Because I recently was fooling around with DD for an experiment with collision detectors (endless wall glitch cough cough) and got inspired. And, as I am totally uninspired by DD's 5 semi ish cool characters and 3 joining to make 8 characters, and it's been way too long since I played TLA, it stars Isaac, Garet, Ivan, and Mia. Note that if you look closely when/if you return to Kaocho, the corpses are actually skeletons, and the monsters there have names like "Bone Gnawer" and "Foul Glutton". ...So, it's not just my sick imagination. Camelot actually has you looking around a town where the people get eaten.
Will be two chapters long. Second chapter will have a little bit hinted at mudshipping, if that's your thing (apparently it's mine!) and a little bit hinted at sandstormshipping. For now, enjoy the gen.
Also, this is my first serious try at writing horror. I need some real practice. Feedback, please? Haha, I hope you enjoy :)
Special thanks to my real life friend J who betaed this for me! And so quickly, too! You're awesome!
The nightmare closed in around Ivan in one fell swoop when his legs at last gave out on him, and he sunk to the ground.
There was nowhere left to run.
Howls split the night, echoing over the empty stretch of sky devoid of both moon and stars, and he trembled, trying with everything he had not to give in. He could hear the creatures all around him, an otherworldly hiss crawling up the dying trees and a rippling something twitching along the earth towards him at every angle, and it was already far more than he could take. He stumbled backwards until he slammed against a solid tree, chest heaving. He,looked around feverishly, searching in vain. The creatures were everywhere but invisible, the sounds of their approach unbearably loud until they echoed in his ears, but he could see nothing but darkness. The bloody mist rolled over the forested hill in a suffocating and freezing blanket; Ivan sank deeper into himself, burying his head into his chest, the incessant trembling not lessening even enough for him to grip his staff.
The piercing wound in his chest throbbed again, a violent and bloodied sprawl of struggle hewn into his torso by an iron claw. He clutched his arm more tightly against it and huddled up closer, the rattling sound of his own breaths filling his ears just as loud as the dissonant cries of the approaching beasts.
"Ancients help me," he breathed, "please."
The sound of a branch snapping in the darkness was his only answer, and it most certainly was not the answer he wanted.
Gasping still, Ivan twisted his head around to stare at the blackness, his heart pounding. That was no twig; that snap had been like thunder in the silence.
Craaaack.
He stumbled back jerkily in terror.
Whatever was coming was huge.
And it was near.
For the tenth time in as many minutes, exhaustion and pain both forgotten, Ivan twisted around to grapple at the swaying tree, pulling himself up in frantic hops and scrambling to crawl to the sky before whatever that was got closer. The mist only thickened the higher he climbed but he'd rather be blind than stuck down there one second longer. "Come on, come on!" he cried, blistered fingers fighting for any recourse they could find on the splintering wood. The sounds below were getting louder and it felt as if he was making no progress at all, the tops of the trees impossibly far away and getting even farther away with by the second-
"Wind's might, be with me, wind's might, be with me, wind's might, be with me," he chorused, shutting his eyes and the world out to focus purely on his inner strength. The rest of the world clamored for attention but he shut it out, funneling all the precious energy he had left into his hands and his staff. "Wind's might... be with me!"
A wave of Psynergy circled his feet and emerged from nothing, lifting him up to tear through the trees on the wings of Jupiter. Ivan cried out and reached skyward with all his strength, fingers stretching, heart begging for the safety in the sky even as the monsters on the ground rose in parallel. Almost there, almost there, almost there-!
"YES!"
Teeth snapped at his ankles, creatures of the night leaping at him from below, but there was no reaching at Jupiter adept in the skies. Er, trees. Close enough, for Ivan's tastes, close enough to safety when before he had been so utterly helpless. With a grunt, he carefully pulled himself higher, dangling in mid air stretching the wound that could not take much more. It was a difficult, near agonizing struggle to pull himself fully onto the branch, and he shut his eyes in pain, gasping all the way. If only he was more like his daughter... given the ability to heal instead of read minds...
But, that was neither here nor there, and hoping for what would never be would get him nowhere but dead. Based off the last few times this scenario had played itself out, he didn't have long, only a couple minutes at most before the monsters figured out how to climb the tree, and then there would be far too many of them to fight off.
Breathing hard, Ivan carefully dragged his eyelids open. His staff was slick in his hands and he planted it more firmly in the tiny branch, using it to anchor himself. Holding his breath, he looked down.
"By the Ancients," he gasped.
Well, his few minutes of respite had just transformed into nothing at all.
The darkness before him had transformed into a writhing mass of claws and talons, many legged beasts scrambling over one another to climb his tree. It shook back and forth, swaying under the pressure, the fighting body underneath him yanking his tree back and forth with such force it was all he could do to hang on.
Ivan let himself be tossed back and forth on the splintering tree like a rag doll. He clung on, even as he twisted back to look down again.
The screeching mass of animalistic shapes jumped and scratched and sprung from itself, tearing itself to pieces just to get to Ivan. There was a crazed, unintelligent ferocity to it, lacking even the basest sense of self-preservation.
All Ivan could see was the instinct to hunt, kill, and devour.
When one long, spindly arm ripped a rising head from the crowd straight off the neck so violently he heard the bones crack, Ivan gasped and shuddered in revulsion, rushing to bury his head in the crook of his arm. This did absolutely nothing to muffle the distinct sound of teeth crunching into flesh.
