Evander
Kiara and Evander's steps echo through the forest. Their footfalls on many fallen leaves, crunching and cracking under the weight of their presence. Kiara looks down on her phone to check the time: 12:30 am.
The trees start to ripple intensively as the ground shakes out of control. Evander turns his head trying to find the source of the noise. Kiara rematerialized her katana, her senses felt like it is going into overdrive trying to sense the threat.
She pulls out her pendent trying to see if it senses any Elusives. She didn't have a chance to use it during her fight against the cloaked enemy. As the pendant tries to sense any Elusives in the area, the crystal starts moving violently, and then it shatters into a million pieces. Smoke slowly rises from what is left of the pendant Kiara is holding.
That wasn't a good sign. A training tool isn't supposed to instantly shatter when sensing Elusives. Something is clearly wrong.
"Was that supposed to happen?" Evander says in a dry tone, crossing his arms together.
"Well no it shouldn't," Kiara raises her eyebrows, sticking her tongue out in frustration as she shrugs her shoulders in a sassy manner. "Well, it isn't that strong anyway. I never liked using it because it's too much of a hassle you know, always taking it out and putting it back in my pocket."
Evander's eyes narrow, sensing coming from the distance and it's coming in fast. Evander pulls Kiara from the collar, sending her back behind him.
"Stand down," Evander calmly assures, raising his palm right in front of him, "Khopesh." Evander's hand glows a deep red glow before instantly materializing with a sickle-shaped sword in his hand.
Evander swings his sword into a ready stance but something feels odd. Something felt strange just as he summoned the ancient word.
Evander felt his head go dizzy like his surroundings were spinning around like a race car track. This doesn't make any sense. Evander's energy reserves should be large enough to not feel any type of dizziness unless–
How weak are this girl's energy reserves? Evander calls out Kiara in his head. He manages to regain his footing as he grips harder on his sword. This revelation is going to make fighting a lot harder than expected for the ancient warrior.
"You okay?" Kiara inquires from a distance. Evander ignores Kiara's worries as he walks closer to the threat ahead. Turning around, Evander points directly towards Kiara and gives her an order.
"Stay right there," Evander scowls, his eyes darting back and forth between Kiara and the upcoming threat. "I can't let you die because that means I will die. I have no idea if Ascendants can reincarnate or not and I don't want to know right now."
The earth starts to shake uncontrollably under Kiara's and Evander's feet. A grotesque and high-pitched screech echoes throughout the darkness out of the forest. Evander raises his khopesh preparing to strike the instant the threat attacks them.
5 pitch black Elusives launch streamlined in the air. Their claws and gaping mouths extended towards Evander. Their mouths drip with a metallic black ooze that flies out in multiple directions.
With a single flick of the wrists, Evander swings his Khopesh with a powerful force and a manic grin on his face. In a single slice, the Elusives bubble up and burst in a deafening pop like a huge water balloon. A chaotic disarray of wind blows everywhere as the dark spiritual energy flows into Evander's weapon.
"No matter the era, Elusives are still a pest," Evander angrily mutters to himself, his head looking up directly at the night sky.
He did that so effortlessly, Kiara thinks to herself, her eyes barely comprehend the speed of the slice. As Kiara steps forward, she senses something more dangerous and in quantities. No way 5 Elusives is enough to shatter the pendant.
"Why are you standing there like a headless chicken?" Evander wonders, turning his gaze back on Kiara. Out of the darkness, a swarm of Elusives pounces towards Evander. Their bodies twisted in unnatural angles with their limbs elongated mid-air. It felt less like a jump and more like a violent blur in reality. Evander's eyes widen as he senses the creatures about to eviscerate his head off.
Evander's leg shifts, his body turning at an angle as he pivots away from the danger. Kiara raises her katana in a stance preparing to strike.
"Why are there so many?" Kiara mutters to herself, and Elusive jumps in the air- one second rooted to the ground, the next inches away from her face.
Kiara's senses flare up as her body shifts and maneuvers itself out of the way. She spins around, her short hair flying out behind her as she twists to face the cursed spirit. With a flick of her wrists, her blade arcs in a horizontal slash against the Elusive's core. Evander's khopesh dances through the air, hacking and tearing through the Elusive's body.
"They're interested in me because I have the most spiritual energy out of both of us," Evander explains, dodging and weaving like a ballerina around the ravenous cursed spirits. "Doesn't help that they also want to consume my life essence- be me. These foul things haven't changed in the thousands of years I have been sealed."
"Why do they want to be you?" Kiara questions, slicing through the Elusives with deadly precision. A flash of realization hits her.
Woah, my speed has increased drastically. This feels like cheating. Kiara thinks to herself. She doesn't question it, rationalizing the newfound speed is a byproduct of the soul-bound.
