"How long has it been, I wonder...a thousand years, maybe more? Looking at myself, I am, perhaps, what he envisioned himself as. Just fairer...maybe..."
It was as if a cataclysm had awoken. An ancient god or perhaps machine with the sole purpose of destruction and obliteration. That is how the two of them looked intertwined in combat. The intensity of their lights clashing against each other brought upon a sunset over the lands, scorched land and burnt grass and trees turned to ash appearing behind the blinding collisions. Over hills and up in the skies, Kilon and Orvus kept themselves in a vicious yet even clash.
'Over the myriad of possibilities laid in this cruel world we've been given birth into, they all conjured this accursed moment. How unfathomable,' Kilon spoke calmly in his mind as the two of them clashed once more. 'There, and there. I could kill him, no? No, he will anticipate it, but I will try nonetheless...'
Kilon spun the spear from his right hand to the left, parrying three consecutive strikes from Orvus, to then manipulate gravity with his right hand and pull out a chunk of flesh from Orvus' chest, where the heart should've been at, but no such thing was there.
'I transformed my body to the best of my abilities. Inspired by creatures from the Gargantuan forest and further enhanced by light crystals placed inside and outside of my body, it should've granted me an overwhelming advantage over all of them, let alone Kilon,' Orvus thought as he regenerated the missing flesh and bone, light erupting from the wound to push Kilon back. 'Yet still, he is able to follow my movements, even get the upper hand at times.'
Pushed away from one another, the two of them stood there thinking of their next move. It didn't take them more than a second to think, to then clash once more. Orvus summoned his crystals next to him, four in number with two missing, they each had a different glow about them. Kilon was wary of them, but didn't know the extent of their abilities, therefore he restrained not when he struck a yellow looking one.
Orvus didn't expect him to aim for the crystal first, crunching his teeth in dismay, but reacting to it by placing one blue crystal below Kilon.
As Kilon struck, shattering the crystal down the middle, the blue one unleashed a terrible frost upon him. Cold air accumulated and compressed, enveloped by the crystalline structure, it essentially functioned as a casing.
While Kilon got pushed back and had half his body covered in ice, Orvus suffered at the explosion of light coming out of the yellow crystal, crashing together with Kilon towards the ground. Once down, both of them had the same thought 'He's holding back.'
As the two of them were fighting, the Lightborns were at a standstill with the army of corpses. Neither the corpses nor the Lightborn were moving, as if both sides were waiting for the other to make the first move. Although, only one was doing so.
"Can they move on their own, or does Orvus have to command them?" Manna asked Menoel.
"I am not sure. Although, by the look of those strands of light, it could be indicative that he needs to personally give them the orders."
"Which would be the best outcome," Manna whistled and a few Lightborn moved to the sides of the army of corpses closer, hidden either behind mist they formed or the settling dust from the rising of the ground. One of them sent a stone flying towards one of the corpses' heads, while another shot a ray of light. Neither provoked a reaction.
"Could be a ruse, could be not. Either way," Manna lifted her hands high up, "we have to put them down so we can help Kilon." As she let her hands fall down, a cloud of manelooters started to descend from high above at Mercaara's and Salvete's commands, while the Lightborns readied their spears and various weapons meant to be thrown.
The manelooters began to crash into the army of corpses, stripping them of crystals at times, while for the most part they served as a great distraction. While at first it didn't seem needed, once the crystals started being touched or taken down, the corpses seemed to catch life. Eraanel was first to notice a reaction taking place inside the crystals, then Menoel and Manna.
The corpses didn't even mind the manelooters as they started charging forward. A couple hundred meters apart from the Lightborn, their walk was soon to turn into a full sprint. The manelooters managed to slow them down, but not by much.
"Seems like Kilon's plan was bound to fail," Menoel stated, arranging his group in a formation meant for retreating. "At least part of it."27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpTGCHq4s0o
27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡve1SJrz1WT
With a cry from Menoel, spears, axes and arrows, sharpened bones and even stones were thrown towards the army of charging corpses, the manelooters timing themselves with the volley and rising back up just in time. While the initial line crumbled under the thrown weapons, most of the corpses kept running towards them with spears, arrows and such sticking out of their bodies. Those which were brought down to their feet kept crawling on the ground however they could.
It was as they started to retreat that the first corpse exploded, the crystals on its body too damaged to arrive at the meant destination. During that instant Manna realized the predicament they would soon find themselves into were they to allow any of those corpses to approach them.
"Don't let them surround you! Keep running and attack from afar!" Manna commanded. While her thinking was correct, her intuition told her this was still a ruse. 'There has to be another trick, what else does he have?'
Manna looked around, at the sky, then the corpses and behind them where Kilon and Orvus were fighting. She then approached Eraanel "Have you seen anything?"
"No," Eraanel said frustrated, "not up in the sky, not in the distance. Where else could he-" Eraanel realised it just then, and with a terrible look on his face, he glanced at their feet. "They're-!"
It was too late, as the ground shook violently and a couple hundred Lightborn fell to their feet, rootworms breaking through the ground to snatch and kill all of them.
Manna, at that moment, had to make a decision. 'Stick to the plan, or help my siblings..."
A couple suns prior
The Lightborns were talking and doing various little things. From ornating their weapons with a myriad of trinkets, making small pieces of art or weaving various clothes from animal furs, they were spending their last day of peace however they wished.
Manna looked over all of them from atop the hill Kilon and Avunaia once spent time upon. Glancing from under the old tree at the happiness of her siblings.
Kilon made his way up to her, looking left and right as if to ensure no one else could or would follow him. He raised his hand to greet his sister, leaning his head down to not hit the branches of the tree as his cape fluttered behind him. "I understand this place has become one of your favorites.'
"Hard to have any when all I did since coming here was train my siblings," Manna said bluntly.
Kilon scratched his head and then sat down slowly. "Seems like we're both the same then," Kilon responded in kind, a tired smile on his face.
"In some ways," Manna said, "in others we still can't meet face to face."
"You mean my visions?"
"Somewhat, yeah, but also the way you think and act. It's always hard to argue against you, and when I think I can, you still have something I don't understand, or can't understand, so you're still right in the end."
