I use my wind magic to dodge to the left of the assortment of white plant spikes coming my way, trying to ensnare me. I fly up into the air, but dozens of long, sharp spikes like the one that had cut though my foot originally come flying up at me. As I fly up, I move around in all sorts of directions just to dodge them all. If I can just fly up high enough, they won't be able to reach me.
One of the plant spikes hits me in the calf. I cut it off with a wind blade. One hits me right in the achilles tendon, and another stabs me right in the butt. I cut off the one that had stabbed through my tendon, but before I can cut off the one that stabbed me in the butt another one stabs me right in the thigh. By the time I cut those off, three more have stuck themselves in me.
"That's it! Small Hurricane Gust!" A huge burst of wind blasts off all the white, frosty vines that had impaled themselves into me.
"Not a moment of rest, huh?! Alright! I can work with that too! Let's go, you freaks!"
A particularly thick vine wraps itself around my left shoulder. It tightens its grip, and it hurts like hell. I think I hear it creaking.
"Aaaaaaggh! Let go of me!"
Suddenly, I'm sent in a direction. Soon enough, even though I'm still technically flying I'm hurtling towards the ground. I slam right into it full force before I even have the time to react in any meaningful way. I face planted into the cold, stone floor. My face hurts like hell, and it's still crushing the shoulder that already hurts too much to put any pressure on.
I try my best to lift myself up with my right arm. There's blood all over the place. I can't smell anything but my own blood. That's definitely from my nose, which probably took the brunt of that impact. Damn it, you're supposed to hold your head if you end up in a situation like that! I'm lucky it's just my nose that's a mess instead of getting a concussion or something!
I try to get myself excited, so that I continue fighting through the pain, but it just hurts too much.
I'm yanked backwards by my bad shoulder, hurting it even more. I hear the stupid screaching of those stupid ice monsters. I feel another vine stab itself into my right shoulder.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaggghh!"
Their screams are right above me now. I feel a vine so thick I think it's a snake at first wrap around my neck. It grabs me so tight I can barely breath. I can't move either of my arms to grab the thing. I try to use my legs to struggle, but they hold those down too. They don't use the vines for that. They just push the ice they're holding onto onto my legs and using the weight to keep me pinned.
The vine around my neck slowly begins to twist. My head's turned at 90 degrees, and they're still trying to twist it further. I feel my neck begin to hurt a lot. I can't even scream, just let out a few low grunts. Let go of me!
"Smll… Hurcan… Gust!" I just barely get out.
A huge shockwave appears around me, knocking them back. The first thing I do is use a wind blade to cut off the vine that was trying to twist my head off. I rip that off of my neck before I even begin to do anything else.
Before I can even begin to escape though, I get crushed with the ice in one of the monster's body. I feel myself slowly being crushed to death. It's cold. I'm cold. It hurts, but I start laughing.
"Ahahaha! You idiots think you can kill me with the cold?! Small Hurricane Gust!"
I unleash the spell, but it barely budges the ice at all. The situation hasn't changed at all. Haha… that's it then… I've lost. I refuse to use fire, and if I use lightning in this situation I'll just kill myself. I can't muster any more mana into wind than that, this is it.
Well, if I am going to die, at least it isn't to heat. At least it wasn't embarrassing like my first death…
No, Azariah doesn't give up that easily, remember?! Get out of here! Come on, think! What can I do?! I keep thinking and thinking about what I could do. I think of Inell, Aubrey, Kiaran, Cesre, Lucidna, hell even Cherilyn and Runicez & Iryis. Nothing comes up. I think back to the most obscure conversations that I can bring up with my memory. Then…
"-find yourself in a situation that you're about to die, immediately form a connection with it, consequences be damned."
A quote from Lucidna, just before we had left on this whole stupid mission. That's it! That's the answer! Entity! Whatever it was that wanted a connection with me! You! The one in my dreams! I want to make a connection with you!
In this moment, I feel something click. Just like it had been for Kari, Adad, and Florian. WIth them though, I actually had to try. Try my best to figure out what approach would work best for them. This time it feels like whatever's power I'm using was eager to be used. Like it was ready to give me anything the moment I had asked. Whatever, I'll think about it later. I have the connection now. I know that much.
