Faiz sneezed, feeling slightly unnerved. Was someone thinking of him? Usually when people recalled him, whatever the cause was, it’d result in an unpleasant effect on his person. Luckily, most of Faiz’s old debts were erased by prismatic fire, so only a few people would even think of him. He’d be rather unhappy if it were one of those two stooges (he could already feel his mood falling thinking of their various idiosyncracies) so he decided to put such thoughts behind him, and instead focus on the present matters concerning him; Namely, tailing a feathered fiend through a crystalline canopy of lights, lining it up for a swift execution. If only he hadn’t been delayed by it screeching in his face. He remembered his humiliating performance a while ago...
As always, the once forest had melted away; This time it was replaced by a chasm of ink-black stone, the smooth and featureless material interrupted at random intervals by enormous jagged crystals, jutting forth from the shadowed land like particularly eager lumelights, clustered in headache inducing formations of every sort of color. The contrast between the two extremes of light and dark was most disorienting, and (fortunately) part of the reason Faiz hadn’t immediately botched his hunt upon arrival.
When his eyes had blinked open, Faiz had found himself faced with a lovely view: Sharp beaks lined by serrated teeth, pitiless cyan slits for eyes, fanned feathers of gold (gleaming and sharp!) and an oppressive release aura. It seemed he had already found his quarry then, no need to deploy any advanced hunting techniques. So, Faiz froze in astonished terror. The beast did not move an inch either, stiff as a sculpture.
He tilted his head, the creature copied, exposing the long and sinewy cords of muscle connecting its many heads to its body. Faiz retreated a step, and his partner in this strange dance advanced one. Now he could see the creature’s legs, or more accurately, the lack thereof. So it could float then, very intriguing. He’d have wondered why the thing had wings to begin with, but given the fact said wings were covered in blood and plumed with feathers currently buried in some unidentifiable pile of gore…he could hazard a guess as to their utility.
All such thoughts and more flashed through his mind in the blink of an eye, but his preoccupied state prevented him from noticing the small jut of crystal behind him. Faiz tripped, and the sudden movement provided all the stimulus needed to break the trance, his foe letting loose an ear destroying scream and hurling itself at him in a tangle of necks and wings. Faiz managed to raise his Refute in time to stop the beast from descending on him, the twisting space sending it rocketing back.
“Why do I never get these moments of contemplation outside of combat?! And why did I have to meet this overgrown gamefowl as soon as I-No! Can’t get distracted again..” Faiz shook his head and climbed up to his feet, trying to ignore the agony of having his back be shoved into the hard crystal outcroppings. The winged beast had managed to recover from its brief flight, its necks whipping about, each beak on every head glinting sharply, manifesting barely tangible blades of magic that hurtled forth at him.
Faiz wasn’t in much mood to lose his head or other extremities, so he leapt to the side, taking cover behind a particularly large and sturdy seeming citrine pillar. The mana Art crashed into the crystal on the other side, scattering orange shards everywhere. Just one volley from his foe had weakened Faiz’s temporary shelter to the point it started cracking in twain. A strong opponent then, so he’d have to change tack to kill it.
He started looking around frantically, and then winced. The disorienting spaces around him were way too contrasted to let him focus, the shine of the crystals nearly blinding him. This did give Faiz an idea, however. After peeking his head out to ensure his nasty prey was still screeching its many heads off and throwing Arts at him (How did it still have that much mana left?).
Faiz took aim at a nearby jutting growth, and called forth a thin line of that prismatic fire, manifesting his weapon inside the crystal itself. The effect was dramatic indeed, a massive flare of rainbow light shining outward, reflected and bounced off of the glowing crystal forest. He wasn’t an idiot, so he’d closed his eyes beforehand, and still the nauseating shine flared from beyond his lids, terribly bright.
He opened his eyes when he finally thought it safe, and was pleasantly surprised to see that the original crystal he’d used for his impromptu light show still standing, now completely drained of any tint and clear as glass. In it he could see reflected his once adversary, now a tangle of feathers and flesh and blind rage. Faiz sympathized a little; Not enough to stay his hand though. He called forth a sigil and was about to send it tearing through the beast, but the creature, as if sensing the danger let out a terrible wail and frenziedly hurled itself through the lithic forest, breaking its own body down with every crystal it smashed apart.
Faiz sighed, rubbing the last bits of radiance out of his eyes as he started following. Such a familiar scene, but he wouldn’t be caught unawares this time.
Thankfully, it seemed like his quarry hadn’t gone berserk, as he observed while stealthily trailing behind it. While now blind, and with many of its wings and neck broken from its flight, the beast didn’t seem all that concerned anymore, hovering along just fine. Probably, it was retreating to its den to cast one of any number of healing Arts it had. He couldn’t let it take that opportunity.
It was unable to see him, anyway, right? Faiz carefully manoeuvred himself into position, freezing as the beasts still functional heads snapped to attention in his direction, its claws flexing. Well, that was unfortunate. Apparently it did not, in fact, need eyes or…ears? (He was unsure if this bird-like beast had them, but then again, avian things usually didn’t have fanged, whip like heads either)
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
The beast didn’t seem to have pinned down down his exact location, and thus opted to instead send gilded and lethal plumed pinions in a wide array in his vicinity. Faiz cursed internally and shrank inwards, minimizing his size as much as possible as he threw out as many sigils as he could. The ever burning streaks tore through the animal’s down, but it seemed undeterred still, growing more frenzied as it thrashed around.
