Nosam turned, looking at the chaos around him. This fight, regardless of how it had started, had proceeded properly, going down the right path. His team had been overwhelming the priests. Fighting them to equality with numbers then over powering them. So what the hell is this madness.
Around him his teammates where dying like flies.
At first, Noel and Hannah had been occupied by the unarmed priests, struggling to hit him as if he was a fly buzzing around and avoiding the clapping of an irate unsouled. Eventually, Hannah had chosen to sacrifice Noel in a bid to kill the priest. It was a gutsy move, considering Noel would’ve returned for blood if he had survived. But he hadn’t and neither had the priest.
Hannah’s victory had been short-lived, her life ended at the end of a pole ax. The loss annoyed him only temporarily as a shout rang out on another part of the battlefield and he turned to find two of his colleagues running a priest through. The sight of it was pleasing to him.
But like his annoyance at Hannah’s death, this, too, was short lived. As if the world within the crack was bound to stand against him, a fissure opened right at the center of the battle just when victory was just within his grasp. When, despite the dwindling number of his teammates, he was getting reinforcements that carried mages he knew where both gold and silver.
He’d been fighting to conserve his energy since the battle began, annoying the priests with hit and run tactics and leaving the rest of his team to take the brunt of the battle. Now that a fissure existed at the heart of the battle and beasts bounded out of it, he needed to dedicate more of himself to staying alive.
The creatures that came from the fissure were nothing he’d seen before. They were new and they were grotesque. They moved quickly with grey, gangly limbs and the bodies of malnourished giant babies. But the oddest part of them was their head. It was spherical and flat with neither eyes nor nose. The only feature on its hairy wide head was a mouth than ran from one end to another with lamprey teeth that were all sharp fangs. And each time they shrieked, the air shook.
One came for him and he evaded it easily, pleased to find them slower than himself. He ducked it again and activated a skill much like Angel’s. It crushed the opponent on both sides, but where Angel's employed the power of wind reia, his employed force reia.
To his surprise, the beast shrugged off the attack as if hit on both sides by a gust of wind. The little comfort he’d gotten from its speed, or lack thereof, was lost to its sturdiness.
He was successful in blasting it away from him without causing any real harm when a terrifying scream pierced the chaos of the battle with enough force to draw everyone’s attention. Priests and beasts alike.
When he followed their line of sight, he found the priest that was supposed to be dead, standing lazily, back hunched and empty-eyed. His left hand was bloodied and he carried a hole in his side as if the world had taken a bite out of him. That he was still standing was by no more than sheer force of will.
His survival was questionable. Impossible.
But Nosam was a Soul mage, and if there was anything a soul mage who’d seen the things he’d seen knew, it was that there was no such thing as impossible in the world of soul magic.
He dodged another of the grotesque beasts and stepped just out of its reach when reinforcement arrived and joined in the fray. Again, the world crack continued to stand in opposition of his goals as the beasts charged the new entrants, going for the golds first, before the silvers, as if drawn to the powerful. The beast he’d dodged spared him a glance, evident in only the turning of its near featureless head to him, before bounding towards a gold. He wasn’t sure if to thank the world crack or curse it. So he returned his attention to surveying the battle.
What he found displeased him further.
The first thing he noticed was the priest with the black eyes holding back two gold mages while fighting off one of the beasts. He was clearly struggling, but for some reason, so were his opponents.
The second thing he noticed was the half dead priest was gone from where he’d last seen him. That worried him more than the giant priest’s defiance of logic. The remaining living priests continued to struggle with their opponents with cuts and tears in their cassocks that were stained with blood yet refused to die.
He panned his attention from them in search of the priest that was supposed to be dead as he dodged a flying body that left a trail of blood in its path.
He found the priest not long after, standing at heart of a cluster of beasts and mages. In his silver senses, the priest leaked large quantities of reia he sensed in the rising heatwave of reia that distorted the world around him. It was an odd thing to notice considering he hadn’t sensed a lick of reia from the boy at the beginning of the fight. Then, he had attributed it to a very strong reia control, just like he’d heard Oden had possessed during his time as a spy in the adventure society.
Further attention to the boy showed him why he saw it now. The reia that suffused the boy didn’t leak out of him. Instead, it was wrapped around his left arm and spilled to cover the rest of his body. The reia, Nosam realized, didn’t belong to the boy.
Is it some kind of artifact? He wondered.
There were countless artifacts found at the site of fissure nests over the years. From his knowledge, most of them ranged from truly powerful to exceedingly useless. His father had one that served as a souvenir. It was a tablet of stone that trapped dreams so that he could relieve them whenever he pleased. His father often speculated that it could store memories too but he simply hadn’t figured out how to make it do so.