May the elements help me...
But if there was any hint of Venus or Mars, Jupiter or Mercury left in this now accursed world, Ivan saw none of it.
The continuing wave of monstrous assaults would guarantee that Ivan needed to get out of here, and get out of here now. They lacked the ability to fly or climb, but from the ground they possessed a tremendous force. They could and would force the tree to the ground- and Ivan was very quickly running out of places to hide.
A three-legged something tore free from the clutches of the herd and it lunged up with all the force of Jupiter itself, bursting skyward to latch onto the trunk a good ten feet off the ground. A snarling, canine face snapped up at him, salivating teeth sinking into the trunk. Red eyes flashed in the darkness, pupiless, soulless, nothing but empty scarlet orbs waiting for him below.
Ivan could not help it- he screamed.
The tree rolled under the weight, bending severely to the side. Ivan clung on, whimpers torn from his throat as the beast slunk its way closer, crawling up the trunk faster and faster. It opened its disgusting jaws and licked its lips once.
"Get away from me!"
A sheer concussive gale blasted out from him with the force of his scream, one part defensive to nine parts sheer terror. He just started running, throwing himself off the branch and running before his feet had even hit the ground, sprinting over Jupiter's air and then Venus's earth. There was no pain. There was only the sound of his own screeching breaths and pounding feet, and the feel of his heart hammering its way through his chest so fast he could barely even manage to gasp for breath.
And he still ran with everything he had. Not towards safety, not towards the river, or Ayuthay, or Isaac... he just ran as fast as he could and as away from those things as he could get.
Ancients, Jupiter, Isaac... SOMEBODY, HELP ME!
Yet there was no help for the dammed.
Branches whipped him in the face, barbed tails and pointed, dagger-like claws snuck out from the shadows to reach and snag him fast, and every step he took there were more glistening red eyes waiting for him in the darkness. Ivan screamed again and with that lost himself to blind panic. He flung his staff out haphazardly, batting at the monsters from side to side and screaming all the while, screaming until his throat was hoarse and he couldn't hear anything but his own voice.
"Get away from me! Stay back! Get away from me! ISAAC, HELP!"
When Ivan saw at last the hints of human civilization peeking through the thinning trees, he spared no time for thought. He ran straight for them and hoped with everything he had left it would be safe.
Ivan tore through the destroyed gates without looking behind him, staff brandished over his head. He struck out at the immediate onslaught of shapes cloaked in the dark, ducking under the reaching hands and jumping over thumping tails and slimy teeth, on a flat out run for anything that was not here. When three spindly somethings bolted around his ankle, gripping so hard he was yanked down to slam against the ground on his stomach, his Psynergy reacted without any thought.
"Destruct Ray!"
One single harsh bolt of lightning arced down overhead to splinter the ground amid screeches and a high, dissonant scream, and carved out just a sliver he could worm through; a sliver was all he needed. He ripped free from the waning grip and sprinted through it in a beeline for the nearest door, and Ivan at last threw himself inside with a relieved and ragged gasp, tumbling head over heels to slam into the wall.
Finally- everything stopped.
His chest and head ached, he could barely breathe, his mind was still racing, and there was the sound of a rumbling storm of paper as books spilled down on top of him, but... no hissing. No footsteps. No licking of lips.
No monsters.
He closed his eyes with a shudder.
Ivan did not count the seconds, or the minutes, as it may have been; time ceased to exist, measured only in the length of his breath and the waning pain in his chest. He stayed slumped upside down against the wall, simply letting the blood rush to his head and for himself to breathe.
It was only when he felt and knew he was considerably calmer that, very carefully and slowly, Ivan stiffly unrolled himself and sat upright.
The door to the house was still open from his charge, and he pulled it shut with a slight gust of wind without pause. The poisonous mist that seemed to spawn those hellish beasts prowled along inside, too; by the elements, it was everywhere, but no red eyes shone from the darkness, and he took that to mean he was safe. For now.
Then he shook his head at himself, dismayed; it meant absolutely nothing in terms of safety. The half of Kalay covered by the eclipse had been overrun by creatures within seconds. Buildings meant nothing to these monsters. He could not rest simply because he was here. If anything could be described as the heart of enemy territory, this was it- and this eclipse was far more dangerous than any human enemy he had faced ever before. Ivan would rather climb a hundred lighthouses than stay here one second longer- and he had no other option but to stay trapped here in this desolate village and hope he could find one shard of sanctuary left in the world that was quickly becoming indistinguishable from hell on earth.
Ivan used his staff to pull himself to his feet, and was unprepared for the burst of pain jolting out of his adrenaline laden limbs; he would've fallen if he was not braced against the wall. Gritting his teeth, Ivan wound his whole arm tightly around his staff and limped forward as fast as he could, free hand pressing tightly against his middle. The blood seeped through still, warm and wet, and he very purposefully kept his eyes up.
The front area was a mess, probably from his crash landing, but there was nobody else in sight, so he carefully made his way around the corner- ball of wind clutched in his free hand the entire time. He gritted his teeth and barely made it through the last few steps. There, he found even more of a mess than before, but no signs of people- the disaster was probably from the hurried exodus from the city. He couldn't imagine that Kaocho, as militaristic as it was, would be foolish enough to not evacuate the moment its generals realized what was happening.
Though, where they would evacuate to, was another story... with this eclipse spreading as fast as it was...
