FUCK!!!!!!!

MY EYES! THEY ARE IN MY EYES!!!!

ASTRIS NULLIS AVENUM! 

Mathias screamed internally.

Despite his sorcery, he hit the ground hard. Very hard.

"Oww! Oww! Fuck!” he screamed, this time externally.

One of his eyes was blurry, the other was eaten alive by those grotesque spiders.

The Lone Mother, Weaver of Death.

That's what Julien said its name was, that fucking mirror monster. Mathias contemplated, looking back.

He said he was with The Alchemists of Law, some interdimensional terrorist organization. 

He wondered if they were here too.

He tried to see the outside world through his eye but it was blurry.

He needed to heal himself but he already used almost all of his aether to escape the predicament. He needed more but he could barely move.

Do I call out for help? Or will that just get me killed faster. I don't know the attitude towards outsiders here. Mathias contemplated inwardly.

Fuck it. I'll call out, if I don't I'm going to die here anyway. Mathias thought, with an undertone of self-deprication.

"HELP! HELP! HELP!" He screamed out.

Not soon after, a voice responded. 

“I hear you! Where are you!”

“Just follow the sound of my voice” Mathias responded

“Wait, I think I know where you are!” He exclaimed

Mathias then saw a blurry figure in his vision, he couldn’t exactly tell what he looked like but the figure had pale skin and black eyes. 

“You look terrible, like you shouldn’t be alive. Are you a young master?” He asked him

A..Young what now? What sort of dialect is that? Mathias thought, confused.

“What do you mean by that?” He asked him pallidly 

His silence hinted at the fact that he was shocked, “You mean, you don’t know what a young master is? Are you some backwater village mortal? No, it can’t be, not with clothes like that.” He whispered loudly to himself.

Mortal? No, I’m a sorcerer. He must be talking about my astris robe. I guess it does look shiny, wealth here seems to be exclusive to sorcerers. At least I know it isn’t damaged that much. Mathias thought to himself.

“Are you perhaps a cultivator from a hermit clan?” He asked.

Clan? Does he mean family or town by that? Is this dimension a tribal place? As for cultivator, it might be an alternative word for sorcerer but I can’t be sure, let’s test it. Mathias thought, intending to experiment.

“I don’t know anything about gardening.” Mathias said

“You really don’t know anything do you.” He said to him, sounding downcast.

“If you’re waiting for me to die so that you can loot my corpse, know that I’ve primed sorceries to detonate my body.” Mathias said to him.

He jumped back in Mathias’ blurred vision. 

“What makes you think I would ever do something such as that! Know that I, Lan Hua Yan Fei of the righteous Lan Hua sect always follows the righteous path!” He said loudly, acting appalled.

Such a strange name. Mathias chided inwardly.

Mathias sighed loudly, “Known for your benevolence or not, that fact remains that you, upon seeing my dying body, didn’t call for help. Instead you approached me to stop me from yelling so that I’d die quieter, since it would be bad for others to be around when you loot my corpse. You, Mr. Fei may be a reputable person but you are not a good person.” He spoke deeply.

“...”

“Some thoughts should be going through your head right now, how should I ensure my reputation is safe may be one.

 I am going to yell out help louder now. 

Since you were concerned that people may have heard me if I kept yelling originally, I assume that people are somewhere around and there will be a sizable chance of people hearing me and coming to my aid. 

If those people are also from different reputable tribes and they come at the same time, unless they are completely friendly and in on it together, they, under the pressure of each other will help me and if they are from tribes other than your own, I will rat you out to them and they will place your clan under fire and I will be sure to execute you.” Mathias said, seemingly telling him the future.

“You seem to have lied, you are an intelligent young master indeed.” He said to Mathias darkly.

He then saw him performing hand sigils.

Hand sigils I don’t recognize at all, most likely preparing a sorcery. Mathias thought.

Mathias took a deep breath, “Astris Clavis Nota!”

A starlit key, no bigger than a house key manifested in the cultivator’s neck.

His eyes widened in complete shock, grasping at his throat.

Since I didn’t recognize his hand sigils, he probably didn’t recognize my words as incantations. Plus it was pretty fast. Mathias contemplated.

