Fading Time

Cyrus blinked as he opened his eyes from sleep. Wiping away the feeling of his tired body, he stretched and rubbed his eyes. Seeing that Visne was still sound asleep, he slowly gave it gentle pets on its neck. The wooden surface of Visne's hide felt warm to the touch. Opening its orange eye, Visne tapped the ground with its tail and hummed quietly. Even a creature like Visne seemed to act like a child not wanting to get out of bed.

Giving Visne's left arm a little shove, to which somehow wrapped around Cyrus in the middle of the night. Visne groaned and let him go for Cyrus to scope out the surrounding area. When he approached the edge of the alcove, he noticed that rain had fallen over night, giving the forest a shiny look making it a beautiful scene. The air smelt refreshing as he took a deep breath. Opening his inventory he pulled out the Jonaria's Kiss and peeled it to start eating. It was a full meal for the day so he decided to cut it into pieces and save it for later. Giving Visne and Fenrir a piece each, leaving the rest for later. Fenrir flicked his ear and wiggled his nose as he smelt the fruit near his mouth.

Cyrus teased the ancient wolf with food like a puppy to wake it up. Not amused, Fenrir growled and took the fruit grumpily. 'I am not your house pet, don't treat me as such.' He said to Cyrus before stretching himself on the floor. This just made Cyrus smile and let the old pooch get up on his own. On the other hand, Visne enjoyed the morning fruit as it perked it up real quick.

"We have got to find creatures that I can take on more reasonably, plus learn more about these creatures so I don't end up dying in this Rift." He didn't know if this rift matched Earth's time or if it had its own special day and night cycle. Or if the time between an hour of earth could be days or minutes here. He wasn't sure, but one thing was for certain. He had a place to return to if it got too late or too dangerous for grinding his level up.

Everything was now up to finding creatures more his challenge. Fenrir complained that they could have taken the big Mutilamposaurus if they tried hard enough. But Cyrus didn't want to take that chance seeing as how it nearly killed Fenrir. This bothered Cyrus a bit as he wasn't sure if his summons dying would return if they just went into a suspended state or actually died. For the moment he needed something to hunt and devour. The thought of devouring the creatures didn't seem to bother him as much anymore. As it was most likely a side effect from his acquired power just like his halved stats.

When Cyrus looked down the tree he could see the water calm below as it made an almost reflective surface to see himself in. Although way up high, his sight allowed him to see his speck and the calm water made it easier. He turned to Visne and Fenrir as they returned to his shackle. It was time for Cyrus to hunt.

*****

"Sir, should we send in more reinforcements than what we have right now?" A man in a silver medieval armor, "The rift is awfully big for a normal Chaos Rift." A hand clasped on the Warrior's armor causing him to go silent. The man holding him was large, a giant standing at 6'10" with muscles to compliment his height. His skin was a dark peach color and built like a mountain for a human.

"We will be fine, our forces are enough to handle a Rift this size no problem." His voice carried weight behind it like some would punch your eardrums. It was thick and heavy but sounded clear enough to understand. "Besides, I am an Alpha Tier Tank class after all. I can handle whatever beast comes our way." He walked forward and called to his fellow soldiers. "I am Urik Green, your commanding officer for this Rift. I am your Tank, and I will keep you all safe as long as you follow my orders to the letter. Healers stay behind the defensive line and help keep us alive in a fight." Three people nodded in the group of 20. "Warriors and Evokers, you keep each other and the healers alive, no screw ups and no heroic thoughts of rescue if we are separated or worse."

The soldiers all yelled out an affirmative grunt. Urik nodded in approval, while the man next to him sighed, "Sir, you seem to make everyone either fearful of you or inspired by you. You're too blunt and don't offer any rewards for completing this rift."

"Frank, you don't think giving them false hope is the aim here. We don't know what's on the other side and our scans only told us that it's hospitable to us humans. So we are going into an unknown environment full of danger." He held his heavy hammer and hefted his shield onto his back. Turning around, Urik yelled, "MARCH!" As the whole force walked forward into the rift and wound up in the dense jungle of an unknown Chaos World. Unlike the mysterious stranger, who people are calling the Renegade thanks to the news lady. They did not nearly crash into the trees and instead appeared on ground level. Walking through the bright sun of the morning in the world. The light phasing through the leaves and making the area a tint of orange and green.

