He looked through an eye and saw nothing but Darkness.
He heard a voice calling to him, but when he turned in towards the Darkness there was nothing. There was only a vague sense of direction.
Reaching out into the Shadows, his vision expands.
His body lay cold in the sharp talons of a Dragon as it flew further north. In the other talon was a bloody mass. Blood continuously dripped off the claw like dew dripping off a stalactite.
The Dragon had shimmering scales reflecting otherworldly light. Its wings were wide, half feathered like a bird and half leathery like the skin of bats' wings.
I'm Dead…
Is this what it's like to die?
Even though he's dead, The New Light could still grasp the Universe around him, as though he wasn't truly dead. He could look one way and see the quickly moving landscape below him, the trees long given way to ice and freezing water. Then, as he looked another way, he sees nothing but a mass of gray clouds. Then, to his right, the bloodied claw. And above, the massive Dragon, the Ahamkara.
They flew for many hours. It was boring, incredibly boring. Even though he could sense everything around him, the numbness of Death wasn't exactly entertaining.
That is until he hears a small voice. It sounds like it's coming from his own mouth, but he knows that can't be the case.
I'm sorry…
The New Light waits a moment before attempting to respond. The voice was quiet and light, barely audible among the rushing wind.
Hello?
I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…
Who are-
I'm Sorry!
Enough! What's going on?
I-it's me… your Ghost…
Okay… but what are you sorry for?
You asked me to protect you- to help you… But I didn't! I froze…
You were scared?
I… I guess I was…
Don't worry… you weren't the only one who froze…
The memory of the disaster flooded back to the New Light's "head". The Dragon had manipulated Caravel. It did something to her. That's why she did what she did. She couldn't hear him. She was under that thing's spell, distracting the Hunting Party long enough for the Ahamkara to regain the upper hand.
And now she was rewarded for her 'effort' by being smashed into red paste, clutched messily in the Dragon's other paw.
Poor girl…
Right… You think we can talk to each other dead like this?
Maybe… Ghosts don't have to vocalize to communicate… however, whether or not that applies to dead Lightbearers is… I don't know how to describe it…
Why? Is it strange?
Well… it's because we're both technically the same person when we're dead like this… If we talk to each other, yeah, you'll be talking to her, but also to her Ghost and the same thing vice versa…
Mmm… Okay… that's fine. Try and see if we can talk…
Alright…
There is a slight tensing of energy. A new presence… or presences… are felt as he focuses. A new voice speaks up as it formally enters.
Hello?
Hello…
The New Voice was both feminine and masculine. The drawling accent of Caravel's Ghost and the sweeter, refined accent of Caravel herself make for a very disturbing combination, but progress is being made. At least they could now talk to each other.
Caravel?
Yes?
Muhlif?
Right here…
What should we do…
Can we even do anything?
Let's stay calm… see where this Dragon takes us?
Sure… So this is what it's like to be dead, huh?
Caravel and Muhlif go silent for a second, taking in their surroundings, or, as much of their surroundings as they can while they're still dead.
Yeah… didn't think this is how we'll die… What do you think… Do you think Sera…
The other New Light vocalizes a shiver.
Caralho… She must be worried sick…
You think she can catch up?
The question Mithra's New Light poses seems to be easily answerable. The Dragon is flying north with incredible speed. There's a very slim chance they'll ever see Sera or any of their mentors ever again.
—
Caravel still feels guilty that she was the one who caused all of this. She was the one deceived by the Ahamkara, the one who shot Sera at the brink of her victory. If it was only her who had died because of her actions she would've accepted a Permanent Death. However, she didn't die alone. Mithra's New Light died with her. Because of that, Caravel knew she couldn't give up on the Universe yet.
Were they not friends?
She will…
Caravel's response to the other New Light's question emerged from two voices. One came from Muhlif, the other from herself. She knows not how or why this is the case, but the very fact she's still able to think is good to her. She can formulate a plan, watch where to go, see what that Dragon is up to.
Caravel is strangely confident. Either it's confidence, or a sheer lack of self-preservation. But it cannot be the latter, right? The other New Light is still there, and though she may be garbled meat in the Dragon's claw, she knows she won't be relegated to this fate for long.
Caravel feels the Dragon's height descend. She knows he can feel it too.
The Unknown awaits and the two New Lights are ready to face it, headfirst.
—
The Dragon dives below the cloud layers. Through Orion's eyes, the vast expanses of ice make themselves known. The fields of white stretch endlessly as far as his ten eyes can see. However, it is not the vast expanses that Orion has come here for. He came here for what's underneath.
Diving under the frozen oceans, the Ahamkara takes the partial form of an earthen whale, fatty and strong. He grows fins on his tail and spine, letting his head be encapsulated by blubber, pulling back his claws enough to not be a nuisance yet still keep his quarry by.
The intact quarry flails lifelessly through the water while the crushed quarry shed blood and meat with the occasional metal and kevlar floating away.
Poor things… So new… so small. What use could they be?
If one of them was to be given his Name, what good would that do? Unless that Lightbearer can actually change the Universe, giving a potentially worthless Lightbearer his Name may as well condemn himself to a Permanent Death.
Albeit he already has condemned himself to "death", abiding by the wish of his pursuers, these Bearers have yet to profess their desires to him. Perhaps if he gives his power to one of them, allowing them to properly change the Universe, he may be able to meaningly survive.
Thus, Orion dives deeper and deeper into the frozen ocean, grasping at loose gravel at a hill on the ocean floor. Digging until his claws and tendrils find purchase on cold rock, he pries boulders apart, opening a cave at the ocean's floor.
Floating through the crevices with quarry in his talons, Orion finds himself floating up a familiar path to a very large air pocket, one formed by Orion's very own claws.
Orion climbs out, grasping onto wet rocks. He shakes off the water as he walks out on recently formed legs and arms. The talons holding the two Lightbearers extend, dropping the wet, bloody bodies onto the smooth, silty surface of the cave.
Orion was safe. Orion was home. But now it's time for Orion to deal with his quarry.
—
Mithra's New Light felt the wetness slowly dissipate as he senses the surface around him. It's cold and humid. The surface below him was made of smooth stone and wet, silty powder.
