A bright pillar of sickly green light reached far into the sky from what I could only imagine was the source of the sickly green light in the valley. Along the length of the pillar, I could see that there were streaks of violet mana intertwining and swirling around the pale beam of light.
No, not light, it's pure mana, I thought breathlessly.
Seeing Irun's face turning pale was also a great indicator that my instincts were right.
"What the fuck just happened? Is that the Undergod's mana?" I asked, not bothering to keep my voice down anymore. "It… can't be. It's too soon," he said to no one in particular. "What does that even mean?" I prodded even though I knew I probably wasn't getting the answer right away. "We need to get through Draukar as soon as possible," he said urgently.
Ysevel and I looked at each other, and after realizing we didn't fully understand what was happening, we non-verbally agreed with him before rushing down the other side of the mountain. "You owe us an explanation," I said, not bothering to hide my frustration. "I don't think I'm the right person to explain that to you," he responded with a gesture over his shoulder, matching my tone.
As we began to sprint down the other side of the mountain, our feet sank heavily into the ashen floor. Each step nearly forced us to be knee-deep in the powdery substance, though there was little hindrance to our movement overall, as it only took us the better part of what I thought was two hours to reach the treeline.
"Well, that looks inviting. Except, maybe, for the array of branches that look like they could skewer a wild boar or person if they were somehow pushed hard enough," I said wryly, my sarcasm clearly aimed at Irun.
Ysevel, sadly, didn't share my sense of humor.
"Inviting or not, we have to get through here to make it to the hollow," Irun said flatly, making an effort not to get caught up in one of Ysevel's binds again after seeing the expression on her face. "Let's go, then," Ysevel said, apparently satisfied with our negotiation.
Navigating the pointed branches and upturned roots was no easy task, as the gloomy light hardly penetrated the leafless canopy. While the initial entry to the forest wasn't the best for navigating, it did, eventually, clear up a bit more to where we weren't walking as cautiously.
That is until I saw something lurking behind a tree a good distance off to my left.
Why does it look like me? Worse yet, why is it smiling like that? I thought, feeling the unease begin to settle in my stomach.
Without questioning what I saw any further, I drew my sword. Not having the ability to draw from the Ethereal left me at a severe disadvantage, and so I did the only reasonable thing I could do.
"Thoma, what's wrong?" Irun asked. "I… I saw something," I said, still trying to figure out how to describe it. "Was it a creature?" Ysevel asked. "Nothing I could recognize in a bestiary, but it looked like me, and it was… smiling at me. Not kindly, either; more predatory than anything else," I tried to explain.
Whatever I said had been enough for Irun and Ysevel to draw their swords. "It's an alternate. Your alternate, which probably means that Ysevel's probably isn't that far behind. It also means we've overstayed our welcome," Irun said plaintively.
I'd be lying if I said that I understood what he meant.
"I'll clear our path. Just stay as close as you can," he said with a nod. Seeing no other choice but to trust him, the three of us began to run as quickly as we could through the forest, jumping over fallen logs and withered vines along the way.
I'm glad I spent plenty of time training with my mother in the forests near Myrdin. This almost seems trivial to move through, I thought, feeling a little bit confident for the first time since coming to this gods-forsaken realm.
Little did I know how quickly that confidence would fade.
As we continued moving through the forest, we eventually came to a small clearing that couldn't have had a radius larger than about fifty meters. On the far side of it, however, was a group of about a hundred daemons that were devouring fresh glick corpses. As if under instruction from a higher authority, they all turned to rush at us as one.
We stumbled into their nesting grounds.
"Shit. I'll guard Thoma while you take care of the others," Ysevel said, stepping in front of me to take the brunt of the fight that was about to take place. Irun dashed forward, drawing an immense amount of mana to him, reinforcing his daemonic arm as he grabbed the first one by the face and flung it at the others before rushing in and leading them off into the forest.
Some of the other daemons, however, went around the disfigured lunatic and came straight for Ysevel and I. I could feel the mana radiating from Ysevel as she prepared to do what she did best. "Thoma, I'll defend you while you learn to draw on the dark mana. I don't know that we can take them all on without you," she said over her shoulder.
"Now? I'm not sure I can do that mid-fight," I said with little self-confidence. "Oh, like you haven't gone through worse with Siraye," she said half-jokingly before slicing into the first few that came for us effortlessly. "What if I lose myself to it?" I asked, not mincing my words given our situation.