"Ascendants create Elusives, kid," Evander annoyingly utters, confused at the lack of knowledge from Kiara's point of view. Evander's leg extends forward, and his body twists and turns as the spinning motion into a fatal swing. The blade falls down with the force of gravity, slamming the Elusive's head onto the ground. The ground cracks underneath the pressure and force of the attack.
Evander's movements were rough and jagged as though he had been fighting for a millennium.
"My spiritual energy is not fully contained like you wardens," Evander rests the blade on his shoulder, scanning over the next swarm entering the scene. "As some of my spiritual energy leaks into the world, that leads to these vermin. Byproducts of the Ascendant's existence."
An ear-shrieking screech rips through the stillness. The air grows like a fog closing in on them. Dozens–no, hundreds– of Elusives swarm from every direction. The stench of death and rot fills the air, as the Elusive's pitch-black bodies tear through the underbrush with fury.
"They must think you are a feast then," Kiara angrily calls out, her feet trembling under the pressure. The Elusive's eyes gleam with an unending appetite, their focus directly on Evander–predatory, soulless. They swarm like a wave of darkness as their bodies contort with twisted forms.
"It's surprising really that they still exist even in these numbers after their creators have been sealed in talismans," Evander wonders to himself, his body dodging many close encounters, as his blade swings in a rising diagonal arc meant to kill.
Kiara swings her sword in a horizontal arc managing to kill one Elusive. The task feels futile as one Elusive crumbling on the ground results in being replaced by two more.
This feels like a low to mid-rank player, steadily improving but suddenly finds themselves surrounded by swarms of mid-ranked monsters. It is hard to level up when you are surrounded by every corner without a chance to breathe or heal. Hard to appreciate the xp grind when you're more focused on trying to survive.
Kiara's body shifts as she dodges an Elusive pouncing towards her with its razor-sharp jet-black teeth extended forward. She could feel her instincts slowly get sharper as the battle continued.
Meanwhile in the Warden temple at Mount Rainier. The senior wardens and the higher-ups look at the energy readings at the Crimson PineGlade. A faint red light flickers across the corner. Each beep cracks through the silence, pounding endlessly like a heartbeat.
Zhang enters the room with deadly precision, his footsteps commanding everyone to stand up straight and tall.
"What is going on?" Zhang orders, looking up at the chart in front of him. Many wardens type on their computers while some look through crystal orbs trying to assess the situation.
"Around an hour ago, we sensed a powerful surge of energy coming to a certain section of the Crimson PineGlade where the talisman was." a nicely groomed black hair warden in a black vest suit hands Zhang a report. "The energy readings cause a huge swarm of Elusives probably hundreds into the area, the numbers are still growing."
"Wasn't the talisman supposed to be on 24/7 surveillance? Can we send any wardens to the area?" Zhang questions with a sense of urgency, looking back at everyone scrambling with their loose sheets of paper. "Why aren't we sending anyone? Anyone on scouting duty?"
"The gate system is broken for some reason almost as if someone tampered with it," the black hair groomed warden calmly explains to Zhang, putting his hands behind his back. "There are a few scouting teams in the city but I don't think they can handle a massive swarm like this."
Zhang looks down at the report. His breathing becomes heavier each second as the alarms keep ringing in the background. The beeps of the sensors mimic Zhang's beating heart.
"Give orders to the scouting team to contain the threat in just the forest, make sure none escape into the city," Zhang turns out with a snappy motion, raising his hand clutched to the report, ordering everyone with deadly precision.
Meanwhile, Kiara's katana falls with a clean vertical cut, slicing through like cherry blossoms caught in the breeze. Contrasting this, Evander delivers heavy, weight blows against the swarm. His eyes show a crazed sense of psychopathy, and his face contorts as he slices through the Elusives one by one. The Elusive's limbs fly out in multiple directions as they wail with their high-pitched death cries.
Their bodies disintegrate into the air as they are absorbed by Evander's weapon. Turning his head, Evander sees an Elusive with an extended jaw of razor-sharp teeth pounce on him. Unable to swing his Khopesh, Evander uses his arm to protect himself. The creature bites down on Evander's arm as it slowly pushes him onto the ground.
Kiara collapses onto the ground as her arm fires up with a burning painful sensation as if her arm is being shredded and blended into a mushy paste. She could feel jaw marks biting down on her arm and blood pouring out yet no sign of injury. The soul-bound link is amplifying the pain between the two.
Multiple Elusives seeing the struggle between Evander and the curse spirit on top of them, start to ignore Kiara and pounce on Evander. Kiara gasps, trying to stay conscious. Her senses felt overwhelming yet familiar.
Kiara, still struggling to maintain her footing, stumbles beyond the sensation. Her eyes darted between the carnage in front of her. Her body quivered as her body raced with a million thoughts- none of which helped with her situation.