Now I need a spell! Anything! I don't know what powers you have, so I have no idea what I'm able to do with your connection! Come on! Tell me something, anything! I get no response so I quickly change my approach. I can feel my bones creaking, I have to figure something out right now.
I look around everywhere. What can I possibly do? I get desperate and start pouring mana from outside of my soul to do anything. I have no concrete idea for what spell I'm making so I don't expect anything to happen. I try and sense around for anything I can possibly do. I search all around me, and even the flow of mana from my soul to try and think of anything. What can I do?!
As I'm trying to figure something out, I begin to grow excited. I wonder if I'll actually be able to figure anything out fast enough to not die?! Suddenly, as soon as I get even a little bit excited, all pain stops.
I'm still definitely being crushed to death, it just doesn't hurt. My shoulder and my ribs also don't hurt at all. I push up against the ice, and I feel the pressure alleviate immediately. Haha, I'm pushing up against the ice monster! Was it always this light? No, it's still just as heavy, and I'm not getting any stronger, either. I'm lifting it up because I can't feel myself tearing my muscles apart, pushing it up. It's like how people will sometimes lift up cars to save someone.
I can feel the adrenaline rushing into me as I throw the stupid monster off of me. That isn't even a metaphor or anything, I can actually, literally feel the adrenaline. I feel like I'm able to understand my own body better than ever before. I don't mean that in a sexual way, I swear.
Yeah, my ribs are broken in four places, but they haven't hit my lungs yet. My left shoulder is dislocated, made all the worse by how much they were yanking at it. The cloth at my foot came undone, and because I wound up cutting off all blood flow to half of it, that it's half dead, and the whole thing probably needs to be cut off. I also wound up literally tearing apart my muscles after that little stunt. I'm running on pretty low water content, too.
All of that, yet I feel no pain.
As for mana… 12.54% of my full capacity. As for the margin of error… it's too small to change that number at all. It's around a thousandth of a percent. Amazing. My margin of error with that went from 5% to 0.001%? What an improvement.
The stupid vine monsters continue to shoot their sharp vines at me. Before I had to push my wind magic to the limits in order to dodge them, but now I feel as if I can just quickly step out of the way.
I step out of the way to dodge all of them, but when I do I feel one of the muscles in my legs nearly tear. Well, "feel" would be the wrong word, since I feel no pain. "Become aware of" would be way better of a term for that.
I recognize right away why so much strain was put on my muscles just from that little side step. Their attacks aren't slower at all, my perception of time is just way faster than it usually is. That's why I nearly tore another muscle. Just because I can see the attacks coming, doesn't suddenly mean I have the strength or skill to actually dodge them.
Should I keep using wind magic, then? No, I only have 12.54% of my mana left. What do I do then? I clearly can't keep moving around to dodge. All my muscle mass will look like shredded paper before too long. The answer is obvious. Just kill all the stupid vine monsters and then I'll be perfectly OK.
I say that as if it's such a simple thing to do. I have the body of a high school girl who doesn't exercise at all, and I'm running on 12.54% mana. My opponents are three of these giant things which I have no idea how to kill. Ahaha~ I wonder if I can figure it out before I die?! Let's see! Ah, how thrilling!
I use a mixture of wind magic and my own limited strength to approach the monsters while dodging all their attacks. I do what I did originally to try to fly but only on my legs instead of my whole body. This preserves both mana, and my leg muscles, all while being extremely quick.
I'm sure these ice monsters are super confused at how I'm suddenly running around 27 miles an hour. That's the speed I'm going. Thanks to whatever power from that entity I'm using, I can tell that that's the exact number. Although due to my altered perception of time it feels like I'm actually moving around a little less than three.
I get up close to one of the vine monsters. Their vine attacks lunge towards me at a speed of 67 miles an hour. They're a bit hard to dodge, but not impossible. Now to figure out how to kill the stupid things.
I can sense the air around me. With whatever power I'm using I can feel everything that's happening around me, all because of the vibrations of the wind on my skin. As I continue to dodge the vine monster's attacks, I try to sense whatever is inside of it. There has to be some way to kill it. It only takes a moment before I find it.
A little plant heart, right in the middle of those blocks of ice. It's the center of this thing's nervous system. Meaning I just have to destroy that, and it dies.
Adad! I demand strength from you! I want the strength and power to strike these enemies of mine down! Now land it over to me!
