The spearhead, blessed by a horde of six dangerous serpents of varying colors, darts toward Johnny’s head, but right before the man’s head is removed off of his shoulders by the whirlwind-inducing force of the strike, I see Johnny’s near milky-white iris shift gold for a split second.
Then, the next thing I know, Kai is gone. The tornado of danger disappears without any fanfare, but I quickly realize he’s not gone for good. He’s only moved backward in time. Somehow Johnny became able to only affect the target and not himself as we ran away again. That short instant that Johnny threw Kai back in time allowed Aniwye time to catch up and battle him again.
Shockwaves reignite under our feet, sending waves of water alongside our sprint away, propelling us unsteadily further. I notice that Johnny is moving oddly, so I help him by nudging him in the right direction. While I pull him, I see that his iris, which is not under the eyepatch, is entirely white, with red veins covering the full whites of his eyes.
“C’mon Johnny! Follow my lead!”
He grunts as we both move to catch up with Silas and Blake, who are moving ahead of us through the swamp, the Sinscreak native in the front. Lennox is cheerfully running alongside Johnny and me with giggles that confuse me. I thought he was terrified of everything? Why is he happy?
I shake my head, remove the confusing thoughts, and focus on sprinting forward. I wish I could use Ether to help me move faster, but I’m primarily relying on Johnny’s speed to help pull my weakened body along. The chance of going over the barrier of Ether simply cannot be risked right now. We have no Concoctions or Serums, and they can’t deal with me spontaneously combusting during our escape.
After a few more rumbles behind us that might as well be full-on detonations of bundles of dynamite, I see Silas ahead of us put his fingers to his mouth and whistle, a dark smoke appearing in front of him. That dark smoke quickly forms into his horse that he immediately hops on top of, calling for me and Lennox to get on top as well.
“Come on, Wyatt, Lennox! You two are slowing us down!”
Silas also passes a rope to Johnny that the Gunfighter surprisingly manages to catch. Johnny also speeds up a bit, pulling me toward the horse. Once I get close to the horse made of deathly clouds, I reach up, and Silas grabs my hand, pulling me up with him. I turn and see Johnny doing the exact same thing for Lennox, although the Stoneclad is quite a bit heavier and takes a while to help up to the horse.
But with the fast speed of Silas’ Ghosthorse, the whole group begins to speed up, exiting the region of water thrown into the air that creates a vast amount of mist. Johnny and Blake can keep up with the horse’s speed over the water, the Gunfighter’s pure speed allowing him to stay ahead of even the horse. At the same time, the Sinscreak native uses the terrain to move faster, jumping from vine to tree without a moment’s pause.
Once we exit the mist, we keep running further and further until we reach a relatively large clearing where the terrain rises high enough to not have any water in our way. But from here, we can see the battle between the two Angels. And it is far more intense than the one in the Underworld.
One Angel, is fighting for his son, wife, and land. The other, the demonic one, is fighting under the orders of a Lord, the greatest of all threats to humanity.
But despite the match-up, once I hear what’s going on from Johnny, I can’t bring myself to hope for humanity’s victory. Sure, a Territory will likely fall if the Pillar dies in front of us, but so what? It will crumble eventually. The standards of humanity have fallen too far. From the dastardly three Hindrances to the corrupt Pillars, most of the Angels born from humans do little to protect us. The man in front is one of the better examples, but he’s not perfect.
Not to mention he wants our lives. Though, I’m less biased about that fact as plenty of things have wished to kill me, and many more have tried. So instead, I watch the battle several hundred feet away as my Ether begins to recover. And once it recovers enough for me to use a skill, I use Insight.
I focus my mind on the man in front of me, and within a few seconds after a small instance of interference, I see through his eyes just as I would see through mine. While others will watch from far away, I will experience an Angel’s power firsthand.
Through his own eyes. Through his own dreams. Through his own struggles. Through his own restraints. That’s what The Cabin wants me to do, right?
And so I do. I follow its hints and demands. I perceive and learn from another’s sight.
