LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 2: Weird Monsters
Golden eyes, stalking flickering shadow upon stormy day, on cloudy, grey hazy May.
"Golden Rule: Eyes of ill, fade to yellow and haze. Yellow of heart, Coward Lord of frenzy, laid to claim its greed a flame.
Eyes of the sickly smudged ilk, so their souls full and ripe crack a fruitful birth of old; the forgotten ones."
...
A disturbingly short time ago. In a land uncomfortably close by... A secret slipped, and it robbed the world of gold; not that of minerals, but its symbolism.
In it's gluttony it drowned the world in yellow, and it loved every minute of it. Which is how some had come to say:
"The Loving and Devouring are all the same things."
-N.A.V
A few feet from where she'd landed, her eyes bore witness as energies phased through; distorting reality as they crept across the empty road corrupting the living world.
The entity itself was vaguely there as if reality was struggling to materialize the creature's form or make.
However, its presence was unquestionable even as it flickered in inverse to the empty street lanterns; appearing to disappear, born to die.
The young lady silently gulped and steeled herself for battle; her fists clenched tight enough to dig into her palms.
She was no stranger to the rhythm of battle, and knew the viciousness of it which is why she felt something was... Off, and although she couldn't place a finger on it; something was strangely missing. Something essential to battle; a certain dehumanizing aspect of it.
She took a step closer to the entity, and felt the voices pick up frequency. The entity was standing still; flickering and distorting slowly as its dead eyes; never left her.
And although lacking pupils, they seemed to see perfectly well, as they trailed her movements, intently like a predator.
Sometimes even seemingly glancing at where she was gonna be before returning to where she presently was. The creature eminated a sense of danger; intentionally or not.
And that was the only familiar aspect she could discern from the entity. Everything else about it seemed to diverge from her current knowledge of Outer Existials; seeming almost like a weirdo amongst the weirdos.
"What's up with this one? I swear these things just keep on getting stranger the more I see them."
She took a few more steps closer to it and said flatly:
"You're a smaller one than usual; I've seen a lot of your ilk in my lifetime; you're the most human-looking one out of all of them.
But that changes nothing; today I die, or you die, just as it's always been. Monsters killing monsters."
Lightning flashed in the distance and the heavy rain drummed in her ears and obscured her vision as the strong winds played with her hair.
Extending her hand, she materialized an Onyx-Longsword; much blacker than the night sky such that it almost seemed to make the dim darkness around it appear brighter.
The sword's blade was of a translucent material, and within seemed to be littered with stars and constellations never before seen by mortal man, as gold and sapphire runes along its blade stringed into a short sentence that Arcanists would often coin an "incantation".
The runes shimmered; illuminating the underside of the sword's cross guard in a warm radiance.
Its hilt was a delicate royal blue design laced with gold. The weapon was eye-catching, to say the least.
Ready to cut to the chase of things she lined it up and assumed a battle-ready stance with an open grip on the hilt.
There were two flashes in the distance, followed a few seconds later by the earth-shaking rumble of thunder before returning to an eerie silence.
Her eyes narrowed, and her hair blew about the winds.
Practicing caution, she waited for the entity to attack; hoping she could counter with a decisive slash to its vitals, thus ending the fight quickly, and yet nothing; the entity flickered more and more as it grew distant little by little.
Its presence became fainter with every second passed; its flickers growing in intervals. Everytime she would blink the entity would be further and further away.
Yet never out of sight, as if it purposefully kept within the limits of her periphery but never beyond that. Like a shadow at the corner of one's eye that could be confused for a person at a small glance.
It seemed the creature wanted her to follow it.
Confused by the entity's odd behaviour, she paused, pondering the anomality of it.
"This is most certainly a trap. This clearly not a normal Outer Existial that I'm dealing with; it seems smarter then most of the ones I've fought.
And by the looks of things its purpisefully masking its rank from me. I can't pick up much of any intent from it. It's dangerous."
Or so she thought, but even then, she knew the consequences of letting such an entity freely roam the streets; the loss, the tears, the cries of bloody murder.
These were all in the realm of possibility should she lose sight of the creature.
She sighed and slowly trailed the shadowy figure to wherever it was leading her; remaining close enough to not lose sight of it in the rain but far enough to keep some breathing room.