As far as he and his Ghost could tell, his body is alone. The Dragon had laid him down in an isolated chamber. Thirty minutes pass, then forty five, and soon seventy.
Perfect.
The New Light feels half of his presence, his Ghost, separate from him. Soon enough, he feels something.
With a gasp, the New Light awakes.
He thought he was still dead, that's how dark the cavern he was resurrected in was. The sounds of his breaths reverberated through the dark cavern. He looked around, seeing nothing but feeling the smooth rocks.
A sudden bright light causes him to groan slightly, making him instinctively close his eyes. Adjusting to the light, he sees that it's coming from his Ghost.
"I'll guide the way… Eye's Up… let's not stay here too long…"
Mentally agreeing with her assertion, the New Light stands up, looking around at himself and his newly lit surroundings.
The cave he resided in was fairly spacious. The chamber was round, the walls were grounded rock with blobs of calcite scattered on the floor and on the ceiling. In one direction there was a crack extending from floor to ceiling, a jagged crevasse only able to fit one man.
On himself, he still wore the armor he wore before their encounter with the Ahamkara. The presence of the shadows and the heads up display around the corners of his eye, shows he is even still wearing his helmet.
As the New Light walked towards that crevasse, the only opening he could detect in the room, he spoke out loud.
"Damned beast… Large but lithe..."
"Right… Worse enough that it has such power… but even more so that it can use that power to change itself…"
"Apisteftos Drakos…" The New Light groans dejectedly as he squeezes himself through the rocks, the interlocking steel on his arms and the plate about his chest squeaked and jingled as it was scratched by the surrounding rock.
Squeezing out into an expanding hallway, the New Light walked. The path before him was illuminated by his Ghost, allowing him to easily and safely navigate through the cold, damp passages. His Ghost had projected a three dimensional map within his helmet, indicating they were somewhere between three hundred to five hundred meters down and somewhere farther North than where they were previously.
The New Light thinks with an anxious, sunken heart.
How would they be able to get back to Sera if they're so deep underground?
No. He shouldn't think about that. Not yet.
He feels the Light, trying to reach for something that'll make him feel better…
His rifle appears in his hand once more. The Daito Rifle, a Morass-Ar4, gave a comfortable weight in his hands. Shame he wasn't able to let it loose upon the foe before he died his first death.
He scolds himself. He will not hesitate to let loose upon his foe. Not this time.
"Ghost…"
"Yeah?"
"Can you find Caravel's Signature?"
There was a pause as the New Light's Ghost enacts her Lightbearer's command.
"Yes! Through the tunnel ahead."
Caravel's Signature appears as a blip on the New Light's radar. With a mission in mind, the New Light has all the confidence needed to speed into the dark beyond and find her.
—
Caravel awoke with a gasp and several coughs.
She looked down at her hands and saw nothing but darkness. Thinking she was still dead, she called out.
"Muhlif!.. Lindo… o-onde…"
She quiets down as she feels the smooth stones under her hands. If she can feel, that means she's alive.
As though he was reading her thoughts, Muhlif shone a light down on her as he appeared. She yelped as she looked up at her Other Half.
"You were too busy thinking… I resurrected you while you were stressing about… whatever the hell was going on inside your half of our consciousness…" Muhlif groans as he brings his Lightbearer into the light.
"O-oh… Okay…" Caravel speaks softer now, her anxiety reduced somewhat now that light and reason shone onto her.
Looking around the chamber she was placed in, she wasn't exactly impressed. It was a small ravine. Dried blood coating the walls and the smooth stones on the floor showed that she was probably dropped into this crevasse haphazardly. The image of her own crushed, bloody body being dropped without care into this hole gave her zero confidence and only served to make her gag.
Looking up, Caravel decided to test her Light. She jumped, willing herself to be propelled upward. A hard gust of wind below her forced the lithe Lightbearer up the little ravine, allowing her to grasp a jutting piece of rock. Using the Light soon after, she quickly makes her way onto solid ground.
The ravine she was dropped into was at the end of a long cavernous hallway. Muhlif shone a light down the tunnel, illuminating far into the darkness but not so far as to make it all clear and bright. The stale air circulated about in Muhlif's light beam.
"Where are we?" Caravel asks her Ghost as they continue down the winding tunnel.
"Around four hundred or so meters deep… I can't tell… Dragon took us far north, we're nowhere near the place you and the other one got merked…"
"Can.. you try and find him?"
"Maybe… I'm getting a lot of disturbances in the Energy in this place… Not comforting… but it definitely shows we're not alone…"
"Okay…" Caravel thinks as she reaches mentally into the Light.
Her Patch-A shotgun appears in her hands. Her anxiety lessens even more.
"Find him, Muhlif… and take me to him…"
—
The two Lightbearers traverse down treacherous halls and chambers. They were entirely isolated, devoid of everything but the hardiest microbial life. Although they were moving without impudence, walking slowly and safely across wet pools and minding the sharp stalactites above, a small shift of Paracausal Energy was all that Orion needed to gently knead them to serve his bidding.
Their Desires were obvious from the very beginning. They wanted to reunite. How cute.
Utilizing their desires against them, fulfilling them oh so slightly, he manipulated their path, gently molding the caves to align and misalign, forcing them along artificial routes that look like the innards of an ant colony, though in reality they were only a small sect of tunnelings.
Orion didn't have the patience to carve out a large area just so he could extract power out of two meaningless Lightbearers.
His construction was genius.
He lured them with Paracausal Energy, forcing them through tunnels as they walked, eventually leading them to each other, fulfilling their desires for but one moment, enough for the Universe to register the fulfillment and supplement him. However, he had one of the Lightbearers cloaked just as they would reach each other, narrowly missing their chance to properly meet up, thus spurring them on to the chase once again.
It was simple, but the delicious desire he took from it tasted like sweet fat. The Difference was what they fed on. The difference between the Wish and the Outcome was their food. The deception at play, though fairly tedious and taxing, more than made up for it with the confusion it caused.
He still needs to pass on his name. He can't keep this game going forever. He is Destined to meet his end. Sooner or later, the Hunters will come for him. The Mite he feels wriggling in his skin is proof of his Hunters' pursuit.
He must survive.
And Orion finds just what he needs as he feels the energy of one of the Lightbearers suddenly halt. Soon enough, that energy then began to retrace his steps, moving back the way he came.
