"Pick the correct one."
"How will I know which is the right one?"
"That's the entire test. It's your answer to figure out."
Ikky looked into the bowl made out of a spatial hole above a plastic talisman.
Each of these pieces looked different from all the others. Ikky also realised that there were many more Title pieces hidden below those at the surface. Yet he was supposed to take out only one.
'Yaga? Yaga help me!' Ikky cried out for help. 'You're the one who told me to do this!'
'Hmm...' Yaga seemed to be lost in thought.
"What's wrong? Go one. The portal is closing in a minute." The supervising Prophet urged. But her tone and body language clearly revealed that she was not expecting any progress at this point. She could at least wish the kid luck, hoping for his sake that he wouldn't be used as bait in someone else's devious plan... she could wish that, but didn't.
The Prophet took a step back with her guard up and ready to react. A strange cold wind blew by, emanating right from the black patch of night in front of her eyes.
"A Totem?" She surmised. Indeed, Ikky had summoned his living Totem.
Realising that, she loosened up, reflexively rubbing her arms from the cold. Why was he summoning his Totem? She wondered why.
Regardless, there was nothing more that could be done now. The portal at the highest point on the pyramid disappeared... along with the figure enshrouded by night. Equinox was gone.
The sky above was pitch black, not as beautiful as the night sky was. In fact, Ikky who was familiar with the feeling of 'night' sensed nothing worth reminiscing about when he looked up at this sky. Was it an imposter?
His heart at unease from just looking at it, Ikky turned down to the ground he was falling to.
"Why are we in the sky?" He asked.
The night bear spirit falling along with him shook his head with a shrug. The little thing had just flown as fast as it could through the portal and ended up in the air. And while Ikky could teleport to where the bear had appeared in this world, he could not just fly.
Suddenly, a light flashed from within his chest— an unfamiliar golden glow.
"Hm?" He hummed curiously, watching as a hand reached out of his body, and pressing against his chest to emerge.
Half way out of his body, the complete torso of a strange spirit stopped to rest, he and the plain golden face of the spirit caught in a staring contest with a rather indifferent atmosphere.
"You look different from when we first met, calmer as well." The spirit spoke could speak with out a mouth. She continued,
"Is this your Totem? It is very useful."
"What are you doing." Ikky asked, looking at the part of his body she was crawling out of. He felt no pain and no ill intent. If otherwise, this spirit would have found itself gone without any explanation as to why.
"I can not use title pieces to come here." Ikky had guessed as much. He was the same after all.
The spirit continued to struggle, eventually hopping completely out of ikky's body.
Sitting on his stomach, she looked down at the ground quickly approaching— or rather they were the ones quickly approaching it.
"I will save you." She announced, bending her back and letting sharp bones pop out from behind her. The two bones stretched horizontally apart, letting down some kind of viscous fluid that soon turned into wings.
But as this mysterious spirit flapped its wings once, its head suddenly fell from its neck.
"Sorry." She said, her head now falling separately from her body.
Ikky let out a chuckle, stretching out his limbs as if giving in to fate. And when the decapitated woman asked why he couldn't just teleport to safety, he replied,
"A curse. Let's call it, powerless will. My limbs are not my own, and every action I take will be defined by the commands of some thing else."
"... What?" She asked.
"Alas." Ikky answered shortly, not in the mood to waste his breath.
'This reminds me of my Ordeal back in Nocturni. We all weren't given a choice — thrown into jaws of death for the sake of people we did not... for people who detested our mere existence. Can you hear me, Yaga?'
'I can not relinquish your Totem to stop it from draining too much essence. Your Virtue really is inconvenient.'
He sighed, his face as tranquil as a lake in a quiet forest, and his lips curved into a smile.
"Why are you so happy?" The golden spirit asked.
"The trees beneath us have already gone to rest. At the very least, only I will die."
The two bodies fell painfully down into the trees, bursting stems much thicker than they were, into bits and shards.
Ikky opened his eyes in surprise. He had not suffered nearly as much as he had expected. This was partially due to his charm and mostly because of the wings wrapping his body like a thick cocoon.
'Is she dead?' Yaga was curious. The bright golden body of the woman... spirit was unmoving, the brightness her body emitted dimming slowly.
Ikky sat up, squeezing his hands into fists to reaffirm how much control he had over his body. He seemed fine, however he still couldn't relinquish his Totem to Yaga for keeping, so the curse was definitely still there.
He carried the unmoving body of the spirit in his arms, kneeling and gently placing her on his lap. Ikky took a deep breath, sharply reaching into his stomach with his bare hands before pulling out a few strands of white thread. These threads were similar to the one he'd pulled out of the wildebeest in the Kailash.
Carefully and individually, the ends of the thread were poked into the golden spirit's chest, his own night mist flowing right into her.
Did it work? Ikky was not sure if it even would at first. But he had to try something rather than just sit and watch her die.
"What are you doing?! Are you stupid?!" Yaga screamed. "This energy might as well be your life, and you're just giving it away to some suspicious spirit?!"
"My life energy... So this will work? That is good to know." His eyes opened and closed out of drowsiness as he continued to pour his heart out. It shut closed one more time, but a bright flash woke him back up.
"I... I'm still here?" The golden spirit's disembodied head said from beside him.
The warmth from Ikky's glance seemed to rival her physical one, albeit his body feeling as cold as snow.
"You are happy again. Surely this must be a bad decision." She asked, feeling his uncensored emotions through the night mist. She continued,
"This body is not my own. If it dies, I will not."
"I see." Equinox answered, yet sat in the same spot with his eyes closed, doing nothing.
She spoke again, "Remove these threads."
Equinox opened his eyes. "The ones who must depart, must do so with willingness, and peace— two of those which you do not feel."
"But I still will not die, while you will if you continue further." She replied.
"The ones who must depart... must do so willingly... and with peace in their hearts." Ikky repeated. "Even if it were a tree with its last leaf that cried out to me in so much pain, I would do the same. So do not feel guilty, my life belongs to the world and will return to it inevitably."
"I see. Attach my head for me." She asked, and Equinox reached out to the head and did as she said.
If this man wanted to give his life to her with so much intent, then she would use it.
After attaching her head to her body, she lay on his back and asked him to proceed into the forest.
"Equinox!!! You fool! You will die! Run from this vile creature before it consumes you!" Yaga warned.