WIEDERGEBURT Act II: Chapter 49

“HYAAA!”

Geirolf slammed his gauntlets into the face of a Dire Wolf. His bones jarred from the force of his punch, but he yelled in defiance and unleashed a powerful explosion of wind that tore the creature’s face off and sent it flying away. It struck the ground, rolled, and came to a stop.

Breathing heavily, Geirolf wiped the sweat from his face and tried to regain control over his heartbeat. He couldn’t tell how long he’d been fighting for. However, his body felt sluggish, his arms were weighed down by led, and his mind seemed as if it would collapse at the slightest provocation. He was tired.

Observing his surroundings, Geirolf spotted Mikkel and Earland close by. They had been in a triangle formation with him, protecting the north gate to the colosseum from any Demon Beasts that tried getting close. Both of them were just as tired. They weren’t even using their Spiritual Auras anymore, which cost Spiritual Power to maintain.

Geirolf concluded that he and his brothers were fortunate. They had only fought against small fry so far. Anything more powerful than a Dire Wolf would have made short work of them by now.

“This is getting ridiculous,” Geirolf groaned. “My arms feel like they are falling off.”

“Ha… we should just be lucky Mother ordered us to remain behind,” Mikkel said. “Had we gone to the front as you suggested we do, I’m sure we’d be dead already.”

Grimacing as his case of hubris was brought to light, Geirolf tried to hide his embarrassment behind a scowl. “W-whatever! I still want to prove myself! I know that if I was given a chance, I could be just as good as that man!”

“That man?” Mikkel tilted his head as his eyes glazed over, but then they cleared up. “Ah. You mean Eryk.”

“That damn bastard!” Geirolf scowled. “He’s making me look bad!”

While Mikkel let loose with a helpless laugh, Earland sighed as he hefted his sword of unusual length and slightly wider than the average broadsword.

Another pack of Dire Wolves appeared from around a tall building and charged toward the colosseum. They weren’t the only ones fighting. There were hundred of Spiritualists around them, but they were the only ones not engaged in combat at the moment.

“I doubt Eryk cares one way or the other,” he said in a solemn voice.

Geirolf growled again. “Damn that man! Who the hell does he think he is?! I’LL SHOW HIM!!”

With little thought for his own safety, Geirolf charged at a pack of incoming Dire Wolves. Earland and Mikkel released weary sighs as they readied themselves and chased after their youngest brother.

***

We were forced to take a convoluted route to avoid the battle between Lin, Fay, and their two opponents, but Kari and I eventually discovered where the Leucht Family was hiding.

The area where we were standing was a T-junction. Nothing about it seemed odd. The stone floor looked the same, the worn bricks looked the same, and the vaulted ceiling looked just like every other vaulted ceiling we had come across. But this place was not the same. Just beyond this wall were several Spiritual Signatures. Two of them were quite powerful, but the rest were weak.

“It looks like there is a secret passage somewhere around here,” Kari theorized as I told her about how I’d sensed several presences just beyond this wall. “I wonder how you open it?”

“I don’t think it matters. I don’t plan on taking the time to search.”

“Huh?”

I walked past the confused Kari as she tilted her head, stepped in front of the wall, took a deep, even breath, and held it. As I slid my feet apart, I exhaled and slammed my fist into the wall. There was no Spiritual Power used in this attack. It was just pure brute strength. However, the results was that all of the bricks shattered and exploded into the room beyond.

“Well, that is one way to make an entrance.” Kari nodded at the large hole my punch had made in the wall.

“I don’t think we have time to do things normally,” I said. “Come on. Let’s rescue Dyr.”

“I’m right behind you.”

I stepped into the room with Kari behind me and looked around. A quick observation revealed a large room that was empty save for the people inside and the glowing Rune Circle carved into the ground. There were at least 30 individuals. However, only three of them were important: the old man, the cloaked figure kneeling by the circle, and Dyr, who lay unmoving in the circle itself.

“Eryk Veiger and Kari Astralia. I had a feeling that if anyone was going to disrupt my plans, it would be you two,” the old man said. It was hard for me to judge his age. His hair was mostly black, but it had streaks of gray in it. He had wrinkles, but they were just enough to make him seem refined instead of old. The dark pants covering his legs was barely visible beneath his obsidian greaves. Two large gauntlets made of overlapping segments clacked together whenever he moved his arms. Large pauldrons and a thick chestplate protected his chest, stomach, and shoulders, but the way he carried himself made it seem as if he didn’t need any of that. His back was straight and his gaze was filled with hatred.

