Maric's chest was heaving up and down under his leather armor and robe. His mind began to race as darkness crept upon the corners of his vision, The wolves began to encroach quickly upon Maric's position due to the obvious weakness he showed and this left him feeling true despair.
The knights watched with grim faces as Seraph prepared to dispel the Illusory Curtain but was stopped by Ishmael.
"Not yet.. He still has a chance"
Seraph looked at her with wide eyes but eventually he stepped back, In the end Ishmael was much more intelligent than he was. There was something to this situation that he wasn't clear on aside from the clear orders from Varys. When he looked back to the situation at hand his eyes began to widen even more.
"Yin-Fire Style: Greater Fireball!"
Maric summoned a blazing black ball of flame that also blazed with a cyan blue like energy before launching it towards the wolves rushing towards him. Seraph was mystified, What exactly was that blue energy? That wasn't a recorded property of Yin-Fire!
Meanwhile Maric was just as stupefied, He had this happen in the classroom after sleeping through one of Ishmael's lessons but he thought it was just a fluke. This time he knew something was amiss simply because he felt there was something deeper than just the increase in firepower and variation in color.
«Stop wasting time thinking. The situation requires that we act, so we must do exactly that.»
Again? Maric heard it loudly this time but nonetheless the voice was correct. He had no time to even question these things.
"Alright. Do what you did when you interfered between me and Artemis, I can handle the rest."
«Hmph. Instead why don't you let me handle the rest? Inner Path: Meld Soul»
Instantly Maric felt like numerous shackles had been lifted from himself. The same purple tattoos began to form under the moonlight and his hair began to fall like rain and grow almost past his back. Even his eyes.. they had this cold feeling to them as if all those who fell under them were insignificant and worthless.
"What.. is that?" Seraph whispered. But before anyone could even conjure an idea or explanation the young boy began to laugh wildly before ceasing it completely as if he was performing an act.
Meanwhile Maric was floating within the void again, suspended freely while unconscious. Eventually he regained consciousness and began to wonder what exactly happened.
"Is this what he meant back then? That eventually the truth will come out and we will be United? But it doesn't seem that way.."
Suddenly a thin screen of light appeared within the darkness. It was almost like a window to the outside world but.. this was wrong. These windows were Maric's own eyes! He felt disoriented as he tried to wrap his head around the situation.
"HEY! You give me my body back now! I never agreed to this! We were supposed to work together!" Maric screamed and screamed until his voice became hoarse and weak. Eventually he slumped to his knees confused and defeated but he never averted his eyes from the scene in front of himself.
Back in the outside world "Maric" began to saunter over to the wolves, they began to weep and cry while slowly moving backwards towards the thick brush. These beasts were actually afraid? What was this?
«Shhh. Silence is a rare moment in such a noisy world, let me enjoy myself.»
«Outer Path: Conflagration»
One by one the wolves began to swell as they opened their mouths to howl nothing but purplish blue flames began to emit from their throats. Eventually the flames burned out all of their orifices before turning them all to piles of ash.
«Hehehe. Weak. Too weak. Where are those knights? Surely they would put up a decent defense.»
Maric began to look around as he manifested one singular massive eye made of Yin-Fire that towered in the sky. It began to swivel and observe the area while shining with an eerie light.
The three knights watched from afar as they were each gripped with a deep seated anxiousness. Erratic thoughts raced through each of their minds before Ishmael pulled out a magic device known as a Capture Crystal, it functioned by scanning a region then recording visual and auditory data in order to properly record a scene. After this she spoke in a serious manner.
"After we capture this we must immediately retreat and contract Lord Varys to activate the teleportation relay to Arelle manor as soon as possible. Seraph I don't have time to explain nor do I fully understand so please don't ask questions. Artemis, if he catches on you have to stop him."
Artemis looked at her sister with a puzzled look on her face but she merely grunted in reply. In the next instant the Capture Crystal flashed and sent out a light green wave of energy that then rebounded after covering the area Maric stood in.