Following those thoughts, the cultivator fell to the floor in a bleeding mess.

Mathias then raised his left hand and grasped a ghostly key identical to the one in the cultivator’s neck. Pointing the key towards him, he turned it and the other key followed suit.

The ghostly key in his hand turned real and then he crushed it, shattering it into miniature stars.

The stars danced around his dying body and started to repair it fully.

If I had the Virgo affinity, this type of restoration could be done with the aether of a blade of grass, I wouldn’t have had to resort to such measures. Mathias thought in a slightly despairing manner.

The cultivator’s blood turned azure blue as he started to collapse into bright-blue dust that scattered in the wind.

He soon got up, his vision restored. Sighing, he looked around at his environment. He was in a green forest. 

Green. That’s not a common natural color. Is this place abnormal, or is green a natural color here? Mathias contemplated.

He continued to walk through the strange green forest.

I still don’t have enough aether, I need to find some more victims. I wasn’t vindictive enough last time. I wouldn’t have lost so badly if I had more aether. Mathias thought depressingly

Thinking this thought, Mathias heard singing nearby. 

Coming to the source of the noise, he found a woman bathing in the waterfall.

He targeted a small pebble with his sorcery, causing it to shine with a light that invoked a sense of wonder.

Seeing the shining rock, the girl approached the pebble and picked it up.

Bingo!

The delayed aether alteration has been activated. 

He quickly hid in the bushes and planned to use the aether alteration to track her path back to her village, assuming she had one.

After waiting in the trees for a while her position started to change.

Traveling westward to an unknown location.

He quickly picked up speed and trailed her a few moonshines back. Her position then stagnated, noticing this change he started to approach slower, eventually discovering a wall composed of a series of bright green tubes intertwined with twine.

He flicked the tubes with his left hand, hollow. Feeling the sides he began to scratch, eventually pulling back a strand of it. 

It consists of segmented strands which lay on top of each other. That’s characteristic of organic matter. It’s most likely a plant but it could also be a root of some kind. Mathias discerned.

He then heard some footsteps on the other side of the strange green wall. 

Have I made a commotion? Mathias asked himself.

He took a step back slowly, sinking back into the green foliage.

Turning around, he aimed to trace the wall to a gate and then enter the town for the normal direction, pretending to be a wanderer trader of a distant land, which he was to be fair.

I’ll sell the used up sigil keepers I still have on me, Mathias planned.

Traveling around the perimeter of the wall, a portion of the gate became visible to his aether-infused eyes.

He smirked before locating the path that led to the gate. Going 3 moonshines away from the gate he looked both ways and entered the path.

Mathias quickly traversed to the open green gate and was met with two guards with red feathered spears and unusual headgear.

 “Halt! What is your business with the Hua Tai clan!” They instantly commanded.

Placing his left hand on his heart he started to speak with courtesy, “My name is Mathias Calypses, a wanderer selling wares of a mystical nature.” he said

“From which clan do you hail?” They spoke in unison.

Do you think they would believe me if I said I came from a clan of inquisitors serving the Mirror of the Night Sky? Mathias chided internally. 

“I hail from a land far away, you wouldn’t recognize the name.” Mathias spoke truthfully

Their stance shifted to attack, “Leave now, outsider of Hua.” 

Mathias smiled, “Now, now don’t be disheartened. I may be an outsider, but only an outsider can supply these.” Mathias said, showing them two broken golden stopwatches with embedded star backgrounds.

“What are those?” The leftmost guard asked.

“Cultivation tools designed to be used by mortals and aid the transition into a cultivator.” He said.

I’m actually not lying, those tools are designed to make sorcerers out of mortals. I find it good to not lie to anyone. There’s too many lie detection sorceries out there, you’ll never know what lie will come to bite you in the ass, Mathias reintered to himself.

“Can you prove to us it works?” They asked him.

Mathias then tapped the middle of the stopwatches and they began to glow blue and sparkle.

Their eyes widened, “So you’re from a newly established hua sect named Calypses, huh.” They said to him,

“Yes, it’s not very known so I can understand the confusion.” Mathias said to them.

“Right, right.” They said, moving the way to welcome him into the village.

