Chapter 256 - First Steps

Nate stood before a fire pit carved into the black sands of the realm that Ankh’Aris had catapulted him into. The obsidian stone of the firepit rippled like water, bowing to the demands of the divine artifact sitting at its heart. Within the crevice was a single piece of blackened wood. As Nate watched, the wood turned into a pile of dark ash, the incineration releasing a burst of destruction that washed over him, seeping into his pores as it did so. Inside of his body, creation fought against destruction. His own divine energies fighting for his survival as the two opposing Concepts ingrained themselves in his flesh.

The pile of dark ash did not remain quiescent, as a small, grey, and deathly looking bulb sprouted from the ashes, slowly drinking up the ash and energies around it before it shifted back into a piece of wood. In the blink of an eye it was on fire again, slowly burning away. This was the tenth time Nate had watched it do so and at this point he had lost the ability to track time within this place. Change, unlike the other facets of Destruction, drew him like a moth to a flame. The imagery, to Nate, was beautiful, but more than that, the idea of Destruction as a vehicle for Change was far more tantalising than the idea of simply destroying. Where the Concept of Ruin had been interesting, it was like the edge of a painting for him. Important, but not the heart and soul of the artwork.

In a part of his mind, Nate could recognise that he was turning himself into an artwork through this process. Only the early stages, if the dragon was to be believed. Still, he was becoming like that which he desired to create. A painting to capture the idea of this Reality.

Another burst of Destruction laced with Change washed over him and he accepted that it would be time to move on soon. His Divine Energy, like the tide, was experiencing ebbs and flows, and staying too long with a single facet of Destruction would eventually see the ebbs become more prevalent than the flows. If that happened he would die. Without new Divine Energy flowing into him, the Destruction-laced energies of this Realm would follow their namesake and he would cease to be.

“Just a little longer,” he whispered to himself.

Finally, the time came to move on and Nate began his naked march towards the next Divine Artifact. The sandstorm enveloped him once more, the destructive sands ripping at his skin, leaving him bleeding from thousands of tiny scratches. The Creation would restore him and the cycle would repeat itself.

When Ankh’Aris appeared out of the storm once more to walk beside him, Nate wasn’t surprised. He suspected the dragon was monitoring him at all times, though he had been a little surprised that the dragon hadn’t joined him to tell him the story of the burning log filled with Change.

“Erosion,” commented Ankh’Aris in his deep voice. “That is the next Concept you will seek?”

Nate nodded, forcibly putting one bleeding foot in front of another as he marched against the cutting winds.

“You will leave it for last, then?”

Nate nodded again in response to the question. He knew exactly what Ankh’Aris was talking about, after all. He had always been unconsciously angling away from that particular Concept.

“Why?”

“It frightens me,” answered Nate. “And it is the least aligned with what I want to accomplish. I know I need to include it, but…”

He trailed off towards the end and Ankh’Aris looked at him knowingly.

“Very well. I will wait for you there then. Let us see if you are truly worthy of calling yourself a Disciple of mine.”

Ankh’Aris vanished back into the sands, but Nate had seen the direction the dragon was heading and he swallowed, trying to put the thought to the back of his mind. Erosion was next, but eventually, he would have to face it. Entropy was waiting, like a predator in the cold, dark depths. Hungry and endless.

*************

Frick cursed his shitty memory as he watched the debacle that was his trap only half succeed. The demons that had been following him for the last day had fallen into the trap with ease. No surprises there, as why would they ever look at something that felt so similar to themselves and the Realm within which they stood.

Frick had used Goblin-mode, summoning the Undefeated Horde. As the Skill improved, so did his diversity of goblins. There was always him, the Chieftain, of course, but over time he had gained Shamans, Saboteurs, and a myriad of other options. The Shamans were semi-capable and utilised his own understanding of Chaos coupled with all the runes and sigils from Nate. 

