Vae Victis - Chapter 24 (Patreon)

Future

We returned back to our camp in silence. Shadow had offered the crystal back to me, which surprised me, I figured that he would want to keep it. Once back, we sat around the fire in silence. Saia jumped into my lap and I patted her absentmindedly. Her skin, or hull, or whatever it was, actually felt really nice. It was smooth, and felt like it would be soft. Somehow the motions of petting her made me feel a bit better. I couldn’t help but worry about what Shadow was thinking, what he had just seen would be a lot, or I thought as much at least. I didn’t know if he would even believe in it.

As the silence stretched, I decided to speak first.

“That monster I encountered in the jungle, that made me feel that terror,” I started, he raised his head to meet my eyes. “I remembered, it felt like what I experienced in the vision. Less intense, a lot less intense actually, but still the same.”

He nodded. “Sikiri is a monster, blight infected. I had suspected when you said it. I just didn’t want to believe it. Monsters don’t leave the blight curtain, not since the Blight Wars. Some remnants are encountered from time to time across the world. But we were very thorough during the war.”

I didn’t say anything, I had nothing to say. He turned back to watching the fire. After a while he spoke again.

“We have no real seers you know,” he started. “We have people that had tried, and many of nations of the world keep trying. But to my knowledge no Seer Mask had ever been able to gain enough investment. We don’t know how. A few times, someone got lucky, gained a Carving or two, rarer still they gained a skill. Something to let them glimpse into the future. Every time though, when they use it, they go mad.”

I blinked. “Was it something that they see?”

Shadow shook his head. “I don’t know, no one does.” He raised his head to look at me again. “If I am right, the vision showed us the past, the time when the Ancient Ones—the Vim—ruled and expanded. And then when they encountered the blight. When that battle happened I thought,” he paused, then grimaced. “At first, I thought that vision was about the Blight Wars, again something in the past. That perhaps it was all an allegory, because what they fought did not look like monsters I am familiar with. Then once I realized what I was looking at, when I saw the horrors in that square...”

He grew silent, his eyes going back to the fire.

“You think that it was true, that it happened?” I asked, hoping for him to laugh at me. Somehow, his expression told me that it was a hollow hope.

“Monsters that we fought were always animals corrupted by blight,” he started. “Later, some of our people got corrupted too. They were harder to fight, but we did as we had to. What I saw in that vision, it was nothing like the war. Those monsters did not look like any animals, they looked like people unlike anything that I had ever seen. And the people that fought them, whose memories we have seen, those could only be the Ancient Ones, the Vim.”

I remembered what I saw in the recording, in the vision, the memory seen through the eyes of one of them. I nodded.

He closed his eyes. “Yes, I think that this happened.”

“Do you believe it?” I asked.

“It is a message from an Ancient One,” he said slowly. “They still hold secrets that we have not even begun to scratch. Knowledge of the Source that we can only dream about. Seer Masks exist, even if we have never been able to make them work. The message gives a warning about the blight, or at least what is behind it. I… I don’t know yet if I believe it. I need to think about it.”

I could understand the need to think, I’ve had a while to dwell on what I had found too. I let him think, and pulled myself into my soul space.

The now very familiar room appeared around me. Saia was again standing next to me. I looked around for any changes. Behind the Mask, there were two new additions, two small pedestals with not bowls, but icons on them. I walked over and looked at them more closely. One was an open book, made of stone, the other a seal—like an old one that was pressed into wax on letters. One was my [A Lesson Remembered] skill, and the other my new one, [One Truth Verified]. I leaned down, reading the plaques beneath them.

[A   Lesson Remembered]

Remember any lesson you’ve learned.

[One   Truth Verified]

Verify the truth of any single piece of written   word.

[A Lesson Remembered] was straightforward, though it had not yet become available again. The other one was harder to be used, I felt. I would need to experiment with it, once I had the chance. I glanced at Saia.

“Any changes, with how you feel when you are in here?” I asked.

“Feedback: Negative, however this Unit has observed that following a visit to this space, the synchronization with the Host increases slightly. Current synchronization at 13.5%.”

“What does the synchronization actually mean, and does?” I asked.

“Feedback: Many of this Unit’s systems are currently unavailable because of the low synchronization rate. Like the direct neural communication link, status display, and others. The rate is low because of the incompatibilities caused by the fact that the Host is not Ke Erzi. This Unit has been trying to compensate.”

