For Mion Okari, today was supposed to be a glorious day; he was to finally rectify the mistake his father made by allowing a Null to reside in the village. Sure, the initial plan of execution didn’t work, but that only meant that now he could personally put an end to its existence. Mion had traveled half a day’s journey to complete his task, braving the treachery of the Red Forest, driven only by the glee he’d experience at the end of his hunt; so when his prey decided to bare its fangs at him, Mion was surprised to say the least. The attack was sloppy of course, a Null with no Corporeal Arts was the very definition of clumsy, but just the knowledge that it thought it could harm him sent Mion into a rage.
“You would dare?” Mion tensed his left arm and it blurred at Noki, infused with his Earth Aspect.
“We’re supposed to keep him alive!” Kila screamed, but it was too late. Mion had effortlessly dodged Noki’s attack and countered with a punch powerful enough to explode a boulder; even a Lesser Iron would take damage from an attack of that caliber. Noki flew across the river and slammed into the wall, ejecting a spray of debris.
“Be quiet,” Mion said as the dust settled, “he was to be executed anyways, what difference does it make if it was here or at the village?” Mion knew his uncle wanted him alive, but he was sure he would understand that a Null attacking its betters must be punished harshly. “ We’ll take his body back to the village and be done with it.” Mion turned his back to Noki and motioned for his men to get the body. It wasn’t as satisfying as he’d hoped it would be and he was still agitated, luckily it was almost nightfall and he’d have a few scourbeasts to take his frustration out on.
Kila activated her Divine Sight to see through all the debris. Sure enough, there was Noki laying underneath the rubble, motionless. “Dammit, maybe if I can get him a vitality elixir I can-” She lost her train of thought when she saw Noki’s hand slowly moving. “That’s impossible! He was hit by a Lesser Iron, he should be dead…or at the very least have major internal damage.” Whether what she witnessed was a fluke or not, she needed to act fast. “I’ll grab him,” Kila said aloud to the lackeys, “ you guys are all better fighters than myself and it’s getting late. I’ll carry him and you guys keep watch.”
The lackeys froze mid-step, looking from Kila to Mion. “So are we…”
“Since when do you listen to anyone else but me?” Mion glared at the pair and they made themselves scarce. “You,” he aimed his words at Kila, “ don’t think that you’ve any status here. Your family can barely call themselves vassals. The next time you try to undermine my orders, you’ll see just how powerful my Earth Aspect is.”
Kila quieted the fire that was burning inside of her; if she gave into her anger now, she’d be killed. Mion was a bastard for sure, but he was the strongest of their year aside from Baira; she’d have no chance in winning in a direct confrontation. “Apologies, I forgot myself,” Kila forced herself to say, “ it won’t happen again.”
Mion gave her a look of disgust and continued up the side of the ravine before stopping. “Wait, send an Astral Missive to the others. Tell them to head back to the village and inform my uncle that we’ve captured the Null.”
“That’ll take some time to do,” Kila said, “ I don’t know their exact location and there are restricted paths in the Abstraction.” Astral Missives work by entering the Abstraction and then conveying direct thoughts through the nigh-infinite networks of the Abstraction. Kolos are trained to do this in an instant but it could take anywhere from a few seconds to months to do without the proper training. “ If I could maybe tether to your mind, I’d have a much easier time doing so.”
The sky darkened, turning a mixture of deep blue and eternal black. The surrounding area started buzzing with the night wildlife and both Mion and Kila scanned their surroundings. “That’ll have to wait,” Mion said as a scourbeast approached the ridge behind them, “until’ we’re in a more secure location.”
Kila looked back across the river to where Noki layed. “This might actually be what I need. He’s only about seventy-feet away and those idiots aren’t aware he’s still alive so they’re taking their time. I can tether them, get Noki and make a break for it.” Kila moved to speak but then noticed a swarm of scourbeast heading towards them, hundreds of them. “Mion! Something’s wrong with scourbeasts!”