“Thanks for the compliment,” I said with a frown. “Are you Hagen Leucht?”

“That is correct.” Hagen reached behind his back, fingers grasping a long handle, which he tugged on to reveal that his weapon of choice was a warhammer. “Since you have come this far, it means I must stop you here at all costs. I will be your opponent today.”

“Kari,” I said as I clenched my hands into fists. “That cloaked man kneeling by the Rune Circle is a powerful darkness user. Light is darknesses eternal opposite and holds a strong advantage. I want you to fight him. If you defeat him, you can interrupt the ritual.”

“I’m afraid I can’t have you do that.”

Hagen slammed his warhammer against the ground, and the 30 strong Spiritualists of the Leucht Family sprang forward and attacked us. Kari and I tried to use the Flash Step to escape, but neither of us could activate the technique. A quick glance revealed the reason. Several Spiritualists had hung back and began shuffling along the ground. With my own lightning element, I could feel the lightning skittering around the soles of my feet like static electricity.

I clicked my tongue and took a step forward as Kari twirled her ranseur around her body. The first group of Spiritualists were upon us. One attacked me with a sword, but I channeled lightning through my arm and cut the sword apart. While he was gawking, I crushed his throat with a powerful punch. He fell onto his hands and knees as he choked and gasped for air. I didn’t bother paying anymore attention to him. He would die soon anyway.

Holding out my hand, I fired four beams of white energy, a combination of lightning and water, that shot through the air and curved around. Each shot pierced the chest of a Spiritualist. It didn’t matter if their Spiritual Auras were active or not. None of these people had the strength to overpower me.

As I killed five of the 30 people present, Kari backpedaled and then thrust out her ranseur. Her attack impaled a man who used gauntlets to fight, though it might have been more accurate to say he impaled himself, since he’d basically run onto her ranseur. With a quick tug, she pulled her spear from the man’s throat. By this point in time, two other people were attacking her from either side. One was wielding scimitars while the other carried a spear.

“Hup!”

Kari couldn’t use the Flash Step, but her physical prowess was still impressive, which her two foes found out when she leapt into the air and onto the ceiling. For one second, it looked like she was defying gravity. Then the second past and Kari used her inhuman leg strength to shove herself off the ceiling. Her fall took her straight into the spear user, who was unable to get his spear up in time. As she spun around, she slashed his face and chest, gouging a large tear into his flesh that sprayed blood like a fountain. The man screamed as he fell back.

Turning on a dime, Kari deflected the two scimitars that came at her by twirling her weapon around. She jumped over the corpse of her now fallen foe, landed on the ground, and then twirled her ranseur again. She slashed the air in front of her, creating a bright golden light, and then slashed the air again to form an X with the first slash. Spinning around, she then thrust out her weapon, piercing the X-pattern, which conformed to the shape of her ranseur’s blade and shot forward.

The person wielding the scimitar was a young woman. She stood no chance against the powerful attack Kari had launched. Her Spiritual Aura was completely overwhelmed and her body scorched by the powerful light element.

While Kari killed another three Spiritualists, I killed five more—my targets being the lightning affinity Spiritualists who were disrupting our ability to use the Flash Step. All five died when I fired those beams at them. One pierced a person’s head, another his heart, a third her chest, a fourth his neck, and the last was another headshot. All five corpses fell to the floor.

“Kari!”

“I’m on it!”

With no lightning affinity Spiritualists to stop us, Kari and I activated the Flash Step and proceeded to decimate the remaining forces. Once all the remainders of the Leucht Family were killed, Kari went for Skygge, while I appeared in front of Hagen Leucht.

Clang!

Despite appearing before him without warning, Hagen was still able to raise his warhammer and use the handle as a guard to block my punch. Even so, his body was not as physically powerful as mine. He skidded across the ground for several meters. Even after coming to a stop, his arms were shaking from the attack.

“I can see now how you were able to defeat Torgny Leucht and my son.” Hagen grimaced. “You are indeed a powerful foe. However, do not think that being powerful means anything! No matter how strong you might be, there will always be someone more powerful than you!”

“That might be so.” I raised my arms in a guard stance. “However, even if there is someone out there who has more power than I do, you aren’t that person.”

I appeared before him again and attacked once more. My punch whizzed by his head when he dodged by a hair’s breadth, and before I could attack again, smoke drifted from his nose seconds before he opened his mouth. Shock coursed through me as fire poured from his mouth like a torrent. I gained some distance with the Flash Step, but I wasn’t fast enough to activate it to completely avoid getting injured. I looked at my singed hand, frowned, and then looked at Hagen.

