The darkness woke up to the sound of people shouting. Elliot was too tired to take control of his body, but the darkness was as good of a substitute as any other.
"Ugh," the darkness groaned. "All of this screaming is getting on my nerves, it's so obnoxious. I'll definitely have to end it."
The darkness stepped out of the inn and saw what it considered to be a strange sight. The majority of the citizens were bravely fighting all of the weak demi-scourge monsters that invaded their town, while the minority of them ran around screaming, actively hurting their own likelihood of remaining in a single digit amount of pieces by significant margins.
'It's always odd to see how irrational these mortals are. Still, I really don't want to be troubled by the nearly rational ones, so if I want the yelling to stop, I'll have to do it the hard way.'
The darkness checked its surroundings and noticed a distinct shimmering along the rooftops in a distant sector of the city.
'Is that the beacon? The one named...Flyte? An odd name, if you think about it, with his connection to light and all. That aside, I might as well check this out.'
The darkness slowly crept toward the area in which Flyte, and likely the stony one too, fought. As it walked, it formed singular spikes from its reserved shadows to kill off monsters in its way. After all, if it had to choose between wasting its time walking around them and killing them, as it already decided to do, it would kill them every time.
It only had so much time to work with, after all.
Elliot's body began to be covered in black veins from his shoulders to his fingertips, but to the darkness, that was a good thing. The more time the darkness gave Elliot's body strength, the easier it was for it to take control.
Despite that, when it reached a good enough building to climb, the darkness chose to let Elliot's body fight off the shadows inflicting it. Flyte would know that something was wrong if he saw those veins along his friend's limbs.
In just a few minutes, the darkness was fit to climb up the building's side. It didn't tire, although Elliot's body might have. It didn't feel much of anything at all. The darkness didn't need Elliot's bodily functions, after all, just the body itself. It didn't see out of his eyes, or hear out of his ears. It just could tell what was going on around it, at least to some degree.
As the darkness neared the building top, it opened Elliot's eyes, stopped his rapid eye movements, and reminded itself to blink somewhat frequently.
Flyte was standing still on the rooftop, catching his breath now that his enemies were downed.
'I could kill him right now,' the darkness reasoned. 'But that would be foolish. If that boy and his protector die, Elliot might decide to give up, and I still need him for now.'
The darkness walked over soundlessly as Flyte walked away. With a series of quickly formed spikes, it disposed of the unconscious dark circle mages.
"You," the darkness heard with its sharp hearing. "You're the mage slayer."
'NO!' It was a saboteur, an enemy.
One the darkness could kill.
'Kill! Death! Strong!'
'Silence,' the darkness quieted its bloodlust.
"...Thalreion."
The darkness inhaled through Elliot's nose then burst toward the sound with a speed that few mortals could imagine.
It punched straight through the building's sandstone wall legs first, kicking the enemy away the very instant his blade drew blood, throwing him around two dozen feet.
'Good, he'll live for now.'
"Stay away from my friends," the darkness growled, trying its best to mimic Elliot's voice and mannerisms.
Thalreion stood back up and got into a fighting stance. His armor leaked a purple aura, similar to the faint essence that shades produce only much more developed.
'He's decently strong. Well, in comparison to most humans, at least.'
The darkness bolted forward, keeping Thalreion on weak footing as he was constantly pushed onto his back foot by his foe's more aggressive fighting style.
The saboteur stomped on the ground, setting the flooring ablaze through the power of his of boot's engraved arch-rune, but the darkness was already in the air.
Flyte fired piercing light at Thalreion, forcing the armored man to duck.
"Don't worry about me," the darkness once again mimicked. "Focus on healing Ander, I've got this."
"Okay," Flyte responded quickly.
Thalreion tried to strike Elliot's body while the darkness was preoccupied, but it could sense his actions and dodged, using the opening to land a dozen gauntleted punches on the mage slayer's chest, denting the mortal-crafted armor.
Even through that, the human didn't show any auditory signs of pain, though the darkness could see a slight slouch in his posture where there was none before.
The darkness turned its reserves into a halberd. With minimal movement, it continually grazed the man's arms despite all of his attempts to block its attacks.
Some forces began to discharge the darkness's halberd. It could sense a light smug smile from beneath Thalreion's visor.
'Interesting idea,' the darkness conceded. 'But I'm not the right opponent to try that on.'
The darkness just slightly loosened its grip on its bloodthirst so that it could fight Thalreion's meager willpower in the darkness's place.
"Blood? Death! Kill! Kill! KILL!"
Thalreion's hold over the halberd shattered and the man looked utterly confused. He attempted the same course of action once more, strangely expecting a difference in its result.
'Ah yes, the irrationality of mortals once again. How boring.'
To demonstrate just how little Thalreion's plot would work, the darkness let him discharge the halberd as it got closer.
Then, it resummoned its weapon inside the man's chest.