For although the creature seemed rather docile, if not a tad weird from the usual Outer Existials she's faced, its nature, like the rest of its kin, was fundamentally opposed to hers.
For she used Ether, physical energy. Which, for all intents and purposes, served as a way to manipulate her environment and the forces at play around it.
While her opponent was a Cogni user, which was the energy of thought, or in other words, metaphysical/conceptual energy; meant for the creation, manipulation, and unification of ideas in tangible reality.
And so the danger in fighting these kinds of creatures was the ways in which Cogni and Ether would interact. How they would annihilate one another on contact, making combat difficult for both parties in any normal circumstance.
Stoic and expressionless, she followed the entity through street corners, narrow alleyways, and nearly desolate roads, and occasionally moving past Arcanum Automobiles.
Which the entity often stopped to gaze at, lingering on their design briefly as it passed by them.
Whether it looked at them longingly, disdainfully, or even favourably was uncertain, as it could have also been that it was intrigued by its own reflection in the windows of such marvellous vehicles, but who could say?
What was certain, however, was that whatever fascinated the creature only made it seem all the more enigmatic.
The young lady raised an eyebrow trying to replace her confusion with curiosity. As she thought to herself:
"A monster with feelings; imagine that. What was the phrase again? Uhh yes now I remember," she twirled her wet finger in the rain, "It goes: 'The most monsterous monster is the monster with noble feelings.' What a brilliant phrase; Too bad the author of it had to turn out to be a murderous shape-shifting Ooze of all things. Gods rest his Soul."
Time passed in empty silence and although she didn't mind it, she had to admit:
She'd quickly grown tired of the tension that tainted the air between them as they walked, and thus filled the silence with more thoughts.
"Good gravy, what I wouldn't give to go curl up in my bed right now, and fall asleep to the sound of rain," she took a few whiffs quickly, "even the scent is nice."
She imagined it in her mind and sighed tiredly once more, how wonderful it would be before the storm raging all around her brought her back to her current circumstances.
"But instead, I'm here, outside in the rain, following a creature of unknown horror into what is likely a trap meant to kill, maim, and toil my soul. What a wonderful world to live in, huh?"
Some faint unreadable expression quickly flashed across her face as she jokingly grinned and said:
"You get your body mangled on a Monday, Lose hope on a Tuesday, Fall into despair on a Wednesday, Get your soul gorged out on a Thursday, And Steel yourself for next week on a Friday. All before steak on Saturday and Noodles on Sunday."
She shook her head, and noticed the entity briefly glance back at her with a nod in acknowledgement as it continued on its path.
And although the moment was short, that one act bridged some cavernous gap in her heart.
She suddenly saw the entity slightly a bit differently, and although her guard kept steady and her distrust of the creature did not fade whatsoever, she could not ignore the humanizing aspect of that nod.
The storm was relentless and unquelled, but it seemed the entity didn't mind it at all as it led her for what felt like hours through the storm, almost enjoying the severeness of it.
Finally, it stopped and turned to look back at her.
The muscles in her feet grew tense in anticipation ready to pounce at the slightest misstep, but then a murmur emerged from the entity, it said coldly:
"???? ??, ??????" [(8)(5)(12)(16) (13)(5), (16)(12)(5)(1)(19)(5)]
And whatever the words were, they reached her as distorted whispers, but even so, their alien presence made her head spin in nausea.
Yet, those words. Those unfamiliar, almost nonsensical words, she felt were somehow not all together rubbish.
Shaken by the alieness of them, she nearly collapsed to her knees: almost succumbing under what felt like the weight of the world laying heavy on her shoulders.
But being somewhat familiar already with the meddling of these kinds of beings, she caught herself mid-descent, and for a moment, beyond the shroud of madness that tried to claim her, she could have sworn she heard a "voice".
Not a murmur, not a feeling, not a fear... Just a tired aching soul burdened by... Something.
And she thought to herself, "I heard something... I know I did; the gentlest melody I have yet heard." Using her sword as a crutch she straightened, "Am I crazy...? Am I going crazy? Surely it couldn't have come from the..."
She paused and looked at the entity still rooted to the spot. It seemed to be fading rapidly as the lights around them fell into a more regulated, constant, warm amber glow. Its disappearance seemingly imminent.
Her face contorted into a mix of emotions as her brows furrowed.
"Uhhh... Was that... Was that you?"
