Nathen’s hands felt… cold. Had they already been this cold? Why hadn’t he noticed earlier? Even the ground under his palms felt different, suddenly more real, the roughness of the hard near tundra earth that stuck to his hands even as he lifted them to gaze in shock at the sensation. It wasn’t just his hands either, but everything seemed more solid, more substantial. Colors were more vivid, the chill air more noticeable as it brushed over his skin, the smell of blood.

“Retract your aura!” Gregory snapped, catching Nathen off guard despite himself. Looking up Nathen realized that people were around him, not NPCs or Ais, but people. His aura forcibly sucked energy from any soul bearing entities around him, if they were already injured this seemed to make the wounds worse, but if they weren’t then it seemed to cause random burns over any exposed flesh. Only those protected by Gregory’s aura were safe.

His eyes growing wide at the pain and damage he was causing he recalled his aura so fast it seemed to vanish.

\-\-\-\-

ABILITY *Cornered Desperation* SEALED

\-\-\-\-

How could he have caused such harm without realizing it, Nathen thought, only to feel faint as he thought back to his past. How many people had he killed? Two or three soldiers when he saved that priestess, then a knight last time he clashed with Gregory? It had been so… easy. At the time he’d simply thought of them as NPCs, not real people, had that made it easier somehow?

Unable to control his panic Nathen collapsed forward and threw up before collapsing to one side and passing out. For a long moment Gregory remained still, not entirely understanding what was happening. It had seemed like he was getting through to Nathen and then the other man suddenly collapsed, panicked and fainted?

“What did you do to him?” Lex asked, mirroring his own thoughts.

“I don’t know,” Gregory admitted, “One moment we were fighting, the next…”

“Didn’t he say something about this all being just a game?”

“Considering what we went through before arriving in this world, maybe it was his way of dealing with the trauma,” Gregory replied slowly, “it would explain his behavior up to this point.”

“Maybe you broke one of his facets.”

“What?”

“I’ve never seen it happen but I’ve heard something like this can happen if a facet is broken,” Lex explained, “no idea how it works though.”

“So… what now?”

“We could just kill him,” Lex offered, stepping forward with her spear only for Gregory to reach out and grab her arm.

“No,” he shook his head, “he’s not dangerous anymore, you can sense it too, right?”

“Just because our blessing doesn’t indicate any danger now, doesn’t mean he won’t become one. The blessing can’t show us the future.”

“Anything can be a potential danger,” Gregory countered, “I think he was misguided, deluded. We’re from the same world and went through the same thing there, I can see how his mind would want to escape from that. I just wish I realized it sooner; I should have realized it sooner.”

“You’re the Ascender, and you fought him,” Lex said after a moment, stepping back, “I’ll follow your lead for now. But it will be hard enough to deal with the Mutts without someone who’s unconscious.”

“Ya,” Gregory nodded, “do we have somewhere we can put him for now?”

\*\*\*\*\*

A small figure dashed through the branches of an old growth forest faster than one would imagine possible. Darting and weaving without slowing down, as if it was in open air. Just as quickly it seemed to fly directly into a tree trunk, only for a small opening in the ancient bark to appear for a moment. A cylindrical area had been hollowed out of the center of the great tree, large enough that a fully grown human would have barely fit, but for the hand sized figure it was a vast space. Small stones that glowed with the soft light of the sun seen through a thick forest canopy illuminated the hollow.

The figure raced down the open space before dashing into one of many smaller openings carved randomly into the wood. Within the small fae came to a stop in what might have been a living room if one ignored the odd styling and design of everything. Chairs of woven plant fibers stood around a table that seemed to have been carved from the same tree in which it resided. With a loud sigh the fae threw herself into a large sofa that seemed to be made of feathers stuffed into various pieces of cloth.

“I hate humans,” the fae complained loudly.

“What are you doing here?” another fae asked, looking up from the desk where he seemed to be tracing patterns on a flat pressed leaf.

“I mean, as soon as I think the surge has stopped a dozen more appear in the same day,” the first fae continued, ignoring the second, “and they are so rude too! Half of them barely acknowledge me.”

“Oh, I see,” the male fae said, “this must be your place, not mine. Because no one would ever barge into someone else’s room just to loudly complain.”

“Some of them even tried to wave me off, like I was some kind of fly, ME!”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“But you can see how I’d be confused, seeing as this looks like the table I carved myself.”

“Many of them didn’t even tell me what weapon they wanted, so I had to drop random things on them, I already have to replenish my storage!”

“And that couch looks exactly like the one I stitched together from cloth I cut from dead Ascender’s.”

“One of them even attacked me!”

“And that chair is just like the one I had to get back after you stole it from me that one time.”

“Oh are you ever going to let that go!” the woman fae asked, sitting up to look at the man, “it was one time after I got drunk on a fermented grape!”

“I’ll let it go when you stop stealing my stuff!”

“I don’t steal from you that often!”

“Really?” the male fae asked, lifting an eyebrow, “so you just so happened to get a dozen grapes in your pantry the same day a dozen vanished from mine?”

“I haven’t had time to go raid some vineyard with all the damn ascenders arriving!”

“And the salt that vanished from my pantry a week ago?”

“Do you have any idea how far away the sea is?”

“Yes!” the male fae shouted, “because I went to get that salt myself!”

“Would you two shut up!” another fae shouted from outside.

“I… ahhhgg,” the female fae groaned, flopping back into the couch, “I blame those damned ascenders. All wearing green, ignoring me… arriving in massive clusters like they planned it.”

“I blame you for breaking into my place,” the male replied.

\*\*\*\*\*

“Near as I can tell, there are three packs surrounding the town,” one of the Slayer Knights reported, having just returned from a scouting mission, “no idea how many more are on the way.”

