"You, you dare set foot here?" A voice echoed.
Opening my eyes, I was suddenly aware that I was seated. Legs crossed, as if I had been meditating.
But I hadn't been. I had been.....
Doing what exactly?
Opening my eyes felt no different than having them closed. Darkness still eclipsed me. Oceans of it. Stretching endlessly, shifting just enough to make me wonder.
To make me think...
"W-Where am I?" I asked the voice. And when I spoke, my voice sounded younger than it should've been. Weaker.
A childish whimper in the lightless void.
Again the voice spoke. Tone cold and sneering, and eerily...familiar. "Where? No, no no. That's not what matters" it seethed.
"S-so what matters?"
"What matters is, who am I?"
I swallowed, feeling a lump form in my throat. Something inside me told me not to ask. Begged me not to say anything. To refuse the voice's existence entirely.
And yet, as if my mouth was controlled by something else, I heard myself forming words I didn't want to speak.
"Who are you?"
This time the voice sounded amused. "How easily you have forgotten, face stealer."
My body froze. 'Face stealer?' But, but....
"No," I whispered softly. Hoarsely.
Because it made sense only for only one to call me that. Only one who would, who could.
"Arthur Gravewalker?"
The figure cackled.
Its laugh didn't seem to have an origin. It seemed to come from everywhere, as if it was the darkness itself laughing. Voice disjointed.
Broken.
My blood ran cold as I heard it. Shivers freeing me from where I had been spellbound.
'Arthur Gravewalker. But...wasn't I Arthur Gravewalker? Aren't I? I didn't just steal someone's body...right?'
'I am me....right?'
"Are you scared, soul thief? How dare you be scared wearing my face?" The voice roared again. And this time it's voice was like the crashing tide.
A wave of a thousand voices, all at the same time.
Some laughed as they spoke.
Others bellowed. And a few...a few whispered it. Like a heartfelt promise, voices softer than silk. Words like a dagger lovingly slipped between the ribs.
Slowly I got up.
I needed to get out of here.
To escape.
"Going somewhere?" it – no – they said, their overlapping voices all amused.
"Face me" I roared back at the void. "Are you a coward, hiding away?"
"Face you?" The voice asked.
I froze, blood draining from my face.
This time, the voice had an origin.
"With what face?"
Slowly, I looked down. Heart hammering. Body trembling.
My own reflection stared back at me. But it - it wasn't mine.
Its face was cruel. Skin paler than my own. Blood-red eyes, cruel. Lips peeled back in a bloodless grin. White hair, dirty, long and unkempt.
"GIVE ME BACK MY BODY!!!" It screamed. Lunging at me, it shattered through the ground, breaking into reality.
I felt two hands wrap around my neck. The hands...were cold. Like corpses.
Fear reigned for a long moment, my mind going blank with panic. But then a cold calm slammed into my mind, locking away every distracting emotion.
Fighting, I freed myself from his grasping hands, throwing him away from me.
It was too light.
Lighter than what a human should be. As if the reflection was somehow still incomplete. Still immaterial.
The reflection landed deftly, facing away from me.
"I don't want to fight you" I screamed. "Just let me go!"
Slowly the reflection rose from its crouched posture. And when it stood, it seemed to grow.
Growing beyond the height of Arthur Gravewalker. The white hair seemed to draw in the darkness, becoming inky blank. The shoulder broadened, the skin tanning slightly.
And as it turned to look at me.
I saw my own face staring back at me.
Not the face of Arthur Gravewalker.
But of Reshi.
Oh lords above.
It had stolen my face....
"Let you go?" It repeated, tilting its head. Those cold familiar eyes burrowing into mine.
Almost instinctively I looked away, body shivering the moment I had met those dark depths. There was something wrong with them.
The creature, it had my face, and yet it wasn't mine.
It had perverted it somehow.
The eyes reflected wrongly. The way he moved seemed too...fluid for a human. Even the way he spoke using my own voice sounded wrong.
Just wrong.
"Why would I let a fake like you live?"
I opened my mouth to argue. But nothing came out.
Not even breath.
..........
(OFFICER MARA POV)
Officer Mara shot forward, blade a flicker of motion in her hands. Dodging Noah's attack she pivoted to the side, bringing the blade crashing down. Yet as the sword drew near to Noah, it began to slow of its own will.
Its trajectory altering, the power behind it dimming until, instead of attacking, the blade missed him entirely.
Reacting quickly she ducked under his next strike, quickly making distance between them.
Ever since Noah had changed, he stopped fighting how he used to.
Honestly, it wasn't an improvement. His sword strikes were erratic now, random and wild. Sure, it was harder to predict, but they had become easier to read.
Gone was the practised orthodox striking she had taught him.
"So, you can deflect my strikes? What else can you do Noah?"
A flicker of irritation passed through his eyes. But a moment later it was gone again, wiped clean. He raised one hand, pointing it towards her. Then clicked his fingers.
A torrent of ice materialised, surging towards her.
Smiling, she ignited her blade with a thin stream of scarlet flame. "Alright Noah, let us bring you back."
In one strike she obliterated the ice, by the time she was performing the second, she had already appeared next to him in a blur.
Noah tried to react, buffeting against her with the strongest winds he could muster.
But it was futile. Officer Mara allowed more mana to bleed into her weapon before she struck.
This time, when the winds tried deflecting her strike, they were cut through.
Denied.
At the last second she twisted her blade, so that the flat of it slammed against the side of Noah's head.
He staggered slightly, a soft groan escaping his lips.
Then he dropped his weapon. Outstretching his hand, she could see ice materialising in his palm.
Growing.
But before it grew longer than a dagger, the magic shuddered.
Then it collapsed entirely.
Noah's eyes bled back to green, hair darkening again as the storm that had been surging within him died completely. Dropping to his knees, he gasped for breath, sweat streaming down your face.
"That was pretty impressive" Officer Scarlet remarked, looking down at him with a grin.
"S-still lost though."
"Did you expect otherwise?" She asked.
Shaking his head weakly, Noah didn't reply.
She could tell from his expression that maybe he had.
"Come on, let's grab some food. I'll tell you where you went wrong." Offering him a hand, Noah grasped it. Then she pulled him to his feet, slapping him on the back encouragingly.
"Honestly it wasn't bad. Don't beat yourself up about it."
"Thanks I guess" he mumbled, downcast.
But she still caught the hint of a self-satisfied smile on his face.