| |
The stranger was someone that James didn’t recognize. He sported a goatee on his chin and he was thin and bony. He was bald but the crown of his head was covered in tattoos of black swirls and red flames, interwoven and spiraling into one another. He had nothing in his thin hands, but they were pierced with tiny studs that ran down each of his fingers and up his forearm. His eyes were an intense red, but James didn’t think the color was a natural one.
“Hello,” Chloe said as she lowered her eidolon. “I—”
The stranger didn’t say a word. He sprinted forward and attacked, a long whip-like sword with chains around the hilt aimed straight for Chloe’s neck. She parried the blow at the last second by spinning her longsword in a circle, and then she leapt back to safety, already breaking out in a cold sweat.
“He’s definitely not friendly,” Bastion said, stepping forward. “I’ll take care of this.”
“Bastion, be careful,” Chloe said as the stranger glared at them—his whip sword moving along the ground like a serpent that was being held by its tail. It flopped along the ground as if searching for an escape.
“That’s an eidolon,” James said, using his own eidolon to evaluate it. The stranger’s eyes darted to James once he spoke, and then he ran forward, right under Bastion’s swing, and right toward his target. James tried to hit the stranger, but he missed terribly, and the enemy Sage stuck his index finger out and wiped a substance right down James’ forehead. James swung again and the stranger back-flipped out of the way. Bastion and Chloe tried to catch him, but he stopped back-flipping at the last second and ducked under their attempts to slice through him.
He danced on his toes until he backed up to a safe distance.
“Ugh,” James muttered, touching the burning gel on his forehead. “What is this crap?”
“You’ve been marked,” Chloe said.
“Great,” James muttered, gritting his teeth. “Okay, I’m done playing around now.” James’ white eidolon was still in his left hand but now he extended out his right, and a black eidolon shimmered into view. He crouched down low as he felt a surge of energy shooting through his veins, almost pushing his blood out of the way to make room for the raw power that his muscles would need. He felt his body expanding, and yet...the stranger was not impressed.
“Get him,” Bastion said as he began to concentrate on his own innate power. James lunged forward and waited for his chance to strike. He wanted the stranger to be on the defense. To know what it felt like to be afraid. To see what a mistake he made in marking a Master Sage.
But he felt none of that.
James thrust both of his eidolons forward toward the stranger’s chest just as his enemy whipped his sword upwards. The chain wrapped around both of James’ blades and then the stranger pulled. James went sprawling forward but he wasn’t going to end up in the dirt.
James let go of his eidolons and leapt into the air.
He punched the stranger in the face and cocked back his arm to follow up when he felt a blade pierce through his chest. As a numbing sensation paralyzed him, he looked down to see the whip—now just a sword, and the stranger was holding the chained hilt on the other end tightly.
The stranger twisted the blade and James felt his body go limp.
“I’ll be back for your Quietus form,” the stranger whispered in James’ ear—a deep and distant sounding voice that reverberated through James’ body. He shuddered as the stranger removed his blade from James’ chest. James fell face first into the grass and immediately, he began to concentrate on his Quietus form. He had to do it quickly as Bastion and Chloe still needed his help, but even their safety wasn’t what he was most concerned about.
It was how useless he had been.
He was sick of it—feeling helpless when it mattered.
It was as if fighting Thorn had been his peak, and then after that, his enemies were far too strong for him to make any difference. Lakrymos, Orchid...even Bastion had been the one to kill him...and now this stranger. He was sick of it.
He wasn’t sure if it was because he lacked confidence or if he just wasn’t strong enough. Either way, this had to change.
“This is enough,” James growled as his body began to transform. He could feel the scythes beginning to grow from the bones in his forearms. His skin was changing into a slick, oily substance, and his hair was losing its wispy strands. He craned his neck to see how Bastion and Chloe would handle his enemy. He knew they weren’t afraid.
Chloe struck first.
She had swung her longsword toward the stranger’s abdomen, and at the last second, she made her sword five feet longer. The quick maneuver nearly took out a quarter of his side. Yet the stranger didn’t scream or howl. He merely clutched his side with his free hand, stepped back and began healing it. Bastion came up behind him and the stranger pretended not to notice. When Bastion was about to take off his head, the stranger turned around, grabbed Bastion’s blade and kept it at bay.
The stranger dropped his whip sword which vanished into thin air, and then he reached out and marked Bastion’s forehead with the same gel that he had applied to James’. Bastion grunted and tried to push his blade through the stranger’s hand, but his enemy’s grip was tight.
