Venka gulped nervously. Nya smacked her hard on the back, causing her to yelp and look at the black haired girl, irritated.
"Jeez! That was way too hard for just a pat on the back!"
"Well," Nya countered, "Now you aren't as nervous right?" Nya was chewing on hard jerky the other teens nicknamed "salty brick leather". The nickname, according to the soldiers who escorted them, was more a compliment than an insult. They had been marching at a brisk pace for a while, their job was to intercept a contingent of rebels, a group around 1,000 strong. They along with Surmon and his group of mages and escorts, Johnathan and his fellow knight apprentices, and 50 of Ceunon's best knights and 10 of their mages, gathered together to lead a guerilla battle against the rebellion and its forces. Their battles had been simple so far, they would find either groups of up to 25 rebels, scouting out ahead, or up to 100 in single camps staking out or holding up in villages, when faced with forces of equal size but overwhelmingly greater skill, the rebels had no choice but to surrender or perish. After half a week they had become a real thorn in the sides of the Rebels, and this force of 1,000 was reduced to a little over 600. A last ditch effort was to be made to take down a fortification. This would be the first time the royal mages and mages and knights in training would face down such a large force, and the first time they'd likely meet, Thane, the so called leader of the rebellion.
"...That and this is different, haven't you noticed, it was tiny, but the farmers we've been fighting recently have been a bit more skilled, they've been employing tactics, and some put up rudimentary mental blocks. And you remember the one with the horse right?"
Bartholomew shuddered, he had been teased by Nya for not making any real contributions to the battles yet, and on a whim, he decided to chase down a rebel they discovered before anyone could stop him. Summoning and riding his Rock Snake he was able to travel through the forest much more comfortably than they could, even if they were normally faster, doing so though allowed him to be led to an ambush point. His saving grace was their preference of setting their enemies on fire, his fire golem sprang into action, absorbing the flames, and distracting the rebels long enough for him to summon a second Rock Snake who attacked from behind, and with his three golems he was able to sow enough chaos to fall back and allow the others to come in and finish them off. Nya was the first to berate Bartholomew on his recklessness, and from then on they had to deal with the occasionally crafty plans.
"It's alright, we need not worry, the rebels are devoted to their cause, but they haven't been able to harm us yet." Katya said soothingly, "We can handle whatever happens next." With her words everyone was heartened.
As they continued on they came across a woman bleeding from several knife wounds. Katya was the first on her, and as she was healing her, the woman smiled and uttered a simple phrase.
"Liberation for Ceunon." She and three other rebel farmer mages uttered words in the ancient language, and the entire forest floor exploded in flames. Their wards held, and a mix of Seya and Venka's spells carried everyone out of the way just as the area exploded. Despite their wards protecting them from the flames and pressure and heat, the ash and smell still pervaded their privacy. Katya looked at her soot covered hands and puked. Everyone stood stunned.
"Th-they… they just…" Morgan began, weak in the knees.
Seya was the only one calm as she spoke up, "It makes perfect sense, they were weak, they had to try something, in fact, that wasn't all their plan." Her hair glowing white she extended her mind and uttered the words of death in quick succession, for each she uttered a rebel fell dead. Eventually two stood, backs to a tree and trembling in fear. Seya glided up to the two, and frowned in displeasure. They were children, she was a child, but they were younger than she was, even younger than Faris from her reckoning. "And you're rebels? They're crueler than I thought. Where are you parents?!" She turned and yelled at the children, hoping to scare out answers. They shut their eyes and held their breath, holding back tears.
"Stop your cruelty!" Surmon yelled, rushing forward. Seya scoffed at his admonition.
"They are enemy." But she backed up allowing Surmon forward. Surmon brushed past her and stooped down to the huddling children, patting one on the head, before angrily turning to face Seya.
