Chapter 15: An Ancient Evil Stirs (2)

“Wyn? Wyn?” Magus screamed. He had ducked underneath a fallen tree, shielding himself from the creature’s blow. Yet that blow never came. In one moment, it was there, and in another, it wasn’t. Worse, though, was neither was Wyn. She was still alive, that much could be felt. Though it was hardly a comfort. She felt both near and far, a hazy mirage that flitted in and out of existence.

“What is this?” The creature glanced about, but no matter where it looked, everything was the same. White as far as could be seen. There was no horizon separating ground from sky, no division between heaven and earth. There were no shadows, nothing to shield oneself from the unending white.

“What is this?” The creature asked again. “Where am I? Where is it?”

“This…” Wyn said. “Is me.” She spread her arms out, spinning in a wide circle. “My plangensoul.”

“I see.” The creature cocked its head. “A spell to overlay the soul atop the world. Another transgression against divine law.”

“Don’t be hung up about something like that. Worry about how you’ll die here instead.”

“Foolish. To maintain such a realm, you’ve enveloped the environment in all of your mana. To turn the inside out. There is no more mana within your body. You have no spells to cast.” The creature rose to its full height, towering over Wyn. “You have no way to fight.”

“Think again.”

The creature took a step forward, before stumbling and falling to its feet. It looked down, confused.

“You’re like that black cloth on his arms, aren’t you? But you don’t get it directly from his body. That place has been dispersing his mana throughout the forest, and that residual mana is what you use, right? But that’s not here anymore. It’s just me.”

The creature let out a roar, reaching out with a hand. Wyn swung her blade, cleaving off a finger. It let out a roar of pain.

“This place really isn’t for fighting…” Wyn let out a deep breath. Without mana to enhance her physical capabilities, just cutting through one finger took all of her strength. But her ploy worked. The fallen finger didn’t regenerate.

She rushed forward, hacking over and over, chipping off piece after piece. It was like cutting through thick, viscous jelly. Its gelatinous skin caused her blade to bounce in wild directions, forcing her to twist her hand in unnatural positions simply to maintain her cutting edge. Without mana to reinforce her body, each strike reverberated through her bones. Each swing of her sword threatened to break her own arms. But it was worse off. It clearly wasn’t efficient in its functions. It rightfully assumed that it’d always have access to Magus’ mana, that efficiency wasn’t something it needed to worry about. And who would ever use a Plangensoul in combat? It made the whole world a target. Hit anywhere and it’d hit Wyn. Luckily, it was too shocked to do much more than sit there and take every hit.

For once in her life, she was glad her Plangensoul was a failure. There were no trees she had to worry about breaking, no buildings the thing could land on, nothing. Just a pure, empty plane where she could whale on the thing.

Finally, the creature stumbled and fell onto its back. The force of its body hitting the ground made Wyn want to throw up, but she just grit her teeth. She climbed up on its body, stabbing her sword through its arm.

Without a steady source of mana, the creature’s body began to slowly break down. Tiny chunks began to evaporate, tiny holes poking through its glowing silver skin. With just a few more slashes, it was reduced to just a torso on a head.

Heaving, Wyn climbed on its torso, hoisting her sword up. She stabbed her sword down, impaling the ground next to the creature.

“Now… you’re going to answer my questions.”

“I will not. That goes against my prime directive.”

“I don’t care. You’ll die if you don’t.”

“...” The creature is silent.

“You scared?”

“I have not lived long enough to fear.”

“Sure, whatever you say.” Wyn shrugged. “First off, who are you? What’s your name?”

“I suppose I can answer that. I am a directive created as a failsafe in case It ever awoke. About the second question… I have no name.”

“Great…” Wyn dragged the sword closer to the neck of the creature. “Now, who created you?”

“I can’t—”

Wyn nudged the sword closer to its neck. “Don’t make this more difficult than it has to be.”

“The messenger. You saw their message to It, no? They created me.” The creature raised its head, bumping into Wyn’s own head. Silver tendrils spread across her body, but her sword easily cut through them.

“What the—”

“I was merely reading some of your memories. Given your terms, they would be… Mother.”

“Wait, but she said that Magus was—”

“Indeed, they too were one of Mother’s creations. Mother has many creations, you know. In your terms, It would be Brother. Or perhaps Father, too.”

“Huh?” Now it was Wyn’s turn to be confused.

“I was created by Mother’s spell, using Its mana that had been siphoned away. Using your terms, I’d be—”

“Yeah no, I got that.” Wyn cut him off. “Gross. Never say that again.”

“It does not matter to me your human terms. It was purely for your convenience that I used that term.”

“Right. The most important question then. You know about Magus’ past, don’t you? Spill.”

“Not anything specific.”

“Huh? Then—”

“All I know is my directive. I was created to perform one task. All the information I have is solely pertaining to that task. I know of its danger. I know the threat it poses. Besides, I was born mere minutes ago, and Its transgressions were eons ago.”

“Eons? What’s an eon?”

“A long time ago.”

“Great. You’re useless, then.” Wyn let out a sigh. “Sucks that I have to do this, since you’ve been oh-so cooperative, but if I let you go, you’ll probably still chase after us. So—” Wyn hoisted up her sword.

“That will not be happening.” The creature stirred and shook, knocking Wyn to the ground. Around them, the white void began to crack and fall apart.

“A mortal could never hope to overwrite the world without flaw. Once a crack was found, cracking open your false world was simple.”

In a flash, the void disappeared and they were back in the forest.

“I am too injured to continue the fight, so I will be retreating for now. But I shall remember you. We will meet again soon.”

In a burst of light, the creature disappeared. Magus ran up to Wyn.

“What happened? Where did you—”

“Let’s head back first, it’s a lot to explain.” Wyn let out a groan. Her body hasn’t ached so badly in quite a while, and she needed to lay down.

The creature’s tendrils reached into the soil, devouring any trace of mana like a famished madman. It left a trail of barren wasteland wherever it went, until at last it was satiated and regrown. It stalked forward, on the hunt, searching for a suitable host to take on its targets. And it already had a target in mind. A monster more than a match for that insolent mortal, fanning a growing rage against It that wounded it. In a flattened clearing, in a nest of fallen trees, a massive black dog lay, resting its wounded head.