The entity, its voice hoarse, echoed to her these final words:
"[(9) (4)(15)(14)(20) (8)(1)(22)(5), (13)(21)(3)(8) (20)(9)(13)(5). (16)(12)(5)(1)(19)(5) (6)(15)(18)(7)(9)(22)(5) (13)(5). (16)(18)(5)(16)(1)(18)(5) (25)(15)(21)(18)(19)(5)(12)(6) (6)(15)(18) (2)(1)(20)(20)(12)(5).]"
The nausea resurfaced, but this time ever more pressing as the maddening sickness of the alien mutterings made her bowels quiver. Fearing she might vomit she tightly held her mouth closed.
Then she took a step back, shocked, as the entity reached out its hand to her, but seeing her hesitation; it paused and looked down at itself.
Then to the woman's confusion, the discordant shadow sat down; crossing its legs, and reaching out its hands to her. Leaving itself vulnerable to attack.
The woman frowned at such a sincere gesture coming from a creature seen as so foul and soulless. It was unheard of, after all, for creatures from the Outer Mirror to display any emotions that weren't twisted and corrupt.
The sight of it made her want to turn her head away, to ignore its seeming plea, to hate it indiscriminately like all Outer Existials for all the pain, suffering, infliction, and slaughter they have wrought across existence. Her existence especially.
However, in her heart, beat something strange, some odd bond between the creature and her, luling her in, and although she tried to push it away, she felt that feeling tug at her, drawing her closer.
Gritting her teeth she slowly and cautiously reached out to touch its wispy hand, and found herself nearly phasing through the entity's form, her other other hand tightening its grip on the hilt incase this was truly a trap.
To her surprise inside the distorted shadowy mass she felt something as their hands finally met.
Then, fluidly, the darkness around the entity fell in strips, almost like clothing, revealing a heart-shaped facial structure with high cheekbones and a gently tapered chin that made it look all the more symmetrical.
The figure had a rich medium-brown skin tone and a warm complexion. Its hair was long and styled into dreadlocks that slightly reached past its shoulders and covered some of its face, obscuring many of its delicate features.
Her eyes were wide with shock as she looked at the entity in silent awe; not sure what all of this could mean. Her mind ran through hundreds of scenarios trying to ration her next moves carefully.
Her grip on her sword loosened as the rain receded from her immediate surroundings seemingly distorted by the entity's fading presence. In this way, the entity was almost like a momentary shelter for her.
In the silence of this brief contact, reality seemed to fracture around them, as space and time broke in their immediate surroundings; warping reality and leaving empty spaces of snowy static.
She looked around her, then back to the entity, its presence completely fading away, and that softness disappear from her grasp. Now, alone in this broken spec of reality she somehow felt lonely. Although only having met the entity but briefly she felt bothered to see it leave somehow.
"And just like that the universe has made me the butt of its joke, yet again." She took a deep breath and exhaled, "At some point I'll have to applaud you universe, you have a very unique sense of humour."
With the creature's disappearance so did her temporary shelter. Her eye returned to its crimson colour, and the rain fell once more.
And with it she snapped back to her senses and a grim realizations finally hit her. She was standing in the epicentre of what was a burgeoning "Spacial-Fract"; Tears in reality that allowed creatures known as Outer-Existials into reality.
Or rather that was what's been deduced from Arcane and Scientific Study. Why and how these tears occured however is subject to much debate still.
Quickly without breath, she jumped back in a feat of superhuman physicality with her jump launching her high into the air and back; leaving a fair distance between her and the Spacial-Fract.
Knowing what was next she tightened her grip on the hilt of her sword with bot hands, and wore her face with a chilling cold. Her eyes painted with dewy sadness masked by a seething determination.
Not much was certain when it came to Spacial-Fract, except the eventuality of bloodshed.
"This isn't good. Usually, I'd call for backup right about now, but I left my communicator at the house."
A tired sigh was quickly drowned out by the rain as she thought to herself:
"I guess I've been a bit too reliant on Solace and Cassie being by my side as of late. This must be the universe's way of reminding me."
An impartial and bitter smile adorned her face as she worded quietly:
"When you court death, you do so alone."
Following that sentence, her sword emanated a deep-blue energy that oozed an Inevitability and absoluteness of death, as the dots of stars in its depths vibrated violently and gradually turned blue.
It seemed she was resolved and ready to kill or be killed, backup be damned.