“Ah,” I said. It did make sense, of course. Saia was not made to be bonded to a vampire. But they were stuck together now, I could not remove her without a chance of killing myself, and I would get her basically erased if that happened. It was just another thing that was now my responsibility and that I had somewhat ignored. There was just too much to do.

I turned and walked to the corridor of doors, I could see that it had deepened and that new doors were now present. There were eight doors in total now, each different than the last. I walked over and immediately recognized what had to be the door of the reaper, just next to the one of the mature ferrorn. There was a quality about those doors that stood out from among the others. There were two more doors, the first was made out of wood with patches of blue fur on it and a hoof print in the center—the door of the okolon most likely. The next one was adorned with feathers, the door to the cresser, I suspected. The other was unfamiliar to me, a wooden door with two strange paws indented on it—the animal next to which I woke up after the thirst took over. I didn’t know what it was, I didn’t remember the fight and the corpse was ripped apart beyond recognition.

I glanced at Saia and then had her shift into blade and chain. I rolled my shoulders and then opened the door leading to the okolon. It wasn’t aware that I was there, I had ambushed it, and this place reflected that. The area was the thick jungle and the riverbank where I had attacked it. I moved slowly, taking care not to alert it. I knew now just how dangerous the creature could be.

I didn’t want to risk death. I had a different plan this time.

Once I got close enough, I pulled out the knife that was always on my waist, then aimed. I waited as the okolon bowed its head to drink then I hurled it at the beast with all of my considerable strength. The knife spun through the air and hit the okolon on the side of its neck. It burst into mist immediately, jumping away, the knife going with it. I didn’t move from my spot as it ran away. Instead I stood and waited. Soon it rounded around a tree in the distance, and then I could hear it from behind me.

This place was not the jungle, this was inside of my soul, a small area that bent on itself.

I let my blade and chain down and started spinning. The okolon heard me, but I still sent the blade flying at it. Of course, it turned into mist and jumped away. There wasn’t much room in the jungle to really use the chain, but I still swung it around, creating noise, forcing the okolon to run. It reformed and I could see that the side of its neck was soaked in blood. I followed after it, slowly. I couldn’t keep chasing it, I would tire long before it did. Instead, I kept scaring it, forcing it to run.

It didn’t take long for the wound and its own tiredness to catch up with it. I walked behind it as it stumbled trying to get away from me. As it slowed I still kept my distance, swinging my chain and then lashing out from a distance. I was not getting close to it again.

Over the next few minutes, I stabbed and slashed it enough that it collapsed, and I finally decided that it was safe enough to walk up to it and slice its throat. The animal collapsed into particles, and I gained a new skill orb. I picked it up, wondering if it was what I needed. Shadow had said that most animals will have a handful of active skills, but that most of them would be passive. He was also certain that there was some logic behind how and which skills I gained. If what he thought was right, for the blood I got from my own kills, I should be getting their best skill.

I walked back to the main room and placed the skill on a shelf.

[Mist   Step]

You may turn to mist and execute a step in mist   form.

I smiled as I saw that it was the correct skill. From what Shadow told me, I should be getting the base version of the skills. It meant that the skills would, or at least should, improve with me as my Mask advanced. I turned and walked back into the corridor, and then to the room with the cresser. The bird died as easily as it had died the first time. Though it had nearly ruptured my eardrums with a screech that I was pretty sure was a skill. Once I brought its orb to the shelf, I was proven correct.

[Sonic   Screech]

Release a powerful sonic screech.

I assumed that the power of the screech would rely on the power of the person using it. If someone had stronger lungs and vocal cords, they would probably be able to do more damage. It fit with what Shadow explained to me, my [Lesser Strength] did scale based on my own physical strength.

I returned to the doors and hesitated before the one of the unknown animal. I had killed it while in the thrall of the thirst, so I didn’t know what it was or what it was capable of. If I died inside of here, I would die in the real world too. Still, I was curious and sure enough that I could defeat it. I entered its room. It was the jungle again, and nearby I found the animal. It was short, had an almost boar-like look to it, coupled with curved tusks. It snorted in my direction and charged me. I was taken aback by its speed, but I gathered myself quickly.

