Chapter 119, 1/2

Chapter 119, 1/2

Gleaming crystal towers dominated the horizon in every distant direction, some of those towers only a dozen kilometers away, others, over 50. If this were any other part of the world and if those towers were of normal size, then Erick wouldn’t have been able to see them past the curvature of Veird. But Erick was in the Brightwater, at least 20 kilometers below the surface of the planet, and yet he was only halfway down to the bottom of this place. The Brightwater District was a massive bowl, where bright white light hovered at the bottom like a perpetual cloud, hiding sight of the civilization that existed on the coasts of the lake at the center of it all.

This was a land where Shades had played at civilization for over 900 years.

But no longer.

Erick stepped through the sky, evading the woman chasing him, not exactly sure how to defuse the situation.

Caizoa, some last name, had been a member of a Wasteland-led party that had completed an artifact run of Ar’Kendrithyst’s Armory. She and her people had won the Black Star; a greater artifact of Koyabez that provided total immunity to everything, as well as allowed the user to find their target across entire worlds. Erick had understood the Black Star was supposed to go to someone else, but Caizoa now wore the Black Star upon her blue armor, like a burnt brooch, as she continued to follow Erick through the sky, crying some of the way. It was hard to tell. Her body and blue armor was like billowing sand, that moved as she moved like a demon possessed.

Technically, she was a demon. All incani were demons. Or, at least she would be, when she finally died her final death, and her soul slipped away to the pink moon in the sky known as Hell. Caizoa wouldn’t be dying for a long time, though. Not with that Black Star on her chest.

And that part frustrated Erick. She had that Black Star because she was going to use it to kill the Converter Angel out there, threatening the rest of the incani on Glaquin. Erick wasn’t quite sure what was going on here, and why she was gunning for him, but even if she managed to kill him, then she would die, wouldn’t she? According to what Quilatalap said, the Black Star decides the wearer's fate for each life they take. If she killed Erick, then wouldn’t she be killed in return?

Erick knew he was not some beacon of purity, or innocence, or anything like that. But he highly doubted that as an Avowed Pacifist, already vetted by the same god that empowered the Black Star, that Koyabez would be okay with his Black Star being used to kill him. Especially when Erick had already promised to use his power to hunt down the Converter Angel, himself.

So how had this happened? What sort of chain of events had led to Caizoa rushing at Erick with murder in her eyes and hatred in every swing of her three-meter long blue sword? Maybe Erick would never know. He certainly wasn’t going to find out right now, at least.

Caizoa screamed murder and stepped through the sky, trailing sand as she moved through the wind, coming just close enough to be too close. Erick stepped away, well before she could latch onto him with her tether. She screamed again, more frustrated than angry, this time.

Erick decided: Tania must have something to do with all of this nonsense.

Erick spoke through the light of the sky, his voice easily sounding over the hundreds of meters to Caizoa for he was not willing to get close, “Hey, Caizoa. What’s wrong?”

She screamed, “You killed my friends!”

“I did no such thing.” Erick thought for a moment, then asked, “Did Fallopolis do something?”

Caizoa yelled, “Of course she did! All you humans work together! All of you deserve to die!”

Erick decided there was only one way this was going to go.

He let her get close to him a dozen times. He let her attach her tether, several times. Each time, he moved his sunform self and the tethered part of him into Caizoa’s attack, and let her sever her own tether. Instead of telling her that her attacks were useless, he showed her.

She screamed obscenities. She recounted a dozen atrocities that Erick had never heard of. She spoke of the ‘weak-willed’ nobles who they had to kill to get their hands on the Black Star, to do what needed to be done.

“We had a plan!” Caizoa said, completely unfazed by how hard she had been fighting. She probably used some healing spells to keep her Health high, or maybe the Black Star negated the need for such resources, or maybe she had some Dexterity, cutting down on the Health costs of all her physical [Strike]s. “Then those pigfuckers wanted to get in bed with you! All because you promised them a [Gate] Network! But you’re a lying human!” She attacked. Erick let her, and then extricated himself from her attack as easy as a lizard leaving behind a tail. She screamed. She yelled, “As soon as you figure out that [Gate], you’re going to open portals to Celes! And then we’re all going to die!”

Erick had been silent up till then, but he couldn’t let those words stand unchallenged. “I would never do such a thing.”

“LIAR!”

“I would no—”

She yelled at him, drowning out his words as she continued to attack.

So Erick flickered the light next to her, ensuring that his voice could be heard and she could not drown him out, “Melemizargo wants a [Gate] to the moons as a part of his plan to destroy and harm the Script and Veird. Therefore, I would never make a [Gate] to the moons. To any of them.”