The speed of the Rougarou Hunter is blistering and near-impossible to follow even from his own view, but that’s not what blows my mind as he assaults Aniwye constantly. It’s his power. Every step he takes sends water in a shockwave before he strikes at the Ogre. And the Ogre seems to struggle to defend herself from his attacks.
I try to understand the skills that Kai Vinson is using while they are fighting. Yet I cannot. Not only are they far too complicated for me to know for the most part, but there also seems to be some kind of barrier preventing me from accessing how those work. Almost as if his Sigil is protecting his most critical secrets, even if it lets me see through his eyes.
As I watch their confrontation, I become increasingly engrossed in Kai’s perspective, slowly assimilating it with my own. Then, finally, I fall to the ground as every action he takes feels like mine.
****************
I grip my hand on the spear, twisting it to add more force as I barrel straight past the demon with my feet kicking off only the surface of the water with Fleetfoot. Blood spurts from her side as yet another wound adds to the Ogre’s massive stature, but it will not fall. Instead, she wipes her hand across the injury, using her mind to seal the bleeding before turning her focus back to me. I squint my eyes in concentration and see the gash twist away into a closed scar from her mental strength.
Her mind tries to puncture mine, but I hold fast. My mind is a force of steel forged by the Unyielding Wall himself. I will not let the man down. Nor will I let Myra down. Or Pain. The small child is still alive. I can feel it. And that certainty gives me the strength of mind and body as I twist around again, Serpentine giving my whole body the flexibility, strength, and speed of a hundred serpents all at once.
Too bad this Ogre somehow killed off my Seven without any hindrance. Too many oddities have occurred in this fight, so it’s not that big of a deal. I can feel something off whenever I look at the Gunfighter far away with Spyglass, but I just can’t pinpoint it. But I don’t have to.
I just need to focus. Another demon. Another day. The rage will only distract me. Bring about my ruin. It can wait. I will grieve you, Myra, but not now. I will save you Pain, but not yet. Marshall taught me better.
My foot slams into the ground as I Uncoil, releasing all my stored momentum from the rotation of Serpentine, and I advance right back toward the Ogre as she swipes at me with a strike of psychic force.
The mental strike hits the brick wall that is my mental fortitude, the Unyielding Mind, aptly named after my mentor. And while I’d like to have confidence it will do as it is called, I am beginning to lose that confidence. The brick walls are slowly falling from the repeated attacks, and while I have the Ether to replace them, I worry that this Ogre will somehow find a way to break it all at once.
I stumble slightly from her attack and retaliate with my own, stabbing straight for her face with Seven Serpents Spear. So many have told me my names are elaborate, but I find they give me solidity as their meaning is profound. And just like usual, the seven serpents formed from my flesh with Seven and the pure unadulterated force that is Spontaneous Strike combine, allowing my strike to land even as the demon moves with a mental blast to propel her to the side.
Four of my serpents bite her as she dodges, infecting her with venom. I can see the poison burrow into her flesh. Still, I quickly feel it expunged through Venomose, the venom leaving my senses just as it enters her bloodstream. Damn demons and their obscure skills. Every one of 'em has something special.
Seeing the lack of progress on the attack front and how far my other prey has run, I push things to the next level. Adrenaline Surge increases its amplitude and force as I will it further, imbibing it with all of the first three types of Ether manipulation, all within just a fraction of a second.
Ten times the normal Ether enters my body, inundating my muscles with strength. Then, carefully, I manipulate these streams of Ether to flow separately, making it more powerful than just one single stream. Then, just before I burst back at the Ogre, who is once more trying to enter my mind, I twist all the Ether in my body at once with my mind, braiding it to enhance its effect even further. All the while, my Sigil imbues the Ether with its touch, giving each portion the aspects of the Coiled Bushmaster.