Ishmael shouted "Now! We have captured the data and now we can retreat."
Seraph and Ishmael moved like lightning with each stride maximizing the distance they traveled while Artemis trailed not far behind.
«Got you.»
Maric's voice struck out through the night as the massive eye above him shined its light in the fleeing knight's direction, but before he could prepare his next attack he was interrupted by an extremely loud howl. It was the den Alpha!
From a distance Maric could see the Alpha approaching quickly, It was significantly more massive than the other wolves and it had a horn where a patch of yellow fur resides on its forehead. The closer it got the more dark energy began to swirl around the corpses of the slain wolves and at the end of its furious dash it created a vortex near its mouth, absorbing all of the dark energy permeating the dead beasts. It's body shuddered and cracked before shining with a dark blue luster.
Maric chuckled before speaking to the beast.
«Hmm? You evolved in front of me? How interesting. Nonetheless, you won't be avenging your brothers today. You are my meal»
Booom!
In the distance Artemis had been watching over her shoulder while tailing Ishmael & Seraph, Eventually her heart began to pound wildly and her cheeks became flush red. Was this an embarrassment? To run away from a kid who doesn't even have hair on his chest? She understood the situation was not simple and potentially dangerous but all of this seemed wrong, and her sister knew more than she did which she hated!
Artemis slowly came to a stop before turning around completely and unsheathing her sword. Ishmael and Seraph looked back at her broad shoulders and back with worry in their eyes, they knew Artemis too well.
"Don't do this sister. Lord Varys explicitly stated to avoid battle at all costs!" Ishmael cried out and tried to convince her sister her pride wasn't worth messing up the mission. But this fell upon deaf ears as Artemis turned to her sister and said:
"I am worried about my apprentice. I will not leave him here unchecked, you have to hurry back though because I don't know how long I'll be able to hold back!"
Cold winds began to blow, piercing the trees around them with frost and permeating the surroundings with thick mist. The blue in Artemis's eyes began to glow immensely as she waited for her apprentice to make an appearance..
«Hmph. You're stronger than you look.»
Maric was currently dodging a barrage of dark energy that was being launched from the Alpha's horn although he hadn't been hit, the speed and power behind these things wasn't a joke. Maric was showing signs of fatigue as he clutched his chest..
«This body isn't ready for my power yet, let alone unification. He's already running dry on magic power.. hmm.»
Maric lept into a tree above him before using the remaining magic power he had left to gather the darkness element in the region. Black particles began to swirl and dance around the tree he was in until it became a thick veil of shadow that emitted a cyan blue energy from within.
This was elemental sutra! It was the very technique that Varys had taught Maric as a young boy, it's principles relied on absorbing universal energy and converting it into an elemental type but this is typically only used in applications of cultivating ones unknown element as the universal energy is converted into the natural element their body shared harmony with. But in this moment Maric was using it to devour ambient universal energy and freely converting it outside of himself!
Whoosh!!
Black winds began to violently whirl and whip around the tree Maric was currently hidden within when a smile crept to his face before turning to annoyance. The alpha wolf sensed the disturbance in energy so it immediately began to launch a series of dark element crescent moons at the tree unceasingly hoping it would hit its target.
Bang bang bang
The tree shook immensely before a body fell down from the trees branches. It was Maric! It looked like one of the crescents had grazed him across the chest due to the deep gash that was now running from left side to right. But something was different.. When Maric got up his hair had dramatically shortened and the luminescent markings on his face began to regress.
"Hah.. hah.. This is my body. Not yours. You don't get to call the shots!!"
Maric cried out as if there was someone around to hear him, although one could say his words were heard by someone.
«Ugh. You actually harmed us to gain back control? Don't you see what situation we're in?»
That strange voice speaking in his mind, in his voice, That was something he thought he'd never get used to. But Maric placed those thoughts at the back of his mind as he steeled himself to resume battling the beast in front of him!