I was in a strange place. Not the in-between dimension, but some other, much more jungle-like, environment.

That was close. Aurinko said. I agreed.

We need a game plan. How do we fight the person that can attack with what we can’t defend? We can dodge, but not very often. We need to do something about him.

Yes, but what? He is faster and knows the terrain better. Plus, like Kristy said it’s quite likely that he hasn’t shown everything he has to offer. A game plan is a good thing to have, but we can’t account for everything he can do, we don’t know everything he can do.

How have you killed people like this in the past?

I haven’t. Usually it’s Meri, she can block the sound. Plus, he is the only one from his dimension with sound manipulation, that’s how he conquered them, they didn’t even know how to handle him.

I started burning things into the ground in front of me. I thought out loud for the planning portion of this, it always helped me before. “Okay, so, every time he attacks us with sound, we jump. Then we move behind him and jump back, attacking him with the element of surprise.” I said burning a sun into the ground and then a treble clef for Pahaӓӓni. I burned sound wave like patterns into the ground, then I burned an arrow going behind Pahaӓӓni, then I crossed out the treble clef, indicating that I had killed him.

The only problem is, he can move at the speed of sound, by turning into sound, and we can’t take him at his word that he can only do it once a day. We have to assume that he can do that at will. He may have also set up script circles that he can trap us in, or use to kill us. You are assuming this will be easier than it will. We also can’t take into account that he won't know where we will come back, he may have a way of finding that out. We can try but I want more to test his abilities than to actually kill him yet, but still try to kill him, if we can finish this now then that is optimal.

“Okay, let's get this over with and save my home.” I said as I prepared to jump, making a hole in the very fabric of the multiverse.

You know you can’t stay there, right? That’s not your home anymore, you don’t have a home anymore. I’m only allowing this because of the dimensional traveling Pahaӓӓni did to get here.

I know, but I can say goodbye. That’s all I need.

I stepped through the hole in the fabric of existence, and was face to face with Pahaӓӓni again.

“I was wondering when you’d come back. I knew I couldn’t have killed you. You just burst into flame, like last time. I learned a song a while ago. It’s made by some rock band. I wonder why they call it rock. It’s not made by stones or anything. Very strange. You want to hear it?” he then started to strum on his guitar.

"Hey miss murder can I. . ."

On the first note he attacked. Now, if you were wondering why I didn’t attack while he was explaining his evil plan, I have a good reason.

We were just crazy surprised that he decided to serenade me before a battle.

Just like we had planned, I jumped. I ran over to where he was when I jumped and went just a few feet more, and I jumped back. As I jumped he turned and attacked with another note on his guitar. I jumped back and went forward over to where I was when I first jumped and jumped back, throwing Aurinko as I did. He had moved. He used his sound to knock Aurinko out of the air anyway, and attacked me again. I couldn’t jump without Aurinko in hand but I could activate the speed cloak. I punched Pahaӓӓni with a flame covered fist. It hit air as he turned to sound over by Aurinko. He reached for his handle. I didn’t turn the speed cloak on again, instead I gathered heat from my charms and the area around me. I let him reach for the handle.

"Ah, I see. So you aren't scared I will gain possession of this weapon? Not scared that I will use your most powerful tool against you? No, because grasping that handle there will kill me, won't it? Too bad. I would have enjoyed having such power on my side." He said as he drew his hand back from Aurinko, blowing lightly on it and shaking it out.

Um-I-well-um-oh. Aurinko, I want you to explode. Blast fire at him right after I blast fire at him, we catch him off guard. He won’t expect it from you, only from me. We can kill him fast. Just give it a second. I ran at him, not activating my speed cloak, just using the flowing and unpredictable stances and movements of the flames dance. I could see the frustration on Pahaӓӓni’s face as I narrowly missed every attack he threw at me, aggressively playing his guitar and barring his teeth at me. I got in close and entered bokator, sending a knee into his face and punching him in the gut.

He blasted me in the face. I didn’t have Aurinko with me so I couldn’t jump away. I fell to my knees, blood dripping from my ears, although it felt like it was draining from every pore in my body. I turned my focus inside, trying to move the channels of magma to explode, but my physical pain was getting in my way.

I might die here. . . fall to this monster of a man. . . I thought frantically, trying to maintain control of my thoughts, if not my body.

NO. Aurinko screamed into my mind. He was angry and frantic, coming across as concern for my life.