"They are CHILDREN! I'd think you'd know what a child is Seya, seeing as you are one!" Surmon scowled, walking up to the children. "Are you al-" He spit out breath as the children tackled him, and widened his eyes in pain and shock as the girl stabbed him with a glowing green dagger, the blood spilled out way too easily for a normal wound and he found his hold on magic slipping. His aides screamed his name and Seya rushed for the children, her hand got a good grasp of the girl's hair, but they exploded in a radiance of light, the ground they inhabited now empty, a bolt of lightning struck the ground afterwards, knocking everyone back.
Seya looked at the scorched earth and began to laugh, even as the others rushed to save Surmon's life.
"Can you shut up for a few seconds?!" Katya growled, "You've been acting like a bitch this whole time."
"Oh no, it's funny though." Seya pushed the mages aside and plunged her knife into Surmon's side, carving out the place he was stabbed. "You morons won't be able to heal that area, those green knives have a magic nullifying property." Katya, still glowering at Seya, finished healing Surmon. Surmon was pale, but breathing.
"He's lost a lot of blood, but he'll survive." Katya turned to the aides, "Should w-" before she could finish Surmon grabbed her coat.
"We must… continue."
…
Two children, gasping and crying, appeared in an explosive nimbus of light, before them stood a beautiful girl with antlers adorning her head and deep gold eyes. They shied away from her imperious gaze.
"You did good." They turned to the voice, and saw Callan walking towards them. "Thane is very proud of you, and you did a good job showing your anger to those smug royals. Your parents up in heaven are really really proud of you for avenging them." He smiled kindly, and turned to a female soldier, who glowered at him but escorted the children away.
"You're a cruel bastard aren't you…" Alpha frowned.
"Takes one to know one, your hands aren't exactly clean either." Callan shrugged.
"At least I'm honest about it."
Callan giggled, "Since when was killing honest?"
Alpha smirked, "Oh no, don't tell me you buy into that moral foolishness, humans kill and eat to survive, but they gain satisfaction from eating, they gain satisfaction from the death of their lessers, I gain satisfaction that way too."
"Yeah yeah, you're all perfect murderers." Callan picked his nose. "Tell me, miss satisfied, how'd you feel killing those experimented on wolves?" Alpha narrowed her eyes.
"You-"
"There it is, you just said you're satisfied, but you destroy because you're angry aren't you, and the people you want to really kill, well either you haven't killed them yet, or you can't kill them, so you take it out on the 'weaklings'." He caught her half hearted attempt to punch him in the gut. "And now you're wondering why I'd take the time to piss you off like that."
"Do you think I give any care about the words that come from your mouth?"
"A little actually, to the point were I think you especially would be interested in hearing what I have to say about…" he trailed off, smiling wryly.
"About what?! I tire of these mind games you bastards take! You and Epsilon! If it weren't for the Dr.'s order I would have alrea-"
"What if I told you, about how to break free." Callan smiled, interrupting Alpha. "Going once, going twice-"
"Tell me!" She growled.
"Sold, to the angry one in red." Callan smiled.
…
Tartarus found Faris's mind fascinating at even the worst of times. The fact that he found the boy's mind so disturbing at the moment was a testament to the situation's dire state. Even as he wished to restore the boy, he also knew that the new personality that would crop up from the result of this slurry of memories and personalities wouldn't change the dynamics of their relationship. So why did he care? He himself couldn't yet answer.
"His mind is a wreck." Bits of Faris's memories were unraveling and mixing in with the memories of the men and women he killed. As he passed by a memory fragment he marveled at the brutality that ran rampant through his mind. Almost every single individual Faris has killed was depraved to limits only humans could go. He knew he had enjoyed killing, but only so much as humans were like ants beneath him. Some humans shared this view, but others, in some twisted fashion believed they were saving the ones they killed. "No wonder the boy's so stupid, these psychos have been hammering away in his mind." He distastefully slipped past a collection of memories. "Hmm… that was Uglauw and his men's past deeds… ugly, really ugly, I'd tell the boy to kill good saintly people but that would be counter intuitive to his normal nature."