At the heart of that section of chaos, the young priest continued to stare with empty eyes. While he faced a mage and a beast locked in combat, it was clear he did not see them. Nosam was beginning to think him unconscious on his feet when one of the new mages charged him.
The events that followed shocked and terrified him.
The young priest raised an absent hand towards the incoming priest and made a gesture with the flick of his wrist. A wave of force reia manifested beside him in a vertical arc and shot out at the incoming mage. The mage stepped away from it a moment too late and the blast shot him away so that he soared over twenty feet through the air.
Nosam stepped back as he realized the skill. He knew Hannah’s skill [Back Blow] anywhere he saw it. That the priest had used it was both terrifying and awe inspiring. Just how powerful was this artifact.
Nosam stepped forward, dodging and ducking, evading attacks he felt he didn’t have the time to return as he approached the priest. He’d seen the power the boy was capable of and knew how to survive it. He only had to take the boy by surprise.
Another beast roared at the boy from somewhere to the left, and in a shocking display, the priest turned to it and roared back. The way the priest did it was so feral and animalistic that Nosam froze in his steps. Whether it was from fear or surprise, he didn’t know.
The ugly beast stared at the priest from where it stood snarling over a mage with a face completely chewed off that Nosam had no idea who in his team it could’ve been.
The priest for his part continued to watch the beast when another one snarled from a different point. He turned his head to his new opponent, ignoring the one before and shifted his head in its direction. He moved towards it, tripped, and fell. All in a single step.
Nosam stood in place, confused, as the priest picked himself back up, his face clouded in equal confusion. He looked from one foot to the other, then raised his hands and looked at them. He seemed to accept his confusion before flicking his arm towards the beast that had roared at him and force reia took it and its prey just as it had once taken one of Nosam’s teammate.
………………………………………………….
An entity stood in the midst of chaos and bloodshed. They could smell the stench of the dying but didn’t care for it. All they knew was that they were different from those that died. While those that died were nothing but single beings with no acceptance of anything other than themselves, they were aware of the fact that they were a conglomeration of beings. They were a legion acting as a single entity with powers that twisted and bent to their will.
When one of the single beings had charged them, they had merely gestured at it, willing the reia around them to send the creature away. In the creature’s weakness, the reia had sent it flying farther than they had intended.
They were still contemplating how such singular beings existed when the pain in their head was brought to their attention in the shrieking terror of a being challenging them.
Their attentions turned to the creature, finding it stooped over one similar to the one thrown away in a blast of reia. Wondering it communication was possible, they worked the organ responsible for sound and emulated that of the beast’s. It came out clearer than they expected and shook the air just as the creature before them. They believed communication had been made when another beast roared away from them. They turned one set of eyes to the new creature while the kept a different set on the initial one.
The new creature watched them with an expression they didn’t like and they chose its death. Willing reia into their legs, they closed the distance between them and their new quarry in one step. One moment they were watching the creature, and the next they were face down on the hard ground.
They picked themselves from the ground confused. They’d known what they’d been doing, having done it countless times for countless years. So why had they fallen. They looked down at their countless set of legs and were surprised to find two staring back. It was impossible. There were four of them, which meant there were four pairs of legs, eight in total. So why did they have only two. Testing a growing theory, they raised their hands and only two stared back. The realization displeased them. They were four working as one entity, very literally. They didn’t just work as one, they were one.
They raised their hand testing their understanding of reia once more, and blasted one of the creatures that had roared at them. They learned from the single action that while the reia was strong enough to send it flying, it was all it was capable of. They weren’t strong enough to truly harm it.
They were about to turn to the next creature when they saw one looking at them from behind them. Did it think they wouldn’t see it simply because they hadn’t been looking for it?
They turned to the new creature, ignoring the old as another creature that was not it, slammed into it from the side. Their attentions were fixed on the one watching them. They didn’t understand much of what they were looking at but understood they didn’t like it.
They knew what they did to things they didn’t like. So they communicated their hatred of it in the same way the creature they’d blown away had taught them.
…………………………………………
Nosam watched the half-dead priest turn to him. Saw the recognition as their eyes met, the priest’s completely black where it had once been a glossy silver.
He took a step back in worry and the priest roared at him with so much venom that he felt it in his bones. Then the boy fell on all fours and charged towards him.
Nosam took a hesitant step back and bumped into someone behind him. He turned and found the giant priest, confused at when the man had gotten there. He dived to the side, avoiding a slap from the priest when two gold mages slammed into the priest, carrying him away in the chaos of clashing bodies.
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Nosam scrambled across the ground, eyes glued to the priest still charging at him on all fours and dodged when the boy sent an arc of force reia at him.
