Chapter 6- Irrelevant Concerns

The Fort

Prospective: The Kid

The energy brimmed on the horizon, like a distant campfire that reached into the sky. Suddenly the energy pulsed, and a furious beam of red light exploded towards us.

"Alright sword, let's see what you've got."

As if having a consciousness of its own, my sword hummed with purple energy as I braced it in front of me. I had not used this sword often. I had forged it only recently at a demon Alter, very near this same location in fact. Everything it was doing now was somewhat unfamiliar to me. It was almost as if it could think for itself to some degree. I could feel its thoughts and desires. Right now… if there was an emotion to describe what it was feeling, I would call it, excitement.

The blast of energy from the Alter reached our position nearly instantaneously. It moved so rapidly that the sky parted way in its wake, and the earth beneath it caught fire.

With my sword braced firmly between both hands I focused all the neural energy pathways of my armor that I could manage to control at once and directed them into the blade of my sword. In an instant it charged with a tremendous dark energy, which I thrust forward towards the approaching red energy nova.

A black beam of energy erupted from my sword and collided just outside of the shield parameter with the red energy. The two forces erupted into light of all colors and flashed so brightly that the night sky became brighter than day.

The shield parameter protected the base from the shockwave, everything else outside of the shield, including the remaining attackers, was instantly vaporized and torn a sunder in the massive energy discharge let off form the initial collision.

The blinding light faded rapidly and was followed by a thunderous bang. I opened my eyes as soon as the noise had faded away.

I felt weak, and suddenly ill. The amount of energy that I had allowed my armor to drain from my body had been greater then I had realized. I had allowed the sword and armor to think for me, and take what it required to counter the blast. I had not accounted for my own body's limitations. I staggered, and then fell backwards, dropping my sword and landing with a heavy metallic thud.

It was not that impressive to me what I had just done… I'd done it before against demon Alters using different weapons of similar fashion. "This Crimson energy seems to be nearly identical, fortunately. That's why it worked I guess…" I thought to myself staring up into the sky, my ears ringing, my eyes watering, and my body aching. "Still, I overestimated myself. For how many times that I've needed to counter an Alters' energy back-flux, the reasons for which varying, I still haven't gotten used to how much raw power it takes to do it. The sword it seems is different than the others I've used. It took my energies to an entirely new level, to feed itself and overcome the challenge I presented it with. Clearly this sword is more advanced then we had previously thought. Clearly it's much more dangerous and far more powerful."

My thoughts were abruptly interrupted by a voice, calling to me from across the rooftop.

Faye's prospective:

"You absolute retard! Do you have any idea how stupid what you just did was!?" I shouted, rushing over and kneeling down beside that stupid little idiot.

"Well," he said rolling himself to his front and lifting his body from the ground a few inches, then collapsing back onto his face. "It seemed to work out alright. I'm not dead, the sword didn't break, the Alter can't fire again for some time, we're all still here and the attackers all got vaporized… so, I think I did pretty well actually."

"Idiot!" I shouted again, lightly kicking him in the face with my boot. "You allowed the Night's Edge to feed off of you!"

"I allow all my swords to feed off me when needed."

"This is different moron. The Night's edge uses your energy just like any other enchanted or mythical swords of the twilight. However it's filled with dark magic, which means if you use it enough the way you did, or in great enough magnitude, like you just did, it will begin to erode your understanding of right and wrong and corrupt your mind. Do recall where that sword was forged… Though, the sword does seem to have accepted you as its true master. Odd," I said looking over his sword, which lay beside him, humming with purple energy. "It seems to actually enjoy your presence. I've never seen a sword so, happy, to be wielded by a human master."

"Well what can I say, women love me, so shouldn't swords too?"

"Moron," I groaned. "You need to be more careful from now on. This sword is powerful and used in moderation not a threat to you. However used as you did more than once in a good while would prove problematic. You're tiny little mind is already practically corrupted just as is, I can see it. You're human, that says enough… even worse you're a male. You don't need any more bad ideas coursing through that primitive brain of yours."

He chuckled softly as he stood up, this time not falling or staggering. "Look, all back to normal. I can already feel my strength returning," he said lifting his sword and swinging it."