“You’ve mastered the Third State of Spiritualism, haven’t you?” I asked.

Snorting out more smoke, Hagen’s lips peeled back in a feral grin that revealed fire burning inside of his mouth. “Hmph. So you know about the Third State of Spiritualism, do you? I’m not surprised, considering you also appear to have mastered the Third State of Spiritualism. That little brat Hilda thinks she’s the most powerful individual in Nevaria thanks to her Three Thousand Steps, but she has only scratched the surface this state, whereas I… I have completely mastered it.”

I was almost tempted to correct Hagen on the subject. It was true that I had mastered the Third State of Spiritualism, but my ability to manipulate the elements without movement to direct Spiritual Power was an ability I had been born with, like Dyr’s ability attract Demon Beasts. I could manipulate the elements because I was a half-human and half-something else.

“So what if you have mastered the Third State of Spiritualism,” I mocked. “That’s just the beginning of a person’s cultivation. It only means you have more talent than most. That’s not something you should be proud about at your age, old man.”

“You’ve got quite the mouth on you, boy.” Hagen snarled. “I’ll enjoy shutting that mouth of yours up!!!”

Hagen swung his warhammer and fire exploded from it in a wave, rushing toward me like an impending disaster, but I held out my hand and channeled Spiritual Power through my body. Water coagulated in front of me. The tiny droplets appeared and combined to form a large barrier. The fire slammed into the barrier, steam billowed from our colliding elements with a hiss, but the wall of water held while the fire was put out.

More Spiritual Power surged through my body. The wall of water suddenly transformed into a dozen spears, which I willed to skewer Hagen. They shot forward like bolts from a crossbow. However, Hagen once more opened his mouth and met the spears of water with balls of fire. My water wall had already been weakened by his first attack, so the water evaporated this time, though they took the fireballs with them.

Rather than charging straight in, I used Spiritual Perception to follow Hagen, who I realized was charging straight toward me! Hagen burst out of the steam seconds later. His body appeared to be composed of fire. He was nothing more than a human-shaped fireball whose flame was so hot my body burst into sweat, which quickly evaporated as he charged closer.

I could have counteracted his power by transforming my body into water, but I didn’t. I covered my body with a layer of water, hardened it, created another layer, and hardened that layer too. Now protected by two layers of highly condensed water, I couldn’t feel the heat anymore. Hagen swung his hammer as if hoping to smash my head, but I struck the warhammer with my fist, knocking it back and making Hagen stagger. Before he could recover, I shot sicks icicle-like projectiles from my palm. They impaled Hagen before he could recover. Six massive holes appeared in his body, though they closed up seconds later.

I clicked my tongue. “Tch. It’s been a while since I’ve had to fight someone who can enter the Third State of Spiritualism. I’d forgotten how annoying this was.”

The Third State of Spiritualism was almost like a miniature form of immortality. So long as a Spiritualists body was made up of an element, they couldn’t really die—well, sort of. That wasn’t quite true since if you destroyed the element composing their body, they would die, but very few people were capable of such a feat.

Sighing, I leapt backward and clapped my hands together. As if my hand clap signified the coming end, two giant walls of water suddenly appeared on either side of Hagen and slammed together—or they should have. The human-shaped fireball between them let out a massive roar and destroyed the water walls by evaporating them. I grimaced. This man wasn’t as talented in this state as Erica had been, but he was still annoying to deal with.

I was trying not to transform my body into an element. While it would allow me to easily defeat this man, I wanted to save my Spiritual Power in case Kari needed help.

Well, I guess I could simply overwhelm him.

Deciding to hold nothing back anymore, I raised my hands and poured my Spiritual Power out. A cage of lightning suddenly appeared around Hagen, who screamed as he slammed into it, and then bounced back. Before he could recover, I waved my other hand and sent a wave of water toward him, which slammed into both the cage and him. However, the cage quickly melted away and mixed into the water, which was filled with contaminants that conducted electricity. The result was that the human-shaped fireball not only received the shock of his life, but the water quickly doused the flame.

I waited for the wave to subside, splashing against the other side of the room, and revealing that Hagen had transformed into his human form again. He must have changed at the last minute to avoid dying. His clothing was soaked, his shoulders heaved, he was covered in bruises, and his bloodshot eyes glared at me with hatred.

Raising my hand, I felt a slight drain on my reserves of Spiritual Power to create a single spear made of water.

“You…!”

I waved my hand forward. The spear shot toward Hagen Leucht.