In less than a tenth of a second, Sidewind is born. And after that split-second of birth, I shoot out at the Ogre, nearing a bullet’s speed. My spear once more aims for her giant eye in the center of her disgusting face, but the surprise comes when I see her pull a colossal heart from her head. However, I don’t give her time to do anything with it, as my spear goes right into her eye and straight through her head, killing her instantly and covering me with gore.
I fall to the ground from the high-up place of her face as the Ogre falls with a splash. Checking her with Aud, I hear no heartbeat or blood flow. Good. She’s dead.
I sweep my spear, letting the blood abandon the shaft and blade to join the waters below. Another one is down. Eight-thousand and twelve. Fourth Angel. Time to add some more to that number. One of those other prey must also be a demon or a non-human.
A deep breath is released as I build up more tension for Uncoil, but right as I step away, I feel something off. I don’t even have time to inspect the prey far away as an ominous chuckle comes from behind me, one that sends a chill down my spine.
A rough, eerie voice enters my ears from behind, and I instantly twist around.
“You didn’t think that would kill me, now did you?”
And then, before I can even scan my surroundings, I hear, no, I feel a heartbeat rumble throughout the swamp. A wave of power comes and almost shatters my mental defenses as I stagger backward, blood pouring from my eyes and nose. Gritting my teeth, I convalesce and rush back toward the Ogre, standing with an eye rapidly healing.
Within her palm is a giant heart, and each beat furthers her recovery significantly. Still, before I can get close, I see her squeeze it. I prepare for another mental strike, fortifying my Unyielding Mind, but something different happens.
Instead of a wave of mental might, it is a wave of physical might. A blast not dissimilar to the power of a bundle of dynamite sends me flying backward before I can recover by catching myself on a Cyprus on my way back.
While grabbing the tree with one hand, I quickly assess the damage to my body from the blast. Broken rib, jaw, and hip. Bruises are just about everywhere else. No big deal. I’ll handle it for now. Serpentine should make up for the lack of mobility.
The moment I recover. However, I Uncoil right for the demon, not wasting a moment now that I know the item in her hand is an artifact of great power. I burst toward her with newfound speed. An Arca is almost guaranteed to be in her hands. Greed flows through me, along with hate for her. But grief also flows. I promised to get Myra an Arca so that she would feel safe while I was gone.
I’ll never get the chance now.
Faces flow through my mind as my Ether spikes in intensity, rapidly reaching the limits of what a human body can withstand, even for an Angel.
Pain… I’ll save you. I’ll protect this whole Territory. I’ll make you proud, Marshall.
Not wanting to waste a moment or give the demon even a chance to damage me again to turn the tides, I take out all the stops.
Ether flows through my body with focus, the focus, commitment, and sheer fucking will that is only found atop the mountain peak. I am no Marshall Travis. I am not invincible or indomitable. It would be foolish to try copying my mentor’s innate grit. Instead, I focus on my own natural gift.
As Marshall put it years ago, I have the flexibility and resilience of the most potent serpent. And no matter the strike, I rebound with ten times the fury.
When he said those words all those years ago, I knew my destination. All at once, I complete the fourth, fifth, and sixth stages of Ether manipulation, forcing the Ether in my body to quadruple in density and quality and reach the sheer springiness of my mind after an impact like the two I just took.
Before I even take a second step toward the Ogre, I take a step onto an ethereal peak. One upon which so few humans have walked as well. Dzil.
The Uncoiled Quetzalcoatl flies straight for the Ogre as my body contorts, birthing serpents from my muscles that latch onto the surroundings and fling me forward. My speed increases well past the barrier of sound as I struggle to aim my spear at the demon in time before we collide. But I do. I seek the spearhead toward her neck, hoping to remove her head in one fell swoop.
But as I do so, I catch a glimpse of a young man far away with my enhanced eyesight from Spyglass. And his expression feels oddly familiar, almost like it’s the one I have on right now… I don’t let it distract me; however, as time appears to slow, the phenomenon of pure focus, focus so deep you alter reality.