—
"This isn't right…"
The New Light halts as he retraces his steps, observing the three dimensional map within his helmet.
"We should've entered a new tunnel… Nothing we have gone through should indicate that we've gone back around… We're being deceived…"
"I think you're right… This cavern is making us walk through paths we've already taken and disguised them as different… In reality we're going in circles…" His Ghost replies, floating beside her New Light.
"Well then…"
The New Light looks back and then forward. The Cavern looks so familiar, yet the presence of Paracausal Energy vibrating underneath the rocks reveals the deceit.
"If we're going in circles… If I go back the way I came… what is the likelihood that Caravel would be there?"
"Good plan…" The New Light's Ghost muses. "I'll ping Caravel's Signature, she's turning around."
"Alright… Let's Go…"
The New Light begins to sprint back the way he came, weaving through the winding tunnels and dusty air. The Light in his bones makes his body do as he wills. He does not grow tired or stops for air. Now knowing the deceit at play, the New Light spots the shimmer in the walls. They're subtle and small, but the changes are there.
The Signature grows brighter and brighter in the New Light's motion tracker until finally…
He spots it. A sudden dead end where the path should continue. He turns and sees the seams where Paracausal power mimics the rock, forming a bend where there wasn't one. The New Light glances at his motion tracker. Caravel is right beyond that wall. It is then that Caravel's Signature stops abruptly and a voice is heard.
"Hey!"
Caravel's voice is clear as day, as though there was no barrier at all. This gives the New Light all the confidence he needs to step through the deceiving wall.
Reaching out with his hands, he finds a lithe arm and grips tightly.
The illusions dissipate.
—
Caravel felt like she was going insane. She walked for what felt like kilometers under the Earth, trying desperately to reunite with her fellow New Light. As soon as they felt like they would meet, the sudden bends threw her for a loop. The sensations of Deja Vu were also contributing to her decreasing sanity.
So when her New Light companion suddenly grabbed her arm from beyond a stone wall, she was taken aback, instinctively propelling herself backwards and upwards with the Light, banging her head against the cavern ceiling.
Rocks fall alongside her.
However, as the illusions fade around them, the situation becomes clear. They're together now. The frustration and insanity pour out from her the only way it can.
"Filho da puta- you scared the hell out of me!"
"Sorry… I had a hunch something was up… Sorry for your head."
The New Light offers her a hand which she gratefully accepts.
"Sem problemas… But we should really get out of here as fast as possible…"
"Right… We've been going in circles the entire time… I wasn't able to spot an opening…"
The other New Light stretches out his hand. His Ghost rests on his hand for a moment before its shell suddenly splits. A three dimensional map emerges from its eye. The map showed a vast system of tunnels. It looked like an ant colony. However, the map suddenly changed, revealing a cave system which, although it was extensive, was never as extensive as they had been led to believe.
"We've been deceived…"
"Damn.." Caravel curses as she sees the smaller caves' simple paths.
"Everything seems to have stopped now that you two are in each others' hands…" Muhlif speaks up, floating between the two New Lights.
"Wonderful… Let's stick together and get out of here…" The New Light sighs. At least they have something reminiscent of a plan.
"Agreed… That Drakon stuffed us down here somehow… there must be an exit."
"Ghost… can you find one?" The other New Light's Ghost stops its projection and returns to its form as a floating flashlight.
"I can try! But it might take a while to scan… In the meantime, you two should go walk around and see if you can find an exit."
—
Orion stops his scheming as the two Lightbearers formally meet up.
Clever bunch aren't they?
Orion certainly thinks so. Their ability to quickly figure out the Dragon's deception was laudable. Sooner or later they'll make their way out of that dragon-made labyrinth and will soon make their way towards him.
Orion hopes that they'll do so before the rest of them come to chase.
Orion knows he has nothing to fear. Death is only a journey for him after all. But he would feel better not having to constantly be reminded of his fate and definitely not by something so… annoying as the thing crawling beneath his surface.
One of the Hunters, the Nightstalker no doubt, had forged a bug out of their own Light and launched the thing at him before he got away with the two Newbies. It keeps moving under his skin, writhing around, evading all attempts he makes to extract it. Its Paracausal power offends his own, allowing it to continuously relay his location to its owner.
Thus, Orion tries to calm his own nerves. He lays down in a pile of gravel, cozying up in the cool, wet environment of his cavernous shelter. He'll have to wait.
Soon enough the New Lights will find him. Then, he'll act.
—
Sera stood on the decks of a Hawk Gunship speeding towards the Northern Pole of Earth. Shavi stood by the pilot's seat as Terrence piloted the rented vessel. Across from her sat Mithra and Mazdam, buckled up, sitting emotionlessly. Both of their faces are covered with their respective helmets.
The other Hunters fly behind the rented Hawk. Suleyman flew in his Kestrel class vessel. Carlos upon his Vimana. Fairy and Lux both speed in their respective Echo class ships. Alnar and Jannah flew along in a singular large Minerva carrier. Jalus flew behind in his own personal Arcadian class vessel.
Mardak and Enlil had stayed behind in Canada to guard the provisions and supplies they had brought along, though Sera wouldn't blame them if they ended up deserting.
Any sane person would give up, let the Dragon go and not have to risk their own immortal lives on Lightbearers they don't even know. Only the members of the Starlit Aegis are obligated, but those that stream for the rented Hawk do so only for the promise of a handsome payment.
"Shavi, how far?" Sera called out from her position standing on the deck of the rented military vessel.
"Not too far… The Mite is still alive. It appears our beast cannot extract it." Shavi calls out back to Sera.
"What can you discern from it?"
"The Ahamkara is a couple hundred meters from the surface. Probably in a cave system… the problem is, there is no visible land mass connected… meaning we'll have to go through water…"
"Leck mich am arsch is there no other way?"
"I don't think there is, madame… Just how it is by the looks of it…" Shavi stares over Terrence's shoulder, looking out into the Arctic sea spotted with glaciers.
"How far?" Terrence asks suddenly.
"Keep flying… I'll let you know when we stop…"
Sera turns back away from Shavi's direction, looking over at Mithra and Mazdam's sulking figures.
"This is all my fault isn't it?" Sera speaks up suddenly.
After an awkward silence, Sera continues.