“More,” the leader of the Slayer Knights replied, “always more.”

“We might be able to hold the town against three packs, but not any more than that,” Lex spoke up, “we might have to evacuate the town.”

“Good luck convincing the locals of that,” one of the knights retorted.

“They might not have a choice, if more Mutts show up.”

“Any chance we could lead them away?” Gregory asked, “that’s how we got into this, right? They followed Nathen here.”

“We’d have to take out at least one pack, likely more,” the Slayer Knight’s leader said thoughtfully, “then we’d have to move fast.”

“One of us would have to kill enough of them that the marks allow us to be tracked,” Lex added, “if we move in a group that’ll be hard to manage.”

“I could go,” Gregory offered, “Nathen took out most of a pack by himself.”

“And he is… was a stronger fighter than you,” Lex pointed out, “And even if you could take most of one pack by yourself, there are two others out there that will be quick to respond to any fighting.”

“Sounds like you need another Ascender,” a voice spoke, causing both Lex and Gregory to jump and reach for their weapons. Turning a tall, lanky man with a ragged, red beard and bald head had somehow gotten close to them without either noticing. Gregory hadn’t been paying too much attention to his aura, as it tended to overwhelm him when in town with a bunch of people moving around. But even after seeing him neither Lex nor Gregory relaxed, keeping their spears at the ready.

“Is that how you welcome others?” the man asked, holding his hands to his mouth in mock offense.

“You’re dangerous,” Gregory said, he could see the danger hovering around the other man like a halo and he knew Lex could sense the same thing.

“I’m a Herald of the Hunter, I should hope I’m dangerous!” he laughed, pulling at a necklace until a silver arrow emerged from under the soft hide armor he wore. Gregory glanced over at Lex, who met his gaze and nodded. After gaining the blessing of Davlos Gregory had been given a silver rook like token to wear and demonstrate his status as a blessed. If this man had one he likely also had a blessing.

“Why are you here?” Lex asked as both her and Gregory lowered their weapons.

“My current prey is someone who tortures other Ascenders, shatters their facets before killing them,” the man explained, “I felt a shattered facet from here so I came to check it out.”

“That only happened an hour ago,” Lex said doubtfully, “you got here pretty fast considering.”

“I’ve been in this world for a while,” the man explained, “not to brag but I can get around pretty fast when I need to.”

“And you’re offering to help, Herald of the Hunt?” the leader of the Slayer Knights asked.

“If you’ll show me the man who’s facet shattered and tell me what happened, then sure,” he shrugged, “hunting Mutts is a bit below me, but I can help out.”

“Great, I’m Sir Agustis,” the Knight bowed, “these are both Priests of the Protector.”

“Lex,” Lex said, then motioned to Gregory, “and he’s Gregory.”

“Kyle,” the man introduced himself, “now, why don’t you explain what happened.”

They’d set Nathen down on the ground near the staging point, enough out of the way that he was unlikely to be stepped on, by either the knights or their mounts, but close enough that Gregory could keep an eye on him. Kyle listened as Gregory explained the fight, the talk they had and the aftermath.

“Yup, sounds like a shattered Facet,” he nodded as Gregory finished, “Facets are built upon our beliefs and actions, shaking those beliefs or forcing someone to act against them can cause a Facet to crack or shatter. Sounds like this man deluded himself into thinking this world was a game with enough conviction his soul responded. You forced him to see the world for how it is, now how he believed it to be, causing the Facet to shatter.”

“Is it really that simple?” Gregory asked.

“It can be, that’s why we’re told not to share our facets with others,” Kyle replied, “half of combat between Ascenders is trying to figure out the beliefs of the other and disproving them. Something I’ve become very… aware of since I started hunting this torturer.”

“And when a Facet shatters you are knocked out?”

“Not always, it depends on the Facet. Typically the effects of the Facet are inverted, if the Facet makes you stronger, shattering it would cause it to make you weaker instead. If the Facet strengthened his mind, then it would make him weak willed following its destruction.”

“Can it be fixed?” Gregory asked.

“The Facet? It’s possible, sometimes having your beliefs tested can cause them to become stronger, but typically you need to clear out the shattered Facet,” Kyle replied, “from what I understand that’s done by coming to terms with your failures, accepting that you were wrong, but that’s not my specialty.”

“This seems… complex,” Lex said, “there’s a lot I didn’t know about Facets.”

“It’s a risk to have them, but so long as you keep them to yourself you’ll generally be fine,” shrugged the herald of the hunter, “Honestly blessings are more at risk, since people tend to proudly display them.”

“You can shatter a blessing?” Gregory asked in shock.

“It’s harder but possible, after all a Blessing is just a Facet given to you by a God.”

“I don’t believe it,” Gregory shook his head, “blessings are granted to you, they aren’t a true facet.”

“And gods only grant them to those who believe in their teachings, here,” Kyle leaned in close to Gregory and whispered, “do you really think all these people are grateful for your ‘protection’?”

Gregory gave him a shocked look, only to glance around at the townsfolk who were, and had been, giving him and the other Slayer Knights the stink eye.

\-\-\-\-\-

YOUR BLESSING OF PROTECTION SHAKES

\-\-\-\-\-

“See!” Kyle laughed as Gregory’s face paled, patting him on the back, “don’t worry about it, there is an external force supporting a blessing, so they are harder to break.”

“Now that we showed you,” Lex stepped in, glaring angrily at Kyle, “you’ll help us, right?”

“That was the deal,” Kyle assured her, “seems like this was done by you, Gregory, during a normal fight. My master’s killer wasn’t responsible, but he may have sensed it too so I’ll stick around for a bit, see if he shows up.”

“Good,” Lex nodded, her glare not wavering, “here’s our plan.”