'What is this?' His casual voice spread throughout nothingness.
'Ecstasy. Our bodies were so excited, they shattered.' She replied, her calm, mature voice echoing.
'Wait... Is this the fabled mating ritual?'
'Don't make this weird, child. This will be happening when you summon your Totem. We will have to get used to it.'
'Child? What are you, a tiny geezer in disguise?' Ikky kept that thought to himself.
By the time his eyes opened up, a new body had formed— his living Totem.
His amber irises had now turned pitch black with glowing amber pupils inside them.
His flesh had become like Yaga's from what Ikky could see— soft-looking like a figure carved from snow. It felt like he had been broken down and then reformed into perfection, by a perfectionist; a flamboyant creation.
"So this is Līfwin."
There was no added strength with the transformation, but Ikky still felt more capable, more flexible and even lighter than ever. It felt like he could do a back flip twice in the air before landing, and his properly structured dentures made him believe he could now crunch through even a skull.
Ikky took a deep breath, feeling that he even performed that simple action better now, before finally noticing his clothes. His winter outfit was still on, however it was looked stained with black blood of spirits that kept swimming around his form. It was ominous.
Yet the contrast of the snow colour of his body and eerie black clothes were more breathtaking than they should have been for just a combination of black and white.
At least, that was how Ikky felt. He was brimming with self-love and happiness for some reason. But he had bigger worries.
Those pretty boys in Svarga must have been exactly what Ikky had saw them as— useless. What was the point of the transformation when the effects of his Totem was so underwhelming. He'd rather be breathing out fire instead.
"What the sinful hell is this Totem supposed to be? Don't tell me it just makes me slightly stronger... although I do look good, I do look good." Ikky started, not even trying to ease properly into a conversation about what the heck this Totem did anyway.
"Līfwin is the dear friend of creation, so perhaps try talking with the snow and see if that works." Yaga said plainly.
"Ha ha ha. You've got jokes huh, Yaga?
Fixing his now silky white hair properly in his hoodie, Ikky turned around and caught sight of the remaining spirits slowly galloping back to wherever they had come from.
"Or I could try talking to animals and see— hm? Why are they running away?"
"They think I'm dead, don't they?" Ikky continued.
Figuring this was an easy chance at killing them anyway, he picked up his sword and followed behind the spirits, hoping to scatter their formation by drawing out a sudden cry from one of the spirits.
Defeating all eight monolithic spirits while they all struck him at once from all directions was as impossible as it sounded. He had finished only four, and ended up with a broken arm. So getting as close as possible to the spirits within the fog, Ikky charged at one of them and shot his sword right into the spirit's anus.
"..."
With a brief moment of silence, the wildebeest turned to look at the human behind it, and then back to the other spirits. With one gathered breath, it shot it's head to the sky and roared with all its might.
AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
"What the hell?!" Shocked by the hoarse cry of the wildebeest, Ikky let go of his sword and leapt back. The other spirits weren't exactly calm about the situation either. Ikky's plan worked too well, and the spirits all dispersed into the thick fog.
The wildebeest Ikky had stabbed ran for only a few meters before eventually falling on the snow and splurting out blood from its butt.
"Oof!" Ikky reacted at the repulsive sight and the fact that he had lost the entire herd of spirits. He could still catch glimpses of some of them deep into fog, but had no way of catching up to them now.
Figuring he'd just make do with the five crystals he had obtained, he walked on over to the writhing spirit and pulled his blade out.
Rubbing his eyes, a mysterious light flashed over the wildebeest.
Attaching to the forehead of the wreathing spirit, was a long white thread flowing out of it, and black mist that resembled murky fluid pouring from the same point as the thread.
And unlike the sword wound Ikky had made, this thread poking out of the creature seemed very natural— like it had been created right along with the spirit; a body part even. This seemed all the more so when Ikky noticed the thread's light flickering along with the spirit's life, and the night mist leaving its body.
Dazedly, he reached out for the bright white thread. But as his hand neared the night mist, he froze.
"It's... What is this?"
