Chapter XVI of Shadow, a work of fan fiction based on Christopher Paolini's InheritanceCycle.
Every week or so, a new chapter will be published, so stay on your toes for more!
I'm thinking about changing the title, if you're interested in voting, please enter a suggestion in the comments. I will pick one to change my title to. Alternatively, you can vote to keep the title the same. Thanks for your support!
BTW, hemoglobin is the protein that carries oxygen and carbon dioxide back and forth in our bodies, so removing hemoglobin, as Gïrnięn does, would effectively shut down the respiratory system and stop breathing (in theory, but this is a work of fiction…)
Gïrnięn looked up at Shadow, then noticed a figure behind Shadow. The figure stepped forth, and Gïrnięn set his eyes upon Mania. Mania's figure looked vaguely feminine, and her body was humanoid, but Gïrnięn noticed that her clothes, skin tone, and hair were constantly changing. However, her eyes remained dark pools that seemed to suck in the light around it. No matter what form she changed to, she radiated a sickly, unhealthy aura. Her nails were claws—gigantic, crimson claws. Gïrnięn noticed that sometimes parts of her would unravel, then reform, while other parts would degenerate into random patterns. Her lips were red, curled up in an unhealthy smile. Her teeth were perfectly white and sharp, two large fangs jutting out. Parts of her dissipated into mist at times, others into shadow.
She looks easy enough, Cïtirinus commented, What with parts of her constantly fading in and out of existence… She looks like one blast would blow her apart…
Shadow's malicious voice crept into the conversation.
Ssss… Mania shall rip you into pieces, little Rider. And I… I shall taste the blood of my brother… along with the sweet taste of victory!
Cïtirinus shuddered mentally and physically. Wait—you're my brother?!
Sssss… I am much more ashamed... than you might possibly be…
The leading corpse, the winged one, spoke: "The shriek of the night shall signal the beginning of the battle… The beginning of the end…" Its rotted vocal cords emitted a crude imitation of laughter, somehow darker and more malicious than Shadow's. The winged corpse stared into a polished obsidian skull he had produced from his sleeve, speaking an arcane language.
A long, unearthly shriek emanated from the skull, silver runes glowing to life on its surface.
"Always so dramatic," Gïrnięn heard Sundavr mutter. The silver runes snaked up to the sky, apparently engulfing the moon. Gïrnięn doubted it had any actual meaning, just a trick for show.
Wrapped in his thoughts, Gïrnięn didn't hear Mania getting closer until Cïtirinus warned him.
Gïrnięn!
Gïrnięn looked up to see Mania sprinting towards him, her speech random and warbled, yet her attacks very real.
Her arm tattered itself to strands, which promptly tried to trap Gïrnięn. Simultaneously, Mania was complaining about how dragons were too shiny. Gïrnięn swung down with Solus-harmr, severing the strands as Mania tried to recount how she was nearly blinded by "a shiny". Mania's other arm became mist, and the multicolored vapor rose towards Gïrnięn, engulfing him. Gïrnięn's head spun, random visions twirling in and out of his sight as Mania, her voice now somehow sounding mocking, speaking about how she killed her first victim. Slowly, Mania's speech became clearer and clearer, as if she was injecting her madness into him, so that she would be sane enough to kill him.
"Yes… I can feel the delirium leaving me… and you… you will be weak enough to kill off…"
She shot the shadows rippling around her into Gïrnięn, only this time it was a direct attack. Her voice rippled with manic laughter.
"Die, bastard of Eragon!"
Gïrnięn's mind froze. "Bastard of Eragon"? Did that mean-
Mania charged towards him, brandishing a blade she seemed to have pulled out of nowhere. The shape of the blade was constantly changing, sometimes with spikes, others with serrated edges. Gïrnięn forced himself to move. Cïtirinus added his willpower to Gïrnięn's.
What are you doing? You're leaving yourself vulnerable to Shadow!
What are you doing? You're leaving yourself vulnerable to Mania!
Good point.
With Cïtirinus' willpower helping, Gïrnięn started to resist Mania's trap. Pushing to the fore of his consciousness, he violently bucked to one side as the projectile flew by. Multicolored mists started retreating back to Mania.
Mania growled. "No. No. No!"
Gïrnięn did his best to expel the mists from himself. Suddenly, Mania's mind touched his, and he almost ended up going insane anyways.
Mania's mind was an indescribable landscape of constantly shifting terrain that changed every millisecond, blurring into a primordial soup… Simply put, Mania's mind was beyond human comprehension. Though its dark corners hid vital knowledge, everything was clouded by the substance that constantly changed from matter to energy, from solid to liquid to gas to plasma, going through the color spectrum randomly, and random transparency levels overlaying each other. And the sound. The sound was horrible, exploding or seeping alternately from the chaos-substance. The only thing keeping Gïrnięn from going insane was the insanity constantly channeled into Mania.
Gïrnięn fell and cursed, as bolts of shadow-energy burst from Mania, her mind apparently not able to hold it anymore.
Stop it! Sundavr yelled mentally at Gïrnięn.
Why?
Because otherwise, that insanity will "explode" from her, a result of one of her spells—plaguing this island with mentally unstable creatures.
Gïrnięn cursed and cast a few basic attack spells at Mania, then switching to the Twelve Words. Neither worked.
Sundavr cursed mentally. What have I taught you? Think of a few more creative spells!
Gïrnięn tried the moisture-draining spell that he had perfected over the months, but when even that was blocked, he was at a loss. A few more tries—dissipating Mania's molecules, rearranging her atoms into an inanimate object—somehow she had thought of that one. Mania seemed about ready to burst, and Gïrnięn couldn't keep this up much longer. He thought desperately, but he remembered a spell he had used to contain forces. Modifying it to contain matter, he quickly incanted a lengthy spell, trapping Mania in a mental cage. However, her sheer insanity proved too much, and the cage burst, only contributing mass to her primordial soup.
There's one last spell…Cïtirinus suddenly peeked in, repeating the spell to Gïrnięn.
Gïrnięn memorized the spell and recited it, careful not to let faulty pronunciation cause a problem. Suddenly, Mania stopped shifting. She looked up, a bloody grin plastered on her face.
"You've still lost." She whispered.
Smiling, then grimacing with the effort, Mania began to choke. Blood spurted out of her mouth, black blood, and Gïrnięn watched as she shriveled into what resembled a thousand-year-old-corpse. Apparently all this time Mania was just another undead puppet.
Suddenly, a sickly voice crept into Gïrnięn's mind, and Gïrnięn inhaled sharply.
Forgot about me, have you? Sssss… Your sibling did that… He is… no longer a threat… e's lucky that I decided to spare him… A dark giggle reverberated through Gïrnięn's mind. He'll be worse off alive with the physical and mental scars I gave him… Now it's your turn… Perhaps you shall receive a quick death… The dark giggle sounded again. I'm so merciful…
Gïrnięn looked up to see the Hydra leaping towards him, bloodstained claws reaching down for him.