She stopped, her feet swirling sand as she hovered. With a crazed smile on her face and hate in her eyes, she happily said, “Then I guess I don’t need to fight you and kill you, do I! Okay! Nice! Why don’t you come closer so I can give you a hug.”

“... Take off the Black Star, first.”

She laughed out hate, and yelled, “I can’t! It’s a part of me until I die or displease it! You’ll just have to trust me that everything is fine, now!”

“I think I preferred when you were actively hunting me.” Erick said, “At least that felt more honest.”

She roared, and advanced, quickly covering the distance between them. Erick let it happen.

She attached her ethereal tether to his sunform and proceeded to swing her blue greatsword. Erick evaded without moving, having grown used to her simple attack style. She would attack and Erick would flow his sunform around her attack. Sometimes, she would attack, and then [Strike] in a different direction, rapidly shifting the arc of her sword, but even that much damage was not much of a threat.

He messed up a few times, and according to his mana sense and the density of his [Personal Ward], Caizoa was knocking off at least 50,000 defensive power with each [Strike]. It was a good thing his [Personal Ward] was worth 280,000 effective-Health, as Jane had called it once. But 50,000 wasn’t too much of a hit, and that only happened four times. Besides, it seemed that for all the Black Star’s power, even Caizoa wasn’t exempt from the Script’s 1 second global cooldown. Most of her attacks were normal sword swings.

Erick disengaged again, having Caizoa [Strike] her own tether to break her from him. She nearly didn’t hit her tether, this time, for she, too, was gaining some measure of acclimation to Erick’s flowing defense. But she did hit her tether, and then she roared again; inarticulate and angry.

Erick got far enough away to spend 17,000 mana to recast his [Personal Ward]. That much mana would come back over 13 minutes, but regenerating 200,000 defense would take about 2.5 hours. Erick did not have time for that. He did, however, have time to talk more to Caizoa, and to help her come to her senses.

... He probably had time.

Erick was up to 10 Ophiel, and he had eyes on a great deal of the Brightwater. Shades were killing Shades, all over, and none of them were currently coming after him, though he knew that would certainly change in the near future.

Over there, by the Palace District, Fallopolis was still fighting Queen. Fallopolis sent black beams thick as towers and black lightning fast as thinking at Queen, while Queen retaliated with kilometer-wide elemental roils and bounced black beams back at Fallopolis with elemental shields. It looked exactly as Erick figured an archmage duel would look. Way too flashy. Way too deadly. The Palace District was already burning down below, while bodies laid where they had fallen, and people tried to escape. Most of them rushed into the crystal towers outside of the Palace District, but it was not truly safe there, either.

A shade made of blood, who Erick now recognized as Crimsonair, the human Shade of Blood, stalked those clear-crystal districts, blood slashing through crystal towers like a storm of blades, searching for the opponent who had fled and destroying much of the land in the process. As a tower fell like some great tree, it fell toward the Brightwater, falling like a slow moving bomb, and then speeding up as it finally fell forward enough to fall free, into the Brightwater. Cascades of glowing water showered into the sky, as a great thwap sounded across the greater district.

Erick did not see where Crimsonair’s target, Cludolphis, the incani Shade of Mending, went. She was the one responsible for repairing the destruction of the larger battlefields. Erick could only wonder at what she was thinking right now, as Shade fought Shade, openly, and with all their might. Only a few crystal towers were falling forward, and into the brightwater. Some were collapsing where they broke, and then further breaking as they fell straight down, smashing and crashing and breaking as they went. Erick watched, momentarily, as he saw three parts of the bowl of the Brightwater District fall right then, in three very separate parts of the area. He held his breath, as some of those broken towers stopped falling.

The broken crystal just hovered there, like the levitating mountains in Truedark.

An explosion rocked the land to the north; the Temple District. Erick watched as a citadel tower of the Temple District began to teeter, as shadowflames licked up its length. And then that sight went out of sight, as Caizoa forced him further west.

Erick found himself on the shores of Truedark Arcanaeum. Just beyond Erick laid a land where mountains floated on nothing and the majority of Brightwater’s people lived. He had no real population numbers, but from his investigations just yesterday...

There were hundreds of thousands of people down there, and with a glance, Erick saw that the fight had progressed to this place, too. Castles made of stone were on fire. Mountains had been turned half-liquid, to fall upon the communities below and bury people under a billion tons of rock. Here and there amid the destruction, were giant balls of stone, literally half the size of the melted mountains.