“Damn you—urk!”

And impaled him through the chest. Hagen stopped talking as he looked down, staring at the water spear sticking out of his chest. Blood seeped from the wound, flowing slowly around the ice, and his hands slowly raised to grab it as if he was going to pull it out. However, the water spear had stabbed him through the heart.

He looked back up at me, and then his arms went limp, his body fell backward, and he landed supine on the ground. I walked over to him and checked to see if he was really dead. His eyes were still open. They were glazed over. He also wasn’t breathing and a pool of blood was expanding from underneath his body.

“He is definitely dead,” I muttered. “Now it is time to see if Kari needs my help.”

I turned around and looked toward the battle happening between Skygge and Kari.

***

Kari used the Flash Step to appear in front of Skygge, still kneeling on the ground, and thrust her ranseur into his head. She released a surprised yelp when his body burst into shadows. Leaping back when a dangerous premonition made her skin crawl, she barely managed to avoid the black spears that shot from the shadows on the floor and ceiling.

“Ke ke ke. So this little girl wants to play with me, does she? Ke ke. Very well. Let us play.”

Keeping a wary eye on her surroundings, Kari tried to find where Skygge had hidden himself. However, there was nothing around her. Eryk and Hagen were battling several meters away, and it looked like Hagen had turned into a giant fireball. The Rune Circle that Dyr lay in was no longer active. She would have run over to the girl, but she didn’t know if Skygge would use that as a distraction to attack, so she remained where she was.

Just then, the shadows underneath her suddenly turned into a set of jaws that tried to take a bit out of her. Kari didn’t have enough time to jump. She spun around and channeled Spiritual Energy through her staff, which lit up with a golden glow, cleaving through the jaws before they could swallow her. Following up, she impaled her still glowing ranseur into the ground. It pierced the floor like a knife through butter, but nothing else happened.

“Ke ke ke. I don’t need to be near my attacks to launch them, my dear. Ke. Still, that was an impressive display of the light element. I can see now why Eryk holds you in such high regard. With your current talent, you might eventually reach the Third State of Spiritualism. Too bad you have to die here. Ke ke ke ke.”

Kari bit her lip in frustration as she tried to find the man to no avail. It was obvious to her now that he was hiding in the shadows somewhere. Eryk had once explained the concept of Shadow Walking, a technique that allowed a darkness affinity Spiritualist to walk through shadows. While a truly powerful ability, there were some limitations to it.

What were they? Oh, yes! He can’t walk from one shadow to another if the shadows aren’t touching. Also, if there aren’t any shadows to walk through, then his ability doesn’t work—oh!

As she recalled the information that Eryk had given her on this ability, several large spikes suddenly shot from the ground and tried to impale her. Kari avoided them with liberal use of the Flash Step. She appeared and disappeared at will. Coming out of her latest Flash Step, she was about to move again, but something grabbed onto her ankle and prevented it. She looked down and found a hand made of shadows grabbing her.

“What the—?!”

“That ability of yours is annoying. Ke ke ke. Certainly, it makes you a troublesome opponent, but being able to move fast doesn’t mean much if I can get your timing down.”

Did that mean he’d been observing how long it took her to use the Flash Step twice, and then somehow predicted where she would appear and trapped her? Or maybe he’d lured her into this position with those stakes? Kari didn’t know, but she knew that she couldn’t let herself be captured for long or it would mean trouble.

Slicing through the hand with her ranseur, Kari slid backward across the floor. She wasn’t able to use the Flash Step. However, she danced around the stakes that tried to impale her with simple footwork. Several near misses caused her skin to sting as blood welled up on cuts along her arms and legs. Even so, she kept moving, all the while trying to find some method of dealing with this man.

I need to somehow get him to reveal himself. I need to bathe this entire room in so much light the shadows all vanish! But what techniques can I use?

Kari swung her still glowing ranseur. The stakes around her were severed and dispersed into dark miasma. As she continued moving, relying on pure instinct to dodge, she tried to think of a technique she could use to banish all the shadows from this room.

She only had four Spiritual Techniques: Flash Step, Divine Buster Cannon, Light Trident, and Light Cutter. None of those could—oh, wait. She did have the Light Sphere technique. It was a very basic Spiritual Light Technique that generated a sphere of light over her hand. The brightness could be adjusted by pumping more Spiritual Power into it, but…

It’s worth a shot!

Taking one hand off her ranseur, Kari gave herself fully to dodging as she spun her left hand around in circles. A sphere of light soon appeared above her hand. Taking a deep breath, Kari pumped as much Spiritual Power into this technique as she could.

