The battle arrived.
The one that would determine the fates of a kingdom, immortals, and a lone Daemon.
On Noctis' flying ship, the cohort and Noctis were silent in the dead of night. With only the radiance of the moonlight accompanying them. They had prepared and prepared. Each of them bringing their own strengths and expertise to the battlefield. Cassie, who was ready to take the reins of the ship after Noctis departed. Effie and Kai were prepared to raise hell upon the armies of their enemies. And both auspicious creatures were front and centre. The Stone Child and the Shadowspawn.
But it was not just them.
A cavalry of wooden mannequins. Each armed with a variety of weapons. From hatchets to swords and all the way to heavy bows. They were not lacking in options. They were also adorned in chain mail to protect themselves from the raiding party. Taking up positions on the deck of the ship, they were all in war mode.
Surrounding the flying ship was a party of stone abominations. Gargoyle-like demons fashioned out of stone. Made by the genius that is Noctis, they housed the souls of the most vile and wicked beings that ever approached the sanctuary over the past few centuries. But it seemed that any of those characteristics were muted for a frozen gaze for now. Some carried tridents while others carried spears, all sharing the similarity of having a massive range. It was clear that these flying creatures would battle like devils from the skies, picking off their prey and taking them to the depths of hell.
The ship was currently gliding beneath the islands in the sky below. Utilising the hot air rising to lift the flying ship, the numerous enchantments rested, as they did not need to power the ship's thrust. With the battle near, they were closing in on the Ivory City.
Taking the battle to the heart of one of their enemies would make sure that both the numerous armies of the War Apostles and the Ivory City would not meet and group together. This guerrilla-warfare style of battle would work best for them with the stark difference in enemy size.
And they were not the only ship in the abyss.
Behind them was a much larger flying ship. Decorative and ornate, its hull was a pristine black, while a pure white sail twisted in the air. This was the battleship of the Nightglade.
Having arrived with only a day to spare, the Nightglade were ready to march into battle. A force a hundred strong with ten masters and a mix of awakened and mundane warriors. They were not warriors in the traditional sense but more comparable to hunters. Their figures blended in the night with taut bows at the ready.
Aldric had spoken to Laplace, the leader of the group, and learned about the aftermath of the Night Oracles' passing. And to Aldric's surprise and shock, it seemed that only those associated with the Night Temple knew of her passing. With only Laplace knowing because of her sister, who was now the new head of the Night Temple, nobody else knew. To those in the north and the Nightglade, the Lady had returned to her solitude after her last appearance at the party celebrating Aldric's hunt.
And to that, Aldric could only remain silent. He did not even know what he wanted to hear. Did he want the Nightglade to vilify him for killing their idol and benefactor, or did he want a different reaction? He did not know. While in his mind, he had accepted that he did what was needed and what was required of him. His heart... no, rather, something deep in his core felt different. A feeling that he had yet to come to terms with.
That complex haze of feelings that he had yet to decipher sat deep within him like a flammable liquid yet to be set alight.
And a certain conversation accomplished exactly that.
At the edge of the ship, looking deep into the abyss below, Aldric thought back to the conversation he had with Noctis.
---
Flashback
With his eyes glowing with an ethereal wisp of light, he peered into Aldric's soul and spoke.
"Singularity, as you are today, you will soon die."
And it was there that Aldric unravelled. Static filled his ears as a hazy wave passed through his brain, ending any kind of thoughts. Like a meteor dropping through the stratosphere, his heart dropped down to earth in an instant.
In a heatwave, all of his experiences flashed through his mind. The near-death experiences, the bonds that he formed, and the goals that he had for the future. All mixed into a thought that was suppressed and drenched by what he had just heard.
"What... Explain."
Aldric spoke out with no care for subtlety or respect.
With a gaze that had the slightest hints of pity mixed within it, Noctis locked eyes with the young man and responded. After all, this was all coming from him unprovoked. So he had no choice but to respond to the feelings that he elicited from the Singularity.
The immortal took a long and deep breath.
It was time to explain himself.
"My aspect relates to souls. I know... It's not something you would expect from the great-grandchild of the Beast God. You would think I held a connection to the Heart God, but I digress."
Aldric listened to his slight rambling. Grateful that it gave him time to calm himself but also annoyed about how he avoided the main issue.
