Adelie ducks as a spiked tail strikes the air above him. He grabs it before the nyl beast can retract it, pulling the creature towards him. He strikes the creature down with a powerful blow but quickly steps away as the serrated tail of another grazes his left leg. “Damn, why won’t they stay down?” Adelie thinks to himself while he blocks a claw swipe from the second attacker. There had been only two of these creatures and they went down easily enough, but no matter how hard he hit them they simply would not die. “That last hit actually drew blood, my ather must be starting to give, I gotta-” He catches sight of Lavius and all of his rationality burns away once again. The two beasts flank Adelie and claw at him, but he parries the incoming blows and counters with a vicious right hook to the beast on the right and a kick at the left one. The force of the blows wouldn’t kill them, he knew that, but he didn’t need it to. The creatures hurdle away from him and he darts towards Lavius.
“Interesting, so you want to fight with me directly then?” Lavius muses. “You’ve provided me with some useful information, so it’s the least I can do.” He catches Adelie’s fist before it can reach his face, “And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want this too.” Lavius raises Adelie’s arm and delivers a palm strike dead center to his chest, forcing Adelie backwards several feet. “I’m not the same man I was those years ago,” he says as he removes his cloak. Scripts adorn his frail upper body, each symbol shifting downwards as if caught in a stream. A deep scar runs diagonally from his right shoulder towards his hip. “You seem to be proficient in hand to hand, I will fight you on those terms then.” Lavius closes his eyes and black tendrils shoot from the back of arms and stab into the nyl beasts.
Adelie slides across the grass until he plants his feet firmly into the ground, stabilizing himself. “If I wasn’t augmented, that would have cracked my sternum,” he says looking at his chest. Adelie looks back up and sees the nyl beasts congealing onto Lavius’s arms. “Why am I not moving? I should be attacking him.” Adelie lifts his foot to go forward but nothing happens. “No way, there’s no way I burned all my ather already!”
“What seems to be the problem?” Lavius taunts, “What happened to all that ather you had a moment ago?” The nylbeasts solidify on his limbs, causing them to swell in size and the power that kept the weather at bay fades. Wind rushes violently around the two in a deafening roar, and Adelie sees Lavius mouthing something.
“No good, I can’t hear what that freak is saying over all this wind.” Adelie manages to gain control over his body and takes a fighting stance. “I don’t have enough ather to do anything big, so I’ll keep to Irin Stance.” During his years training under Jiya, she had taught him the basics of the 10 Divine Stances. Irin, the Divine Protector, focuses on redirecting the energy of blows back towards the opponent, it puts more damage on the body but drastically reduces ather usage. “I’ll augment my senses a little and keep the remainder of my ather flowing throughout my body.”
“You seem much calmer now,” Lavius says over the roaring winds, “good, then you can show me what you’ve learned.” He lowers himself and extends his left arm towards the sky, his right towards Adelie. “Oh, I almost forgot my manners. This is known as Tyrant’s Fist Style.” Lavius moves towards Adelie with a blur. He slams down with his left arm and strikes Adelie’s forearm and receives a straight right to his stomach. He blocks the hit with his right arm and counters with a kick towards Adelie’s head. Adelie sticks his right hand out to catch the blow and follows up with a powerful left to his exposed midsection.
The two combatants dance leaves in the windstorm, separating for the smallest of moments before rushing back towards each other. “Something’s wrong here,.” Adelie thinks to himself, “my body is starting to slow down, but my senses aren’t.” Lavius strikes him in the stomach. “I saw that, but I couldn’t move.” Lavius hits him with a vicious combo that sends him crashing into the ground, hundreds of feet away. Adelie lays in the rubble, unable to fully hear the whipping winds and shifting earth due to the blood in his ears. “Did I break something? I can’t feel anything.”
Lavius grabs Adelie by his head and lifts him so that he’s eye level. His unnatural body had grown in size during the battle, giving him a much sturdier build. “So that’s it? How disappointing.”