Urik smiled as he looked at the world, the Rift back to earth behind them. He motioned to the group to start making a space for them to put up a defensive position. The Evokers used their selected powers to build stone walls and made it have serrated spikes on the outside to prevent creatures coming in. Urik though told them to make it bigger and add more layers for he guessed that the size of the trees told him big creatures lived here. And he didn't think the walls they first made were good enough.

This gave them enough time to build up their area in peace as the location around the Rift tended to drive off most creatures from the energy alone. Urik and Frank oversaw the construction of a temporary base as the Evokers got to work on molding the base from the stone and ground around them. This gave them a fort to protect them from creatures he guessed would work against anything bigger than a giraffe.

"Good, now, have the Healer start divining where the creature we need to kill is. We need to close it as soon as we can." Urik walked up a set of stairs that were molded out of the wall to reach the top of the barrier. He looked out into the forest and could hear the sounds of birds and other creatures nearby. Then he turned to Frank, "Send a small hunting party out to scavenge for food rations. Something tells me we are going to be hear a while."

Frank looked at Urik and noticed him squinting. He knew Urik had a good sense of rifts being different from earth. His guess was that Urik could tell that time was faster than it was on earth. For he wouldn't have him send out a hunting party. Nodding Frank returned down the steps and gathered eight men and women to scavenge for food.

Urik continued to look out to the distance, "Something doesn't feel right, why would the Renegade come here to this rift? Where did he go? And why can't I shake the feeling I am being watched?" Urik stood there and scoped out the parameter before returning to the main camp. Out in the distance, a massive pair of eyes could be seen, as well as other smaller eyes appeared from the trees. The large creature backed away into the bushes and vanished. The eyes continued to watch for a brief while, before they too vanished.

*****

When Cyrus had left the alcove and returned to the more open forest area. He had begun to observe his surroundings more closely. He didn't want any creature hidden away in the brush and trees to get the jump on him. Deciding to travel along the ground was more optimal for more area to detect, but it left him exposed to creatures above or below the ground. Luckily, with his improved senses, he shouldn't get snuck up on.

After walking for a couple hours and not finding anything, he decided to take a moment to sit down and pull up his inventory. Checking his inventory for the, "Corrupted Essence of the White Knight," to see how he could gain it as a new summon. However, when he tried to identify it, nothing seemed to effect it and left it a mystery. Other than the words, "Purify the armor to gain a new summon!" were in its description. It bummed him out as he wasn't sure his blessing would allow him to do that. Or even if his power over Order would allow him. Not knowing what to do other than try it, Cyrus pulled called the item from his inventory. What appeared was piece of the armor, the helmet had spawned out of the air. Catching the helmet he could see a dark presence leaving the eyes of the helmet and neck. That is when Vexxitiz spoke to him.

"Hmm, the remnants of our fight left behind a fragment of shadow. If I eat it the shadow, I could take on the form of the White Knight as a Dark Knight. Or you could attempt to rid the shadow presence and get another summon on your list." Cyrus looked at the helmet, Vexxitiz seemed to think he could absorb it. But he wanted to know what he would gain from doing so, or take the gamble and go for purifying the essence.

"What... would exactly happen if you gained this Dark Knight form?" Cyrus asked, "What does it do for you and me? Would I lose your passive bonuses and abilities?" Vexxitiz went quiet for a moment, thinking on the result.

"If I did, then the chance of that happening are possible. We Shadows evolve somewhat differently compared to your other summons. We evolve on the consumption of our own kind. We gain some of their powers and implement them ourselves. If I were to take the essence, then I would gain parts of what the Knight had. Not everything would transfer over and I would only get its form and maybe a couple other things." This was interesting to know. Cyrus thought that just giving everything the Chaos Energy bonus from killing Chaos Beasts leveled them all up, but Vexxitiz said that he gains new powers by taking it from his own kind. Which seemed useful to know for Cyrus knew that having these shadows defeated meant Vexxitiz could grow in power.

