Chapter 19: Decisions

Skeletons swarmed around Nic as he drew them away from the tower balcony. Through the open doors, he was able to catch Yuuki’s hair disappearing as she fell below.

One was gone. Now he just had to wait for the other person on the balcony to jump.

His sword met the swinging bones from one of the skeletons' bare hands. As they touched, black miasma was absorbed into the sword from the skeleton. With nothing keeping its bones together, the skeleton fell apart.

The bones left a sickening thump as they all hit the floor at nearly the same time.

That was the tenth skeleton that had fallen apart already in the short time that Nic had been facing them. Each swing of his sword took another. Despite that, the horde never thinned. When one skeleton fell, another took its place. There was as an infinite amount trying to push their way up the stairs.

“Nic!” Crystal called from the balcony. Her head poked in ever so gently, and yet the moment she did a number of skeletons forgot about Nic and started towards her.

“Get going!” Nic reached out his hand towards the balcony. In front of his palm was a small green blob. The lesser air spirit had been with him for over a year now.

The two could not communicate verbally. Yet they didn’t need to.

The spirit understood what Nic wanted as he held out his hand.

A vortex drew in all of the air between Nic’s hand and the door to the balcony. As the air rushed by the skeletons, it took the Irradiation keeping them together with it.

Fifteen skeletons in a cone area fell to the floor. Their bones rolled around before coming to a stop.

Crystal’s eyes were filled with determination as she watched the scene unfold. Leaving Nic with a solemn nod, Crystal turned and heaved herself over the side of the balcony railing.

Both were now gone.

Now all that was left was Nic.

There was one problem. By running through the room, Nic had put himself away from the balcony. To top it off, as the only one left, Nic had a horde of skeletons piling onto him.

His sword smashed another bone. More Irradiation was absorbed.

His hand crushed the neck of a skeleton. More Irradiation absorbed.

There was a sickness within him. It moved and squirmed through every part of his body. Nic may have been able to absorb Irradiation, but he had a limit. A limit that he was fast approaching.

He activated his own magic and felt it start going after the Irradiation within his body.

He pushed against the onslaught of skeletons. His body pushed against the onslaught of Irradiation. Two separate battles and yet both were vital he won.

Tendrils of black miasma wafted up from the floor.

CREAK

Nic could feel the tower moving ever so slightly.

The weight of all of these skeletons mixed with the strain of the Irradiation was breaking the tower at its foundation.

There was only one way out; the balcony.

“Buddy, you ready?”

A mere whisper, but the blob heard it.

The wind began and Nic ran.

He held his blade out to the side.

It was a lightning rod for Irradiation in a sense. An Irradiation rod really. The wind that whipped around the room and through the tower was pulling all of the Irradiation toward it. The sword would absorb it and then Nic would absorb it through the sword and purify it.

And while it did that Nic ran to the balcony. He put his free hand on the railing and vaulted himself over. At the last second, he bunch his legs up and pushed himself away from the tower.

He was free falling towards the center street of the town. Behind Nic was a trailing cloud of black miasma.

Wind currents violently thrashing beneath him kept him from falling too fast while the air flowing freely from the tower dragged the Irradiation closer and closer.

Once he landed, he would find some cover and absorb it all. It was Crystalia’s only chance at not being coated in the stuff for centuries to come.

He had done this same maneuver twice already. A third time would be quite simple.

As he was thinking about this, his plans quickly flew into the wind as the winds keeping him up suddenly disappeared. Not only that, but the wind drawing the Irradiation to him also disappeared suddenly.

Nic entered freefall.

What was once a much softer fall turned into a quick descent as Nic plummeted toward the road.

As he watched the stone get closer and closer, he wondered what caused this. The small spirit was rushing itself around him frantically. It also did not know what had happened.

Its connection to the wind around them had been suddenly cut off.

Nic was already halfway to the stone.

He shut his eyes. Faces flashed through the darkness. His mother. Sarman. Yuuki. Kiara and Sarah. Rust.

Aria.

Her face lingered.

