Yup. Definitely went hard on style. She didn’t just look like she’d manifested from a black hole, but all senses screamed that she was one. There was nothing she couldn’t fatally attract with a look. Nothing she couldn’t crush under oppressive infinite pressure, which was exactly what happened to the Blight as it flattened into a paste against the floor.
Artorian remained unharmed; not feeling any such deadly pressure. Exhaling, the world trembled as ‘Ember’ took and released her first real breath. The greyscale ceased to be, and a wobbly old man was caught by… nothing? Space was just holding him up. He couldn’t tell what space, or where. Just… space, which gently brought him to his feet where he could steady himself.
“Oh… well. Thank you, and hello. I am Artorian. It is lovely to meet you.”
The girl smiled wide, and extended a hand. Her voice was milk and honey, carried over the space of a dozen galaxies that played with planets as instruments; like the music of the spheres descending to grace the mortal world with their perfect tune. “Dawn Aran. It is good to meet you, my old, and new friend. Please, call me Dawn. I have been very excited to meet you. Thank you. For everything. I know you didn’t have to do all of that for me, nor show me the memory of who you are. Please do know that in your venture to reclaim your family. I offer my full support. It is the least I can do.”
Artorian beamed and tried to keep a steady face. He had expected to die, not regain so incredibly much. “My dear, I am just happy that I could see you again. It would have been a long road without you, my friend.”
Dawn gently hugged him. “I’m sure you would have told me all about it, when I saw you again.”
The old man brushed under his eyes with the back of his wrists. “Oh stop, you’re making me weepy.”
Dawn smirked and winked at him. “As if you didn’t do that to me with your little pre-Actualization speech. That hurt, you know…”
She released him just to pout and turn away, holding her own shoulders as the tip of her toe left the ground. She remained there, floating in place. Was… was she playing with him?
A different trait. How very… new. He smiled and poked her in the shoulder, giving her a little push. Sure enough, she just floated along like gravity didn’t matter in the slightest! She turned from the push, her eyes shooting sweet daggers at him as her pretend pout gave way to a beaming smile.
“Had enough of this disgusting reunion?” The Blight’s Ancient Elven body reformed from the ground up. The pressuring effect on it had expired, and the regional darkness was swelling in strength once again.
Dawn pressed a finger to her lips, loudly musing. “Hmm… that’s funny. I was sure I’d crushed you like a bug.”
Artorian frowned and crossed his arms, turning to face the S-ranker. “Aren’t we all bugs to you at this point? How does Soul energy work? Just how much more powerful are you than you were?”
Dawn popped her finger from her lips. “Oh… significantly. Compared to a zenith class A-rank nine, this is so much more powerful. A full category higher. Yeah, I’d say a categorical difference, at least. I could sneeze and release A-nine power; it would be nothing. Which is why I’m… confused why Blighty here—who I remember getting rid of with the Wood Elves—isn’t paste.”
Artorian filled her in before the phantom could. “He’s got a land-law covering his butt. It’s why he’s in that elven personality. When he was in the previous Headmaster of Skyspear, we couldn’t attack one another because the land-law would do us in. Or at least, it would smite the aggressor dead on the spot. Whatever he has with you must be different, he doesn’t seem… phased.”
The Blight laughed and did a… twirl? This personality was a jester.
“Close again! However, I won’t tell you anything. I’m more than aware she’s got the power, and you’ve got the mind. As if I'd tell you anything after that trip you sent me on. Clever boy for hiding that trap… I’m afraid you’re all out of tricks now, and your Essence count can’t be doing well. She can’t kill me, and you’re unable. Sooner or later she’s going to look away, and then it’s bye-bye Headmaster, and hello afternoon snack.”
The violet Blight rubbed its hands together with a self-assured grin. It stopped smiling when it saw the academic ponderously running a hand down his beard. “C’towl got your tongue?”