He punches Adelie in the face.
“I thought Lyzian’s favorite was much better than this?”
Another powerful blow to the face.
“You were so much stronger during the Naka Hunt. Where’d all that go?” He slams Adelie into the ground with enough force to cause the ground around them to splinter. “This won’t do, not at all Adelie. If you aren’t even going to fight back, then how can I enjoy myself?!”
“I can’t hear anything this guy is saying, but that’s probably for the best,” Adelie thinks as his eyes focus on Lavius. The markings on his body have mostly vanished, saved for a symbol on each limb where the nyl had attached themselves. The diagonal scar remained but the color of his skin had shifted from a dead gray to a light purple. His eyes were a light crimson with two intersecting, cat like irises. “His entire body is different...no not just the body, his personality too.” Lavius strikes Adelie in the stomach again and Adelie exhales violently, the taste of blood slowly crawling up his throat. “Dammit, why is this happening? I can’t believe after all this time I still can’t regulate my ather...wait a minute. I know what ather burnout feels like, and this isn’t it.” As Lavius fist is about to connect, Adelie’s perception of time slows down and his senses go into overdrive. He feels the killing intent emanating from Lavius’s fists, the energy in between the gusts of wind, the coolness of the Eversea in the distance. A bright orange energy travels down his right arm and intercepts the blow.
Lavius looks on in brief confusion before pulling his arm away. He examines his smoking hand before looking back at Adelie. He strikes at him again and Adelie side steps him and delivers a palm thrust with his right arm. Lavius shields himself from the attack but the blow crushes his guard and sends him flying into the air. Lavius corrects himself in the air and lands on his feet. “Where’s all this coming from?” Lavius asks as he shakes his smoldering arms.
Adelie steps from the debris and silently stalks over towards Lavius. The orange energy spreads down his arm, tracing a path of power down his spiritways. His right eye shines with a fiery orange glow and each shallow breath he takes exudes a faint orange vapor. The right side of his upper body explodes into flames, blowing away the remnants of his tattered top and causes the right side of his hair to take on a flame-like appearance.
Lavius enters into his stance once more. The black from his arms have now reached his neck and his skin is now a dark violet. “Yes! Finally! I’ve been waiting eons for this!” The voice that left Lavius’s mouth was not that of his own, not fully. The pitch was lower and the excitement in the voice was far too genuine. “ I’ve heard stories about the power of the Mujinga,” the being in Lavius says, “how they could attain power to rival our own. I don’t know how long I can inhabit this body, so make it worth my time!” The being smiles as a dark miasma seeps from its fists before forming into a dark flame with flecks of violet.
In an instant the two are exchanging blows ,each hit landing with enough force to crack the ground underneath them. The being in Lavius kicks Adelie away and throws a nylflame ball directly at him. Adelie instinctively dodges the attack and sends a fireball of his own back. The being let’s the attack hit him so he can strike Adelie in the chest. Without reacting to the hit, Adelie rolls against the outstretched arm and delivers a right hook to the being’s face. “Excellent!” It gleefully says before swiping Adelie away, “Your fighting prowess is commendable. To be able to take my flames so casually, even in this lesser body, is no small feat.” The space around the being begins to warp. “I wonder if you can withstand this.” The being closes its hands together and slowly pulls them apart, revealing a ball of condensed nylflame. A violet shell forms around the ball and the flames expand and contract rapidly.
As if responding in kind, the flames around Adelie’s arm flare with power. Red mist rises from his damaged arm yet his face shows neither pain or discomfort.
“It looks like whatever power you have is burning your arm from the inside,” the being says as he prepares his attack, “let’s get to it then!” He takes the ball into his right hand and hurls it at Adelie. The attack streaks through the air, splitting the ground beneath it through sheer force alone.