In his search Ivan found a bed, and linens, and he smiled grimly with relief. Finally, some luck. He limped his way forward, dragging himself forward towards the temporary sanctuary.
A house would, hopefully, be far more defendable than a thin tree. But more problematic. If he waited here too long and was surrounded, it would be far more difficult to carve a way through the crowd and run, and in this constricted area it would be nearly impossible to fight. Ivan could only hope the walls here would hold for long enough for him to come up with a plan- and, to treat the wound that sluggishly bled still.
Mia's presence, and, later, Piers', too, had completely spoiled him when it came to dealing with injuries, but he'd had his own misadventures without them by his side. He tore the sheets into strips without looking, eyes only for the dark rip in his stomach. It looked like a normal wound, thank god; who knew what poison hid in those monster's teeth. Ivan worked feverishly and quickly, tying off and putting the desperately needed pressure over it.
The moment he pressed down, agony ripped through his chest in such a powerful whiplash the wind was knocked out of him.
"Ah... ah... araaghhh!"
Ivan cried out, ducking his head against his chest in a knee jerk reaction that curled him straight into the fetal position. A strangled moan dragged its way forth from his throat, so rough and raw it sounded to his ears to be more animal than human. He shut his eyes, gasping; entire world narrowing into one minuscule circle drawn around the hot waves of tortured agony radiating out from his center. Good god that HURTS!
But, the ticking clock still beat away in the back of his mind, and even as he sat slumped and wheezing and racked with pain, his right hand still worked over the pulsating wound in his chest.
He moved blindly, breathing hard through the tremors. His heart pounded with every second that he sat still, a painful reminder that he was not safe, and Ivan tried to work even faster, movements turning clumsy and jerky. The blood spilled between his fingers, hot and wet; the pungent smell made him cough and gag. With nothing available to clean it, Ivan was only able scrub away the blood stains and stop exposing the wound to air. Even if the pressure stung like nothing he had ever known.
He could barely think through the pain but started moving anyway- even as his staff trembled like a windswept branch scraping against a window. It looked gory and terrible and hurt worse than it looked. Applying pressure had only hurt worse, damn it- but was undeniably necessary. He forced his mind to wonder from the blackened slash under his hands, bolting his thoughts down on something that was helpful and not currently trying to drive him mad with pain. If Kaocho had evacuated, then they had to have evacuated somewhere. They hadn't gone to Ayuthay or Harapa- the only other option was some other safe place around here, as the military stronghold, as dangerous as it was, did not stand a chance against the eclipse. If he could find that same place, too...
He would be safe until he was strong enough to make it back to Ayuthay.
Yet, wandering around Kaocho lost was not an option.
Fingering his staff, Ivan moved to lean back against the wall, wincing with every move he made, and began to carefully weigh his options. He let his free hand fall to the side.
His heart stopped.
That... was not cloth.
That was absolutely not something that was supposed to be here.
It felt smooth. And fine, like dusty grit. And cold. And...
And...
His throat too tight to breathe, Ivan slowly turned to look down on the bed.
There was a skull on the bed.
A human skull. On the bed.
What...
in the unholy hell...
He would've like say the reason he collapsed was blood loss. Except he was fooling no one, and wouldn't have been even if he wasn't so dreadfully alone in this world that was fast descending into a nightmare.
And now, suddenly, the details of the room stood out to him with a terrifying clarity, and with each new revelation his heart sank even lower, and it got even harder to breathe.
This wasn't a mess because of any evacuation. This was not a mess of human design at all. The violently ripped tears in the curtain, the particularly vicious slash that tore the floorboards in two, the tipped over bookcase- the monsters had done this.
The red sprayed across the walls and splattered along the ceiling was, simply put, not the mist.
And that half of an arm hanging off the windowsill was not a macabre piece of Kaocho furniture.
Ivan stared closer and almost gagged. That was an actual arm, still half clothed in blue silk just sitting on the window, bare bones still curled in a fist. It ended at the wrist and near where the shoulder would be... black-red and gruesome ends of bone and flesh...
It looked like it had been gnawed off.
Then Ivan actually did gag.
Dear god...
He looked back to the skull on the bed, bile rising. It was just that, a skull, but here and there- still bloodied bits of skin and flesh clinging to it. The chin was missing a torn out chunk, and the spot where the ear should've been was broken through by teeth marks.
The contents of his stomach rose, and Ivan shut his eyes and heaved.
This person... these people...
They had been eaten alive.
Time no longer existed once again. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours, it could have even been days; while the sun no longer rose, Ivan had no way of telling. The passage of time only existed in the sluggish pulse of his blood beating through his fingers, drop after drop slugging down to mingle with the dried blood on the floor.
Ivan watched it mix with the last person's to stand where he did now, drop after drop spiraling into deep, scarlet furrows to turn and fade black until there was no difference between past and present at all.
Somehow, sometime, the senselessness began to reorient itself around him, and he found himself again. The nausea did not abate, but he could breathe without becoming sick.
The horror did not vanish, or even slink away to reign up again another time, but now he could breathe through it.
He had to get out of here. His skin crawled with every second he stayed trapped in this house, death sentence turned utterly intolerable with what- with what had happened here. Any physical pain nothing but a distant memory, Ivan shot upright, wavering and sick, and he made one desperate lunge towards the door before the ever thickening mists caught his eye again, and he froze. Where the hell was he supposed to go? Back to try and make it out there again?! No!
But where else in the city could he hide?
