[Fsh] Chapter 60: Triumph

Shiver never knew what it was like to suffer from success.

She usually just… suffered.

That was, until she accomplished her goal of severing all eight of a serpentine dragon’s gargantuan grey wings with a single strike of her Phobia.

Her dilemma born of the efficacy of the strike, was that she wouldn’t live to tell the tale if she didn’t find a way to safely reach the ground again.

Had she the foresight of mirrordancing the moment that she delivered her strike, she could have simple stepped out onto the ground by opening a portal perpendicular to the ground with Vivienne’s assistance, without being accompanied by any deadly momentum.

Instead, she had simply flailed, as her “ground” disappeared beneath her, as the winged serpent plummeted from the sudden loss of its wings.

“I’m going to let you figure this one out.”

Shiver screamed over the rush of air, to get her point across to the infuriating guide.

“You know, I prefer Icey over you!”

“That’s because she lets you walk all over her.”

Shiver cursed under her breath as she flailed in the air, falling above the gigantic serpent which was also in freefall, hurtling towards the ground. Shiver was convinced that despite its interlocking scales, the sheer mass of the dragon would bring an end to it.

The fight was as good as over.

Now, she only needed to arrest her fall. Summoning a [shield of the frostwolf] like she had in the fight against the anglerwhale wouldn’t be feasible. She had reached terminal velocity, and she suspected that she would risk death, no matter how many shields she layered over one another.

Her saving grace was to create a plane of ice close to the ground, after somehow arresting her momentum. The ground was out of her range, but that was the simplest problem she faced, which would solve itself.

Shiver grinned as she discerned the solution that Vivienne had intended for her.

First, she needed to get clear of the Salastraza’s body. Emerging unharmed on the ground would do little for her if she was literally crushed by the weight of her success.

Shiver mirrordanced into a plane of ice below, her shooting forwards out of another plane of ice angled perpendicular to the ground, allowing her to propel herself horizontally through the air, away from the falling serpentine dragon.

Then Shiver opened a plane of ice parallel to the ground, angled upwards.

Instead of falling into the ground, Shiver mirrordanced through the plane before her and shot upwards out of the ground into the air. Then, as gravity gradually asserted itself, and she reached the apex of her flight, she summoned a plane of ice beneath her feet to elegantly cease her fall.

“I didn’t think you had it in you. Congratulations, Shiver.”

Then, the sound from the rumble of thunder like a bolt thrown from a god washed over the Inheritance.

“Shit!”

[Shield of the Frostwolf]

Salastraza had finally touched down, reaching the ground without her wings to support her. The shockwave of the impact spiralled outwards, creating a barrier of snow and wind that hurtled towards her.

Thankfully, the multiple shields that Shiver called forth, layered upon each other, were sufficient to dissipate the force of the shockwave.

“Did we… did we do it?”

Shiver marvelled at Salastraza, now grounded, all eight of her gargantuan, feathered, grey wings severed.  According to Vivy, she had been a fraction of her size prior to Insanity’s grip on her.

Shiver skated forwards, cutting through the plains, and noticed that the lightning strikes had noticeably subdued, now that the creature lay defeated.

Shiver began to mirrordance to close the distance to the creature’s skull. Part of her was convinced that the sheer weight of the creature would have resulted in a similar outcome as the anglerwhale. Upon impacting the ground, Salastraza should have burst like a bubb-

Salastraza disappeared.

“Vivy… are you playing a pr-“

“Tsk. Prepare for the second phase.”

“There’s a Feardamned second phase?“

Shiver’s eyes widened, as she saw a storm wall, magnitudes more powerful than the one she could call with [howl of the frostwolf] burgeon into existence, from the epicentre of where the guide had come to rest.

Then it washed over her, and shattered the layered shields she had called.

Shiver felt frost sink into her flesh, slowing her movements and cutting a bloody path through her skin as shards of frost sliced into her.

Then, as quickly as the stormwall had arrived, it disappeared.

[Timesnap of the spirit fox]

[Parry of the bladefrog]

[Intuition of the bladefrog]

Shiver barely managed to call her Phobia into reality, as twin blades slashed into her blade, carving a path out of the haze of frost around her. Shiver felt her Alarum burn as she called three of her most onerous invocations concurrently, seeking desperately to deflect the blades that flashed in search of her neck.

[Howl of the frostwolf]

Shiver called her own stormwall as she leapt backwards, creating a degree of distance between her and her assailant after the brief clash.

Shiver’s eyes widened as the haze of frost dissipated.

“Is that… her Fearshaper? Vivienne what’s going-“

Then Shiver’s eyes widened.

A figure stalked towards her, wielding two curving blades in either hand, carved from the dark frost. Interlinking scales of midnight blue blossomed across the creature’s skin, which glinted in the odd flashes of frost lightning which had gradually begun to build in frequency once more.