"Evander," Kiara calls out, her voice desperate and full of panic. Evander turns his head to see Kiara and multiple Elusives charging towards him. Looking up at the Elusive biting down on his arm, its metallic drool dripping on his face, Evander shifts his hand and drives it into Elusive's underbelly.
The Elusive reacting violently, lets out a wail of pain as it lets go of Evander's arm. With a single powerful smack, Evander punches the Elusive in the head, sending it away from him.
In a fast, spiral swing that glows brightly with spiritual energy, Kiara lets out a high arc slash that eliminates the two Elusives, their bodies swelled and trembling, and finally lets go with a reluctant pop. The Elusive lays and rolls around the ground as the pain underneath it swells uncontrollably. Evander raises his foot and steps over the Elusive's head, instantly crushing it into a mangled pulp.
Kiara stops momentarily to sense the surrounding area. Her visualization of the forest felt clear yet incomplete, Kiara senses many more swarms incoming in multiple different directions. This isn't going to end well if this continues. The forest has become a chaotic suffocating trap.
"We have to escape Evander," Kiara says, grasping her katana tightly, "If we continue fighting like this, we'll both end up dead."
"Do you have a way to escape both the forest and these abominations?" Evander inquires, his eyes darting to see the trees begin to shake violently once again. He rests his sword on his shoulder awaiting Kiara's answer.
"Hold on let me use spiritual sense," Kiara assures Evander as the noise of the Elusive's claws digging and launching further to their location becomes louder and louder.
"You could use spiritual sense the whole time? Why didn't you use it sooner?" Evander angrily yells back at Kiara, raising his Khopesh preparing to fight back. His expressions twist with disbelief.
"Well, I always sucked at using it okay. That's what the trainee pendants were for–I'm not an expert, okay" Kiara cuts back at Evander, raising her hands up and down dramatically. "It's only good now because of this whole soul-bound gimmick and this major XP grind. Be grateful."
"I got my arm gnawed at kid," Evander shouts, his breathing exploding with words.
"Technically so did I but I'm not here complaining," Kiara says in a casual sarcastic tone. She smiles to herself as she steadies herself.
"I actually bled" Evander's eyes dart, and the outline of the Elusives starts to make the shape as they start to emerge out of the darkness. Their high-pitched unnatural screeches build on top of each other like a broken symphony. "Hurry up," Evander orders at the top of his lungs.
"Let me focus okay," Kiara closes her eyes. The sounds of the surrounding carnage seem to fall away as Kiara begins visualizing the forest. The astral image flickers between being clear and blurry. The Elusive appeared like dots on the map as her surroundings lit up like spider webs.
"There!" Kiara's eyes widened with excitement, scanning the lines, "There's a small gap where we can escape from."
"Where is 'there'?" Evander picks up Kiara by the collar as they begin to make their chase away from the Elusive. I didn't spend 2000 years in an artifact just to die immediately to a child, Evander thinks to himself as he stares at the swarm chasing them.
Kiara grips her katana. Her spiritual senses may be clumsy but her survival instincts have amped due to everything that has happened.
"The way out…is northeast towards the ridge," Kiara says, her voice raspy yet ready despite the pain she is in. She felt like her lungs and heart were on fire, cooked to a perfect well done. Each inhale felt like a stab to her inner organs. Evander clutches his chest feeling his heartbeat with an exaggerated speed.
Don't tell me she's a terrible runner as well, Evander's feet crunch and snap on the broken twigs and leaves on the floor.
I should have really listened to my PE teacher about my cardio. Kiara reprimands herself as her leg feels like it is going to give up any second now but she manages to push past it. She could feel Evander's frustration emanating behind her.
"There's a narrow gap that we can escape to… it'll take us out of the forest and into a creek," Kiara breathes fast and shallow, a naggy sensation creeping into her knees and thighs. "After that, we take south, go through the city…and you're at my home."
Kiara's words are a lifeline right now. Pointing her finger, Kiara directs Evander on where to go. Glancing in the direction Kiara is pointing at, Evander's eyes sharpen and focus on the swarm.
"Alright. Lead the way," Evander orders, throwing his khopesh in the air. "Composite bow!" yelling out the word, Evander's khopesh transforms into an ivory bow and arrow. Jumping in the air, Evander grabs the weapon, turning around, he aims and fires the arrow directly at the Elusives charging in. The incoming projectiles eliminate many Elusives in their path.
"Evander!" Kiara yells out, her voice frantic, "This way."
Evander lands ungracefully as he almost loses his footing as his body falls onto the ground. She can see the ridge up ahead. They're close now. Their path narrows but it's their best shot against the Elusives.
