Red pushed Valafor off of him.
“Home? So we’re back at the guild hall?” Red tried to peek through the boarded windows, but was met with the blinding light directly in his eyes, “Why are the windows boarded up?”
Valafor chuckled, “No, silly! We’re in Purgatorio, the beginning and the end of all souls.”
Red looked at Valafor and furrowed his brow. He already began to form a conclusion in his mind.
Valafor closed his eyes, “I know what you’re thinking Red. Yes, we’re technically dead, but we’re coming back! In about an hour, we’ll be back in the living world again. But until then, we’re stuck here.”
Red grabbed his head and shook it vigorously, “I don’t understand…what is Purgatorio?”
Valafor scratched his head, “Purgatorio is basically a culmination of the collective unconscious. People in situations similar to yours are here. Near death, comatose, and especially the newly dead.”
Valafor knocked on a nearby wall, “This place — the guild hall specifically, is a representation of your internal liminality. You can only access your internal liminality through certain conditions. You should be familiar with this one, it’s due to the near-death experience. To protect your brain from trauma, you’ve been placed here, instead of directly in the white void.”
Red attempted to peek through the cracks once again, “So once we knock these walls down, we’ll be in that white void?”
Valafor shrugged his shoulders, “Sort of. The only thing out there is this place’s creator, Buer. You can learn a lot from her, but it doesn’t seem like she’s in much of a social mood…before we start knocking walls down though, tell me, how did you like that gift exchange?”
Red turned to him, “Gift exchange?”
Valafor walked up and put his arm around Red’s shoulder, “Sure! I took those useless things off your hands and gave you Sight. And with sight, you can finely control the arcana. How is it treating you?”
Red pushed his arm off, “You weren’t watching?”
“No, I wasn’t. The trade we made…did something to me. It’s like I was hibernating. But this near-death experience has brought me back.”
Red sat down on one of the stools, “Well, at first I thought the gift was breaking that curse on my mana, but that ability has been assisting me greatly. It's taken me a while to get the hang of it, but I can imitate all the Patron skills I used to have, some of them are much better than before.:
Valafor smiled gleefully, “I’m glad you liked it! It looks like curing that nasty curse and giving your sight back was all you needed to unlock your potential and become that a one-in-a-million existence. That ‘different world’ that you can see and the way you can communicate with mana is only accessible by the Anima, the ones who are closest to the arcana.
As Valafor spoke those words, Red’s hairs began to stand on end, ”To the kingdom of Socotra, you’re something like a prophetic existence, so you’re little playdate with them painted a permanent target on your back. Well, it’s not like that’s anything new to you.”
“Am I the only one of these ‘Anima’?”
Valafor looked at him seriously and placed his elbows on his knees, “Definitely not, you met two other ones already and I think there’s at least three more. But moving on from that, I’ve been checking on you periodically ever since I departed from you and came here a month ago. This realm is…unusual. This white void we’re sitting is a manifestation of your mind, in actuality, we’re just floating around in nothingness with no corporeal form just like the demons here.”
Red nodded along and thought to himself, “He’s been here the last month? Not in my mind? He’s not even hiding it at this point, there’s no doubt he was outright lying about being my conscience. What else is he lying about?”
Valafor continued, “In any case, as far as why you’re here, I think it has to do with those crystals that the Socotra soldiers use to teleport. Somehow those crystals are connected to this realm. I don’t know how, but even though Yasuke struck it you’re the only one that ended up here. I wonder if it has to do with your status as one of the Anima, or maybe your relationship to me…”
Red stood up knocking his chair over, and grabbed Valafor’s collar with both hands, “What the hell are you anyway? I know you lied about being my conscience, then what exactly are you? How do I know this isn’t just some sick game of yours?”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Valafor grabbed his wrist gently and whispered, “Have I wronged you yet, Redhead?”
Red snatched his hands away and muttered, “Just because you haven’t yet doesn’t mean you won’t.”
There was a long silence as Valafor stared at Red intently.
Valafor stood up slowly and moved to the entrance of the guild hall, “You know what, you’re right Red. We’ll be returning to life soon, and as an Anima, you have to fight to maintain your place as the main personality. If you lose to me, you’ll get to feel what it's like to be the subconscious.”
Valafor summoned a long blood halberd and pointed it at Red, “Are you ready?”
Red put his hands together and shouted, “Arctic Assault!”
Ice spikes sprouted out from every surface on Valafor’s side of the room. Valafor jumped into the air and expertly dodged each one, slicing them cleanly with the blood halberd.
Valafor landed in front of Red, and stabbed at him with the halberd. He missed wide, letting Red summon a blood dagger and stab at his throat.
