It wasn’t Remus’ plan to add Eclipse to the number of cities he was banned from, but judging on the way things were progressing, that may have been inevitable.
The good thing about being beaten-up, if there were any, was that it actually made the effects of his Mark more potent. Or, at least, he had heard such from the likes of Aziel, and other bearers of Tanish’s Mark. A kind of ‘last stand’ of sorts, or a second wind multiple members of the Ambition Clan had reported occurring to them, on the brink of death. This wasn’t quite that dramatic, but Remus experienced similar, though subdued effects nevertheless.
His healing factor, which was already a developed ability, from the number of scrapes with death Remus found himself in, was accelerated enough to the point he could stroll around comfortably. Maybe even fight. For how long, he wasn’t certain, but his energy supply hadn’t had much time to recover.
Despite how often he found himself bested in a fight, It was a utility he rarely got to use. That was largely in part to the fact that while yes, his Mark itself could improve, however temporarily, his actual energy intake would still, by the time of his failure, be drained. But with Violet’s recuse put into the equation, Remus had enjoyed all the time he needed. Or, well, at least a short period of rapid recovery.
He confronted an oncoming Joshua with a glare, Violet to his side, and an unconscious Koa behind.
It was here that you’d typically say something imposing to intimidate your enemy, but Remus couldn’t come up with a thing. With a sharp inhale, he lasered a barrier of flames between Joshua, his shadow, and them.
The Splintered Rank didn’t seem phased, now fully emerged from the tight hallway.
“Violet,” he called back. “How long until you can get us out of here?”
At her silence, he risked a glance over his shoulder. Her face had gone pale. Over and over again, she tried desperately with a sway of the hands to open a rift. A rift that refused to comply. “It’s,” she grunted, “not . . . working.”
Joshua’s shadow raised a fist over them all.
“Kinda short on time here, but I should be able to hold him back for a few minutes.” Even Remus himself was doubtful of those words. “Keep trying. If not . . .”
Well, Remus could always try flying with two people dangling off him.
He vaulted up just in time to avoid the giant’s fist, and used that as the needed momentum to kickstart his flight. The cool air of Eclipse washed over him, and Remus found himself half-distracted by the foreign environment spreading out up and below.
“Let's take this elsewhere.” Remus shouted, trying to divert the fight away from Koa and Violet insofar as he could.
“No.” Was a grasping Joshua’s reply, the puppetmaster of this abomination nowhere to be seen. His voice nevertheless resonated like a murder of screeching crows. “You fight and die on my turf.”
Remus internally sighed. Of course it wouldn’t be that easy.
Truth be told, he wasn’t a fan of his odds in this encounter. He’d only been able to put the pressure on the Mercenary last night with Koa’s assistance, and regardless of how grumpy he’d been at the time, also when verging on full power. Now, he could probably only fight at a decent level for a handful of minutes, and Koa was out cold.
That left one last card in his hand to employ: Violet. Plans formed in his head, were torn apart, and devised again a dozen times over before he arrived on one possibility.
He flew to Violet as fast as he could, disguising it as merely avoiding another wild shadow blow, whispered “wait on my cue,” and sped off again.
Then, without a second’s extra deliberation, he delved into the shadow’s spreading darkness like a missile honing in. Familiar, ever-reliable fire streaked off him in the bare minimum needed to defend himself. He located Joshua almost instantly, but reaching him this time wouldn’t be so easy. He couldn’t use the same trick twice.
The silhouette, a tiny blur only a shade different from the ocean of twilight all around, folded into the darkness, reappearing wherever his heart desired. This was his domain, and so, consequently, Joshua could materialise anywhere he so wished.
In one of the biggest gambles of his life, Remus stopped abruptly in the centre of the shadow. Like his Mark was the only restraint holding back floodgates from the netherworld, he let them open. Fire rushed out in a spiralling pattern, expanding rapidly. His Mark burned, threatening to gutter; perspiration leaked out of him like a faucet; and a panging headache felt as if Remus’ head was splitting into two.
Thick tendrils of smoky darkness pierced through his fires, and subsequently, Remus’ flesh. They felt oddly cool, like jagged icicles had been inserted inside of him. Endorphins rushed through his body, and for a short vital period, he was capable of channelling out the pain. With some struggle, like trying to block a leaking tap, the fiery outpour came to a close. Gasping, Remus settled his spinning vision on the butchered surroundings.
Holes punctured through the colossus, the light from outside piercing through. Raising his head, Remus focused on Joshua yet again, but a Joshua trapped between slashed sections of shadow. He had his hands around the Mercenary's throat in seconds.