"...DIFFERENT…" Clouds of red dust began to swirl around Tartarus, he moved out of the cloud just as it closed in on him, a chorus of voices, some in agony, some angry, some in ectasy, all calling out and chattering out unintelligible noises. The cloudy thing gathered together, and images of the different horiffic memories and experiences began to play out from its form. Tartarus narrowed his eyes as it slithered around him again.
"Oh? What's this then?" Tartarus was surrounded by this conglomerate of twisted memories. He felt no real danger, each and everyone had shied away like oil and water when he exerted force, but he was surprised when the thing's voices began to speak in a chorus of whispers.
"...You… you're different."
"You mere memories can differ coated what makes us different? I'm impressed." Tartarus folded his arms, watching in entertainment as the cloudy being seemed to recoil from his words, and turned to leave. Then he heard Faris scream in pain, on reflex he turned, but saw nothing but the cloudy conglomerate, it spoke again.
"...Make me...you…"
Tartarus felt a wave of humor wash through his portion of Faris's mind. "Ah, very funny… thing. Now, tell me, what did you do the boy."
"MAKE!" The thing rushes at Tartarus, only to be blasted away in a red and silver light. It screamed, the sound reverberating through the mind space and causing the normal dark gloom to shatter into fractals for a split second. In that second Tartarus saw Faris, chained to a beast of human filth and corpses, his manacles and bracers their gnarled hands, and the weights were their memories, which threatened to drag him over a dark precipice.
"There he is…" Tartarus sighed in relief, then caught himself. "I wasn't worried at all. Nope." He began making his way towards Faris's core psyche.
"MAAAAAAKE MEEEEE NOWWWWW!"
"Good grief, shut up." Tartarus snapped his fingers and forced the amalgam of minds to slow, it shuddered, then quickened once more, rushing towards him. "W-what!?" Tartarus was the one knocked back now, and a bit of his essence burst into pieces, suffusing into the mind space. Tartarus immediately put effort into forcing the amalgamation back. Straining until he felt something break, he pushed past this pain, crushing and biting and tearing and burning the foul thing that tried to supplant his and Faris's life, eventually, he stripped it to its barest bits. He looked in shock as it surrounded a miasmic core and cleared away somewhat, revealing a face. "So this is what happened…" he breathed out, "It makes sense, even if you were awake, you'd be too busy keeping these memories and sadistic tendencies from flooding out and overtaking your entire consciousness, and Faris lacks the maturity to control or sort them normally…"
The figure, Damien, made no response, the 16 year old simply charged forward, body warping as tendrils of muscle, bone, and nerves flew out, hands wrapped in miasmic claws.
"Fuck this noise." Tartarus cursed, giving the charging nightmare the middle finger.
…
"Yah!" Nya yelled angrily, plunging her dagger into the thigh of an enemy rebel. The man screamed in pain, collapsing as she pulled out her blade. She pivoted back, moving out of the way for Johnathan to dash forward and plunge his spear into the charging bear of a man moving to attack her. With him dispatched, the duo were able to move behind the cover of a tree just as the area they were in exploded in flames. The tree began to creak and warp as it's branches seemed to outcrop in an attempt to enwrap and strangle them. Nya pushed John and herself out of the way just as the branches speared the ground. In front of them, standing over the toppled warped tree was a white haired green eyed girl, the one known as Gamma.
"Remind me why we're in this mess again?!" Johnathan yelled out in annoyance.
"Don't rub it in!" Nya yelled back. John mockingly copied her tone but kept his eyes on Gamma, focusing his mind on an image of his first training sword. Things had gone well after the attempted suicide attack from the rebels, they made their way towards the Fortifications unmolested, and came across the large siege going on. As they came closer Katya had stopped them.
"I sense a magical trap." She had said, and had begun working to dispel it, as soon as she had done so, a pit trap sprung, and a bag full of purple soldier powder was flung towards them, igniting in the air. As the smoke cleared they found themselves surrounded by nearly 100 soldiers. Amongst them the two children who nearly killed Surmon.