I stood my ground and waited for it to get closer. It leaned its head down, pointing its tusks in my direction and got ready to gore me. I jumped to the side, but its head blurred and its speed increased, taking me off guard for a moment. I managed to put my left hand out quickly, leaning on its head. The animal’s attack was powerful enough that I was picked up from the ground as I let myself be pushed, guiding the force of its attack with my hand on its head. Its attempt at goring me threw me up in the air above its head. I took advantage and threw my blade with my right straight down, piercing the top of its skull.

I dropped down lightly and walked over to the animal as it twitched on the ground. I grabbed the dagger and twisted before pulling it out. It died and I collected another orb, which I returned and placed in a bowl.

[Lesser   Impale]

Execute a quick impaling motion.

Again, it wasn’t anything really powerful, but still, another skill. With three new skills I had access to four on the shelf, and two slotted into my slots, six skills. I glanced at the pedestals, thinking, then I reached over to the shelf and picked up [Mist Step]. It was the strongest skill I had access to, and I had seen just how effective it could be. In a place where everything wanted to kill me, I felt like I needed more options to escape. I walked over to the two pedestals, trying to figure out which one I should switch out. In the end I decided on leaving the [Lesser Strength] active, it gave me an overall boost, while the [Debilitating Wave] was a one and done skill that had a long cooldown, [Mist Step] was better in every way. I switched out the two skills, feeling the loss. It would take time for [Mist Step] to activate, but there wasn’t anything that I could do about that.

I looked around the room, then with a thought brought myself out of it.

I opened my eyes in the real world, Shadow was still deep in his thoughts, and I didn’t want to interrupt him. I stood, Saia cradled in my arms and walked to the other side of the camp, where he had his rack of weapons. As I looked them over, Saia spoke in a low tone.

“Statement: This Unit has detected an increase in the synchronization rate of 7%, as well as a strange phenomenon. This Unit is still in contact with the drone unit within the soul space.”

I blinked. “What, you are still in there?”

“Feedback: Obviously not, this Unit’s core is nestled against the base of your skull.”

I took a deep breath. “You know what I mean.”

“Feedback: Clarity in communication is preferable.”

“Fine,” I rolled my eyes. I wondered what that meant, was it just because of the synchronization rate? It was the only explanation that I could see.

“Statement: Communication with soul space lost.”

I grimaced, it seemed like it wasn’t permanent just yet. I shook my head and turned my attention to the weapons. There were a lot of different ones, though most were some kind of sword variant, and all over sized, too big to be wielded comfortably at least by me. Granted, I knew nothing about the styles and people of this world.

After a while I returned to the campfire. Shadow still seemed deep in thought, and his expression didn’t look like he was getting anywhere. I figured that perhaps a distraction was in order. I walked over to where my sleeping area was and retrieved my glaive, then walked back over and sat next to him.

He turned to look in my direction and I placed the glaive and the knife I got from the chest next to his feet, then I pulled out the two pouches from belt.

He raised an eyebrow, one of his ears twitching inquisitively.

“What is it?” He asked.

I pointed at the objects. “I got this from that rift, in the chest at the end.”

I reached over for one of the pouches, then offered it to him. He opened it up, then spilled its contents on the ground.

All three of us peered at the eight gemstones on the ground. Gleaming in four colors, two of each, giving off a faint light. Shadow, just like me, could feel something from the gemstones, so he let them lay on the ground without touching.

“They definitely have Source,” he said, leaning down to look at them from up close.

“Statement: This unit concurs with that statement,” Saia chirped from my shoulder. “Though, this unit has no records of anything similar on Erzi.”

Shimi glanced at the tiny dragon, but then turned his attention back to the gemstones on the ground.

“Any idea what they are?” I asked.

“If it is not native to that world, and…” Shadow frowned. “It came with these other items? Inside of a chest?”

I nodded. I had wanted to see if he knew what the gems before letting him see the other items. I reached over and nudged the three items in front of Shadow. First, I offered him the other pouch, the one filled with silver.

“This is currency,” Shimi said slowly as he let the coins drop onto his bare palm. I tried to suppress a wince and failed.

“What is it?” Shimi asked.

“They are made out of silver,” I answered after a moment of hesitation.

Shadow glanced down at the coins. “And that is… bad?”

“Yes.”

He paused to see if I would say anything else, but even with trust, there were things that I had trouble revealing. “Well, they are no currency that I am familiar with, though, that means little. There are countless kingdoms and nations in the world that have their own,” he glanced up at Saia. “They are not from your world, are they?”