“Getoff!” They spat, and Remus had to rely on his pure physical vigour to hold on. If not for the adrenaline flooding through his body, they would have escaped instantly. Only momentum, the element of surprise, and sheer grit allowed him to hold on for a few crucial moments.
His Mark fizzled out as he carried the man forward in his final burst of flame. Through a dry throat, he wailed, “Violet!”
A flash of purple consumed them both.
Remus collapsed onto the ground, whatever ground it was, for what felt like the millionth time in the last two days. Even for someone like him, with a Mark specialised for getting up again and again, he would need some serious rest to make up for this.
He was a little disappointed to see they were still on that ledge, but one look in the sky, and that feeling was quickly amended.
Joshua was flailing through the morning’s frantic winds, falling at an unprecedented speed. Tendrils of shadow lashed out of him, hoping to grasp onto anything in the nearby vicinity. Like a drowning man rushing for flotsam. But Violet had been tricky with where she transported him.
There was nothing to latch onto for hundreds of metres. And, with his defence fickle as a Mercenary, there was no way he would survive the full plummet below. Aside from for a rare few, gravity was an indiscriminate killer.
Remus let his curiosity get the better of him, learning past his own ledge as far as he dared. Down below, a vast meadow of various vermillion shades expanded. Pricks of brown made up trees, with creeks and other splatterings of blue few and far in between. Even if Joshua was to make for those, it would make little difference than if he hit concrete. In a desperate plea, the Shadow Clansman stretched his tendrils to whatever bird had the misfortune of flying in his path. Violet transported them well and far away.
Fifty feet from solid ground, he grasped out again, this time for the tallest of the nearby trees. Again, Violet teleported each far out of his vicinity.
Fighting the urge to put a palm over his eyes, Remus saw a spot of black abruptly burst red.
Koa awoke at their sides before either of them could say anything. He looked lazily to each direction, seated himself a little straighter on his Snow Wolf, before following the gazes of them both. He squinted for a second, rubbed the buildup of sleep out of his eyes, and froze.
Closing his eyes once more, and sinking into the mane of his Unbounded again, he murmured, “I’m not even going to ask.”
Despite the shock, the relief, and a dozen other emotions raging within him that Remus couldn’t pinpoint, they couldn’t stand idly. More Shadow Clansmen had gathered during their battle, and, despite not outwardly showing it, none of them would be particularly pleased with one of their Splintered Ranks dying.
“Violet!” Remus called. “Can you-”
Only when another wave of magenta consumed his vision, did Remus really feel safe.
----------------------------------------
Turns out street corners don’t change much, whatever metropolis you find yourself in.
Violet was exhausted. Her muscles stabbed with a pain more striking than ordinary achiness, her Mark — drained to its last morsel — gave off a burning sensation even when deactivated, and her lungs felt like they were having a fit inside her ribcage.
“I think the only other time I’ve abused my Mark this much was in the Chaos Clan manor, and never so rapidly.”
Remus nodded his agreement, in his very comfortable seat of the city’s trash bins. Koa was still seated on his Snow Wolf, who Violet was now only controlling with Infinity manipulation. Truth be told, she had neglected mastering the art of actually utilising her load of the Divine resource, in favour of consuming as much as possible. It was a blindspot in her skillset she would need to attend to sooner or later. Or she would be no better than a bulky, muscular fighter who doesn’t know how to throw a punch.
She had transported the three of them to the nearest floating island in range. She had a hunch, a tiny hint, as one would say, on what sect oversaw this isle. Using her renowned deductive prowess, Violet came to the conclusion that the nonstop downpour of rain was most likely caused by . . . well, the Rainfall Clan.
“I’m getting really bored of water focused Clans,” Remus mused, “some sects blur the lines so closely you begin to wonder what the distinction is.”
“Well, water is a versatile concept.” Koa sprang into explanation, a little more awake. “The Water Sect is the most general, the Frost Clan is self-explanatory, the Aquatic Sect focuses on the wildlife within water, and these clansmen are weather based.”
“Why you would choose to be constantly drenched beats me,” Violet chimed in, “but I suppose this is the perfect place to train for them.”
This was just one floating island of many that made up Eclipse, and it was a sight to behold.
