatal one at that too, should one half of the binding falter in their Ascent and the other does not, or worse, if a half perishes upon it. In the best of these cases, one can hope for a complete and utter Fall, losing everything one’s ever gained, but still clinging to life. In the worse…well, in the worse cases, we quickly discover that there are fates much more terrifying than death, both for one self, and for all of those who knew us.”
—The Path of Ascension, Janis Wayne, The Golden Age, 4982
Damn it…I…I didn’t remember that could happen, the thought crossed Vincent’s mind as he struggled to keep his legs from falling out from under his feet, a sudden surge of knowledge combined with the Serpent’s presence in his mind all but scrambling his focus. What…what are the odds that—
Motion from beside Vincent interrupted his thoughts, arriving in the form of a calloused, rough hand grabbing hold of his arm, a not so gentle tug then turning him away from the edge to look into Norin’s furrowed and worried face. At least as much of it that could still move.
“What is going on?” A fast moving hand demanded before reaching out to help steady Vincent.
“Soul…meld,” Vincent replied in a whisper as he raised Will in an attempt to focus past the pain that he felt, one that fully centered directly upon the empty spot in his soul that used to house his Percepta, or his perception augmenting soulmeld. Worst, since it was wholly centered within his soul it was a pain that his Insight couldn’t mask. “It’s…in that…creature down there. In the cage. The meld is…trying to soul bind us together.”
For anyone other than an Ascendant, and a learned one at that, the simple explanation would have been all but meaningless. Yet fortunately for Vincent, Norin once again proved a surprising depth to his past, a flash of surprise and then understanding appearing in his eyes.
Not that he or Vincent had the time to do anything but simply acknowledge the unforeseen complication to their rescue efforts before the origin of the shout they’d heard earlier made its presence known.
“What do you mean you couldn’t do anything?” The voice demanded angrily, this time sounding much, much closer than it had previously, for as they spoke, so did a tall, well built, figure appear just below from the catwalk where Vincent and Norin had hidden themselves, making a straight line towards the nearest of the fallen. A man that at just a glance Vincent could tell was an Ascendant, given that his hair was made entirely of wisplike shadows. “I told you to heal them! I told you to heal her!”
“And I couldn’t, no one could,” Theo replied quickly as the man bent over a woman, raising his hands in a defensive, pleading gesture. “Their injuries were either just…too much, or the rot had set in and started to—”
“Excuses!” The man interrupted with another shout as he spun to face Theo, his voice near deafening in the confines of the warehouse. “You had one task! But you couldn’t…no, wait…you didn’t. You killed her, didn’t you? Didn’t you!”
By the time the man had finished yelling he had risen back to his feet and stretched an arm out to his side, a ball of dark mana beginning to rapidly flow into his palm.
A sign that even in his pain riddled state Vincent realized was a very, very, bad thing.
“T-time to go,” he said as he roughly shoved the spiritual agony that was the involuntary soulbinding to the back of his mind and forced himself to not only stand straight, but start to move as well, Norin’s grip falling away. Yet even as he did, he knew that there was no way that he could make it to the stairs leading to the lower floor in time to stop whatever the Ascendant below was about to do.
Which is why after a handful of steps to build up his momentum and gain the proper positioning, his next move was to leap over the railing, taking the fastest route possible to reach the floor below.
Of course, simply leaping downwards wasn’t the only thing Vincent did, his Will already reaching out to draw two thick threads of mana from his Soul Well. Weaving as he started to fall, the first of the two that he pulled forth, was Wind mana, which he promptly wrapped around his legs, if to not exactly cushion his impending landing, but rather ensure that he didn’t simply break both limbs when he finally reached his destination. One that given the circumstances he wanted to arrive at with the most momentum possible behind him. A goal in turn that had dictated his second choice of mana.
That choice being none other than Earth.
Pushing it directly into the walking stick that he had accidentally taken along with him from the clinic, the mana quickly reinforced it, turning the supple, smooth wood into something as hard, and for a split moment, as heavy as stone. A trait that Vincent hoped would be enough to end the fight before it even began as he brought the mana infused staff down in a brutal overhand swing on top of the Ascendant’s head, intent on crushing it to a fine paste. But even then, Vincent wasn’t about to leave a single thing to chance, preparing himself to disrupt the Ascendant’s Will with his own the instant that his attack landed, ensuring that nothing went wrong.
But despite his best efforts, everything did.
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It began first when the end of his walking stick connected with the Ascendant’s temple, the brief contact enough for Vincent’s Will to lance into their body, intent on attacking their mana heart directly. Yet as his Will surged forward, Vincent felt it slam into a veritable mountain of death and shadow, one that instantly blunted his mental attack before it could find purchase. Then, as if that wasn’t enough to cause things to go awry, the impact of his strike caused his walking stick to shatter in his grip, promptly sending earth mana imbued splinters flying everywhere.
Ugh, what was that? And damn it, he has a bone meld! Vincent exclaimed, unsure of which surprise to focus on first as the Ascendant staggered from impact of his strike, their head leading their body as they then tripped over two of the closest pallets to them, falling to the ground in a heap. A short lived advantage that even if things had gone decidedly wrong, Vincent wasted no time on capitalizing on as he dropped the remains of his reinforced walking stick and shifted his attention to look an absolutely stunned Theo in the eye, uttering a single word.