Dawn quirked a perfect eyebrow, leaning on empty space as she patiently smiled at her friend. She knew what she was good at, she knew what he was good at. Dawn was just… waiting for it all to fall into place. She had an eternity. First thing she learned: S-rank lifespan? Permanent unless killed. It was intrinsic knowledge.
The Blight leered at Dawn. “Since we’re all still figuring out what to do. Why aren’t you… on fire? I vividly recall from the forest days that you were a Fire Mage. So there should be… more *fwoosh*. Less ‘mystical’.”
Turning on an axis in the space she occupied—she defied gravity just by existing—she spoke aloud. “Well, S-rank of the Law of Fire. Correct. There is just a minor difference between ordinary Actualizations and the one I went through.”
She pointed at her chest. Even the Blight thought it rude to stare at the given location. “Ripped fire affinity channel. Though that’s to blame for another problem I’m going through. What you likely can’t get your widdle head awound… is my new celestial affinity channel. Got it from trying to copy an ability from my thinking friend over there. Oh, looks like he didn’t even hear me. That’s fine, he’s going to do his thing.”
The Blight spat at the S-ranker. “An affinity channel? That late into your Ascension? That’s paramount to suicide!”
To his dismay, the floating woman agreed with him. He didn’t know he would hate her agreeing with him! “Oh yes… having multiple affinities doesn’t prevent a low-tier law from accepting you. It does however open up additional options when Incarnating. See, it offered me two choices freely, out of three. The first is your average S-ranker. Nothing special, just as normal as they come. The second… well, you’re within proximity. I know you’re an elemental.”
She opened her hand, and fire sprung freely into being. “You have also been denying yourself the innate feeling that you know that I am also one. At least partially. Maybe fully? Don’t know. I was only born today…”
“Third?”
Dawn righted herself and did a little side-to-side shimmy. “Third is a little bit of this.”
She snapped her fingers. “A little bit of that. And a whole lot of look at me, because I’m a fancy cat!”
The Blight thought she was crazy. “So you’re a cat? Could have gone for c’towl, they’re superior in every respect.”
Dawn beamed a smile at the creature, and something deep within it became unsettled as the woman phased out of reality. This caused some sort of void that started sucking him towards it. Just him. Nothing else. Only her supernova irises were visible in the absolute depths of the void. They were so pervasive that even as a creature of the dark he feared this space. Never should he go there. Not even the land-law might protect him wherever that black hole led. Then it clicked, and he understood. “The Law conspired with a higher Law, because it couldn’t account for your peculiarities!”
Dawn manifested back to reality and blew him a mocking kiss. “Got it in one! The Law really didn’t want to give me the option, but being quasi-elemental made quite a stir in the Tower. It had to contend with a higher tier Law, Holy Fire. I was bound to Fire, but the higher Law outright gave me the option to Ascend. Special circumstances… you’re right, it is suicide to unlock an affinity channel that high into the Ascended ranks. Given how much I’d done for the Law of Fire, the other Heavenlies existing in matching nodes were all in an uproar. You should have heard the Law of Celestial. Oh, it tried hard, but unfortunately it has active S-rankers.”
She danced around the air like a ballerina. “The Laws came to a compromise. So long as I took on an Aspect of Incarnation that didn’t conflict with existing Incarnates, I could do it. The Law of Fire w
as ecstatic to keep me. To conform to the rules, I gave Holy Fire a big hug, and whispered sweet thoughts into its ear. I wanted to send a message to a higher Law that I knew wouldn’t want to talk to me. Yet I was surprised at how the bigshots pay attention when you least expect.”
She giggled, of all things, while hovering in loose geosynchronous orbit around the violet manifestation of Blight. “See, the big contribution I made to my Law was how to replicate my friend’s starlight effect using Mana. I was surprised to find there is no Law of Sun. I was hoping my message was going to go there, since the Incarnation idea I had directly correlated to the concept. Even if I have but the measly two. Yet, two was enough. For the concept involves no air, no earth, no water, and no infernal. There is nothing to further break down.