Kilon felt a bit guilty for making Manna feel that way, while also feeling a bit amused. "Back at the Link," Kilon took a deep breath, relaxing his body and then conjuring a sphere of light, which he shaped into his body and that of Manna, "I remember you being the first to stand up and question what I had in mind, what I was setting forth to do."
The figures of light struck at each other, smiles on their faces. "For all of you to follow me without a doubt, I can't think of something more detrimental. It truly squanders our possibilities, endless as they are, to mere options that no one could tell which of them is the better." The figures stopped fighting, a frown on both their faces as Kilon stood back up.
"You're telling me to think for myself, once again," Manna stated, not needing him to say it. "Hard to do seeing all the failures I suffered so far." Manna closed her eyes, looking inside her memories, walking between the dead corpses of her brethren and remembering how she had to accept their lights, use them to save the rest of them. To then fight Orvus, seeing Felemous burn his body and soul in order to ensure victory.
"I will do what I feel is right. No longer will my judgement be clouded by pointless thoughts nor doubts," Manna tapped her fist on Kilon's back, "I will live for my siblings, die for my mistakes. And I will regret none of it."
"Good," said Kilon as he grabbed Manna's fist, leaving a bit of his light with her.
Present Day
'Visions be damned, this is what I feel I must do,' Manna gathered the lights inside of her, let them swirl and erupt violently to the surface, to then let them envelop her whole body. 'Melonius and Kilon said this looks proper on me,' with a swing of her twin headed spear, Manna obliterated one of the rootworms as she phased through it. "It still feels awkward when I swing my spear." During that fateful day, another Lightborn was approaching mastery over their light, the pinnacle of power, one further fueled by a myriad of other lights, a kind of power that was stepping outside what their initial conception should've been.
And with it, something greater was ready to run amok.
As the rootworms came to the surface and started to wreak havoc amongst the ranks of the Lightborn, the corpses were passing between them, looking to find a target on which to latch onto. But, at times, one or a few of them were dropping to their knees, their heads falling shortly after.
Menoel was walking at a steady pace between all of them, unseen and unnoticed, bending light around him like a shell of sorts, making him nigh invisible.
'This is certainly not going according to the plan,' Menoel thought as he slashed another one of his dead siblings' necks. 'I must find Salvete and Gilaate, only Avaanel can help us in this predicament,' Menoel barely dodged one of the corpses, cutting the head off its shoulders as it passed by, seeming to reach for him. 'Some are more perceptive than others, I wonder if that's one of the effects of the crystals.'
Menoel then spotted Eraanel amongst the chaos, the only one who could track him. Not wasting a moment, he passed a message through a ray of light he shot at him. Eraanel began immediately searching for the two, who he saw were preoccupied with either saving or reorganizing the broken ranks.
'That should take care of it, hopefully quick enough,' Menoel looked at Manna, each rootworm she killed meant a hundred or more of their siblings were going to live, 'but if she keeps going like that, it's only a matter of time before her body will start to break, making her unable to move at the very least. Maybe I should-' before Menoel didn't have the time to finish his thoughts, he felt the piercing pain of his abdomen being split open.
From one of the fallen rootworms, more corpses started making their way out. "Orvus!" Menoel couldn't contain himself, his disguise no longer useful, those corpses having their eyes replaced by light infused crystals, able to see in darkness or otherwise.
'Of course, the most troublesome often prove to be those with lesser power,' Orvus thought to himself as he glanced at the developing battle, being at a standstill with Kilon. 'I have learned my lesson from the Gargantuan Forest. I am not to underestimate those with the more unique abilities, especially not those akin to Menoel.'
Orvus pushed himself a distance away from Kilon, strands of light becoming visible to Kilon's eyes. With a gesture of two of his hands, Orvus summoned forth the lights of the dead Lightborn from far further than he should've been able to.
Kilon couldn't tell for sure what his next move would be, but the way he manipulated light was telling. 'Knowing Orvus, he assumes I will read the flow of his light and will either try to go around my thinking, or straight for it. Whichever it is,' Kilon pushed his hand forward, light starting to distort around the palm of his hand as gravity was being bent to his will. Faster than lightning itself, Orvus found himself face to face with Kilon, 'I won't back down,' Kilon's spear sliced through Orvus' abdomen, splitting bone and flesh apart as it erupted with a thunderous roar on the other side , the energy of his lights were heightened in power, destroying air itself.
Orvus, on the other hand, clenched his teeth in a smile, to then make his flesh spear disappear. With two of his arms he restrained Kilon's, with another two he kept him in a hold close to his body, then, with the last two he manipulated the light he brought back from the corpses. And, to Kilon's own wonder and fears, Orvus called back one of the four crystals, lightning manifesting from it.
Manna, having dealt with her third rootworm, looked towards where Kilon and Orvus were fighting. She had just witnessed as Kilon brought Orvus closer to him, seeing Orvus gathering the large amounts of light to then transmute them into lightning through the crystal. Fearing what was to come, and seeing that Salvete and Gilaate were heading towards their home, she leaped forward, her footsteps only scorch marks on the ground as she dashed between the corpses.
"Violence!" Orvus cried "It is what we've been dealing with since the dawn of our making Kilon!". Lightning struck Kilon, making him lose control of his body. "It is I, who has attained control over it, that shall prevail! Do not resist!!". Kilon's mind was phasing between the current moment and those inside his visions, his eyes losing focus constantly, unable to conjure light to protect himself from the onslaught.
'A moment is all I need,' Kilon thought, 'and his soul is mine.' Orvus, despite his current advantage, shivered in fear for a moment sensing Kilon's empowered determination.
While it wasn't enough to give Kilon the chance he sought, it gave Manna a blind spot to attack from, as her twin headed spear crossed land and sky in a tenth of a second, plunging just above Kilon's spear and through Orvus. With a silent scream, Orvus lost focus and was no longer striking Kilon, which Kilon took advantage of, as in the next tenth of a second he grabbed Orvus by his face with his right hand, and by letting go of his spear, stuck in Orvus' chest, he plunged his left hand where Manna made a wound into.
And there it was, shining so bright despite all the darkness surrounding his mind, his soul that is.
On the battlefield, Gilaate was carrying Salvete on her back and Avaanel in her arms. Salvete used her light to hide their presence better, while Gilaate rushed around at great speeds.