Though, losing out on the new summon would cause him to lose out on its abilities and just get some of them. So Cyrus decided to attempt to purify it and get a brand new summon. Setting the helmet on the ground, he could see the shadows flowing from the eyes and vanishing into the air. Holding out his left hand, Cyrus focused on attempting to call upon the Blessing of Purity. However, nothing really happened.

"Well that's a bust, I still don't know how to call out this Order power I have thanks to the blessings." He would attempt to dig deep, but found nothing coming. He tried saying phrases from holy scripts, chanting, even praying for the essence to be cleansed. But nothing happened. He growled in frustration, "Ugh, nothing seems to work! How does this power work anyway? I don't think I can find a teacher who knows how this power works!" He stood up and paced around a bit, the helmet still radiating the dark aura.

Taking a deep breath and returning to sit in front of the helmet, Cyrus closed his eyes and crossed his legs. Placing his hands palm up and slowing his breathing down he started to meditate. He could feel his racing heart full of anger starting to slow and calm down. His thoughts of kicking the helmet starting to vanish into a cloud of nothingness. His senses of hearing, smell, taste, sight, and touch were becoming empty. Quieting his mind of all the sounds around him, the feeling of the breeze brushing against his numbing his skin. His sense of smell and taste disappearing, and his sight turning inward.

The world began to vanish into a dark void, emptying all around him. His heart slowed to an absolute calm. The feeling of it in his chest seemed to vanish, it's rhythm vanishing as his senses shut off. Cyrus let go of his breath, doing so, allowed him to now enter a state of calm and inner peace. That's when I'm the darkness, he could begin to feel and see a dark aura coming from in front of him. Swirling and undulating around as it seemed to let off the energy he needed to detect. He could see how it moved, how it acted to the ground touching it. Even how the energy seemed to be at a stagnate size.

With just his power of his Will, he could see a light forming around his body. A mixture of the white and gold light of simple order and control, mixing with the purple of disorder and unrestrained power. He reached out his hand towards the energy, seeing as to how it was being touched by the shadow and slowly vanishing. He could see the white and gold light surrounding his left arm begin to vaporize the shadowy aura on the helmet. With this calm nature he was in, Cyrus could see the power of his Order Energy growing and pushing back the shadows. Enveloping it and destroying the shadow occupying the helmet.

As he felt his OEP start to drain as the Blessing of Purity was taking effect. It was slow at first, before too long he noticed the dip in strength as the helmet was covered in the white light. Now that the shadow was surprised and nearly gone, Cyrus felt the last cry of the shadow vanish and the overwhelming energy released from the essence caused his mind and body to switch everything back on. The sounds of the birds and forest was deafening, the blinding light of sun and the helmet glowing vibrantly, the smells and taste of the air stung his nose, and finally his sense of touch gave him goosebumps all over. When the light covered the helmet he watched as a notification popped up.

[Purification underway, time estimated for Summon to become full.]

[2 weeks, 6 days, 11 hours, 59 minutes, and 41 seconds.]

The helmet vanished and returned to his inventory with a percentage bar on it. It read 0% on it, but and nothing else. Even in its description it had "?'s" all over it. All of this just made Cyrus really excited. He had purified his first time, though through a drastic measure. If he messed up, he could have died as a result of entering a Null State of mind. For it shuts down the entire system for a brief time and not meant for normal usage. It was something he could only do once a month. So after all that, he panted and rolled onto his back.

"I... did it!" He raised a fist victorious as he had managed to cleanse the essence. When he opened his eyes he noticed that he had another notification pop up.

[Cleansed your first essence, you gain 1000 CP, 4 SP, and 7,500 Coins.]

[Cleanse 25 more essences to gain more rewards.]

Cyrus smiled and rolled into a sitting position. He felt all giddy and slightly tired already from doing that and walking for a few hours. Stretching his back he decided to continue on his walk to find any creatures to hunt and devour them. With the forest so lively compared to when the Mutilamposaurus was around gave him the enough warning. But for other creatures, which he did end up finding large elk like creature.

The beast was bigger than a moose and beefier than an average elk. It's horns were large, had a glow to them as it grazed for food. The sound of its calm heavy breathing vibrated Cyrus' ears. Getting close enough he found that it was called a Starhide Dire Elk thanks to the system. When he saw that it required a level close to his to defeat he guessed it was stronger than it looked.

