442. Wilderness, 4

(Rose)

The weather turned really cold, but the air is quite dry so it’s still alright and bearable.

However the land is more and more desolate.

The forests now far behind gradually turned to dead trees, and then to nothing. The fields followed the same

pattern.

And the other lifeforms, the floating ribbons even, they all disappeared along the way.

We’ve reached a sterile land. There’s still earth and dirt, and surely bacteria as well, but nothing bigger still grows nor lives.

We soon are the only living animal and plant-like thing in this whole desert we reached, which stretches for at least a hundred kilometres in the distance. We can’t see its end from here.

We’ve begun crossing this dead land thanks to her. I have nothing left for me to eat, but Blume is still able to sustain us through sunlight, water, and me eating disgusting large amounts of dirt.

It’s nasty all the way. But I survive. We can.

R - This land is so hostile, but I don’t see any of the usual marks of neither human weapons nor magic from a being-like-you. What could cause this?

B - I don’t know yet. All I can say is the air is abnormally low in energy and aggressive in nature. It’s filled with acid.

R - Acid? I don’t feel anything.

B - Acid for beings-like-me. Our true structure would suffer gradually in this air. The spores have disappeared from the air so nothing bigger can grow. If I wasn’t incarnated in your body, I would have left this place before it would wound me.

R - So it’s even more hostile for beings-like-you than it even is for animals like me.

B - Yes. And it brings an oppressive feeling to me. As if I was lost in the middle of a desert without food nor water.

R - Like we are you mean?

B - I mean like we would be if we were separated.

R - That would mean emigrating somewhere else fast, or death.

B - Yes. I’m feeling anxious right now. The air is more dry than anywhere I’ve been.

R - But if we can live on with our synergy, and wouldn’t otherwise, that means we’re in symbiosis right now?

B - I believe so. Neither of us could survive for long on her own in this desert. Your body protects me, and I can feed you.

R - As best you can.

B - I’m a flower, not a gluttonous stomach like you mammals.

R - That’s what you always say.

~

We reach the dirty ruins of a city where everything remotely alive has disappeared some time ago.

It looks different than normal ruins.

Every plant, everywhere, even in pots from people’s homes, is gone. Even the roots are gone. Everything made of wood is also damaged. Most plastic is eroded as well. Most organic material has disappeared, living things first.

I found cans of food. The rusted ones were unopened, but clean empty. And the oddest thing happened as I opened one that was still full.

We saw its content vaporizing itself and flowing away in a mist before our eyes. Before I knew it, the can was empty and dry.

R - What the hell? Even the juice is gone.

I dropped the now clean and empty can, following the scattering mist outside.

B - There’s really something wrong about this place.

My bottle of water didn’t empty itself when I drank from it. But the fruit juice boiled and vanished almost instantly.

My skin and lips are feeling painfully dry though.

Other cans of food gave similar results. Dead biological material just vaporises and vanishes.

R - My clothes and my hair are still there though, thankfully.

B - I’m afraid I’m beginning to understand. It’s probably something eating the available food, even at a distance.

R - A being-like-you surviving around here and eating what it can in the desert, from far away? Like jellyfish strings around?

B - ... I’m afraid you should think bigger.

Bigger? Not an entity like us surviving through this land?

Bigger...

I begin to feel a primitive fear as I slowly realise what Blume is meaning.

Much, much bigger.

It’s not threads in the desert. This entire desert is resulting from the aura of a being-like-her. Not something surviving lost in the middle of a desert. Something that made the desert as it ate everything its aura could reach and dissolve. A vaporous stomach, spread over miles and miles...

Something immense.

R - You’re joking right? We’re not talking about the domain of a being-like-you here. They’ve never been bigger than a city. We’ve been walking for weeks in this wasteland. It’s the size of a county.

B - I’m unable to perceive much of what lies ahead currently, because T.I. is destructured around us to me. But I believe that it is very likely we’re on the domain of such a monster yes.

