Walk away.
Walk away.
Walk away.
She's not willing to. You have to do it, Olly.
She's kind and will willingly put herself in danger for you, so you have to leave.
It's not fair to her, she has too many problems to take yours on too. Especially after your involvement seems to be driving a wedge between her and her only friend.
And for what? Some monster balancing on a knifes edge while pretending to be a person? You're not worth it.
My thoughts spool around and around as I stare into the fire after Ayre goes quiet following my question. I can see her uncertainty. I never quite dispelled my essence sight, and I've been watching her aura shedding power as she seemingly struggles with this internally. Her fire is burning low. Losing Lilly was a huge blow. Losing me would be too, but it would be a temporary one. She'll forget about me, it's only been a few weeks and I'm nobody special.
I look up and gaze around after I realize I've been staring at Ayre's essence aura for too long to be safe. While her aura is weak, staring at it is making me want it. When I do so, I feel a tug from somewhere farther down the road. There's a knot of concentrated essence somewhere out there. I can feel it. Taste it. It tastes incredibly familiar.
Walk away.
If you do, you won't have to worry about these people anymore and you can carve your own path. Their lives will be better, and you'll be free.
Walk. Away.
“I need to take a walk. Clear my head.” Ayre nods at me, keeping her eyes mostly trained on the fire as she thinks. As I stand and begin to walk away, a moment of thought strikes me and I set the backpack down where it can be noticed easily.
That task done, I walk off down the road without another word.
I walk away.
And as I do, I feel that powerful concentration of essence moves away from me as I start to head after it in earnest.
It lights a fire in me that wants to hunt, that wants to take. It feels like the dreams, sure, but those drives and urges are only dangerous when I'm around people.
So, if I'm not around people, it’s not a problem, right? The only reason I was a threat to Ayre and Lilly last time was because I had intended to go back. Since that’s not the case, then I can pursue this freely.
The welt of familiar essence is matching my pace, even as I speed up. Almost like it's attached to me by a solid rod. Anytime I move, so does it. It's frustrating, but after about an hour of walking, I finally feel it starting to get closer.
Am I catching up? Or is it no longer running away? Does it even matter?
No. Not really.
Looking around, I see I've made it to the edge of the forest and am breaking out into the most wide open space I've ever seen. Plains as far as the eye can see, all painted in the stark black and white outlines of my essence sight. Everything around seems to be the same essence composition, except off in the distance I see large clusters of essence dense crystals.
They aren't what I'm pursuing. They're entirely stationary. I make note of them, though, they're definitely something I need to look into.
I continue walking, continue watching, and before I've fully processed it, the welt of essence is coming at me. Not from in front of me, but off to the side like it had teleported. Coming at me fast. I hear heavy steps for a single moment. Giving me just enough warning to react to something that is evidently much more than essence.
On reflex, I call upon my most familiar ability, Ironhide. It comes easily. It was taken while the elk was being chased, so invoking it now feels natural. Instantly, my skin starts to harden and the taste of metal essence comes to mind.
At the same time, I throw myself forward and into a roll, spinning around.
Before me, recovering after an apparent dive at me is something that feels utterly singular in my mind. I know it. I know I know it. Something about this creature feels personally familiar.
It stands twelve feet tall but is heavily hunched over with arms that are overly long and end in unnaturally long, thin, and clawed fingers. Overall, its body is lithe and powerful, ending in a counterbalancing, thin, needle-like tail. It feels almost feminine, but in a stretched mockery of femininity in how its curves are placed. The limbs are too long, and the head is distinctly inhuman, even if the body feels like it might once have been. It's elongated, stretching back to reveal a row of six eyes, three on each side, moving backwards with each pair larger than the last. An oversized mouth with way too many teeth sits at the bottom of the monstrous visage. Each one is easily six inches long and interlocks to form a lethal grin of jagged bars. Finally, it's void black eyes reflect my own, bearing flects of purple essence darting around them constantly. They're intelligent, cunning, and focused, and leaking wispy purple essence just like mine must be at this moment.