However, my focus is broken as a malformed and eerie eye appears before my spear as I am just about to kill the demon once more, my spearhead only feet from her face. The eye looks into mine and sends a jolt through my whole body, making me go entirely limp, and because of it, I lose all the force I’ve generated with my body. But I push through that, forcing Uncoil to regain that strength from the limpness at a greater fold.
I can physically feel tendons snap and bones break as I do so, but I do not care. I push on, Uncoiling so far that I can feel the limits of reality slow me down. The Unyielding Wall taught me how to face pain over two decades ago. It will never beat me.
The demon’s face contorts in surprise as this final trick doesn’t work. A smile twists on mine at the surety of its death. With complete confidence that I would continue onto her, I let my spear gore straight through the eyeball to remove the threat. I instantly regret the decision, our expressions flipping in a moment shorter than when a bee flaps its wings.
The eye before me explodes into an endless dark as tiredness and drowsiness send me spiraling to the ground. My Uncoiled Quetzalcoatl attempts to pull me back up to speed. Yet, I feel everything, including my internal senses, go dark as a mind enters mine with a voice that elicits only confusion.
“Look who we have here. You shouldn’t be here, y’know? Not that it will affect anything, though. I’ll send you right back, don’t worry.”
The words are foreign, and I try to recover, but I feel it is over. My Unyielding Mind was broken the second that eyeball exploded. My defenses are gone. My mind is forfeit. But that does not mean I will go out quietly.
I’m sorry, Pain. I—. I could have done better. I could have gone further. But I did not. I felt powerful enough. Strong enough. How naive. But Marshall never taught a soldier to die quietly. Every soldier under his watch carries dynamite with them in case of death or capture. I no longer do, but that doesn’t mean I will go quietly.
The Unyielding Wall’s motto for soldiers graces my mind once last time at the brink of death.
Into the long dusk, we always rage, rage against the inevitable end, the long darkness that never ceases. Until the very last man, we fight.
No candle may be snuffed without a sound. Even as the dark takes us, we burn with rage as unending as the dark.
And as the very last man falls, he, too, shall spread the fire.
Deep in my mind, a spark is lit as the darkness consumes me. I have yet to use one final snake from my coil. There is only one thing that cannot be taken from a man who has risen above the rest.
Power.
***********************
My mind returns to me as Kai’s mind is assaulted by Aniwye; the demon is the one who sent me back to myself, as she said it was dangerous to watch the next part. Faraway in the distance, I see the fallen Pillar. The Rougarou Hunter. A legendary man hung in the air, suspended by countless limp serpents that emerged from his skin and that bite onto trees, vines, and rocks.
Kai Vinson lies dead, forever gone by the mind of a demon. The said demon stands before him, slowly healing from the countless wounds he put upon her. I can feel her mind from here as she speaks to all of us on this hill using her Ether.
“You all best be going now before anyone else shows up. The reverberations of this battle will carry for miles. This fight was close, far too close than I’d like. I hate to admit it, but our demons will likely have quite the challenge ending you all if this man is the standard.”
I can feel the demon’s respect for Kai from here, and I follow suit as I lower my head in consideration for the fallen man. My short time in his mind broke my negative thoughts of him.
He was a good man. And a good man died today. I wish I could have done something to stop it, but frankly, there wasn’t. Even if I was strong enough to make a difference in that battle between Angels where one had not just one but two artifacts of the Angelic realm, I don’t know if I would help. Doing so would likely spell my death alongside Johnny, Silas, Blake, and Lennox.
Shaking my head full of sorrow, I, along with everyone else, heed Aniwye’s warning. We turn and head north toward Starkbluffs to reunite with the rest of Johnny’s rebellion.
A good man died today. And it was my fault.
As we ride away, however, I feel the sky shake, the clouds shift, and the waters rumble. A feeling jolts through me. A flicker of hope that I feel guilty for even having. I turn my neck to face the suspended Hunter, hoping that just somehow, he yet lives and that he is able to escape.
Maybe he isn’t dead yet. Good men are rarely the strongest, but there are some exceptions. Perhaps…this will be one of them?