Erick watched as Farix fought someone else; another incani, actually. Erick took a moment to pin down who the other guy was, and came up blank. No distinguishing magics, so far; many different Shades used stone magics. No distinguishing features, and it wasn’t like Killzone offered pictures of the Clergy.

Farix threw arcing [Force Bombs] that exploded the sky in various colors. The other guy picked up 500 meters of a mudslide, turned it into a giant ball, and hurled it at Farix, all in one smooth, fast motion. Ah. That was a recognizable spell. Erick knew the second guy, now. He was Mallor, the Shade of Granite. According to Killzone, he oversaw the Bottom Wall of Ar’Kendrithyst, down in the deep dark of the Lower Reaches. He was tied with Salvolanche, the human Shade of Stone, for weakest Shade in the city.

Mallor’s ball missed, because Farix dodged that shit as easily as stepping to the side. And then the ball hit the side of a mountain a kilometer away, obliterating several houses as it buried halfway into the dirt.

That was bad.

Erick decided to get involved.

He stepped toward the battlefield, leaving Caizoa far behind. Her fading roar of hatred vanished into the background as Erick stepped to the air a good distance from the fighting Shades. Farix and Mallor both noticed, right away. How could they not? Erick was a giant ball of sunshine right now, after all.

Erick asked, “What’s happening, guys?”

Farix yelled, “Tania has gone fucking insane! She’s killing everyone!”

“She has every right to kill whoever she wants!” Mallor yelled, “Lay down and die, Farix! If you don’t fight with us, you’re against us!”

Farix added, “And this fucker thinks she won’t kill him in the coming purge!”

Erick avoided Caizoa attacking from behind. Farix and Mallor paused their own fight to watch Erick’s and Caizoa’s, as the blue incani sliced through thin air, and Erick stepped back down onto the light of the sky, a good two hundred meters from where he was before. Caizoa screamed in impotence.

Erick thumbed at Caizoa. “Happen to know why she thinks I don’t want to help kill the Converter Angel?”

“Anopix didn’t trust you, and Tania doesn’t either!” Caizoa yelled, “Now hold still and die!”

“Yes.” Mallor sneered and spoke with wild glee, “Yes! Kill the Angel-fucker!”

Mallor acted faster than Caizoa. He magically gripped a good hundred meters of mud below, wrapped it into a ball, and hurtled it at Erick, all in under a second, breaking the sound barrier with the ball of rock as it rocketed his way. Erick dodged, of course—

... That ball wouldn’t hit a home somewhere, would it? ... No. Probably not. Erick had been at the wrong angle. The ball continued on into the sky, arcing upward and... Shit. It probably would hit something.

Erick stepped a bit higher into the sky, just in time for the next stone orb to come his way. An Ophiel shot off a [Prismatic Breaker] at the spell, which, of course, did nothing. It was stone moving at a very, very high speed, after all. But Erick didn’t stop there. Another Ophiel attempted to grab the passing boulder with [Stoneshape], and that, surprisingly, also still did nothing. Must have been Domain-empowered? That was the most obvious answer.

Erick stepped closer to Mallor, evading another orb, as Mallor ripped rocks from the ground and flattened them into rough blades. With a twist of his hands, Mallor sent the blades spinning around him like he was the center of the world’s largest blender—

As an Ophiel stepped into the blades, behind the Shade, sacrificing itself to cast a [Luminous Trap], while a second Ophiel, far out of the range of the blades, cast his entire self into the Variable cost to summon an ethereal blood ooze. That red goo gleefully slithered through the sky, slipping through spinning stone with the barest of resistance to strike Mallor right as the black orb sucked him into its dark depths.

Erick summoned another Ophiel, in preparation for something else to happen.

A black orb locked around Mallor. The blood ooze theoretically locked down his spell work. The swirling spikes fell to the ground. The mud below turned solid; maybe Mallor had been actively controlling it? Erick didn’t test his trap too thoroughly. He just stepped to the side, keeping well out of Mallor’s range but repositioning at the same time. As a second of no response turned into five, Erick noticed that while no part of Mallor stuck out of the black orb, the blood ooze did. The pokey parts of the red ooze moved around the void-black globe like suddenly raised and lowered islands of red gelatin. Mallor must have been struggling inside.

Erick was struggling outside, too, but only with the fact that his plan had actually worked. He still didn’t believe that [Luminous Trap] actually did what it looked to be doing. It was too useful against the Shades. But then again, maybe [Luminous Trap] was just the Shade-equivalent of a vampire’s weakness to sunlight?

... Did vampires exist on Veird?

Ah. Not now.

Erick let [Hunter’s Instincts] carry him right back to the moment; right back to the fight.