Already feeling his eyes water with agony as many dagger thin feathers sank into his flesh, Faiz noticed the creature struggle straight into a particularly large crystal. Before his raging prey could recover, he sent one final arc shooting into the pillar’s cracks, and then desperately manifested as thick a line as he could sustain. With one final momentary refute raised to ward off stray fragments, Faiz shut his eyes tight again.
Another eye melting rainbow brilliance erupted, accompanied by a disgusting squelching sound, and when he saw what remained of the beast, Faiz felt terrible. The falling crystal, empowered by his line, had crushed th poor thing, neatly flattening its midsection. Some viscera had exploded outward, coating the surroundings in gore, whilst in some places the flesh had been forced onward, bulging out from between the seams of its ruptured skin. Several wings were mangled and tattered, the bone even impaling the main body in some areas. As for the heads, most were caught beneath the crystal, but some lay sprawled, every bone powdered and shorn faces leaking brain matter. A few were even severed entirely.
If the beast wasn’t deader than dead by now, Faiz would be astonished indeed. He hissed as he tried to move, “Damn it! My hand…Ah, Aujyav will have a fine time of this..” After unsuccessfully attempting to free his hand, currently pinned to his chest and burbling forth loads of blood. He also had a cracking headache from using his Lightdial to this level. Faiz decided to quit while he still had his senses, blinking and focusing on being away-
These past few lengths of time-which were undefined, since had no real idea of how time operated here-had been quite eventful for Faiz. The ever laconic Aujyav was a rather demanding taskmaster, running him ragged hunting every manner of creature in all sorts of treacherous biomes. Though each hunt was fraught with danger, the benefits to his acuity and soul were palpable.
Faiz was now able to conjure up dozens of attack sigils, instead of being reduced to a whining wreck calling up just three or four. He’d learned of some other tools from Aujyav too, from pulling his will into objects to imbue them with ‘Empyrean Magnificence’ to Refuting the phenomenon of cause itself, negating harmful effect.
“You return. Injured, this time? Aught must have occurred, wait a moment.” And there was his favorite perforated man, feeding Faiz that now familiar brew. Aujyav also helpfully plucked out the remaining pinions in his skin, freeing his hand from its captivity.
“You should’ve seen the state I left that beast in, I tell you! Also, blegh! Oh, that..hah, I sometimes wonder if you have some factory house here exclusively for producing terrible tasting tonics..” Faiz grimaced at the taste, and then grumbled some more as the expected itchy heat spread through his flesh, concentrated most strongly on his punctured palm.
“If you knew the value of that which you so easily disparage, regret should bloom in you.” Despite the words, there wasn’t really any heat in the man’s voice, and he sat down on a (branch) chair, whilst scrutinizing Faiz, “You are almost ready, I think. I do not prefer sending children off to battle-”
“But you can’t do anything that would require you use your powers. I would say that’s a bit suspiciously inconvenient, but..” Faiz wasn’t the one impaled by a sealing blade here, so he really didn’t have much ground to compare. At least he was getting stronger doing all this dangerous killing?
“Indeed. However, this last hunt shall challenge you to an extreme. I can help, once. Do you recall?” Aujyav was efficient, rolling out the bedrolls and moving the chairs as he inquired.
Faiz grit his teeth as he thought of how badly he’d been tricked, “Yeah, I didn’t forget. I can’t believe those two sacks of honeyed filth actually tricked me! To think I’d be facing down a dead Star’s Tephra, just to escape, what a mess..”
As Aujyav had explained, this fragile domain that the two of them were currently trapped in-surrounded on all sides by encroaching rectification storms and plagued by weak ontology-belonged not to some cast off piece of land from the Divide, but instead to thought. More specifically, memory. The lingering thoughts and fading resentments of a dead god, bereft of its owner, floating in a sea of chaotic space.
Why the other man was here, Faiz hadn’t been told yet, but Faiz did know that his own arrival to this fragment was no error. It was the fulfillment of a long promised obligation undertaken of eons: Be given over to whoever tended this fading dream, and grow from small seedlings to towering flora. All that talk of schemalinks being used was…nonsense. Faiz felt such incredible rage at the Scrapskin and the Tubespawn in such moments of recollection that he felt like screaming. Who would stoop so low as to lie to children?!
“Faiz, your mind wanders. Rest shall suffice in aiding you. Your exhaustion is palpable, come now. Sleep.” Aujyav must’ve sensed his spiralling raft of thought, and straightforwardly ordered Faiz to bed.
“I’m not tired! I just....just ran around a bit trying to slaughter a mutant chicken, not very strenuous if you ask me..” Despite his grumblings, Faiz shuffled over and laid down on his soft bedroll, full of righteous indignation. “If you want me to sleep, at least uh...oh wait! Yeah, tell me something! Anything interesting or cool at all? Alli-she used to do it for me. Helpmed me sleep you know? And please, nothing boring, I can’t bear to listen to those lectures on safety for the hundredth time again..”
Aujyav fell to pondering, then nodded, “Very well. I suppose you have toiled and I have wronged you with lacking recompense. You have asked prior as to my origin. I shall, if you wish, reveal a fragment.” This was said all in all in a tone Faiz hadn’t heard before of the man. Could Aujyav actually feel emotion? He wasn’t an automata? (Well, now that he thought of it, the only construct Faiz had ever met had been a cheat and also terribly cheery, so maybe it was an Aujyav thing after all. Could swords to the heart do that?)
“Oh yes! Very much so, please. I’ve been dying to know more, really!” Faiz was getting excited.
“Fine, then. Do not speak of this to others later. Now, come closer…”