“Feedback: Negative.”

He nodded. “As I thought.”

Next, I offered him the dagger. He took up the sheath gently, his brow furrowing. “This is familiar.”

I tilted my head, that wasn’t the response I had expected. “Familiar how?”

Shadow raised his head, and his orange eyes met my own. “This is definitely a dagger of YoKai-ni make. More precisely, this is a Tengu-gi style dagger,” he gestured in the direction of my other dagger, tucked at my waist, the one I had taken from his rack. “If you will?”

I pulled out the dagger and passed it over. He unsheathed the other one, then put them next to one another, looking them over for a few seconds. “This one,” he raised the one that I had taken from him. “This is an old blade, crafted by a master of his craft. Perhaps one of the best in the world.”

I blinked; I hadn’t realized that his weapons were so valuable.

“This one that you found, is inferior in every way. It is not expertly crafted nor put together. And it is made in an old style,” He said, then his eyes narrowed. “And yet, that is strange, because the blade was made in the crafting style that is no longer practiced. A style that has been irrelevant since our world was joined with Kirios.”

I tilted my head. “Isn’t it possible that someone just experimented with that old style?” I asked.

Shadwo nodded. “On its own, it is not that strange, you are correct. But this,” he tapped the handle. “This is what makes the blade strange. This thread here is called liksan, it can only be made by harvesting the excrement of a particular animal. An animal that no longer exists. The transition is not kind. The Source mutates life in many different ways. The consequence of my world arriving here was that this animal was hunted to extinction by its natural predator, whose mutation made them far more aggressive. Liksan is beyond precious, it cannot be replicated, it is used in only the greatest of works. For someone to place it on a dagger such as this one, it is unthinkable.”

I grimaced. I had my suspicions, and it seems like I was somehow right. I grabbed the last item that I found, the glaive, and then offered it to him.

He put the daggers aside and accepted the glaive. He took a long look then nodded. “Likewise, this too is of a poor quality. Though I am not familiar with this type of style.” He leaned down to look at one of the screws that were holding the haft and the blade in place.

Yes,” I said. “Take a look there, behind the blade, the text.”

He did as I asked. He found the text easily enough on the decorative part of the haft. “Made in…” He frowned as he tried to read what had to be an unfamiliar word to him. It seemed that the translation of the Grand Spell wasn’t exactly perfect.

“It says, made in china,” I told him.

He raised his eyes to meet mine. “I assume that you know what that means?”

I nodded. “China is a country from my world. That means that the weapon was made there.”

He tilted his head, then glanced back at the glaive. “From your world?” His eyes slid to the two daggers next to him. “Oh.”

“I think that these… rewards, were put there by the Grand Spell. That it took them from the other worlds. Yours and mine. Or perhaps they are just copies. I don’t think that it matters.”

His eyes narrowed. “The Grand Spell possesses godlike power, no, it is as a god. Its reach extends beyond this world, touching many others. This… it is not beyond it, not by any stretch of imagination.”

“Yeah,” I said slowly. “But why introduce something like that? A rift in space that leads you to a what? A piece of another world, where you need to fight a monster to get rewards and leave?” It was all so familiar to me. Which made me wonder if perhaps the Grand Spell got the idea from us, from Earth.

“There is no point in attempting to understand the Grand Spell, its designs are far beyond comprehension. One thing is for certain, this will cause a lot of… chaos.”

He shook his head, then put the weapons aside and returned his attention to the gemstones. Eight of them were on the ground in a pile, four colors, orange, light blue, brown, and light green. “Then, are these from another world as well? Or are they something else entirely.”

“Statment: The gemstones appear to be elemental in nature, and they contain a minuscule amount of Source Weave along with an engram that is beyond this Unit’s ability to comprehend.”

Shadow’s eyes narrowed and he picked up one of them. As he was picking it up she noticed that the light of the gemstone in his fingers and one of the ones on the ground dimmed as it was raised away from the other gems. Just like when I had done it before. Shadow noticed it too, he brought it close to one of the other gemstones and nothing happened. He frowned than pressed it closer to the one that was of the same color, both started to glow faintly.

I told him about what I found out before, that they glowed next to the ones of the same color and next to two other colors as well. Saia repeated what she discovered or at least what she believed about the colors corresponding to fire, air, earth, and water elements.