Ikky hadn't thought about whether or not spirits were capable of fear or relief. He quite frankly, didn't care.
But through his skin, the shivering cold mist communicated that which he had neglected to understand; that there were even final moments for savage spirits like these. It had become sober from its primary goal of hunting and succumbed simply to fear and pain. The closer it got to its gradual death, the more it despaired and the more the mist was dispersed.
Ikky's hand continued till it touched the thread nonetheless, then he ripped it out of the spirit's head.
But maybe as a result of the growing remorse in his indifferent heart, he sliced cleanly through the wildebeest's neck, letting it finally rest in the cold but relieving embrace of death.
Another black stain appeared on his body.
—
"Speaking of cold! What the heck is this?" Ikky, was awed as he lifted the long thread in the air, watching the rest of the murky mist flow to one end of the tip to form a small figure that looked just like the spirit he'd just killed.
With a curious thought, he made the palm sized wildebeest vanish into the white Virtue-mark drawn clearly on the back of his shirt. But—
"Take it out, now!" Yaga suddenly screamed in his head.
Shocked by how serious Yaga's warning was, Ikky did not waste any time to quickly remove the small wildebeest from his Mark and throw it away.
From within the snow, the toy-like figure began to expand and bloat in a grotesque manner. Ikky heard cries from it, something he could make out as cries of lamenting, disappointment and even sadness.
"What? What have I done?" The words came out of his mouth without him thinking of saying it.
He fell on his back but immediately turned around to start crawling away. Barely getting far enough, the wildebeest figurine exploded into blood splatter, staining and burning Ikky's own body.
But the pain in his heart was far more hurtful.
———
Was it because of the method the former group of prophets had used that Ikky had encountered no spirit for hours at the Kailash?
Had the previous herd turned around to leave because they thought Ikky was really dead?
Well no, not really. Ikky hadn't seen any spirits come to him simply because he wasn't a conventional human. He was a being made from curses, while the prophets that the Kailash could read were made of soil.
But as soon as Ikky poured out spiritual essence himself to activate his totem, the mountains became more aware of his existence— of Līfwin's existence.
The former spirits had left out of surprise and respect, but something else was coming to bring retribution to the imposter who had dared to wear Līfwin's skin and forced him to commit atrocities.
———
"What just happened?!" Ikky exclaimed, taking laboured breaths as he looked at his body. He didn't like this feeling— not one bit. Was he not supposed to kill spirits? Or even anything for that matter? How was he supposed to use his first Virtue then? How else would he find essence crystals to eat?
He was angry, yet remorseful. He didn't like that this Totem had turned him into someone else in this way.
The blood running all over his body now looked like reminders of the sin he had committed. He felt uncomfortable under his own skin, yet couldn't even get himself to relinquish the Totem.
Perhaps he deserved the suffering.
"Yaga. Yaga answer me! What now?!"
"... The running is not over, child." Yaga replied.
*Clack! *Clack! *Clack!
It was the sound of bones striking each other, accompanied by tearing flesh.
Ikky slowly carried his head to looked up through the thick snow. He found a person hunching their wide back as they crudely ripped out the bones of the dead spirits before slowly attaching them right onto their melting disfigured body.
He gulped with a nervous sweat sliding down his face, and a very bad premonition.
Although he hadn't gotten clear looks at the other spirits with the eyes of his Totem, Ikky could tell there was something especially wrong with how this one looked.
Unlike the wildebeest, this creature didn't have any white thread flowing out of its body; its entire body was shrouded by the murky black blood like the one that stained his own body instead.
The blood splattered all over the snow soon also flowed into the rotting flesh hole mouth of the humanoid spirit.
The unsettling feeling grew as he witnessed the creature. It seemed familiar somehow. But neither Nox nor Equinox had seen something like this in their lives.
The feeling of death that came with this spirit was enough to tell Ikky that he could not survive it.
A sharp sting of melting carcass suddenly assaulted his nose, immediately followed by a bony fist to his face.
Ikky had no time to despair, he had to move out of the way quickly!
Alas...