Captain Nero breathed heavily as he regained his long pike from the last of the spikemaws. He breathed heavily, along with the rest of his pikemen, as they made their way back to regroup with the crossbowmen.
He had no desire to get between the alpha and the outsider’s fight. Rarely had he ever seen a group as powerful as this strange faction's squads always seemed to be. He was quite confident that the monster hunters could take on that nasty beast just fine on their own.
Nero looked over to the dark blue hull of their ship and followed the deep red of the railing on the sides until he saw the figures upon the stern. Both the male archer and the female mage were engaged in combat with the beast at the same time as the rest of their unit.
The ice mage, bedecked in the same colored robes as the ship she stood on, held her hands out to her sides while she faced the battle taking place. Cold blue light fell from her hands and crept down the ship and across the waters. Nero surmised that it was her magic and kept the bay waters frozen solid.
The archer stood with his longbow held steady, waiting for the right timing and shots to best assist his team. The man’s bow was as tall as its wielder so it looked as if, to Nero, just drawing the bow back would be a test of strength. He couldn’t even imagine holding the bow for more than a few seconds. Hardly enough time to line up a clear shot, let alone hold it and wait for a shot to present itself.
Nero sighed and turned around to move towards the crossbowmen. He wished these hunters could be set up at each of the coastal cities. Life along the shore was dangerous, the sea being its own kind of wild beast that was untameable without a mage to help keep things calmer in the deeper waters. Not to mention all the creatures that called the dark waters their home.
The faction was chaotic in its dealings with all the lands of the empires, to the point that the leaders of it were still a mystery, if they had any. They had shown up recently in the past year and were offering their services to each city or settlement that they happened upon. Rich or poor, fisher village or state capital, they arrived at all without prejudice.
Most of the services had been killing the many beasts that the lords of the land put bounties on. As beasts would crop up everywhere in the areas, and there weren’t enough guardsmen and soldiers to go around. They would take the gold or barter for more extravagant rewards in the bigger cities. Other times they would often charge nothing to the smaller villages except for maps or hunting access around the village.
Their power compared to the average guard grouping was extremely lopsided in the hunters favor. It was especially apparent how frail Nero’s squad was after having lost their mage, Ian. That clever ambush had taken their back half unaware, leaving their best method of attack exposed.
Everyone in the squad felt the loss of their mage deeply. Mages were the main firepower of most guard units and were almost always the most protected members of any guard unit. Ian had proven promising as well as being a decent human being.
He would have to spend time training the next one to work well with the guard unit. And while Captain Nero trained him on the flow of their unit, they would be woefully unprepared for any hunting parties of beasts.
As he regrouped with the rest of his squad, Captain Nero was shown he wasn’t the only one that lost someone today. He looked at the youth in front of him. A dock worker that he had seen on the streets during his time on patrol. The boy that had found a dog that had snapped him out of the stupor Nero had always attached to him before.
The youth sat there, short dirty brown hair slick with sweat and grime, looking down at his pet dog. Ren, he remembered the boy saying, was snuggled tightly to his chest, looking as if she had been content and happy in her final moments. Red streaks ran lines down his cheeks and across his lips. His wiry tanned frame heaved in erratic breaths as he mourned the loss of his family.
Regret sat in the pit of the captain’s stomach as he remembered the times that his pets had died over the course of his life. His own heart ached at the sight of the tragedy in front of him. It was never easy, a pet’s death, even though you knew they wouldn’t last near as long as you would. They were still part of your chosen family.
Even harder when the captain felt responsible for the incident that caused it.
The boy’s face looked up at Nero’s squad, and the captain stepped back with the rest of his squad slightly upon seeing the ravaged face of the boy. His eyes were completely taken by a dark red color. Horror gripped the captain’s heart as he realized that the youth bled from both the eyes and nose. Worse, the youth didn’t even appear to see them. Moments of breathless sorrow passed between the two groups until the young man moved his head skyward.
Nero had served his time on several engagements with enemies and monsters alike. He had seen men die and beg for a healer to come and save them even though their plight was hopeless. Yet this boy released a scream of such anguished rage that it would forever be etched upon his mind. On it went until his lungs, mercifully, ran out of air.
“Damnit,” Captain Nero breathed and moved forwards to calm the boy down, or else knock him out so he wouldn’t hurt himself.
He was about to speak out to the boy when he noticed a flicker of green light behind the boy's eyes. He stopped in his tracks, unsure of whether or not it was a trick of his tired imagination.
Captain Nero used his gentlest tone, and held his hand out to the youth. “Lad-”
The lad’s head abruptly exploded into a mist of gore and brain matter as power abruptly exploded from him. Nero was so surprised and horrified that he fell on his backside and scrambled away from the scene.
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The young man’s face and skull above his nose and up had exploded in a greenish fire. All that remained was his mouth, still open and screaming silently. The greenish fire from the explosion still burned where the rest of his skull should be.
Having scrambled across the rough cobblestone dock street, the captain was hauled up upon reaching his men. As he steadied himself, the remnants of the boy's body forced its mouth shut with a sharp clack of teeth coming together.
“Revenant,” the captain stated, at a complete loss as to what was going on. None of this made sense. Had the boy become possessed by an angry spirit in addition to this macabre scene?