If the monsters had gotten here- who was to say they hadn't gotten farther?
For all he knew, this had happened in every home in the city.
His bile rose again, and Ivan stumbled against the wall, struggling to hold down his revolting insides once again.
No. No. This couldn't be the case everywhere he looked; this absolutely could not have happened everyone in the city! Kaocho wasn't full of idiots; Kaocho was the fortress of southern Angara! With their generals and their army, their king and their palace- they would not have foolishly remained here as sitting ducks when the monsters came in. There had either been a full scale battle here in Kaocho, or a full scale evacuation- and the unfortunate soul in this house had either been caught in the crossfire, or had simply been too slow. That was simply all there was to it.
The rest of the homes in this city...
This can't have happened to them...
Shuddering, Ivan squared his shoulders and mentally forced that line of the thought to end.
All he had to do was figure out whether or not Kaocho had tried to stand and fight, or run. That was all he had to do; those were the only two options. This person here was the exception to either plan; the one that had not escaped.
If it was a battle, well, the Kaochian army had clearly lost, and he was in the roughly same situation as before. But that evacuation... even the possibility of it...
Ivan turned back to face the massacre, and swallowed.
The fact that he knew exactly what he had to do did nothing to help the rising sickness.
The Psynergy welled up in his palms against his bidding and far before he was ready; his trembling legs moved and straightened without any command on his part. Ivan shut his eyes, unwilling to watch or see that ruined corpse again, his fingers trembling even as they reached forward- knowing somehow exactly what had to be done... even though Ivan could not face it himself.
Did not want to face it.
His powers worked of their own free will, and the last coherent thoughts of the dead echoed through his mind.
The monsters opened the door. Who would've thought monsters could open doors? Dear god, please don't let my son come back!
Ivan swallowed again, the revulsion welling within him.
So, the person had been hiding, not running. Hiding implied Kaocho had tried to stand and fight.
He had not been too slow- the monsters had simply been too quick.
He was alone here, then.
Ivan dropped back against the wall, head in his hands.
There remained many options before him still, of course. He was not simply a person with a sword and a shield. He had Jupiter's might on his side, and four decades of experience. He may not have faced a worldwide catastrophe or the beginnings of the apocalypse, but fighting through four ancient lighthouses had not left him helpless. Granted, he'd never been in a situation as bad as this before- but he had to be versatile. He had to adapt. He had to find some way to hold out until Isaac, Garet, and Mia came back.
Which could take days.
The realization made him shudder. They had no idea where he was. El-Jei was not small and it would even be harder to search, with four cities to its name along with a mountain pass and a winding river- and Isaac and the others had absolutely no idea where he was. They had left him at the forest, and he was not going back in there.
It would be days before they found him.
Ivan sank deeper into himself and moaned.
It wasn't until minutes later, when his chest started to twinge again, that he forced himself back into action. Then, he at last dragged himself upright, and dusted himself off. He glanced around the home again, deliberately avoiding any hint towards the sight that had sent him to his knees. "I must find higher ground," he muttered to himself. "The palace would be good. That's far from here, though; I'll have to be ready to run as so-"
The door's hinges creaked.
...
Then they did it again- louder, longer, and far more deliberate.
...It is just the wind. It is just the wind. That is all it is. It is just the wind.
Step.
...It's not the wind.
Step.
His heart thumped painfully hard, and uncomfortably loud.
Step. Step. Step.
"The monsters opened the door. Who would've thought monsters could open doors?"
Step.
Oh, god, no. Oh, god, no. Please, please, please no... no no no...
Step.
One of those things that had torn this person to shreds-
It was here?!
Step.
A single glimpse of the remains of the arm left behind to carelessly rot, and Ivan found himself rooted to the spot. That- that thing had done that- and it was here-!
He felt himself being stretched and tugged in two utterly opposite directions at once. The sheer injustice, the horribleness of it all- that monster had ripped these people apart!- it filled Ivan to the core and he found himself suddenly shaking with rage, anger burning so hot he saw red. These things had murdered these people in the worst way possible and they still prowled on to murder again-
Ivan wanted to see them dead. No, that was not enough- he wanted to tear them apart himself.
There was that desire...
And then the simple, basest instinct to survive.
Step.
It killed these people without mercy or reason...
Step.
Ivan tried to stand strong. He tried so hard; he gave everything he had left (so precious little...) to stand and face the coming monster that had decimated these people and fight without fear in his heart; he fought to cement himself down and just stop shaking and to fight.
And he could not do it.
Step.
It... it ate these people alive...
Step.
It's going to kill me.
It's going to eat me.
Step.
It's going to eat me.
Step.
...I CAN'T DO THIS!
Psynergy vanished, staff clattered to the ground, and instinct overruled every sliver of rational thought left as Ivan whirled to run for his life.
"Meow."
He stopped.
"Meowww."
"Agh!"
Ivan fell back, slamming a hand over his face in amazement.
"Meowww."
It was a cat. Just a simple cat.
He laughed, short and high edging on broken hysteria. "It's j-just a cat," he gasped, and then, sure enough, the thing crept around the corner, creaking heavily on the floorboards, a white and spotted brown creature that looked up at him in disinterest, feline eyes darting about the home like he was no more than a piece of furniture.
"I'm losing my mind," he laughed. "By the Ancients, I'm losing my mind."
It meowed at him, high and uppity and smug, and he could almost hear the cat making fun of him in that one single purr. He laughed again, shaking, and when he blinked his eyes felt wet. Ivan let the nervous tears spill over; his hands were shaking too much to wipe them away.