It stands out starkly in my vision: where everything else is rendered in black and white, it's skin is crystalline, a shining, radiant amethyst. Brighter than my arm has ever been. Unlike my own, it's not covered in cracks and fissures. No, it's entirely pristine. It doesn't look sickly or unhealthy. It looks like a complete creature. Whole, hearty.
Well fed.
While I take it in, I realize it seems to be doing the same. After the initial pass, it seems to be holding back, craning its neck around to see me from different angles with its array of eyes, each one focusing on a slightly different position.
It's waiting for me to act. I did the same to the Crystalid near Ayre's home. It wants me to show it what I know, to call upon spell shapes and demonstrate spellcasting. Use techniques and plans so it can learn. The opening “attack” was to scare me into defending myself.
A couple of realizations bring a small smile to my face as I mentally prepare myself for… A fight? Death?
One, every time I use one of my stolen talents, they go away, fleeing my mind. So this thing won't be able to take them as long as I use them.
Two, I've seen dozens, hundreds, of these things fight and kill in my memories, from both sides of any conflict. They all have similar patterns, even if their abilities widely differ. It all always comes down to feeding on essence. Grabbing their target to drain it of natural essence. Natural essence I don't really have.
Fighting me isn't a massive risk for something like this, but it still is one, and it stands to gain nothing from me as long as I don't hold back. And if I do manage to come out on top, all I need to do is what it would do to me.
The thought is empowering and comes from a deep well of spite that seems to originate in my arm and radiate upwards to my mind. I can win with the knowledge advantage, I’m just working on borrowed time so I have to come out of the gate strong.
For the first time since waking, I embrace the urges. Cutting myself free from the constant struggle wearing me down.
It feels good. And I feel more in control. The memories that have been plagueing me seem to come to the forefront to help, not to disrupt. The various memories of people fighting back against monsters like the one in front of me sitting atop my vision, fading in and out as each one becomes relevant, matching the exact scene before me, before dissipating again. It should feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t. It’s almost akin to when the arm seemed to be helping me sort out the memories of the crystal lizard.
But all of the memories are of the people, none from the side of the monster like has been happening just as often. I have to wonder if that’s solely because none of the other side would match up? It’s no matter. I can try to unpack it more later if I survive.
My smile broadens as the Calamity before me narrows its sets of eyes at me in apparent thought, clearly expecting a different reaction than the one I’m giving it. This prompts it to stalk forward a couple of steps and I feel the shudders of the ground belying its weight as it does so. It looms over me as it does, being half again my height while nearly doubled over and walking just as much on its arms as its legs.
I coil, feeling strength welling in my body from the ongoing and compounding effects of the Mineralis infusion. The moment its loping gait carries it within my planned range, I launch forward without warning, not planning to give it the chance for the opening move. The memory sitting atop mine carries me forward with a mirror of that person’s actions and I slip alongside an all too familiar swipe of its clawed limb, evading it deftly.
Three steps, twist, clench my right hand inside the sleeve, and a stamp. I put all of my weight and strength into the punch and land it square in the center of its chest.
In practicing with Ayre and while under this ability, I’ve punched a tree hard enough to cause it to topple, snapped Ayre’s metal hafted spear in two, and punched rocks hard enough to split them.
When I hit the creature, it’s like I tried to punch a mountain. It cares not in the slightest as the heavy thud rings out into the cold, dark night. A single thud that sends a spike of pain-data through that arm. It doesn’t debilitate me, but it does leave me wide open for its response as the memory dissolves — that persons punch having landed with serious impact unlike mine.
Its lithe tail flicks around from just outside my line of sight and strikes me in the side with more than enough force to send me toppling, skidding, off the roadway. This one does hurt. It hit me squarely in the kidney and as I go rolling through the frozen grass my vision tumbles. Luckily, though, my greatly increased mass and weight bring me to a halt before long.
I feel my muscles knitting themselves back to health as I stand and see the creature moving towards at a lope. It crosses the twenty feet in a few strides before raising one hand that seems to have grown serrated claws from the tips of the already-too-long fingers.