Houses floated on either the main rock mass, or upon detached, smaller clumps of airborne earth nearby. There was a layered structure to the base, like the gradually rising fondant of a cake. These provided the perfect environment for more rivers than Violet could count to trickle down, with elaborate stairs of ancient stone allowing for simple traversal. Each layer served as a small neighbourhood of sorts, or a humble strip of houses. This continued unchangingly until the island’s peak. There, also serving as the source of each waterfall through tiny slips through marble walls, was a vast mansion Violet could spot, even in a back-alley in the second layer. Without a doubt, the home of their sect leader, and most renowned members.
Out of interest, she’d peered down the side of a vantage point to discover where all the waterfalls led, upon leaking off the island. She discovered, in the most uninteresting answer, that they simply dissipated back into energy.
With the perpetual storm clouds up above raining down enough water to quench a small, thirsting nation, the sound of droplets rebounding off water streams never ceased.
At least it washed the blood and gunk off them all.
“Violet,” Remus’ voice whisked her out her reverie, “what happened back there? I saw you struggling to teleport the three of us away. I thought you were fully drained of energy or something, but you seemed to fight just fine moments later. Superbly, actually.”
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The compliment was swallowed up by her own abashment. How could she freeze up in the middle of battle like that? “I don’t know. I think I must have . . . been overwhelmed for a second.”
Remus nocked an eyebrow at that, but didn’t push further. “Anyhow, we should rest. We can work out what to do about shelter later on.”
A fully conscious Koa agreed. “Definitely. Besides, we all seem to have a lot to discuss.”
Violet nodded, but didn’t like the way the pair of them glanced at each other so nervously.
“What is it?” She couldn’t prevent a frown from climbing up her face. “Did something bad happen?”
Koa exhaled. “When we were with the Old One, before you came-”
“You were with the Old One!”
“Yeah, him.” Koa spoke as though it were as casual as having a picnic with his grandma.
The Old One and his Shadow Sect had ruled over Eclipse for centuries at one point. Before it was ever a floating city. The Lightning and Cloud clans had only established joint power over the rest of the Empyrean Alliance, through the construction and fortification of modern Eclipse: the famous hovering kingdom of cloud. What once was a constantly sieged settlement was now an impenetrable monument of the skies. And this was all only in large part due to the Old One growing tired of ruling.
These days, he kept himself snug inside the cube they’d just vandalised, passing on his techniques and simply . . . watching. So why would he possibly want to personally oversee Koa and Remus’ execution? Surely a being of that age had seen his fair share of brutal deaths. Especially in the early barbaric years, when Descent was the equivalent of a bunch of apes poking each other with sticks.
While she was too deep in thought to reply, Remus picked up for Koa. “He said he knows that you're an Unbounded. And it sounds like he’s after your head too.”
Koa shot Remus with a deadly glare. “You didn’t have to say it that bluntly!”
“No.” Violet swallowed. “It's fine. Do you know how he knows?”
Now that was a shock to the system. Violet had managed to keep herself composed, and despite both of their examining looks, they couldn’t see through her calm mien. Nevertheless, she was deservedly a little spooked. Maybe that was undercutting it, but incredibly alarmed sounded too extreme. Violet always was aware of the possibility of other God-Graced knowing the truth about her, or at least the Chaos Clan, but had never really taken it seriously. Now reality was punishing her for that oversight.
“Our guess is that he found out through Perpetual Sight. That’s what he’s doing down there right? When he’s not ordering the Shadow Clan around with hypocritical nonsense, that is. He observes.”
The comfortable silence preoccupying the three prior to this ramble had rapidly gone sour. Like curdled milk.
“So what about you?”
She raised a head she hadn’t realised to be drooping. Wettened hair clung by her ears in interwoven threads, but she still heard Koa repeating himself just fine.
“You said you had something to tell us? Some developments.”
“Yeah.” Normality returned, as the events of the last few Durations, or more likely Passings, resurfaced in her mind. “As you know, I visited Veida. Things are still tense, but a little less so. It's kind of hard to stay angry at someone when you share a common goal. But getting to the point, I asked her about the Right-bearing Unbounded.”
Remus learned in closer, his already dark ginger hair looking virtually brown in its moist tousles. “And what did she say?”
“There’s five of them, all bearing one Divine Right each. They’re derived from Enos, the Originator. Or their abilities are, at least.”
“The first Unbounded,” Remus murmured, his eyes elsewhere in reminiscence. “The Old One mentioned him. Says he saw when he first arrived at Descent. The equivalent of an Unbounded god, though I fail to imagine such a thing.”
Violet did her absolute hardest not to shiver, and she liked to think it was because of the rain. But that excuse sounded phoney even to herself. The more she learned about the Old One, the less inclined she was to find out any more. The facts were less intriguing than they were outright disturbing.