"You kids again…" Seya had sighed, "I won't be so lenient this time." She then charged forward, and was knocked back by an invisible dome of energy.
"I don't think so." A beautiful girl with skin as dark as midnight and eyes that gleamed in a golden light stepped forward, as she did her form shimmered, revealing elvish ears and antler like horns adorning her forehead. She wielded a staff of ivory. With a short flourish and a few unintelligible words everyone found themselves being wrapped in a bluish silver cloud of energy, that wrapped around them and caused them all to disappear, all except for Katya, Morgan, and Venka. Nya and Jonathan ended up in the middle of a squad of rebels, and to make matters worse, one of the Enhanced Children from a year ago was leading them.
"You know, it would be so much easier if you held still you know." The girl yawned.
"Shut up Gamma, you might as well surrender!" Nya retorted.
"You know this crazy woman?!" Johnathan yelled in disbelief, blocking a sword thrust and retaliating with a savage, fatal riposte against the rebel. He leapt forward just as the ground beneath him began to crack, and nearly screamed when roots and grass leapt out to bury him. Nya rushed forward, slicing and dicing through as much as she could.
"It's not like I'd want to know her!" Nya yelled. She panted heavily, she wasn't good at prolonged fights. "Hey Gamma, you better give up! I'm about to start getting serious!"
"Please don't do that." Gamma yawned, "I like takin' it easy ya know, besides, this is boring, I wanted the one with the rock people, he's funny and he always has tasty snacks on him…"
John raised an eyebrow, Gamma, despite being their enemy, was a pretty girl. "She likes Bartholomew?"
Nya smirked and chuckled as she activated her crystal, siphoning from it to refill her own physical energy after it was drained from the rebels' targeting spells. "Even funnier, she liked him when he was still really fat."
"...Cynthia can't even acknowledge me as a guy."
"You can't win all the fights buddy." Gamma nodded sympathetically, "Just let her know how you feel, I'm sure she'll reciprocate! Now stand still!" Vines snaked through the ground and wrapped around his legs, dragging him to the ground and tethering him to it. Nya was too quick, leaping into the air and onto a large rock, where she cut and dashed apart any vines, grass, and shrubbery that entered her deadly space. Gamma laughed, "You won't be able to get anything done doing th-" She paused as a pebble struck her in the forehead, she winced in pain, breaking concentration enough for Nya to charge forward.
"...Sorry." Nya swung her blade as fast as she could, decapitating Gamma, she turned to John, and helped him untangle himself. "Now let's get out of here." She barely took two steps when she was struck by a hammer like blow, if not for John catching her she would have crashed into a tree. They tumbled to the floor and John muttered a curse as he crashed to the floor just as a streak of green blew past them. Nya looked up, eyes squinting in pain to see Gamma's head knitting back on.
"You're not very nice… not nice at all!" Gamma roared, vines shooting out.
Nya gripped her blade in one hand, and crystal in another…
…
Manny held his breath, stifling his panic, the ground was littered with the corpses of the soldiers and escorts. He looked down to the man in his arms, Surmon, Surmon was in bad shape with his body badly burnt. Manny wasn't in much better shape either, but he thanked his stars he wasn't Seya. She was at the moment screaming in agony as her body put itself back together, though, if he had to think about it, he wouldn't want to be her opponent either.
"Alpha…" Seya groaned, then smiled, "You've gotten stronger…"
Alpha, the enhanced child, was wreathed in an armor of flames. She looked at Seya with burning hate and before she could utter any words, puked out a torrent of blood and bile. Her insides hissed and steamed even as her body worked to heal itself. "Omega… you're a little better than you were before…" She staggered forward, pointing a finger. "Drjugr istalri!" (Strong fire).
Seya's wards blocked the flames, but somehow some of the flames bypassed the wards and burned her body again, and again she screamed in pain. Despite the abuse, Seya charged forward, cutting Alpha across the arm. Manny whimpered in fear at the fight between monsters, but grit his teeth, the fight had moved further away from them, giving him the distance to work, and he began to drag himself and Surmon out of the killing field.