In one blindingly fast motion, it swipes down and across my chest, raking a series of lines across my chest. Luckily, the armor and reinforced clothes seem to hold up as I try to spin with the swipe alongside several phantoms doing the same in similar situations. The motion ensures that it fails to cut through and cause meaningful damage, but by the time I’ve recovered, another strike with the claws is already coming my way. This time, though, it’s not a swipe. The monster is driving them forward more like a spear or a series of knives, already adapting to the armor's resistance to slashing.
It’s moving way too fast. I need to do something to even the odds.
I bring my arms down as the claw comes forward, smashing it to the side against significant resistance. It’s mostly redirected, but one claw scrapes against the inside of my arm, laying it open across the inside of my elbow. The pain in that arm comes through just fine, though, and I see stars and react on instinct.
I raise my left hand, thinking of what I did to the crystal lizard and what Turin did to me. They were fundamentally similar abilities, but attacking two different parts of a targeted creature. Turins targeted the body and the Cobaltfern targeted the brain to stun it.
[Incapacitate]
[Jakar Clan Tattoos]
A cruel, powerful, spell designed mostly to inflict harm without killing. Sending arcs of raw Fulmina essence through the target and sustaining itself on the targets own essence reserves.
[Cobaltfern]
A fern with deep blue, metallic fronds that releases a faint electrical charge when touched. Gaining its essence provides a limited ability to generate and control small electric currents, useful for powering devices or disabling opponents.
I slap my hand on the side of the monsters head and feel two jolts run through my body and pass into the Calamity with a loud tzzzzzzt that splits the air as waves of pure, blue, and jagged essence starts to wreathe its body outside and course to its head inside.
It staggers back and lets out a startled yelp. Shuddering and shaking, dropping to what passes as its hands and knees first, before settling on the ground flat. It lets out a sickening hiss of pain that physically hurts to hear as it convulses.
I have an advantage, and I need to capitalize on it. I think for a brief moment, trying to think of useful combinations and settle on what I did to the elk as I feel both of the other abilities be ripped out of my mind.
[Ferrithorn Barbs]
Venenum, Vitreous, Mineralis
Darts of concentrated essence are launched forward in a projection. Anything biological that they strike will be rapidly transmuted into an inert crystal — though it has specific interactions in crystallizing blood, or Sanguis essence. When used so, it causes typically deadly harm as jagged crystals are carried through the body alongside the blood flow.
[Ironbark Resilience]
Concentrate any Mineralis essence present into a denser, tougher, state.
Holding both abilities in my minds eye, my own memories flood in, dispelling the phantoms for a moment, as nothing else comes anywhere close to this in the trove of lives and deaths. Leaning down to pick up the flower as it tried to attack me but failed to get through my skin. That first tree I absorbed on accident when I discovered I could even do this. I clumsily try to force them together as I feel the barbed darts manifesting on the skin of my arm.
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The darts begin fairly thick, but as the second wave of essence pours from the arm, I see them narrow down to sickly green shards of needle-like crystal.
Ready. Can’t miss.
I dash forward at the same moment that I see the coruscating arcs tracing the monsters body back and forth be pushed off with a clap of thunder and the monster surges to its feet at me, a look of clear hatred in its sextet of crystalline black eyes. Hatred that seems to blind it to the fact I have my arms raised at it as I close the distance at it. Not running like it seems to keep expecting me to do.
In a series of sharp thwp sounds, a dozen darts fire from my outstretched arm. It does see them coming and start to react, which saves it from catching them in the face and torso and instead leaving them stitching a line along its left arm and flank. They pierce through with contemptuous ease and I instantly see them starting to expand into the sick looking crystal. Even beneath the skin, I see what have to be the equivalent of blood vessels expanding and bursting through the surface to reveal jagged crystals.
The impact alongside the motion of trying to dodge the darts leaves the creature rolling on its side and writhing as its flank and arm are savaged by the spreading crystals.
These two memories hit me harder than the last and I feel the mysterious cost get paid which staggers me and leaves me gripping my right arm while my head swims and the memories flee. Using so many abilities back to back is making that “cost” much more concerning, very fast. But no matter what, it’s better than winding up dead.
