Chapter 3: Mors Per Lucis
The ground underneath Na'el's boot squelched and she fell forward, barely catching herself with her hands on the mushy grass as her boot sunk up to her calf into the mire.
"Should be called the Illyuziya Swamp, not fields," she muttered, tugging at her leg, but it just sank deeper, nearly up to her knee.
"Illyuziya is an old Coeian word for 'illusion.' I'd say it's aptly named."
She glanced back seeing Minoth standing on firmer ground above the muck of the mire, offering her a hand.
As Minoth helped her pull her boot from the hole filled with sludge left behind by the Cloud Sea, not for the first time, she wondered if they could have waited even just a little bit longer. Once the high tide of the Cloud Sea over the Illyuziya Fields had barely lowered enough to reveal the now sodden land, Teemu had insisted they leave at once to cross it.
Even the pack armu had been hesitant to go, but they pressed on regardless. It had started out alright, and it was easy enough to avoid puddles, but once the terrain started sloping uphill, their progress nearly came to a standstill with how much they had to bail each other out of tiny sinkholes.
After falling into a mud hole nearly up to his eyes, Teemu called for a short break. If there was anything nice about the hard trek, it was that Teemu's constant drone of rambling and off-key singing — the latter made her pitch trained ears twitch in protest — stopped.
They found a large protruding rock on the current hill that allowed a stable and dry view of their progress, — a few kilometri at least, judging by how far down the slope that Bogdan's Rest was.
She let out a content sigh as she laid back, sprawling her limbs out on the rock, soaking up the heat it had absorbed from the mid-morning sun. She closed her eyes, a smile slipping on to her face as she nearly slipped into a doze.
"Recharging in the sun, are we?"
Her content smile turned to an unimpressed scowl.
"Wow, haven't heard that one before," she let out dryly. She propped open one eye in time to see the slight upturn in Minoth's mouth as he pulled out that red journal he seemed to always be scribbling in.
"What sort of things do you write, anyways?" she asked.
"What I write?" he mused, seeming to ponder the question for a moment. "All sorts of things: plays, fiction, histories, tavern stories. Though right now, I've got a soft spot for folk tales." He turned to her. "Curious?"
She adjusted her sprawled limbs, linking her hands underneath her head, bending one leg up and resting her ankle on that raised knee. "I don't think we're going anywhere anytime soon."
She gestured with her head to the mud-stained yellow ball of fur that was Teemu, out like a light.
He hummed in contemplation. "Well, considering where we are, how about a Coeian style folk tale?"
"What makes it 'Coeian style'?"
He tapped his chin in thought with his pen, mulling the question over a moment. "That might be easier to explain after the tale. Care to hear it?"
"Why not."
He smiled. "I call this one The Princess Who Never Smiled." He cleared his throat. "The story takes place in a time before the Chernaya Bashnya and the Midnight Spire, when Coeia was just a new, struggling kingdom, overrun with a fearsome kingdom of monsters. As the title of the tale implies, there was a princess who never smiled because all she saw was the strife and death of her people warring against those monsters.
"Though beloved by the people, her grandfather, the king, longed to see his granddaughter truly happy. So, in a stroke of genius, he had a proclamation sent throughout all the Titan, that whoever could make his daughter smile would have her hand in marriage."
"Seems a bit reductive," Na'el commented drily. "Marriage doesn't necessarily make people happy."
Minoth shrugged. "It was a different time back then. At any rate, despite the struggles of the land, all over the Titan, people united in their desire to make her smile. From all over, suitors arrived, each determined to lift her spirits, but not one was able to coax out of her even the slightest grin.
"On another part of the Titan, in a humble mining town, after a hard year's labor, a miner was told by his Nopon foreman that he could take as much gold for his great work as he desired for his annual labors. After all, with the monsters afoot, it was a dangerous time to mine."
Na'el couldn't help but snort. "What sort of Nopon would do that?"
"Hush, and let me finish." he cleared his throat. "The miner is a humble man however, and takes only one gold for each year he works. But he's a clumsy sort, and on his first year, loses that gold down a well. And so it happened again the next year as well."