Shiver met her eyes.

Four bulbous black eyes, leaking with black blood stared back. Vertical pupils of gleaming cerulean, of a shade similar to her own. Each shaped into a vertical slit, that gleamed in the haze of frost.

A serpent’s eyes.

Salastraza lunged forwards to meet Shiver’s Phobia, and in her wake, her [howl of the frost wolf] was split. The sheer motion of Salastraza’s advance parted the mist, and cleared the air.

Freeing it, for the advent of lightning.

Shiver dodged around the spiraling cobalt bolts of frost, hardening as they made contact with the ground.

A deadly forest of frost that could peel her skin away with a touch.

Salastraza shot forwards to meet her blade. Her eyes widened as the guide flowed around her, bearing a bipedal form. The guide deftly avoiding the Phobia that she wielded as a blademaster would, casually dancing free of the blade of a child.  

She saw gashes blossom into existence across her forearms, as the guide’s blades tore through her arms, leaving a flurry of wounds.

[Woundstill of the frostwolf]

Shiver lunged backwards, mirrordancing some distance away to grant herself a degree of reprieve. Even as she did, Salastraza surged forwards, closing the distance rapidly. She continued to mirrordance away, allowing her wounds time to freeze over.

“You failed to mention this little detail, Vivienne. Vivienne?”

Shiver stared with wide eyes at the figure that skated alongside her. Long, wavy white hair tumbled from her shoulders. She was garbed in the elegant, flowing robes of the Jade Isles, bearing a degree of similarity to Knight Severim’s own appearance.

Nine, Long, white tails spread out behind her, as the fox… woman effortlessly matched her speed.

Vivienne drew deeply from the pipe in her hand, and exhaled, expelling the smoke from dark red lips.  

“You’re shitting me.”

“I was hoping we would be able to finish the fight before you learned of this little quirk of ours. Did you really think elves were the only ones to possess forms like yours?”

Foxfire blossomed into existence around her, and the pain from her wounds disappeared.

“You healed me?”

“No. My powers do not encroach upon healing. The pain from your wounds won’t impede you, but they remain. Don’t die.”

“Help me with this fight! Where are your Feardamned twin blades.”

Vivienne reached into the depths of her swirling robes as she matched Shiver’s speed as they skated away from the encroaching Salastraza.

She withdrew an item from within her robes.

Then snapped it open.

She gently fanned herself with the intricate wooden fan

“Yo-“

“Finish the fight, Shiver.”

A trace of sadness entered Vivienne’s eyes, as she turned away.

“Put her to rest.”

Then, the spirit fox guide meant to “assist” her disappeared before her very eyes.

“Popsicle, I am never taking you for granted ever aga-“

Shiver was interrupted by a bolt of lightning that speared into the mirror that she called behind her.

Shattering it.

In an instant, without the benefit of her repeating mirrordance, Salastraza closed in on her.

[Flicker of the Thundermare]

Shiver was imbued with a brief burst of speed, and she lunged to the side as Salastraza’s twin blades carved through the air in which she was standing a moment ago.

Shiver abandoned her Phobia. Her skill with it was lacking. If she used [intuition of the Bladefrog] as a crutch, she would burn through her Alarum, even with the deep well that she had to draw upon.

Shiver withdrew the ebonwood daggers that Flora had granted her.

She raised them in a cross above her head as Salastraza’s sword hurtled downwards and shattered the daggers that Flora had gifted her, Salastraza’s blades scoring her forearms.

Shiver cursed as her eyes traced the dragon’s next attack unable to avoid it as Salastraza effortlessly weaved her blade into a follow up attack to end the fight.

Then Shiver’s eyes widened as she saw the dragon flinch.

Of course.

[Woundstill of the frostwolf]

Salastraza roar was interrupted as the dragon’s bipedal form froze up as Shiver wrought frost across the creature’s internal bleeding caused by the fall.

An opportunity was granted to her.

Shiver seized it.

[Timesnap of the spirit fox]

[Slash of the Bladefrog]

[Flicker of the Thundermare]

Shiver moved and flashed through the hurtling winds and frost, unbound by the constraints of her physical form.

A crack echoed outwards in the empty, desolate frost plains, created from Shiver’s burst of speed, that she had imbued her Phobia with as she swung her sword in a blur that for just a moment-

Cut through sound itself.

Cleaving Salastraza’s head from her shoulders with her blade.

Then the breath attack that had been gradually collecting in the dragon’s maw exploded.

Frost and ice meant to be channelled into a single direction exploded outwards indiscriminately, and Shiver was thrown over the ground, ragdolled and unable to break her fall with [shield of the frostwolf].

She coughed and the bitter, metallic taste of blood reached her tongue.