Before the strike reached, Valafor grabbed his wrist and turned it. He whispered, “Maximum Blood,” and all his veins began to glow. The halberd in his opposite hand liquified and ran up his arm like a snake. It hardened into a gauntlet, and Valafor used it to smash Red in the face, sending him flying across the guild hall.
Red crashed through barrels of ale and landed in another room. He stood up and dusted himself off. Still holding onto the blood dagger, Red cut the palm of his hand and threw it away.
Red put his hands together, one on top of the other. As he began to chant the name of his spell, Valafor appeared in front of him, blood gauntlets on both arms, in the middle of a punching motion.
“What the hell? Does Maximum Blood really make me - I mean him that fast?”
Red shouted out, “Rage of the Pyre!”
Spikes ripped through Red’s hands and exploded in every direction. Valafor narrowly dodged, jumping to the opposite side of the room. One of the spikes scratched Valafor's face. He slowly put his hand up to the wound and grinned.
“Now you’re getting into it Red! Let’s finish this!”
Valafor summoned a blood halberd once again and swung it at Red. The halberd started out small, not even long enough to come close to Red. Then it gained speed. And as it gained speed, its length and width increased exponentially. It grew and grew until it was larger than the room itself, and it tore through the walls and furniture as it approached Red.
As Valafor continued this assault, he suddenly made an involuntary noise and found himself looking up at the ceiling.
Valafor peeked behind his shoulder and saw Red standing there, holding a blood dagger to Valafor’s neck.
Red ignored him, “I win, right? Are you going to send me back now?”
Valafor snapped his fingers, and before Red could blink all of the furniture was restored and returned to its place, and they once again sat next to each other at the bar.
Valafor grabbed his neck and gagged, “Yes, yes you win. I can send you back, and I will! But first I need your help.”
Red groaned, “What?”
Valafor grabbed his wrist gently and whispered, “It’s more like an opportunity for both of us. There’s even a reward in it for you.”
Red snatched his hands away and muttered, “And why should I trust you?”
“Now look Red, I completely understand why you have trust issues. I mean, if anybody was in the same situation with their country betraying them, they’d be wary too. But I need you to trust me. If you don’t trust anyone else, just trust me. In my opinion, I feel like I’ve proved myself. I’ve proved what I can do, I’ve proved that I can be trustworthy. All I’m asking is that you give me a chance.”
Red crossed his arms and shook his head, lost in thought for a long while, “So what’s this opportunity then? And what’s the reward, are you going to make my mana control even better?”
Valafor crossed his arms, “Don’t be silly Red. I can’t take you any further in that department; whether your mana control goes to a higher level is all on you. What I’m talking about is more of a gamble.”
Valafor jumped up off of the stool, “Before I get into that, I’ll explain my, and by extension your ability. Our ability is called Gambling Game. Essentially it allows you to take a gamble on trading abilities. Unfortunately for you, it’ll be pretty vague on exactly what I’m taking and giving. In addition to that, the better the ability, the more conditions there will be. I won’t just be able to take an ability you have and swap it, you’ll need to complete an objective as well. I can be a bit more explicit with what the objectives are, but it’ll still take a good effort on your part.”
Red placed a hand on his chin, “So what if I can’t, or I don’t want to complete the objective?”
Valafor grimaced, “You’ll lose the ability you gained, and the ones you gave up are also still gone forever.”
“A real gamble, huh.”
Valafor laughed, “The house has the edge. I’m the house, you’re the player. I facilitate the game and you benefit from it. That’s how it should be anyway.”
Red stood up and got into Valafor’s face, “So just like the gambling hall, you’ll win in the end?”
Valafor’s smile got wider as he put out his hand, “Let me help you be the strongest.”
Red shook his hand, and smacked Valafor’s hand away, “Like I’ll listen to that nonsense. Just tell me what you’re taking and what the conditions are.”
“The die is cast my friend. The gamble has begun. I’ll be taking a few of your Icon attack spells and in return, I’ll give you the ability to increase your strengths. And as far as the objectives are concerned, I want you to kill the shadows of your past, so we can step into the future without regret. You have a year to complete this, so get straight to it. And a word of advice: Take things at your pace, and let it be natural. You’re trying to walk on water when you’re supposed to dive in.”
Red frowned as he finally let go of Valafor’s hand, “What if I don’t know how to swim?”
A light enveloped Red’s body and he slowly began to float into the air.
Valafor watched as Red floated up, “You’re doing great Redhead! I expect great things from you, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy what I’ve given you this time.”
“This doesn’t feel quite right. Half of the details are being left out and I’m only getting told half-truths. I feel like I’m getting used, but I have no other choices.”