He forced himself to his feet and reached for his empty scabbard, realizing a moment too late that he’d lost his sword in the scuffle of the earlier fight. So, instead, he reached behind him and drew a dagger. He didn’t want to fight but suspected the artifact had somehow affected the boy’s mind while granting him only one skill. It had given him a single skill, overpowered as it was, but had driven him into a fearless frenzy.
He braced himself for impact, ignoring the chaotic battle around him as the priest drew near, only for another fissure to crack the world just beside the priest. Two creatures dived out with feline features and fur the color of deep purple, carried on five limbs, and in a display of surprising agility, the priest darted to the side and charged around the fissure.
Nosam cursed his luck and his depleted reia channels as he met the priest in combat.
The boy fought nothing like a soul mage. With his broken mind and inefficient frenzy, he fought like an animal, swiping his reia clad arms at Nosam like a reia beast, snarling and snapping his teeth stained with blood and spittle.
Nosam dodged each attack, peppering the priest with cuts from his daggers while watching out for the next time he would choose to use the force reia and waiting for his core to replenish something sufficient enough to activate a skill.
He bounced around on the sole of his feet, evading the boy and inflicting damage of his own when he found himself standing before the fissure that had let out the purple beasts. It brought him to the realization that while the priest had lost his sanity, he still possessed enough intelligence to try and corner him. He had realized in their short exchange that he couldn’t win against him and had chosen to force him towards the fissure.
He would’ve commended the boy if the boy didn’t have the strength or cunning required to force him into the fissure. And considering how much the boy was now beginning to pant with all the blood oozing from the cuts he’d filled him with, there was no way the boy would survive for long.
In one desperate attempt at victory, the priest swung his arm forward and Nosam stepped to the side. Employing his silver authority speed, he avoided the blast of reia force and snatched the boy up by the neck, crushing his wind pipe with all his strength.
Like the animal he had now become, the priest snarled at him, clawing at the arm that held him up with the ferocity of a house cat. It was pathetic to watch and Nosam felt no sense of accomplishment in what he was about to do.
………………………………………………
The entity clawed and scratched, seeking freedom with a power that had suddenly left them. They snarled and snapped, communicating their refusal to submit to the creature that displayed so much power. The creature they had given their all and had been unable to harm.
The creature stared at them in a way they knew they didn’t like and they doubled their effort for freedom.
They found themselves powerless and at its mercy. So when it pierced them with the thing it had been using to inflict them with so much pain, it came as no surprise. However, this pain was worse than the others before it. There was a finality to it.
Unable to breathe, they looked down and saw why it was different. While the creature had been sliding the thing across them all this while, this time it had chosen to put all of it inside them so that they leaked more of their viscous fluid that refused to flow than before.
Gently, the light dimmed around them and they knew they had lost simply because they had been weaker. It was their fate, their path, yet they found themselves refusing to accept it. They didn’t know why, but they knew they could not go yet even as the creature moved with them, still in its grasp. Its mouth was moving now, communicating in a way they didn’t understand. They would’ve emulated it if they weren’t so desperately seeking survival.
When a thread of hope came to them, it came in darkness.
Life Force Terribly Low.
Demise imminent.
Seeking Solution.
Searching… Searching… Searching….
Divining path forward…
Divining…. Divining… Divining…
Divination Unsuccessful…
Criteria for Divination Not Met…
Tools for Divination Not Found…
Divination Failed.
Predicting Possible Paths.
Predicting… Predicting…. Predicting….
Solution Found.
The entity smiled. They would not die today.
Life Force Critical
Solution: Evolution.
Initiating Evolution…
Evolving... Evolving… Evolving… Evolving…
Evolution Failed.
Reason: Insufficient Reia Source.
Seeking Solution.
Searching… Searching… Searching….
Solution Found.
Alternate Reia Source Required.
Searching for Alternate Reia Source.
Searching… Searching… Searching…
Alternate Reia Source Found.
Assimilating with Ambient Reia Source.
Initiating Assimilation.
Assimilating… Assimilating… Assimilating…
Tools for Assimilation Not Found.
Assimilation Failed.
Alternate Reia Source Required.
Searching for Alternate Reia Source.
Searching… Searching… Searching…
Alternate Reia Source Found.
………………………………….
Nosam had the priest in by the neck. He held him towards the fissure, knowing the outcome of what he was about to do. No one survived a fissure. Even Barons didn’t exist outside this rule. The government had tested it enough to know it to stand as a universal truth. Fissures killed everything that went into it. It was the reason beasts that came out of it never went back into it.
So he took his time as he watched the life fade from the priest’s eyes.
His father had always told him he had a flaw of gloating too much, reveling in his victories. The man had always told him his fear was that it would one day get him killed. He didn’t disagree with the man, but knew that day would not be today. After all, the oracle had given him the greatest protection in existence. He had given him the protection of fate.