The spearhead, blessed by a horde of six dangerous serpents of varying colors, darts toward Johnny’s head, but right before the man’s head is removed off of his shoulders by the whirlwind-inducing force of the strike, I see Johnny’s near milky-white iris shift gold for a split second.
Then, the next thing I know, Kai is gone. The tornado of danger disappears without any fanfare, but I quickly realize he’s not gone for good. He’s only moved backward in time. Somehow Johnny became able to only affect the target and not himself as we ran away again. That short instant that Johnny threw Kai back in time allowed Aniwye time to catch up and battle him again.
Shockwaves reignite under our feet, sending waves of water alongside our sprint away, propelling us unsteadily further. I notice that Johnny is moving oddly, so I help him by nudging him in the right direction. While I pull him, I see that his iris, which is not under the eyepatch, is entirely white, with red veins covering the full whites of his eyes.
“C’mon Johnny! Follow my lead!”
He grunts as we both move to catch up with Silas and Blake, who are moving ahead of us through the swamp, the Sinscreak native in the front. Lennox is cheerfully running alongside Johnny and me with giggles that confuse me. I thought he was terrified of everything? Why is he happy?
I shake my head, remove the confusing thoughts, and focus on sprinting forward. I wish I could use Ether to help me move faster, but I’m primarily relying on Johnny’s speed to help pull my weakened body along. The chance of going over the barrier of Ether simply cannot be risked right now. We have no Concoctions or Serums, and they can’t deal with me spontaneously combusting during our escape.
After a few more rumbles behind us that might as well be full-on detonations of bundles of dynamite, I see Silas ahead of us put his fingers to his mouth and whistle, a dark smoke appearing in front of him. That dark smoke quickly forms into his horse that he immediately hops on top of, calling for me and Lennox to get on top as well.
“Come on, Wyatt, Lennox! You two are slowing us down!”
Silas also passes a rope to Johnny that the Gunfighter surprisingly manages to catch. Johnny also speeds up a bit, pulling me toward the horse. Once I get close to the horse made of deathly clouds, I reach up, and Silas grabs my hand, pulling me up with him. I turn and see Johnny doing the exact same thing for Lennox, although the Stoneclad is quite a bit heavier and takes a while to help up to the horse.
But with the fast speed of Silas’ Ghosthorse, the whole group begins to speed up, exiting the region of water thrown into the air that creates a vast amount of mist. Johnny and Blake can keep up with the horse’s speed over the water, the Gunfighter’s pure speed allowing him to stay ahead of even the horse. At the same time, the Sinscreak native uses the terrain to move faster, jumping from vine to tree without a moment’s pause.
Once we exit the mist, we keep running further and further until we reach a relatively large clearing where the terrain rises high enough to not have any water in our way. But from here, we can see the battle between the two Angels. And it is far more intense than the one in the Underworld.
One Angel, is fighting for his son, wife, and land. The other, the demonic one, is fighting under the orders of a Lord, the greatest of all threats to humanity.
But despite the match-up, once I hear what’s going on from Johnny, I can’t bring myself to hope for humanity’s victory. Sure, a Territory will likely fall if the Pillar dies in front of us, but so what? It will crumble eventually. The standards of humanity have fallen too far. From the dastardly three Hindrances to the corrupt Pillars, most of the Angels born from humans do little to protect us. The man in front is one of the better examples, but he’s not perfect.
Not to mention he wants our lives. Though, I’m less biased about that fact as plenty of things have wished to kill me, and many more have tried. So instead, I watch the battle several hundred feet away as my Ether begins to recover. And once it recovers enough for me to use a skill, I use Insight.
I focus my mind on the man in front of me, and within a few seconds after a small instance of interference, I see through his eyes just as I would see through mine. While others will watch from far away, I will experience an Angel’s power firsthand.
Through his own eyes. Through his own dreams. Through his own struggles. Through his own restraints. That’s what The Cabin wants me to do, right?
And so I do. I follow its hints and demands. I perceive and learn from another’s sight.