'I didn't have much time to perfect them, but here goes nothing,' Avaanel thought as she pulled a small machination from a leather bag, the machine holding another, smaller bag. Quickly, thanks to Gilaate, she spread those little machines on the field. A lot of them got crushed or torn to pieces before they had the time to reach their targets, but even so, they proved useful.
"Fall back!" Eraanel, Menoel and Eharel cried. Soon, the fields became engulfed by a sparkling dust. While at first it didn't seem to do much, soon the rootworms seemed to slow down. And for the rootworms where the machines managed to get into, they dropped dead soon after. The corpses, while not affected, suffered from the rootworms either collapsing on top of them, or unable to escape their guts as they swelled and became sticky.
"Form ranks! Do not approach the mist and shoot down anything that comes out of it!" Menoel commanded as he rode Sirva, her master nowhere to be seen. Eraanel and Eharel arranged the infantry back in order, prepared for anything else that was to come. But nothing did.
"They're not moving," Eraanel pointed out, looking through the dense mist with his eye. "I saw earlier Orvus gathering the lights to use them, but that didn't seem to slow them down."
"Could be those crystals," Eharel pointed out, "they may have been reserves of light to serve more than just weapons."
"No," Eraanel denied as he kept an eye on a corpse, "the light contained in them hasn't changed in intensity."
"Which means Kilon has done it," Menoel stated proudly as he approached the two, all of them looking up at the sky. 'Those creations really saved us,' Menoel thought, embarrassed at his words towards Manna, 'I shall apologize to Avaanel once this is all over.'
'Such brilliance,' Kilon admired Orvus' soul. Caught in a space outside their reality, it was the realm of the souls. A place inaccessible to most, but one which Kilon became familiarised with. He knew time passed by slower, something he confirmed with Melonius. And one crucial detail 'No one can interfere with what's about to happen.'
'As great of a displeasure as this causes me, it would be for the worse if Orvus managed to escape my hand and continue his march of death.' With his thoughts set, Kilon's soul approached that of Orvus. It was then that he noticed something was missing. 'A piece of his soul!? I wonder, was it before, or after Felemous fought him that he lost it?' The question made him ponder for a while, but it mattered not, as he materialized a hand that stretched out to crush his soul for sure to pieces.
"ነፕዐየ" Kilon froze, the word spoken something he couldn't understand but instilling great terror into him. It wasn't something that came from Orvus, 'No,' Kilon thought, 'that's what called out to me.' He looked at a black spot hidden inside Orvus' soul which quickly grew. "Who are you?! What are you?!" Kilon demanded.
A great tremor shook the foundations of the space he was in, as if whatever talked back to him was trying to push him out in Orvus' stead.
"Little speck of light, from the bowels of the Great Luminescence, how far you have come," the black spot talked, growing larger and wrapping itself around Orvus' soul. "But you are misplaced, so you must be gone, for our time is approaching. And doom cannot be opposed by the actions of Creations."
Kilon couldn't possibly know what it was talking about, but every part of his soul reacted to it. It was a natural reaction, one his soul was created with: hatred. Whatever it was, he wanted to destroy it at any cost, no matter the cost.
However, the black spot turned to darkness, enveloping the light of his soul, threatening to consume it. Kilon could feel it, not his body or life, but his very soul being extinguished by whatever this darkness was. He tried to reach in vain for Orvus' soul once more in order to destroy it, put an end to the darkness before it had time to spread, but it was too late, the hand he manifested was eaten by the darkness. Just how Felemous destroyed a part of Orvus when they fought, the darkness consumed a part of Kilon's soul, Kilon having no choice but to leave as fast as he could from the space.
Pulling himself away from Orvus, Kilon felt greatly weakened, while Orvus felt as if he just awakened from a dream. Only seconds having gone by in the real world. Kilon started to lose his control over gravity, wind and light, his very being fluctuating. A dying flame from a candle that burnt out.
Manna couldn't possibly understand what was happening, but she knew she had to save Kilon no matter what, and so she tried. Orvus, though, as confused as Manna was, set his eyes on Kilon, knowing that was perhaps his only chance to finish him for good.
Both rushed, one to kill, one to save. Orvus was faster, an arrow of bloodied light descending with sorrow and wrath down on his brethren. Kilon revisited his visions, passing between them as if passing between the trees of a forest. All the same at first, but upon a careful look, some slight differences were present. One, he noticed, diverged from what it originally was. 'It's from the current reality,' he thought, 'which means...'
"Stelorus!!" Kilon cried, both Manna and Orvus confused for different reasons, since Kilon passed on the lights he had to Stelorus.
With a maniacal laughter, the third Lightborn to awaken their mastery over their light broke through the ground below and tossed a boulder straight towards Orvus. Orvus clicked his tongue, knowing he couldn't possibly reach Kilon without suffering great injuries, so he had to break his descent and move around the boulder. He didn't give up however, burning his feet in order to propel himself with light from the soles.
Then, from behind Stelorus, Melonius rode one of the draxes that lay hidden under the ground. With haste, he managed to approach Kilon before even Manna could, and as Orvus came crashing down on both Kilon and Melonius, Melonius ruptured with light from his whole body, making a dome to protect them both.
"This is it Orvus!" Stelorus proclaimed, "How you meet your end that is!" Stelorus stood next to Melonius who had broken Kilon's fall with a powerful gust of wind. The two brothers, the hot light next to the cold one, two opposing yet perfectly synched energies.
Orvus crashed into the ground with a powerful impact, standing tall on both his legs. "I see you two hurry to your deaths," Orvus said as the wounds in his chest were almost healed. "The hammer," Orvus pointed at Stelorus, "and the shield," then at Melonius, "the very masters of it. How wonderful is it that you reached your mastery over it? Just so you can pass it onto me, and for me to etch it into eternity."
As Orvus spoke, Manna didn't hesitate in tossing any spear or weapon she found on the ground towards Orvus. But Orvus simply brushed them aside now aware of her. So Manna hurried over to Stelorus' and Melonius' side.
"What is Kilon doing?!" Manna asked, maddened by the situation, just to realize Kilon wasn't even awake at the moment.
"I suppose this means we're switching the order of our plans," Stelorus said, pulling his warhammer from the ground and tapping it after. With a small tremor, Orvus realized what they had in store, but was too late to try to run away from it, as the draxes emerged from the ground. Some closer, some further from Orvus, but just enough to where they could latch onto his arms, legs and throat.