Unfortunately, Frick didn’t have Nate’s memory for Sigils. They were slippery things and without direct access to Nate’s mind, they had a tendency to vanish from his awareness. The fact that Nate never seemed to encounter that issue had long been something Frick was curious about. That curiosity had turned to annoyance when his plans for a trap had become limited by his own memories of the Sigils. Thankfully, he did remember the Drain Sigil. Why that one? Well, he guessed they were somewhat aligned with his Path. Drain could be twisted towards Consumption with Nate’s skillset. Not with Frick’s though.

So, Frick watched as his own Horde was being Drained as quickly as his enemies. The demons were fighting for their lives, attacking with shadow and slime with one of them simply eating his goblins. But they were fighting to escape the trap Frick had set up, the simplistic rune covering a huge distance as he stood outside of it. Without a small army to construct it he would never have managed to carve the runes into the ground and he was once again, a little envious of the Boss’s Skills. He knew Nate could’ve set up the same trap in less than ten minutes. It had taken Frick three hours and even then, it was a half-assed effort that was only working because the Concepts themselves aligned with the Hell he was in.

Finally, after another ten minutes of harrowed fighting, the last demon fell and Frick had the shamans destroy enough of the rune to give him access. He was now running low on mana, but then, that was a good thing wasn’t it? Drawing in the Horde, only partly replenished through the Chaos of the battle, he sat down next to the corpses of the demons and began to eat. 

What was it the dragon had said? Consume until he was in balance? Well, when he had first been sent here, Frick had been nine-tenths Spiritual Energy. After this meal, with enough of the demonic energy absorbed within him, he would maybe be seven-tenths Spiritual Energy and three-tenths Demonic. Not nearly enough, and he was running low on mana in this barren landscape where it only seemed to exist within the bodies of those he killed. Coupled with the fact that unlike his Boss he couldn’t catch processed mana, Frick realised he was going to have to take a different approach. He was going to need to modify his Skills to work off of Demonic Energy.

Frick started laughing, “What’s one more bit of Chaos, eh?”

*************

Kiri danced out of the way of a thin beam of black fire. The blast of flame bored a hole into one of the obsidian pillars she had been darting between for cover but she didn’t have time to wonder about the damage the ancient dragon was doing to his throne room. She moved out of the way of a slicing claw by inches, only to get skewered through the chest by Ankh’Aris’s tail.

The dragon flicked her off casually and she skidded across the floor leaving a smear of blood behind her. Across the gap between the Physical and Spiritual Realms she felt one of her Soul Twins be consumed, the tether connecting them disintegrating as she was fully restored. Tiredly she spent some of her small amount of remaining Divine Energy to create a new one.

Ankh’Aris had been fighting her for over a day now, and while she felt neither tiredness nor exhaustion, she was finally starting to feel fear. When they had begun Kiri had possessed over one hundred units of Divine Energy. Now she was down to less than ten. At first she had tried to fight back, but any time she empowered herself, the ancient dragon simply matched her, always staying a sliver ahead of her. Then, she had tried to flee, only to find that there was nowhere to flee to. Anything beyond the obsidian throne room had ceased to exist in her spiritual senses. There was only this space. Only her and the dragon. 

Finally, she had tried to survive, slowly bleeding Divine Energy as Ankh’Aris killed her over and over again until now. She could create two more Soul Twins. Two more lives, and then she would die.

At first Ankh’Aris had asked her questions as he attacked. Asked her what it meant to be Reborn, what was Soul energy, how did it fit in with her. Whether the dragon asked to better understand her or to try and make her understand herself, she didn’t know. All she knew was, at some point, Ankh’Aris had stopped asking. She had failed his test.

She stood up, blood covering her though she was hail and whole. Her armour was destroyed. She’d barely had it for over a month and the Mythic item was already beyond saving. Not that it mattered, she supposed. What use did the dead have for items that would’ve left anyone from her homeworld drooling? Not like she would get a grave anyway. The dragon would almost certainly erase her with his destructive capabilities. 

Her thoughts didn’t mean she would resign herself to death. She would fight to the last second, to the last breath. She would show that she…

“What is Shadow?” asked Ankh’Aris, interrupting her thoughts.

“An absence,” she answered with a calm she didn’t feel as the dragon started to stalk her again.