He ran away, clutching his chest as the purple mist reknit his flesh.
'Oh, he's still alive.'
Thalreion began to run away faster, his body now able to move quickly without killing him.
'Now, I can't allow that.' The darkness's bloodlust wouldn't stand it.
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It unleashed that demon within itself to motivate itself and track Thalreion.
Elliot's body inhaled sharply as feeling returned to the darkness.
It sprinted faster than before, chasing the foolish man.
"Don't even try running," it howled. "I can smell your blood. I can hear your victims' screams."
Still the man ran, closing in on the boundary of Ahken just as the darkness closed in on him.
Thalreion leapt from the wall into the chaos below, and the darkness jumped after him, spiking him through the back with its shadows.
"Come on," it growled. At this rate, its prey had a chance to escape.
And that he did, slipping through the crowds of monsters indifferent to him but oh so hostie to their fellow scourge.
So, the darkness did what any other rational being would do in its situation. It bellowed into the sky ad slew hundreds of its own kin until it tired and returned back to the inn, its bloodthirst still unsated.
----------------------------------------
Flyte ran through Ahken's streets with Ander on his back. Normally, he wouldn't have been able to carry the larger man, but he was using Ontin's modification to speed manipulation to give Ander an upwards acceleration to hep counteract his weight.
Glow had stabilized Ander's condition but was unable to close his wounds completely. Thalreion's sword seemed to have been made of some sort of energy absorbing metal that had transferred that quality to the slight cut he'd inflicted on Ander.
"Doctor! I need a doctor!" Flyte's shouts went unheard as the only people around were fighting monsters.
And speaking of monsters, one of the shadow golems barreled from the alleyways into Flyte's path.
Flyte leapt into the air, just barely managing to land on the stone creature's head. Using its noggin as a running block, he bolted forward, not allowing the distraction to slow him down. Still, he did pulse some light magic straight into the monster's skull in order to cripple, if not kill, the shadow-made creature.
Further ahead in his way, Flyte saw a horde of fully armored dust soldiers marching in his direction.
"Star, Rowlo," Flyte started. "Can you get me over that?"
"Together?" Rowlo grumbled, looking over at Star. "Certainly."
"Alright," Flyte began, warily watching the foes close the distance. "What do I have to do?"
"Just run forward," Star hummed. "I'll set up temporary steps wherever you need to step, and Rowlo can slow them down to a halt while you're on them, that way they can rain down on the monsters below you after you step off them.
"An offensive strategy?" Flyte asked, genuinely impressed. "Sounds good, I'm in."
"Awesome," Star hummed.
Flyte ran forward, soon closing the distance, and just as Star said, there were steps made of light for him to walk over the ashen knights.
Weapons shot up as their wielders attempted to pierce into Flyte, but he was able to dance out of their way with enough telegraphing for star to accurately place the next steps he'd need. As this went on. however, Flyte had some closer calls, the knights were more precisely able to see where he'd land as time passed, so he nearly tripped as he avoided their attacks. His life was saved only because Star was able to place another large step to land on.
On the other side, Flyte fired two lightspears into the crowd, cutting the villainous ranks further as he went on his way.
'Finding a doctor in this city is unlikely, but if I can find the army, I should be able to find Ferris, who is a capable medic. Now, where were they staying?
Flyte remembered Ander offering the seekers some troops to watch over their young ones. He knew where the seeker had set up, and it was likely than not that Ferris would be there too. If he wasn't there, there would likely be someone who could find him for Flyte.
Deciding to act on this thought, Flyte turned right sharply and was left facing a huge lizard's descending foot.
Scrambling out of the way, Flyte's face nearly had intimate contact with the floor, but he was able to catch himself with one hand while the other kept Ander secured on his back.
Twisting up and around, Flyte launched a large lightspear into the Rift creature's neck, quickly killing the cataclysmic beast.
A short distance later, Flyte ran into the nearly deserted seeker camp. Luckily, the place wasn't deserted, as Eris, Yuri, and Ferris watched the roughly two dozen seeker children with Garrick, who was perched on top of a nearby tower.
"Ferris!" Flyte shouted, his legs somehow moving even faster than before.
"What is-," Ferris stopped when he saw Ander's blood. he immediately turned to one of the seeker children. They were likely eleven years old.
"You," Ferris pointed. "Grab me my medical box as fast as you can." He turned to Flyte. "What happened."
"Me and Ander got in a tussle with some Dark Circle members," Flyte began, speaking very quickly. "Me and him split up, him taking their leader while I knocked out the rest. After I-"
"I don't need the full story, Flyte," Ferris said. "Just tell me how Ander got in this state and why you can't heal him. Also, can you slow down a little."
"Oh yeah, sure," Flyte said, a little embarrassed. "I don't know what's blocking my magic, but that cut along here," Flyte motioned toward the long cut across Ander's center, "was probably caused by a blade made of wind, while this," he indicated the deepening of the cut on Ander's chest, "was made by Thalreion's sword."