Coming into the village Mathias saw a strange assortment of buildings he suspected to be their places of residence. 

Walking down the dirt path a certain person came into view, standing with long dark hair and brownish-black eyes, he looked in Mathias’ direction.

Mathias then approached him with a courteous nod, “You must be a gardener.” he said to him.

His eyes looked shocked before apprehensively saying, “I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Now I was confused, didn’t that other guy say the word ‘planter’ to describe sorcerers here? Mathias thought.

“You know, a sorcerer, a wizard, a sage, a warlock maybe? A user of magic, practitioner of the aetherous arts?” Mathias said, using every word in his expansive vocabulary.

“Do you mean a cultivator, young master?” He asked Mathias, with a small smile on his face.

“Yes! That’s the one!” I exclaimed.

He then smirked gently, like he couldn’t believe someone could mess up a word so ingrained in society.

“Well anyways, I have a few things that a cultivator of your caliber could use.” Mathias said, trying to sell to him.

His tone immediately went dark, “My caliber? That’s quite presumptuous of you junior.” 

J-junior? I uh, don’t know how to feel about that, Mathias contemplated.

His face went into contemplation trying to figure out exactly how much he was insulted.

“I see that young master does not normally come face to face with other young masters but as you see as the youngest son of the Hua Tai clan I have a reputation to uphold.” He warned him.

Mathias was desperately trying to think of a way to diffuse this situation.

The cultivator then grasped his strange layered multicolored robe and threw it off. Revealing a near identical robe beneath.

Thinking that dissolving this situation is no longer a reasonable resolution Mathias grabbed a black gold-embroidered cloth pouch and lifted it above his head.

Holding the string on the pouch he loosened it, causing blue starry powder to be spread in all directions. 

The cultivator looked at it and frowned before making a strange stance, “Ten-Thousand Feathers Rain!” 

The cultivator’s arms were lifted by his sides as a peaceful smile painted his lips, palms facing the sun as if he planned to personally pull it down from the sky.

Bright-golden energy cascaded through his upper arms from his soul, collecting in his hands. 

The golden light pooling in his palms started to leak downwards, spreading out and forming yellow gold wings of light beneath his arms.

The wings became more refined and detailed, each illusory feather becoming more visible and defined. 

“Once there was darkness, until a creature of the dark created light. Henceforth the great Illustrious Immortal, One Who Embodies Kings of Gold was. The Immortal gave purpose to order, the Immortal gave direction to confusion, and gave hope to weakness. You will now witness the hope he has given! Ten-Thousand Feathers Rain!” He chanted

The illusory wings turned toward Mathias’ direction and at the same time the stardust he scattered earlier congealed in the surrounding air, transforming the surroundings into a black veil interspaced by the light of faraway stars.

At this sight the cultivator’s eyes widened as he made a tsk of annoyance and began chanting another phrase, “There were many who lived in dark that despised the Immortal’s light but even the Mirror Obsessed Woman couldn’t act against his greatness, the greatness of a world without the night.” He expressed calmly 

The brightness of the ensnarement area increased drastically as Mathias moved his hands to cover his eyes.

Seizing the opportunity, the cultivator hailing by Hua Tai intended to dash forward and he did, arriving at Mathias’ location before he finished realizing his intent.

Upon striking his body he realized something was off,

The body he struck fell apart into blue stardust!

Outside his starry domain the true Mathias stood in front of the barrier, That strange incantation he used actually weakened my Astris sorcery seal. By the looks of it his spell was aimed at dispelling Nix sorceries and Lunae sorceries, night and moon respectively. Astris sorcery means star, it has elements that represent darkness but it has a much stronger connection to light. I fear that if I actually used Nix or Lunae my barrier would have instantly collapsed. He thought.

Mathias then heard the cultivator’s faraway voice from inside the barrier, “When did you perform the subsituation young master, you made no hand signs nor any incantations, no matter what there always has to be telltale signs when one manipulates qi, this is a rule that applies to even immortals.” He spoke calmly.

Seeing the effects of his seal working as intended, Mathias decided to teach him a bit about aether manipulation, “That’s true, there is no way to completely eliminate the need for mediums but you can perform the mediums earlier to have them take effect later.” he told him.