He felt as though he was floating.
The exhaustion and strain that came from days of tireless training and travel no longer weighed him down. Gravity held no bearing on him, the force easily cast aside in the face of the power now flowing through him. This new body was no longer a sort of restrain but a vessel prepared to be shaped to his will.
Onyx clenched his raised fist, flexing his arms out further.
Those knights of the crumbling Golden Order. The rageful misbegotten. The predators that prowled the wilds. All in between.
There wasn't a single thing that could hope to best him in battle.
"Onyx?" He dropped his gaze down to the entranceway of the ruins. Melina, arm slowly lowering from her face as traces of his energy flickered about on the grass around her, was uncertain about what must've seemed like an abrupt change to her. Her other hand remained hidden beneath her cloak.
Right where that dagger of hers rested.
He could feel her presence even more clearly than before. Her odd soul, a contradictory thing stitched together by an energy not her own, eclipsed those around them several times over. She might not be the strongest being he'd ever come across, but she had the potential to be among the most powerful.
If that potential was ever realized, she'd make for a good opponent. One that could bring an end to his life. As they were now, she wouldn't come anywhere close to such a-
"Are you…alright?"
Onyx blinked, the sense of weightlessness fading ever so slightly at the sound of her voice.
Melina, the same woman so numb to her own emotions she rarely showed any trace of them, was displaying genuine concern and he was standing her thinking about fighting her? It was almost as if-
More of his scattered energy shot from around her feet, seeping beneath his skin and revitalizing that sense of weightlessness.
He knew what this was.
Mana was one of the few constants in all his lives. A power born only of the wielder's soul, its myriads of possibilities limited only by said soul. Destructive shows of raw force, bending the natural elements, illusions, altering the very nature of all that it touched. He'd seen it and used it for countless things himself, but it did have disadvantages.
And he was suffering one that'd led to an untold number of deaths.
A Mana High.
Exposure to an abundance of mana, whether it be through extensive use or other methods, could affect the body. As much as it was a vessel for the soul it still held countless intricate systems that were too intricate and, at the worst of times, too sensitive for its own good. Over time tolerance to the phenomenon was built up just by possessing mana, no experienced user falling victim to it outside the worst of circumstances.
And he, someone who used the energy in all his lives and likely spent more time as an adrift soul than a physical being, hadn't fallen victim to it in a long, long time. It helped that he started every life with mana, the energy as natural to said bodies as the blood flowing through them.
However, unlike all the lives preceding this one, he awoke in a body without a drop of mana within it.
He should've expected this.
Onyx took a slow breath, lowering his outstretched arms.
He'd encountered people who believed Mana Highs induced temporary insanity. Others claimed it was no different than a stronger form of alcohol or drugs, loosening or completely doing away with a person's inhibitions.
He'd long since concluded in reckless experiments far, far earlier in his existence that it only made a person more of what they were. An intriguing concept that came with risks like all things. The accompanying boost in power tended to play a massive role in how things played out in those situations.
Curious as he was about Melina's skills and strengths, there was so much more he wanted to understand about her. Maybe if she realized the potential she held, he'd cross blades with her to satisfy that particularly curiosity.
But he had no real interest in doing so now.
"Sorry about that." He said after a deep exhale. "I got caught up in the moment."
That was putting it lightly. There were countless other temptations pulling him in so many different directions that just stopping to talk with another left him feeling restless.
Melina gradually rose to a full stand, both arms lowering. "Then, you are alright?"
"Better than alright." The energy he'd been cultivating towards all this time was finally flowing through his veins, a wide-spanning web of pathways quickly forming in this body, the act so instinctive to him it required no attention on his part. He wouldn't be at his strongest immediately, this high catapulting him towards a degree of power that would require no small amount of work to truly prep this body for housing permanently.
The rebound would be severe once he came down.
He raised his hand, the blue flames gathering on it sinking into his skin, some fading away into wisps or falling off of him and spurring the now ankle high grass around him to grow more.
Until then he might as well bask in this long lost sense of power.
"The wound you spoke of to Sellen, meditation acted as a form a healing for it?" Melina deduced.
"Something like that." Onyx said. "So, what brought you-"
Pressure hit and barreled straight through his heightened senses.
Onyx's head snapped upwards.
He caught sight of a golden light, separate but similar to the distant tree, before it rapidly descended into the ruins between him and Melina. That light morphed and shifted, breaking apart into rays of gold that began to spiral around itself just above the grass.
Then it shot up.
Feet. Long legs that led up to a pair of shapely hips. Those hips were followed by a torso soon decorated with a sizable bust. The rest of the body followed, the golden rays of energy racing all across their skin.
A woman, so tall that she towered not only over them but parts of the crumbling walls around them, floated just above the grass of the ruins. Moments before he wouldn't have been able to perceive the instant of her formation without some breathing technique, but this high his body was under pumped and kept every sense at eleven, the naked glory of whoever this was on full display to him.
The golden rays didn't waste any time rectifying that, forming clothes over the blemish free skin.
A thin black dress styled by a golden design like that of a tree's roots spread across its fabric. A belt of silvery-white ovals crested and connected by gold formed around her waist. Golden circlets followed, forming around the upper arms, wrists, and only a single one around her left thigh. A pair of heeled sandals formed around her feet, bearing similarly fancy marks of gold along their many dark straps.
A circlet, its deep gold partially hidden by the bangs of the woman's long golden locks, was the final thing to form.
Her eyes snapped open.
If the Erdtree and the energy around were gold, her eyes, a molten gold of which he'd never seen in another being, were the very concept by which they were derived.
And that ethereal gaze was focused solely on him.
