He hadn't noticed then, that what had shone past his head was a beam of scorching light. The man was feeling his left shoulder sizzle as it regenerated part of his burnt skin. He remembered the moment in which Clung had told him that the crystal did not attack unless provoked. Was it the rage of betrayal he was feeling?
The arm that had been severed from the crystal construct came bolting back from the sky and was connected back to its body. Light reflected off its complicated formations and turned into colors with every movement. The strands of crystalloid hair made the sound of bright chimes, aroused by the blowing of the chilly air.
It lowered its back and its head, taking the stand of a hunter about to pounce on its prey.
"You smell..." Thom heard a faint whisper in his head.
Dash!
The crystal being launched a direct attack towards Thom, but it was quickly stopped by Erina. The luminous being was pushed back as it clashed its thin hands with the sound-breaking slashes and stabs coming swift from the young girl's curved blade, the earth trembling under the pressure with every hit.
Their movements were solid and trained, without wasting even a millisecond at the time to attack or defend. It looked like an elegant dance that was vastly superior to the human capacity, a light show decorated with the sparks of the chipped blade and the shards of glass that were sent flying dozens of meters away with each slash.
Thom, on his side, was static, waiting for a chance to join and help the girl. However, it was at this momen in which the fight revolved around extremely precise movements and adaptability, that Thom's advantage with speed became negligible. The most important asset, precision at the time of attacking, was what he lacked the most.
The sparkles continued to dance in the air far away from Thom's spot, until he hesitantly decided to launch himself forward.
Erina deflected a singular strike with her scimitar and blocked with a kick another hit coming from her left, rendering the crystal's arms immobile for a split second. She used the opportunity to close her distance and land a swift strike to the monster's chest, and after she had successfully pierced it, she pulled up and split the crystal's head in two.
"Hey!"
Thom came from Erina's right side and used his [Torrential Slash III], in hopes that demolishing its body completely would render the crystal useless.
Bang!
However, his sword had been knocked away from his hand. The leg that had hit him from below had already been crushed by Erina.
"Shit!"
Erina stopped the arm coming from her right and broke it into pieces, then quickly let go of her sword.
Crack!
An earth-shaking punch landed in the crystalline abdomen of the enemy, making a sound as if a thousand windows had shattered. Its body was propelled back several meters away from the point of contact as it tried to recover its ground, but when it had begun to stabilize, its heels met the end of the cliff and fell down to the depth of the forest.
They saw it disappear from their sight as it fell down the cliff.
"Thom, are you good?"
Erina grabbed the sword she had dropped a second ago and jumped towards Thom, her ragged breath and her trembling hands showing how badly she had exhausted herself in only a minute.
"I'm alright." The man shook his broken fingers and picked up his weapon. "You're wheezing. Is everything okay?"
"I wasn't mentally prepared for a fight..." She said, holding onto her knees. "Didn't Clung say it didn't attack flesh-made people?"
"It looks like it doesn't consider me a flesh-made person, then." Thom clicked his tongue.
"You?" The girl arched her eyebrows. "Why you?"
"I don't know. But that thing's coming back." Thom took a stance and looked towards the spot where the crystal had fallen. "This time, don't defend me. Don't attack unless you've recovered."
"That's..."
Suddenly, a trail of pure white covered the sky, erupting from the spot in which the construct had fallen. The duo prepared themselves for the crystal to land in front of them again, but to their surprise, the light that had suddenly broken the blue up above had begun to make circles around the hill.
The girlish creature moved its body as if sliding on ice, a trail of light flickering under its feet. In awe, the two of them observed as it rounded the area like a vulture waiting for death to strike down on them. The wounds that Erina had made were slowly repairing themselves, collecting the shards that were sprawled around the hill.
Still absorbed by the beauty of the scene, Thom's head suddenly felt as if it had begun to split apart. He held his left temple and gritted his teeth until they felt like breaking, only for the pain to disappear a second later. His eyes were focused on the crystal being again.
"You smell..."