“Whereas the sun is a star, there are holes in space where no light can escape. I wanted to be what happens when a star reaches the end of its lifespan, and comes into existence anew as something else. My best friend is my sun, so I will be the dawn of the endless void that comes after.” Her grin widened; intent clearly evil.
No, there was no evil in her smile, it just felt as such from the apparent malice she was directing toward the Blight. She’d answered his question in a way that guaranteed he understood that however long it might take… she would end him. There was indifference. Apathy. Her expression was heartless, emotionless, and callous. She was the void where things went to end, and she had chosen to hunt him.
The Blight wriggled as its bodies shuddered with temporary deformations. They recovered quickly enough as Dawn’s expression returned to normal. He might have been a monster, but this wench was on another level. Luckily for him, he was untouchable…!
“I think I figured it out!”
Dawn beamed her smile at the Blight, her body language and posture slowly turning towards Artorian. “Oh? Please do tell me… and welcome back! You were gone for a bit there.”
“Oh, well. Yes. Sorry about that.” The embarrassment was apparent on the scholar’s face. He pretended not to have been aware of the entire interaction while he’d been puzzling. “Though it turns out it was rather simple, there might just be… side effects.”
The Blight threatened him with an accusatory finger. “Not. Another. Word.”
Artorian challengingly turned his eyes on the virulent mass. “Hmm? Or what?”
Chapter Fifteen
Jiivra and the student body made it safely to the surface only to find an all-out war.
Tired students ducked for cover as a blazing c’towl catapulted over their heads and tackled into a group of skeletons that just wouldn’t stay down. A flash of burning light blocked their vision as an earthquake struck, a massive ravine opening nearby in the location where that metal tunnel had been. Something shining and bright jumped down, and the blinding effect ended.
“Instructor! What do we do?” Jiivra’s students were panicked, and rightfully so. In need of a swift plan of action, she looked around and saw… indescribable devastation. Everything was flattened, gone, reshaped, or… she didn’t know. There used to be a city here, now she couldn’t even see traces of ruins. Just… things she didn’t believe, like animated armor or floating swords autonomously attacking skeletons with blackened, almost glossy looking bones.
One problem at a time. The mountain was still there, better than nothing. “Back to the mountain, dodge the… everything!”
Her half-hearted words—while shouted—were acted on by jumping hastily back down the hole they’d crawled out from as a slashing sea of swords sundered the space she was in only a moment ago. The burning blades whirled in place and flung themselves around like a school of fish. They became discs of hot, spinning death that tore up undead in their path. Mostly.
“Nevermind!” The snapped change to her own command forced her to hold back students that would have blindly charged forward. There were always some, but a jian-storm was reason enough to wait it out.
Astrea offered her two coppers. “I like the safety cave. Safety cave is great.”
The news and decisions spread down the group well enough until it got all the way to the end; the message had devolved into ‘steel swarmy boys ahead’. It was confusing, but once they’d gotten clarification from the front it didn’t seem all that incorrect. When razor sharp clouds of sapient weapons wrought unholy abyss upon endless fields of slash resistant skeletons, hanging back was a fine idea.
Skyspear was exhausted regardless. With plenty of fresh air and the passageway sealed with no further pending threats from below, most of the student body collapsed and lay down to rest. They were wiped from running, being Essence drained, and something about the mounting stress from fighting to survive.
The sheer concept of ‘living weapons are having a tiff with animated skeletons’ made the majority of the student body throw their hands up and check out. They were aware of some crazy concepts, but that one took the honey cake. That was with knowing about their Headmaster’s antics. Going down was death, going up was death, and there was no sideways. Seemed like a good time to nap.
Astrea sidled up next to Jiivra, who had her face buried in her arms while seated and hunched over. Her weariness matched that of the students. Her Essence count was equally low, and while she had a C-ranked cultivation technique, she was still heavily deprived. Her effective level was currently closer to the low D-ranks. “You getting by?”
Jiivra half grunted out a response with genuine effort. “I’ll live.”