Noctis continued.
"And when I use that aspect to look at you, I see too many things. The disturbingly dark soul that seems to absorb, store, and propagate darkness. A gaping chasm of a profound energy that I have never come across in my millennia of living—yet slightly familiar to something else. A divine spark that asks morequestions than it answers. But while all of those characteristics are strange, anomalous, and impossible, it is still within reason."
Taking a step closer to the hunter, Noctis reached over with glowing eyes. A single pointed finger trailing towards his chest.
"There is something else resting within you. Something that if the smallest amount of it ever entered any other human or Noble Creature, it would spell death and change. A metamorphosis of untold proportions. I don't know how you have survived this long."
With a blank mind, he forced words out of his mouth.
"What... what is it?"
And Noctis responded immediately, in a tone unique to himself.
"Out of all possible things, to think that you would contain a sliver of corruption within you! It is a miracle that you have survived this long!"
Ignoring Aldric's silence, he continued.
"With your special constitution and its small amount, you might have been fine, but it is growing. From when I first observed you till now, it has only grown. I suspect that the only thing keeping it in check would be the strange chaotic energy that is etched onto your soul. But as you are now, that might not even be enough in the way that you think. As it stands, I would give you nothing more than six years should nothing extreme occur. That is the maximum."
It felt as though Aldric's mind was split into two. With one side hearing every single word that came from the immortal's mind while the other side was drenched in anxiety, fear, and uncertainty. The allude of death shattered whatever semblance of composure the young man had. His emotions were beyond hysterics and mania. A void lacking feeling etched his mind. To think that this was happening to him.
Aldric had dissociated.
From receiving a new attribute that would likely grow, a piece of Nether's domain, nearing the end of his second nightmare that would bless him with an ascended ability and perhaps even more, Aldric was on a high. And that high was shut down and snuffed right before his eyes. [Tranquil Core] pushed to calm his nerves, but Aldric's mind simply did not register it. He was in far too deep.
As Noctis spoke, he pulled up the runes of the nightmare spell and stared at it with a vacant gaze.
"You really must have had a rough interaction with corruption for it to have reached so deep within you."
Flaw: [Tarnished Soul]
Flaw Description: [You are more susceptible to Corruption.]
'I guess I truly did not understand how you worked.'
It was really his fault. Believing that this was the type of flaw that one could measure and create hypotheses for as if it were a science experiment.
But he knew that this was not something that had built up from the numerous interactions with corrupted creatures that he had. After all, ever since receiving his flaw, the common assumption was that his body was only reacting to the corruption that it experienced. Not that it stored it. That would simply be impossible. His first visit to the dream realm would have spelt death. The months that he spent in the Dark City, drowning in the whispers and madness of his flaw's reaction to the colonies of Fallen creatures. Death.
So he knew that was not the case. That something unique or an anomaly had caused this metaphorical seed of corruption to grow within him. And that line of thought had answered his question.
'That night on the statue...'
The night that Aldric had nearly died. Where the danger signal from his [Insight] pulsed in every direction. Where there was no escape. And one of his greatest failures.
The only thing that had saved him from changing completely and becoming something that he could not recognise was the swing of a hammer.
When he had agreed to the expedition, he knew that the cohort had not encountered any creature higher in rank than the Corrupted sea monster that the statue fought. And while he did not know how his flaw would react to being in the presence of a Corrupted creature, Aldric knew that it was the best time to find out. But what he did not and could not account for was the wave of corruption oozing out of the skull that the creature burrowed itself into. From previous knowledge, he knew that it would release a wave of darkness, but with his flaw, it was wrong to assume. Making him learn a valuable lesson from that experience, Aldric made sure to hyperanalyse major decisions such as contracts related to Event Horizon or actions he made within the second nightmare. Yet, it seemed that it was not enough that he was on the cusp of the death of his 'self.'
'In that moment of change, why did I assume that only my physical form would change... That only physical scars would remain...'
He thought as his mind went to the faint slit between his brows and his two-toned hair.
'And now this shitty flaw acts as a sponge for corruption. Storing it until I begin to shift into an abomination...'
Shaking his head slightly, he avoided his thoughts and listened to Noctis speak.