Besides, I can gain so much here. I reach up and grip the sleeve the fairy gave me to contain me, and rip it off with essence enhanced strength. It is offensive that it doesn’t suffer collapse, but ripping it to shreds will suffice for now.
A flood of data releases into my mind as sensory information from the area around me hits the now-exposed arm and it feels sublime. Curiosities I didn’t know I even had are sated and as I look at the beast information comes to mind, but only in fragments from the momentary and indirect contact we’ve had.
Elemental Bane: ????∴○?
As it writhes on the ground loosing sounds that feel pathetic for a creature so advanced, I close the gap quickly, needing to keep the advantage. I call Turin and Vari’s other spells to mind and try to force them together like the last two. I never had a chance to write these down, but they’re too potentially useful here to risk not using them.
Besides, it is almost certainly “learning” from everything I hit it with too. So if I win, I get it all back. Like a macabre sort of investment.
[Air Hammer]
[Jakar Clan Tattoos]
Concentrated Aero essence is used to dramatically empower a single strike made with a weapon or body with raw force and motion.
[Gentle Repose]
[Imbuement | Cognitio]
Disrupt the vital processes of the brain momentarily to force a sleeplike fugue state for a period of time.
The essence rushes to my right hand as I take heavy, implacable, steps towards the grounded calamity, feeling nothing but contempt as I look down at it. Its head snaps up, and twitches a few times as its eyes seem to focus on my now-exposed arm as I raise it to throw a hopefully final punch to bring this endeavor to a close. I focus on its eyes, wanting to see it as this lands.
The moment I begin to thrust my arm forward, full of confidence, feeling perfectly in control for once since waking up, I feel a sudden pain erupt in the left side of my chest that robs me of momentum.
Looking down, I see the spined tail plunged deep. A sense of general disbelief washes over me as the pain begins radiate outwards and I see a blue energy surging up the tail. I try to fall backwards away from it, having a sinking suspicion of what’s about to happen. But I feel the tip twist and writhe, pushing through my back and bending like one of Ayre’s fishing hooks and holding me in place.
A moment later a very familiar surge of energy erupts in my body.
[Incapacitate]
[Jakar Clan Tattoos]
A cruel, powerful, spell designed mostly to inflict harm without killing. Sending arcs of raw Fulmina essence through the target and sustaining itself on the targets own essence reserves.
[Cobaltfern]
A fern with deep blue, metallic fronds that releases a faint electrical charge when touched. Gaining its essence provides a limited ability to generate and control small electric currents, useful for powering devices or disabling opponents.
Everything in my world turns static. Indistinct fuzz filling all of my senses at once as my legs collapse from under me as I lose control of my Ironhide spell. I don’t fall though, I remain suspended by the Calamity’s tail and all of my weight coming down on the wound and intruder in my body just adds more pain to everything else.
Worse than the pain. Worse than the electrocution. I failed, thoroughly. For once I thought I managed to get the upper hand, and…no. I’m going to die here, fuel for some worse monster that could go on to hurt my friends.
When that thought of friends crosses my mind the Fulmina coursing through my body stops abruptly. That all encompassing pain ending all at once and leaving me merely with the fence post of amethyst crystal lodged in my torso. The creature lifts me higher as I hang limply, standing to its full height as it does so.
Its eyes regard me with curiosity. There’s actual intellect behind the eyes. Not just monster cunning like the other Calamities from the memories or my little bits of exposure to monster mentalities. No…it’s more. There’s something wrong behind the eyes. Something broken that I feel is intrinsically wrong with both sides of my brain: the normal “me” and the curse that recognizes its kin-but-not-quite.
The eyes bore into me, like they’re looking straight through me with no less force than its tail currently is. I want to squirm, the “me” part of my brain wanting to scream. To cry. To panic.
That part of me feels like this is familiar in a way I can’t shake. It’s a strong enough feeling that is actually distracts me from everything else as I close my eyes and try to search my memories for a reason for the familiarity. After a few moments of thinking, my mind starts to get hazier.