The speed of the Rougarou Hunter is blistering and near-impossible to follow even from his own view, but that’s not what blows my mind as he assaults Aniwye constantly. It’s his power. Every step he takes sends water in a shockwave before he strikes at the Ogre. And the Ogre seems to struggle to defend herself from his attacks.
I try to understand the skills that Kai Vinson is using while they are fighting. Yet I cannot. Not only are they far too complicated for me to know for the most part, but there also seems to be some kind of barrier preventing me from accessing how those work. Almost as if his Sigil is protecting his most critical secrets, even if it lets me see through his eyes.
As I watch their confrontation, I become increasingly engrossed in Kai’s perspective, slowly assimilating it with my own. Then, finally, I fall to the ground as every action he takes feels like mine.
****************
I grip my hand on the spear, twisting it to add more force as I barrel straight past the demon with my feet kicking off only the surface of the water with Fleetfoot. Blood spurts from her side as yet another wound adds to the Ogre’s massive stature, but it will not fall. Instead, she wipes her hand across the injury, using her mind to seal the bleeding before turning her focus back to me. I squint my eyes in concentration and see the gash twist away into a closed scar from her mental strength.
Her mind tries to puncture mine, but I hold fast. My mind is a force of steel forged by the Unyielding Wall himself. I will not let the man down. Nor will I let Myra down. Or Pain. The small child is still alive. I can feel it. And that certainty gives me the strength of mind and body as I twist around again, Serpentine giving my whole body the flexibility, strength, and speed of a hundred serpents all at once.
Too bad this Ogre somehow killed off my Seven without any hindrance. Too many oddities have occurred in this fight, so it’s not that big of a deal. I can feel something off whenever I look at the Gunfighter far away with Spyglass, but I just can’t pinpoint it. But I don’t have to.
I just need to focus. Another demon. Another day. The rage will only distract me. Bring about my ruin. It can wait. I will grieve you, Myra, but not now. I will save you Pain, but not yet. Marshall taught me better.
My foot slams into the ground as I Uncoil, releasing all my stored momentum from the rotation of Serpentine, and I advance right back toward the Ogre as she swipes at me with a strike of psychic force.
The mental strike hits the brick wall that is my mental fortitude, the Unyielding Mind, aptly named after my mentor. And while I’d like to have confidence it will do as it is called, I am beginning to lose that confidence. The brick walls are slowly falling from the repeated attacks, and while I have the Ether to replace them, I worry that this Ogre will somehow find a way to break it all at once.
I stumble slightly from her attack and retaliate with my own, stabbing straight for her face with Seven Serpents Spear. So many have told me my names are elaborate, but I find they give me solidity as their meaning is profound. And just like usual, the seven serpents formed from my flesh with Seven and the pure unadulterated force that is Spontaneous Strike combine, allowing my strike to land even as the demon moves with a mental blast to propel her to the side.
Four of my serpents bite her as she dodges, infecting her with venom. I can see the poison burrow into her flesh. Still, I quickly feel it expunged through Venomose, the venom leaving my senses just as it enters her bloodstream. Damn demons and their obscure skills. Every one of 'em has something special.
Seeing the lack of progress on the attack front and how far my other prey has run, I push things to the next level. Adrenaline Surge increases its amplitude and force as I will it further, imbibing it with all of the first three types of Ether manipulation, all within just a fraction of a second.
Ten times the normal Ether enters my body, inundating my muscles with strength. Then, carefully, I manipulate these streams of Ether to flow separately, making it more powerful than just one single stream. Then, just before I burst back at the Ogre, who is once more trying to enter my mind, I twist all the Ether in my body at once with my mind, braiding it to enhance its effect even further. All the while, my Sigil imbues the Ether with its touch, giving each portion the aspects of the Coiled Bushmaster.