“Seven hertz. . .” I heard in the background from Pahaӓӓni. “Not. . .” I was missing a lot of his little speech, and Aurinko wasn’t listening because he was too busy trying to save my life. He couldn’t move, but he shoved all of his essence he could into reenforcing my body. That made it both harder to control and easier, because I didn’t have to worry about the sound as much, but he was still using it. At some point there was nothing more he could do for me. “Twenty seven. . .” it was too faint to hear a tone, but that was a big number in sound terms, wasn’t it?

I got full control of the magma channels, and in one massive burst, I expended all that was left, blasting as much as I could into Auriko, who could aim more precisely without a lack of ability to concentrate on the world around him.

I merely shot a molten-like flame from every pore with as much force as I could, hoping it would be enough to at least distract him.

I heard a sharp cracking sound as the attack ceased. There was a small pool of blood around my head, from my bleeding ears, but what was coming from my ears was not. It was more of an orange color, and was. . . boiling?

What did you do to me? I asked Aurinko, noticing that my skin had taken a more radiant appearance, visibly melting any snow nearby as well. I looked over myself more and saw my hair. It was brown before, a nice dark color, not super noticeable. Now it was a bright red, and moved in a slightly flame like way, twisting and curling on itself and then straightening itself out.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Um. . . Well. . . I needed to save you, so I reinforced your body. I just. . . Well, I didn’t ask but I assumed you would give permission, but infusing your body with so much fire essence made it take on a more. . . Flame-like qualities. He hesitantly told me.

Fine. If that’s what it takes. Honestly, it didn’t look bad. I just wasn’t expecting it, and therefore, didn’t enjoy it.

“I could feel I was close. I was at twenty seven hertz when I stopped. I’d say it takes about thirty hertz to kill you. It takes a normal person five.” Pahaӓӓni said to me, anger evident in his voice. He was more hesitant than I had realized before. Now he had unfettered hatred burning behind those purple eyes of his. “I can counter your fire. I just blow the air molecules far enough apart that the flame starves and flickers out. You know, I can make things from sound. It’s difficult, and unreliable, but I can. I can also trap you with a death barrier. Instead of just a solid wall, it resonates at a high enough frequency to obliterate anything. Even you. How do you want to die, sun warrior?” he held out his hand, blue light flashing in a vaguely sword shaped stick, flickering as if he was using sound and trapping it and condensing until it became a solid.

I don’t care how physics works, he was making sound a solid. And it was terrifying. Going against the rules that have existed since you were born makes anyone squeamish, no matter who they are.

The stick exploded in his hand, sending razor sharp partly solidified sound waves slicing through the ground with almost zero resistance, going straight through to the other side of the planet for all I know.

“Fuck!” Pahaӓӓni swore as he caught waves through his right leg and hand, blood dripping quickly onto the ground, not quite a stream, but one more deep cut like that would turn it into one. I dodged what I could, taking a big gash under my right eye and on my left thigh.

He growled and tried again. That I let him try the first time is stupid on my part, and I can do little other then berate myself for stupid mistakes and move forward.

I ran forward, using nothing more than the flame aspect in my skin to enhance the damage of my punches, taking heat from what I could as I did so, making the air colder, though I noticed no difference.

His eyes were closed in focus, so I landed a hit on his face, snapping his nose and knocking several teeth out of place. His concentration broke and the sword-like sound exploded once again.

“Pft. I refuse to lose. You can’t-” he said after spitting out his teeth and snapping his nose back into place. I had delivered a bokator kick to Pahaӓӓnis gut. I didn’t hesitate this time, following up on the attack with a kick to the head, meant to disorient, but he blasted sound at my leg, blasting it back, but the exchange was too short-lived to do any real damage. He attacked, coating his fists in a vibration coming from him singing something, I couldn’t tell, all the sound was going to his fists. I blocked with my forearm, the armor there vibrating painfully. I switched to flames dance, flowing around his attacks and dealing counterstrikes to the gut and chest, leading his hands away from me as I moved by moving them away with a hand on his forearm.

He jumped back and I started to follow when he attempted to make a wall between us. As it shattered it sent slashes down my arms and legs, pieces getting embedded in my torso, going straight through the armor. I sucked in a breath, guiding the fire essence to heal my wounds. I stood as I tried to heal my wounds and Pahaӓӓni made a successful sword.

It was big and ornate, something that looked like it might need two hands to hold, though he only used one. He held it at his side. He didn’t even seem to realize that it was half a foot into the ground. He smiled, showing his newfound lack of teeth. His left eye was so covered in blood that he couldn’t open it, his right arm was barely holding the sword, even though it seemed near weightless, and his right leg was mangled and no longer able to hold his weight, so he balanced on his left, dragging his right behind as some sort of balance.