She quickly moved on. “The actual mechanics of his Right-gifting aren’t fully known, but we suspect it works like an Unbounded manufacturing another. He sacrifices his own might to enhance already powerful Unbounded, turning them into killing machines.”
“If the Pet-Keeper is Enos’ equivalent of a Projection . . .” Remus lowered his gaze. “It's sometimes so hard to picture power at that level.”
“I don't think they're the equivalent of Projections. Unbounded offspring at the very least. But who’s to say, when they're on the level of a deity?”
“A little like a Mark . . .” Violet suddenly came to realise. “Similar to an Unbounded Mark, if Marks were ten times more powerful, and with only one technique.”
These things were hard to quantify, or even explain in understandable terms, but that was the closest they were likely to get.
“Five?” Koa questioned. “We know about Milap, Nova, and the Pet-Keeper, but what about the other two?”
“In order it goes Nova, granted Mastery. He’s able to manipulate Infinity at an incredibly intricate level; that’s how he was able to round-up so many Unbounded, and overload them with power at his manor.”
Both of the men before her muttered very colourful sayings under their breath.
“Next is the Supreme Fiend, with Supreme Rot.”
Violet had never seen Remus jolt to action so fast. “He’s a Right-bearer? I thought Rot was just, like, a disease or something. One that spreads when you come into contact with too much Infinity than your Rank can handle.”
She tried not to slap herself as she recalled the fate of Remus’ great grandfather. Violet maybe could have been a little more sensitive. Koa glanced between the two of them, a confused quirk to his lips.
“My grandfather, Andreas, contracted Rot when he came into contact with the fiend around the Silver Cavities. Doctors from the Vitality Sect gave him around a year to live, and that was almost,” Remus’ voice cracked up, ”a Rebirth ago. I need to see him soon. I’ve wanted to visit, but my presence in First Rite isn’t exactly a possibility right now.”
“What’s the plan then?” Koa asked delicately, continuing this offshoot of the conversation.
“I heard they’re away from First Rite currently, on business errands — practically all of them by the sounds of it; big projects. Some people mentioned it in an Inn we stayed a few nights in.”
Violet learned in closer. “Where are they now then?”
“The front lines.” Remus titled his head, like he wanted to say something right about then, but stopped himself. “But we’ll get back to that later. What are the others?”
“The third is the Pet-Keeper, with near-immunity.”
More disgruntled sounds from the two of them. Curses that not even the slapping moisture overheard could drown out.
“Fourth is our favourite dead Unbounded, Milap. Blessed with Fusion.”
Memories flashed before the eye of Violet’s psyche. The bodies of her past clansmen, Akuji’s tearful face, more unsightly images of blood staining an emblem of purple. She shut her eyes tightly, pushing the vile scenes away.
“Fifth . . .” Violet continued once she had recovered. “Is Belindo. An Unbounded in the form of a gigantic, flying lizard with mastery over the Elements.”
Koa slumped deeper into the Unbounded’s fur. “So not only do we have to kill a knightly warrior that can become invincible for hours at a time, an Unbounded fused with a human, who’s successfully tricked all of Descent, but now — on top of that — an actual monster who could burn us all to ash with a snuff of its nostrils.”
The rhythmic dripping all around was all that could be heard, as the trio fell silent.
“If we’re gonna accomplish any of that, or at least get revenge on the Pet-Keeper, I think our best bet is heading to the front lines. Now.”
Both heads turned to Remus, and for a second, Violet believed she’d misheard him. “You mean before you two reach Foot-Soldier? Is that even legal?”
Remus gave her the blankest expression of his life. “Is anything we do now not breaking some sort of ancient decree?”
Point taken. Still, Violet found this a troubling pill to swallow. There would most certainly be means to sneak in, and she understood Remus’ unspoken intent.
“I know it sounds selfish, but this might be my only window of opportunity to see Andreas before his condition takes him. You guys don’t have to come, of course, but what we all need right now to advance is Infinity. Whether that be learning how to manipulate it better, or simply intaking as much as possible, there’ll be no better place than the outskirts of the battlefield. And if any of us could somehow get listed as an official soldier, the profits we could make would outshine anything on our hands right now. I’ll be giving most of my profit away to the Carpentry Clan of course, but-”
“Sure.” Violet cut his trailing speech off. “You’ve convinced me. Plus, I do need all the Infinity I can get my hands on.”
That left one person to decide.
Koa twirled his thumbs together nervously.
Eventually, he began to mutter, face pointed determinedly away from them. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I can.”