Adelie shifts into a stance, letting his right side lower until the back of his hand is only a few inches from the ground. He swings upward as if uppercutting and collides with the ball. Orange flame shoots out from his hand and wraps around the ball. He remains locked in this stance, slowly being overpowered by the ball of nylflame. The ground starts to give way and the muscles in Adelie’s body begin to strain and tear under the pressure. His right arm struggles to push against the ball.
“Don’t give up yet,human! I’m having too much fun!” The creature’s eyes glint and the ball’s power increases.
Adelie’s blood continues to pour out, mixing with his flames and turning it a bright crimson. He yells as the attack presses him further into the ground. The flames around Adelie burst violently, forcing the nylball and his own flames upwards in a pillar of red fire. The attack travels into the windstorm and in a display of brilliance, explodes. The force of the blast nearly dissipates the clouds.
Red and violet embers rain down from the sky, dotting the battleground in small flames. Adelie lowers his blackened arm to his side as the power leaves his body. He takes one step and falls face first onto the ground. The embers land on his broken body, singeing his back and face.
The being walks up towards Adelie’s defeated body and grabs a handful of his hair. “I hope you aren’t done yet, I just finished warming up.” He shakes Adelie’s head side to side, “hey! You hear me? This is the most fun I’ve had in a long time so you can’t just up and go.” The being continues shaking Adelie’s head before letting go. “I know you’re starting to wake up. Don’t kill the kid, or else I’ll make sure all your plans fail, got me?” The nyl coated limbs of the creature recede into Lavius’s back and disappear. Lavius stumbles backwards and places his hand on his chest. “Stupid idiot,” he says inbetween breaths, “you put too much stress on my body. I’ll have to get you to another body soon.” Lavius takes a moment to collect himself before looking down at Adelie. “If I'm able to do this with my weakened body…” Lavius winces in pain and looks at his forearm where Adelie had struck earlier.
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A figure in red stabs a green blade into Lavius’s chest from behind. He thrashes in agony and moves to strike his assailant but hits only air. The figure tosses Adelie over their shoulder and disappears in a flash. Adelie groans softly during the escape, causing the rescuer to speak. “You got the hell beaten out of you kid,” they say as they zip through the island, “though I can’t blame you.”
Adelie mumbles something but even at this close proximity, nothing audible registers.
“Now isn’t the time for talk,” they say. “I haven’t had to move like this in a while so I need to focus. You go ahead and rest, you’ll see your friends soon.”
Adelie opens his eyes and finds himself in the atherspace. He’s nothing more than an eye and barely one at that. He looks around and sees the familiar trappings, including the Ith.
“There you are, and you’re alone this time,” The Ith says. It’s body has taken on a slightly older appearance, approximating the age of a 10 year old. “You and your friend made a mess of my space, it took me 5 seconds to come back together.” Adelie tries to speak but without a mouth, he simply stares at the Ith as it examines him. “No answer? Just as well, I can still communicate with you. After all, this is a place not limited by the confines of your plane. Just it and it shall be.”
“Why am I just an eye?” Adelie’s voice echoes, “Where’s the rest of me?”
“Recovering. You nearly destroyed your spiritself during your battle.”
As Adelie thinks back to his fight with Lavius, the space in between him and Ith swirls and forms a miniature diorama of the battle. “I only remember the beginning, what happened?” Adelie asks as the battle replays in front of him.
“I am unable to tell you in great detail,” the Ith replies, “once you depleted yourself of ather I was unable to follow.”
“So I was running out of ather.”
“Yes, as I said.”
“Oh wait all of my thoughts are being heard? Well that’s..nevermind.” Adelie allows his focus to shift from the neutral faced child to the background. Large sections of the atherspace are missing and the upwards flowing black liquid has taken on a fiery orange hue. “Mogun. The last thing I remember is his energy surging through my body.” At that, the battle in front of him switches to the moment he emerged from the debris in his altered state. “That’s me?”