"They should've stayed in the city… This Hunt shouldn't've taken so long… I'm sorry…"
Mithra grips her knees slightly tighter.
"Mithra…"
"Fireteam… Leader…" Mithra speaks with ragged words.
"It's no use focusing on the choices you've made… The past is dead… seize the day… that is what you always say, right?" Mazdam looks up at Sera. His expression is hidden, but Sera can tell it wasn't exactly a good expression.
"Right…" Putting on her own helmet, a mask of steel and tech, she straightens up.
"Thank you for reminding me, Mazdam… That goes for you all as well…" Sera reasserts her authority.
Despite the consequences of her choices, she is still the Fireteam Leader, she cannot make herself seem less than what she is. Not even to her friends who she has deeply, deeply wronged.
They fly in silence for the rest of the way, only occasionally breaking the silence with a story or a quip to entice laughter in such dreary conditions.
Only when Terrence gradually slows down and starts to set the Hawk to a gentle hover did Sera move. She walks to the Hawk's carrier door, opening the large ramp to reveal the cold arctic expanse, lit only by moonlight glinting off ice sheets.
"We're here." Shavi calls out, walking into the gunship's backside togreet Sera.
Mazdam and Mithra look up and unbuckle their seatbelts, standing shakily up.
"The Dragon is approximately a few hundred feet deep. We'll need to swim and we'll need to dig…" Shavi's voice blares through the party's helmet radios.
"Alnar, Jannah… You'll both dig… Otherwise we should all be fine in the water, yes?"
"Aye, boss!"
"Yes, Ma'am…"
"Mhm…"
As their voices ring out, Sera walks gently across the lowered ramp of the Hawk gunship, looking over at the water and ice.
"We'll get them back, Mithra…" Sera turns back around to encourage Mithra, however she only takes a few steps forward, gently keeling over the edge of the ramp.
Mazdam follows. Shavi too. Soon enough, all of the hunting party swiftly hit the water.
Before she jumps too, Sera gives a brief nod to Terrence who sets the vessel on autopilot before he takes a running jump out the Hawk.
Sera looks over the edge and steps off.
—
The dive wasn't difficult. At the Height they were in, the fall into the water would've surely killed them all. However, they were Lightbearers. Why should a simple fall be so detrimental?
Some went about their fall in different ways.
Terrence, Alnar, Lux, Jalus, and Jannah fell hard and fast, coating themselves in a bubble of Light before dropping like stone into the freezing Arctic water.
Fairy, and Suleyman gently floated down on wispy wings, sinking into the waves gradually.
Mazdam, Carlos, and Shavi used their Light to reset their velocity on the way down, hopping up a few feet before plopping into the water.
Mithra dove fast, using her glide as an assurance, not protection. She hit the water head first.
Sera finally landed last, entering the same way Mazdam and Shavi had.
Under the ice, there was no Light but that which their Ghosts provided. They dove, willing the creation of Oxygen and the aversion to pressure with the power of Light they had.
Following Shavi's diving form, Alnar and Jannah dove after her, their stout bodies kicking up silt and gravel as they moved towards Shavi. Shavi, for her part, directs them to an unassuming piece of Earth.
"Work your magic you two…" Shavi orders.
The two Titans coalesce Light into their firsts and begin to work, using the Light to press themselves down onto the wet slope to stabilize themselves and then they begin to punch.
The wet dirt kicked up made the seafloor mirky. Visibility was close to zero even with the Light of their Ghosts to shine upon them. The only thing truly notifying them of the Titans' progress was the blinding shine of light with every strike Alnar and Jannah made onto the earth and how that light slowly receded into the muck.
The pair continued to dig until Alnar called out through their radio.
"Boss? Entrance here!"
"Good work you two! Get back up here. Lux, Terrence, Mithra, Fairy, take point. Lux, you're point man… err woman… Rest of you, columns, now." Sera commands her party into formation.
"Uh-huh…. On it boss." As Alnar and Jannah swim from the entrance, Lux moves forward, forging a wide shield out of her Void Light. The shield heats the water, making bubbles which rage against the entrance's walls and roof.
The party enters the cave system. Lux swam ahead while the others swam behind her. Terrence holds his shotgun ready while Fairy's and Mithra's hands are empty, no doubt ready to boil anyone who gets in their way.
"Wish we can get out of the water sooner… I worked really hard on this dress… would hate to have it tear…" Fairy groans.
"Maybe you shouldn't have worn something so… absorbent in the first place…" Lux jabs at her, speeding forward through the water with the shield braced against her arms.
"I'm sorry I prefer to be lithe and graceful compared to a butch like you~" Fairy teases.
"At least I can take a punch!"
"Yes, yes… and it speaks as much to the thickness of your head…"
"Ladies!" Terrence calls out. "You're both beautiful in your own respective ways…"
"But who's the fairest, Terrence?" Fairy seductively asks.
"I value my lives too much to answer that…" Terrence backs off.
The exchange relieves some stress through the comedy. Others began to jest thanks to Fairy and Lux's exchange. Sera only smiles as they continue to swim through the waterhole. Looking at Mazdam and Mithra however, reminds her only of why they're here in the first place, wiping away the smile she had.
"Hey, Pixiedust… I could help you take off your dress and dry it off if you allow me too~"
"Shut the fuck up!"-"Oh yes please~" Lux and Fairy's respective replies ring out at approximately the same time in response to Jalus' seductive advances. The others in the party laugh.
"We're here to fight, not to fuck, I swear I'm going to kill you both if I find you guys at it!" Carlos yells in mock anger.
"Pshh… you're just jealous Lux and Jalus get to tap this but you can't…~"
"Hija de…"
"Enough!" Sera makes the decision to stop their rambunctious, raunchy conversation before they lose track of the goal they came here for. "We're coming up on an air pocket. Get ready…"
"Fuckin' finally…" Fairy whispers.
—
As soon as they get out of the water, the professionals don't hesitate to get into formation.
Lux and her Void barricade remain front and center. Mithra and Fairy take her flanks while Terrence stands directly behind Lux, his shotgun at the ready.
Fairy's body is wreathed in Solar flame, drying off the excessive cloth and linen she wears. Her flames are so bright that the rest of the party's Ghosts are content to hide within their Lightbearers instead of lighting the path forward. Fairy doesn't complain.