"-You really are a special being, Singularity. Almost as interesting as Sunny."
He ended with a chuckle.
But Aldric did not care for that, and so he asked.
"What can I do to get rid of it? Or even to mitigate it?"
A moment of silence stretched for an eternity as the sorcerer thought. He shifted and turned. Gesticulated silently as though he was speaking to somebody while figuring it out in his mind. And the answer came to him.
"It is a simple solution. You simply ascend. Climb the ladder of divinity. Further than I have, and perhaps you will become less susceptible to the weaker form of corruption. Or maybe that energy of yours will grow enough by then to completely overwhelm the corruption. But either way, you need to be much stronger than you are now. And much faster."
Aldric immediately responded with a question.
"Why do I need to become a supreme and not a transcendent?"
He asked with scrutiny and fear. One was monumentally more difficult than the other. He could not even fathom the chasm between the two ranks.
"A supreme is a being that imposes their will onto the very world. With their very soul being laid bare, that seed would not have the correct environment to bloom. A transcendent soul is simply too weak. I would know it."
Aldric's mind went to a small aspect of corruption that he remembered. That the only way to cleanse it would be death or to ascend further. This was supposedly why those that failed their first nightmare turned into corrupted creatures. But success would guarantee that 'seed' to be cleansed.
Just as he continued to replay the conversation in his mind, a voice spoke out.
-Aldric!
The present moment came back to him.
"It's time. Let's see that move of yours."
Noctis spoke out from behind the helm of the ship. A tone of curiosity, yet there was a certain hint of disbelief hidden within it. As if he could not believe what would occur.
Shelving that revelation for later, flickers of anger, helplessness, death, and defeat crawled at the surface of his mind. Bringing forth a haze of complex emotions that he felt all throughout his body. Feelings that he had bottled up throughout his time in this nightmare. From the hell he observed within the ebony tower to both the near-death experience at the hand of the nothing being and killing somebody that he began to see as someone dear to him, and finally, hearing about his mortality.
But today, he had an outlet. Something that he could impose all these feelings onto.
'Today, I won't be holding back.'
He locked his feelings deep within, yet they were shimmering on the surface. Waiting to burst. A blank expression formed on his face but his eyes.
TERROR
With utter animosity, his widened blazing red eyes shone with a cold gaze. Yet his face was as blank as it could be, not giving anybody a glimpse into what rested in his heart. A gaze that was not present in the moment, viewing something beyond the current moment. And if anybody had viewed that face, unadulterated terror would grasp their soul.
A possibility of madness.
To everyone present, they could only view his back. A mantle of interlocked obsidian surging with darkness. But that was not what they felt. Their instincts blared at them that something was there with them. A presence of terror that eclipsed anything that they felt from a fellow awakened.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Releasing his right hand from its regular position above the handle of [Sundered Sorrow], he dropped it to his side. An ornate ring placed on his finger followed along.
And darkness poured out like a wave.
With no will, life, or sentience, it released like a waterfall. Steady and uninterrupted, the viscous darkness pooled around his feet, yet it stayed bound in a small circle around him. And it just kept flowing. To Noctis and the few Nightglade with ample enough vision watching, it was a feat of complex sorcery.
Sunny watched with equal amounts of curiosity and uneasiness. The large amount of darkness naturally suppressed the shadows around the ship and his own too. It was gloomy that darted to the other side of the ship in fear. But both were watching nonetheless. Kai and Effie too watched with sheer awe. They had seen something similar to this when Aldric went to go retrieve Cassie and Sunny from the Night Temple with his wings fashioned out of darkness. But this was on a completely different scale. With the darkness seemingly unending, they wondered what he would create this time and what it would do.
Closing his eyes, he pulled on the metaphysical force of his will. With the revelation of the steps needed to become a supreme from Alana, Aldric recognised what [Dire Ordinance] truly was and why it was so difficult to manage at the beginning. It was the perfect ability to exert and build the depth of his will. And this technique would be a showcase of that.
With will, intent, and vision, he began.
And the darkness stirred.
***
Thanks for reading.
Sorry for the delay. I know... I know.
Anyone seen the design for Rocks D Xebec. Slightly want to change Aldric's hairstyle to something like that. What do you think?
That's all for this one.
Take care.