"H-Hey, come here, kitty." He waved at the cat, gesturing for it to join him. "Come up here with me, yeah?"
The cat took one look at him, sniffed disdainfully, and turned its back.
"AGH!"
It turned its head around to hiss at him, clearly annoyed at him, then flicked away, slinking along the ground to find some other caretaker. And Ivan was left to sit frozen in sickened revulsion.
Its tail had been gnawed off.
The cat's tail was nothing but a red stump twitching back and forth carelessly in the cat's prowl of normalcy.
Ivan's smile twitched; then he twitched with it.
Then, it fell to shatter like glass, and the reality circling him like a vulture swooped in to claim him again.
Even the fucking cat.
Even. the. cat.
If Ivan's world hadn't chosen that moment to explode, the hopelessness sitting just at bay all night would have overtaken him entirely.
Smash!
Everything flipped upside down, and all turned haywire in the earsplitting crack of the wall behind him exploding- him thrown with it.
His mind- thrilled for the distraction- jumped straight along with it and yanked him out of tortured passivity.
Icy claws formed around his wrists to pin them to the wall, a rabid and guttural snarl torn through the air right in his face. He was sent tumbling to the floor so fast he could not even react, one second slumped against the wall and the next being thrown onto the floorboards so hard he felt them splinter and heard something in his back snap. The inhuman force was on him again, growling mouth and glinting teeth the only thing Ivan could see as the pointed mouth opened and went straight for his face.
The cat hit it before the wind could.
Ivan lay still in shock that eclipsed even agony, staring in disbelief as that damn cat hit the beast in midair with all the force of a tiny cannon and wrestled its straight to the ground, hissing all the way. A vicious howl of a catfight matched with the deepening snarls straight from hell, the indescribable mess somehow transforming into that damn cat flailing as the monster tried to throw it off- tiny feline teeth stuck determinedly and fiercely into its shoulder.
Ivan had no idea what to do.
The thing stood at half his height down on four bent legs, features and body undefined and existing only as a seamless black mass, the general shape of some kind of hulking animal embodied complete to claws digging into the floor and jaw snapping open and shut as it twisted on the floor, contorting in an utter mess to simply get to the cat. Teeth snapped perpetually, and its tongue continued to flick out with a sickening hungry hiss.
The cat crawled along its back to attack its neck, bowing its head in one vicious blow after another to rip at the creature where it was most delicate, chewing and tearing and clawing in such a frenzy Ivan could barely see.
With nothing more than one single, enraged howl, the monster turned its head completely backwards and snapped up the cat in one single gulp.
Still chewing, it then swiveled around to face him.
Jaws now gaping, Ivan was treated to an up close and personal view of the cat being rendered to nothing but strips of meat in mere seconds. It writhed on the black tongue, twitching for a mere instant but the mouth closed again, and the thing swallowed, empty red eyes glowing still in blank stretches that embodied nothing but instinct. Not pain, emotion- not even hunger. Simply pure animalistic instinct.
He caught a glimpse of smallest hint of blue silk stuck in one of its teeth.
There was no coherent thought. No sense, no strategy; not even a memory. One moment, Ivan was rooted to the spot without breath, heartbeat, or thought; his entire being eclipsed by fear, and the next, the monster had been torn to shreds by a maelstrom of wind so powerful it ripped the entire house apart.
And Ivan still couldn't breathe.
He stumbled back in horror, feet that he couldn't feel taking him back in numb footsteps until he hit the wall. The shadows disintegrated, splashing apart to form drops and pools but no solid form or body- just a beast slowly sloshing apart to become nothing more than black water.
The half eaten corpse of the cat floated in it.
Even...
the fucking cat...
Even...
the fucking cat...
I can't-
I can't-
I can't-
Ivan just started running.
He sprinted blindly, eyes shut and head down, mind frozen. He just ran without any half purpose or reason except to just get away, away, AWAY, and when he barreled through the doors of the next house, the tenuous string holding him together snapped entirely. He fell to his knees, gasping and trying not to vomit, but there were bones here, too, bones and the near rotted flesh of a foot this time, the ankle chewed into a disfigured mess just lying right in front of the door. He sank down until his head hit the floor, bile rising up and sliding out his mouth. It mixed with the hot tears coursing down his chin, and a strangled voice he did not even recognize moaned aloud; he sank even lower, burying his forehead to the floor and crying out in a wordless wail.
"Oh my god... oh my god... I can't... I can't, I can't, I can't..."
This time the PsPsyyenergy grew completely against anything he wanted or needed, swelling even as he screamed for it to stop. It felt like he was being forced against his will, like he was the last person left in the world and he had to bear witness to how these people had died. He had to- and he couldn't bear it. He panted and screamed and fought, pounding his head against the floor over and over again and yelling denial in time with it.
And still, he... he had to...
His powers activated his Mind Read even as he still got sick on the ground. It dragged him forward and slammed his hand down over the bones, shoving into his mind the last thoughts of those torn apart by the darkness even as he screamed for it not to.
Please, please, please let the palace be safe. Please don't let this happen to my daughter. I will give anything. Please, to anybody who is listening... Please...
Again.
They said Kaocho was safe. They said it was the safest city in the world. They said I would be safe here.
And again.
Please don't find us... please don't see us... please don't find us... please just keep moving...
Over and over...