Mion looked to both sides of the ravine, scanning them each with his Divine Sight. Fifty scourbeasts were approaching from the east, across the ravine, while another ninety were rushing in from the west. He drove his senses into the ground to get a better look at the beasts, and saw a scourbeast that failed description. With the aid of his Earth Aspect, Mion is able to tell almost every physical characteristic of the target; height, weight, foot size, traveling speed, group size, but with this thing, all he could feel was nothingness. It felt like it was closing in from all sides, which was surely what the scourbeasts had thought since they were all heading for this exact location.
“Leave it in the rubble,” Mion commanded, “ and form up. There’s something coming.” The two warriors leapt back and were at Mion’s side a moment later. “Kila, you watch the rear and make sure none of the scourbeasts kill the Null, that honor is for me.”
Kila hated being ordered around by Mion, but this was an opportunity she couldn’t ignore. Still, it bothered her that he instantly sent her to the rear, maybe she had downplayed herself too much? “Stop thinking useless thoughts, if it wasn’t for the fact they saw you as weak, you wouldn’t be in this position to begin with. Remember what your goal is.” Kila nodded at Mion and made her way across the river.
“Why did I do that?” The pain in Noki’s body had finally subsided and he was slowly regaining feeling in his extremities. “It was just like in the Abstraction, I felt anger that felt like mine…but there was more to it.” It took him a moment to realize that his eyes weren’t open and he quickly rectified that. Noki saw a girl with curly brown hair and eyes of amber rapidly approaching him, but she didn’t look poised to attack. That was fine though, she probably thought he was in no condition to move let alone attack. Noki started circulating his Tera, slowly filling up his Body Kulda until he was sure it was enough for a quick strike. “I’ll catch her off guard with a strike to the midsection, even if she’s a Lesser Iron she won’t be able to brush it off so easily,” Noki hoped. Power filled his entire being and he could feel every injury inside of him: bruised ribs, a cracked sternum, a dislocated right shoulder, three broken fingers and a fracture in his right foot.
“Easy there,” Kila said, looking down at Noki, “ I’m not here to hurt you.” She kneeled down to inspect him, “Though I gotta admit, the fact that you’re still breathing is remarkable in itself. You took a direct hit from an Iron Soul and didn’t break in half.”
“Not direct,” Noki managed to spit out, “ I managed to avoid the brunt of it at the last minute.” It would have been better if he could have avoided all of it, but he had no idea that Mion’s attack would be able to harm with just the air pressure alone.”
“You’re telling me that you saw that attack and dodged it?” Kila couldn’t believe the words that came from her mouth, but it was the only thing that would explain how Noki managed to keep his upper half intact. “For you to be able to do that much as an Earthen Soul…now I see why she’s so interested in you?”
“She?” The shock had worn off his body and the pain started to return, causing Noki to reflexively draw more Tera into his Body Kulda, making the pain worse.
“The Kolo, she’s the reason why I’m here and-what are you doing? Stop that, unless you want to overwhelm your nervous system.” Kila could see Noki’s body spasming underneath the pieces of debris and started removing them. “Why aren’t you dulling the pain enough so you can move?”
“Because I don’t know how to do that, but I do know,” he grunted, “how to fill the core of my body.”
“That’s stupid, all you have to do is use your Mental Tera to stop the pain signals from reaching parts of your body.” Kila noticed when she said that there was no recognition of the fact on Noki’s face. “You’re telling me you don’t even know to do something as basic as that? By the Embrace, you really don’t know anything.” Kila thought to explain how to numb the pain, but her senses picked up a pack of scourbeasts mere feet away from the ridge above. “Look, just stay here and I’ll take care of them, then I’ll get you out of here.”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Noki had no idea what she was talking about and Kila took off before he could ask for an explanation. It wasn’t the right time for it, but it started to get on Noki’s nerves just how much he didn’t know about Divine Artists and Tera. “I’m so far behind everyone that I don’t even know the basics, and now I’m stuck here because of it,” Noki thought to himself. “No, I’m not stuck, it just hurts to move…but when has pain been enough to stop me before?”
Throughout his childhood, Noki had suffered abuse from many of the students of Blue Mountain Serpent School, thanks to the leadership of Mion Okari. Whether it was being chased for so long his muscles and lungs burned, used as practice for Corporeal Arts or thrown up trees that took half a day to climb down, Noki had endured more than anyone his age had; what was a few hundred pounds of stone and a couple of broken bones to him?