"You fight better now, you don't seem shackled by something…" Alpha laughed out, watching as Seya did not move to protect her arm, allowing it to be severed in order to stab the red eyed girl in the stomach. Seya grinned even as she winced in pain. Alpha's smile was replaced with a grimace of agony as Seya's body secreted seithr oil, dissolving the places she already crushed with her hands.
"My attacks hurt you more than yours hurt me, so it's a simple trade off, though I don't think a glorified experiment would understand."
"Hahaha! Big talk from a failed experiment." Alpha pushed Seya off, and she tumbled backwards through a tree, Alpha charged forward, immolating her own body to burn away the deadly dissolvent. Seya lay on the floor unmoving as Alpha charged forward.
Manny shivered in fear, freezing in place as Seya's body landed by him and Surmon, he could only look on in fear as Alpha charged towards them. Seya did not so much as look at them, but he heard her sigh audibly.
"Stenr Reisa!" (Stone Rise) A large mound of rock and earth jut out, missing Alpha's head and torso but coming up from under her feet, twirling her like a runaway seesaw and face-planting her hard on the ground. Seya laughed, getting up. "You're really stupid!" She ran the opposite direction of Surmon and Manny, and began to lead Alpha through her own troops. Alpha either didn't care that her men were in the crosshairs, or she was too livid to understand what was going on, but either way she gave chase and the two of them disappeared. Even as they disappeared the roar of flames and screams of men allowed Manny to get a good estimate of where they were.
"Oh gods…" Manny murmured, but he looked at Surmon and grit his teeth, pulling the man forward; out of the forest and towards the siege.
…
"Hmm… I would have liked a rematch with the kid with the lighting, or the red haired chick, or either of the black haired chicks, or the girl with the decent pair of knockers." Callan cocked his head to the side as he observed Bartholomew, who fidgeted nervously in front of him. "So… I don't very much remember, what's your schtick?"
"...My what?" Bartholomew replied.
"You know, your deal, what you do, what's your niche in their group dynamic? You're not the group leader… or are you? You certainly don't look like a Red Power Ranger." Callan smirks, "unless you're supposed to be the type that's always underestimated to the enemy's detriment." He took out his green staff. Bartholomew mirrored his actions, taking out a sheathed blade. "Oh? You sword fight? This will be fun then, this staff blocks magic, and the material is a little special, you better hope you have a good sword." Bartholomew didn't answer, without unsheathing the sword he charged forward. Callan smiled, "Oh? Am I fighting a goddamn samurai?!" He charges forward, a blur in the air. Just as he reaches Bartholomew and brings his staff hurtling down Bartholomew slides out of the way. Callen widens his eyes, it looked like Bartholomew was gliding through the ground. He charges forward and misses yet again as the boy zips to the right at an impossible angle. As he does he unsheathed his sword, revealing a glowing green blade. Callan twists his body, but even then cannot fully avoid the surprise blow as the blade scratches his arm. "Amazing, a magic nullifying blade, I heard that one of the old war machines were captured by this kingdom, to think you'd end up with one of those blades.
"Don't underestimate your opponent, or you might find yourself in an early grave." Bartholomew smirked, and dashed forward as superhuman speed.
"I see…" Callan filled with an energy and Bartholomew moved back so quickly his body swayed as if jerked backwards. A burst of lightning exploded in the area. Callan looked on at Bartholomew with a sardonic grin. "You're not the one moving those legs. They haven't shifted position since you took out that blade, something's attached to your legs and moving you, like a train car." He looked at Bartholomew's feet, "A golem…" Bartholomew paled, but remained calm.
"Just because you know what it is doesn't mean you've won."
Callan laughed. "You think too highly of yourself, I like it." A burst of lightning crashed down on top of Bartholomew, who in a combination of one Rock Snake carrying him away and another rising up to meet the bolt escaped the attack. Just as he did he flinched as he barely moved out of the range of Callan's staff swing. Callan was now moving at a speed he couldn't physically match or even react to. "Got any more surprises?!" Callan quipped as he cornered Bartholomew.