The party continues to venture deeper into the dark.
—
Caravel and the other New Light clamber through dark tunnels and winding hallways. They had long escaped the interlocking labyrinth Orion had used to trap them and now they're searching for a way out.
They walk through calcite and granite, wetting their boots in the moisture pooling in the cool tunnels. They walk silently and calm, comfortable in their own interwoven presences.
The nameless New Light clambers up a ledge. He turns around to check on the other Lightbearer, a Hunter-to-be.
"Lindo, pull me up!" Caravel raises both her arms, urging him to pull her up.
"Can't you get up here yourself? Why do you need me to do your bidding?.. Ela…" He laughs as he leans downward, arms offered.
"I'm getting a little sore… nhg.." Caravel groans as she climbs up with help from the other New Light.
"Ask Sera to give you a massage when we see her…"
"Yeah? You sure you don't want to massage me again?" Caravel straightens up as the two continue their walk.
"Why should I? It was a one-off gift… You won a bet… I served… Nothing more…"
"Aw… you have really good hands though…"
"Stop…"
"Haha! Just trying to cheer you up…"
"Yeah? Cheer me up when we're out… don't forget we still have a Dragon to deal with…"
"Right… right…" Caravel's voice lowers by an octave.
The two continue their aimless walk, this time a little quieter than they'd like.
Eventually, they end up near an opening, light streaming in. The two speed towards it, excited to finally have found a way out. Much to their horror, they find that the opening did not lead to an exit. No, it only led to another room, a large cavernous chamber whose smooth floor is covered in wet silt. Stalactites hang illuminated by an eerie blue light.
The source of that blue light? A single glowing gem, a massive Glimmer Crystal hanging by a series of chains like a crude chandelier.
Below, on the floor of the grand chamber, flowstones cuddle a large, curled figure of scales and fur and fat.
No doubt now, the two Lightbearers have found their way to the Dragon's chambers.
The Ahamkara was wide awake. Though it remained still and curled against itself, wings covering its scaly, furry hinds, its ten beady, gray eyes look straight towards the two Lightbearers.
"So… You've finally arrived…" A gentle, smooth voice rings out in the two New Lights' minds.
The New Lights raise their respective rifles towards the Dragon.
The Dragon stretches out, curling its neck higher to look straight at the two, its triangular, shark-shaped face plates move over its ten eyes. Hair and tendrils wave like a mane behind the dragon's fleshy neck.
"Don't be afraid… I only want to talk…" The Dragon extends a gray skeletal hand.
"Come down… I'm sure we can find a way to satisfy… all of us…"
Fear gripped the New Lights' hearts. They do not budge. They're tempted to flee back into the caverns, but they look back around in horror as the entrance back towards the tunnels are now replaced with smooth calcite.
"I'm not going to kill you…"
"And we're to believe you're not lying?" Caravel asks out loud, her voice level and confident despite her trigger finger itching to be pulled.
"I know you two don't want to die… you're young, both of you. Why should I go against your desire?"
"What we want is to be free… no thanks to you, we're not afraid of death…" The nameless New Light speaks up, his confidence inspired by Caravel's.
The Dragon looks at the New Light in curiosity.
"You… You're… Hmm… Tell me, Lightbearer… Do you have a name?"
The Lightbearer in question does not utter a word.
"No?" The Dragon answers his own question.
"What about you? Lithe one? Do you have a name?" The Dragon turns to Caravel, causing the Nameless One to subconsciously step in front of her.
"What's it matter to you, Cobra?" Caravel spits out.
The Dragon reels back before its laughing voice rings heartfully.
"You have fire, lithe one… But really… you have nothing to fear…"
The Dragon perks up on its hinds and showcases a glowing, purple pustule radiating about its side.
"This mite… a crawling thing made of Void, a vacuum eating away at me, I know is used to obtain my location… feeding it back to your 'family'". The Dragon hisses as it sits back down. "In other words, your friends are coming…"
"Sera…" Caravel whispers.
The other New Light doesn't feel so excited. Yes, their reinforcements, their family-the Aegis, are coming to save them. However, a thought runs through his head.
Why would the Dragon reveal this information to them both?
The New Lights' rifles remains trained on the Dragon's armored face.
"Why do you keep us here then, Drakon? Why not let us go?"
The Dragon shifts to the side, its fuzzy mane swirling in non-existant wind.
"I want something… Something simple…"
"That being?"
There was a pause for a few moments before the Dragon spoke again. The Ahamkara moves closer towards the two Lightbearers, causing them both to recoil backwards instinctively.
"I want one of you to take my name…"
The Ahamkara pauses for another few moments, letting the information it speaks out sink into the minds of its recipients before continuing.
"My name is ancient… more ancient than me. It is of your Human culture, rest assured… but it is quaint and rolls off the tongue…" The Dragon speaks in a casual voice, trying to convince them on the aspects of his name alone.
"Why?" Mithra's New Light asks. "Why do you wish for us to take your name?"
"Why? It's for survival, my friend…"
"Survival? All of this is for your survival?" Caravel interrupts with rising anger.
"I only wanted to test if you were smarter than you look…" The Dragon bares its teeth in a creepy grin. "My name is of great importance to me…"
"Why? Why do you wish for us to take your name?" The other New Light brings the question back.
"My Survival… The survival of my species… It's all very similar to yours… We eat… we sleep… we mate and we graze…" The Dragon moves its head side to side as it speaks.
"Our food is.. Oh how do I say this?.. Empty promises? Trickery feeds our power… This is all an oversimplification, but you must know we cannot exactly speak truth with every wish we grant…"
"We're told your kind plays cruel tricks upon granting wishes… You toy with your prey before you eat them…" Caravel adds with venom laced words.
"Yes… That's true… I will not lie in saying that is not the case… It is the trickery which sustains us…" The Dragon shakes its mane, unfurling the fleshy growths. "But consider the fact I am not lying, and understand just how serious my situation is…"
"You're not?" Mithra's New Light asks.
"Considering the fact my stomach is only full because of how long you were trapped in my labyrinth, yes… If I was lying, my stomach would be so bloated… But I'm satisfied, I have no reason to…"
"What is so serious that you, who feeds off deceit, want to start being truthful… if you are being truthful…"
After the New Light's question, the Dragon pauses as it wonders how it's going to convey its plan to the inexperienced Lightbearers.