In less than a tenth of a second, Sidewind is born. And after that split-second of birth, I shoot out at the Ogre, nearing a bullet’s speed. My spear once more aims for her giant eye in the center of her disgusting face, but the surprise comes when I see her pull a colossal heart from her head. However, I don’t give her time to do anything with it, as my spear goes right into her eye and straight through her head, killing her instantly and covering me with gore.
I fall to the ground from the high-up place of her face as the Ogre falls with a splash. Checking her with Aud, I hear no heartbeat or blood flow. Good. She’s dead.
I sweep my spear, letting the blood abandon the shaft and blade to join the waters below. Another one is down. Eight-thousand and twelve. Fourth Angel. Time to add some more to that number. One of those other prey must also be a demon or a non-human.
A deep breath is released as I build up more tension for Uncoil, but right as I step away, I feel something off. I don’t even have time to inspect the prey far away as an ominous chuckle comes from behind me, one that sends a chill down my spine.
A rough, eerie voice enters my ears from behind, and I instantly twist around.
“You didn’t think that would kill me, now did you?”
And then, before I can even scan my surroundings, I hear, no, I feel a heartbeat rumble throughout the swamp. A wave of power comes and almost shatters my mental defenses as I stagger backward, blood pouring from my eyes and nose. Gritting my teeth, I convalesce and rush back toward the Ogre, standing with an eye rapidly healing.
Within her palm is a giant heart, and each beat furthers her recovery significantly. Still, before I can get close, I see her squeeze it. I prepare for another mental strike, fortifying my Unyielding Mind, but something different happens.
Instead of a wave of mental might, it is a wave of physical might. A blast not dissimilar to the power of a bundle of dynamite sends me flying backward before I can recover by catching myself on a Cyprus on my way back.
While grabbing the tree with one hand, I quickly assess the damage to my body from the blast. Broken rib, jaw, and hip. Bruises are just about everywhere else. No big deal. I’ll handle it for now. Serpentine should make up for the lack of mobility.
The moment I recover. However, I Uncoil right for the demon, not wasting a moment now that I know the item in her hand is an artifact of great power. I burst toward her with newfound speed. An Arca is almost guaranteed to be in her hands. Greed flows through me, along with hate for her. But grief also flows. I promised to get Myra an Arca so that she would feel safe while I was gone.
I’ll never get the chance now.
Faces flow through my mind as my Ether spikes in intensity, rapidly reaching the limits of what a human body can withstand, even for an Angel.
Pain… I’ll save you. I’ll protect this whole Territory. I’ll make you proud, Marshall.
Not wanting to waste a moment or give the demon even a chance to damage me again to turn the tides, I take out all the stops.
Ether flows through my body with focus, the focus, commitment, and sheer fucking will that is only found atop the mountain peak. I am no Marshall Travis. I am not invincible or indomitable. It would be foolish to try copying my mentor’s innate grit. Instead, I focus on my own natural gift.
As Marshall put it years ago, I have the flexibility and resilience of the most potent serpent. And no matter the strike, I rebound with ten times the fury.
When he said those words all those years ago, I knew my destination. All at once, I complete the fourth, fifth, and sixth stages of Ether manipulation, forcing the Ether in my body to quadruple in density and quality and reach the sheer springiness of my mind after an impact like the two I just took.
Before I even take a second step toward the Ogre, I take a step onto an ethereal peak. One upon which so few humans have walked as well. Dzil.
The Uncoiled Quetzalcoatl flies straight for the Ogre as my body contorts, birthing serpents from my muscles that latch onto the surroundings and fling me forward. My speed increases well past the barrier of sound as I struggle to aim my spear at the demon in time before we collide. But I do. I seek the spearhead toward her neck, hoping to remove her head in one fell swoop.
But as I do so, I catch a glimpse of a young man far away with my enhanced eyesight from Spyglass. And his expression feels oddly familiar, almost like it’s the one I have on right now… I don’t let it distract me; however, as time appears to slow, the phenomenon of pure focus, focus so deep you alter reality.