"Never mind. I get why the Nopon keeps him now."
Minoth raised his eyebrows.
"Sorry, shutting up now."
"In the third year of this agreement," he continued, "the man went to drink at this same well, but not only did he not lose the gold this time, he found the two coins he had lost before. With his new found wealth, the worker decided to leave the village and travel across the Titan and see the world.
"Meanwhile, the attempts to make the princess smile became more and more elaborate: great shows of ether control that would dazzle even the most hardened of hearts; ever more elaborate gifts; shows of exotic animals that boggled the mind; feats of slaying the horrible monsters that plagued the lands. But none could make her smile."
"The miner, on his way to the kingdom, encountered in turn three monsters: a pippito, a skeeter and a brog, who each ask for one of his precious coins, and promise in return to help him. Though surprised that creatures he was raised thinking would be monsters could talk, the young man, in his humility, gave each of these one his three coins, and they in turn traveled with him.
"Eventually, the young man arrived at the kingdom. Out of his depth, and shunned by the people because of the monsters in his company, he made his way through the city. Unsure where to go, he sees the palace of the fabled princess and heads there. Stopping for a break in the street in front of the palace, he catches a glimpse of the princess in her window and is shocked by her beauty.
"Staring entranced, he slipped and fell unconscious into a deep puddle of mud on the street. The brog dove into the puddle and drug him out so he didn't drown; the skeeter quickly sucks out toxins the young man ingested and, and the pippito cleans the mud from his clothes with its tail.
"The princess, watching, sees these monsters care for the young man, and feels her heart touched, a smile gracing her lips for the first time. She sends for the young man and the monsters, and is wed to him. Her grandfather passes, and after her ascension to the throne, with the help of the monsters, she brokers a peace between the two kingdoms. Two become one and the new nation flourishes."
Na'el waited for more, but was met with only the wind rustling the still wet stalks of grass in the field and the gentle sound of Teemu snoring softly.
"Was that the end?" she asked.
"Unsatisfied?"
"It's fine, I guess. Just…" she sighed. "It's fanciful. There's no such thing as peace between real monsters and people. You can't actually negotiate with monsters."
There had been no negotiation with Moebius, and Keves and Agnus followed their lead. No matter how much she might have thought it in the fifteen years of peace before Moebius N attacked, peace had never really been an option. That's why she was here, after all.
"Perhaps not," Minoth admitted, "but that's why it's a story. A way to explore possibilities of things that could never happen, to get us looking beyond the reality we see right in front of us." He shut his journal and leaned back on the rock. "Coeian tales have a tendency to have people work with things that others might consider monstrous. All in the name of unifying their people behind powerful figures for the greater good of the Titan."
"But is that really something you'd share with children?"
He shrugged. "Who could say? In my opinion, it's not the job of the storyteller to lay out the morals for you." He looked back down to her. "How about you? Have any stories from Aionios?"
Her ears pulled back as she averted her eyes. "I'd…rather not say."
"I see." He paused. "You can tell a surprising amount about a people by the kinds of stories they tell. I'd be interested to hear what you have to say, but…maybe another time then."
"Maybe," she lied.
Thankfully, travel became drier once they left the slopes of the Illyuziya Fields behind, and days began to blur together on the peaceful trek. The wooded forests of the lower Titan fell away to tall, peaked mountains surrounded mostly by plains. Brush trees mixed in with smaller groups of those tall, needle leaved trees closer to water runoff from the mountains all around.
While they continued to ascend the Titan, they didn't stay on the increasingly well-traveled main road that Minoth said led to Omrantha. Instead, they stopped by mining colonies, some large and small, and their traveling crew fell into a rhythm. Teemu would go off to sell and restock his wares for at least a couple days, Minoth would disappear to do his job as a mail courier and Na'el would head to local taverns to look for information on Matthew and the residents of the City.
Invariably, the answer was the same. A shake of the head, a shrug of the shoulders, an apology that rang hollow.
By their third stop, she was getting restless.
"Why not take up mercenary work?" Minoth asked her, pointing out a notice board near the center of town as they made their way back to the village inn. "Might help you work out some of that anxiety."