Just behind her, I could see Irun's sword singing a beautiful tune of death. I didn't have the opportunity to really see it in full force before since he'd been holding back during our fight, but it was beautiful, elegant, even.
I felt the spatter of blood from another creature flicking across my face as the world seemed to slow. In the heartbeat between her attacks, she turned to look at me with a knowing smile. "Then I'll find you in the mist of rage," she said as if inviting me to unleash everything I'd learned with her and the others back in Caegwen.
I suddenly understood what she meant. She knew I had unresolved issues with Irun and that there was likely an opportunity there for something I couldn't quite grasp to take place.
This is about to suck, isn't it? I asked myself as I prepared for what came next.
Like a deep breath before the plunge, I trusted my own ability to draw from the Ethereal to translate over to the sphere of dark mana now in front of me. It'd been so long since I last made the conscious decision to draw from the Ethereal that I'd forgotten my lessons on how we drew mana in the first place. I dug deep. Deeper than I ever had in my entire life until this point, reaching for the unbridled rage and unresolved emotions I'd buried away.
This, however, was different.
It's one thing to draw from a realm that seems like it's a far-off place. It's another entirely to still see the world slowly moving around you as you're drawing mana. I could still see Ysevel's sword cutting the head off another creature, the blood following the arcing trail her sword left in its wake. As I looked up at the dead sky, I allowed it to look back into me.
I stretched out my hand, though it wasn't exactly my physical hand. It was more of a wraith-like specter that had somehow spawned from my body and was calling out to the dark mana, directing it toward me.
The lifeless mana in the sky heard my call.
Like a viper striking at its prey, the dark gray tendrils braided and raced towards the outstretched hand of my consciousness. Between each of the tendrils, there seemed to be a small jolt of violet lightning, reminding me of what it looked like whenever a new cycle began.
As I usually did with the third stage of mana manipulation, I allowed the dark mana to race into my bones, sinew, and muscles, feeling every tendon grow taut with expectation. I could feel my entire body tensing with something I could only define by a single thought: Rage.
I did what I could to get it under control as the dark mana coursed through me. There was little more that I could do than hold on tight as my mouth unleashed a guttural scream originating from the pit of my soul.
Ysevel killed her next victim before turning to look at me. To say she was shocked would be doing a vast disservice to her true expression, which felt more aligned with justified horror than anything else as she watched the violet aura surrounding me.
I could feel the dark mana leaking from my eyes as the violet tendrils licked at my temples. "Where's Irun?" I asked bluntly as I glanced around. The world seemed a lot less dead than before, as I could also see the elemental mana that ebbed and flowed throughout the realm. Like in the second stage, my voice was much more distorted than my usual tone.
"Irun's drawn most of their attention to the far side of that mound," she said, pointing off into the distance. Knowing she was in the fourth stage, as evidenced by her intermittently glowing irises, meant she could see way more than I could with my limited ability in the third.
"He's got a horde surrounding him, as we seem to have drawn too much attention. We need to help him," she said, pointing off in his general direction. I looked off into the distance, hoping to catch a glimpse, but there wasn't much I could see through the dense mana flowing through the trees on the far side of the clearing.
"Lead me to the slaughter," I said, chasing behind her as she dashed ahead, moving through the dead trees using the same movement techniques we'd use when training in Caegwen. A few of the daemons tried to keep up with us, but none of them could compare to the speed we were moving at.
We soon found Irun being swarmed by the daemons, but he seemed to be holding his own. The other daemons, however, were blissfully unaware of mine and Ysevel's presence. Time to get them in a three-sided pinch, I sent, knowing she could hear me. Ready when you are, she sent back.
Within a pair of bursting dashes, we positioned ourselves to where we would make a perfect triangle with Irun. He must have seen what we were doing because the look of exertion on his face instantly turned to a wolfish grin. Now! I sent, signaling for Ysevel to attack as the ashen dust clouds infused with violet lightning quickly spread from the pressure our legs created to propel us forward.
Using the same principles my mother had taught me during our training, I made sure that every dash I did would result in the death of an enemy. I reached the first daemon, slicing its head off with a single blow and immediately dashing to the next. However, the timing of it was a little difficult to grasp, as I was still unaccustomed to that level of footwork.
She really does make it look easy, doesn't she? I thought, watching the curvature of my blade slashing just above the chitinous plate that made up its chest.