"What do we do now? The beasts will only hold him for a short while at best," Stelorus said as the draxes proved more troublesome than Orvus was willing to give them credit for.
"I could fight Orvus with the two of you," Manna thought aloud.
"No," Melonius denied, "unless you know how to crush a soul, then the fight will be fruitless. We need Kilon."
"Then that only leaves us an option..." Manna didn't want to say it, but they all thought it.
"I would've loved to fight alongside you, sister" Stelorus said as he placed his hand on her shoulder, his figure smaller next to her crouched one, yet it felt taller. "But this is what we must do, so that everyone may live to see tomorrow."
"And who knows, maybe there's a place where we'll see each other again," Melonius added, putting his hand on her other shoulder, thinking of Efeehem.
Manna gritted her teeth in despair for her brothers, but came to the conclusion rather fast in order to not give Orvus a moment of opportunity. "Live for today, and die another day," Manna commanded, "make sure of it."
Stelorus and Melonius tightened their grip on their weapon and shield. Both wanted to see so much more, experience the world in so many other ways. But they had to steel their resolve, accept the fate brought upon them by both their brother and the cruel world they lived in.
"We shall," they answered in unison as Manna rushed away with Kilon's body, Orvus just about done with the draxes residing in the ground.
"Well," Stelorus started, his shaky hands becoming still and resolute, "it seems we must kill you Orvus." Stelorus wore a deep, maddening yet content smile on his face, from the depths of his soul, power awakening with the lights Kilon gave him. And, knowing Melonius wouldn't be able to keep up with him, he placed his fist on Melonius' back, sharing half of the lights with him.
"Indeed," Melonius said with the newfound surge of power, "we shall finish what Manna and Felemous couldn't, here and now." His words of confidence were masking what they thought to be inevitable: his fear of death. 'Maybe it's the overwhelming wave of energy I feel all of a sudden,' Melonius thought, 'or Stelorus standing here besides me.'
The ground shook violently, leading to tremors and then steady beats. From both Stelorus and Melonius light erupted from their bodies and twisted towards the sky in a perfect symbiosis. "We can win this, Stelorus."
"Damn right we can," Stelorus and Melonius both clashed their fists in a sign of respect, but to also match the way they manipulated their lights, learning from one another in an instant how to control what Kilon left them with, as his knowledge was imbued in those lights as well.
Swirling and turning inside their bodies, Orvus, as he was chasing away the last few draxes, couldn't help but admire the wonder that was being performed before his eyes. He only snapped out of it as he realized the birth of the two monsters in front of him.
First it was Stelorus who came after Orvus, while Melonius seemed to stand still where he was. Orvus tried to snatch away his lights, but his movements were too erratic, too animalistic. Stelorus was chasing down Orvus on all fours, his warhammer in his mouth and protected by a shell of light of sorts from Melonius. And even when Orvus leapt up into the air in order to avoid Stelorus' onslaught, Stelorus had enough strength in his legs to cross the distance in an instance, thus able to crash his abominable warhammer onto Orvus' head.
As Orvus had trouble gaining control of his body, crashing towards the ground, Melonius was ready with his own move. Radiating, Melonius' chest was the only part of his body that was shining, his lights getting compressed and layered under a pressuring point. With cutting sound through the air, a piercing ray of light exploded from his chest, aimed directly at Orvus' head.
Seeing the imminent danger, Orvus moved his consciousness all around his body, tossing a flesh spear just above the ray of light with deadly precision. While Melonius' ray found its target and destroyed Orvus' head, Orvus' spear was deflected by another shell of light of sorts surrounding Melonius.
And as Stelorus came falling down, he brought upon Orvus another strike. However, at the last moment, he had to dodge in midair as Orvus held his hand extended, ready to snatch his lights. Even though Stelorus managed to move mostly out of the way with his wind manipulation, Orvus still managed to steal a couple of his lights.
Falling back to Melonius, the two of them watched frustrated as Orvus' headless body rose back up, his head slowly healing.
"I suppose even if we destroy his whole body, it still won't mean anything if Kilon is not here to finish him off," Stelorus stated, Melonius nodding along.
"That you are mistaken brother," Orvus said from a mouth he formed on his neck, "you can't even destroy my body, for I have learned from my mistaked." The two of them wondered what he could mean, and it was clarified when Orvus opened his chest to reveal an array of crystals inside his body.
Interconnected by strands of lights and fluctuating with dozens of lights, those crystals were hardened beyond belief, ensuring his flesh and soul could always stay in one place even if all his body was to be destroyed.
Orvus opening his chest wasn't just for show though, the two of them could tell, as the lights inside them scorched all the ground before them and towards them. Melonius tried to stop those with his light, placing layers of protection between them and the lights, but Orvus' lights phased right through them so Melonius had to place himself and his shield in front of them. Stelorus stood behind Melonius, looking for an opportunity, which he spotted when he noticed a small fluctuation in the stream of lights.
'He can release them constantly, but even with his impeccable control, it still requires a lot of energy,' Stelorus could tell, 'then,' seeking his opportunity, Stelorus crashed his warhammer into the ground, kicking dirt and dust up into the air.
'He's no smarter than when I left the Link,' Orvus thought as he followed their shapes with his eyes through the dust, almost as clear as day to him. And when he saw Stelorus' shape move away from Melonius' shield with his warhammer, he wasted not a moment in trying to snatch his lights.
What he was met with though, was a mere couple of lights. Realizing what he had just done, Orvus tried to immediately find Stelorus in the cloud of dust, only to realize a moment later where he would come from, thus manipulating the ground and releasing light into it.
"You were close," Orvus heard Stelorus' voice coming from above, releasing a burst of lights towards the sky, however not as strong as before. Stelorus managed to take the brunt of it and once again crash into Orvus, this time with his bare hands. The sound of crushed bones and flesh resounded throughout the area, reaching even Manna who was now a good distance away from them.
As the dust started being blown away by Stelorus' impact, a horrific picture was being painted. Stelorus' fists were caved into Orvus' healing head, while Orvus had managed to drive a spear of flesh and bone through Stelorus' body.
"You shouldn't announce your surprise attack brother," Orvus smiled at Stelorus, who had trouble controlling his lights as Orvus was fighting for control over them. "Don't oppose it, it's inevitable either way."