Going up to it, she noticed the many writs dotted all around the board intertwined with notices about activities, announcements from the village leaders. "Are mercenaries pretty common here?"
"Not as common as on some other Titans," he replied, "but people outside the main cities generally will take what help they can get."
"I guess that makes sense." After all, without the constant threat of Moebius and their pawns, people could afford to be far more decentralized than the City had been in Aionios. Another point in this world's favor.
She reached up and plucked off one of the mercenary writs describing a large quadwing nest that had been plaguing the local quarry workers recently.
"Who knows," he said, looking down on to writ, "building a reputation as a freelancer might even help you out finding your brother."
She raised an eyebrow. "You think so?"
"With the way you've talked about your brother, do you really think he would sit idly by, not knowing whether you're alive?" He tapped the notice board and the remaining pages fluttered. "Get a big enough reputation, and he might be able to find you."
She…hadn't thought about it like that. So determined to find him and the other City people on her own that she hadn't even considered the option.
"And," he added. "It'll be far easier and cheaper to convince others to look with a reputation to back it up."
Ah.
"And here I thought you were doing it out of the goodness of your heart." She poked him in the chest near his crystal. "But you're just trying to make it easier on yourself."
He folded his arms. "Hmph. I'm a realist, but so are you. And neither of us have deep pockets."
The annoyance faded, and she looked back to the reward. Probably one of the largest on the board because these people didn't have weapons like a Levnis or a Ferronis, or even Blades like the people of Aionios. So she could help them, even while looking for Matthew and the others.
So she threw herself into the fray: odd jobs from delivering packages; smiling while babysitting young children who climbed over her and pulled on her Agnian ears with delight; escorting a local rock enthusiast to a nearby abandoned mine; scouting out hunting propositions.
And scores and scores of monsters. She noticed that the Nopon were the most likely to give those ones out.
"I see the local monster population found a way to put a hit out on you," Minoth commented one day after she came back to the inn of their most recent stop, soaked in sap and monster guts from a skeeter nest that had violently exploded.
That increasingly familiar lopsided smirk on his face told her he was quite proud of the little joke.
"Very funny," she let out impassively, flicking a bit of goop onto his face as she passed him. "I'm going to go wash up."
He wiped the goo from his face. "Still as appreciative of my humor as ever, I see." The smirk faded. "I don't think I've ever seen someone so viciously pursue monster hunting mercenary writs like you do. At this rate, you'll have a name for yourself before we even reach Omrantha."
She stopped at the stairs. "These people have barely anything to protect themselves with. I'm good at it, so it's the least I can do."
"I can understand that, but…" He let out a contemplative hum. "Just make sure you don't end up in a ditch with some monster you can't take on. I can help you out, remember?"
"So you've offered." She'd seen the weapons holstered at his hips poking out from his traveling cloak often enough at this point, though she didn't know how adept he was with them. "But it's fine. I'll let you know if there's something I can't handle."
He gave her that side eye that said without saying how much he didn't believe her. She stepped up the stairs without another word.
So what if she was using mercenary work — and especially monster hunting — as a catharsis? He'd suggested it, and she was fine. It helped out the people of this new world, so what was the problem?
Everything was going to be okay. She'd find Matthew and the other City residents, let the kids at Norilsk village have a go at him, and they'd be able to find someplace quiet to build a new life in this new world.
Everything was going to be okay.
Everything was going to be…
After finishing delivering and receiving more mail for their eventual stop in Omrantha, Minoth dropped by the tavern of their little caravan's latest stopover in Vorkuta — a relatively large mining settlement — for his last delivery.
He paused after stepping inside, surprised to find Na'el slouched over the counter of the bar. Her head was on its side and two empty tumbler glasses lay pushed to the side of her, a third loosely clutched in her hand.
"Coeian Vodka," the proprietor explained as Minoth came up, dropping a package on the counter. The sound made Na'el's ears twitch, and she groaned but otherwise didn't react. "Said something about it being the one month anniversary of something. Didn't say what."