Thinking that he wouldn’t get to say anything else to her, to not be close to her anymore, to not be able to touch her anymore; that caused his gut to hurt.

His gut?

Something was pushing against his gut. That’s what he was feeling.

Nic opened his eyes to find an absolute maelstrom of wind below him. In its center was the small green spirit.

It didn’t have a face but Nic thought it was beaming up at him, proud of its accomplishment in restoring its power.

Nic was floating slower again, though he was already at the height of the buildings around him. There were barely three mer left before he hit the ground.

His floating wasn’t the only thing turned back on. He could sense the Irradiation flowing towards him at a rapid pace again. He spun around and thrust his sword toward the encroaching miasma.

The force of the collision between the two forced Nic back to the ground. As his feet touched the ground, his knees immediately bent to conserve the force of the impact.

Irradiation rushed over his body. He absorbed as much as he could, but it still wasn’t enough. Even with his magic going at full force, he was not able to purify the Irradiation in his own body fast enough to absorb more.

Nic stabbed his sword into the ground in front of him. If nothing else, he needed it to act as the primary reciever of the Irradiation in the air.

Ideas were running through Nic’s mind, a plan slowly formulating.

“Buddy,” Nic called out to the small blob circling around him. Even through the darkness of the Irradiation, he could see that green light. “Gather as much as you can here and focus it into the sword.”

The blob bobbed up and down once in acknowledgement. Nic placed a single finger on the hilt of the sword. That small connection was the only way for the Irradiaiton in the sword to move to Nic’s own body.

He cut off the rest of his body from the Irradiation trying to force it’s way in. His magic was forming an invisible barrier at his skin, stopping the Irradiation outside while still purifying the Irradiation inside.

Once he purified the Irradiation within his body, Nic absorbed everything out of the sword. With the new Irradiation in his body, he once again cut off the flow of Irradiation and purified it.

Purify, absorb, close the connection.

Over and over.

Again and again.

Nic couldn’t tell how long each batch of purification took. His vision was greatly limited by the sphere of miasma around him.

His only sense of time was the gradual fading of the miasma. The more he absorbed, the thinner it got.

He heard shouts and commands only because of how loud they were normally. To him each one was muffled and distorted.

Thinner and thinner the miasma became. Yet as thin as it got, the border stayed relatively thick. It wasn’t until the border outline of the sphere was the last thing that it started getting thinner.

Had the spirit been protecting Nic’s secret from the villagers running by?

Without the ability for it to speak, Nic had a feeling he wouldn’t get the answer to that question.

He looked outside the sphere as it started getting thinner. Fires burned in multiple places as the stone in the street was upturned everywhere. He could see a number of store fronts trashed and burning as well.

He finally smelled a putrid scent that was being blocked by the Irradiation. His nose hated the scent.

It wasn’t hard to see the source.

Burned bodies were halfway out of the fires.

Charred remains of those innocents that had been attacked.

Nic looked away. He couldn’t face that reality just yet. Not while the rest of the people living in the village were in trouble. He needed to focus on clearing out the rest of the Irradiation before joining back up with the rest.

As he looked away from the bodies, his eyes passed over a narrow alley between two of the buildings. Standing there was a girl with cat ears and a tail. Her breathing was shallow as she leaned against one of the walls. Her long black hair was disheveled, far worse than it had been when Nic had just seen her a couple minutes prior.

She reached her hand out to the wall of Irradiation.

“Yuuki.” Nic pulled in the rest of the Irradiation as he said her name. Between his own body and the sword, there was enough space to absorb all of it.

Her ears flattened as she heard his voice. Her eyes looked away and she tried to step back only to find her back up against a wooden beam.

“Nic.” It was barely a whisper. Nic wasn’t even sure if it was Yuuki who said it. It could’ve been anyone else in the area.

“What’s going on?” Trepidation creeped into his voice. Yuuki refused to meet his gaze and she was shifting her body nervously. “What’re you doing here?”

A loud explosion went off in the distance past the gate to the city. It didn’t take more than a glance to see the large column of blue flames rising into the sky.