Stelorus smiled at Orvus, defying him in a manner Orvus found unpleasant. "It was to distract you, fool," Orvus quickly changed his gaze towards Melonius who was no longer in his place, trying to desperately find him. "Don't look away," Stelorus ordered, his teeth sinking into Orvus' shoulder and ripping flesh with viciousness and releasing quick bursts of light from his mouth.
'It's all a distraction,' Orvus thought, 'I must end him first-' before he had time to end his thoughts, from below the ground, Melonius drove his shield into Orvus' abdomen.
"We also learned a few things from Felemous, Orvus," maddened by his words, Orvus became desperate and released lights from his entire body while trying to steal their lights. However, it all backfired when he felt pieces of his body starting to fall apart and to the ground. "Efeehem also taught us a few things before his untimely demise," Melonius said defiantly as well, his lights combined with those of Stelorus provoking an uncontrollable reaction inside Orvus' body once they met.
In the distance, the army of corpses were moving once more, heading for the settlement they spent so much time building. It was what Manna saw on the line of the horizon as she found a place of rest inside a forest nearby. It was the same forest Kilon tamed Arhegon, and as such, Arhegon followed his master's fainter and fainter presence, reaching Manna some moments after.
'There is something missing,' Manna noticed, 'he feels the same way Orvus did when I saw him.' She couldn't know that it was his soul that had been injured, but by following the flow of his remaining light, she could tell it was getting weaker. 'He's dying!' she came to the cruel realisation. 'No, no, no...what do I do?!'
She looked at Arhegon, wondering if she could perhaps save Kilon the same way he did with Avunaia. However, just by feeling the beast's presence, she could tell that its spirit was powerful enough to where it might still return and even reject Kilon's own weakened one. She damned the beast, but also his brother for choosing such a powerful yet loyal companion.
"I'm not ready Kilon," Manna started to confess, "being a leader, doing what's right, helping my siblings. I'm not good at those things. The only thing I know to do is...fight." Manna said defeated, the sounds of battle from where Stelorus and Melonius were seeming to cease.
"Have they lost already?" Manna wondered. "What is there to do?!" she cried "Tell me Kilon! I beg of you!". No answer came from her dying brother. "Why did you give them your lights?! You could've protected yourself, no?! Why are you this selfless?!!".
Manna had to calm herself down, as her lights started to act out and would soon reveal her presence. "All I know is fight, all I do is argue and then fight some more, I can't help you. Maybe Menoel could," Manna thought and looked at Arhegon. "How was he able to control it?" Manna tried to reach the beast with her hand, but Arhegon was only there to watch his master's death. Manna could tell that much, and she wondered for a moment if it was due to its loyalty, or because it could once more claim its rightful spot in the forest.
'Why didn't he teach me, or anyone else how to see and touch souls?' Manna wondered, 'Was there something he was afraid of? Something he didn't want us to know?' Scrambling her mind, Manna thought about what Kilon did, what he performed in order to try and reach someone's soul. She remembered that Kilon told her about the lesser beings, how he could simply reach inside them and crush their souls if he so wished. But with them, 'We have our lights protecting our souls. It takes tremendous power and effort in order to reach them,' she thought, then reminding herself of what Kilon did to Orvus.
'Unless,' Manna took off her armor and released her lights, 'there is some other way.'
The Lightborns were trying to stop the corpses from reaching inside their settlement, but they were veiled by the wind, carrying the harmful dust around them as a shield of sorts. Menoel and the others had no choice but to find ways around it inside, others trying to sway the winds with their own.
Meanwhile, standing still as stones, Melonius had half his body above the ground with his shield driven inside Orvus, while Stelorus stopped biting at Orvus, his teeth sunk deep into his throat. Orvus, calm and collected, manipulated Melonius' lights inside his body until they were outside Melonius' control, to then do the same with Stelorus.
"For a moment, a fleeting one at that, you made me believe there might be more to the two of you than meets the eye," Orvus said as he used his right arms to remove Melonius' shield and gently place it on the ground. "But there was no such threat inside you two, or, perhaps," Orvus, with Stelorus still stuck to his throat, gently put his brother's body down on the ground, "I've just become something no longer capable of being harmed by beings such as you."
"Don't become infatuated with your own strength, Orvus," Melonius said, barely breathing, "there will be death coming for you, and whether it's today or in a thousand suns from tomorrow on..." Melonius crawled up onto his brother's body, sinking his fingers in his chest and staring at him with a terrible expression of hatred in his eyes, "you will die." With his last breath, Melonius managed to follow Manna's light and move the few lights that remained inside him and Stelorus towards her. He then fell to the ground, limp and cold, devoid of his lights.
Orvus didn't react to his action, as he felt a shiver running through his whole body at his brother's ominous threat. To him, it didn't feel like a threat, but a premonition of sorts, to the point it made him doubt what he was doing then and there. The pure hatred and unwavered belief of his brother that he will die someday reached both his mind and soul.
'Perhaps he found a way to touch my soul, just how Kilon did,' Orvus tried to explain to himself what he felt. As he touched his chest, where his heart should've been, Orvus was wondering if that hatred will be what will linger therefore on. Although, 'How odd, I remember their feelings tormenting me everyday before Felemous killed me. Now though, thinking about it, they never spoke to me again, they never made me feel anything since I came back alive. Do they not recognize me anymore?'
Looking at the battlefield and the corpses that laid before his feet, Orvus found in the whole picture resolve. "It's too late for regrets or doubts," Orvus was prepared for the last step, "they all die so they can live forever." Manifesting a shield from bone intertwined with flesh and a warhammer of similar fashion, Orvus was being thankful to what his dead siblings provided to him.
When the lights reached Manna, they didn't concern her, or rather, they couldn't. Her mind was speeding with hundreds of thoughts each moment, thinking of what she was about to do, how insane it all was and how it could end with both her and Kilon dying.
'But what choice do I have?' Was the thought that finally put a rest to her turmoil. And so, as Arhegon stood frozen still, Manna drove her twin-headed spear inside Kilon's chest, her lights imbued from her hands into the spear and then flowing into Kilon.
The flow of lights was so potent, bright and powerful, that every living and dead being on the battlefield could feel its presence. Without a moment's rest, Orvus ran straight towards her presence. But, as if soldiers commanded by their dying ruler, draxes erupted from all around the ground, even those lying in wait further away. Orvus couldn't think of a way to kill them fast, they were trained to avoid rays of lights and were developing tactics in the spark of a moment, proving to be the vicious hunters that terrorized the Lightborns.