Ah. Coeians had a big tradition of drinking on special occasions like anniversaries or, well…most things. So she was drunk. Very drunk if she was already past two cups into Coeian Vodka.
"She's from your little group, right?"
Minoth nodded and sighed, sliding onto the stool next to her. "I'll keep an eye on her."
The proprietor nodded at him gratefully and went to do other things than watch someone down too much alcohol. Slowly, Na'el rolled her head to face him, cheek squished against the varnished wood.
"Thought I heard you." There was a slight slur to her words, and a heavy flush to her cheeks.
"No information again?"
"It hasn't even been a month, Na'el." Minoth reminded her. He should probably stop her after this one considering they were going to leave Vorkuta tomorrow morning. She was already going to be miserably hungover tomorrow morning, and he didn't want to make it worse. "Coeia's only one of hundreds of Titans in Alrest."
"Way to cheer me up Minoth," she grumbled, peeling her face off the bar and taking another sip of the vodka, wincing at the taste. "I'll be old and gone by the time we're done searching all of them."
Considering she was a Flesh Eater Blade, he doubted that.
"I never said I was good at giving comfort," he reminded her. "Besides, you know I've been reaching out to people and contacts I know, but it takes time for it to get back to me."
"Too bad you can't just call them." She tapped the left side of her head, and the iris of her left eye lit up gold.
It had caught him off guard the first time he'd seen her do that, using her "Iris" to hunt the tracks of some local beast. Initially, he thought it was some sort of ability inherent to her, before she told him that everyone on Aionios had one.
He sighed. "Not everyone has a fancy gadget stuck in their eye like you do."
"Oh, right." She scowled at something he couldn't see. "Still no connection," she muttered, and the glow disappeared as she tapped the left side of her head again, before taking a deeper pull of her drink.
He didn't really understand this 'Iris Network,' but its mapping function would explain a little bit of how she never seemed to get lost, even when she'd never been to Coeia before. Even just a gadget that could automatically map places like she described it would revolutionize the world of cartography.
"So, what's the occasion?" he asked.
Her eyes blinked slightly out of sync. "...the what?"
"Even Coeians don't get sloshed for no reason, and most don't jump straight for the hard liquor."
Her facial expression shifted from confused to perplexed as she looked down at the clear liquid. "It's not hard."
She took another drink of it as if to prove the point.
He sighed. Seemed she was well beyond wasted. Even with Blade biology, her short stature combined with the Coeian Vodka didn't mix.
"Ugh, I don't feel so…"
Minoth had enough experience and fast enough reflexes to turn Na'el's head towards the floor instead of the tavern's counter as she threw up.
He threw an apologetic look to the proprietor, and slid a larger than average tip towards him in compensation.
"Alright, let's cut you off there," Minoth said, grabbing her under her shoulders as he eased her off the tavern's stool. "You need to sleep that off before tomorrow."
"No…" her Gormotti ears were drooping now, as he firmly steered her reaching arms away from the remainder of her drink. "I feel loads better now, I can keep going. Just one more until…"
She heaved again, but thankfully nothing came up.
But despite her protests and painful pushback, he draped her arm around him and led her out of the tavern and into the streets of the town, towards the inn. Halfway there, she had the audacity to pass out, and he had to heft her over his shoulder the rest of the way. She started snoring by the time he got to the inn, and the innkeeper chuckled and gave Minoth her room key.
He set her down in bed, taking off only her boots and jacket, and covered her up with a blanket. He'd have the innkeeper set out some water for her inevitable massive hangover tomorrow morning.
Setting her boots by her bed, he tossed her jacket to hang on a chair by the room's desk, and was about to leave, when he heard something land with a clink on the floor. Turning back to pick up whatever had probably fallen out of her unzipped jacket pocket, he stopped.
On the floor, a red crystal sat gleaming by the desk chair.
Checking to make sure Na'el was still asleep, he carefully stooped down to pick it up between his thumb and forefinger and brought it up to his eyes. The crystal was rectangular though it sloped slightly on both sides with little nubs on each side near the top, giving it a uniform, cross-like shape. The whole thing easily fit in his hand.