“Run.”
That simple command, and the time it took him to speak it was all Vincent had to spare before a renewed spike of spiritual agony shot through his soul and sent him down to one knee, a result of his now closer proximity to where his stolen soul meld was. Or rather the creature that now held it, their presence once again reaching out to touch his mind.
Unfortunately that was something easier said than done for Vincent as he struggled to master the latest wave of pain that shot through his soul, one that was accompanied by the Serpent letting out its own scream in his mind. Something that with the bond being half formed at the moment, he couldn’t do anything about, let alone respond back to the creature. It felt as if there was a razor sharp hook imbedded into his spirit and something was trying to physically pull it in the direction of the cage. Which technically there was, when Vincent considered the all the knowledge that had been unceremoniously dumped into his mind seconds earlier. Knowledge that also told him that there was simply no way for him to stop the binding process now that it started, at least not with anything short of death on his part.
Something that Vincent was sure that the Shadowed Hand Ascendant would be more than happy to help him with, or so he judged by the murderous expression that he saw on their face as they struggled to regain their feet.
“I said run, Theo!” Vincent growled as he once again forced himself past the pain and up off his knees, noticing that the young mender hadn’t moved an inch since his arrival.
“But how—” Theo started to say as the words finally broke whatever shock that had gripped him, stopping only when Vincent roughly grabbed his arm and all but yanking him off his feet, directing the teenager behind him.
“Go!” He shouted as he let go of Theo and quickly began to draw on his mana once more, redirecting what he’d protected his legs with towards his hands while reaching into his soul well to draw forth even more.
And just in time too, for no sooner did he shape the mana in his hands was the Ascendant on top of him, all while yelling the last thing he wanted to hear.
“Attackers in the warehouse!”
Repeating their shout, they immediately lashed out with a shadow and death coated hand that narrowly took Vincent in the face, something that as he dodged backwards, and sensed the mana it contained, he very much wanted to avoid have touching him. Yet as he discovered in the frantic few seconds that followed afterwards, it was a goal easier thought them executed for while Vincent remembered enough hand to hand combat to feel confident, actually putting it into practice was difficult.
“We had a truce!” Vincent heard the Ascendant bark as he desperately tried to stay ahead of the attacks, the blood streaming down their face from his earlier strike combined with their crazed expression and shadow hewn hair giving them a particularly haunting look. “We did everything Eldrith wanted! We’re leaving! What else could you even want from us?”
It was a statement that in any other circumstance would have grabbed Vincent’s attention, it only taking him a second to clue that the Ascendant thought that he was a part of another Shadowed Hand faction intent on continuing their civil war. Yet no sooner were the Ascendant’s demanding words in the air, did a loud and powerful thump bombard their ears, its presence accompanied a second later by a bright flash of orange light from the nearby windows.
An unmissable distraction that caused them to flinch and turn in its direction, buying Vincent the time he needed to pull free one of the two virtues stored in his soul well and weave it into the air mana he’d drawn forth earlier.
It was a process that took barely more than a heartbeat for him to finish, but when he was done, the air that he had coated his hands with took on a particularly lethal sheen to them as they both gained a visible edge. A dramatic change that the Ascendant instantly recognized as their eyes widened in response to the threat. Not that it helped them at all when Vincent’s Wind Slash took them in the stomach a second later, striking with enough force as to lift them straight up and off their feet and sending them flying backwards and crashing heavily into the far wall.
There, a second to breathe, Vincent thought as he watched the man slam into the ground, his first thought being to rush and finish him off, and he likely would have, had it not been for the resounding agony that pulsed through him, reminding him of his other problem. The binding... I need to finalize the binding first. If another spasm strikes me while I’m fighting...
It was a thought that Vincent didn’t yet himself finish as he turned and staggered out of the makeshift infirmary he’d leapt into and rushed towards where he sensed his missing soul meld and the creature that it had been bound to, hearing it call out to him the instant he saw it.
“Open box! Open box!” It exclaimed aloud as it fixed him with its dark, almost black eyes in what could only be called desperation. And for good reason too Vincent noticed now that he could see it up-close. The Serpent, or rather Wind Serpent, as his Insight told him looked incredibly worst for wear with countless scars and what looked like livid, untreated burns covering its body.
What happened to this poor thing? Vincent thought as he took in the creature. Granted, he hadn’t expected any being unfortunately enough to be used by Soul Thieves to be in the best of states, but even so what he saw was on another level entirely. Better to get it out of the cage quickly then.
Which is promptly what Vincent did when he reached the iron cage, his attention dropping down to the heavy padlock that kept it shut. A wave of the hand later, the lock then fell away, courtesy of the remaining blade of air Vincent held in his hand. Then, with the door to the cage no longer fixed in place, it practically exploded open as the trapped serpent threw their body against it and flew out, all but throwing themselves around Vincent’s shoulders the second they were free.
It was a move that Vincent had wholly expected to have happen given the circumstances and what he had remembered about the soulbinding process. Yet even knowing, there was little that he could do to prepare himself for a nearly eight foot long wind serpent all but slamming into him in desperation.
Nor the electric bolt of energy that shot through him the instant they touched, causing his vision to go white.