So when pain exploded in his chest and he gasped suddenly, confusion was his first expression. He looked down at his chest and his confusion deepened at the sight of the priest’s bloodied left hand in his chest. He grabbed it with his free hand and pulled to no effect. He struggled and fought until a new sensation filled him. His hand weakened and his hold slacked. He felt a familiar presence as something was taken from him and he knew he was dying. His first thought was of if the oracle had lied to him. His second was in the realization that he wasn’t dying. He had been at death’s door enough times to know this wasn’t what it felt like.
No. He was being taken. He was losing what made him alive. The knowledge seared into his existence like a hot rod. This wasn’t dying. He was simply…
…Ending.
He refused it, and with one last struggle, he shoved the priest from him, and watch with glee as the boy fell into the fissure. He heard the crushing sound as the boy fell into it.
Somewhere in the battle field someone roared with enough force the shake the world and send a tremor through the ambient reia.
What was left of Nosam’s life paled as he turned and found the giant priest bounding towards him. Mages from the battle field charged him from all angles in a bid to hold him down, and succeeded in slowing him. But there was anger in his black eyes, as veins of black tendrils spilled from it to crawl under his skin. It was enough for Nosam to know it wasn’t over. When the priest activated a skill, there was nothing but retribution in his voice.
[Divine Judgement].
The world around him cracked like a massive fissure. It spread out from behind him, reached as far around him as thirty feet, breaking everything in its path.
It extended to Nosam and stopped a single inch away from him. At its heart, the priest stood, heaving, the world and everything around him broken by his very skill.
He was a lesser god inflicting his wrath on the world without punishing the sinner he sought. Nosam watched the anger twist his face as the giant struggled with his own skill.
He smirked. Today is not the day I die.
The crack extended an inch further and touched him.
In its simple graze he broke as easily as all things.
The oracle wasn’t as all knowing of the future as the government believed him to be. And death wasn’t the gentle embrace most poets painted it to be.
………………………………………………
The entity gave a single gasp.
Alternate Reia Source Found.
Assimilating with Core Reia Source.
Initiating Assimilation.
Assimilating… Assimilating… Assimilating…
Tool for Assimilation Found.
Activating Unique Skill [Carnivore].
Unique Skill [Carnivore] is in Effect.
A gust of reia filled the entity. It was like feeding to satiation only to have more food constantly shoved down their mouth. At first it was appealing, then it was uncomfortable. Then it became painful. They suffered in a pain they knew was both necessary and inexorable as they broke further, splitting apart in a horrible way until all that was left was silence.
Assimilating with New Reia Source…
Tainted Reia Detected.
Purifying Tainted Reia.
Purifying… Purifying… Purifying…
Life Force Critical.
Purification Successful.
Fissure Detected.
Specie Trait [Observer] is in Effect.
Initiating Evolution.
Evolving… Evolving… Evolving…
Life Force Critical.
The silence continued.
It was deep and dark.
It was empty…
Then it was peaceful.
…Evolution Failed.
…
…
…
…
Main Quest: [Survive the Crack]
Your world is wounded, torn along the membranes of existence. For reasons you suspect but do not know or understand, you have been tossed into it. As an Iron you have no reason to survive. As an observer you thrive in its existence. This is why you are here. To witness, to learn, to observe. Observe the crack and come out alive.
Observer Objective Passed: [Learn four new species] 3/3
Title Objective Passed: [Kill a Silver] 4/1
Quest Objective Failed: [Come out Alive]
Main Quest [Survive the Crack] Failed.
You Have Attained Observer Skill [Void Tongue].
You Have Attained Unique Skill [Cannibal].
Initiating Evolution.
Evolving… Evolving… Evolving… Evolving…
Evolution Successful.
Skill Evolution Available.
[Quick Strike] is now [Mirage Strike].
[Quick Step] is now [Mirage Step].
[Carnivore] is now [Cannibal].
Iron is now Silver.
Accept Evolution?
[Y/N]
Subject Unresponsive.
State of Observer [Unconscious].
Decision Made.
Accept Evolution?
[Y]
[Welcome Silver ^&^%$].
…
…
…
You Have Died.
…
…
…
…
Criteria Has Been Met.
…
…
Aura Skill [Defiance of The Fallen] Has Been Attained.
…
Aura Skill [Defiance of The Fallen] Has Been Activated.
Aura Skill [Defiance of The Fallen] is in Effect.
Aura Skill [Defiance of The Fallen] is Locked.
Partial Activation is in Effect.
Aura Skill [Defiance of The Fallen] is in Effect.
…
…
[Welcome Silver Artist].