"Kath, get away! Sylv, stay back and look for openings!" I yelled
Kath did as instructed, going to a farther away island.
[Godspeed Impulse] [Unleashed Realmheart] [Blade Augmentation]
The legless bird suddenly flapped its wings, covering almost the entire distance between us in a second, preparing to swipe its claws at me.
I shot off into the path of the strike, preparing to counter it with a slash of my own. Aether coursed through my sword as I prepared to cut the bird's wing into pieces. The bird, however, created an anchor point in the air using a large structure of mana, which it caught onto and swerved out of the way before my slash could connect.
Not deterred by the speed and precision at which the bird controlled mana, I followed behind, my aether infused sword sending ripples through space.
A barrier enveloped the bird, getting swiftly cut into pieces, and my sword cut into the bird's flesh.
It let out a horrifying scream, as it shook hard enough to launch me head first into the closest island.
The wound was small in comparison to the size of the bird, but it was a start.
It launched at me again, this time accommodated by four tentacles of pure mana sticking out of its back, each moving independently from each other.
I gripped at dawn's ballad stuck in the rock beside me, but I couldn't do it fast enough.
The bird's hook claws impacted with my body with little resistance, my barrier and body augmentation merely slowing them, the mana tentacles grabbed my body and flung it over to a different island.
I saw Sylvie rushing to me, aether around her paws. I tried to sit up, but found myself unable to do so due to the three large claw marks running through my abdomen.
The bird attacked Sylvie, who barely defended herself with a well-timed claw swipe, doing little damage to the bird.
I let out a small laugh, telling Sylvie to run.
Suddenly, the aether inside my runes began hurriedly depleting, as my abdomen slowly regenerated, looking as if no wound ever existed.
Wasting no time on being surprised, I shot off towards the bird yet again, barely arriving soon enough to cut its tentacles, stopping them from gripping Sylvie.
My brain was working overtime, thinking about how to defeat this monstrosity. A heavily experimental technique based on Varay's ice armor came to mind, and in any other circumstances I'd consider it too risky, but there was no other way.
[Tombstone of Ice]
Feeling over half of my mana capacity draining, my body was enveloped in a full armor of ice, freezing everything including the atoms themselves to extremely close to true absolute zero, as well as heavily increasing my speed.
While this meant I couldn't use Dawn's ballad, I could conjure a sword from ice with the exact properties of Dawn's ballad.
It was for merely a moment, but it seemed like the bird looked intimidated.
'I hope this works' I thought to myself
I took one last large breath, before shooting towards the bird with previously unseen speeds. The claw swipe I expected came, but before it could reach me it froze completely, harmlessly shattering upon hitting my armor.
The bird seemingly understood what happened, letting out a cry and flying away from me, using its conjured tentacles instead of its body. I ignored them, watching as they froze, and subsequently shattered, not even getting the opportunity to come close to my armor.
Next came beams of pure mana, launching from every possible direction.
I dodged and weaved around dozens of mana beams, inching closer and closer as I watched the bird hopelessly tear through all its mana.
Reaching close enough, I Godstepped in front of the bird, landing a final decisive hit with my sword, digging it through the bird's head. It froze, and subsequently fell apart.
'Sylv, I did it.' I sent with a wave of joy
A wave of relief came back from Sylv, telling me to go ahead and come to them.
Opening a portal, I found myself in front of the aether orb. I picked it up, studying if it had any deeper meaning, but it was really just a hyper-concentrated ball of aether.
I didn't have time to use it, however, as the hibernation state from using almost all of my mana activated.
I started falling to the ground, but Kath caught me and laid me on top of Sylvie.
...
I woke up, finding myself in a makeshift tent. Walking outside, I noticed we were on one of the forested islands right next to the island with the orb of aether.
I saw Kathyln and Sylvie bringing some sort of large deer, when they noticed me.
"G-good morning Arthur", said Kath.
I waved at them, saying "Good morning"
Sylv transformed into her human form, waving back.
Looking to the island with the aether orb, I saw the aether orb firmly planted on the pedestal, and about a dozen beast corpses laying around.
Noticing my gaze, "Oh, that.. When you started sucking all the mana in the environment like crazy, the beasts got curious and tried to kill us. By the way, we explored some of the other houses, but they had nothing remarkable.", said Sylvie.
Nodding, I looked at my runes, which were now shining more purple than before, the red color fainter.
"Let's go to the aether orb then." I said as I took off.
...
Picking up the orb, I noticed my body trying to suck the aether out. I had no idea what to do with such an orb, as I was fairly certain it would refuse to go inside my storage ring and walking around with it would also be quite annoying.
I decided to let my body suck in the aether, and opened the metaphorical gates.
A surge of aether flowed through my body, aiming right for my runes. They started glowing bright purple, as the aether inside them started being purified.
It started to burn slightly, quickly escalating into a searing pain. The runes were bursting with aether, filled to the brim, and the seemingly unending flood of aether couldn't be stopped.
The aether started expanding the runes outwards, masterfully carving more complicated shapes connected to my already existing runes, which immediately filled with aether.
I noticed the ball of aether, its shine disappearing, and in its place a dull, gray exterior.
The flood of aether finally ending, I watched my now even more intricate runes glow in bright purple, without the previous red tint.
I now had a much easier time controlling the aether, as evidenced by my newfound ability to make a solid shape out of it that didn't crumble after a simple touch.
The gray orb started crumbling, the interior revealing a shiny key.
A devious smile creeped up on my face. "I think I know where this goes."
...
Standing in front of the small shack, I took the weirdly shaped key out of my pocket. It had two sets of ridges, each branching off to two more sets of ridges. It was made of iron, but had runes all around its shiny, perfectly polished exterior.
Inserting the key, I heard a small click, the lock morphing into a handle.
Pushing the door, I found myself in a room looking exactly like the dining room in my house. The door shut behind me, making the hut inaccessible to anyone outside.
On the table laid a sword, and next to it an inconspicuous black marble.
The sword was inside a black scabbard lined with golden runes, and the handle was matte black, with runes also engraved on it, making my heart beat faster.
Upon lifting the sword, it started sucking a rather large portion of my mana, aether and blood inside it. I tried to throw it away, but it stuck to my palm and was completely impossible to pull away.
As it finally unstuck, I looked at my palm, and I saw a very similar mark to the one that Sylvie had given me a long time ago. Am I soul bonded with this sword now?
'Sylv, do you hear me?' I sent to my bond
'Yeah, why?'
I breathed a sigh of relief, telling her about what had happened.
'Try unsheathing it.' She sent along with a wave of excitement.
Taking the sword in my hand, I slowly unsheathed it. The dark blue blade, looking like the night sky has been infused into it, exuded an aura of power, the sword looking like it had been forged by the gods themselves.
Comparing it to Dawn's ballad was like comparing Dawn's ballad to a children's toy. The difference was immense, so much so that I began to doubt in the craftsmanship skill of Wren, even if Dawn's ballad was a failure.
As a tribute to Dawn's ballad, I called it Night's ballad
I remembered the task I had gotten from Sylvia, that is, getting control over the fate edict. It had finally clicked that we were not in some Alacryan settlement, but rather in the Relictombs.
Sheathing the sword, I moved on to the marble. Picking it up, I felt a pulse of mana followed by a pulse of aether reverberate throughout my body, and then being pulled back into the marble. The marble beckoned me to enter it, sucking me inside.
'Later' I thought.
Now, it's time to get out of this zone.