A sudden vibration spread through Thom's body, but he could somehow understand it's meaning in his head. It was no different than the sound of blowing on the opening of a bottle, yet every little vibration meant a different word for him. Their eyes kept themselves glued to each other, and the words began to sink inside his head.
Her voice—since it's pitch was high but sweet— was the chorus of a soft song.
"You can hear me... You can hear this one's weakened voice. I can see you, and I feel the presence that you have above your shoulders. It is like incense that fills up the temples, and raises to praise The One reigning. You smell... like Her. But your body, that body is yours, it is not ours. It is empty... your magic is naught. The aura that covers you is an aftertaste to the essence of Her smell, yet it is weak even in its greatness that surpasses her own. Tell me, black-haired lesser, who are you? Explain to me so I can understand, why do you smell like the fallen, the reigning, and The One above them? Why does a son of the elven carry the print of Ladai-Saras in his soul? No... Why does Ladai-Saras carry the print of a mortal in Her soul?"
Her figure danced in place for a second before shooting higher, only to glide back down as if trying to maintain her altitude.
The meaning of her words was something Thom could not comprehend. Although he could understand what she was vocalizing and the conceptual meaning of her sentences, the deeper value of her questions was still confusing.
"Is everything okay?" Erina asked with her hastened breath.
"It fine." Thom replied without turning his head. "What are you?! He yelled at the crystalized humanoid.
"I see... The knowledge I lack is also not yours. Your mind is an open book when you speak, and you show no deceit at this moment. Then, I can only profusely apologize for hurting you."
Yet again, her voice clouded his mind. He clicked his tongue in annoyance, but faster than he could complain, the crystal hopped off the skies and somersaulted her way to the ground. Her landing was peaceful and quiet like a feather, an oxymoron to her dense and heavy body.
Erina nervously stood by Thom's side, watching his hand stopping her from pouncing forward.
"Can the demon girl understand me?"
Thom nodded to the girl's question. He could guess he was talking about Erina. A sudden ringing sound in her head, forcing her to take a step back.
"You can both hear me." The crystal estated. "I apologize again. In my unconsciousness, I thought the lesser human was one of my own. I sought to relieve but I ended up causing pain."
Her head was lowered shortly and then raised. The black-haired man didn't have the chance to ask about his label as a "lesser human", when her eyes were already pointing at the other girl. Erina was surprised enough that a small sound escaped her mouth when their gazes met.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
"You're a human. But I feel the soul of a minor daughter of Anphatos in your stomach. Wretched. It is truly pitiful. I cannot imagine a magic so evil that it feasts on the power of the devoured. However, I was not aiming to harm you. My attacks were directed to the lesser human, I apologize if I hurt you in any way."
"What the fuck are you?"
The crystal being turned her head to Thom's rather aggressive question. Perhaps because she was surprised that he knew how to run his mouth in her language.
"There is no reason for us to keep a conversation running. My curiosity doesn't suffice as a reason to remain talking to you. I will go back to what I have been doing, so please continue your way and ignore me."
She walked towards the small hill of crystal as she talked to them and hinted them away, making the black-haired duo look at each other in confusion. The crystal climbed her little mount and accommodated her feet, becoming a statue at the light of the sun once again.
"..."
Unsatisfied, the man lowly growled. He hadn't set out to have a minute-long fight. The goal of his expedition was to make the crystalline being get onto their side, and now, Thom had confirmed that it would be a great acquisition to the horde. Although she wasn't quite on par with Erina when it came to battle skill, her regenerative skill and use of magic was another matter entirely. Hadn't she been able to regenerate, Erina would have won in the first ten seconds of the fight.
"Uhm... So, we're going back?"
"Of course not." Thom shook his head. "This girl's a good asset. We have scarce magic users, you know?"
"Hrngh..." The girl twisted her mouth to show her disagreement with the man's intention. "I won't tell you there's no advantage in aerial support, but this girl is just too much. She looks more like a grand mage's show than a combatant!"
"She's hearing you, girl."
"Oh, come on dude, she doesn't understand Kuulkiam." Erina sighed and scratched the top of her head. "Well, anyways. Are we going back?"