Because Caizoa looked to fuck up Erick’s [Luminous Trap] by sand-stepping right at the black void, with her sword raised, and then cleaving down with shadows licking the blade’s edge. A [Dispelling Strike]? Perhaps.

Farix, not one to miss an opportunity, had been preparing his own strike ever since Mallor was locked to the black orb. The Shade’s was a bit more magical than the warrior’s. About fifty coruscating [Force Bomb]s launched from Farix, to impact the black orb, right as Caizoa slashed through that void with her sword. Mallor’s rebirth into the world was cut short, as that part of the world briefly turned to burning reality.

Caizoa came out of that event completely unharmed.

Mallor did not.

As the pulsing, burning bombs finally dissipated, a burned corpse fell through the sky, further igniting as it did, turning to ash and dust, well before it could reach the solid land below. Mallor had died. Erick got a Participation Box for the kill. 70%. It wasn’t enough for a level. But...

He... He didn’t know how he felt about that.

In the process of thinking about Mallor’s death, Erick had accidentally let Caizoa get close enough to reapply her tether. Erick dodged a little, not making much of an effort to actually escape the attack and yet still doing so, as he wondered, again, how he felt about unintentionally killing a Shade. Caizoa roared, again. And as a matter of fact, now that her roar happened again, he noticed that it had been a rather constant roar, every minute and a half or thereabouts.

He asked, “Is that a [Roar] buff, or something you keep applying to yourself? I can’t really see anything that you do under all that divine fire.”

She did not answer, except to stare, as she attempted to cut him down. Again.

Farix noticed, and from a safe distance, asked, “What’s up with little miss Black Star and you?”

Erick moved himself out of the way of another [Strike]. “I have no idea.”

Caizoa attacked a dozen times before she could release another proper [Strike], which Erick also evaded. He was getting better at this, and Caizoa was only marginally improving. Her [Strike], characterized by the rapid directional shift of her sword, was her only truly dangerous attack, and that was on a 20 second timer.

Farix asked, “She does know that you’re obligated to help with the Converter Angel, right?”

Erick said, “I’m thinking that Tania wiped her memory selectively, or something. Maybe Quilatalap did it, for whatever reason. Obligations, perhaps? He did mention that memory wipes were necessary when giving out items like the Black Star.”

“No one touched my memory!” Caizoa roared, “You’re just the enemy in front of me and none of us are getting out of here for another six days!”

Farix crossed his arms, and said, “You could theoretically kill Tania and break the Feast Barrier, little girl, if you could actually manage to hit true occasionally.” He lifted one hand up, as if wondering what the fuck Caizoa was even thinking, as he said, “But then again, what the fuck are you even thinking, attacking any one of us at your level of mediocrity?”

“EVERYONE ELSE IS DEAD.”

Farix laughed. “So? Quilatalap can resurrect them.”

Caizoa swung her sword, empowering the 3 meter blue blade with a [Strike]. Erick flexed his sunform, and had her hit her own tether, releasing him from her grasp. He stepped away, getting well out of her range. Maybe, in a normal situation with normal 1-second global cooldowns, Caizoa would have been more of a threat. She could have almost instantly reapplied her tether. But in here, where it was 20 seconds between Skill use, Caizoa was rather mediocre.

Caizoa stared bloody murder at Erick, as she stood there, in the sky, her extremities and blue armor swirling away like sand off of a sandcastle, only to come back to her body to replace what had been blown away. Erick studied those sandy movements for a moment. She must have been running a [Stone Body] and [Air Body] at the same time. Erick had heard of Jane’s experience with a guy that ran [Air Body] and [Water Body] at the same time; that guy had looked like a seafoam wave in the shape of a person. Stone and Air, though, combined to make Sand, so that was normal enough.

Erick wondered, if he got [Greater Shadowalk], could he make himself an [Illusionwalk]? He probably could. But... Eh. He liked his sunform. If he went for an illusion form, then he’d need to make a [Domain of Illusion], too.

It was something to consider for the future, anyway.

Caizoa faced Farix. “Help me kill him and I won’t kill you.”

Erick watched as Farix burst into laughter.

“Ha!” The Shade shook his head at Caizoa, saying, “No wonder Tania gave you that Black Star. You’re an idiot.”

“And you’re a disgrace to incani and demons everywhere.”

Farix blinked a few times, then mumbled, “Like every stupid kid on their first day at Truedark—” He spoke louder, asking, “When you look at Erick, what do you see?”