She rose slowly and quickly checked her arms, legs and torso. With the benefit of Vivienne’s illusion taking away her pain, she needed to be cautious that she still did have the wounds, she just couldn’t feel them.

Salastraza was dead.

The opening Shiver had created by locking up her body with [wounds stilled], freezing her internal bleeding in place, had borne fruit.

A sickly dark blue haze of Alarum seeped out of the guide.

“This feels… wrong.”

Vivienne appeared before her in the form of a fox. Shiver gasped, as the pain from her wounds and exhaustion that Vivienne had held at bay returned to her in a flash. Her muscles burned and ached like acid was being drawn through her veins.

“Draw in her Alarum, before it dissipates.”

Vivienne’s voice was hoarse. Shiver walked up to the body of the guide. Her true eyes were closed, even as the pair that had formed beneath the creature’s original eyes remained open. The eerie image reminded her of Triol Revenant, who had been twisted and changed, his appearance departing from that of an ordinary elf.

With a deep breath, Shiver drew in the creature’s Alarum.

Time halted, and the world around her disappeared before her very eyes.

Shiver stared out in to the darkness of the night sky. The inky blackness that extended outwards, as far as her eyes could see. Stars, twinkling in the furthest reaches of space. The source, no doubt, of Virgil’s torment, as a Fearshaper of stars.

Then she turned.

Shiver glimpsed them.

Trivialising the scale of anything she had perceived before.

Mountains of frost and ice rose before her.

The size of a continents, unto themselves.

Shiver screamed as her eyes and ears began to bleed. Her vision grew hazy, but even as pain wracked through her body at the mere glimpse of the mountains, Shiver felt a sickening fascination compelling her to look.

To gaze at peaks, the very existence of which reminded her of her mortality, the triviality of her existence.  

As blood began to curdle in her throat from the force of her scream, Shiver’s cerulean eyes flashed with her resolve, and she forced her palm to base of her jaw.

Then slammed it shut.

Even as her teeth shattered and blood leaked from her gums, Shiver forcibly brought her scream to an end.

Then she focused on the Alarum that threatened to tear apart her body, irrespective of the fact that it was intimately compatible with the shape of her Fearcore.

Salastraza’s death, gave shape to the invocations that carved themselves across Shiver’s Fearcore, as she stood in the wake of the mountains of madness.

[Scales of Salastraza]

[Wings of Salastraza]

[Breath of Salastraza]

[Tears of Salastraza]

Shiver watched as pieces of the guide’s very being settled within her Fearcore. An entire existence, reduced to invocations that would be the only remaining legacy of the great winged serpent.

The final gifts of a guide of frost, that had fallen to Insanity’s grip.

When Shiver rose from her crouch, the world around her returned to the frost-ridden planes of the Inheritance around her.

“You stand on the precipice of your Trepidation. I’m surprised you made it this far.”

Even through the teasing tone of Vivienne’s words, Shiver could see her eyes glistening with tears for a fallen guide. A companion of Vivienne’s, who, like her, had found a home in the Kindly Gardener’s forests.

Shiver understood the true tragedy of the Dreadwood.

“I’m sorry, Vivienne.”

Vivienne turned her back towards her in the form of the woman she had adopted. She strode over to the fallen guide and gently closed Salastraza’s eyes.

“Insanity comes for us all. Live a good life, Shiver. Never take it for granted.”

Then, she transformed back into the familiar form of the spirit fox Shiver had glimpsed before.   

“Now, you’re ready to coalesce your Fearcore. To gain your Fearpath, and welcome your Delir-“

The spirit fox halted through her sentence, her head rising into the air, and ears twitching.

“Something… is very wrong. Wait here.”

“No, I’m coming with-“

The spirit fox skated away in a blur, and as Shiver attempted to rise to give chase, her muscles burned from the exhaustion of her fight and wounds that Salastraza had inflicted.

She felt sluggish, and every inch of movement had pain blooming across her limbs and flesh.

Vivienne’s illusion that allowed her to forget her wounds and fight like they didn’t exist had, dissipated.

Shiver watched Vivienne disappear into the slit in reality a distance away from her, rushing back into the Dreadwood.

Then, she watched as the slit, her singular path back to the Dreadwood-

Closed.

All that greeted her ears was the rolling rumble of thunder, no longer subdued.

With the departure of the winged serpent, rain finally began to fall, as the thunderclouds reclaimed their dominance.

Amidst the falling rain and darkening sky, lit only by the flashes of cobalt lightning…

Shiver turned to greet an old friend.

She stared at herself, and watched as her lips parted, revealing a glittering maw of black teeth.

That stretched from ear to ear.

Shiver lunged forwards to meet her Fear-shade, cast from her own visage.

Then Shiver was reminded of her own mortality.