"Got an introduction to come with the entrance?" Onyx questioned, meeting the gaze with a raised brow.
He was no fool. The power she held, no more than an echo of wherever she truly was, would soon dwarf his dozens of times over once this high passed. When that came to pass, killing him would be no more than swatting a fly for a being like that.
That said, her presence was familiar.
"Thee art him. The one who gave chase from beyond." Her voice, firm and powerful, not just demanding authority but absolute obedience from all who heard it. It betrayed none of the suspicion behind her narrowed eyes, but it didn't escape him.
"Oh?" That explained the nagging familiarity. In terms of power, it wasn't quite a one to one match as she was now, but if she was mentioning his arrival, only made possible through his following of a presence that retreated into this world, then that that must've been her back then. "I guess I have you to thank for leading me here."
Her eyes narrowed further, the golden rays of energy, trailing off her form and spreading around the ruins, just shy of touching any of the wild mana still returning to him bit by bit.
"Thee…art weakening." She wasn't just powerful but sharp too. However long it lasted, a Mana High was just that. A high.
Either emboldened by that observation or encouraged by his lack of hostility, she floated closer, the flaps of her dress and long braided hair shifting slightly. The height difference became all the more prevalent the closer she got, Onyx forced to crane his head back further.
"No matter." She said, more mana returning to him as she brought a hand down to him, the loose flaming energy flicking about, just shy of licking at her heels. "Thine's potential outstrips those who remain. We shall form a covenant, a task done in exchange for power and guidance."
"Whoa now. I owe you one, maybe, but that doesn't mean I'm going to do what you say." Onyx said. Agreeing to anything from a being of this caliber went far beyond the recklessness he cared to indulge in. With enough power words were no longer harmless things to be tossed around and she had more than enough to be capable of binding another to her will. "At least explain this task and the power."
The molten glow of her eyes, the branches of the expansive tree behind her reduced to nothing more than a footnote in the night compared to her gaze, intensified. "Thou believes thyself in a position to refuse?"
The wondering trails of golden energy converged all at once, beelining straight for him. His mana moved just as quickly, raising to cut off their advance.
Golden light met blue flames.
THUMP!
Onyx's hand shot up to his chest, pain forcing him to hunch over.
THUMP!
Another palpitation, stings accompanying it and spreading across his torso and left arm, echoed beneath his chest. He took slow deep breaths to no avail, the thumps and spread of pain continuing.
"Ugh!" The pain was not one sided.
Despite being the one to instigate the clash, the towering woman raised a hand to her temple, paranoid visage twisted into one of pain. Her brow furrowed further as their conflicting energies mingled together.
Flames turned gold while the trails of energy gained a dark blue coloring reminiscent of his mana.
Whatever was happening he needed to put distance between him and this woman.
Pulling his mana with him, Onyx leaped back. Or tried, his numbing lower body refusing to go along with the plan, his efforts producing nothing more than a step backwards. The woman had been of the same mind, attempting to float backwards, only for another groan of pain to escape, her other hand joining in clenching her head.
One eye screwed closed, her other found his, the molten gold within in it raging. "W-What is thou-"
THUMP!
A pull accompanied the sharp thud of pain, Onyx stumbling forward.
Forehead crashing right into the woman's, her ability to fly abandoning her as, like him, she was pulled forward.
XOXO
The ferocious pulses that assailed her skull were gone, the dull ache that accompanied them no more than a memory.
Marika opened her eyes.
Shifting blue waters and fragmented light greeted her.
She arose, a groan slipping free as she raised a hand to her temple.
A similar sound came from her side. She turned, head craned back, and locked eyes with a pair of dark eyes aglow with a vibrant blue.
She shot up, distance put between her and it.
She couldn't quite describe it but as her feet glided across the grass of this odd place, its nature unlike any place she knew to be within the Lands Between, and her gaze landed on the tall armored figuring rising to a stand, much of their form hidden beneath steel, she knew who it was she faced.
That small physical form she'd come upon after tracking down the source of the energy that awoke her from the slumber induced by Radagon had been lacking. The energy around it had been impressive to be sure, that fading power alone more than any mortal, from human to dragons, could ever hope for.
It fell woefully short of what chased her back to The Lands Between.
But that dark armor. The gaze of the dark glowing eyes beneath that helm. The sword at his hip. Everything from presence, armaments, and height, declared a power, the depths of which could not be so easily pierced or understood.
This was the being who she'd come into contact with. The same one responsible for that bout of pain.
"What hath thee done?"
"What is this?"
XOXO
(A/N: Onyx and Marika are two very very unique souls that never should've come into contact with each other. Alas, that ship has sailed. Finally. Bible speak is going to be a little annoying but I hope it at feels authentic to what we expect of her.
That aside, I've been doing some reading on my, I guess casual account, not really sure I can call either my main since I use one for reading and this one for, well, this, and I'm looking into doing the whole early chapters I see other writers and translators do. Just looking into it. I can lock in sometimes but I have no idea how some of them are posting over a dozen chapters ahead, posting everyday including the weekends. That kind of pace would absolutely fry my smooth brain.
I might not do it just to avoid putting any kind of pressure on my hobby of creative writing but we'll see. I definitely won't do it if I feel at all burnt out or stressed in the process of all that writing or editing it'll take. The last thing I want to do is follow in the footsteps of some of my favorite authors and just stop writing. Those disappearances always come out of nowhere and hit hard when I'm in the middle of catching up on what's fixing to be some of the greatest stories ever.
Another side note, I think Marika single handedly has the longest description or at least one on par with Onyx's. Might've gotten lost in the sauce while writing her appearance.)