Ignoring Kila’s advice, Noki poured more Tera into his Body Kulda, focusing solely on the movement and not the nearly blinding amount of pain. Bits of rubble began rolling off his back as he managed to get into a prone position. “That’s it,” Noki said aloud, “just a bit more.” In his mind’s eye, he saw his Body Kulda and it was a blinding white light. Noki could tell he was at his maximum, but it wasn’t enough. He had no idea what would happen if he put more Tera into it, but the weight on his body started to feel heavier and he knew for certain if he went down again, he wouldn’t be getting up. With no other options available to him, Noki started channeling more Tera and could feel the beginnings of…something…happening internally. Suddenly, three dead scourbeasts fell from the sky and landed a few feet away from Noki.
“Dammit,” Kila said as she dodged a claw swipe and countered with a flurry of quick strikes, “I let a few get past me.” Kila’s fighting style relied on quick and precise strikes that targeted specific points on the body, dealing critical damage in minimal time. “They’re weak, but there’s just too many of them for me to fight effectively.” Kila was a gifted user of Mental Tera and was able to incorporate Ethereal Tether–her family’s technique–into her Corporeal Arts. By channeling Tera to her Mind Kulda, Kila is able to send tendrils into her opponents and cast illusions, which she had been doing this entire time. “ I’m going to have to drop the technique; it’s eating too much of my Tera and takes a lot of focus. I should be able to kill them with just Corporeal Arts.” Kila coated both of her hands with Tera and dove into the sea of scourbeasts, slaying them with ruthless efficiency.
Mion basked in the heat of battle, slamming his forearm into a scourbeast and watching its ethereal essence spray into the air. This was exactly how things should be, the weak dying to his tremendous strength and knowing their rightful place. “That’s ten kills for me,” Mion gleefully said before bisecting another, “now eleven.”
His lackeys had only fought against the scourbeasts in controlled environments at school, and were having troubles taking a few of them on at a time. Mion’s body count grew by the second until he had cut a swath through the oncoming horde. It had all been a warm up for the real prize that was approaching him. He could sense the mass of nothingness growing closer and his warrior’s spirit began to stir. “Whoever you are, make yourself known and know that I, Mion Okari, will bury you!”
In the darkness of the Red Forest, an alien creature stepped forth. It looked like a Blood Tiger, one of the non chimeric beasts, but its fur was as dark as the night and it had neon-blue tipped tentacles where its whiskers should be. It prowled on all fours and its yellow eyes flickered from Mion to his lackeys in quick succession. The creature had an arm dangling from its blood soaked mouth and gave out a low, consistent growl.
“Mion,” one of the lackeys said with the color drained from their face, “that’s…that’s Den’s arm.” He was one of the Divine Artists that had been put into the group to track down Baira.
“He let this beast take something of his without doing the same in kind,” Mion replied, “if he’s still alive, he better not return to the village.” To Mion, it was a sign of strength to be able to inflict the same injury onto an opponent that they inflicted onto you; if this beast was able to take Den’s arm unscathed, all that meant was Den was too weak. Mion circulated his Tera and let his aspect mix with it, giving it a more potent quality. It rushed out of him with enough force to blow away grass and dirt from underneath his feet and Mion’s muscles grew by an inch.
By allowing his Earth Aspect to mix with his Tera and flow throughout his body, Mion could dramatically increase his physical capabilities to be that of a Greater Iron. It was something he worked on after he suffered a draw with Baira, and it paired well with his Corporeal Art: Crushing Stone Golem. “I’ll let you make the first move,” Mion said to the creature, “ see if you can leave even a scratch on me.”
The strange beast held Mion in its gaze and its eyes shifted from yellow to a deep violet with a thin, white iris. It didn’t speak but it gave the impression that it understood the provocation and was assessing its target. The creature dropped the severed arm and raised its whip tails overhead. Each end had the same neon coloring as its tentacle and they all began to pulsate in harmony. In an instant it had passed by Mion, severed his lackeys in half, and continued headed towards the ravine.