But the most peculiar thing was its interior. It seemed to glow with an internal light, and its space was filled with a sunset horizon full of stars, a pin prick of light shone brightly in its center.
It seemed to thrum with power.
He glanced at Na'el's snoring form — drool was already forming in a small puddle on her pillow — then back to the crystal. If not for its shape and color, he would have assumed it was a core crystal, but it clearly wasn't that. Yet it was important to her in some way, but how'd she get it? A gift maybe?
He resolved to ask her about it at some point, if it ever came up. She didn't seem the type to appreciate snooping into her past. Regardless, he slipped it back in her jacket pocket and closed the door behind him.
The acrid smell of smoke was Na'el's first indication that something was wrong.
In the light of the setting sun, she and Minoth went ahead of Teemu to sort out potential threats, but it wasn't long before they came up to a sight Na'el never wanted to see again. Minoth cursed as he slowed to a stop, stooping down to pick up a broken sign, carved with the words, "Village of Estham."
Ahead of the marker was what made bile rise in her throat. She'd heard that Estham was a small farming village, like Norilsk, but in front of her, it lay in smoldering ruins: burned and blackened stone mixed with the ashes of wood and plaster.
A heavy, unnatural silence hung like a pall over the husk of a place that had held life.
"What…happened here?" She asked. Her hand absentmindedly slid up to Chyra's bracelet.
She knew the answer. Knew it. Seen it dozens of times discovering dead Keves or Agnus colonies. Seen the remains of the pioneer expedition for a new branch of the City in Cent-Omnia.
Minoth tossed the sign aside, a bitter look on his face. "Looks like a raid. A recent one too."
But…it couldn't be. Sure, there were monsters, and people still struggled, but…this was Alpha's new world. A place where people didn't have to do that. It…they wouldn't…
"Monsters?" She asked, desperately.
Minoth turned to her with an incredulous look on his face that seemed to say: 'Do you really think monsters would do this?'
"We should stay alert," she heard Minoth say aloud, "in case the raiders are still nearby. But we should still look for any survivors."
She nodded numbly, following him deeper into the wreckage.
Déjà vu seemed to overcome her as her mind was warped back to the smoking remains of the failed attempt to start another City. Chyra dissipating into golden motes in her arms.
And like then, they didn't find survivors, but they found remains. Na'el initially thought they were husks, but the bodies hadn't shriveled up into stone like the soldiers of Keves and Agnus. No motes of light leaked from them either, nor had they disappeared, leaving only their belongings like the people of the City.
Instead, they were lifeless, bloody corpses. Something she'd only ever seen with animals.
A distant, morbid part of her was glad of it — another bit of proof that this wasn't Aionios — but the sight of those bodies, some sliced into and disfigured and others charred by fire beyond recognition…
She felt Minoth's hand on her shoulder. "One of us should go back and make sure Teemu's alright."
His piteous tone seemed to suggest that she should.
She shook her head. "You go. I'll…keep looking."
His hand lingered, before he left. "Alright."
As if in a daze, she stepped away from the human corpses, hunting through ash to look for more. It led her towards what had been the center of the village and she stopped as her boot bumped up against something. She reached down and picked up a charred piece of wood.
Around three of its edges were carved symbols, like she'd seen in other places all over Coeia. She took out the one the children of Norilsk Village had given her, comparing the two.
"It's for protection! So you stay safe on your journey!"
The symbols carved for protection on the one she found crumbled to ash in her hand.
Her fist clenched, and she chucked the carving off to the side. The shock of seeing the village was starting to wear off, and another, familiar emotion bubbled under the surface.
Rage.
She tapped the side of her head, activating her Iris. At her command, it highlighted several footprints in the dirt. And she could see several signs of struggle. Looking ahead, past the village, she saw footprints leading off towards a nearby mountain.
Setting her Iris to follow the tracks, she dashed off, uncaring that she was leaving Minoth and Teemu behind.
Her heart throbbed in her chest as she ran.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
People will always be people.
A voice echoed in her head. Her own voice.