"Thalreion?" Ferris asked loudly.
"Yeah," Flyte said, somewhat confused.
"How did you two get out alive?" Eris asked from a slight distance.
"Elliot interrupted his attack and then fought him. Why?"
"Elliot's not strong enough to fight Thalreion alone," Eris answered. "If Ander were the monster that people say he is, then Thalreion would be a demon."
"His sword is made of kuoros," Ferris said. "It's a dense metal that absorbs most energy around it for power. that wound on Ander will force me to stitch him up until the effect wears off and you can magically heal him, so feel free to catch up to Elliot. If he's still alive, he'll almost certainly need your help."
"Okay," Flyte said, a little disturbed. "Good luck."
"Likewise," Ferris said. "Now go."
Flyte nodded and shot off toward the residential district where he left Elliot.
His movements were as perfect as a mortal's could be. The wretched monsters barring his way were deftly avoided, requiring only the absolute minimum amount of strain to bypass.
Flyte looked around the discarded rooftops frantically, his eyes pulling the place apart in a desperate search for his friend. His friend that he could not see.
'Oh no.'
Dread quickly flooded Flyte's senses, drowning out his thoughts. He tore across the fight scene, searching for any answers.
"Kuoros," Flyte muttered as he came up with an idea. "Nelar."
Flyte kept a small, flickering light floating beside his head as he ran around the ruined housing.
'Flickering? Wait a moment!'
"So, they fought here," Flyte said aloud, noting flaws in his spell's power. "And there! There's blood trailing this way."
Fast as a basilisk starved for breakfast, Flyte followed his lead onto the empty streets. It was only small drips of blood, but maybe it would be enough.
He soon found himself at the city's wall. 'Where is the next stain?'
Flyte searched franticly any clue, but he couldn't find anything at all.
'I've got to calm down.' Taking many deep breaths, Flyte could feel the difference as his heartbeat stopped being noticeably loud.
"Am I stupid?" Flyte asked aloud, thinking of the city walls. Seeing a small splatter of blood on its side confirmed it. His quarry was across the wall. "I must be."
"Sari," Flyte said, placing a huge upwards acceleration on himself to jump over the wall. As he crested it, he cast the spell's inverse, "Iras", to carefully drop himself on the other side.
'That was kind of fun. I might have to practice with that.'
Flyte once more felt his heartbeat as he processed the sheer number of monsters around him.
"Nelar," he said triumphantly, turning all of them into mere ash. As was normally the case, the spell took a lot of his energy, but it felt like it took less than normal.
With the space more cleared, Flyte continued following the blood, growing increasingly worried about what he might find at the end of it.
Flyte dropped down and his knees slammed into the sands below, but he couldn't register the impact.
"Why?" Flyte asked, expecting no answer. "It should have been me."
"It already has been," Honorious exhaled beside him.
Similar to Raloth, Honorious formed a silhouette of himself with his powers, but instead of moving so fast as to have an afterimage over the entire shape of his body, Honorious spread dust and leaves in patterns shaped like his body.
"'To me," Flyte said. "It didn't feel so bad. Plus, I'd bet my friends are now more used to me being dead than I am to them."
"So selfish," Honorious giddily exhaled. "Well, I figured you might want to know, Elliot chased Thalreion off. He's just resting at the moment."
"Oh," Flyte said, quietly wiping away tears he hadn't even noticed before.
"Maybe it's best to get used to this though, my friend," Honorious proposed. "Elliot likely cannot hold out much longer, and when he does finally slip, the result will be significantly worse than any shades army could be."
"That is, quite frankly, a stupid viewpoint," Flyte said. "It's true that everyone I know will someday die, although likely not Ontin or Telin, but that doesn't mean that I should allow these emotions to be cut. There is a reason for fear, anger, and pain, even when they are so suffocating that you can't feel much else. There could be no happiness, or even growth really, without those feelings."
Flyte looked down and muttered. "And I won't even allow myself to forget my friends."
"You're right," Honorious exhaled. "That was quite harsh of me. I suppose with this new perspective, being dead of course, I've lost a little bit of what made me human."
"I doubt it," Flyte countered. "You've just grown a bit is all. Pragmatism."
"You've just got to argue, don't you, Flyte?" Honorious exhaled, his voice the laughter of the winds.
"What can I say," Flyte said. "I really love playing devil's advocate."
"Still," Honorious began. "Why did you just say the word pragmatism? You gave absolutely zero connection to any argument."
"I got lazy," Flyte laughed. "And I never said I was good at arguing. In any case, do you want to head back into city proper?"
"I don't see why not," Honorious exhaled. "Given the energy you've spent though, I'd be fine carrying you there."
"Sounds good to me," Flyte yawned as the winds picked him up and carried him to the inn.