Run away or hide, run away or hide- I don't know what to do- god I'm scared- I'm so scared-
Everywhere he turned...
I don't want to die! Please! I'll give anything, just- don't kill me! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!
Over and again... some force he desperately wanted to simply stop driving him senselessly bear witness to the senseless slaughter...
NO! Don't touch her! Do whatever you want to me but do not touch her! Don't hurt her! DON'T HURT HER!
Jupiter's curse brought him to his knees again and again, filling his mind with the echoing remains of souls that had just wanted to escape and live, parents that only wished their children safety, elderly that only wished to die in their sleep, any way but this, soldiers that fought to the end even when their hands were chewed off and their feet were in the teeth of their enemy.
I should've run with Sana! Why didn't I run?! Anything other than this... anything other than this... I can' t stand this waiting, I have to leave!
That's it, I'm going to the palace! They can't stop me! I am not staying here to die; I'm going for it!
COME ON, DAD! Please, you have to get up! We have to leave! Dad, come on! Dad?! Dad, why aren't you moving?! ...Dad?
I have to protect my son.
Somebody help us! SOMEBODY, SAVE US!
She's my daughter, please, I beg you... let her go, she's only a child... please...
Mama, I don't like this story. Can you tell me another? I'm- I'm scared. Mama, please stop. I'm really scared. ...Mama?! MAMA?!
Help us- I can't- they're coming- run away- kill us- Daddy?- I'm scared Mom- please don't do this- help- save us- help us- don't- kill us- I don't want to die-
Ivan sank to his knees, and sobbed.
When dawn came for the first time in weeks, the only emotion Isaac felt was fury.
What kind of fairness was this?!
They'd risked everything to get the Harapans out of their starving city and to Ayuthay. They'd risked everything just to buy them a little more time. And then, the sun at last climbed its way up the horizon simply to mock their efforts. To hang their and ask what the hell the point had even been.
It was one day too late.
He, Garet, and Mia set out at first light without waiting to speak with King Paithos, or any other Harapan or Ayuthian citizen. They had always been planning to set off the moment they had recovered enough Psynergy to make it, and when the sun banished the deadly creatures of the night back to the night itself, there was no longer a need for it. They left the underwater city so fast they were nothing but three triple blurs, sprinting into the dawn.
Ivan had fled toward the trees, he remembered that, but now, looking across the utterly empty plain of Ei-Jei, there were no trees. The cursed forest their Wind Adept had disappeared into was no more, and, still a stranger to the land created here in the Golden Sun, Isaac was left with no choice but to assume that they, too, had been made in the eclipse. Just like their shadow creature counterparts, birthed in the black curse of neverending night- and destroyed when morning finally came. Maybe some sort of trees that thrived in the cold or the darkness, or- he didn't give a damn, just that they weren't there now, and that meant Ivan wasn't, either.
This lessened the difficulty of their search significantly.
"Come on," he called, gesturing for Mia and Garet to follow him as he changed course for the mountainside city of Kaocho. It had been hidden by the forest before, and, given that it was either here or the abandoned Harapa, the military stronghold of Kaocho was the only logical choice. He smiled slightly, looking over the thick walls that ringed the city, the outline of stone gates and a high palace in the distance of the dawn. He could just see the lithe Wind Adept dancing over the rooftops on Jupiter's might, turning the city into his own forested stronghold. Wind Adepts were best at home in the trees, with the cover and the differing heights, but Ivan was very versatile. He could've very easily transformed Kaocho into his own forest, flying over the monsters on Jupiter's wings just as easily as he would have in the woods.
Isaac smiled grimly and ran even faster.
Their short marathon at last skidded past the front gates into a panting halt, Isaac breathing hard but not stopping even then. No; he ran straight ahead to check the first house for any signs there could be before he'd even come close to catching his breath and, by the sound of it, Garet and Mia followed right on his heel- just as desperate and hopeful as he was.
And the first home, thank the elements, yielded precious success.
"He was here!" Garet shouted, rushing to point to the windswept tumble that was the front room. "This was Ivan!"
Isaac grinned back, the chokehold that terror had grabbed on him ever since they'd left Ivan behind at last beginning to recede. "Come on, let's keep looking! He was here- we've just got to find where he went!"
Together, the three followed Ivan's trail from house to house, street to street; the earmarks of a Wind Adept were etched only too clearly everywhere they turned, from walls hewn to bits not by teeth but by a gale to one house that had been coated with black drops of monster's blood from floor to ceiling in such an erratic pattern it could have only been the wind. The farther they tracked the more violent the fights became, but every time, wind was the victor, and, at last, the hope Isaac had been trying to deny himself burst through and grabbed him with such a firm hold he didn't think he'd ever let it go.
"We're getting close!" Mia cried, her voice cracking over the same hope that had him strangled as they burst into another home broken by wind. They tore through it in a heartbeat, minds already on the move towards the next stop, the next sign, the next piece of the puzzle.
Then everything came to a screeching halt.
The destination, as it turned out, did not live up to the journey. Not even close.
Though, Isaac would've rather journeyed for a hundred more days than find himself standing before his best friend like this.
Ivan lay curled against the crumbling wall, partially submerged in a pool of dark liquid. He was so still that if it weren't for the slightest ripple in the bloodied water as he breathed, Isaac would've doubted that he still lived at all.