Even so, he killed them fast enough to where soon he was a mere dozen metres or so away from Manna and Kilon. And as he prepared to toss a flesh made spear, he paused.
"Avunaia?" Orvus wondered, looking at the larger draxe standing between him and his prey. Growling with her ears back, Avunaia was defying the impossible threat before her. Manna, even through the intense procedure she was performing, couldn't help but feel guilty for the way she treated those creatures, the way she was ready to kill her own sister.
Orvus felt conflicted. Whether or not to kill the wild beast before him that bore his sister's likeness. 'Her presence is there, but there is no light,' Orvus thought, 'so if I kill her, can I save her?' His doubts gave enough time for Gilaate to bring over both Menoel and Eraanel to Manna's side, to then hastily retreat as she exhausted herself.
Menoel surged light in his mind, and placed most of the pieces together; he didn't even need a command from Manna. "We have to keep Orvus where he stands," Menoel said, Eraanel nodding along. 'Why did he hesitate though?' Menoel thought as he looked at Avunaia.
"As I thought," Eraanel said, "a part of Orvus' soul is missing," the statement made Orvus smile awkwardly for a moment.
"Eraanel," Orvus reached to steal their lights, "I thought you to be wiser after what happened in the forest." Their lights started to wane and disappear as Orvus empowered himself with them. "Lies do not work on me."
"It is no lie Orvus!" Eraanel cried, his life starting to fade. "There is something missing, something you need, something that kept you aware of your wrongdoings." His words, while at first didn't seem to reach him, made Orvus struggle a little to take over their lights.
'We need time,' Eraanel thought, 'and while our lives can be taken with ease, even a moment more will help Manna.'
"I notice it too," Menoel spoke, his breath getting heavier by the moment, "your light, it shines less so than before."
"My light?" Orvus wondered. "What would you know about my light?!" Orvus stopped from stealing their lights, leaving them with but an inch of their life. Avunaia tried to leap and bite Orvus' neck, but she was only met by a ray of light, blasting her to the side for Orvus to then stand between Menoel and Eraanel ready to strike Manna down.
"Whatever you seem to think," Orvus prepared his flesh spear, ready to strike true to his aim "I will find out after I will have stopped this abomination from forming."
Eraanel grabbed Menoel's hand, and by letting his light surge through Menoel's, they were effectively borrowing each other's life. Menoel then placed his hand on Orvus' foot, guided by his brother's eye, Eraanel said "There!"
And Menoel struck. By letting what was left of his light surge through Orvus' body, he found the spot with Eraanel's help where Kilon struck before.
The pain Orvus felt at that moment, wasn't that of the flesh, but of the soul. Menoel's light had found way deeper inside Orvus, in a place Orvus tried to never expose again. Yet still, his siblings found a way into his heart.
"Menoel!!" Orvus cried in anguish, and before he had time to focus once more on his target, there it was, the fragment of a Spark.
"There was a time when I thought my battles were over, when I thought I could see creation and life alike together in harmony. It was during that time that I found this world, and decided to love it for I could. It was my brother's creation, afterall, and I couldn't help but marvel at it.
It was odd though, the act of his creation. It lacked something, that something being life. You see, he was incapable of producing such things. It wasn't that he didn't have the power nor the imagination, he had plenty of those. What do you suppose it was that he was missing son?"
"Nothing. It was the way he was created, just how me and my siblings were."
"I didn't call you wise for nothing little one. Yes, it was the way he was created, not below or above the expectations of our parents."
"You have parents Creator?"
"I do. Yes."
"Do your parents have parents too?"
"That I do not know, they haven't told me, nor did I want to know. I cannot meet my own parents, let alone their parents."
"Why do you suppose that is so?"
"Maybe those are the limitations of my creation."
"So even someone as powerful as you are has their limits."
"Indeed. Although, my limits stretch rather far. So far as a matter of fact, that the act of creation is as easy as a thought or a whisper. I do not have to ponder upon it nor give my all to it."
"Was it that way with me and my siblings? You didn't even think of it, you just brought us into existence."
"No, you see, with you I wanted to give a special kind of care. Each fiber, piece, limb, hair and thought carefully placed. As if I crafted a perfectly fine assembled machine."
"Machine? What is that?"
"Ah, I suppose it is yet not the time for you to have found out about it. Although, your brother did make something akin to one."
"That's how we shall call them, machines."
"Yes, and you're all my precious little machines. And as I said, I wanted to give you a special kind of care. Not just you either, Kilon, but Orvus, Manna, Menoel, Avunaia, Felemous, Melonius and so on, so forth."
"Yet, I stand at the top of all of them. Powerful, wise, almost all knowing, the visions too."
"I didn't say I was fair when I did so, just that there is something special in all of you, and each of you has their own purpose to fulfill. Although..."
"Orvus has strayed away from it."
"He did. And for that reason, you must stop him, at any cost."
"The darkness inside him, what was it? My whole being felt repulsed by it."
"It is only natural, for you are made of light, and they are made of darkness."
"They, are they our siblings?"
"Not correct, but not wrong also. They're called Terrors, and they're my siblings."
"How could you be made of light, yet they are made of darkness?"
"They were too made of light, but some of them were corrupted. My other siblings, the fair ones, told me it was due to a great, terrible scream. We cannot know which ones turned first to the darkness, but it all became worse and worse.
We were billions at some point, to then be trimmed to mere a few hundred million, and now to millions. They were able to corrupt even my fair siblings, turning them against us, thus the war was a losing one. We are a fading existence Kilon, and I do not want the same fate to befall my creation."
"How did you manage to win then? There is a reason why you thought your battles were over."
The conversation that went on for days, yet mere moments in Kilon's soul, was being brought to an end. Him and the Creator spent that time wandering green hills and tall mountains of Erta. It was when Kilon asked the last question, that the world turned into blazing flames and brilliant lights upon the sky. So bright were the lights, Kilon couldn't even glance at them.
"I was created, that's how we won," from the Creator's shape, which was a mere host, lights erupted in a mane and great cape of lights and flames, while his body started to ascend into the stars, the stars taking the shape of his figure and further enhancing his appearance to one spanning the entire night sky and beyond.