R - Why can’t you see anything? There must be structure in the flows if it’s meant to digest all there is.

B - Because of the acidity. If I were to extend myself out of you to probe the air, that growth would dissolve like these juices. I’m not able to expand my senses much beyond yours in there.

R - Can’t you try building a spell for that? I still have many wish stones.

B - Let me think of something...

~

There’s nothing left to burn to warm myself, but I can use one of the stones itself instead.

Blume is thinking hard, I can even feel it.

R - What would be interesting is to know where is the epicentre of this domain. Because we would already be closer to the other end if we’ve passed it.

B - It doesn’t feel that way at least. But I’m on something that should work.

R - What’s your plan?

B - A sonar. I’ll send a strong wave all around, that won’t lose as much energy as it should while it spreads. I’ll keep an eye on it and look in which direction it is eaten faster.

R - This area is eating all the free or frail structures of T.I. around?

B - Basically yes.

R - It reminds me of the mouth of god. Dragod. It was vacuuming the surrounding air.

B - This around here is a far more aggressive digestion.

Blume made her spell. It felt like a call. That growing invisible sphere around us was progressively dissolved in the distance.

And at some point, in a clear direction, a wider hole appeared faster than everywhere else. We had a direction now. The hole is somewhere north east.

B - This god is where another used to be I think. Unless it changed in nature.

R - A long time ago, you told me you could sort of detect the most powerful god-like beings-like-you over the globe. So there was one in this ara of the world? We’re in this domain?

B - At the time, I detected the radiations the most energetic beings or artefacts emitted then. Nowadays, this one is swallowing all radiations and light entering his domain. It can’t be seen from outside anymore.

I’m feeling a growing worry from both Blume and my own instincts.

Ogre is grinning. Licht is uneasy and itchy. Blume is worried. I’m...

B - it’s swallowing everything... Plants. Bacteria. Dead flesh. Beings-like-me. All things that live to some extent...

Somewhere out there, something ominous is slowly consuming all lifeforms, old and new alike, on a growing radius. It spans a country already.

R - And the only thing able to survive this land, is the right hybrid of being-like-you, and old material body. A nephilim. A true daiûa... We didn’t realise it until we got this far.

How oblivious could we be scares me.

There’s a god unlike any we’ve ever encountered out there.

Something wide enough to make me feel shivers.

Blume is sighning, holding me tight and dear.

B - You’ve already made up your mind, haven’t you?

R - I’m about to.

~

The Licht in my mind is telling me that this is the real reason to fight. Stopping monsters.

Ogre is simply excited in me. I’m excited. I want to see that thing. I want to fight for something.

And if I can be the one that stops a machine of death from growing, maybe it will soothe my inferiority complex. Maybe it could also help the biospheres to grow back in this land where they’ve gone extinct.

R - What would you say if I told you we should use our combined powers to fight a god?

B - That you’re insane.

R - Licht did it. And I like that nickname of god slayer. It sounds heroic.

I’m talking on a playful tone. Some feelings are twirling fast between us right now. I’m poking Blume.

B - A while back, I would have told you it was insanity to consider bringing the fight to something like that...

R - And today? With what we’ve become?

B - That it’s still insane! But also that we have a reasonable chance to actually succeed...

Because we don’t have to battle on strength alone. We have other options, better options.

Monsters destroying their surrounding more than they need to, they should be given the chance. The choice of this world. Evolve or die.

I’m looking at my sword next to me, and the few glowing stones attached to it.

I may be jealous, but I also want to be noble. Licht and Ogre are pulling me in two different ambitions and moralities.

R - I want to go and do something good, but I’m feeling really insecure... Am I closer to Licht or to Ogre?

B - Rose... How can you even ask me that?

Shadows will always remain in my heart. But I will walk toward my ideals again.

Try to be noble and give a chance to the horror. And if we fail, then fight...

To stop something horrendous from spreading, even if it costs a life.

R - Let’s go Blume. Let’s meet that gigantic god of the wild.

~