“It appears so, at least physically,” The Ith says, floating closer towards the diorama. “I was unable to witness this from here, but it seems you underwent some metamorphosis. You have no memory of this?”
Adelie ignores the Ith and focuses on the image of himself; the orange fire running down the right side of his body, his glowing eye...and that immense power that flowed from him. “Do you know where I am now? I thought someone took me away.”
“You’re with your allies, I can sense their signatures nearby though I can’t determine the exact location.” The Ith floats through the diorama, disturbing the image and rises until it’s eye level with Adelie. “You’re different now, and that’s making me different too.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The more you change, the more I do. I had no knowledge of spiritself until you popped back in here. I’ve also never had someone else enter my atherspace without permission. If you continue to make changes, I will not be as amenable as I’ve been.”
“You’re threatening me? Give me a break, like I know how to come here-” Adelie stops as he sees something in the Ith’s eyes. A power so potent that with only a thought, he could erase him from existence. “Hey, I’m being serious! I don’t know how I keep coming here or why any of this is happening.”
The upwards flowing fires begin to slow until it solidifies into pillars suspended in time. In an instant, the pillar cracks and the separated pieces flow into the missing sections of atherspace, healing the wounds. The power behind the Ith’s eyes fade and the ethereal being blinks twice. “Apologies, I have no idea what came over me. I am fine now.”
Adelie was too stunned to speak.
“It appears your spiritself and ather have entered into stability,” the Ith says noting that Adelie’s nose and mouth were slowly starting to form. “You should be able to fully recover.”
“Wait,” Adelie says, sensing the end of his stay, “Lavius. Did he, were those really Nyl?”
“There were signatures that matched that of the Nyl, but there were also polluted ather signatures. You must return back to the physical plane now, prolonged exposure to this plane can have unpleasant effects.”
The world around Adelie blurs into focus after a few blinks of his real eyes. The ceiling was impossibly dark and there was an unnatural chill in the air. The room is modest in size with a small, wooden stand with a tray of bags of liquid to the left of the bed. On the right is an orb pinned against the wall, somehow illuminating the entire chamber in a warm, yellow light. Not that there is much to see, just black walls lined with strips of vertical, purple lines extending from the bed. He tries to shift onto his elbow but a shooting pain races through his arm, causing him to cry out in pain. “Damn!” He falls back and another wave of pain washes over him.
“I’m amazed you’re even able to move in your condition,” Marn says leaning against the wall to the right of the door. “You broke almost every bone in your body and your right arm was burned beyond belief.What happened?”
Adelie tries to move his fingers in his right hand. Pain courses through his body, but the tip of his right finger did move.
“Lucky for you, we ran into someone with the tools to treat you.” Marn gestures towards the engravings on the walls and floor of the room. “They said this would stabilize your ather and speed up the healing process, looks like they were right.” Marn walks towards the right side of the room and pulls a wooden chair from the desk. She drags it across the room, turns it backwards and takes a seat at the edge of the bed. “Was it Lavius?”
“Yeah, but not just him. I don’t know how to explain it, but I think the Nyl are helping him.” Adelie let’s the words hang in the air, waiting for a response from Marn that would disprove his claim. When she only grunted, he continued. “Wait, so are you saying you knew that already?”
“That matches some of the things we’ve been able to piece together.”
“We? Oh you and Izia?”
“Not just her. Zav and his friends.”
“Zav?!” Adelie shoots up from bed, ignoring the pain the movement caused. “He’s the one that’s working with Night’s End!”
“Believe me, when I found out a few days ago I wanted to cut him half...almost did too, but-”
“A few days ago? How long have I been out?”
“Four days.”
“Four?!” Adelie puts his palm on his forehead. “That mean’s we’ve used up the week already...wait why are my hands bandaged?”