He blasted sound from a wide mouth, seemingly as a distraction as he jumped forwards to attack as what seemed like a hail mary. It almost worked. I was crazy low on essence, and I didn’t have Aurinko so I couldn’t block him. I jumped out of the way as best I could, but he sent an explosion out from the blade, knocking me off of my feet and making me leak that flame blood stuff from my ears again, eating up more essence. Aurinko was ten feet away. I jumped for him, making it most of the way there, when I was hit in the back with sound and overshot by five feet. I gathered the magma in my hands, preparing an all or nothing blast with the last of my essence. I shot it out at him and he dissipated it half an inch from his face, however, the energy traveled on, melting the flesh of his face, making a grotesque mask of liquified skin, covering his mouth and forcing it closed as if it were sewn shut. He cut the flesh sealing his mouth shut so that he could talk again.

He smiled. “You may think that you have blinded me by melting flesh over my eyes, but that won't work. The way I see sound hasn’t changed. You have done nothing more than make me seem more like the monster I am!” he said as he slashed at me with his blade, shooting a slice-like beam of sound at me. I dove underneath it and reached for Aurinko. Just out of reach. He jumped on top of me, stabbing the blade down to my back, as I reached out, stretching with all of my might. Five inches too far. Not enough. I was out of essence. That half second was made into five minutes from my perspective with the adrenaline blasting through my veins.

I sucked in, then pushed out. A small explosion burst from me, just enough to knock him off of me, but not enough to do damage. I reached that last five inches and picked up my good friend. I blocked an attack from Pahaӓӓni. I smiled and stabbed Aurinko into his gut, a fatal blow because we both had no more mana or essence left.

He reached for his throat, not his gut, and pulled out a purple stone with scripts lining every surface tied to a thick leather cord around his neck.

“Tell my story. . . all it takes is a finger and some words. . . you deserve it.” he croaked as he smiled and put the stone in my hand. He lay back then, accepting death. “You. . . win. . .” His last words came to be.

“You put up a good fight.” I told his lifeless corpse. Then I started absorbing heat from everything around, my necklaces being the primary source of the heat.

I inspected the stone. It was purple and glowing slightly and it was covered in blue runes I couldn’t read. That was fine, I didn’t need to, but there was also a place that fit a finger perfectly that even had one of those fingerprint pictures that they have on phones that let you unlock them with a fingerprint. I put my finger on it and it lit up.

The inside glowed purple and was pulsating and the blue runes flared to life.

I threw the stone, thinking that it was a trick and it would explode. It did not, but half a word of what seemed like english came out.

What. . ?

It looks like that’s what he meant by ‘tell my story. . . all it takes is a finger and some words. . .’ that sounded eerily like Pahaӓӓni. I shivered as he said back, I think he just wants you to write a book about his life or something.

Maybe I will. I should at least listen to his story. I said as I picked up the stone. I didn’t place my finger yet. I might just want to finish my exciting journey before I tell any stories. I’ll give this to Link. I thought as I shook my head and put it in my pocket.

You know. . .

What!? I asked, alarmed, looking around for any danger.

You don’t have a charm for this dimension yet. I think the story of a man you killed would be a great way to remember him and to keep you morally in line.

I was taken aback. How could I have forgotten to get a charm for this dimension? Good idea. I took him as I slipped the stone onto the chain around my neck holding my charms in place. They’re probably worrying about me. I should go see them. I may have to run across the ocean first though. I thought, grimacing.

Or you just jump to a dimension where there are no oceans, and it’s smaller so you could travel a shorter distance comparatively and be in the same place relatively.

Good idea. I told him. Then I ripped open a hole, much more crudely then I ever have in the past due to lack of essence, and jumped in.

The place was very dessert-like, with lots of sand but not much life. I felt warmer, but I just felt normal. Aurinko informed me that it was over one hundred and fifty degrees celsius outside. I walked normally, not wanting to waste essence on the speed cloak when I might need it for battle.

“how long do you think that the story of Pahaӓӓni’s life is? It can’t be too long, right?”

Only one way to find out, if you're so curious.

“You’re right. Let's do this.” I said. I lifted the necklace from my battered and broken armor, and placed my finger on the pad to start it. It stayed quiet for a few seconds and then it started playing. At that point I removed my finger and it continued playing.

The recording was clearly made by a younger Pahaӓӓni, his voice was slightly higher and he stumbled over his words more rather then speaking them as if he had planned to say them all along. I imagined him speaking these words to me as the story of his life was told to me.

“I am Pahaӓӓni. My birth name is Corban. . .”