Astrea snorted out a half-giggle, her hand muffling her mouth as the tired combat instructor glared at her beneath heavy eyelids. “That’s something my Elder would say, after he arrived to the longhouse after a long day of suffering through our pranks.”
Jiivra snorted back. She believed it, having been present in the Fringe during the early days after the Salt village was raided. The years of Skyspear life had only further ingrained her thoughts on the old man. “Yeah, that sounds like him. With a dumb little smile on his face, trying to pretend he wasn’t horribly bothered over something incredibly minor that wouldn’t have annoyed anyone else.”
The celestial cultivator turned her head, laying it on her arms as she regarded her opposite. “How about you? Holding up?”
Astrea’s smile was a carbon copy of the everything-is-okay-but-it’s-not smile that was just described. She tried to hide the pain behind her smiling expression, but the twitching gave the lie away. She got fist-nudged calmly in her shoulder; it worked on the old man. To Jiivra’s surprise, it worked equally well here. Astrea took a deep breath and spoke.
“I’m afraid. I’m out of Essence and hiding in a hole. It’s likely the grandfather I wanted to go home with just threw himself to the beasts to buy us time. I’m tired. I hurt. My vision keeps flickering and if Blight comes, I won’t notice it before it’s too late. I’m shaking, I’m cold, and the only reason I’m not falling apart is because there’s too much going on and my heart won’t stop pounding. I just. I can’t… I can’t…”
She fell sideways, or was pulled. Astrea couldn’t tell. Her rant had quickly deteriorated into tearing up, but a tight squeeze surrounded her. Ordinarily she would have complained all the way from the abyss, all the way up to the heavens from being hugged by someone she’d only known for days. Today it didn’t matter. She wasn’t the only one that needed comfort; plenty of other students had huddled up, and so she said nothing.
Being held helped tremendously. That hadn’t evoked comfort since her Fringe days. Jiivra held the back of Astrea’s head, keeping an arm curled around her back. She said nothing about the huddle. This was fine. It helped them both. Within the confines of support, Astrea managed to mumble, “I’ll live.”
Jiivra nodded. They’d be alright. “We will. Just have to wait out the bar fight on the surface. I bet when we get up there, your old man will be standing there with one arm behind his back and a hand on his beard.”
“Oh, there you are. What took you so long?” She sassily mimicked Artorian’s speech pa
ttern. Astrea snorted again, a little smile playing on her lips. Jiivra continued: “I’ve got some confections in my pocket! Stuff this in your face so I can stand here and look bemused, nodding to nobody while asking you questions to make you talk with your mouth full. I find your embarrassment… humorous! Fufufufu!”
She received a minor jab to the ribs. Alright, maybe her gag had been a touch embellished past the truth, but Astrea was smiling. That was worth the entire affair. Jiivra would have said more, but a tiny, familiar snore came from the curled-up bundle sleeping on her chest. She smiled, and wished she had a blanket. Wait.
Jiivra’s hand reached for her shoulder and found the soft, familiar brush of a snoozing, oversized sugar glider. Had this snooty little mongrel slept through the entirety of their nonsense, remaining so still and silent they’d forgotten he’d been there? She pressed her lips together in the patented Tibbin’s squeeze. Because yes, yes it had. “You cheeky little…”
She tickled it under a wing, and the sleepy C-ranked beast stirred. His celestial ignore-me field lifted. Blanket mewled upon waking, chittered, and licked its nose. It had a few seconds of looking around, released Jiivra, and stretched. After a few of the still waking students jerked from the sound of the chitter, Blanket made a loud squee. While everyone else was dead tired, Blanket was happy as a clam to go around and meet absolutely everyone. There was petting to be had!
Group morale improved drastically when there was a creature of pure fluff that wanted nothing more than to give you some kisses and love up on you. Those who were awake adored running their fingers through the incredibly soft fur. It was soft, and comforting. Most importantly, it made them smile.
Artorian's Archives Omnibus Page 88