Each snap and crack signals the curse spirits to their location. The Elusive's claws scrabbling on the ground grow louder and closer. As Kiara and Evander weave through the trees, the ground becomes more uneven and littered with obstacles.
A small clearing where the trees spread far just enough for Kiara and Evander to go through appears.
"There!" Kiara suddenly shouts, pointing at the clearing. Evander, not hesitating, pushes himself through the gap with Kiara slowly following behind. The sound of the Elusive became more distant as they crawl through the dense thicket.
The sound of the creek is soothing as the gentle movement of the water flows through the landscape. The moss-covered stones bring a calm serene environment. Evander stumbles on his feet as he sits on a nearby boulder.
"That was…that was kind of awesome," Kiara says to herself, her heart pounds as if it is trying to escape her chest. The adrenaline flows through Kiara as she reminisces on what just happened a couple minutes ago.
"Awesome? We almost died," Evander kicks his foot gently, splashing water toward Kiara. He lays on the ground trying to catch his breath. My heart is about to explode because of you because of your body's link."
"Yeah, you're kind of right. Cardio was never one of my strong suits," Kiara shrugs her shoulders, agreeing with Evander's comment. "The creek's natural energy should keep them at bay for a while."
Their situation has barely ended. They are still in danger.
"Well. Let me lead the way to my house," Kiara stretches, her body jumping up and down as her body runs on adrenaline. "I'll lead the way after I find the creek's exit trail."
"By Zeus' thunder, you gotta be joking right now," Evander rolls his eyes, shaking his head while he steadies himself. His expression is a mixture of disbelief and exhaustion.
The moon slowly descends as Kiara and Evander make their way out of the Crimson PineGlade. The vast unseen river stretches beyond the horizon. The footsteps that once echoed now settle into silence. The forest seems to linger in their absence.
The stars flicker and stretch across the infinite canvas of the night. It is simply an eternal, timeless presence that exists beyond human comprehension.
Kiara sees multiple wardens jumping and traversing on the rooftops, charging over and containing the Elusive threat in the forest. The sight of the wardens brings a sense of pride for Kiara but she does not comment on it. Evander stares in awe at the human advancement in the years he has been gone. His eyes flicker with a childlike amusement.
Kiara turns around cheekily. "You're going to be seeing a lot of this when you get to experience your number one tour guide of the 21st century," Kiara points her thumbs at herself, smirking at the thought.
"Let's see about that," Evander narrows his eyes, exhaustion clear on his face. His hands were deep in the pouches tied to his waist. Many crossing pedestrians stare off in confusion for a fleeting second before walking on with their day.
The streets begin to shift from the bustling sounds of the city to the calmer, quieter atmosphere of the residential area. Kiara walks confidently, her pace picking up as she heads into familiar territory. There lies a sense of peacefulness that contrasts with the chaos that just happened.
Evander follows Kiara with a measured pace. He hadn't expected this. It became apparent that Evander is like a fish out of a pond when looking at the sight of the new world. Kiara leads him to a modest house between two large buildings. Evander stops beside her, taking in his surroundings. There's something surprisingly warm despite its plain appearance.
"It's likely that my grandfather is still asleep because you know it's like," Kiara looks down at her phone checking the time: 1:25 Am.
Kiara flashes Evander with a mischievous grin. "Now remember my rules- No fighting, don't scare the neighbors, keep yourself low, and help me out with the chores."
"You're still way too calm about this situation between me and you," Edward rolls his eyes dramatically. As he steps forward to the front door, he overhears some static noise and muffled talking.
Kiara grasps the doorknob but she fails to hear the sound of the TV.
Opening the door, Kiara is greeted by Edward sitting on the couch watching the news. Kiara stands there dumbfounded as she and Evander stand there awkwardly. Edward looks at Kiara with a stern look but is confused at the man standing right next to her. Kiara breathes heavily to herself not knowing how to explain the situation.
The only sound that breaks through the awkward tension is the real estate ad that is playing on the TV.
In the world of business, your location matters. Romano tower. Dream big. Rise higher. Designed for those who don't just want success but demand it. Choose Romano Tower- where ambition rises. Seize the future. The narrator explains with a soft, confident voice. The screen flickers before cutting back to the late-night television show.
Edward extends his head to pick up the remote. "These ads are all the same," he mutters before reducing the volume. Kiara tries to walk towards the stairs but Edward raises his hand, signaling her to stay.
"Are you going to explain to me why you sneaked out before a school day without telling me?" Edward raises his eyebrow, leaning his head towards Evander, "Can you also explain why you brought this person who is clearly a couple years older than you back home?
Kiara doesn't answer Edward's question immediately. She just nods her head not even attempting to speak to Edward. Evander stands dumbfounded, not understanding the tension.
Forcing a smile Kiara answers Edward's question. "So…about that school night?"