“Shouldn’t you be with Sarman?” Nic nodded over to the flames and watched a small amount of worry flash across Yuuki’s face. But it quickly disappeared and was replaced with the same apathetic look that she had before.

She moved around the wooden beam and took another step back.

“I…” Another step. Nic took his own towards her.

“She can’t.” Another male voice spoke up, answering in Yuuki’s place.

Nic turned towards the newcomer. He was wearing the same outfit as the rest of Crystallia’s guards. A short sword hung at his waist and his short brown hair matched the leather he was wearing perfectly. Two blue eyes sneered at the two of them.

“You!?” Yuuki shouted in fright as she looked at the man in front of them. The man smiled as he heard her.

“Yai, Commander Ito.” The man addressed Yuuki by her last name, cementing to Nic that he was indeed one of the people that was a part of Crystallia’s small military force. However, the first word he said was something Nic had never heard before. A tongue that he had yet to learn.

“Who’re you?” As Nic asked that question, he finished purifying all of the Irradiation within himself. Free of that burden, he pointed his sword at the newcomer. “What do you know about Yuuki?”
“Me? I’m just a humble part of the force here to destroy this Rad-Town. As for the Heiress over there, I know quite a bit.”

“Heiress?” Nic looked back at Yuuki to find her looking conflicted as she looked at the man.

“That’s right. The true Heiress of Kyoku. As for why she’s like this, well… she’s lost all of her confidence in herself and is just looking for an easy way out.”

Yuuki was shrinking back into the darkness of the alley even more. The man had hit the nail on the head.

Nic let out a small sigh. It was filled with pain itself. He wanted to help Yuuki, but he couldn’t. Nic knew that. If there was anyone who would be able to help her it would be him.

Despite this, Nic stepped in front of Yuuki. He readied his sword properly this time.

If Yuuki was going to be saved by Sarman, Nic would make sure she would stay alive till then.

“Even if she is… She won’t find it.”

Nic wouldn’t let the man past him. Not with Yuuki there.

“Oh? How can you be so sure?”

“Because I’m her friend.” Nic let a smile creep onto his face. “I’ll believe in her until the end.”

The man doubled over as he laughed at the answer. Nic knew it was tacky, but he truly believed in Yuuki. She wouldn’t let things end so simply. She will still be standing when Sarman sees her again.

Even if she didn’t know it herself.

“That’s too good!” The man picked himself up as another explosion shook the street. “Sound’s like Mr. Chapman over there is having some difficulties. So, what’re you gonna do? Stay here and protect the Heiress? Or go help the Flame Spirit King?”

A decision needed to be made. Nic couldn’t be in two places at once.

Two of his friends were in danger.

Yuuki would surely be attacked if he left her alone.

He didn’t know how bad the situation with Sarman actually was.

If he grabbed Yuuki and ran to Sarman, there was a chance the man would follow and then they would be fighting on two sides.

The biggest factor was how strong the man in the street was.

Despite his mediocre look, Nic’s gut was telling him that it was a lie.

Taking everything into account, there was only one choice that Nic could think of.

He took a deep breath in and imagined his father. He imagined the physical instructor at the magic university. He imagined Ordwell.

Nic put on the most serious face he could.

“Yuuki.” His voice came out loud and clear. It was far crisper than his normal speech. “Get going!”

“Hoh?”
“Huh?!”

Two voices answered him. One in front and one behind.

“Go!” Nic looked back at Yuuki as he said it again. He was forceful. “Go help Sarman!”

The severity of his voice blew the fear away from Yuuki. Still somewhat hesitant, she gave Nic a nod before fading into the dark alleyway and out of sight.

Nic watched where she had disappeared from for a minute before turning back to the man in front of him. Eyeing the man cautiously, Nic sheathed his sword.

A bemused eye followed his sword until it was sheathed.

“Sending the Heiress to him? I wasn’t expecting that. Why’d you go that route?”