The revenant stood up stiffly. It looked down at the body of its friend, still lying serenely in its arms. Beneath the jagged bone line of its blasted skull, the revenant’s mouth twisted into an angry snarl. The guard captain could do nothing but stare and watch as this strange horror unfolded itself. Shock and terror held him and all the other guards around him.
Cradling the body of its dead friend in one arm, the Revenant raised its hand and grasped something invisible above it in a death grip. A deep voice came from it and held a power that Nero believed to rival the monster hunters. Ethereal, green light built within the revenant’s fist as it spoke.
“Nameless I am no longer, for I have found my purpose in this rebirth. I am the one who spits in the face of Death’s grim truths and Life’s cruel lies. I am the rage of each unjust death made manifest. I shall be the One Who Balances the Scales of Death’s injustices. I am the Dead’s Rage After Life has left, the Second Birth for those with purpose not yet abandoned, and the Reaper of Those Who Would Kill callously and without mercy. Though I was once nameless I, Ezryn, shall not allow this soul to pass from my care, for it is dear to me.”
Captain Nero watched, awestruck, as Ezryn yanked his fist from the air. He then proceeded to guide the light gently but firmly back into the body of his dearest companion, Renata. The light passed through the dogs brown and black fur, disappearing into the body.
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Ezyrn could hardly contain his joy as Renata’s body stirred jerkily in his arms. He gently laid her down on the ground. Her body spasmed a few times until her eyes found a green hued light in them. Finally settling her soul and spirit back into her body, she stretched lazily and looked up at him, tail wagging.
Ezryn laughed happily and hugged her close to his chest. She laid her head over his shoulder in her own version of a hug. He allowed himself to finally relax.
He had thought himself about to die when the soul magic had forced its way through the conduit between his mind and body. Ezryn had felt as if his very soul had been forced out of his body in a skull shattering event.
He had fought back against the raging magic as it had tried to consume the rest of his body. The energies had awakened something within him. It had shown him he wasn’t supposed to fight against the energy he was drawing in, he was supposed to use it.
Ezryn had redirected the rampant energies to not consume his body through the conduit, but to instead make them one. Doing so had forced something within him to unlock and the soul magic caused his thoughts to run rampant. His desires and feelings had forced their way through him and were spoken for the world to hear.
He had been using the magic for a reason however, so he had thought of Ren’s soul and was rewarded by seeing a small thread or ethereal light. The light was rapidly dimming as if her ties to him were getting further away. So he had reached out and grasped her fading presence and, in a sense, pulled it back to him.
The last bit had been extremely taxing, yet he had persevered and delivered the soul of Renata back where it belonged, at his side.
The amount of soul magic it had required was honestly quite astounding to him. He had started with a large lake worth and now it felt as though it were just a puddle. Though the puddle was filling up even now.
It was filling up too fast.
Soon he would be faced with the very real threat of having to deal with that lake sized amount again. It felt as though it had a mind of its own when there was that much of it. He thought of the difference between trying to navigate a river and a vast ocean.
How could he stop it from becoming too much again?
Ezryn had, quite literally, blown open his mind when he had broken through the door. This had allowed him access to the magic that was out there but had left him without a means to control the flow. The soul magic wanted to fill him as fast as it could because of that. He needed a way to control that. He needed a dam. But how would he do that?
He set Renata back on the cobblestones again and met her eyes. That’s when he realized something by seeing the reflection of himself in her eyes. His head was gone. Just like his inner mind.
If this soul magic could be used to destroy his physical body, then it should also be able to be manipulated into creating something for himself in the physical AND mental world.
He retreated back inside his mindscape again. The scene inside his head was exactly the same as what he looked like on the outside. His mindscape was lit up with the green fire of the soul magic. It kept pouring into his mind, filling it more and causing it to build up pressure like a knife that kept gaining weight over time.
So he redirected the magic, guiding it to encompass and fill in the cracks that were around his mindscape. After filling the cracks he moved it to remake his mind as it had been before but then decided against that. He instead used it to form a headpiece, like a helmet that a knight would wear. This was a new beginning for him after all. He may as well start it with a new face.
He left an opening in the back where the door would be but was scared of sealing the doorway completely. Not wanting to risk sealing the magic away, Ezryn instead put a thick grate over the opening to slow the flow instead of completely stopping it.
Then, he directed the excess magic already inside of him and used it to coat his whole body in a protective seal. This would give the magic a way to burn off its energy and be unable to build up. Ezryn could increase and decrease the strength of the seal to better limit the flow of the magic that was building inside him.
He felt all these changes flow over his body. It made him feel as if a second skin were being donned. He opened his eye’s- no that wasn’t right. Ezryn opened his physical senses once more.
This was also strange as he didn't have any eyes anymore. He honestly wasn't sure how he was able to see anything. He felt as though his physical pangs were gone yet, his core senses remained. It was very disorienting once he became aware of these facts. He started feeling dizzy.
He looked at his hands and then at his body. Ezryn saw that his entire being was covered in a thin translucent green layer. The skin tight layer made his body appear as if it were a sickly green. Almost as if it were a person so sick they were at death’s door.
As if that weren’t weird enough he wore a ridiculous scythe around his neck. This hardly seemed the best accoutrement to someone who manipulated soul magic but…
His mind caught up and fear hit him. Someone had a blade at his throat.