[Starhide Dire Elk, Beta Tier lvl 3]

[This beast requires level 20 to best efficiently.]

[These Beasts are known to have the ability to spawn orbs of starlight around their body as a defensive mechanism. These orbs burn brightly and blind those not careful to look away. Starhide Dire Elk are sturdy and capable of strong attacks with its antlers and speed to dodge slow attacks. They can also shoot the orbs from their antlers to deal damage at a range, for they prefer to attack at a distance.]

Cyrus smiled as it indicated the recommended level. He was just slightly stronger than the Chaos Beast to handle that level. Not wanting to waste much time and went into action, he thought of a spell to cast. Thinking that a Call Lightning spell would do the trick but was worried about starting a fire from the trees getting hit. So instead of that he went with Ice Shards. Around his right hand 10 shards of ice all sharp and pointed towards the top of them.

They hovered and circled his hand, orbiting around his hand as they waiting to be sent flying towards Cyrus' target. Sneaking quietly around the backside of the Dire Elk, his footsteps muffled by his careful movement. He didn't know how good it's vision was but he watched for anything that would disturb it. He wanted to see its reaction to danger so he reached down and grabbed a rock next to his foot. The weight of his body shifted slightly making him almost snap a stick. Twisting his body over to his left he managed to avoid snapping a stick to alert the Elk to his location.

When the Dire Elk hadn't moved or adjusted its body in anyway. Flicking its tail and munching on some grass, Cyrus picked up the rock and tossed it against a tree on the other side of the elk, high up so it might not see the object flying. With a resounding thud against the tree, the Elk perked up its ears in high alert. They acted as radar discs to receive as much sound as possible, rotating and turning to get better angles in the direction of sound.

But what surprised Cyrus was the fact that it activated its ability, little blue stars formed out of its hide and were pointed towards the tree. Before he acted he watched as the Dire Elk shot the orbs of light at the direction of the tree. This was his time to strike, he extended his hand and fired all 10 shards at the side of the Dire Elk. It didn't have enough time to react to the surprise attack from Cyrus as the shards sunk into the beast's side.

"Yes!" He said, coming out of the bushes with another set of Ice Shards floating above his head. The points all tracked the Dire Elk as Cyrus moved closer to the beast. Drawing Er'Delrune and boosting its damage with some of his HP. He wanted to end it quickly dumping 20 points caused the blade to glow ominously with its increased power. He let out Fenrir's Howl, doubling Er'Delrune's power. Everything was to end the creature in one strike as it was stunned by the impact of the shards. He sent the other shards to strike the Elk but missed as it hopped to the side. But Cyrus knew it would try to flee and put distance. But spending his CEP to focus his Speed he could was already within striking range of the Elk before it knew what to do.

Raising the sword, Cyrus gripped it with two hands and roared. The blade fell, cutting the air cleanly as it rang through the area. The sound hit the ground around the blade and flattened the grass. Then the thump of flesh hitting the ground as the head of the Starhide Dire Elk had collapsed to the ground. He stood over it and held out his right hand, purple chains started to come from his palm and stab the beast in various places. Then pulled out a orb which was absorbed into the chain and returned to his hand.

[Starhide Dire Elk Devoured]

[640 + 162 for threat level bonus added to your CM (802)]

[6,712/7,000 Chaos Meter]

He clenched his fist, "This is going to be a nice grinding place." As the body of the Dire Elk dispersed, Cyrus had received a part of its horn and hide for resources. With that he continued on, ready for more hunting as he knew he could grow stronger here. With his enhanced speed and HP slowly regenerating from consuming the juice from the Hearty Globe. Cyrus was ready to take on the creatures around his level.

It would be a couple weeks and few days for the Essence of the White Knight to fully cleanse, plus the month it would take for his armor from Cici to be finished. Cyrus wondered how long it would take for him to defeat the boss Chaos Beast so that he could go home. For now though, it seemed like he would take refuge in the trees of this mysterious forest and try to grind out skills and leveling up. He tossed the Hearty Globe to the ground as the fruit splattered across the grass. Walking forward and heading towards any other creature to fight... it was time to devour everything he can.