"A few." A Valkyrie of pure ice blocked the attack, the spear of ice shattered and melted, but a thick shield of ice took its place. As Callan backed up from the cold he felt his heat sap from him as a crystalline tiger wreathed in flames leapt forward to eviscerate him. He barely dodged only to see vines, leaves, and grass snaking up to grab unto him.
"Fantastic!" Callan smiled, the tiger scratched his stomach, leaving thin blackened scratches. Callan twisted his staff, twirling and batting away the flames, roots, and ice. "Now what are you showing me next?" He looked to Bartholomew, who had sheathed his blade.
The ice woman reformed slowly as the golem of flame reformed. Callan staggered as vines wrapped around his legs. "The Ice and Fire isn't magic, and you bet your ass grass isn't magic, you can cause the parts you hit go inert with that green weapon, but can you hit everything at once?"
Callan laughed, "so this will be fun…" he put his finger on Bartholemew's neck, stabbing through it. "...granted I don't just do this…" He blasted out with a burst of lightning, then cursed as Bartholomew exploded.
"Don't do what?" Bartholomew's voice reverberated throughout the clearing they fought in. "Attack my golem?" The ice and fire golem charged towards him.
Callan frowned. Moving his hand he cleared away all the oxygen before him, watching as the fire golem stopped sparking, he allowed scales to form on his arm, blocking the ice golem's cut. As the fire golem's flames began to peter out he stabbed into the thin burning thing, ripping out a ruby, the flames began to burn around his hand, but he dispassionately watched as the flames faded away. "So…" he called out, voice amplified by magic. "It's hide and seek then?" He allowed a smile to creep to his face. "Alright, I'm game…"
Bartholomew sprinted as fast as he could, getting a good distance away, as he did he released 5 mirrors, after speaking a key word they began to float, he held a mirror in his hand, and his mirror reflected what the floating mirrors saw. "Genga!" (Go!) Bartholomew chanted, "To my friends, to my allies, let me see what they see now." Distinct images formed through the mirror, using this trick he learned from Faris he sent out the mirrors.
…
"Can we do anything?" Marigold asked in worry. She and Tartarus had carved out a knew entrance to a cavern they discovered in the face of a large stone, and then covered it with stone and dirt, covering all but a few holes for air and to tell the time slightly.
"This is the third time…" Atlas muttered absentmindedly.
"Third time?"
"Master Tartarus, Master Faris, through their actions they've brought trouble unto themselves, and for a third time I stand unable to do anything. The first time I thought it couldn't be helped, so I had no opinion, the second time, I wasn't there, so I couldn't blame myself I said, but this time, I could have killed those brigands."
"What are you talking about?" Marigold asked.
"He... a habit of Faris's is to take the memories of anyone he kills, so as to remember them and fulfil any worthwhile unfinished business, and so as to understand what made them become what they became."
"What?!" Marigold yelled in revulsion, "He took in their memories?! That's cruel! Besides, why would he go so far for such evil people!?"
Atlas frowned, "Perhaps I judge from my odd position, but I'm certain both you and I understand how different we are simply by our memories being shifted, with the worst ones suppressed." He frowned, "It might be presumptuous, but I don't believe that people are born by what you called evil, you could argue a shade is born evil, but from you and I, it's our mental state, memories, and the pain of the transformation that makes us… evil, if you can even call it that. So too, the men Faris had fought and killed were not born evil, most to all of them likely had their own stories."
"That doesn't answer my first question though, what can we do for Faris now? So that he wakes up, I owe him my life and my sanity, even if I disagree with his methods and world view, those same beliefs saved me, and as a Mage of the Protectors of Life, I should be doing my job."
Atlas was about to answer, then turned his head sharply. "Hold that thought…."
Orbs of light materialized out of nowhere, tumbling in and over themselves they glowed in a multi-chromatic light.
"...Spirits." Marigold spoke breathlessly...