However, my focus is broken as a malformed and eerie eye appears before my spear as I am just about to kill the demon once more, my spearhead only feet from her face. The eye looks into mine and sends a jolt through my whole body, making me go entirely limp, and because of it, I lose all the force I’ve generated with my body. But I push through that, forcing Uncoil to regain that strength from the limpness at a greater fold.
I can physically feel tendons snap and bones break as I do so, but I do not care. I push on, Uncoiling so far that I can feel the limits of reality slow me down. The Unyielding Wall taught me how to face pain over two decades ago. It will never beat me.
The demon’s face contorts in surprise as this final trick doesn’t work. A smile twists on mine at the surety of its death. With complete confidence that I would continue onto her, I let my spear gore straight through the eyeball to remove the threat. I instantly regret the decision, our expressions flipping in a moment shorter than when a bee flaps its wings.
The eye before me explodes into an endless dark as tiredness and drowsiness send me spiraling to the ground. My Uncoiled Quetzalcoatl attempts to pull me back up to speed. Yet, I feel everything, including my internal senses, go dark as a mind enters mine with a voice that elicits only confusion.
“Look who we have here. You shouldn’t be here, y’know? Not that it will affect anything, though. I’ll send you right back, don’t worry.”
The words are foreign, and I try to recover, but I feel it is over. My Unyielding Mind was broken the second that eyeball exploded. My defenses are gone. My mind is forfeit. But that does not mean I will go out quietly.
I’m sorry, Pain. I—. I could have done better. I could have gone further. But I did not. I felt powerful enough. Strong enough. How naive. But Marshall never taught a soldier to die quietly. Every soldier under his watch carries dynamite with them in case of death or capture. I no longer do, but that doesn’t mean I will go quietly.
The Unyielding Wall’s motto for soldiers graces my mind once last time at the brink of death.
Into the long dusk, we always rage, rage against the inevitable end, the long darkness that never ceases. Until the very last man, we fight.
No candle may be snuffed without a sound. Even as the dark takes us, we burn with rage as unending as the dark.
And as the very last man falls, he, too, shall spread the fire.
Deep in my mind, a spark is lit as the darkness consumes me. I have yet to use one final snake from my coil. There is only one thing that cannot be taken from a man who has risen above the rest.
Power.
***********************
My mind returns to me as Kai’s mind is assaulted by Aniwye; the demon is the one who sent me back to myself, as she said it was dangerous to watch the next part. Faraway in the distance, I see the fallen Pillar. The Rougarou Hunter. A legendary man hung in the air, suspended by countless limp serpents that emerged from his skin and that bite onto trees, vines, and rocks.
Kai Vinson lies dead, forever gone by the mind of a demon. The said demon stands before him, slowly healing from the countless wounds he put upon her. I can feel her mind from here as she speaks to all of us on this hill using her Ether.
“You all best be going now before anyone else shows up. The reverberations of this battle will carry for miles. This fight was close, far too close than I’d like. I hate to admit it, but our demons will likely have quite the challenge ending you all if this man is the standard.”
I can feel the demon’s respect for Kai from here, and I follow suit as I lower my head in consideration for the fallen man. My short time in his mind broke my negative thoughts of him.
He was a good man. And a good man died today. I wish I could have done something to stop it, but frankly, there wasn’t. Even if I was strong enough to make a difference in that battle between Angels where one had not just one but two artifacts of the Angelic realm, I don’t know if I would help. Doing so would likely spell my death alongside Johnny, Silas, Blake, and Lennox.
Shaking my head full of sorrow, I, along with everyone else, heed Aniwye’s warning. We turn and head north toward Starkbluffs to reunite with the rest of Johnny’s rebellion.
A good man died today. And it was my fault.
As we ride away, however, I feel the sky shake, the clouds shift, and the waters rumble. A feeling jolts through me. A flicker of hope that I feel guilty for even having. I turn my neck to face the suspended Hunter, hoping that just somehow, he yet lives and that he is able to escape.
Maybe he isn’t dead yet. Good men are rarely the strongest, but there are some exceptions. Perhaps…this will be one of them?