Mion was able to follow the creatures movements and suffered only the faintest of scratches; his Living Stone Armor Technique had proven capable of withstand an attack that could kill Lesser Irons. He gave his fallen underlings a passing glance, remarked on how they were truly Lesser Irons, and focused his gaze on the fleeing creature. “I understand that my power may frighten you, but don’t think you can just get away like that!” Mion dug his heels into the ground and exploded down the forest, leaving the ground upturned in his wake.
Noki looked at his hands and saw two cores, one a light pink and the other a faded green, in bewilderment. One moment he was struggling to get out from the rubble and the next, he had the melting bodies of two scourbeasts in his grasp. “What’s with this orange glow? Is that coming from me or?” The cores lost their color and started to unravel into strands of whisps, prompting Noki to drop them. He had expected the sudden movement to be met with pain, but it never came. In fact, he felt as good as new, better even. His body was brimming with vitality and his senses felt sharpened; the only thing that felt off to him was this almost gnawing sensation coming from the base of his skull. The whisps rushed into Noki’s body and that gnawing sensation grew into a thunderous pounding. There was nothing trying to break into his mind, he somehow knew that, but didn’t know who was attacking him. “What this is, it feels…angry.”
As Noki tried to wrestle with an invisible enemy, the strange creature appeared several feet in front of him. It’s eyes changed colors once again, only this time they didn’t shift back to yellow. Its iris bled to a poisonous green and it readied to attack, only for Mion to land in the river like a thrown boulder.
“You flee from me in order to attack a weaker target?” The water rained down as Mion approached the beast, stopping only twenty-feet away. “I can promise you that’ll I’ll be a much better challenge for you.” Mion turned his head towards Noki, “I don’t know how you’re alive but right now, I don’t care. I’ve found something to take my frustration out on, so after I’m done I’ll only break your arms and legs before taking you back to the village.” Noki stood completely still, save for a few twitches, and had his head down. Mion took that as the Null being obedient, turned to the creature, and engaged it in combat.
A moment later, Kila appeared next to Noki, covered in small cuts across her clothes but ultimately unharmed. “Well, that took longer than expected,” Kila said, “I didn’t think they’d be as strong as they were.” She saw Mion fighting against something she’d never seen before, but it moved like a Greater Iron; they both did. “Wow, I guess Mion really isn’t just a prideful jackass, he can back up his claims.” “Though, that technique has to be a massive drain on his Tera, not to mention the physical toll it must take,” she thought to herself, “ If I’m lucky…” Kila ended that thought as she remembered her true goal. “Ok Noki, I don’t know how you got out of the rubble, but we’re going. Now.”
Noki remained motionless, prompting Kila to move closer to him. “Hey, did you hear me? We gotta go, there’s no telling-” Kila inclined her head towards Noki and saw his eyes flickering from black to a fiery orange. Immediately she used her Ethereal Tether and burrowed a tendril into Noki’s mind. She yelped in pain and leapt several feet backwards, looking at Noki in shock and horror.
Kila had been inside of many minds, stealthily gathering information about those who could either pose a challenge to her or become a great asset. Corporeal Arts, Stratal Arts, Familial Techniques, she could learn them all–provided her Tera was stronger than her targets–and use that knowledge to her advantage. She even used it on the instructors to learn the answers for tests, though that proved much more difficult and she was almost caught by Instructor Gazin. Aside from her run in with Kolo Amani, Kila had never experienced a mind so much more powerful than hers, until this moment. No, powerful wasn’t the word to use here; it was ridiculously easy to penetrate the mental defenses. A better word for this would be chaotic. There were no coherent thoughts, nothing she could grasp onto, just a near animalistic urge to fight and consume.
“If I hadn’t severed the connection…” Kila’s body had tensed and her blood was racing. One of the drawbacks to her technique was that if any thought or idea was strong enough, it could temporarily imprint onto her. She had to use a bit of her Mental Tera to get her breathing under control and stop circulating her Tera throughout her body; she had been unconsciously preparing to attack. She had no idea how Noki was able to do that, or if that was even Noki in the first place. “Noki, is that you?”