Chapter 9B: Golden Eyes, Glowing Embers

A flash of errant lightning shot across the sky and unleashed a flash so powerful that it illuminated the world. I could see every inch of Ember Bay and every faded footprint that withstood the storm. I could see the bloody bodies of bystanders strewn across the nearest street. With a glimpse over my shoulder, I watched Aeliana struggle to stand in the shimmering shallows in a state of shock. But more than anything else, I saw the murderous monster stand before me with hungry eyes which seemed to glow gold. Her long hair danced in the rising wind which swept in from the sea. She showed a sinister smile as she shifted her stained shield against my steel sword. In the moment before the flash of lightning faded away, I saw that her skin was scattered with stains from a sandstorm in the badlands. It was evidence that she believed her own words at the very least; she had compelled herself to find me and ignore all obstacles in her path.

“I wandered the wilderness and withstood whirlwinds just to find you in this bay,” she said as if for a long time she had dreamt of this day.

“I’ve already met the woman with whom my fate is bound,” I answered as my feet dug into the ground.

“You misunderstand my intention. I am called by my curse, compelled to complete and consume you in a crisscross of chaos. Ever since I was first summoned to see the true face of oblivion, I harnessed destruction inside myself; I became a vestige of the all-consuming shadow. But where I am its pawn, you are its envoy. You do not even realize the destruction that you will bring upon this broken world. Only I can save the world from you,” she said if she believed her words were true.

With a forceful heave of her solid shield, she sent me sliding backward in the sand. Now that a short distance separated us, she lowered her shield and lifted her left hand with a fiery glow. In the next split-second, she summoned a sphere of spiraling fire and shot it across the sand, but I shielded myself with the power I had stolen from Kalairo. The fireball struck my decoy dummy and destroyed it in a dance of sparks and cinders. The powerful shockwave blasted me backward across the beach, but then Aeliana threw herself into the storm of falling sparks in a full-speed sprint. She crashed her left dagger against the enemy’s shield and then struck twice in a row with her right. After a crisscross clash and then a quick kick, she nearly knocked the shield from her enemy’s hands. But in the moment Aeliana would have struck with both daggers, the golden-eyed assailant unleashed a fast fireball onto the beach right between them. The fiery explosion engulfed Aeliana, and then the shockwave launched both fighters backward. Aeliana nearly slammed onto the beach, but I tossed my sword aside and caught her in my arms.

As we stood at a standstill, I saw that sparks stained her scarred skin. Then, as if to fan the flames of the firefight, the towering assailant lifted her left hand from a safe distance and then summoned a second smoldering sphere. She then unleashed the fireball with so much force that the recoil sent her stumbling backward; I barely managed to safeguard Aeliana by deflecting the blast with a substitute dummy. As the forces of fire fractured the dummy and demolished it in my hands, Aeliana jolted to a short distance and passed me my sword. When I caught my weapon and launched myself forward, I clashed weapons again with the monster on the ash-stained sand.

I pressed forward with my sword and glared at her as I said, “I truly think that all of this is just in your head. I am bound by a great destiny exactly as you say, but that destiny was never meant to wipe this world away. I know nothing of the shadow that you say has somehow cursed you, so in some way or another that means your words cannot be true.”

She asked as she narrowed her eyes and stepped backward in the sand, “Do you know about the Interfectus which once haunted all this land? It was a monster borne of God’s nightmare that would target a city and then attack from the sky. Their attacks gradually slowed with time, leaving behind nothing more than a tragic memory that strikes fear in all our hearts. Almost everyone has heard the stories. Hardly anyone has seen one for themselves – hardly any seem to strike the world they had already slain. But that isn’t true for me. I saw the true face of the monster when it struck my quiet village in a forest. It tore trees and homes like they were made of paper; it killed everyone I had ever known. When I tried to fight back, it cursed me but did not kill me, almost as if in a consequence for courage.”

“What exactly are the details of your curse?” I asked as our fight took a turn for the worse.

It was in that moment that my assailant pushed herself forward and nearly struck me with the Array on her shield, but Aeliana knocked me aside with a full-force tackle. Even as we both fell onto the rain-soaked sand, I felt her heart pounding with terror. She glared at the symbol with both fear and hate, but then she threw herself upright and dashed to the side. With a smug smile, our towering enemy lifted her left hand and aimed at my defenseless protector. But instead of running or bracing herself in any way, Aeliana valiantly propelled herself forward and crashed her daggers against her enemy’s shield. Even as sparks split off into the humid air, she steadied herself to stand beside the source of her horror.

“I am cursed to carry countless screaming voices in my head as if the demon’s touch is a ticket to a tragic tempest. I am forced to fence in a flashflood of sorrowed souls. I can hear their wayward voices wail like a whirlwind in the wasteland in my mind. Everyone the Interfectus ever killed still exists as a storm of screaming souls. They lost their memories and their identities as they became its fuel, but when it touched me, it cursed me to hear the same screams. I am the audience to this ultimate tragedy, but the demon carries its victims forevermore. Does this not sound familiar to you? Just as I am connected to the emissary of darkness, I am also connected to you; you are the Interfectus in its human form. I am its vestige, and you are its vessel. It’s why you can carry your victims in your mind,” declared my assailant as if we were entwined.