Ivan's staff was abandoned under limp fingers, the wood dyed red and black so deeply it looked as if it had never been brown. Ragged clumps of his hair floated in the pool of blood, the gold stained into a canvas of the dead and the dying, a shade of bloody decay and rotting flesh that made Isaac's stomach turn. They drifted in and out of his face, carried so gently in and out of the way to both reveal and hide his impossibly still face; skin, the same ashen color of the bones in the corner.
He looked dead already, and it had nothing to do with the blood.
"Dear god..."
His gut was one sticky, red mass of blood. Human blood.
"Oh, no... god, no...Ivan!" Mia's whisper broke through the air and the healer pushed past him and Garet to rush to the blond's side. She turned him over ever so carefully, smooth and skillful hands guiding him onto his back with the light of Mercury already beginning to glow- but that one motion revealed the last piece of the puzzle, and it left Isaac rooted to the spot in unholy shock.
Ivan's hair, blond and ugly brown both, spilled away from his face in knotted clumps made of dried blood. His eyes were closed. And from them, cleaning through dirt and blood both, were tear tracks.
Ivan had been crying.
No... no, no, no...
"...bleeding all night- Garet, I need help..."
"...hurry, Mia! You have to hurry!"
"...No, damn it, Ivan, you do not get to do this to us! You wait for us; don't you dare-!"
"IVAN!"
Isaac sank to his knees.
This was his fault. He had ordered they take the Harapans to Ayuthay on the very brink of dawn. He had ordered Ivan to drive the monsters off when they attacked instead of taking the responsibility himself. He had ordered Garet and Mia to stay in Ayuthay while their Psynergy and physical strength both recovered until first light, wasting an hour or more in senseless recovery while Ivan fought for his life.
This could not be happening.
He had been lying in bed in Ayuthay in the same moment as Ivan lay here, abandoned and lost in a blanket of blood.
This. Could. Not. Be. Happening.
"No... no... no..."
Even the sheer, crippling grief of striking his own father down, disgusting trick of the Wise One's or not, could not compare to how he felt right now.
Ivan could not die because of his decision. He could not die, period. None of them were allowed to die, not like this! Not now!
"God damn it, Ivan, you hold on! You don't dare let go, you, you- you hold on!" The words ripped from his mouth without any sort of conscious thought or decision, just a stream of desperation as he clutched a hand around Ivan's cold, clammy, and unspeakably wet one. He dropped to his knees and he begged. "You can't do this to us. That's an order, Ivan; you're not allowed to die until you're old and wrinkly and in some screwed up flying rocking chair waving your staff at the kids to get off your lawn. You cannot die here, Ivan!"
The ruined home echoed with despairing shout, and it and Mia's vibrating powers became the only noise left in what had so quickly become nothing but a continuation of hell.
The night had finally ended. Why hadn't the nightmare gone with it?
Isaac could only wait and hope.
Mia's hands shone brilliantly with effort, her oceanic eyes gleaming with a sheen of tears while her forehead was slick with sweat. Her Psynergetic light wavered and grew to envelop Ivan's abdomen in a glowing strand of white silk, fine as a hair and light as a feather. Isaac held his breath, unable to tear his eyes away as tiny strand after tiny strand began to weave into his wounded stomach like a needle and thread.
"Come on," Mia whispered, her voice shaking with the effort.
Then, slowly, so slowly Isaac ended it lightheaded with lack of air, the healer began to smile.
Trembling, he whirled to face her head on. He dared to hope again.
Mia hovered over Ivan for a second longer, the hopelessness and despair gone but the light of success not yet present. There was a breathless moment, a still second where no one moved or breathed, all eyes on Mia and her glowing hands.
Then, the light vanished, and Mia slumped in exhaustion. There was nothing but the sound of her panting for three long seconds, quite possibly the longest seconds of his entire life.
Then...
"He will be okay."
Garet slumped in relief. Isaac fell to his knees next to them both, sheer gratitude coursing through his entire being.
It took a long few minutes for their teammate to return from the brink of death, his physical strength and well-being something that no Psynergy, magical imbued water, or mystic draught could recover. Isaac waited patiently while his jerky, shallow breaths began to even out, and then for the bleached shade of his skin to slowly melt back into something that did not pierce him with fear. Mia kept up a steady low aura of healing as she moved all around their Wind Adept, searching and feeling for even the slightest of scratches, all while Garet did what he did best, boasted to high heaven about how nobody, not even Luna's foul beasts, could take out one of the Warriors of Vale.
And Isaac did what he did best: wait.
And finally, finally, when Ivan's eyes slid open in two impossibly dark half-crescents, he was watching. They were only half open, if that, two slivers of violet that held no sign that he could actually see them, but Isaac smiled through his heartbreak, the sight more heartwarming than anything he could've expected ever since they'd been forced to leave Ivan behind. "Hey, buddy," he whispered. That was all it took to cut off Garet mid-cheer and to pull both him and Mia back to his side again. "Surprised to see us?"
There was no reaction.
Not even the slightest twitch.
Isaac frowned. He reached down to touch his forehead, checking for fever, or any other sign that he might be not be entirely with them. "...Ivan?"
Still nothing. Not even a flicker of recognition in those still only half open eyes, eyes that remained empty and staring at nothing.
"Mia, what's wrong with him?"
"...He's probably still very tired, Garet," the healer said at last, but Isaac could hear the uncertainty in her voice even as she stood. "...We should probably try to get him back to Ayuthay. He needs to rest."