What was I even trying to think about? All I can feel is cold. I could just lay my head down. As I think, I feel a pleasing warmth stretching through my right arm, radiating out from my ring finger. This feels peaceful. I haven’t had any 'peaceful' in a while. I could go for some. Maybe if I rest this pain will go away?
I loll my head down, resting my chin on my chest for just a second. Only a few moments to rest. That’s all.
It lasts no time at all. I wrench my eyes open with a wheeze of blinding pain as the thing in my chest extracts itself: its jagged edges rip and tear just as much on the way out as they did on the way in and I nearly pass out. I think I would if I didn’t feel the cool presence coming from the ring on my right hand as my body starts to do everything possible to knit itself back together after having a four-inch hole punched clean through it.
But before I hit the ground I find myself upside down with something wrapped painfully around my leg as all of the blood begins to rush not just to my head, but also to the slowly closing wound on my chest, it sends regular beats of two pulses of blood draining down over my face, constantly obscuring my vision. Vision that has now returned to normal. All of my abilities have been thoroughly lost along with my concentration.
The eyes, though, pierce through the red waves and that sense of awful familiarity comes screaming back.
I’ve been in this exact position. Upside down, my ankle breaking, blood pouring over my face staring these eyes down with defiance.
It rings through my mind like a clarion call. One of the only things I’ve been utterly certain of since waking. I recognize everything. The monster, my condition. Everything.
In time with my realization, I see this thing's monstrous maw split open in a cold, vile, mockery of a smile. It looks satisfied, like it wants me to know.
My mind races. What happened last time? I survived, clearly. What did I do to survive?
I remember. When Nyssa wreathed the knife in her essence and sunk it into me. The knife felt familiar. I stowed it in a sheathe without even thinking about it, and haven’t had reason to since. I’ve used it countless times without even thinking about it. I’ve even thought about it as my knife without making the actual connection.
Without a further thought, in a burst of motion spurred on solely by adrenaline, I snap my left arm up to my side and draw the knife and ram it into the largest of the thing's eyes on the right side of its head with a sickening wet pop and drag it backwards towards me; opening up a savage gash on the side of its head through the other 2 eyes on that side. It looses an awful screech that sounds almost like the distorted wail of a woman in my addled brain. But I only have a moment to think about it before I slam into the ground about ten feet below, back first.
But I realize something is different. I lost my knife last time.
Looking down, I see it in my hand still and start laughing as I push through searing pain to sheathe it. Completing that very important task, I just slump backwards limply, waiting for the end to come. I have nothing left. No useful abilities, no strength, and really? No will to fight. This happened before, and I didn’t die. So, maybe that’ll happen again? Maybe it won’t. I don’t really care.
There’s a couple of thuds as I feel the ground shake underneath me. I struggle to bring my head up to look at the creature but manage after extreme and painful effort. Its entirely inhuman face managing to translate rage. Bitter hatred. But as I watch, those emotions boil away quickly. Leaving an unsettlingly human smile. One that rings as smug.
One last ability. A burning curiosity in my mind urges me to find out why the creature seems so smug. Killing me is hardly an accomplishment for such a beast, after all.
Thanks, Vari. You were right, these things are awful. This is probably for the best.
[Sign of Intent]
[Barrier | Forced Infusion | Cognitio]
Skim the surface of the minds around you pulling focused or powerful thoughts from them.
But the mind I gloss over the surface of is prepared. There’s endless walls of obfuscation. I see just a solid wall of indistinct knowledge around their mind. Like a cage, trapping something inside just as well as it keeps me out.
The only concept that seems to escape is one of amusement. The feeling one would get when they watch a particularly silly dog slipping on ice. Pure, joyous, amusement. The mind behind it all is enjoying this, from start to finish. Through the pain and through the fight.
It robs me of my last bits of energy as I let the spell go and the memories of Vari using it on me alongside it.
I sputter, spitting a gobbet of blood up at the creature as it comes to loom over me, “I…won’t give you anything…” A small bit of defiance as I intentionally call up every single ability and memory that I can and dismiss them out of spite. I can’t get rid of everything, but I can get rid of anything useful to this monster.