I keep on praying like that, and when I gather enough mana, I release the lightning bolt. The bolt blasts past the ice in its body and lands a direct hit on its "heart." It explodes and kills the thing on the spot. I look over to the other two when an absolutely amazing thought hits me.
Time is flowing faster from my perspective than it is for these monsters. I prayed for about 30 seconds to charge up that bolt, and judging from how far their vines have moved and from their current speed, all of that praying from their perspective only took about 3 seconds.
Ohoho… That is incredibly overpowered. Imagine all the destruction I could do with that. That took me down to 10.12% mana capacity, so the amount of mana I need to use hasn't decreased at all, just the amount of time I need to cast. Still though, that's one hell of an upgrade!
Even with my perspective enhanced to such a degree, I still have to stop thinking and just dodge all their attacks. Dodging at such speeds is doing a number on my leg muscles and slowly whittling down my mana since I'm using wind as well. Further inspection shows that whatever spell I'm under that's enhancing me is also draining mana, and doing so worryingly quickly. I have to finish this soon.
I keep on using the mixture of my own muscles and wind magic to rush towards the other two monsters as quickly as possible, all while doing my best to dodge their various attacks. I start to pray to Adad. It'll take a while from my perspective, but they should be ready by the time I get there.
I'm right in between them in no time, from their perspective. They both unleash a flurry of vines that even with this strange spell of mine active, there would be no way for me to dodge. Yes, it's impossible for me to dodge. But I never said anything about not being able to kill them before their attacks even hit me!
I pour my mana into two separate points around my body and aim directly where I'm sensing their hearts. I release both at the same time and two lightning bolts blast from my direction. Haha! I've cracked multiple lightning strikes simultaneously as well! Take that!
My celebration doesn't last for long as I realize that I somehow missed both of them. Multiple strikes at once impairs accuracy, I'll keep that in mind. Before they can react, much less heal, I fly over the one that's in better condition after the strike and rain wind blades right through the cracks in the ice.
I hit its heart again, again, again, and again, until it's ripped to pieces from the onslaught. It falls down in a similar way to the first, although much more pitifully. It's dead now, so I turn my attention to the other one, which has started to try to run away.
"What's wrong?! So confident you'd win?! It's your own fault you're about to die, idiot!"
I pray to Kari, and I put the last of my mana into one attack. One giant wind blade from above, aimed directly for its heart. Not as big as the ones Inell used all that time ago, but bigger than anyone I've made succesfully.
It pounds into the ice monster in the ground with so much force, it basically cuts it in half and sends dust flying into the air. I confirm that last one's death and slowly land back on the ground.
0.98 percent mana capacity, I'm almost done.
0.72 percent mana capacity, has this spell always used up this much mana?
0.45 percent mana capacity, I realize now that all that moving had wound up impaling those broken rib fragments into my lungs…
0.18 percent mana capacity, well… at least I won.
0.00 percent mana capacity.
Whatever spell I was using deactivated the second it hit 0, but I didn't need it to know that. As soon as it deactivated, I fell down, all the pain I had accumulated from that fight coming back to me.
><><><><
I awake in a familiar place. Completely naked, in a pitch black river, with the light of a thousand galaxies above me. I must have collapsed from exhaustion, and ended up here again. I hear clapping. When I look in the direction of that sound, I see a familiar face. Well, she doesn't have a face, but that's besides the point.
"Congratulations. You won our little bet, Azariah."
I look over to her. She's standing on her little boat like always, and clapping. After a bit of staring at her, she stops.
"What's wrong? You seem confused. This is how humans express congratulations, yes? Am I misremembering? No, I couldn't be. Perhaps I just got it wrong?"
"No, no, you're fine. I was just a bit confused, that's all."
Both of us flinch in surprise. As if both of us didn't understand what had just happened.
"Well, that's very interesting. Hey, Azariah say… hm… say "This is all very stupid, I'm going home."
"This is all very stupid, I'm going home."
It worked again, that wasn't just a fluke, I can actually speak here now.
"Ah, finally! Finally! That makes everything so much easier now! I'm well and truly relieved. What about your emotions? Have they returned to you yet?"
"No, I feel no surprise at being able to speak, nor any shame at appearing to you naked. Moving on, I want to ask you some questions now too, please."
"Of course! It's been so long since I've talked to anyone like this. A two way conversation with actual words is such a rarity to me. Please, ask me anything. For as long as you want, I'll never get bored."