Marn groans, “You’re just now noticing that? I told you your body was busted. They put some kind of engraved wrapping on you to keep you from burning yourself out.” Marn drags her chair closer to Adelie and sits again. “You were glowing when you first came in here, “ she says in a hushed tone, “was that your spiritcrafting? Don’t worry, I haven’t let anyone else in here without me being present,” Marn says reading the expression on Adelie’s face. “ You were doing it on and off the last few days.”
“Honestly? I don’t know. I think that was Mogun’s power.”
“Mogun? You met him?” Marn asks, but before Adelie can answer there’s a knock on the chamber door. The two give each other the ‘we’ll pick this back up later’ look before Adelie allows the person in. Izia walks in, holding a tray full of the same bags that are on the desk next to Adelie.
“Oh, you’re awake, thank Az-thank goodness for that.” Izia makes her way towards Marn and stands in front of her. “It’s time to put the ointment on his arm.” Marn gives Adelie a quick look before stepping away from the chair. She watches Izia from behind as she sits down, carefully observing Adelie for signs of spiritcrafting. “Usually I’d just take off the bandages and rub the ointment in,” Izia says, “but seeing as you’re awake...do you mind if?”
“Oh, no go ahead,” Adelie says as a thought occurs to him. “Hey so if you’ve been changing my bandages, and I’m fully wrapped in-”
“The only bandages that need changing are the ones on your right arm,” Izia says in an all too quick manner, “ the ointment is potent but needs to be reapplied daily.” She unravels the bandaged arm to reveal immaculate skin, save for a few discolored spots. “That’s incredible! Your arm is practically healed.”
“Well you did say the ointment was potent,” Adelie replies.
“Yes, but it should still have taken weeks for your arm to get this way, not days.”
He’s awakening. It’s only a matter of time now
Izia and Adelie lock eyes, searching each other’s faces to make sure they weren’t just hearing things.
“Something the matter?” Marn inches towards the two, looming over Izia from behind.
“It’s nothing,” Izia turns to Marn, “ just amazed at how he’s healing.”
“Yeah, his body has always been weird.”
“Don’t say it like that,” Adelie protests, “you're just jealous that I’m built tougher than you.”
“I don’t remember having nearly all my bones broken after a battle.”
“That’s because you’ve only gone up against weak guys.”
Izia stands up as the two start arguing. “If you’re feeling better, then you should join us in a few hours downstairs. We have a lot to catch up on.” She makes for the door in a hurry, nearly tripping on her way out.
“Hey wait up” Adelie sits up fully in bed, “I can go now, just need some clothes to put on.”
“Zav and his friend are running recon and won’t be back for a few,” Izia says with her back to him, “so you can rest up more. I’m going to go to the archives.” Before Adelie can say another word, Izia opens the door and exits.
“She’s been stranger than usual lately,” Marn says, repositioning her seat before sitting again, “ever since we’ve got here.”
Adelie stares unblinkingly at the door, trying to come to terms with what he saw.
“You there?”
“Yeah,” Adelie says, “I think I do need some more rest.”
“Alright, I’ll stay here.”
“Nah, you can go. I’m just going to sleep some more.”
Marn eyes Adelie for a moment but then gets up from her seat. “I’ll be in front of the door then.” She gets to the door and turns back to him, “Just remember the promise you made, you can’t die before then.”
“I know,” Adelie says as he waves her away, “ I always keep my word.”
Marn gives a half smile and closes the door behind her. Adelie looks at his mostly healed arm and plops back down onto the bed. “So much has happened but I have no idea what any of it means.” His mind filled with thoughts. Meeting up with Izia. The ambush on the boat. The insanity of the Caisin Islands...they supposed return of the Nyl. “Nyl…. those things that I saw inside of Lavius were Nyl, but then that means…” Adelie closed his eyes in an effort to get rid of the thought intruding in his head, but that was impossible after what he’d just witnessed. When he heard that voice earlier, he saw something peeking from Izia’s shoulder; a shadowy figure with a butterfly shaped mask and way too many eyes.
“Izia has a Nyl inside of her too.”