“Because Sarman is the one keeping her alive. As long as she has him, she will never truly fall.” Nic raised his own eyebrow in question. The man was still in roughly the same spot he had been the entire time. Not even his hands were moving that much. “How about you? You could easily run me through and go after her, yet you don’t. You don’t want her to die either, don’t you?”

His first movement in a while was to raise his arms in surrender.

“You got me. No, I don’t plan on trying to kill her myself anymore.” He shrugged. “Of course, if any of the plans I already have in place go through… well, I can’t help it if she falls then.”

“Why did you appear before me? And what’s your name?”

Nic knew nothing about this man. While he was stalling for time as well, there were things he wanted to know. First and foremost was a name.

“Name? I go by many, but,” A bright light enveloped the man’s entire body in a second. “You can call me Solus.”

While he wore the same outfit when the light finally disappeared, Solus’ entire face had changed. His once brown hair was now blindingly white, the same with his eyes. It looked like they simply didn’t have iris’ when in reality their iris’ were actually the same color as the rest of the eyeball. But the most defining feature was the massive scar through his left eye.

“Solus?” Nic had heard the name before. Anyone who was around Greater Spirits or Spirit Progenitors was bound to have heard it. “As in the Light Spirit Progenitor?”

“Oh, so you’ve heard of me? As I would expect being so close to two of my siblings.”

Nic stood there, confusion running across his face. Was the man in front of him Solus themself or just the one Solus was contracted with?

The realization of what was happening hit him like a kick to the gut. Elves were easily spottable because their hair and iris’ would match a color associated with their element. Light Elves had white hair and iris’.

“Wait…”

“Oh? Did you realize that I’m an Elf as well? Now you’re probably wondering how or why this would happen.” He did a small twirl to show that his body was indeed complete. He then kicked up a small piece of wood and tossed it into the air before catching it.

He was tangible.

“You see the one I was contracted with decided to give me his body! So now I have my powers as the Light progenitor still and the ability to do anything that you mortals do! And boy, let me tell you, being a mortal is great.”

Solus was enjoying his self-aggrandizing. Nic felt a lump in his gut as he listened to the Elf.

“Why tell me this?”

“Hmmm? You asked, didn’t you?” Solus waved the question away before switching back to a serious demeanor. “Let’s get back on track. I don’t care if the Heiress lives or dies here. Her appearance here in the first place was quite a shock to me if you can believe it.”

“I can. Her disappearing on the rest of us was quite a shock when it happened.”

Solus nodded his head in understanding. Like Sarman, Nic, and Aria he had not been expecting Yuuki to leave Sanum.

“What’s your reason for attacking this Rad-Town then?”

“To kill Crystal. To rid this world of one who could oppose my true queen’s plans. Just like our attempt to remove Sanum from the face of these lands.”

Nic took a small step back. Learning the truth behind Jack’s attacks didn’t affect him too much. What sent him for a loop was Solus’ admission that Crystal was their target.

Nic barely knew the woman. He had spent less than thirty minutes talking with her. Yet he knew she was his family thanks to Rust. Not only that, she was the one who could help him increase the amount of Irradiation he could absorb at once.

Nic wasn’t about to let her die.

“Should you really be telling me that your target is Crystal?” Nic’s hand reached for his sword again.

“If you want to save her, go ahead and try.” Solus looked past Nic, towards the front gates of the city. Then he looked up. In the sky, there were two beings locked in aerial combat.

Nic followed his gaze up. Even without demi-human eyesight, Nic could see Aria.

“Before I leave this Rad-Town and report to my queen, let me offer you some advice.” Solus held out three fingers. “You have to make a decision.”

“What?”

“There are three choices for you. Three places that could all use your help. Crystal is defending the innocent civilians of this town against the horde of soldiers I helped bring into Crystallia’s defensive forces.” Solus put one of his fingers down. “Chapman’s kid is fighting in front of Crystallia’s gate. The ones attacking him are soldiers from Sanum that Orpheus sent to me. I hear they are part of his own personal force stationed in the City.”

“Orpheus?” Another name. Another one that Nic knew only because of his time with Aerial and Salamander. A second Spirit Progenitor.