"This is a war, Kilon. One we cannot lose, and one I cannot place my hands into on Erta."
"Why is that?"
"The scale and scope of my being cannot be encompassed in lesser plans and such matters. The way I made you and your siblings was with extreme care. For the creation of souls, if not done with a fine hand, risks to be broken by my immense power."
"And I have even finer hands, for these lesser problems."
"Indeed. Thus, you are the only one able to deal with this threat. For if I were to try and destroy that which is evil, I may destroy what is good too, as not even my siblings can resist my great brilliance."
"Then, if I may Creator, Father, I ask for one thing only."27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUZkAHfII62
27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6BZYXce6PJ
"Of course, son."
"Place your hand on me, and no matter how little, I will take your power, and enact my will upon the world as I deem fit."
For a moment, the Creator blinked. His creation, the one with a given purpose, was breaking out of his expectations.
"Perhaps, Kilon, you and Orvus are not that different. You certainly remind me of my sister."
"What's your sister's name Creator?"
"Focres, the undying, everburning flame. She who was born alongside me to destroy all that is evil."
"Then so shall I be, the one who will destroy all that is evil," the Creator placed his hand upon the world in side Kilon's soul, rebuilding what was broken by the Terror and furthering his creation, "and the one who shall prepare the world we've been given for the war ahead."
"Beware Kilon, power means loneliness, and with loneliness comes despair and darkness. Never succumb to either, for even if all the stars in the sky were to die, I will still be here, watching over you. That is my promise to you, my dear Lightborn."
With a movement of the Creator's hand, Kilon rose to the sky and into the stars, the stars starting to surround him. "Now rise! Rise Kilon! And shed your light on Erta! Accept my gift, and that of your sister, who too was born alongside you to fulfill your purposes."
To light, there is depth, and so is in darkness. Two contrasting, constantly opposing forces which try their best to not give way to the other. For darkness is made to consume and drown all that can be seen, whereas light was made to guide and protect what is good.
There was a moment of pause in time itself as the old Kilon died and reborn he was. Manna, who attempted his resurrection, was being enveloped by his being. It wasn't a hostile embrace nor did she want to oppose it, she was giving her being and her soul to Kilon, for she knew there was no better solution.
"I suppose this is the end of my journey Kilon," Manna told him as she stood tall inside his soul. "If only I could have seen a bit more of the world, and had more time to learn to love it. Maybe I could've stood by your side as you claimed it for us."
Manna's presence inside Kilon's soul was fading, a sign she was embracing her merging with Kilon, sould and body alike.
"Do not decide such things just yet, Manna," Kilon placed his hand on her shoulder, a symbol in the shape of a spark present on it, shining brighter than anything. "The rays of hope are still cast by our lights," Manna felt her soul being wrapped around light and fire, a sensation she couldn't describe yet found pleasant, "and so I shall give you a second chance. At both life and how you experience it."
"I can read your thoughts," Manna stated as she glared at Kilon's soul with her own, "such vast plans, such greatness for our siblings that you're planning...such loneliness you expect."
"Worry not, for I will have you beside me so that the loneliness may not take over me," Kilon's soul caught shape, one which scared Manna, "but first I must kill he who has rebelled against the Creator, and us, his family."
"Then," Manna felt her soul being placed next to Kilon's, as a protection of sorts, "if I may ask one thing of you."
"Anything," Kilon approached Manna's soul with his own.
"The settlement, I thought of a name," Manna's words surprised Kilon. "It looked so wonderful the first time I saw it in the night, and to me, it seemed more beautiful than the stars in the sky."
Manna manifested a shape and hugged Kilon as her soul was being put to rest, "Litkin, the place where stars gather. Name it that way..."
"So I shall, sister."
Inspired by both the Creator and Orvus, Kilon's physical shape became a rather demonic one. A mane of lights erupted from his head, each once being Manna's to control, now his, that shone so bright and hot, they burnt the air around them, turning into flames at the ends. His body, Kilon, enveloped in fiber made of crystallized light. Muscles, tendons and the like so tightly squeezed together, they were making crunching sounds with the slightest movement. Kilon also attached more limbs to his body, making use of Manna's as best as he could think of.
"Orvus," a deep, seemingly pained voice spoke, "not even my visions told me of your fate. And I believe that to be due to what I'm about to do."
The moment that was frozen in time resumed, Orvus having heard everything Kilon said and witnessed his transformation, even while the others couldn't. So he was the first to see the eyes that were blazing lights ascending into the night sky, Kilon's mouth morphed and wrapped around his cheeks as if in a terrible smile.
The following moment Kilon looked at his hand, the spark symbol present on his right hand, and said "I see it now, more clear than before. Such a simple assembly of matter when you think about it." Orvus couldn't see anything, a terribly bright light enveloped his whole being and he couldn't tell what was happening, only for his body to finally react to it.
It wasn't until Orvus could see the entirety of Kilon's attack as his body took him a distance away, that he realized more than half of his body was missing. 'What was that?' Orvus wasn't scared, just confused.
"Altering matter, shaping life and destroying it. That is the power granted to me by the Creator," Orvus couldn't tell what Kilon was talking about, but fear finally struck him at last.
'I have to run,' was what Orvus thought before he froze in place. Not just him though, the world itself with Kilon in it froze too. 'What is happening to me?' Orvus asked himself, soon finding himself surrounded by darkness.
"This is no longer your fight, little light," a voice boomed inside Orvus' head. "The greatest Spark has taken notice of us, thus your powers have become meaningless."
"What are you? Why are you in control of me?!"
"You know me, Orvus," a terrible apparition manifested before Orvus. Swirling winds and dark emptiness gave way to the shape of something beyond words. Two dark voids filled the spots for eyes in this figure, while the arms, legs and body were misshapen and bent in odd ways. Not once did Orvus thought he would feel fear from something, someone, besides Kilon. Yet there it stood, something he feared for other reasons than the strength it possessed, but rather the terrible despair it represented.
"I'm the darkness that lied deep inside you, and your soul," the apparition pointed at Orvus' chest, Orvus' soul being brought out. "Such fragile little things, but with so much potential."
Orvus didn't know what to think, or if to think. 'It seems able to take hold and control of my body and soul. What does it want?' Orvus thought. It was but a test from his part to see if it had any reaction, which it didn't.