The Mars Adept nodded, seemingly oblivious to the air of uneasiness that weighed throughout the house. "Right. Hang in there for a sec, airhead." He moved forward, both swift and blunt in the way only Garet could be, and carefully slid an arm under Ivan's knees and the other behind his head.
The second he began to move, Ivan started screaming.
The bloodcurdling screech ripped through the at last peaceful silence with all the force of a bomb. Isaac jumped back, gasping, the noise setting his heart pounding so hard it nearly burst through his chest. Ivan bucked and yelled in Garet's grasp, eyes impossibly wide but utterly blind, his face carved in such a rictus of suffering Isaac was left stunned. His back arched, twisting off Garet's arms in a violent jerk that left him facedown in the sloshing pool of blood again and the Fire Adept splattered and frozen in shock.
The breakdown was so sudden and unexpected- from lethargic and half-conscious to very much aware, and very much in pain.
Mia moved forward, but Isaac was faster, driven only by some primal need deep within him to simply reach out, and stop his friend from descending even deeper into this well of suffering before he fell so deep, they couldn't pull him out again.
"Ivan!" he cried, darting forward to yank him over onto his back before the flailing limb caught him in the face. He threw himself back in without hesitation, reaching out to touch him before he jerked his hand back, the earsplitting wail that was Ivan's reaction to being touched still ringing in his ears and being torn from Ivan's throat. The Wind Adept's eyes were shut tight, and he just kept on screaming, rhyme and reason nonexistent in the tortured, piercing screech that echoed on the still air with all the force of a physical blow. And all Isaac could do was sit and wait it out.
At last, the scream began to dwindle, and with it, Ivan curled into himself.
He shrunk down into a tightly wrapped ball, blond and black head buried in his knees. The scream trailing off into a long and agonized whimper, muffled in his cocoon but no less a detailed path of suffering. Isaac sat limp and filled with dread, staring helplessly until at last the moan disintegrated into words.
"I don't want to die..."
The three exchanged horrified looks.
If there was anything Isaac could've chosen as Ivan's first coherent words, it was certainly not that.
It was Garet who spoke this time, reaching out as if to touch his shoulder. "Ivan, you're not-"
"Please keep my daughter safe..."
Garet stopped, motionless. A few moments later, he tried again, but his voice was dry and uncertain. "Karis isn't in danger-"
"Don't let my son come back."
Garet stopped short, and Isaac's stomach dropped.
"Mama, I'm scared. ...Mama... Mama?!"
They all stared in a complete lack of comprehension- and a very full set of horror.
Ivan sank even deeper into himself, trembling now, his voice and body shaking like a scared child's. He had always looked young, he had always been small, but now he looked smaller than even the boy he and Garet had met in Vault. Now he looked like just a small child, so terrified and scared that one touch would shatter him.
"Dear Ancients, don't let them reach the palace!"
"I can't die like this! Please, let me see the sun again!"
"I don't want to be here! I don't even live here! Just let me see my family again, just let me see them and then you can kill me, just let me see them!"
"Keep our children safe!"
"I don't want to die!"
Isaac stared, hopeless and so damn lost he could feel himself falling.
"Dear god," Mia whispered, "what did they do to him?"
Isaac's hand moved forward of its own accord, moving ever so carefully through the ocean of horror with only one finger extended to touch his shoulder.
"They broke the door, they're coming for me, th-"
Thank the Ancients, that one simple touch was enough.
"..."
Ivan sat completely frozen now. Even the trembling had stopped.
"I- Ivan?"
Slowly, his head rose just enough for Isaac to see the beginnings of his violet eyes. They peeked out over the tops of his arms, wide and frightened. They met his again with no recognition, and Isaac swallowed.
"Ivan... it's okay. It's us."
Ivan stared at him for one long heartbeat, unmoving and unblinking. Not even breathing; he felt no breath rise his shoulder or leave his chest. He just sat there, frozen on the floor and staring at Isaac with such young innocence and such a lack of awareness it physically hurt.
Then, he spoke.
"I- Isaac?"
Weak, tremulous, tiny, and quite possibly the most beautiful thing Isaac had ever heard. He nodded, gasping; the relief that flooded through him was so powerful he almost laughed. "Yes. Yes. It's us. You're okay, Ivan. You're going to make it. You're going to get out of here."
His words gave no sign of happiness or relief to the Wind Adept's face, but Ivan did not retreat this time. He raised his head even more, but now emotion was completely devoid from his face; neither the heartbroken sorrow of his earlier screams or the terrified innocence of his later rantings. Just- blank. He moved forward off the wall; Isaac rushed to support him, moving one arm around his back to steady him when he swayed.
Ivan crouched for a second, ankle deep in the bloody water, still dripping in the stuff. He looked down in the black mirror, unsteady and trembling still, but whether from physical weakness or mental anguish, Isaac couldn't tell. The blood provided no reflection or clarity, if that had been what he searched for- there was nothing in its depths at all. Just an endless abyss that Ivan stared into- as empty as his eyes.
Without warning, whatever strength Ivan had left gave out, and the Wind Adept slumped in his arms like a puppet with its strings cut. His head dropped into his shoulder.
"I- Ivan?"
He started sobbing.
"Ivan?!"
But there was nothing but short, gasped breaths. Desperate sobbing. Desperate, end of the world kind of sobbing. Gasped breaths escaped into his shoulder as the grown man cried his heart out in sheer, endless insanity and sorrow.
"Ivan..."