"Careful!" I shouted lurching backwards, though his swing was nowhere close to me. "That blade, I can feel its hatred, its lust, coursing through it. Don't swing it towards me like that again!"

"I wasn't trying to hit you," he quickly said, acting as if he had offended me.

"No, it's the energies it emanates. When you swing it, even gently, I can feel them. It's too much. Please, just don't point it at me like that again, ok?"

"Wow that's the nicest you've ever asked me to do anything," he chuckled holstering his sword across his back.

I frowned and groaned at the same time. "You do realize that your armor is all that is keeping me from kicking you in the balls right now, right? If I could forcefully touch it directly without getting hurt," I said shaking my fist in the air.

"I'll be sure to not take it off while around you then," he sigh. "Is everyone else alright?"

"Obviously…" I groaned thinking he should have already realized that.

"Good. Then it was worth it. And relax pumpkin sprout," he said rubbing his hand delicately under my chin. "I won't use the sword at that level of power again for a while," he said walking past me, headed for the lift shaft.

I just stood there, shaking a bit with anger at the notion that he would even have the gull to touch me with those grubby human fingers of his… and on my face, uh, of all places to desecrate with his vile human stank… "I hate that pervert," I thought to myself turning and following after him. "As soon as we don't need him around anymore, perhaps I'll feed him to one of the unicorns." I thought, walking onto the lift and standing beside him. "Pumpkin sprout?" I thought to myself. "What is that even supposed to mean?"

He activated the lift and we descended until reaching the control tower once again.

"You first," he said gesturing for me to exit the platform.

I squinted my eyes towards him. I wanted severely to kick him. I realized yet again that I couldn't touch his armor without paining myself. So for now I would just play along… like I always do, tolerating this stupid kid.

"Dang man," Drey said as soon as he and I entered the room. "That was some intense ish my man! The way you did whatever you did. Yeah dog, reminds me of old times, cept a little different of course.

"Good work son," said the Admiral. His eyes suddenly rose towards me and grew distasteful. "What is this woman doing on my command bridge?"

"Sir, she's here to help."

"Here to help?" he said shaking his head softly, with a faint grin, chuckling under his breath. "Let me tell you something," he said looking past everyone else directly at me. "I've seen what kind of help your people provide, monster. You, like the rest of your kind, are nothing but abominations. Freaks of nature! No better in my opinion then the enemy!"

I knew the Admiral from before. I had known him before any of them had. I knew why he hated us so much, me and my people, the Dryads… it was because of what my mother once did to him. He never forgave her for it.

"Sir, with all do respects, I think you're being a tad unreasonable…"

I grinned. The kid was actually standing up for me. It almost made me feel a bit regretful for how aggravated I had felt towards him only a moment ago. He had of course just risked his life to save all of ours… even if he had done it in a stupid and irrational way. Of course, he had caught me earlier… so I guess that makes two times today he's saved my life.

The two of them continued to argue, and Drey even joined in, throwing human profanities around, for kicks I suppose. The feeble human mind always did fascinate and confuse me. Here I stood confounded at the Admiral's actions. I knew he didn't like me. That was as easy to see, as it was to tell that the kid had a love interest for me. Both were irrational, and irrelevant to me. My mother's past with the Admiral was not my doing, or my concern. As far as I was concerned, humans were as much our enemies at times as the Corruption was theirs.

I turned and walked away, saying nothing at all. I had no care for the meaningless words these humans threw back and forth at each other. Even the Admiral's words to me, calling me as bad as the enemy of man, meant nothing. He was merely a human. In truth, I understood his pain. It was of course, irrelevant.

"Faye wait!" the kid called after me, but I was already out of the room and onto the lift.

I punched the downward control and the lift plummeted. I didn't let my hand off the button until I reached the basin of the structure. I knew the kid only wanted to talk. He probably wanted to try and cheer me up, thinking wrongfully that I cared what the Admiral, or any human had to say. I don't want to talk to him right now. He mostly pisses me off anyway. Then again… he is the only one who ever seems to make me laugh. Maybe I could cut him some slack every now and then? "Maybe he's the exception…"