Dusk had fallen by the time she heard the murmur of voices, and she slowed to a stop, crouching down on a cliff overlooking a basin below. Down below in a basin near a creek, there was a camp. Glancing back at the still highlighted footprint trail leading down into the camp confirmed it that it was who she was looking for.
The layout almost reminded her of a Kevesi or Agnian colony, but the design of the tents and lack of Ferronis confirmed that it wasn't. But in its center was something that made her blood run cold.
In the center of the camp, huddling together, were women and children in chains.
But as she watched, her sensitive Agnian ears picked up conversation from some of the men down below. Talk of how easy of mark the village had been. Talk of the spoils of their raid and the profit they would make from selling them.
Her hands shook, and her breath started coming out in ragged breaths.
She was having trouble breathing.
This…this couldn't be real, right?
She grit her teeth, and drew her Blade, intent clear in her mind as she started down the slope to the basin.
"Thought so."
She whirled around, and saw the outline of Minoth highlighted by the light of dusk, arms crossed.
"You followed me?"
"Doesn't take a genius to realize how badly the destruction was affecting you."
"What, are you going to try and stop me?" she hissed.
He eyed her Blade. "Depends on what you're trying to do."
"What do you think?" she bit out. "They deserve what's coming to them."
"So you'll kill them all, then?" There was something like a disappointed resignation in his voice. "No second chance? You won't even try to hear their side of it, or at least capture them and put them to justice? "
"Justice?" she asked incredulously. "They're scum, no better than Keves or Agnus with how little they care for the lives of other people." She shook her head. "They have no place in this world."
"Even so, you-"
He cut off, eyes widened as he crashed into her and tackled her to the ground as a shot rang out and a bullet whizzed past where they had been moments before.
"Well, well, what do we have here?"
She heard Minoth curse, and he rolled off of her, his hands immediately drawing his weapons, a pair of knives, whose dual edges glowed blue in the night. She whirled back to her feet as well, re-summoning her Ether Accelerators, but winced at a sudden light shining in her face.
When her eyes adjusted, she could make out a group of armed men shining ether lights at them, guns and weapons trained; the one at the front of the group had a smoking pistol and a hard look on his face.
"Thought I heard something, but it's just a couple of Blades." He said, eying her. "And this one's pretty one as well…Heh, didn't think a piss poor place like Estham even had them. But why would they even bother? Unless…" His expression turned into a disgusting grin. "Unless one of our new property is your Driver."
"Driver?" she murmured. What was he talking about?
"Don't even think about harming them," Minoth called out. His voice was calm, but belied an intensity Na'el hadn't heard from him before. "Let the humans go and we might let you live in peace."
"Oh, but I don't think so. See, core crystals from or humanoid blades like you both fetch a nice price, more than they ever would. Especially for the pretty one with the Gormotti ears. All it takes is the right buyer and we're set for life." He licked his lips. "So, be a dear and tell us which ones are your Drivers, will you? Wouldn't want to have to kill 'em all. Be a waste."
"Hold up Boris," another man came up, "those core crystals. They don't look right."
"Oh?" Boris looked closer, and despite the rage she felt, Na'el flinched at the scrutiny. "Well, well. Didn't think I'd see one of Judicium's castoffs in a place like this, much less two. Makes it easier." He gestured to the group. "Capture them. Or kill them. Doesn't matter to me."
"Why…" she breathed out as the group moved to surround them, Minoth put his back to her, knives held up in defense. Ether gathered in her hands, and the petals of her Ether Accelerators started spinning.
"What's that?" Boris asked. "Got some last words, little missy?"
"Why?!" she screamed. "Why is it always like this?!"
She roared in fury, raising her Blades as two beams of ether ripped through Boris' body and slammed into the high rock wall of the basin behind them, exploding in a flash of flames and sending debris tumbling down into the camp.
The rest of the group seemed taken aback by the action, shocked into stillness or looking back at the destruction she'd caused. Na'el took advantage of it, throwing a haymaker that would make Matthew proud, slamming into the closest target that had a gun hard enough that his neck snapped.
That broke the spell of stillness, and the raiders sprang into action.