“That’s right. My opposite; Orpheus the Darkness Spirit Progenitor.” Solus’ grin grew wider as he put down the second of three fingers. “And finally, Aerial’s contractor up there. She faces off against Narissa, contractor of Sylph- the second oldest wind spirit after Aerial and the first one that my sibling made.”

Three choices. One decision.

Nic understood what Solus was doing. He couldn’t be everywhere at once.

Solus offered Nic three enticing choices. Each one had at least one person in danger that he cared about.

Who would Nic choose to save? Would that decision result in the death of one of the others?

But there was also a fourth option.

Nic drew his sword.

“Or I can stay here and make sure you don’t get away.”

The tip was pointed at Solus yet again.

Solus’ reaction was to simply smile. A bright glow surrounded him before Solus simply disappeared.

“Huh?!” Nic looked around.

Had Solus teleported? Was that magic even possible?

“How would you keep me here if you don’t know how to find me?” Nic turned around. The voice had come from behind him. “Wrong area.” A shove sent Nic fumbling forward.

Managing to stay on his feet, Nic swung around again, a wild slash stretching out in front of him.

“Show yourself!”

“The reflections of light can do many wonderful things. For example, I can change how I look physically.” The original face that Solus had been wearing flashed through Nic’s vision. “Or I can change how you see things. If you can’t see me, then wouldn’t that make me invisible?”

Calling it invisibility was stretching the truth. In reality, Solus’ actions were the opposite of invisibility. Instead of truly making oneself disappear, Solus instead made everyone else blind to his body through light.

Even if it was done through opposing means, the end result was still the same.

Nic was unable to see Solus. Without visual confirmation of the Elf’s location, Nic was unable to fight him and keep him there.

“You should think about the decision you have to make, Verilo.”

Nic tensed up. The voice was getting farther away and there wasn’t anything he could do.

“Oh, one last piece of advice.” The voice stopped moving. “If you do go after Narissa, she is not a natural Demi-Human. Her wings were grafted on with Irradiation.”

“What?!” Nic had never thought about using Irradiation for something like that. While it was responsible for the creation of the first Demi-Humans, hearing that it could be used to make someone have Demi-Human body parts made Nic feel queasy.

“Oh, and you should know that Narissa seems to be far more used to fighting midair than Aerial’s contractor. See you around, Verilo. Sanso wo subene no hiso nu onozureru.” With a final message in that same foreign tongue that Nic didn’t know, Solus’ voice went quiet.

Nic listened as the sounds of swords clashing could be heard in the distance. It was coming from the general direction that he knew Crystal was in.

Behind him, he could still hear explosions going off continuously. Sarman was in full swing. With Yuuki already heading there, or possibly already there, Nic felt that Sarman would be fine.

Finally, above him, the winds covering the town were a chaotic mess. Two strong wind spirits were fighting each other. If Solus was to be believed, it seemed that Aria was in danger.

What Solus had offered as three choices was actually only two for Nic. And one of them was far more important to him than the other.

Nic started moving again. He ran away from the sounds of swords clashing. Away from the sound of explosions in front of the town.

As he ran down the street, he looked for any sort of access to the roofs of the buildings around him.

One of the buildings on his left had partially collapsed. The collapsed side made a nice ramp up to the roof.

Nic quickly scaled it. At the top, he looked up again. One of the two flying fighters was clearly struggling to keep up.

Narissa struck a decisive blow to Aria and sent her tumbling toward the ground. Nic thrust out his hand. In his palm the lesser spirit he was contracted with. The spirit coaxed the whirling air to send Aria’s body toward Nic.

The spirit wasn’t able to get the wind to slow down though.

Aria slammed into Nic’s chest. Nic was pushed onto his back by the force but kept his arms wrapped tightly around Aria.

“Ughhh…” Aria let out a soft groan as she opened the eyes she had squeezed shut. When she saw Nic holding her, Aria’s cheeks turned a faint red. “What’re you doing here?”

“I figured you could use some help with her. I also happen to have supposedly learned her weak spot.”