“Simplistic. Did I ask for simplicity? What is Shadow, human? Answer like your life depends on it, because it does.”

She died again for her failure.

“It’s… a space of darkness? Something to hide in? The absence of light?” she argued as she reformed from her body.

With each word she felt herself more and more shaken as she realised she didn’t know what Ankh’Aris wanted from her.

Kiri didn’t even see the tail that lashed out at her. She felt it though, as the serrated tip sliced her in half. Another Soul Twin, and one last flicker of Divine Energy and she was whole again, her two halves drawn back together into a single piece. Her. But now, she was on her last life. One more and she was dead forever. She hoped Nate would survive and that he would understand. He could let her parents know what became of her. She wouldn’t go down quietly, but there was no ignoring the fact that she was hopelessly outmatched against the ancient dragon. A being who had, by his own words, faced down five True Divines on his own and killed four of them, living to tell the tale.

“Your answers are still simplistic. The kind of things a child could recognise. Think about it, Kiri. Why can’t you give me a good answer about what Shadow is? Why do you have some nascent understanding of the Soul and not Shadow?”

Ankh’Aris loomed in front of her, waiting.

Kiri thought about it, for the first time she really thought about it. The answer was obvious, and it hurt her in a way that Ankh’Aris had failed to. With his claws, tail, and black fire, he had caused her less pain than the realisation that she had been following an idea borne of her own childish fantasies.

“It doesn’t fit me,” she whispered.

Ankh’Aris settled back on his haunches as Kiri’s thoughts turned inward.

Ever since she was a child she’d had one hero she aspired to be. Aurea Keathana was a legend back in Galle. Shadow’s Daughter they called her, and Kiri had kept a figurine of her carved from wood. Like her, Kiri had tried to use daggers and shadow. She had tried to emulate the hero of her childhood, without realising that was what she was doing.

“Why?” she asked.

“Kali’Terra offers the simplest or easiest paths to power. You possess some affinity for shadow within your mana, and you desired it, so Kali’Terra gave you the option. But that doesn’t mean it fits you. It could, if you so desired, but you’re not the studious type like your brother. You are instinctual. And your instincts are at odds with your choices. With your Path. That would be fine for Kali’Terra’s paper tigers. If you wish to remain one of its pawns, just say so, and the instruction will stop. With your start and early evolution, you will become a power within this Reality, assuming you survive long enough to reach Kali’Terra’s idea of True Divinity. But that is all you will ever be. A shackled tool bound by another's Concept.”

Kiri looked up into the two yellow eyes that were bigger than her fists.

“I want to be free.”

“Then tell me, what is your Path? What are you? Because your current understanding can barely be considered your own.”

Kiri didn’t think about it. That was Nate’s Path. She tried to feel it. What was she? She ignored what she did and her capabilities. Could she fight with daggers? Obviously, but that didn’t mean she had to fight with daggers. Could she hide in the shadows? She’d done so more than once, but again, it wasn’t who she was. It was just something that she did. Her thoughts drifted to Nate. Her brother created. It was what he had done for as long as she knew him. He created art, created items for them, and when they encountered roadblocks to their development, he created solutions. So, what did she do? She wasn’t just reborn. That was the outcome, but it wasn’t what she was doing. When they fought, she took the hits. Why? Because she could take it. Because no matter the hardship, no matter the pain, no matter what, she would…

“I Endure,” she whispered.

The solidity of the floor beneath her became a pillar of Reality for a moment as Divine Energy rushed back inside of her, but this time she took some of it for herself, fighting against the Class Core as it tried to drink in her reward. The energy of Reality suffusing her body, she slowly stood. The claw came at her so fast it kicked up a burst of wind as it did so. She raised her arm, Divine Energy still suffusing her body. The impact of the dragon's claw on her arm shattered the stone beneath her feet, but she didn’t move an inch.

Looking up again she saw a smile on the dragon's face.

“Good. Now we’re getting somewhere. Let us see if you understand then, what it means to Endure.”

The battle started again, but this time Kiri felt like she was making progress as she cut away the shell around herself that had kept her caged.