"Are you the reason I cannot hear my siblings' voices anymore?"
"That? No Orvus, that's because of what you lost," the being of darkness spun his soul in its hand, revealing a missing spot or wound in Orvus' soul, the lost piece from his fight with Felemous.
"But if you wish, I can help you hear them again, and this time without any resentment from their part nor painful screams. I can also empower you, let you overcome the threat that is Kilon."
"Why would you do that? And you still haven't answered me. What, or who are you?"
"I'm without name, shape or voice," the apparition stated, "what you hear are the winds that howl for me, and the darkness which whispers my thoughts." Orvus felt his body being pulled towards the darkness that was the apparition.
"I'm what you desire, and the power to make it all possible."
"I cannot trust you," Orvus felt some power coming back to him, and he was able to pull at his soul. "There you are trying to convince me you are what I want, yet here you are threatening my soul."
"Ahh, no Orvus," the shadow let go of his soul, "it was a mere display of power. How can you trust I'll offer you a proper chance to kill your brother, if not by showing you how easily you'll be able to do so?"
'Pathetic,' is what Orvus thought, 'reading thoughts while inside my soul, that should be rather easy.' Orvus was composing himself, a bit too much. 'It must think it has me in its palm,' Orvus wanted to smile if he could, 'although, it speaks true. It has power, power I could use.'
"I don't want to kill my brother," Orvus' soul shone brighter, making the shadow quiver a little, "I want to save him, and my other siblings too."
"But you have to kill him first," the shadow found its footing, approaching Orvus cautiously, "and you must do so with all the others too."
"Yes, that I must," Orvus' soul shone less, "and you're saying you can offer me the strength to oppose Kilon? Even in his state?"
"It's precisely because of his state, that I'm the thing you want Orvus," the shadow manifested a dark void before Orvus, "can you feel its pull? Its depth that seems to go on and on?"
"I can," Orvus felt tempted, seduced even by the darkness, "I want this." Orvus let his thoughts escape his mouth.
"Of course you do," the shadow made the void disappear, "so let me take care of it. Let me borrow your body for just a little while, and I can save your siblings in your stead."
Orvus manifested a smile with an angered frown on his face, the shadow quivering once more. "How can you save my siblings, when you're so weak?" Orvus reached for the shadow and caught it, wrapping it with his light.
"I-I thought you were...No!"
"Weaker?" Orvus bent and shaped the shadow how he deemed fit, to then don it as an armor of sorts. "I'm a coward, but weak I am not. And I care not what your goals were, you are mine to use now."
From within his soul, Orvus could feel a deep darkness that was trying to consume his light. 'So volatile,' he thought, to then reach out and form a dark void out of his own accord, 'but worth the trouble.'
Once the world unfroze from its state, Kilon was able to witness Orvus' own transformation. His flesh twisted and wrapped around his body time and time again, darkness erupting from within as something was trying to escape but couldn't, his bones becoming blackened and twisted in odd ways, while his mouths grew terribly sharp fangs and his limbs became weapons themselves with bones having become dark, sharp matter.
Both of those monstrous appearances told Avunaia, Eraanel and Menoel to run away as far as they could, and so they did. Avunaia helped Menoel on her back, her soul radiating a warmth which Menoel's own, now weaker, soul could guide itself after so it wouldn't detach from his own body.
"Who...is winning," Menoel managed to murmur.
"I can't say for sure," Eraanel looked at both their bodies and souls, "Kilon shines so bright, I can't see past his lights, while Orvus...I'm not sure what I'm looking at. There's a darkness, blacker than the night sky, and terrifying in nature." Menoel was no longer awake by the time Eraanel explained.
'This wasn't a battle we had a place in, that much we knew. But this? This goes beyond our understanding, I don't even know what I'm looking at,' Eraanel thought as he and Avunaia managed to regroup with Gilaate.
"What's happening with them?!" Salvete asked, making her way just in time as Orvus and Kilon were about to clash.
"I have no clue," Eraanel answered, "Manna brought Kilon back to life, but I haven't seen her since. I think she might be lying somewhere over there, but we can't approach those two right now."
Salvete gritted her teeth, hoping Manna didn't die before she could tell her what she thought, what she wanted. "We have no time to think about it," Menoel said, and Salvete nodded, still trying to grasp at the situation, "how are things on the inside?"
"Not good," Eharel came rushing on Sirva's back, "we were following the corpses inside the settlement, but then they all froze in place. We thought that was our chance, however the corpses started to...scream."
"They also started being enveloped by shadows," Salvete said, "it is why I came rushing towards here. We are barely managing to hold them off, and some seem to be able to use their lights like they did before."
"Gather all our remaining forces," Eraanel commanded, "we are to gather outside the settlement and destroy them there."
"Do you think we can win?" Salvete asked.
"We don't have to win, Kilon does. We must hold our front here so those corpses won't become something Orvus can use against him."
"And I believe to have just the thing to help us with that," Galanius came riding a regal deer, "I've been hard at work, and it's finally done."
"Why didn't you bring it here then?" Eharel asked, impatient.
"There was only me who could surge light through the metal strings," Galanius talked about the graymatter they placed throughout the settlement. "It needs at least a dozen of us, and since those corpses took over the settlement, I had a hard time finding anyone that could help."
"Very well, we don't have much left in us, but if we hurry, we might be able to turn this in our favor fast," Eraanel said, "Salvete, you take care of Avunaia and Menoel, get yourselves as far away as possible."
Avunaia nodded and immediately took off with both of them, hiding all their presences with her light. 'I saw what Kilon had become, what he had done to Manna,' Eraanel thought, 'he is more alike to Orvus than I thought.'
"This is it," Eharel said as he called for a regal deer, "the end is near. We might all die, never to see tomorrow again." The thought alone sent shivers both on Eharel's and Eraanel's backs, the image of their settlement enveloped by battle before them.
"Have courage brother," Eraanel patted Eharel on his back, "for our siblings are scared too, yet they fight as they know there's a more terrible fate."
"I know," Eharel said as the regal deer made its way to them, "but I still can't find the courage, I'm still scared of what lays ahead, now that I've seen all of this." Eharel frowned and let a few sparks go from his eyes, "Creator, how I wish I never left the Link."27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYXQDQ1H3T5