"Alright, first of all. I want to know what you are."
"Me?" She places her hand to her chest in an elegant pose. "I am Ctothis, overseer of passed souls. A death spirit that rules over life after death. I guide souls to reincarnation, and various afterlives. That is my job."
Finally, I finally have a name, and some sort of description of this entity. I'm actually kind of grateful I don't have my emotions. That makes processing all of that very surprising information so much easier.
"Next question. Why do you want a connection with me?"
"Because you're just so interesting. I don't have very many people to talk to at all, and you had caught my attention as someone that I might be able to talk to. If I had to pick a specific moment, it would have to be when you first flew that first really caught my attention."
"When I first flew?"
"Your excitement despite likely death really got my attention. When I saw that, I knew you'd likely be able to talk with me here. That attitude towards death is a really rare one."
"I'll ask more about that later. How did you know about that? I know entities like you can experience the world somehow, but I don't know how. How much can you see?"
"I experience the world through those close to death. Humans, monsters, plants, single cells. The closer to death they've been, the clearer I can see them. Those that have lived completely safe lives, I cannot see anything through.
For those that actually experience death though, like those that remember past lives and otherworlders, I can see everything. Since you're otherworlders, that includes you too. I've been watching everything that you, Kiaran, and Aubrey have been doing since the beginning. That doesn't include your own thoughts though, and I can not see from beyond this world, so I don't know anything about the lives that led before that."
"Everything except for thoughts? You said my emotion during my first time flying was what caught your attention, though. You've also had to keep asking me whether or not I could feel emotions here."
"That's because while I can sense emotions, that requires mana. I have an important job to do so I don't tend to use that spell all too often. I do make it a habit to sense the emotions of everyone going through a near death experience. I did the same for Kiaran during his whole incident with Memento."
"Why don't you just use that magic on me, then?"
"It's just a whole lot easier. I don't like to use mana when I don't need it. I prefer to save it all for my job."
"But you sense the emotions of everyone going through a near death experience."
"That's a very small minority of people, and they don't usually last all that long. If I was doing it whenever I wanted to, I'd use much more mana."
"I see. So, my emotions during that event are what got your attention. You said you thought I'd be able to talk to you because of that. What has to happen before I'm able to talk to you? What even is this place at all? Why can't I feel or say anything here, usually?"
"This place… this is where all the souls in this world cross over. Whether to another incarnation or to an afterlife. This is the crossing place where all things go after they die, and before they are born. Everything passes through this river. Since you aren't of this world, you may be an exception, but I'm unsure.
You usually can't speak or feel any emotion, because would you be able to after death? Of course not. There are some exceptions though. There aren't any concrete rules about who's an exception though, so even with how long I've lived I still can never know for sure who is and isn't. How you tend to get near death is just an indication you may be an exception."
"Alright, I understand. This all seems incredibly interesting. I'll be sure to ask you some more questions next time."
"Um… Next time?"
"I've gotten the basic information I needed to know down, so I'd like to leave. I want to see the sky again. As beautiful as the sky here is, it doesn't exactly count."
"You're cutting it rather short, aren't you? I'm sure there's hundreds of more questions you want to ask me. I legitimately want to answer them all…"
"Wait for next time. I really need to hurry up and find a way to get out of this stupid cave. I'd also prefer if I could think of all the things you told me while I can feel emotions."
"W- well if that's really all…"
"Oh, and one more thing before I go."
"Yes, what is it?"
"Can you sever the connection between you and me? I want to speak this over with my teacher first, before I decide to keep it."
"Hey, just wait a moment, that's a very bad idea."
"Hm? Why?"
"You took on so many injuries during that fight, your body is slowly dying. You don't have any other connections that would be able to heal you right now."
"This is very strange. You told me I'm about to die, and yet I feel no sense of urgency. If you knew that from the beginning you certainly didn't seem to hurried about it. Do you even care if I die?"
"No, no, that isn't it at all. It's just that time moves much slower in this realm than the overworld. So slow in fact it appears as if time stands still outside here. It is certainly moving here, though. In the time that we've had this conversation, hardly a few thousandths of a millisecond have passed."
"Time moves slower here? That also isn't enough time for hardly anything to happen. How slower does time move here compared to outside?"
