Chronicles of the Rising
Book One - OMEGA
Chapter Three - Skulking Darkness
~*Galen*~
My voice was lost in the roar of the wind as I tried to scream as I watched Aurum get ripped away through the sky.
Any air I had left in me was forcibly expelled from my lungs when Strom came hurtling into me. Our Aegis connecting with a loud resonating *CLANG*.
Our landing created a small crater and we both went bouncing around the hole like marbles, all the while making loud metallic explosions as we came in contact with each other.
Finally the wind died down and all that was left was the sound of my own ragged breathing. I rolled over with a grunt and crawled to Strom who was sprawled out on his back.
He wasn’t moving.
I knocked on his helm and his face plate slid open. He was just staring blankly up at the sky. “This is why I like the water more, less temperamental.”
I let out a chuckle. “Obviously you’ve never been to the ocean.”
His eyes tracked towards me. “The o-ocean?”
“You guys really need to get off your mountains and find out there is more to the world than ice and rocks.” I stood up slowly and let out a groan as my upper back twinged angrily. I had already begun to use Soul to heal. I combined Water to help the process. I would have added Wind if I were able. Seeing as how I couldn’t call up even a small breeze meant that Vayu was still angry and wouldn’t be giving us his Blessing any time soon.
Strom sat up and was very quiet when I heard him ask, “Do you think Aurum is dead?”
“Dead, no. Hurt, maybe. Pissed off, definitely. Don’t worry too much about him, he’s more than capable of taking care of himself. Just focus on healing up and we’ll get to Hallow Bastion as quickly as we can. However, I’d tiptoe around him for a while if I were you.”
I saw Strom flinch when I told him to tip-toe around the Omega for the time being. I soon felt the familiar vibrations of both Soul and Water coming from him as he worked his Blessings to repair whatever damage he had suffered.
I had told him not to worry, but I couldn’t help but feel nervous at not knowing if my partner was ok.
~*Aurum*~
Opening my eyes to harsh sunlight was and wasn’t a welcome experience.
While I was relieved to find that all my extremities were registering in that they were still in fact intact. The problem, however, was that they were telling me this by way of excruciating pain.
I laid there allowing my body to repair all the internal damage I had sustained being hurtled through the air at high velocity then to come to a crashing stop by reverse-hugging the Earth.
I glanced around taking in my surroundings and could tell I was far further South than when I had started the day. Far more trees than one would expect from the elevation we had been at. Majority of which were still conifers but I spotted a few Oak and Ash trees sprinkled about. I couldn’t tell how long I had laid there but it appeared to be some time as the sun was far further in the sky than when I had left the others. Judging from the extent of my injuries and how far I had healed already, I was guessing a day had already passed by at least.
When I finally stopped feeling like roadkill I sat up and was able to get a better look about. I noted some mountains in the distance still. The forest was thick with large trees which led to little to know undergrowth. That would make my travel easier as I got to my feet using a nearby tree for support. My staff had been left strapped to one of the Arcto. I attempted to reach out with Earth to try and pinpoint exactly where I was but I found my efforts thwarted as the Blessing just dissipated soon after I expanded beyond a few feet of my current location.
That was not only surprising, it was worrying. I couldn’t have been flown all the way to the distortion zone. A few hundred miles at best, nowhere near close to a thousand that would have been necessary to get me to the distortion zone.
Leaning against the tree I closed my eyes and took a deep breath and prepared myself for the possible backlash that might come from what I was about to do.
Welling up Soul around me in a radius a few feet away I slowly began to expand the range. As I expanded I would vary the ‘frequency’ and slowly started to scan the life energy in the vicinity.
All things natural within the world, trees, rocks, animals, people as so forth all had the same resonance of things that belonged. The radius continued to expand and I took note of the trees, birds, small animals all scurrying about. All of these had the same hum of beings that flowed within the natural order. They fell within the cycle for this planet.
Then, A few miles away, I felt it. A disruption within the natural order. Where all things that belonged held the same steady calm hum this was a piercing screech. A violation to the world.
Getting back to Galen would have to wait, this demanded my immediate attention. I turned in the direction of the anomaly and steeled myself. Sucking in a deep breath, I limped off in the direction of evil.
~*Strom*~
It had been a day and a half since the ‘incident’. Surprisingly the Arcto hadn’t run off in fear when the wind had kicked up. Galen had mentioned something about Vayu being mad at us and therefore didn’t attack them.