"I… am going to die…"
The statement does nothing to the two Lightbearers, save for Mithra's who lowers his rifle slightly.
"Explain…" The New Light asks.
"Your Hunters were too overwhelming… They wounded me… They would've killed me… no- they will kill me… But I don't want that…"
"I don't think anyone wants to die…" Caravel whispers sarcastically.
The Dragon laughs a little before continuing. "I'm no different… But I have made a decision regarding my own death…"
"Understand… Us… 'Ahamkara' is it? Our presence in the Universe is far more cemented than those of Humans… We can survive our own deaths… But the influence we have can be easily dispersed and disposed of… used in ways we would never wish upon any other…"
"Is that how it is?"
"Yes… So understand my plan now. I granted the wish of my own death to those who pursued me… I gain power… And now… for the sake of my own survival, to desperately 'defy' the wish I grant… I bestow upon my name, that same power. Now I wish to bestow my name upon you… Because I believe it will preserve me… My identity… my everything…"
The two New Lights do not speak as the Dragon finally reveals its plan to them. They're not relaxed, but they can rest easy knowing the Dragon is depending on them for its survival, not the other way around. They lower their rifles completely.
"Because Death has just lost all of its meaning in this Universe?" Mithra's New Light asks.
"In a way… Yes… How unfortunate that the only way to meaningfully change the Universe is to defy Death itself… The Final Law upon which everything will be judged upon…"
The two New Lights look at each other briefly. Caravel already has a name. The only one who doesn't is Mithra's New Light. The question in their minds now is what changes would be brought about.
Ahamkara, Wish Dragons, do not play fair. The deal the Dragon proposes is very simple. Mithra's New Light gets a name while the Dragon lives on in spirit. Everyone is satisfied. However, that satisfaction is very, very suspicious no thanks to the nature of their deal.
Paracausality is a wicked thing. What trick is the Dragon hiding?
"What are you hiding?" Caravel asks, voicing her doubts with that simple question.
"Nothing… Though my name is imbued with my power and my own identity, to say it will cause something so drastic to happen to the recipient is too general!" The Dragon laughs slightly. "It's not going to be the cause of his death if he takes it… Who knows… Maybe the path the power gives him will lead him down a New Destiny to experience?"
"What must I do?"
Caravel looks at the other New Light in shock with how quickly he apparently decided to take on his new name.
"All you have to do… is simply call yourself… Orion…"
"Orion…" The New Light repeats.
"A Hunter in old Human Mythology… An assaulter.. A brigand sentenced to death by the divine… a name given to a constellation who is Shepard, Fool, Predator, and Prey, all in one measly mortal… Will you end up suffering a similar fate? Or will you make a new one and rise above all others?"
"You want me to take your name that badly?" The New Light looks up at the Dragon defiantly. "What will happen once I take that name?"
"I will live on… My bones can be scattered, buried, reduced to calcium metal or crushed into dust and spread into winds but I will not die…" To exaggerate his own vitality, Orion the Dragon rises up again, brandishing its massive body. His flesh eclipses the light of the Glimmer chandelier above. "And you… Lightbearer, who are so full of delicious potential… You will reap of the power my name has now…"
The Deal is plain and simple.
"Lindo… you're not actually going to do this are you?" Caravel whispers towards the other New Light.
"Do I have a choice? If I say no, will this beast let us go?" The other New Light whispers back.
Taking several steps forward towards the Ahamkara, its looming shadow encompassing the New Light's body.
"If you speak the truth and tell no lies… then I accept…"
The Dragon grumbles with delight, prostrating itself down towards the Lightbearer. Its sharp teeth reveal themselves as it smiles.
"Go on then… What is your name?" The Dragon asks.
"My name… is Orion…"
There is no obvious change. No change in Energy or in power. The New Light feels the same as he had been the moments prior.
The Dragon growls and leans up, raising itself on its hinds as it crawls over to the back side of the room. The two New Lights walk forward, observing the rest of the Dragon's chambers which had been obscured by the Dragon's figure. The back end of the room held a granite shelf, beyond which was a pond of dark water, no doubt the Dragon's proper entrance.
"You're both free to take as you wish from my home… I won't be needing it once they kill me…"
"No need… just… tell us how to get out…"
"Your friends… your family… they're already in this cavern… It's only a matter of time before they find me… Once they do, they'll kill me… and you can go with them…"
The Dragon looks down into the water.
"Do not make me regret giving you this name… I quite like it, O Bearer Mine…"
Suddenly, chains manifest around the two Lightbearers, binding them.
"Hoy! What are you doing?" The two New Lights groan against the sudden restraints.
"Trying to make you look authentic… Your family will feel a lot better killing me when they see you trapped… Scream all you want… it doesn't matter now…"
The Dragon dives into the water-hole leaving the two Lightbearers bound by chains.
Their struggles subside as they realized that, though they are bound, their lives are in no danger. Their racing hearts slow as they calm themselves down from the encounter with the Ahamkara. They remain content with laying bound on the silty cave floor.
"So… Orion, huh?" Caravel asks the other New Light, now named Orion.
"Yeah…" Orion affirms as he lays on his back. "Orion…" He repeats his own name, still testing its weight.
"If it's okay with you, I won't challenge it… But I don't know how to feel knowing your name is that of a Cobra like that thing."
"It doesn't have to be… if it's true his name is more ancient than he is then… why not give the name a new meaning?" Orion pleads, mostly to himself, still overwhelmed with the fact that this is how he gets his name.
"What will we tell Sera?" Carvel asks him now. "Should we tell her of the bargain we made?"
"Is it… Is it even a true bargain?" Orion asks, wondering as to the nature of the changes the Ahamkara can make. "If it's truthful, then what desires was it trying to fulfill?"
"He said it himself, the Dragon's only in it for survival…"
"And he'll live because his identity… which is now my name… will live on so long as I live…"
"I still can't believe you took his name this quickly…"
"Yeah… It's all so fast… Anyway… I… I won't blame you if you decide to tell Sera… I think she'll know eventually… I made a deal… I can't change my name now… Orion is who I am. As per our deal…"
The two Lightbearers fall silent as they await the arrival of their family.