"You can go back if you want to." Thom sheathed his sword and walked forward towards the small hill of crystal shards. "I'll try to talk with her about a few things."
"Are you kidding? You need to carry me the way back, too."
Thom showed her a smile as the girl dropped her weapon and sat on the ground cross-legged. A small high-pitched yawn escaped her mouth as she laid back on the broken wood, giving the black-haired man freeway to act as he pleased.
He stopped in front of the crystal and sighed. The girl wasn't looking back at him, so he called for her with a fake smile. "Are you really not gonna keep talking to me? I don't see why a pair of strangers can't become friends after a fight. What's your name?"
The girl didn't reply. A small pout formed on Thom's face, and he started to walk around the mount with a face covered in malicious intent.
"Alright. I'll be calling you Crystals then. And by the way, you look very astonishing. It wouldn't be rare for hunters to come by and try to take you down. Jewels usually sell for a whole lot, you know? Be it in this plane or any other. What's pricy is the fact that they're beautiful, after all. Something that only a noble could buy."
Thom moved his hand quicker than a blink, then flipped his palm to show between his fingers a few shards of random crystals. He couldn't have picked from them at the speed in which he had moved, after all.
The crystal didn't react to his trick. She hadn't moved her head in the slightest, ignoring the man that had been trying to sway her with something as empty as a threat. Thom dropped the shards back, but didn't give up. If there was anything he was skilled in aside from farming, it was the gentle art of convincing people to fall into the situation he desired. However, it would be necessary to poke around before he found a bait good enough to lure the crystal into his net.
"Say, why is everything in this state?" He looked around the messy hill as he spoke. "This certainly looks like a battlefield. Although I cannot imagine you razed only this section of the forest specifically in your battles."
There was no reaction.
"Hmph..." Thom smiled. "If I had to guess, you burned everything down with that ray-of-something you shot at me before. When did you burn this down? A year, maybe two ago? If that was the case, then this spot of yours is quite special." He chuckled. "Talking about that ray of light... Just what was that?"
He lifted his hand as if honestly lost in thought, although his eyes were scanning the surrounding forest to find more burnt-down trees and leveled hills. Since he couldn't find more trace of battle, he focused back on Crystals' back.
"I imagine you're proficient with magic. Although I don't know what kind. You see, my knowledge in the arcane arts are quite lacking since I cannot use a spell no matter how hard I try. I couldn't tell you the type or origin of that beam, much less analyze its power just by seeing it. The only thing I actually know about it, is that it burns like hell. Oh, and that it comes from you. That, however, represents a problem in itself, since I cannot guess for the life of me what the flying fuck are you."
Thom bought himself time with his unnecessary long talk, letting the gears in his brain slowly work their way to something more useful than a simple theory. It wasn't until he stopped talking that he noticed his left eye had been involuntarily closed, trying to avoid the small rays of light that peaked through the clouded sky of the winter. Opening his eye, an idea was revealed to him.
"... Well, since that is not a priority for now, I will leave it aside. Going back to the topic of your magic, if you think for a moment, it is easy to make a comparison between your strange beam and the ones that the sun gives. A sunbeam, a hot projection of daylight, something that will scald you if you remain outside for too long."
As he finished his musings, he could see the girl turn her head a millimeter to her right. Thom's eyes shone as he thought his carriage crashed against a point of interest for the crystal on the hill. It accelerated his thoughts to search for a relevant question to follow the topic, being afraid of dropping the only hint that could lure the girl onto his hands.
He swallowed dry with anxiety, and showed a confident smile on the outside.
"I could have gotten to a better conclusion if it wasn't because you only shot at me once. And... Speaking of which, it is strange that you did so. With magic as powerful as that, one would think you'd search to exploit it. Since you were flying around a minute after, I wouldn't say you ran out of magic energy, either. There's something else..."
His eyes closed again as the passing clouds revealed the heat of the incandescent ball in the sky, but were quickly opened when the light was dimmed once more by the gray of the sky. Thom's lips parted slightly as he had formed a conjecture, and began tracing a path from his ear to his chin with his fingers.