“A human that will betray his oath to kill the Converter Angel the first chance he gets!” Caizoa said, “And it won’t be because he won’t try. He’ll fail because he will get too close to the Angel and fall under their sway, like all the others who had done so! Therefore, he must die before he gets too close to the bastard and becomes a threat unlike any other.”

Erick paused in thought. But only for a second. He said, “You have to get near them, right? That won’t happen.”

Caizoa glared at him from a hundred meters away. “You are an arrogant asshole. You would try to talk to the Angels, and they would turn you, and then use you against the rest of us.” She hefted her sword. “If you truly wish to assist our cause, please stand still, so that I can end a threat before it becomes one.”

“Ah. Interesting.” Farix said, “You have thought this out, if only a little.”

Caizoa’s glare shifted toward Farix, who was also a hundred meters from her. The three of them formed a sort-of triangle in the air, at the moment. She said, “You should die, too. But as a respect toward my late Uncle Anopix, I will let you live, if you help me kill Erick.”

“I repeat: you have only thought this out a little. You don’t actually know what the fuck you’re talking about, at all, and that includes your assessment of your ability to hurt me.” Farix waved. “Bye!”

He vanished in a flashing, black step.

And that fact broke more than a few of them. Priestess had been broken, too. It was hard for Erick to imagine a sane person doing what she had done, even if it was true that she had come back to life multiple times because of Melemizargo’s desire. Erick doubted that all of those parishioners would be coming back. Did Priestess not see that?

Did Erick have that right? Priestess had been the off and on priestess for Melemizargo’s Clergy since before the Sundering. She was only a skeleton because she was an alvani, the child of an angel and a human, and alvani were impossible under the Script, ever since the Old Demons had killed all the Halves and made the incani.

... Erick put away those old thoughts. They were getting him nowhere.

The Temple District was gone. The fires that burned had been extinguished, either when the black bomb destroyed the place, or when the land had melted into liquid and then cooled into glass. Here and there, parts of the place had survived; the lee behind a particularly large temple, or where a boxy, sturdy building had managed to be buried by the blast, instead of being blown apart like so many others.

With a cold detachment, Erick thought about calling in some rains to cool the place down. But if he put water down there, it would steam up, and maybe kill anyone who had managed to find a place to hide out?

... No. That made no sense. Anyone down there who survived...

No one survived that. And if they did, they were probably under the glass, and praying that it would cool down faster.

Unsure what he was even doing anymore, but knowing that he really, really wanted to make it rain because he liked the rain and he felt like doing something that he wanted to do, Erick had an Ophiel cast a [Control Weather] into the sky, and hoped that it would be enough for whoever still lived; if anyone. It would take a while for the rains to fall, though. The Temple District was a good 30 kilometers below the surface of Veird.

The blackened sky turned to cold wind.

Five minutes passed before the rain reached all the way down to the glassed land, turning black as it fell through the sky above. Another four minutes passed before the rain managed to remain liquid long enough to actually touch the black glass. It didn’t remain liquid for long. Steam filled the sky. More minutes passed. Half a kilometer away, Caizoa stood in the air, her eyes affixed to the land ahead, tears rolling down her face. Erick could only guess at what she was seeing, and what she was thinking.

The Brightwater glowed down below, but Erick’s rains washed black ash into those waters, forming dark tendrils of ink that seemed to poison the light, dimming the radiance, turning the world a little bit colder. The glass of the Temple District crackled with a sound not unlike breaking glaciers.

With a thought, Erick moved on. He needed to find allies, right?

... Or he could help people survive this current crisis.

There were two ways to go about this. He could hunt Shades, and prevent more Red Dots from happening, or, he could... try to rescue people? Doing the first would automatically do the second.

... Whatever the case, he could try a different method to search for Shades. He considered the core at the center of each of them. Fallopolis had one. Priestess had one. Maybe they all did. What did it look like again? Oh yeah. A 10-15 cm wide white sphere, right where the stomach would be. Could he just search for something of that general size?

He tried it.

He got over three hundred positive results.

He almost sat down in the air and had a cry. 300 Shades? Fuck!

And then he noticed that only some of the blue dots moved around. The others were stationary. Maybe he had simply managed to get multiple results with his single search? It seemed likely. Or, at least, it seemed possible.

With [Hunter’s Instincts] allowing him to work through the pain in his heart, Erick decided to check the two orbs that remained in the Temple District, first.