—
Sera's party continues down a cavernous tunnel following directions provided by Shavi.
They walked for what felt like miles, though their legs did not give way to fatigue. Shavi directed them to dive into water-holes, dig through winding tunnels, and blow holes into the walls. All of this just to find the Dragon, and hopefully the two New Lights the Ahamkara took.
Shavi suddenly calls for the party to halt.
"Shavi?" Sera asks as Shavi stands rooted in place.
"The Dragon… is moving… It's… getting closer…"
"What?"
Shavi's revelation prompts actions from the rest of the party. They summon their weapons and brandish their Light, ready to kill.
Shavi only looks around the cavern, her senses firing on all cylinders.
"There…" Shavi points to her right side. "The Dragon is through there… It's swimming… If we fight… it's going to be a wet fight…"
"Fuck-of course…" Terrence curses as he turns to the right.
"Lux, get your Ward ready… Alnar, Jannah… Breach!" Sera's command rings out
The two Titans immediately move to the column's right, their fists ablaze in Arc Energy as they pummel the cavern wall. Soon, water leaks through the cracks before the whole cavern is suddenly and violently engulfed with water.
Lux takes action almost immediately, summoning a massive Ward of Dawn. She wills the Void to allow water and air to pass through but keep her comrades within. In the Dark waters of the underground lake, they spot the Dragon's glistening gray eyes staring at the hunting party with contempt.
"Ready?!" Sera shouts as she forms a sharp sword of Arc Light.
The water around them reduces the effectiveness of their guns, they brandish their Light instead.
"Kill it!"
At Sera's roar, Lux opens her Ward, turning the Void bubble into a large shield remaining trained on the swimming Ahamkara.
Suleyman summons a Void helper, sending the sentient orb to a corner of the wet cavern. Its influence suppresses the Dragon's Paracausality, preventing its escape. Shavi tethers the beast onto a wall.
Carlos summons a machine gun of Solar Light, firing mini suns at the Dragon. The gun and its bullets cause the water to boil, and from behind Lux's Banner Shield, the bullets fly with incredible speed, crushing the Dragon's scales.
Jalus, Terrence, Alnar, and Jannah charge at the foe, grasping at its tendrils and limbs, breaking bones with every strike of their fist. Terrence summons a polehammer from the Void, staking the Dragon through its abdomen with the spear tip.
Fairy and Mithra boil the Dragon alive, rending flesh with their Solar Light, fogging the cavern with bubbles which glint in the blinding assault. Mazdam cuts and slashes at its mane with his Solar knives.
Sera only watches as her fireteam corners the Dragon. Swimming in the dark cavern, the Beast attempts to shapeshift to a form better suited, but Shavi and Suleyman keep its power suppressed.
At opportune moments, Sera dives, stabbing her Estoc into the chinks of the Dragon's scales, striking arteries which cause the beast to dye the water black with its blood.
With a roar which vibrates across the water, the Dragon pushes off the wall it's cornered against, causing the party to back off and watch as the bleeding Dragon swims a certain direction.
"Follow it!" Sera's command rings out once more from the party's helmet radio.
Using their Light, the party speeds through the water. They leave hot bubbles in their wake as they close in.
In the dark enclosure, they watch as the Dragon swims to an apparent dead end. They charge as their confidence surges at the Dragon's backwards glance, but it quickly fades as they realize the Dragon has hopped up an air pocket. The slight blue glow emanating from the water's surface causes them to hesitate, but they continue on, bursting from the water in fast splashes.
They clamber onto rock, flat and stable. Looking up, they see just what they need to see. Their objectives laid out before them.
The two New Lights are bound, still in their armor. The Dragon itself doesn't fight but halts behind the New Light as its bloodied body heaves.
Sera doesn't hesitate. "Lux!"
Following her commander's order, the Titan Lifts herself towards the two New Lights and casts a Ward of Dawn over the pair as the rest of the party float over them to finally smite the Dragon.
—
Orion's execution happened like this.
First, the Titan with the Void Polehammer smashed his hind legs from below before stabbing him the left side of his abdomen.
Void arrows launched from the same Nightstalker who had planted the Mite within him, pinned his hands to the floor. A following arrow caused a leash to form around his neck, bringing his hulking figure down and keeping it down.
One of the hunting Lightbearers forces a heavy, non-existent, weight on him. No doubt that it is the work of a Voidweaver- no- Voidwalker.
Several of the hunters pummeled into his massive form, breaking ribs as they punched and punched.
One Lightbearer carrying a burning machine gun riddled his face in bullets as hot as the sun. Two others wreathed in flame set his fur alight. The smell of Orion's own burnt flesh fills his nostrils.
Eventually a Lightbearer clambers onto the bony carapace covering his eyes, splitting the plates open with a surgical thrust of her sword. She pushes the electrified blade deeper and deeper, willing it to electrocute him from within.
Orion feels a pain and certain numbness with an unforgettable smell. His eyes popped. All ten of them.
He didn't need to see. His face plates over his eyes in the first place already proved that. But their tenacity for violence shook Orion to his very core. Orion fell to the ground as he felt his warm blood spill out of his face and into his own mouth.
Finally, as he lay there, he felt the footsteps of the Lightbearers approach his mane, behind his head. A sharp piercing pain emanates from a point at his nape before he finally stops thinking.
—
As soon as the Ahamkara dies, the New Lights are freed, the chain holding them bound dissolves into the aether.
All of the Lightbearers heave as they extinguish their Light. Their Ghost's appear to heal any damages made upon them as they check the Dragon's health. They repeatedly stab at the body, making sure it's truly dead. They cut a vein and let its black blood spill.
Orion and Caravel stand up as Lux dissolves her Ward of Dawn.
"How are you two?" Lux asks casually as they brush off silt and grime from the day spent in the Dragon's lair.
"We've been better…" Caravel responds a little more cheerfully.
Sera approaches and embraces Caravel in a crushing bear hug. Mithra does the same for Orion.
"We were worried sick!" Mithra cries as she embraces her New Light like a mother embracing a child.
"We're alright… Mithra…" Orion whispers.
"Are you sure? The Dragon didn't do anything to you did he?" Mithra asks him, looking into his helmet.