He glanced at the gemstone in the palm of his hand. “I see that what they say about the wisdom of dragons holds true even for hatchlings.”

Or alien intelligent computers made out of metallic sludge that can take the shape of a dragon. I thought, but didn’t say out loud.

“Do you have any idea what they are?” I asked instead.

“I can feel it tugging at my mask, as if it wants to touch my power.”

“Do you think that there is danger?”

“There is always danger, Marianna, you should learn that lesson before life forces you to,” Shadow said, then opened his eyes and looked at the gemstone. “Well, I do like to be on the forefront of new discoveries.”

With that he raised the gemstone and pressed it against his chest.

Nothing happened.

Both of us frowned. “This is strange,” Shimi said. “It almost feels like… Ah,” he made a pulling motion over his chest and manifested his Mask. The blue and white mask appeared in his hand, Saia immediately perked up.

“Query: This unit requests that item for assimilation.”

I turned and glared at the dragon on my shoulder. “Saia!”

Shadow’s ear twitched and his eyes glanced at me. “Assimilation?”

“That means that she wants to eat it,” I clarified.

“Respectfully, no,” Shadow said to the dragon.

“Statement: Regretful.”

“May I?” He gestured to the gemstone. I waved him to go ahead. He placed the gemstone against the Mask and it flowed into it then disappeared.

“Oh,” Shadow blinked. “So that is what this does.”

His Mask winked away, and he grabbed one of the daggers and unsheathed it. Then, he swung it, his hand blurring in a slash to his side. The air waved and I heard a hiss, saw sparks flash through the air where the blade went through.

“Well,” He said, studying the edge of the dagger as it went from bright and heated back to normal color.

“What is it?” I asked.

“The gemstone altered, or maybe upgraded my skill,” Shadow answered. “When I pushed it against the Mask I felt like I could push it in the direction of one of my skills. Not all of them, I don’t think that all of them were compatible, I assume. I chose one of my oldest and weakest skills, [Slash]. It now seems to have some elements of fire, a very weak effect, but still it is there.”

He manifested his mask then placed a palm over it, he closed his eyes and then I heard a crack of breaking glass. Fragments of orange crystal fell from his mask. “Hm… it looks like you can remove them from the skill, but that destroys them.” He grimaced and then looked at me. “Apologies, I did not intend to destroy that which is yours.”

I waved my hand. “It’s okay, at least now we know. You never saw anything like this before?” I asked.

He shook his head. “No, it is something new. And I doubt that this is all there is to it, new additions by the Grand Spell are never so simple. Once everyone finds out about this, if those rifts start appearing everywhere… Blights.”

“Should I try one?” I asked.

Shimi glanced at the gemstones. “I wonder how they would affect your skills. Would it impact your base skill, the [Empty Skill], or the skill that you slotted in, or both?”

I was eager to find out as well. I reached for the brown gem, then manifested my Mask and brought the gem near. I felt the pull and then… nothing. The pull was there, but somehow I instinctively knew that the brown gem didn’t fit.

“I don’t think that this one is compatible with anything that I have,” I said.

Shimi tilted his head and one of his ears twitched. “Hm, if we are correct in our assumptions, then that one is Earth attuned. You have [Debilitating Wave] and [Lesser Strength], I don’t see how that could impact either of those skills. Try another.”

“I’ve switched out [Debilitating Wave] for [Mist Step],” I said as I reached over for a green one.

“Smart choice,” he said.

I repeated the process and felt the pull again, then as I touched my Mask, again the same instinctual sensation appeared. This time I knew that it would work. I felt like it could make a connection with only one of my skills, the [Mist Step], so I pushed it in that direction. The gemstone melted into my Mask and the pressure inside of my chest pulsed.

[Mist Step] skill upgraded.

“It worked,” I said then stood up wanting to try it out. Then I stopped as I realized that the skill was not yet active. I returned to my seat with a grimace on my face. “It attached to [Mist Step], but the skill isn’t active yet. I have a cooldown when I replace skills.”

He nodded his head, but his attention was on the gemstones.

“This is amazing,” Shadow said. “I can only imagine what more there is to discover about this.”

I nodded, though to me it was just another new and strange thing among an entire array. For him this was something truly new, in that at least we were equal. With nothing much to do, we both turned to our own thoughts, the night came to an end, and with it came sleep. I was exhausted, I closed my eyes, and dreamed.