Chapter 16 - Samteal, The Star Gazer.

The driver shifted to reverse gear, traveling the viny path once again. As soon as the vehicle exited Dissolution Against Thorn's area of effect, the vines retracted back into Gennan's blade, putting those trapped in their embrace down on the ground before setting them free.

The blade felt heavier in Gennan's hand, shaking wildly no matter how much more strength he put into his grip. No, it wasn't the blade. It was Gennan who had become a little bit weaker; he was under the effect of his Character's Sin—Nurturing Ashes, burning his life force to create the mana he needed to use his Virtue.

When a human reaches a certain age, a core characteristic develops, and they make a Promise to an Aspect. That Aspect lends them mana to create a trial to see if they are worthy of becoming an Avatar. If they fail the trial, then the mana debt will be paid back in full with their death.

The sleeping saint, Gennan's 'mother', had made a Promise of Understanding with the Aspect of Connection. Her Aspect allowed her to extend their contract to others, letting them skip the dangerous trial at the cost of not having their own Promise, and the saint became an Avatar in their stead.

Once the saint's Character, Star Gazer, fell to the enemy from the east, fulfilling the condition to use one of her strongest Virtue 'Celestial Seclusion', she blocked off the invading force. But in doing so, she also severed her connection to all other Aspects formed through the extended agreement, making the world beneath the veil a cold wasteland.

Although the veil barricaded 'them' from entering, it didn't stop the horrifying beasts that the saint's army was turned into from crossing the frozen sea and returning home, after all, the Aspect of Connection still saw them as its contractors and provided them with mana to use their newly twisted Virtues.

Human descendants living beneath the veil still developed their Characters, but they couldn't make Promises to Aspects; therefore, the latter was unable to grant the former the gift of mana.

But like most things in life, there were exceptions to the rules, and in the case of—mana could only be obtained through a Promise—the deviation was Sins. The effects of committing sins varied between different Character's Origins but the most common outcome was the ability to create mana at a cost.

Gennan looked up from his blade, the surroundings became more blurry as his eyes had gotten worse. Colors and shapes mashed together in a frenzy twirl. But he could still hear sounds coming from these forms.

"Isn't that me?"

"Am I that ugly?"

The false goddess had only switched the bodies of the outer rings because it didn't have enough vessels to do so and choosing the inner rings to switch instead wasn't an option, as in this case, the outer rings would stabilize the situation too quickly. No, it needed time to familiarize with controlling the Characters that belonged to the elite heroes.

A massive thunderbolt was thrown toward the group of people, zip-zapping in the air. Gennan had already turned around, preparing to block the attack but his vision couldn't keep up with it, the flash appeared as a line of yellow that left behind afterimages.

There was no sound for him to guess where it was coming from. Gennan knew he wouldn't be able to stop it without his Virtue, shifting his blade into a drawing stance, he took a deep breath, preparing to call upon his Virtue once again.

But just before he could do so, a deafening roar of flame erupted from behind him and collided with the darting lighting, an explosion sent a shockwave that made a few civilians fall on their bottoms.

Others were pushed around as heroes and hooded figures made their way to the front of the group. They stood beside Gennan whose stance was shaking slightly, only those with keen insights would notice. Seeing this, Moldrivore used his Divine Origin Character, putting his hand on Gennan's back.

Gennan felt his body resonate as clean silver water surged into somewhere deep within his soul, the place where a Promise was supposed to be, and flushed out the dark ashen contamination clinging there. Gennan's condition reverted back, he straightened his back and gripped his blade tighter as he made out the shape of what was in front of him.

From the lake, figures emerged, moving with an unnatural uniformity, faces missing all features except for their right eyes. The crucified victims stood in lines, facing off against the army. Then, something else broke the surface of the water, a giant beast with multiple hooked tentacles, also having only one eye, carrying with its carcass of the four war machines dragged into the bottom of the lake, mouth crunching on dark metal plates that the soldiers were wearing.

The two groups locked their gaze on each other; on one side, a deep burning hatred ignited within their eyes for their siblings' defilement while the other's gaze was unfocused gaze, expressionlessly staring into a void. Then suddenly, the latter rushed forward, sending sparks of lighting, hails of winds, and fireballs at the former before they collided head-on.

While the battle was commencing, the false goddess exited the shadow of the island, since its sight increased in proportion with its minions, its grotesque form was bared for all to gaze upon. But none of the soldiers was paying attention to the sky, their sole focus was on taking down the foes in front of them, those that did notice it were quickly put down before they could alert the others. The multi-eye beast dodged stray bullets flying from below as it flew toward the direction of the stable.

After all, it had gone all out to make the little rat pay for destroying so many of its eyes. But once it saw that woman, it felt a strange, indescribable feeling and an even stranger, more unwelcome thought.