The first orb was locked under a wave of black glass and inside of a building. With a wave of [Stoneshape], that glass came away like so much churning mud, to fall out and over into the pouring rain. The uncovered orb was nothing special. It was locked to the claws of a sculpture of Melemizargo, in what had likely been some sort of small worship center. It was almost like a grand-rad, in that it was solidified magic and a knot in the manasphere denser than most grand-rads, both sucking in and expelling mana in some sort of natural flow. It was definitely similar to the sphere at the center of Priestess, though Erick had never seen this kind of ‘flow’ among Priestess’s body, or the body of any other Shades. Maybe this was a dead Shade-core? Or something?

Erick left it behind, and stepped over to the other blue dot on the map.

He found what remained of Hollowsaur. Or, at least, what might have been Hollowsaur.

A plume of black glass rose from the surroundings, like a singular wave crested out of nowhere. Most of the interior was clouded, but Erick spied the searched-for orb inside of a charred skeleton. The bones were of orcol size, with a skull that had large lower fangs, exactly like an orcol. The orb was whole. The skeleton’s arms were crossed over the chest, protectively. Slight magics radiated from the white sphere, giving a gentle glow to the surrounding glass. This... was probably Hollowsaur.

... Was he still alive?

If Erick wasn’t in his sunform, he was sure he would have felt his heart sink. Hollowsaur’s orb still glowed. He might still be alive. So, the next question naturally flowed: Could Erick murder this man? Was that the right thing to do? To murder in cold blood, when presented the head of an enemy-of-the-world? Erick gazed upon the trapped skeleton with several sights. He felt himself go cold, even though the glass all around him was still billowing steam into the air, as he recognized a truth.

Erick whispered, “Holy shit you’re still alive.”

Hollowsaur responded with a pulse of light from his core that left him dimmer than before. Erick had an Ophiel set a [Weather Ward] up above to keep the black rain off of them.

“Severely weakened.” Erick said, “But alive.”

Erick watched as Hollowsaur’s orb ebbed brighter, radiating some sort of anger, but then it cracked, dimmed, and darkened; A candle flickering its last breath.

Panic swelled.

From the deepest, most true part of himself, Erick knew he could not kill this man. Not like this. Never like this. And yet, he couldn’t let the Shade die. And yet, he also couldn’t let him live.

Something else swelled in the mana and in the shadows and light all around. Power built, and demanded to be used. Like a flickering light on a dark street at night, Erick saw a way forward where he wouldn’t have to kill. After all, Veird was a world of magic.

And the solutions of ‘kill or regret’ was a silly binary, when you truly thought it over. Erick decided a few crucial things about himself in that moment. He decided to make his first Blessing.

Or maybe it was a Curse? Hard to say. ‘Both’ was surely an option, too.

Erick decided he wouldn't let his curse be a noose around Hollowsaur’s neck. It had to be something else. Something more honorable than that. Something that included way too much soul magic that Erick had read about, but not yet truly tested.

But that was okay, too.

Erick turned to flesh and bone, and breathed in the harsh air all around him, feeling the mana as it flowed through his body, and around his soul. It felt like an old friend visiting for the holiday.

“Hollowsaur.” Erick’s voice rumbled, “Hear me. This is a binding. You will accept it, or you will die.”

Hollowsaur’s corpse flickered, angrily, and then reluctantly. His orb glowed, for perhaps the last time. And then his defenses lowered, completely. Erick watched as the Shade’s soul unfurled, the Shroud breaking, exposing the interior, opening like a flower. And then Hollowsaur’s Shroud dropped, completely.

Erick saw Hollowsaur, in that moment, as he spoke in cadence, “A little help from me to thee, a blessing for you now to see, the people in the light who plea, for worldswhere Shadesare loved to be. Amends you’ll make eventually, a life well lived, a life lived free, but till thenthere is to be, a leash round you, without a key. Now tell me true, are we to see, the end of woe; rebirth of thee?”

Something swirled in Erick’s own aura, like the start of a tsunami in the middle of the ocean, right after a quake had been set off far, far below. Without buildup, that wave crashed through Erick. A pulse from his soul erupted outward, blinding in its intensity of need, dimming his sight as it passed like an unseen weight upon the world.

That unseen weight flowed from Erick, into the dark glass, and into the body below the surface, wrapping around Hollowsaur’s core before sinking in and becoming one with the Shade’s entire being. The Shade’s Shroud folded back inward, a flower closing, back to how it had been before Erick had demanded the man’s life, and everything that went with it.

For a startling moment, Erick wondered what the fuck he had just done. And then he put aside thoughts of warcrimes and mind control. This obviously wasn’t mind control, after all. It was a blessing of sight and emotion that would link Hollowsaur back to the people he had tormented his entire life.

... If Erick had fucked up, maybe he would know sooner, rather than later.

A blue box appeared.