The stranger kicked him square in the chest, and Bastion went flying. Bastion’s eidolon disappeared from the stranger’s hand just as Chloe ran her sword through his abdomen. The stranger accepted the blow, deciding to pivot on one foot and using his spinning momentum to take Chloe’s eidolon out of her hands.
In shock, she could only watch as he reached forward—her eidolon still in his stomach—and put the same gel on her forehead. He then reached forward and wrapped an arm around her neck, pulling her forward.
She grit her teeth and tried to keep him at bay—her hands pressing with all her might on his chest, but he was able to overcome her strength. He gave her a hug, using her body to push her eidolon out of him and through the other side. Then he flipped her onto her butt and began applying pressure to her throat, trying to knock her unconscious.
James tackled him to the ground and began slashing, roaring in his face and clawing at him with all of his might. The stranger blocked as many blows as he could, but James was relentless. Growing tired of the assault, the stranger kicked James off of him and scrambled to his feet as quick as possible.
“You’re not so tough!” Bastion screamed as he nicked the stranger in the collarbone. The stranger went reeling off to the side. He summoned his whip sword but Chloe sliced through it with her eidolon the moment it appeared.
The stranger grumbled something under his breath as James leapt onto his back. He held a scythe high over the stranger’s head, ready to make the kill when a clear substance suddenly wrapped around his enemy’s right forearm.
The stranger brought up his forearm to block the blow and James was ready to pierce right through it entirely.
But instead of severing the arm, James’ scythe shattered on impact.
James was in awe. Whatever substance the man had called upon, it was tougher than anything he could imagine. He had never had one of his scythes broken.
The stranger reached up, grabbed James by the back of the head, and threw him off his shoulders. Bastion lunged in quickly to strike at their enemy, but the stranger pivoted and blocked the blow with his right forearm—shattering Bastion’s eidolon instantly.
Bastion wasn’t fazed.
He summoned another eidolon and struck at the stranger again.
The result was the same.
Bastion summoned another. And another. And another. And another.
Every eidolon shattered.
“Bastion, stop!” Chloe shouted as she sheathed her own eidolon. “It’s not working.”
Bastion’s eyes grew heavy and his body began swaying from all of the lost energy. The stranger reached out, grabbed his throat, and lifted him off of the ground. James lunged to help, but their enemy threw Bastion’s lifeless body into him.
Chloe sucked her teeth.
A crack of the sky was heard up above, and then a pillar of light engulfed her. Her robe billowed in the wind as her hair exploded outwards. It was no longer in a bun. Every strand of her hair shot outwards, forming many spikes. Her eyes turned to silver and her irises were lost in the transformation. Her body swelled and she frowned in determination.
The stranger’s wounds were healed by the time she was done, and he stood tall and strong with his chin held high, waiting for her to strike.
Chloe’s body crackled with electricity, and her hands were shaking. She took a deep breath and took one step forward.
“Who are you?” she bellowed, but the stranger had no reply. “I said...who are you?”
“Who I am doesn’t matter,” he replied. “What matters is what comes next.”
“And what is that?” she asked.
“The suffering.”
“Who’s to suffer?”
“The Sages,” he replied.
“But you’re a Sage.”
“Am I?” he asked.
“Stop the games,” she shouted. “Tell me what I want to know.”
The stranger sneered. “You Sages and your force.”
“Tell me,” she demanded. “Who are you? Either tell me or I will come to you. And I know that you can sense what I’ve become. I’m stronger than you are.”
“There’s more than one way to win a battle,” he replied. “Strength isn’t everything. Bastion’s stronger than I am. It didn’t matter.”
“So you know who he is. You know who we are.”
“But you don’t know who I am. And that makes all the difference.”
The stranger made the first move, running forward so fast that Chloe was caught off guard. She reached out to summon her eidolon but he was already upon her. He slapped his bony palm against her forehead and sent her reeling backwards.
“Modulate,” he said.
And Chloe screamed.
James leapt to his feet and ran at the stranger as quickly as possible, but his enemy was done with Chloe. The stranger leapt back, pivoted, and roundhouse kicked James in the face the moment he was in striking distance. James fell right alongside Chloe, and when he looked back up, their enemy was nowhere to be found.
Even the grass and flowers underneath his feet had been replaced.
There was no trace of him. It was as if he had never existed.
“Chloe!” James shouted, trying to shake her. She didn’t appear hurt, but she was definitely unconscious. Her hair had settled back to normal. Her power had waned, and her sundress had reappeared instead of her Sage robes. James glanced up and back at Bastion. He too was knocked out.
He glanced behind him, and his eyes widened.