She erupted into a string of bloody coughs midway through her charge, as her Phobia slipped from her hands, the pain of the battle that Vivienne had held at bay, finally catching up to her. Her vision began to swim, and the haunting visage of her doppelganger’s black smile flickered in her eyes.

Looks like Popsicle is having a hard time holding back the symptoms of my Fear. Let’s give her a hand, shall we?

Shiver called on all of her remaining Alarum.

If her body was the limiting factor, she would cast it aside.

She would rely on her Fearshaping to erase this petty symptom of her Fear.

[Wings of Salastraza]

Four wings covered in dark feathers sprouted from Shiver’s back, and she yelped as they jolted her into the air, and almost threatened to send her spiralling back down into the ground. All that mattered, was that she was beyond her shade’s reach.

[Shard of the frostwolf]

Ice shards gradually began to form in a wide arc above her, shielding her from the cold rain that fell from thundering skies above her.

Then, she sent her shards hurtling towards the doppelganger with a smile of blood and Insanity.

She watched as her frost shards ineffectively thudded into the Fear-shade’s body, and her eyes widened.

The shards of ice were sinking into its body.

“You think me a mere symptom of your Fear, Shiver? How reductive. You haven’t realised yet?”

Bright, cerulean eyes reflected in the haunting visage, as the “shade” gave her a grin of bladed black teeth stretching from ear to ear from the bloody maw that was her mouth.

“I’m not a hallucination.”

Shiver’s waking nightmare tore forwards.

Then the Terror manifested its own weapon. The familiar Phobia that Shiver had possessed upon awakening in Anhedonia, at the time of its birth.

Twin familiar daggers of dark ice gleamed, black mist peeling from their surfaces.

Carrying with it, the whispers of her Insanity.

The terror threw one of the daggers towards her throat, where she hung suspended in the air.

[Shield of the frostwolf]

It pierced through the fragile shield she had called, and sunk into her torso. Then the dagger dissipated into a haze of dark mist, reappearing in the hands of her Terror.

Shiver grit her teeth even as pain wracked her body, and threatened to render her unconscious.

[Woundstill of the frostwolf]

The wound that the Terror’s dagger had carved didn’t close.

Shiver felt whispers carve away at the edges of her consciousness, hounding her, threatening to draw her into the waters of Insanity, from where she stood at the very precipice.

[Tears of Salastraza]

Lightning flashed in the air around them, and Shiver felt a significant drain on her Alarum, as her Terror danced with a dexterity that mirrored her own, avoiding the spiralling bolts of frost that materialised into deadly sculptures which would tear its dark grey skin apart if it made contact with them.

Shiver’s shade just returned a casual grin of a hundred blades of black teeth, as it sent its dagger hurtling forwards again.

[Wings of Salastraza] blinked out behind her, as her consciousness faded.

Shiver fell to the ground, managing barely to call a [shield of the frostwolf] to her before she made contact. 

Her eyelids drooped, as blood seeped from her wounds, that had reopened, now that her consciousness struggled to direct her Alarum. The limiting factor of her Fearshaping.

Huh. I recognise those shapely legs.

Her Terror halted before her.

Then tore its black daggers of frost across her throat.

They came away dented, as Shiver returned a weak, bloody grin of her own, rallying the final vestiges of her concentration and consciousness in her final act of defiance, before the pain threatened to overwhelm her.

A fine layer of gleaming scales of midnight blue frost covered the area on her neck the Terror had targeted, averting the mortal blow.

[Scales of Salastraza]

They had not protected her from harm entirely. The wound on Shiver’s neck still bled, despite averting the worst of the blow and saving her life.

“You can’t run forever.”

“But I can take you with me.”

[Desolation]

Shiver sighed with a smile, as she called the essence of her Fear into reality, watching as her desolation reigned in an Inheritance of frost.

Before winking out.

I’m sorry, Popsicle.

I was so close.

Shiver’s hand slipped on the ground, slick with her own blood, as she attempted to right herself, failing to gain sufficient purchase.

The edges of her lips twitched as she thought she could hear the cries of a kind guide at the very edges of her consciousness.

Amidst the whispers of Insanity, that were growing louder by the second.

Cobalt lightning that danced in the dark skies above her, framed in cerulean moonlight…

Halted.

The frozen world around her came to a standstill. Brought to heel, by a [legendary] guide.

“I can’t hold her for long. She’s sealed the entrance to the Inheritance. If your Terror breaks free, you’ll die, Shiver.”

Vivienne’s breath was ragged, as the [legendary] guide delivered her words.

Vivienne’s voice reached her as she glimpsed her shade a few feet away from her, where she lay, her lifeblood pooling out from under her, frozen in its path.

Frozen in motion, bathed in cerulean moonlight, under a thundering sky, the lightning itself brought to heel.

“Descend, Fearshaper.”