Blessing of Empathy, 30 seconds, Sound + Understanding + Acceptance, 1500 mana

Blessing magnifies when harm is committed.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

That line of smaller boxes was inscrutable and worrying, but that was a thought for another time.

Erick acted fast. With one Ophiel, he instantly [Stoneshape]d the dark glass out from around the Shade, rapidly excavating Hollowsaur’s front half before taking a bit more care with the bones, and with the dull orb in the center of it all. Free of his glassy prison, the orb began rapidly sucking up mana, becoming a well in the manasphere, as all power flowed in.

The crack in the orb repaired itself, mostly. Blood appeared out of shadows, to flow into veins and arteries that came out of nowhere, and were supported on invisible scaffolding. And then the flow of mana flickered. The orb shimmered, and cracked again, as all the blood and nascent organs in Hollowsaur’s body fell from their scaffolding. The man was dying.

Erick hadn’t done enough.

But what could he do to help, more? He wasn’t too sure, but he had some ideas.

With a thought, Erick had the Ophiel with his go-bag, who was currently stationed far out of sight, step across the Brightwater and into sight, carrying the rod of [Greater Treat Wounds] and a canteen of water. While that was happening, Erick had another Ophiel conjure a [Prismatic Ward] above the Shade’s body, while another [Stoneshape] turned the glass cavity into a true bowl, cupping all of Hollowsaur like a massive bathtub. The canteen of water emptied into an Ophiel’s grip, inside the [Prismatic Ward]. With a flick of [Cleanse] to clean out the water and the glass around Hollowsaur, but not Hollowsaur himself, an Ophiel released his [Duplication Aura]. Erick controlled the flow with his own solid lightform, so the high-pressure flow didn’t harm Hollowsaur. In a short while, Erick raised the water level around Hollowsaur, until the Shade was fully covered with minor-mana-potion water.

Shades were beings of mana, right? Erick had even trapped Hollowsaur and that other guy, Mallor, into a [Luminous Trap]. So even if they looked solid, they were not truly physical. Maybe. So a mana potion would help, right? Too bad Erick didn’t have any of those. The few stocks of potions he had seen in his various searches of this land, were here, in the Temple District, and those potions were very much gone.

The dark scaffold supporting Hollowsaur’s bones and bloody bits reappeared under the mana waters. As Erick watched, arteries and organs seemed to fluff up, as his white-orb center began to glow again.

With a command, another Ophiel turned on his [Cleanse Aura], but he didn’t inundate all of Hollowsaur at once. That would probably disturb the bones and building body parts too much. Instead, he manually moved the [Cleanse Aura] around the man, touching bones and blood, letting loose thick air under the water, like champagne bubbles. The veins around those bones were disturbed, but they came back into position fast enough.

Hollowsaur’s body came together even faster.

Erick touched the body with the rod of [Greater Treat Wounds].

Hollowsaur’s orb finally healed, the crack vanishing like it never was, as mana swirled down from all around, into the tank. Three seconds later, with a new heart sitting above his white orb, that heart pumped blood, and filled the tank with red. Erick was still able to watch with his mana sense, and an Ophiel’s [Blood Sight], as Hollowsaur repaired himself over the course of five minutes, eventually sucking all the water in the tank into his reformed body, exposing deep green skin that was unmarred by the man’s usual scars.

Erick sighed, hoping he had done the right thing.

Hollowsaur opened his eyes. They were not as bright as they had been, but they were still white. He said nothing, as he breathed. He stared up at nothing, while he laid there in his tank, and the world rained black waters all around their little [Weather Ward]ed area, but not upon him, or Erick, or Ophiel.

Hollowsaur clenched his fist at his side, then relaxed, as he touched the glass under himself. He sat up. He would not look at Erick. Erick did not speak, or force him to acknowledge anything.

A moment passed.

Hollowsaur gazed to his side, at the black glass landscape. Black rivulets ran down [Weather Ward] above, while Hollowsaur continued to stare.

Tears collected in his white eyes, and rolled off his face.

Erick waited.

Eventually, Hollowsaur said, “We’re not what he wants. I thought we were. Through everything... We did what he wanted... But it wasn’t... It wasn’t what he actually wanted. Was it?”

“A lot of people go through life pursuing things that are not good for them. I doubt the gods are any different than the rest of us.” Erick had made his voice kind, but now he turned stern, “The only way this is going to function is if you actually want to and then work towards a better future. Otherwise this arrangement is over before it can even begin.”