In the distance, his enemy waited for him. Watching him. Seeing what he would do.
James clenched his jaw and closed his eyes.
He couldn’t leave Chloe and Bastion behind. Someone might snatch them. He had to stay by their side. He had to—
“James?” Kyran asked as he and Arimus approached from his side. They had been jogging toward him but he hadn’t noticed.
“Watch them,” James growled as he took off running toward his prey. The stranger waited until he was a tenth of a mile away, and then he began running in kind. James bared down and picked up the pace, using his Quietus legs to propel him even faster.
He couldn’t catch up to the stranger though. No matter how hard he tried. But his enemy eventually had mercy on him. He stopped in his tracks and waited for him.
James shed his Quietus form, allowing it to roll off of him like a blanket as he slowly stood to his feet. The stranger waited with arms crossed, watching him with a bored expression on his face.
“What did you do to her?” James asked him.
“You will find out,” he replied.
“That’s not good enough.”
“What does it matter?” he asked. “You can’t change anything. You should be more worried about Catherine. Poor, poor, Catherine.”
“What about her?” James snapped. The stranger narrowed his eyes.
“She’s down there on Terra, all alone. Being attacked by who knows what. It’s a shame that you can’t protect her.”
“She’s fine,” James said. “I know she is.”
“Why aren’t you down there, James? Hmm? What’s keeping you? Is it because you’re afraid? Afraid of her seeing what you’ve become?”
“And what’s that?”
“One who is unworthy. When was the last time the two of you have truly been together? Not for decades. Even when Lakrymos appeared, you stayed in Allay and she left. You reunited but then you were killed. And since then you’ve been up here. And I think...I think it’s because you’re a different man than the one she remembers. You’ve done things. You’ve killed innocent people. You are no longer pure like you once were. I mean, Achan was denied Catherine’s hand because he was a traitor. I can only think of what will happen when she finds out you’re a murderer. Of course she’ll still love you, but be with you? No. She can’t do that. She can’t give her heart to a stranger. And that’s what you are now, James. A stranger. That’s why you won’t talk to your friend, Achan. Because you see yourself in him. You see your future staring you right in the face.”
“You don’t know anything.”
“I know plenty,” he said. He looked toward the sky. “Do you know why none of you will be able to beat me? Listen up, now. I’m telling you one of my secrets.”
“What?”
“It’s because my abilities are tied right into the atmosphere. At a moment’s notice, I can call upon it to cover me. To protect me. And I can increase the density as much as I like for there will always be plenty of the atmosphere for me to draw from.”
“You’re using the air?”
“Not air....the atmosphere. The accumulation of all it entails. The water. The molecules. The energy. All of it. I was born from it. I was created from it. I was designed...to put an end to all that threatens it.”
“You act like it’s alive.”
“It’s not in the way you think of it...but there’s no point in explaining all of the intricate details to you. You won’t understand. All you care about is how you’re losing strength because of the changes around you. That is the Sage way. You can’t see past your own two eyes.”
“Then enlighten me.”
“Oh I will,” he said, giving James a smirk. “I will teach you using the only methods in which you can possibly understand. By trial, and by fire.”
“What do you want?”
“Ask that question later. After you have opened your mind up a bit.”
“What did you do to Chloe?”
“The questions don’t matter right now. What you should really be worried about is that leg.”
“What?” James glanced down at his legs and noticed that his left one had just been severed at the knee. The stranger’s whip retracted back into his hands. James fell onto his butt and groaned as he clutched his wound, trying to block out the throbbing ache and instead concentrate on healing it. Frantically, his eyes darted back to his enemy, knowing that he was now in a very vulnerable position.
But the stranger didn’t continue the assault.
“That’s just so you won’t chase me,” he said, giving James a nod and throwing his leg at his side. The stranger took off and James shouted at his back, but his enemy had no reason to return. James grunted and continued the healing process, trying to get his severed leg to reattach. But it was too slow, and after a few minutes had passed, he realized that there was no hope of catching up to his enemy.
“Darn it,” James muttered under his breath, hating the silence that surrounded him. He almost wished the stranger had attacked further. Maybe then he would have found a way to fight back. Perhaps he would have reached some new pinnacle of strength by being pushed to his limits.
But no.
He was left in the grass, nursing his wound and wondering what in Oblivion happened.
He heard the crunching of grass behind him. He didn’t bother turning around. He was sure it was Arimus, Kyran and the others, ready to hear what happened. But he wasn’t in the mood to report a thing.
He still felt helpless.
“No more,” James said under his breath. “No more.”