We had sent them back soon after to make their way home. We had removed our supplies from the Saddles and Galen had to ask Aurum’s staff for permission to allow him to remove it from the straps and carry it with us. This confused me and when I asked why he did this he just shook his head and told me that there are many things that even he didn’t understand, but if he didn’t want to be shocked to death he needed to ask before touching it. Hearing that triggered a hazy memory for me. I stopped dwelling on it as it was most likely something I didn’t want to recall anyway.
We had to run a majority of the way back as I wasn’t too proficient in my Wind Blessing for flight. Galen had suggested that he just carry us both back the rest of the way using his Wind Blessing but that honestly made me a little terrified that we would just repeat the issue that got us in this mess to begin with.
We came upon a river and I took great relief in being able to make a small ice canoe for us to travel in. We made good time with the river, even with the rapids we came upon, I could just guide us through the rocks and in some cases over obstacles with a surge of water from the river. Galen was impressed with how easily I navigated the rushing waters and I was pleased I could at least show him I wasn’t completely inept with my Blessings.
When we would make camp I easily found small game for us to eat. Seeing my hunting skills Galen decided to test my abilities and had us track a herd of deer that were traveling through the forest for their seasonal migration. He told me to form an ice spear and use it to hunt the deer with. I didn’t see the lesson in that as I quickly made one and went after the herd. He stopped me and shook his head.
“I want you to throw that spear from here and kill that deer.”
“What? They’re at least half a mile away!” The only way we could really even pick them out well was thanks to Galen’s Blessings. He had used some method of holding up water in the air that magnified our view.
Galen just looked at me and then pointed towards the deer. I watched as a wickedly sharp shard of ice appeared above the deer. With a small twitch of his finger the shard flew down and impaled the deer through the skull. I watched as the deer just slumped over and the rest of the herd whipped their heads in the direction of their fallen and immediately began to sprint from the field they had been grazing into the cover of the trees.
“Now, go grab that deer, we will eat then begin your proper Aegis training.”
I stood up and took a few steps towards our dinner when a thought occurred to me. I held my hand out and formed a sheet of ice under the deer and used Wind to lift it and willed it to come to me. The sheet lifted in the air and slowly began to float to me. It was wobbling some and I put more strength into the Wind Blessing and the ice steadied. I was making decent progress until a gust of wind blew over me and I instantly went back to that day where I had lost control.
I immediately let go of my Blessings and the ice dropped to the ground with a loud thud that was audible from even this distance.
I considered it for a minute more then had an idea. I began to increase the ice behind the door and created an incline and just used gravity to slide the deer to me.
“Hmm, a little unorthodox at the end there, but good job. Glad you’re starting to think with your Blessings and not your muscles.” Galen clapped me on the shoulder and walked back to our campsite.
I couldn’t help but smile to myself. Maybe I’d get the hang of this after all.
The deer came rocketing to me and I held my arms out to snag it as it came by but the deer had been too big and was going too fast and bowled me over when it crashed into me.
I quickly jumped up with the deer in my arms looking around to see if Galen had seen that. I found him sitting by the fire staring into the blazing fire pensively. He had Aurum’s staff laid across his lap and his hands rubbed around the rune-covered wood absently. I could feel a nervous anxiety coming from the mysterious weapon. I wondered if Galen’s movements were to soothe himself or the staff.
~*Aurum*~
I didn’t need to use Spirit to find the horrible screech anymore, I was now close enough that my own body could pick up on something wrong nearby. The hair on my body stood on end and my skin prickled in waves.
I leaned against a tree to catch my breath. Not only had this oddity been farther away than I first thought, but my Blessings had taken more out of me than I initially estimated. My injuries must have been far more severe than I was led to believe. The brightness of the early day had slipped into evening before I had realized.
Pushing off the tree I trudged on and came upon a large downed tree not long after. By the looks of the still green branches that still adorned it, and how fresh the splintered wood from the base appeared, this didn’t happen that long ago.
Rounding the trunk I came upon the rotting corpse of a corrupted.
I froze.
It shouldn’t have been here.
There was no way for it to be here.
A muffled grunt followed by labored breathing drew my attention away from the fetid odor and rancid flesh as it decayed and faded into wisps of smoke as the sun streamed through the leaves concealing it in semi shadow.
Had it been out in the open sunlight it would have evaporated into nothing already. The breathing became more ragged and I continued around the entanglement of branches and leaves.
There, laying on the ground, in full Aegis, legs pinned under the tree, was a Shadow Knight.
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