Hollowsaur laughed. He rubbed his eyes with the back of an arm. “Yeah.” He said, “I’m aware of the contract.” He breathed out, “Shit.” He touched his chest, and Erick saw the Shade’s soul flex. He said, “That’s some fucking... Some fucking Curse you got there.” He suddenly sobbed into his hands, heaving for a moment, right before his emotions overtook him and he just cried.

Erick watched as Hollowsaur’s soul turned chaotic and restless, and his heart beat hard atop the white core underneath. He watched as tendrils of something hopeful reached out from the man, attempting to connect to something out in the world, but failing. Erick wasn’t sure why he thought that Hollowsaur was trying to connect to someone, but it made sense. Or maybe Erick was just ascribing his own ideas to what he was seeing.

Hollowsaur suddenly cried even more, as he muttered, “Oooh, Spot. Fang...” He asked himself, “Why did I do that? Why... Why...”

Erick felt like reaching out to the man, but the day was young, and the war was still happening out there. So he said, “Hollowsaur.”

Hollowsaur snapped, “What?! Damn you!” Hollowsaur dropped his hands, showing a face full of anger. And then he blinked. Something shifted in his soul. He turned contrite, and worried, and chastised, all at once. He looked away, whispering, “Holy fuck. That’s some fucking curse you got there.”

“... It’s not a curse. It’s a blessing.”

“Ha!” Hollowsaur said, “Fuck you, I haven’t felt this way in 200 years. God. Wait.” He stared. “You.” His soul flickered, suddenly reaching out to Erick, only to be batted away by Erick’s own soul.

Erick frowned. “What the fu—”

“You got a connection to the Red Bitch, don’t you? I was free of her, dammit! FUCK YOU, ERICK.” Hollowsaur said, “I killed my pets so they couldn’t be used against me, and now you put your own damn leash around my neck! Fuck off and die!”

Normally, those sorts of words would have caused Erick pause, at the very least. But Hollowsaur’s anger had been an empty thing, directed at the air, and possibly at himself more than anyone else.

Erick ignored the man’s wants, and said, “I helped you because you helped those minotaurs become people again, even if you had to be forced into doing right. I returned your goodwill back to you, as one should do almost always.” He added, “And now, maybe you’ll actually be someone that others want to see in the world. It’ll be hard, and long, and distressing, but maybe you are worth saving. Maybe your life is worth living.”

“Then what about this damned curse?” Hollowsaur sneered, but his sneer faltered, even as his voice kept on going, “And your ability to ‘heal’ leaves much to be desired. What the fuck was this... tub... And a magic wand! That’s... Learn some... Learn some darn magic... already.” He looked away, whispering, “Shit.” He lifted a hand, and touched the world, vibrating a red string that Erick had not noticed till Hollowsaur touched it. “Fuuuuuck.”

“... What was that?”

Hollowsaur glared at Erick, but had no fire in his eyes, or his expression. “You reconnected me to the Red Dreaming. Asshole.” He laughed, to cry, as he repeated, “Fuck.”

“I did no such thing?”

“You’re connected to the Red Dreaming, aren’t you?” Hollowsaur had said, “I hadn’t put any stock in those rumors, but I guess they were true. So this is my torment—” He suddenly stopped talking, and with a heavy voice, said, “I need to fix the minotaurs.”

Erick had no trouble letting his anger show in his own glare. “What did you do.”

Hollowsaur eyed Erick. “I fucked them over bad.”

“Then let’s have you help them. Fix them properly. Can you still [Shadowalk]?”

Hollowsaur touched the shadows all around him. Then he wrapped them around his waist, covering his nudity as he stood up, taking a half-step into the air to stand on shadows. “Fuck... I guess I can.” And then he glanced to the air, narrowed his eyes, then suddenly paled, his green skin turning seafoam, looking like he had seen his own ghost. He seemed to be reading something.

A Script message, then? It had to be. Erick waited.

Hollowsaur took a deep breath and touched a suddenly-appearing blue box to slide it Erick’s way, saying, “Looks like your Curse has gained some divine recognition.”

Special Quest!

Repent, Sinner.

Years: 0/101

Deeds: 0/1001

Erick read the box, then said to Hollowsaur, “It’s not a curse. It’s a blessing.”

Hollowsaur snorted. Then he pointed up and out. “You’ve got a tagalong, you know?”

Erick said, “Yeah. I know.” He looked to the left, spotting Caizoa in the sky, exactly where she had been for the last ten minutes. Ignoring her, Erick turned to Hollowsaur, and said, “After a stop by the map, let’s go help those minotaurs.”

Erick stepped away, his sunform flickering as he left. Hollowsaur followed, flickering shadows.

A second later, Caizoa followed, trailing sand.