Scores of red energy continued to wave out like a raging sea but with each swing of my fist i only further improved the spell formula of the aether in my body to negate the raging force and disperse it all like a repelling magnet. Paving the path for Teuxer and Dryden to chase after me as I descended for the red star on the central island in the archipelago.
Coming all at once tens of Red Crescent waves seemed to launch themselves at me. Almost like the source had noticed me and was trying to block me from getting closer.
"Lets have it your way then." My [ekrix gauntlets] faded from my arms and my sword [sigrid] appeared in place of them in my left hand. Coursing the aether formula up the weapons shaft the white scabbard glowed a brilliant golden colour before i cut it through the air. Shooting a severing slash down to explode a small horizon and devour the red energy into my throne-world where sefirot could absorb it.
The ground quickly got closer as the red waves stopped coming and looking behind me i already saw Dryden holding a charm to protect herself and Teuxer from the fall.
The city the red light was within quickly neared and with a burst of silver light from my feet i directed my course to fall directly above the mansion that was quickly approaching with my feet under my body.
Tchboom!!
Splashing into a giant pool in the back of the garden I immediately sensed the source of the red energy was only short distance away.
[aspect: taken devourer — telekinesis!]
The deep pool water flowed and moved, carrying me along with it as it placed me onto the wet path outside its ring and I immediately started marching to the house where i could hear something rampaging like a wild animal.
Slowly levitating down on the grass Dryden and Teuxer quickly joined me on approach to the house as a whole piano got thrown out the window breaking apart next to us on the green.
"You enjoy the swim?" Teuxer asked with a grin beneath his skull mask.
[skill: conceptualisation - matter transmutation]
The pool water drenching my clothes, body, and hair quickly evaporated into the air and i was left as dry as a sun blistered rock. "A little bit admittedly."
"Ahh!" A man dressed in full demonic knight armour got tossed out onto the field and the next thing that followed was a red glowing baby as it jumped up onto the metal railing of the terrace it was on.
"Abuwabu abababa!!"
"Demon baby?" Teuxer muttered
"Incredibles baby?" I said.
Teuxer and i had two very different reactions to the rampaging baby as it stomped its little feet and pointed their little finger at me. "Aba aba! Wubaba!"
A moment of silence passed as a black bird flew above before teuxer turned to me. "My translator piece isn't working. What do they say?"
"I'm fluent in over six-billion languages but baby is not one of them." I answered coldly, much to Teuxer's disappointment. "A shame its not gibberish or wingdings. I could translate it then."
"Hamma nay ah! Aira! Hamma nay ah! Curia!" Walking ahead of us both, Dryden started chanting a spell with the talisman held in her bony hand immediately catching the red glowing baby's attention. "Yeru sah al ipki yah! Aira! Curia!"
[aspect: living demise - calming world soul!]
Dryden's body erupted into cold blue flames and a magical ward hovered above the mansion in the sky. The once furious faced baby fell asleep and with a single stride Teuxer speedily stepped across the entire garden catching the baby with ease. "I'm starting to think you like to kill children before making them an orphan first, Dryden."
"The spirit possessing the child is restless." Ignoring the boar skull masked man Dryden looked back at me with her iron mask half melted, revealing the skeleton face of a lich underneath. "Take what you must. Then fuze the souls within her, lord kralscell."
Lifting up my sword in my left hand i placed its flat surface atop the sleeping baby in Teuxer's arms on her stomach. "Always so polite, Dryden."
[aspect: taken devourer - takes the limit!]
A golden-orange radiance shrouded the baby from the tip of my swords sheath. Erasing all the red steam that left her body and getting drained into the pores along my exposed left arm until there was nothing left for me to take.
Lifting the white scabbard with golden cracks off the baby's chest, i then placed my bandaged right hand onto her and silver-cyan light fixed all the damage that Clarity's fragmented soul had done to this girls soul before i recognised the bluish-purple tuft of hair and the tiara-like demon horns wrapped the babies small skull. Immediately surprisingly me to their identity.
This babies name was Seer Qilin. In about twenty-one years she will soon meet a version of myself from my past before i was sent backwards in time.
It was a surprise to learn that someone who my past self will soon meet as the first face they meet outside of that prison was one of clarity's vessels. Yet at the same time it also explains why she seemed so different to everyone else i met outside of that place. As the prodigal of boundaries and prodigal of limit it makes sense why she was so capable back then. Or should i say in the future?
For that kid, Arthur Moonleaf, i was already vaguely aware of it. My past self who will soon be released met him in a small pocket of the hell afterlife by accident. He had all the traits of someone who was a story's protagonist. So him being the secret chosen one whose existence dictates the fate of the universe adds up honestly.
I doubt the prodigal of choice will also be a kid I have already met in the past. Before the time I got shoved backwards through time to 60,000 years ago, i had only been to two -technically nine- inhabited worlds. Even then i never met someone who would qualify as the prodigal of choice.
"We should probably fix this mess up." Teuxer suggested while waving his arm at the destroyed manor and multitude of unconscious knights and butlers. "Dryden. Could you do some lichy magic and repair this place while Strife wipes everyones memories?"