"At a rate of about 3 years in a single second."
"Cthosis, if that's the case, then how long has it been for you since our last conversation."
"Let's see, at this point it's been almost exactly 5 days since our last conversation. That would mean for me it's been… around about 54,000 years."
"54,000 years? Completely alone?"
"Well, that's not true. I pay attention to just about every creature that I can when I'm not speaking to anybody. It's like waiting for the continuation of billions of individual stories. I also have my job that keeps me preoccupied. I have to watch over passing souls, so I'm with them a lot."
"Wait, that doesn't add up."
"Oh, and why is that?"
"The first time we met. After our meeting was ending, I heard Kiaran's voice as I was waking up. If time moved that slowly compared to the outside world, his voice would have been unrecognizable."
"I can explain that. See, I knew you probably wouldn't be able to speak with me if I brought you right to the Land After Death, so I used my own mana to appear in your dream. Unfortunately, since I'm currently reigning as the overseer of lost souls, dreams I enter brig a bit of this land with me, so although it's more likely you're able to speak with me, it still isn't guaranteed.
That was the only time I tried because I take my job very seriously and prefer not to use mana when I don't have to. It's more mana efficient just to bring you here, than for me to appear in your dreams"
"But, I've hardly spent any time with you whenever we did talk. There was that one time where you said I was waking up, too…"
"Oh, well… I didn't feel like trying to have a conversation with someone that couldn't respond, and… well I liked the idea of being some mysterious figure in your dreams so I kind of just ran with that whenever I sent you away."
Huh. I see. I feel an emotion. I definitely feel some sort of emotion. I don't quite know what it is, but it doesn't feel particularly good. I don't think that this is an emotion I've ever felt.
"So, Ctothis… I'm the only one you've been talking to, right?"
"Well, I had a champion a while ago whom I talked to a lot. She died 10 years ago though, and I had to oversee her soul to the next incarnation. That was a very sad day for me. Oh, 10 years as in outside time. In here, it would have been… about 39.5 million years."
I can feel that emotion getting worse. It really isn't a positive emotion.
"What's wrong? Did saying all of that wind up making you feel bad for me?"
"I don't think it's that. It's more of… a feeling of comradery? Not that I could ever begin to understand that level of isolation. In my past life I hardly spoke with anyone other than maybe my parents. This life, I've pretty much forced Azariah into being as outgoing as possible, and even then I've been really lucky. I have a few friends, and even a boy that was interested in me.
Just a few months ago, that would have been absolutely unthinkable for me. I felt so isolated back then. I don't know what loneliness of your scale would feel like, but I certainly know what loneliness feels like. That perverse feeling of drowning in isolation, but being overcome by fear the moment you try and do anything to keep yourself from sinking deeper. It's an emotional hell.
I don't want anybody or anything to feel that way. Those are my honest feelings. I'll keep the connection then. But I want to talk it over with my teacher first. If you do anything that I think isn't in my best interests though, I won't hesitate to cut it."
"Yes ma'am. May the first thing that I do for you be healing you back to health?"
"Just tell me how to do it with your connection. I'll heal myself as soon as I come into consciousness."
"Remember, only a few thousandths of a millisecond have passed out there. That isn't near enough time for your mana to recharge, unless you want to pull from your life force. My connection can't heal the body anyway. Only the spirit and soul. Both of yours are perfectly healthy though."
"If you can't heal, then just what are you going to do?"
"You can't heal with a connection with me, but I should be able to heal you well enough that you're able to walk. You'll have to let me possess you for a brief moment though. I'll be able to heal your body like that with my own mana. As soon as I'm done, I'll relinquish control of your body back to you."
"Possess me?"
"Yes, since I'm a spiritual being with no physical body, I'm capable of taking over other's physical bodies. To be clear, since my will is so much stronger than yours it won't be a very pleasant experience for you. I'll do my best to make sure."
"Um… if you're doing that, what's going to happen to me?"
"I'll take your consciousness along with me. Neither of your options here are really good. You can either feel the uncomfort of having another being take over your body, or you can stay here while I work. Even if it only takes me a second, that would mean you'd be stuck here by yourself for three years.
That isn't a big deal for me, but for a human, you'd undoubtedly go insane from the sheer isolation."
"Alright, I understand. I don't completely trust you, but I do believe you. Let's go."