The tiny ball soon exploded with light so bright even Kari had to close her eyes. A loud scream echoed around her as something hit the floor with a sharp thud. Using her ears instead of her eyes, Kari raced forward and thrust out her spear. There was some resistance as her spear tore through a body. It was followed by a pained grunt. When the light from her Spiritual Technique died down, she opened her eyes.

Her ranseur had imaled the cloak figure to the floor. She could feel her weapon digging into his chest. Black blood oozed from around the wound, staining the cloak and expanding like parchment soaking up ink. Several wheezes emerged from the man’s mouth. He coughed.

“Ke ke… very good. You are quite talented at using Spiritual Light Techniques. Ke ke. However, you have forgotten something very important in all this.”

“I’ve… forgotten something?” Kari frowned as she twisted the ranseur a bit more, causing Skygge to groan. “What have I forgotten.”

“Ke ke. That if you wanted to keep me from moving inside of the shadows, you should have kept your Light Sphere active even after stabbing me.”

At that moment, Skygge melted into the shadow at her feet. Her eyes widened as her danger senses screamed at her. She tried to use the Flash Step, but several hands sprang from the shadows and latched onto her. They quickly crawled up her body, wrapping around her thighs, her stomach, her breasts, and arms. Then they wrapped around her neck and cut off her air supply.

Kari gasped as she tried to suck in a breath that wouldn’t come. Her body was begging her for oxygen, but all that emerged from her throat was a rasping sound as she failed to breathe in.

“Ke ke ke. I’m going to enjoy strangling you, my dear. Oh, yes. You’ll make a fine addition to my collection. I might even turn you into one of my dolls! That would bring me such joy!”

Kari’s mouth hung open as she continued trying to breath. Drool leaked from her lips and ran down her throat. Her muscles were spasming and growing weaker. Spots appeared in her vision. Everything was growing dark!

“Kari!!”

At that moment, an intense burst of light suddenly appeared in her vision and blinded her. A loud, agonized scream echoed from beneath her, and then there was a strange gurgling sound. The hands wrapped around her body disappeared barely a second later. She fell onto her knees, hacking, coughing, and sucking in grateful lungfuls of air.

“Kari, are you okay?” Eryk knelt beside her and placed a hand on her back, rubbing it in soothing up and down motions.

“I’m… ack… I’m alright,” Kari coughed several more times before she managed to smile at him. “Thank you for the assistance.”

“You are welcome.”

“S-Skygge… where is he?”

“Over there.”

Eryk pointed at a corpse lying on the floor. There was a lot of blood gushing from its neck, which she could only assume was because the body was now missing a head. She frowned and wondered where the head had gone, but then she spotted it, now without its cloak, and nearly shrieked.

“W-what is that thing?!”

The head didn’t look remotely human. Pale skin that was covered in unhealthy splotches like sun spots, no nose but two flat nostrils in their place, sharp teeth that were pointed like Demon Beast Fangs, and blood red eyes surrounded by black rings, the thing before her was absolutely hideous.

“That… is trouble,” Eryk said at last, his voice strange. It sounded strained. She could tell he was shocked, but she didn’t think it was for the reasons she thought he should be. “Anyway, now isn’t the time to talk about this. Dyr. We need to help her.”

“Right…”

Kari knew that right now wasn’t the best time, but she promised herself that she would ask him about his reaction to this creature calling himself Skygge later.

Eryk grabbed her hand and helped Kari to her feet. The two of them then made their way over to Dyr, who hadn’t moved at all since the incident. As they reached the woman, Kari couldn’t stop from letting out a gasp as she saw Dyr, completely bereft of her clothes, eyes wide open, and expression slack-jawed as she stared at nothing.

She wasn’t breathing.

“Eryk…”

Kari glanced at Eryk to see the complicated mixture of emotions on his face. His features were twisted in a combination of resignation, guilt, and self-loathing. However, just as quickly as those emotions showed on his face, they disappeared. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“Let’s… let’s take her with us,” he said at last. “T-the least we can do is give her a proper burial.”

“Yes,” Kari quietly agreed. What else could she do?

Eryk took off his jacket and used it to cover Dyr’s modesty, then slid one hand underneath her knees and the other around her shoulders. He lifted her into his arms. Her legs and one arm dangled limply from his grasp and her head lolled several times before falling onto his chest, but he didn’t seem to notice.

“Let’s go,” he said in a quiet, pained voice.

Kari did not say anything. She just followed Eryk as he walked out through the crumbling entrance.