Coldly wheezing past her skeletal jaw and her iron mask Dryden pulled out a different talisman and started chanting. "Hamma nay ah! Aira! Hamma nay ah! Curia!" The bricks and shrubbery began moving back to their original places along with the shattered glass. Fixing themselves back into place like the universes most limitless baby hadn't had her first tantrum.
[skill: horizon chain — memory wipe]
Scores of chains rattled across the air digging into the skulls of every single person within a 2 mile radius. With a simple snap of my fingers all that had happened in the last three hours when this baby first started tearing the house apart was erased from their minds. They would only remember her as the dainty daughter of a harsh father and victim to her cousins bullying.
"Ah, disgusting little thing." Raising the sleeping baby up Teuxer repulsively gazed at her chubby body while she drooled cutely onto his hand. "No wonder there are so many orphans and such in the universe." After placing the child in a maids arms on the floor the pig masked man wiped his hands clean of the drool on his royal robe. "Its incredible i was ever like that."
"You mean small and chubby? A fruit of affection? Lovable to a parent?" I dryly harassed, as the floating chains vanished around me.
Looking back at me deadpan Teuxer said, "infantile. And hey i was loved by my parents. A feeling those orphans don't know. Hehehe~."
Rolling my eyes i continued to worry about Teuxer's humour that eluded my insanity. Unlike mine and Thorn thats just us insulting each other back and forth, Teuxer's go to jokes are always orphan related if not a witty pun which is rare but enough to make Thorn clap.
Taking another look at Teuxer i realised there was a question long overdo. "Whats with the regal getup?"
"Well..." scratching his cheek beneath his pig mask bashfully, Teuxer was slow to respond.
"He wished to relive the glory of his youth when he was still mortal." Dryden answered for him matter of factly while walking past us back in her normal reaper-like robed attire with her iron mask back to its mint condition. "We should depart for Cleaperat immediately."
Nodding my head in understanding i made no comment.
Teuxer was first created from the belief surrounding a famous social figure on Earth 3000 years ago. He was essentially born from the sincere love from millions of people that enjoyed that persons presence which is common for newborn lower gods. However, any gods that are born like that tend to be idols or celebrities and get slaughtered with their divinity stolen within the first few decades of their existence as they have no way to defend themselves.
Teuxer was remembered as an unstoppable gladiator and thus he turned into a god not easy to be killed, allowing him to survive long enough before bumping into Heru and Sathuna. Then getting recruited into the
I've watched the videos of the man whose belief he was made from. I could only say it's a shame we never properly met. He seemed... interesting.
"Strife!" Shouting in my sensitive ear past the beanie i wore, Teuxer ripped me out of my thoughts. "Finally. Dryden's starting to get more ominous than usual. Do the... pillar... thing and get us to Cleaperat already."
While rubbing the back of my ear i started gathering aether in my free hand. "You two are coming?"
"Better place to relax than Vessijar probably." Teuxer shrugged as Dryden approached. "It'll be cool to see this kid i heard Zhan is training."
"Uh huh. Stick close. I'm low on aether after using [mach void] so much in the last few hours." A magical engram started to burn into the ground at my feet and Dryden made sure to wedge herself between me and Teuxer getting as close as possible to me more than the royally dressed gladiator. "How'd you hear about the apprentice anyway?"
"Uh..." lifting his arms up Teuxer attempted to ignore the death reeking necromancer hugging her arms around me while i prepped [mach void]. "Well, i visited Dìqiú to see Wukong for a peach or two and saw him torturing that swordsman with the pallasche and katana. I asked what was going on and i got jealous before torturing the guy with training myself."
A pang of sorrow ran through my mind. Vex being trained by two of the most arrogant and the most ignorant beings in the universe is going to give him some sort of trauma i fear.
The [mach void] spell finished and i gave a warning, "Hang tight." Letting go of the magical anchor in my hand the amber-silver pillar slingshot the three of us one go up into the sky. Taking us through the void at incredible speed.
In our rapid velocity the three of us crashed against the void glass and exited the realm to walk onto a world of sand and immense heat that immediately hit the three of us.
"Man am i glad I'm dressed lightly." Puffing out his thin shirt as he already began to sweat under the twin suns intense heat Teuxer huffed. "So where are we supposed to go?"
[skill: astral third eye — anomaly detection!]
A rush of green energy washed over the desert from the south grabbing Dryden's attention immediately while i sighed and sank my shoulders. "You've got to be kidding me. Now i just feel dissatisfied."
"Huh?" Confused by my rambling and how Dryden suddenly started marching off towards the suns in the desert where the green energy was emanating from, Teuxer simply said, "...what?"
"We aren't far. We'll be there-" amber bolt streaked around me and [mach rush] instantly accelerated my personal speed as i grabbed Teuxer and Dryden by the backs of their heads before bolting across hundreds of miles of deserts and arriving at the start of a very broken bridge. "-quickly."
"I always forget how fast you can be." Wiping the sand from his skeletal masks nose Teuxer admired the destructive scene in font of us as the massive suspension bridge stretched across a gaping chasm got blown apart by yellow-green flames. "Why didn't you get us closer?"
"I can run very fast and teleport. Flying is not in my repertoire if you fall down there." Shooting up from the chasm a black feathered phoenix breathed out silver flames out, burning and removing the fires that attempted to melt the suspension bridges cables. "It is in his though."