“That’s fine.” Remus said instantly, and Violet could tell he meant it. “But you’ve been acting . . . not strange, but a little off lately Koa. Is everything okay?”
Violet hadn’t been present for most of the time that Koa had ‘officially’ joined them. After that disaster at the Chaos Clan manor, she couldn’t rest easy until she had her hands on answers. Answers she could only get by taking the painstaking trip to Veida. Yet Violet did notice Koa to frown an awful lot, since their mad escape. She’d pinned the blame on the obvious: the brushes with death the three of them had just about returned from harm free. Or at least nothing that a good few days of rest couldn’t fix.
But maybe Remus knew better.
Slowly, like he was still debating with himself whether to go ahead, Koa revealed something from his trouser pocket.
It was . . . a coin?
“What’s that?” Violet couldn’t help but ask. That may have come off as a little intrusive, yet Violet’s curiosity had gotten the better of her.
He turned it around, whereupon she and Remus leaned in for a closer look. Protruding in stone letters, was the number eight-nine.
“Juniper gave it to me not long ago.”
Violet felt her blood boil at the merest mention of The Wild Clan. For some reason, only now in retrospect did the true evil of using an Unbounded attack as an opportunity to overtake a struggling sect strike her as ceaselessly evil. Merely thinking of what Remus and Aziel must have endured sent her teeth gritting together.
Remus appeared more alarmed than she was. To be fair, Juniper had made it clear she would turn Remis into a sapling at the nearest opportunity. Some level of uneasiness could very well be understood. “What did she say?”
“She was understandably angry. Furious, more accurately, but in that terrifyingly veiled way. Like she's calm, but you can feel the ire bubbling beneath. She said travelling out of my own discretion is a privilege, not a right, that I put dirt on Elmore’s memory.”
“While we seem to be the only ones who give a damn about putting down his actual killer.” Remus was getting awfully fidgety.
“She said I’ll have to prove myself to earn that freedom. Proving myself through combat with my brother; in front of almost the entire clan. Duels seem to be a big deal amongst us, and everything surrounding Elmore has become quite the controversy.”
Violet felt her own problems dwarfed by the weight Koa carried. “So I’m guessing that coin serves as a timer.”
“A timer that when it hits zero, I’ll be instantly transported to the battlefield. I know I can’t win through sheer, raw might. Ash’s natural affinity for everything will outclass me in that regard. So I need to win through skill. Chugging endless Infinity won’t help me there, nor will the Exuberant Patronage Mould that my clan loves so much be of any help. I have something else in mind.”
“What?” Remus enquired.
“I would take out a diagram of the Mould that I always carry around, but I don’t like its odds of surviving,” he gesticulated vaguely upwards, “in all this torrential downpour. The Mould is called Delicate Touch. It’s similar to my clan’s signature Mould, but focuses more on accuracy and detail, than might itself. Like summoning a few powerful weapons, instead of a cluster of weak ones.”
There was one last vital question hanging in the air. One last elephant in the proverbial room none of them wanted to confront.
“Where will you be going?” Violet found the courage to speak.
“I’m going to travel around Hybrid. Not to sightsee — I’m dead sick of the place — but I think if I observed how other Marks surrounding the natural sphere of godly influence utilise their power, I could extend my arsenal of attacks.”
“But how will you get-”
“I’m not a wanted man quite yet, not until the victor of this next match is decided. While my fate hangs in the balance, I’m in this weird grey area of simple . . . shunning, from my own clan. I’ll be able to buy a carriage from the Speed Sect relatively fine.”
For a minute, with everything that had to be said over with, they got up, stretched, and looked blankly at the floating city around them.
“This place is beautiful,” Violet found herself admitting, “it's a shame we have to leave so soon.”
“We’ll be back.” Remus promised. “But, for now, to Hybrid and the front lines we go. I’m getting awfully sick of travelling. Once this all blows over, and I reach the pinnacle of power, I’ll think I’ll stay put in one place to train.”
Koa sighed with a sort of relieved heartiness. “Ah yes, travelling. It’s nice to imagine we're only doing something as relaxing as that. Grand missions forgotten about.”
The three of them looked out past the ally, past the thrashing waterfalls, even past the other islands and clouds of Eclipse.
Through the vague mist of dissolving energy and early morning fog, Violet imagined those new frontiers she was yet to breach.
Yet Koa’s smile was shaky, and Violet could perfectly understand why.
In less than ninety days, he’ll have to face his brother. And in ninety days, the whole course of Koa’s life would be determined by skimming success, or complete and utter downfall.