But it didn't matter. Ducking through and around weapons, her work of death commenced. An ether infused strike through the chest here, another lance of ether shot through the head there. Minoth weaved in with her, moving to protect her from attacks as she charged forward, heedless of defending herself.
This wasn't rage. This was wrath.
And as the corpses fell, she felt no remorse. They deserved it. Deserved it for sullying Alpha's world like this.
The last few alive scrambled back, seeing the tide turn and ran back to the camp, where sounds of alarm were sweeping through it.
She pursued them without thinking, and she heard Minoth behind her. But when they reached the camp, she abruptly stopped.
"Not another move, Blade! Take one more step and the woman gets it!"
Lit by a nearby bonfire, Na'el saw the woman, dirtied and bruised, tears spilling from her eyes as the man held a knife to her neck.
How dare they? What lows would they stoop to?
"Na'el, be careful," Minoth warned.
She ignored Minoth as an orange glow began to surround her. The color of her own Ouroboros power. She didn't stop to think why that would even be available to her here, simply harnessed it, feeding the surge of emotions she'd felt since coming across Estham.
"I'm warning you!" The man spat, bringing the knife even closer, drawing a line of blood.
"Na'el, what are you…?"
"Leave them the hell alone!"
And she roared as jumped into the air past the man, crashing back down into the earth as she slammed her fist into the ground. A shockwave of the power rippled outwards in from the point of impact, knocking not just the hostage taker down, but the whole of the camp in the basin from their feet.
She slowly stood, shaking her fist out from the impact, the orange glow of Ouroboros power still surrounding her, blood still hot with fury. The hostage taker whimpered on the ground, and she was about to move to strike, when she noticed something.
Below her, the ground seemed to glow, slowly spreading out from her point of impact, but expanding faster.
Wait, not, that was-
She gasped, instinct taking over as she sprinted as fast as she could away from her point of impact. Chancing a glance back, her eyes widened as the glow underneath the ground intensified, increasing until it was red hot. Air seemed to be sucked into the central point, nearly dragging her back and she barely had enough time to throw up an ether barrier as she threw herself out of the way.
An explosion of light tore through the night.
The shockwave of the blast launched her into the air, sending her tumbling along the rocky ground before she crashed into one side of the basin, her ears flattened on her head in a vain attempt to shut out the massive boom that followed.
She curled in on herself to avoid the rush of air and debris that flowed over her. It must have only lasted for a few moments, but… eventually, behind her closed eyelids, the light faded and the basin fell silent.
Na'el opened her eyes, blinking away the debris that slipped in despite her shielding her face. Her ears rung from being so close. She saw and felt Minoth rush up to her, felt his arm on her shoulder, saw his mouth moving but hearing nothing.
Slowly, she dragged her vision over to what she had wrought. Her breath caught in her throat.
A perfect sphere of destruction.
An annihilation event.
The orange glow of Ouroboros power around her faded, but it only served to highlight something else.
Leaking from her body were wisps of black fog.
…what?
Moments later, they sunk into her.
She felt Minoth shake her, and heard him repeating something. The ringing in her ears lessened.
"C'mon, come back to me. Breathe, Na'el."
Huh?
Her vision was slowly going black.
A hand slapped across her face.
"Dammit, breathe already!"
She wasn't…?
A pulse from somewhere.
A large involuntary, heaving gasp. She coughed, realizing she'd inhaled dust still hanging in the air from the explosion. A seizing fit started, but it died down slowly, and Minoth rubbed her back as her breathing stabilized.
"Why?" He asked firmly, but there was an undercurrent of concern clear in his voice mixed with…fear?
She shook her head. "It shouldn't have…this isn't..."
"What shouldn't have happened?" he firmly pressed.
"Annihilation event…only Aionios…" she trailed off, for the first time, seeing what remained. Or rather, what didn't.
Besides Minoth and her, the annihilation event had cleared nearly half the basin, leaving a clear line where it sheared cleanly through the land. It had taken most of the raider's camp including…
"N-no…" Her voice shook. "T-this isn't supposed to…"
The place where the captured villagers of Estham were had been caught in the blast.
Nobody was left.