As if on cue, again. it reaches down with its too-large hands with too-long fingers and picks me up by my right arm. It looks awful as it’s lifted into my vision. There’s not one bit of purple essence remaining in it. It’s purely red, angry, and hateful.
But the point of contact also communicates information back to me. Probably the same as it’s taking from me.
[Species: Total Essential Reconstruction]
[Place of Origin: Eldara]
[Soul Vessel: Artificial]
[Aetheric Essence Connection: Artificial]
[Basal Essence Affinity: Severed]
[Akasha Essence Affinity: Total]
[Essence Core Formation: x3 Complete, 89% complete] [Gate Formation: 38%] [Bane: ????∴○?, Sanctus]
As I’m trying to process the similarities and the differences I feel the memories and knowledge get seared out of my mind as if someone drove a hot lance into my skull. Words carried by a calm, distinctly feminine voice carry along with the spike of punishing pain.
"You don’t need to give me anything. We take. You will learn that."
The words hammer into my mind as I feel essence moving: but to my shock it’s not being drawn out of me. It’s being forced in at the same time I feel my memories being searched.
[Infusion: Akasha essence]
[Infusion: Akasha essence]
[Infusion: Akasha essence]
After a few sustained moments of mental invasion and my body being force-fed essence, the tone of the interactions changes and I feel memories starting to not be searched, but taken. It sends a panic through me and I try to mentally fight it with everything I can. But my resistance flags as I realize they're being pulled out, inspected, and replaced. Not taken for good.
"Why fight? I’m trying to help you. We are alike. This was all a simple misunderstanding. You’re only confused. If you let me do my work, you won’t have to suffer confusion or loss anymore. Don’t you want that? Aren’t you tired of pain?"
The words are honeyed, gentle, and kind as they worm their way through my resistance slowly, word by word, sentence by sentence. They feel right. Trustworthy. After all, if this Calamity is like me, wouldn’t they know? They are apparently a “Prime” of this species, so it stands to reason that they're more capable and intelligent. The classification feels important and familiar. Like something I know I should respect.
"You only feel alone because you aren’t among your kind. If you embrace your Becoming, then you won’t be alone anymore. No more deception from once-thought-friends. We met with blows, but I won’t hold it against you for making the first strike. I would have done the same, even. You didn’t know any better. Neither of us did at the start of that little conflict. Now we do.
"Just relax. You fought well, but having to give up your hard-earned Knowledge to fight so well is distressing. If you let me, I’ll fix that. Would you like that, Allanius?"
Hearing the name brings all of the panic back, reminding me that I’ve been here before. Without anything else to lean on, I reach for the connection to Lilly. It’s distant, and weak, but it’s the only thing I have remaining. The feelings we’ve exchanged over it, the smiles and support.
I don’t know what I’m hoping for, but I reach for it all the same. And at that same moment, the sibilant voice in my head audibly sighs for a moment like a disappointed mother watching her child make the same mistake for the umpteenth time.
But I feel it. Something on the other side reaching out. I mentally take hold of the feeling and feel something pour through, pushing the whispers out of my mind and returning some clarity to me.
Looking up, I see the Calamity look at me with sad eyes and a shake of the head. Wincing in pain while holding one hand to the side of their head.
With a tender slowness, they lie me down on the ground, utterly spent, but basking in the warmth through Lilly and I’s connection. It makes all the pain just a little bit less overwhelming. But it’s short-lived. The Calamity’s hand comes down, easily the size of my torso with fingers extended, and rests a few inches above my prone form. I just close my eyes, waiting for what I expect the end will be to come.
"You apparently remember too much. I suspect it has something to do with why you must expend your knowledge so. I will fix it. Fix you, you poor, malformed thing."
Two energies surge into my body. The opposite of what I expect. I only have a spare moment to process that I'm being given something before a wave of sleep overtakes me.
[Gentle Repose]
[Imbuement | Cognitio]
Disrupt the vital processes of the brain momentarily to force a sleeplike fugue state for a period of time.
[Memory Rend]
[Forced Imbuement | Akasha]
Selectively destroy a target's memories and knowledge, rendering it into pure Akashic essence.