"It's hard for the plants to grow when there's no sunlight." He whispered. The crystal, however, heard it perfectly. "I imagine your magic is the same."
Now, it had created a reaction.
Her head turned to look at the muttering youth on her right. Iridescent streaks of glaring light bounced off the edges of her face, the polygons created by the structure of her crystalline self. Harder to read, but unmistakable, her eyes were not searching for a fight— but for him to continue to talk. Unaware to the reason, pondering if he had struck a chord or if the being was simply curious of his fluent imitation of her language, Thom continued.
"You're storing sunlight." He said. "I'm sorry for making you waste it. It must be hard to gather this time of the year. Very hard indeed." A malevolent laugh escaped from Thom's mouth as he spoke.
"..."
"You don't eat, don't you? But up until now, I haven't seen a single thing in this world that can survive without eating. Even plants... Yes. Plants..."
Thom finally put his out-of-nowhere theory together, inciting a grin to pop on his cocky expression. He threw a glance at the crystal. The girl threw a glance back.
"Tell me... What would have happened if your battle with the demon girl a while ago had occurred during nighttime, and not in the middle of the day? Could have you regenerated as efficiently? Or would have you..."
Thom grabbed a fistful of crystal shards and spread them along the ground.
"Turned to twinkling dust?"
"It seems that my appreciation was not mistaken." The crystal turned her whole body around to engage in conversation with Thom. "You are evil as the one you smell like. I would like it if you could remove yourself from my territory as soon as possible, or I will find myself extremely uncomfortable."
"Oho." He crossed his arms with delight. "And what if I don't?"
"You have already demonstrated weakness in front of me, and the demon girl is prone to exhaustion. I would not recommend engagement against me again."
"How considerate... So you are capable of emotion. A living being in all capacity. But of course..." Thom closed his eyes. "I already knew that."
"Hm?"
The crystal turned wary. Thom felt like a fish had bitten on his bait. Using the little information he had gathered up until now— the one given to him by the crystal and the one on his mind— he managed to connect dots that lead him to a facade he thought he could maintain. Ever since he had begun to speak to make time, his brain had worked a disguise to make this crystal being eat what he had been cooking.
Forest spirit? King? The One above? The reigning? No matter where he went, his aura was associated with a position of power beyond what Thom could understand or ever hope to achieve. The fact that the girl had mentioned "the fallen", but had encompassed it with "the reigning" and "the one above" could only mean some sort of hierarchy to which this girl at some point belonged.
"Do you think it is a mere coincidence that you can recognize my smell like this? Actually, at first I was surprised. I was trying to act like I didn't know what you spoke of, but... Haa, it's no use if you already know it." He shrugged and scoffed at the same time.
"So you really are..." There was a hint of surprise in that voice, although it sounded directly to his head.
"Of course."
"Deceitful." The crystal shook her head. "I can feel that you are not fully convinced of the words you blabber on about. You are not one with us, you are not even—"
"Then how would I know that the ones below you are the shards of the fallen?" Thom pointed at her with a smile. "And that you didn't kill them because of revenge. You killed them because you wanted to give them peace, didn't you?"
That had simply been a random thought in his head. However, he had spat it out in a hurry. Now, he had started to regret it quickly as he saw no change in her posture.
His main reason to think that the ones below her were "the fallen" was simply that he couldn't associate the reigning class with broken shards. His subjective image of the class separation had played him badly at that moment. However, what he was almost certain of was Crystals' motive for killing them.
Since she had mentioned she "intended to relieve, but ended up causing pain instead" as she tried to murder Thom.
Before he could say anything else to fix his mistakes, the girl let go of a small sigh. Something that didn't seem to make sense coming from a crystal construct, but it sounded strangely organic in Thom's head.
"... Impressive." The girl said. "You may be a liar, but you have a functional head above your shoulders. If you want to prove to me some kind of connection to the reign of Ladai-Saras, I will give you that chance. Although you are yet to establish your reason to contact me."
"Right..." Thom puffed out in relief. "So, what should I do to— UGH!"
Bang!
Before he could finish the sentence, his feet had already been detached from the ground. The ground was taken far away from him at a terrifying speed.