…Boom!... Clash!
The distant war cries of powerful white thunder colliding with the ground, each time ravaged the gloom of the palace to a blinding spectacle of brilliant white.
Rain of an eerie black pigment fell from the unseen heavens.
The infamous sun-less dense fog that always reigned supreme over the landscape became even more so.
Any perception over a kilometer was shunned due to the fog's inherent properties.
Yet, even though natures clash, Rue and the avian steed, continued to traverse the unwelcoming setting.
Why?
Well, the wall.
It was always the same damn thing with that blasted thing, and the past several days were no different from the accustomed routine.
Yet, compared to the beginning of trekking the journey, the past few days had been filled with peril and a collection of close calls.
Beasts of equal or lesser Destination had gradually become more abundant the more distant they got within this place.
There were even a few close calls where Rue and the bird had furiously dug into the ground to escape the terrifying perception of the more powerful beings that occasionally prowled through the fog unnoticed, but their threatening presence was ever so constant.
Fortunately, they were able to escape each situation with a mix of luck and due to their meager worth the more powerful beasts more or less alienated, due to Rue and the birds lack of power.
It was not enough to warrant a costly chase, or to stir their fancy.
Drenched–cold, and constantly fearful for their lives. Both found themselves keeping their constant speed to a minimum, rather than risking their lives by attracting beasts.
Flicking his finger into the unseen black distance, Rue sighed.
'Where even is this place?' he thought, weary-eyed.
Even with Altheria's impossibly large size, the inquisitor, through his many journeys, had never heard of or seen such a terrain that flavored this weird, elusive, and chaotic nature within a specific given place to such a high degree.
Brushing away the unknown of his meaningless ponderings, Rue in a practiced manner began to focus his mind on the surrounding kilometer of land.
His expression was vacant of anything other than a lifeless-like stiffness, his eyes never wavered with emotion, but though his exterior facade of complete indifference lay a man who's entire being was itching for excitement.
After mending his Initial back to its former prime, Rue had regained the portion of his personality he had lost, for better or worse.
The piece of him that confided in chaos.
His personas were always at odds with one another, the humble part would attempt to calm the riled arrogance, but the arrogance would always revolt like a teenager in rebellion.
It was a constant battle of virtues, and thus he was always extremely angsty.
Bang!
CRUSHHH!
The ground violently trembled breaking apart. The surrounding trees became airborne, and wet soil was flung into the air.
Thrusted from the back of the steed, Rue was thrown into the air. Before he even had time to register what happened, Rue heard the weak fearful 'coo' of a bird, before a proceeding clenching noise of maw snapping-shutting interrupted.
Gritting his teeth, Rue activated his [Will Emission].
The Monoclinic within his mind trembled, and his body lit with a tranquil regal orange mixed with a curling silver.
Mid-flung through the air, Rue, bracing his Will, stopped his inertia before shooting himself from the air towards the ground.
Crash!
Crashing into the ground, Rue without as much as sparring a second though, immediately exploded forward.
Darting his eyes across the surroundings with laser-like focus, Rue pinpointed the location of the adversary.
Shortening the distance between himself and the attacker.
A being whose body was lengthened and snake-like, with a body encased in a calloused rugged white hide, sprouted from each side were twenty powerful legs, and covering the entirety of its front was a powerful maw.
Rue, with an expression disorganized between glee and contradictory hate from the death of his birdy comrade, resolved himself as he braced his Initial.
His hands shot up above his head, readying for a pre-coordinated powerful strike. At the same moment, a large powerful lustrous chrome great axe manifested within his grasp.
In a haze, Rue clenched the shaft of the newly manifested axe before bringing it down on the foe.
Sensing a threat to its life, the creature, feeling an impending death, reflexively responded.
Within the edge of his gaze, a small negligible glimmer emerged in blinding speed towards Rue, aiming for his eye.
If this strike met him, then he was going to die.
Seeing the threat in time, Rue halted mid-strike.
Using his Will Emission, Rue pivoted his waist and upper body before once more—seemingly defying the laws of physics—neglected the built-up inertia within his axe.
Maneuvering his hands, he snapped his axe onto his front, blocking the stealthy strike with the solid side of his axe.
Clang!
Slice!–Slice!–slice!–slice!
Consecutively attacking the axe's surface, the thin thing, determining its own failure, attempted to weave past the axe and attack its target's vitals.
Unfortunately for it, Rue with a small step maneuvered out of its aim before iron-locking its thin elongated body around his palm.
Seeing as its deliberate distraction had succeeded, the creature rushed forward, barreling towards Rue.
The Lovecraftian bastard's maw was completely agape, revealing its inner cavity of countless concealed rows of razor-sharp teeth.
Noticing the cowardice attack, Rue toothily grinned.
'This is exactly the type of excitement I've been craving!' Quelling his intrusive thoughts, Rue buckled his body—clenched his legs and burst into the air.
Within the air, Rue laughed heartily, bringing his axe over his shoulder. Rue mustered his Will Emission.
The silver and density of the axe increased in potency.
THUD…
Meeting the body of the worm-like beast with his weapon's edge, the worm absorbed the majority of the attack's shock by distributing the absorbed kinetic force throughout the entirety of its body, but this was not without its consequences.
Writhing in pain from the powerful axillary, feeling the intense stimulation of the pain, the beast, as an animal in the face of fear, began to frantically move in all directions in the aim of tossing off this threat from its back.
"No you don't, you bastard!" Rue said with an even sincerity. "You son of a bitch, you killed my RIDE!" he seethed in a new tone laced with rage.
Drawing out the body's dormant energy, Rue recklessly flooded his axe with his Will.
With the axe's exceptional conductivity, the channeled Will quickly reached an equilibrium.
Forcing his feet into the thick exterior of the beast, Rue, clenching his back muscles, began to press his upper body's weight onto the axe.
A valiant reddish-orange light, similar to a raging sun, and its opposite match of a tranquil aqua-blue light, similar to a neutron star, began to spill from the axe and seep through the beast's body.
…CHOP!
SLICE!...
Cutting through the beast's hide—entering its insides before exiting out from under—was the brilliantly orange and blue veil layering the axe.
Screeching in pain for a second, the beast stifled and fell apart, bisected.
Tearing his feet from the beast's thick hide, Rue smirked before hopping off its back.
Resting his axe on his shoulder, Rue examined the slain beast.
"Wow, I really was longing for a proper fight, but that was kinda lackluster, no?" With a sigh, he scratched his chin.
Walking towards the beast's corpse, Rue raised his hand before punching it into the hide, bursting it apart.
After several minutes of 'dressing' a small portion of the exterior, the inquisitor found what he was looking for.
Seeing the unrecognizable pitiful display of carnage that was once his avian comrade, he sighed.
"Damn buddy, you should have died in a more prolific manner rather than falling for the stealthy strike of that beast." Muttering this with a frown, Rue after a few seconds had something rather important dawn upon him.
"But what direction am I supposed to go now?" he said rhetorically, clicking his tongue...
Looking towards his surroundings, Rue was met with the same bland constant of the black rain and the distant roars of white thunder.
As with earlier, Rue's perception was impeded after attempting to look past a kilometer.
After several seconds, the inquisitor stuck out his tongue with an arrogant smirk. It was so simple to determine the proper direction, laughably even.
This was done with a simple calculation of his rough distance added with an approximation of a few angles, and with some simple trigonometry, he determined where his position was and where he needed to go.
"Bye, comrade birdy, but I've stalled long enough." With a long wave, Rue, with the final adieu of a nod, began his departure, sprinting in his approximated direction.