Orion calmly answers. "Nothing we know…". Orion lies, thankful that Mithra cannot see his own eyes.
The Dragon's corpse is processed. Using the Light, several members of the party carve out some of its bones, pulling off tendons and tying the dead flesh onto their own armor.
To think that the Dragon can even claim it's still alive sounds ridiculous, but knowing he has his name, Orion cannot help but believe it. As Terrence splits its faceplate open, revealing ten bloody eye sockets, Orion can't help but imagine the Dragon staring back at him.
"Let's get out of here…" Sera speaks up after a thorough embrace from Caravel.
"Yeah! Let's sell this shit! I want some gear!"
"Allah… get me out of here…"
"Let's rob them dry!" -"Yeah!"
The rambunctiousness of the rest of Sera's party elicit smiles from both Orion and Caravel despite the strenuous situation Orion has found himself in.
As Sera and Mithra move away to address their team, Caravel sidles up beside Orion as he gazes at the Ahamkara's corpse.
"You okay?" Caravel whispers quietly, making sure the radio in her helmet remains off.
"Eimai kala…" Orion whispers back. "Eimai kala…".
—
The party plants a beacon on the Dragon's corpse to mark it for retrieval. Following that, they make their way back to the surface of the Arctic water. The New Lights were hoisted up onto Terrence's Hawk gunship while the rest of the hunting party called their vessels to pick them up.
They flew back to where their Hunting party began their search, picking up the materials they had left behind. Orion heads back to his ship which he parked before his first death and he sets off with it. Enlil and Mardak were waiting for them and they joined the rest of their group as they finally succeeded in their mission.
The party flew southwards, making a stop at Old Chicago to meet with the people who hired Sera and her crew in the first place.
Negotiations with her employers were short. Caravel sat in Terrence's Hawk and Orion sat inside his Phaeton while Sera went to 'parle' with those who hired them. It involved a lot of screaming. The sounds of roaring flames and the sound of frightening yelps rang out in the dark swamps of Chicago.
After Sera returns with several crates of loot in tow, they take off once more.
After a few hours of flight, they stop at the Southern tip of the Rocky Mountains to mine for Glimmer to use as fuel. It's bound to be morning soon, but the Night is still dark,
—
Caravel steps out the Hawk gunship onto snowy grass, looking out at the moonlit valley below them.
Making sure Sera doesn't require her assistance, Caravel moves away from the rest of the Hunting Party and Starlit Aegis. She searches around, looking into the forest until she spots a glint of metal in the treeline. She swiftly makes her way towards the vessel.
Orion sat atop centuries old concrete barriers, blocks meant to cage in vehicles, gazing at the sky. He hears footsteps approaching but he doesn't turn to look.
"Orion?" It was Caravel's voice, sweet and light.
Orion hums as he acknowledges her presence, but only continues to stare up into the night sky.
"You alright?" Caravel walks to Orion's right and sits on an adjacent concrete block.
"I'm fine, Cara…" Orion looks at Caravel with a gentle glare, though with a hint of annoyance.
"Deus… sorry for caring…" Caravel rolls her eyes. "Wait.. what did you call me?"
"Cara?.. Is that okay?" Orion timidly asks, looking down from the sky and at Caravel proper.
"You didn't tell me we were on a nickname basis now…"
"Sorry… picked it up from Sera…"
"N-no it's okay… I'll allow it… If you let me call you Ori…"
Orion chuckles. He revels in how good it feels to not have to worry about anything even though he definitely has something to worry about.
"Sure thing… Cara…"
The two of them giggle quietly to themselves.
"What were you staring at?" Caravel asks as she looks up to where Orion was staring at.
"Stars… The Ahamkara… Orion… said that my name-or… our name was once given to a constellation…"
"Oh… do you think you've found it?"
"I don't know… I don't know if I'm even seeing constellations right now… The stars are just… there… I'm not creative enough for this…"
"Orion… Hunter… Shepard… Predator and Prey… That is what he said right? give me a guess… which one do you think it is?" Caravel offers, leaning back, supporting herself on the concrete with her arms.
"I'm thinking… That one…" Orion points up to a patch of sky, barely obscured. In the absence of Light Pollution and without many clouds, the sky is very clear. "The three stars all chained together… the Red star is a shoulder… that bright blue one is its foot…"
"I'm… starting to think you're going crazy…" Caravel deadpans as she squints to look at the stars he has indicated.
"Am not! Can't you see it? That one right there! A blue one leading to several stars in the shape of a bow? Or… is it a cane?" Orion points out more stars.
Caravel only laughs. "If you want my opinion… I think you're taking this name stuff too seriously…" Caravel shifts, orienting herself to properly face Orion.
"So what if it's bestowed upon you by a Dragon… you haven't felt anything, right? So what if the Dragon lives on through you. You fulfilled your end of the deal the Dragon made, and now you have a name… Maybe all of the stuff about power isn't even true and the Dragon only… 'lives' in memory, that's why he wanted you to have his name…"
"Maybe… But is it wrong to be so suspicious over Ahamkara… you know what it did to you, Caravel…"
"I know… I know… But I don't think it changed you as much as you think it did… Just be yourself! We're still young by Lightbearer standards… maybe your name does affect you or maybe it doesn't… whatever the case… just be yourself… Orion…"
Orion takes a deep breath and expels it in a vapor cloud. "Maybe you're right… We'll see…"
Caravel hums as she smiles at Orion, her hexagonal freckles flare as she does so, her purple eyes seem to glint in the darkness surrounding them. Orion can't help but smile back at her.
—
As they fly back to the City, the morning light bathes their vessels in a soft orange glow. Orion stares out of the cockpit of his Iron Bird. He quietly makes the decision to upgrade the engines so he doesn't have to drag the others behind.
He thinks back on the events that have taken place. He has a name now. A name he doesn't know the dangers of, if any. It's the memory of a Dragon, an Ahamkara. Whether or not this matters in long is unknown. What matters now is that he pushes onwards.
He still has a lot to learn about the Universe at large, but now he is no longer alone.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
I hope you guys enjoyed! Criticism and Reviews are encouraged!
I'm planning on going back to fix many of the grammar mistakes and touch up parts of the other four chapters so the story is easier to read.
I hope you guys like how my story is going so far! Per Ardua ad Astra!