'Every night, she gazed upon the stars beyond the veil, wishing one would fall for her. But she already knew that it wasn't for her, sent across the empty void—meant for someone who was long gone. Perhaps a different time, a different place, she'll find her little star.'

And so it shifted its focus, wanting to reach out for her, to touch her, to find out why. The urge consumed it, overwhelming its original plan. The little rat could wait. The dog beast and porcupine beast were sent to pin down the little rat, saving it for later. But the little rat had proven to be more troublesome than expected, having already bested both of its newly acquired bodies.

With the saint's whereabouts unknown, it decided that it should leave its pursuit on her for the moment and focused on the little rat instead.

***

 

"Can you move?" Ellie asked. She gently lifted the brute's head, checking if he had any trouble breathing.

"You'd be surprised at how many times I had been kicked around by mounts with more power in their hind legs than the weight of this shabby put-together stable." The brute said, slapping Ellie's hand away from his face before standing up.

Though the brute acted like everything was okay, Ellie could see the corner of his lips move slightly as he bit through the pain that was shaking in his bones and organs. She considered giving him the waterskin mixed with her blood hanging loosely at her waist but ultimately refused to do so.

The risk was too great, the brute was a good man, but she doubted he would be able to resist the temptation of divinity and not hurt Ray, or would he turn like the elder. Not only that but she also needed the waterskin for later on.

"You can trust me with your son. This old body of mine can at least make it to the forest and find a tree hollow big enough to hide."

The brute held his hands out to accept Ray from Ellie.

Ellie tilted her head, looking in the direction of where the battle was taking place, smoke, and embers scattered in the air, obscuring the sky above with a thick dark blanket. Although she couldn't see it yet, she knew in the back of her mind that the multi-eye beast was heading this way.

"Go! A beast is coming this way!"

The brute didn't say another word, he ran—No, he limped as fast as could, throwing in little jumps in his pattern to quicken up the pace. The sight would have made Ellie laugh out loud if it wasn't for the flying abomination with the size of a whale, and the ability to completely hide its existence making its way here.

Meanwhile, Ellie rushed toward where the porcupine beast was laying, its spikes poking out from the layer of snow she put over it, she grabbed them and yanked as many as she could before tying the spikes together with the strap of the waterskin.

Then, she jumped off the beast and lay by the right side of its body, her hands moved quickly to hide herself beneath the snow. The cold was unbearable, and she found herself to seek more of the porcupine beast's warmth.

From what she deducted, while the multi-eye beast controlled others' bodies, it didn't receive all their sensory inputs, only sight. That explained why the porcupine beast didn't show any reaction when the dog beast was hurt, and vice versa; only when the latter's right eye was destroyed by Ellie did the former start spasming out of control as the pain was sent back to the multi-eye beast, causing it to monetarily lose focus.

Her body shivered as she waited for the multi-eye beast. Though her blood could give her the feeling of warmth, there were reasons why she didn't use it for such a case. Firstly, Ray wasn't here to pull her back from divine madness, her behaving wildly would give away where she was hiding immediately.

Secondly, it felt wrong. It was hard to notice at first but the more she consumed her blood, the more it felt as if something was grasping at the back of her head, similar to how the whispers drilled into her head but more subtle, more cunning, not wanting her to notice it.

Living in Windshire Fort, she had had her fair share of dealing with cunningness, children from noble and merchant families wanting to be her friends so that they could use her to get close to Methild or other Gennans with sufficient importance.

When she first arrived at House Gennan's palace, she had been lonely and had made such a friend. Letters seemingly innocent were exchanged but... Let's not go too far off. She needed to focus on the fight.

Let's just say she didn't like cunning people, they always wanted something. Yes, it's admirable to see how hard they work toward their goals. But it's just so hard to develop a genuine relationship with them and it's even harder to not be alert around them.

'I need to limit the usage of divine blood as best as I can until I figure out what 'Thief of the Divine Light' is trying to do to me. '

But then, her thought was cut short by her instinct.

'It's here.'

She couldn't see it. She couldn't hear it. She couldn't even smell the rotten flesh that it carried around. But she knew. It was here, the space surrounding was missing something—like a piece of a puzzle yanking itself out and staying slightly above the rest. Only when the multi-eye beast gazed upon where she was hiding did that piece come back down and Ellie could finally see it. She stabbed the silver dagger into the waterskin, holding it there to reduce the leakage.

The skull head descended down slowly from the long neck, looking at the porcupine beast while Ellie was in its vision. Eyes started to twirl around in its two sockets, hollowing out in the center. From within the darkness, two hands emerged.

Unlike the grotesque form of the beast, these hands were beautiful, almost majestic. Warm and soft, untouched by the cold air surrounding them. They crept slowly, trailing over the snow to locate the porcupine beast's eye hidden within, moving with unnatural gentleness.