Icarth glared at the cloaked man in front of him. Although he couldn't see it, he could feel that the man was smiling. And it irked him very badly.
He didn't like this one bit. Bound and held under the mercy of the man in front of him and basically given an ultimatum.
The man had offered Icarth to join him, while it seemed like a choice, Icarth knew that rejecting it was going to lead to very bad endings. Maybe he would be killed here...
"Fuck off," Icarth spat out. While Icarth knew that rejecting was going to lead to a horrible end, he wasn't a spineless coward. He had his own pride and he wouldn't accept being coerced into becoming some underling for the man's satisfaction.
Steeling his will for what was to come, Icarth continued to look into the cloaked man's hood.
Instinctually finding his eyes, Icarth held the man's gaze unflinchingly as if daring him to do his worst.
Suddenly the man burst out into laughter. A deep throaty laugh bellowed out.
Icarth felt a spark of fear burst forth which he tried to suppress.
The laugh continued until it started to border on something more sinister. Icarth felt some unknown energy brush past him and towards the laughing man. Although there wasn't anything else to laugh at anymore, the man continued to laugh, his laugh becoming shorter and bordering on hysteria.
Icarth didn't close his eyes. He knew that the moment he did, it would be his loss. Icarth knew somewhere deep down that today might be his last. But he would make sure to go out on his terms.
Instead of listening to the unsettling laugh of the man, Icarth focussed on the energy brushing past him.
'It must be universal energy...' Icarth concluded and tried to get a feel for it. But just like in class, he wasn't able to touch, see, or control it. All he had was a vague direction in which the universal energy was going. All towards the cloaked man, who was starting to wheeze now.
"You done?" Icarth provoked. Was it foolish to poke a slumbering beast? Yes. Did Icarth care? No.
Suddenly slamming Icarth into the ground, the man growled. "Boy, you clearly don't know what you are rejecting. I had a good laugh, but your rejection really ticked me off."
Icarth was only half listening. After his provocation, Icarth barely had enough time to react before he found himself a few meters deep into the ground. Most of his previous wounds had reopened due to the force of the impact, including the giant scar across his body.
Dragging Icarth out of the pit once more, the man stated coldly, "Listen here, boy. I will come to find you later at some other time. At that time you will have a proper answer for me ready, alright?" Emphasizing every word, the man stared into Icarth's pale red eyes. Both sets of eyes were locked neither one backing down.
Having had enough fun, the man slammed Icarth back into the ground, this time harder than all the other times combined. With a low boom, the man dug a small crater with just the force of slamming Icarth down.
Icarth felt his consciousness slipping. Head spinning, all he felt was the impact of the ground that threatened to pull Icarth to the other side immediately.
The last words that Icarth heard were, "If this much kills you, then you aren't worth the effort anyways."
Saying his part, the cloaked figure disappeared, shockingly passing through the barrier for Aster City without any difficulties and without alerting anyone, even the Supreme.
Deep in the forest lay, Icarth's unconscious and bleeding figure, defenseless against any predators that had luck on their side.
-------
Emmia shifted her gaze from the papers back and forth. It was currently well past midnight at the Struze residence and Emmia was still awake pondering about the design for the Forest Crawler. She had looked at several books contained in the library and even checked out a few of them to take home. Looking at them, the concepts there didn't make much sense.
But Emmia knew that she didn't have to understand it all. She just had to understand enough to possibly apply it in her design. But the problem was that even that understanding was eluding her.
'What am I missing.....?' Emmia thought at her wit's end. She had been staring at the books for more than an hour without any results. It was finally getting to her.
Emmia had long realised that she was missing something fundamental that made these concepts possible. In the end, she had even given up and looked at some past Forest Crawler designs for inspiration.
And that made it worse. The designs were completely out of her league for her. There were too many advanced concepts used and too many parts in the end for her to understand anything except for small bits here and there.
'Now that I think about it, the supervisor was making a design that even I could understand....well somewhat...' Emmia thought sluggishly. Sleep was finally catching up to her in the end.
'...he must be pretty good...' Those were Emmia's last thoughts before she crashed right at her desk.
Emmia was right in that sense. Ulmolg was an excellent engineer and was one of the heads of the industry.
And thus Emmia drifted off into a restless sleep.
------
Emmia opened her eyes. She was on a cliff overlooking the endless oceans. Tasting the salty breeze and feeling it across her skin, Emmia doubted for a second if she was really there. But she shook that thought from her head in an instant. It had been 10 somewhat years since she had been to World's Edge. It was currently night time and it was eerily silent out there.
Confirming that it was a dream, Emmia just sat down at the cliff's edge and stared out into the expanse.
Swinging her feet, Emmia was just basking in the silence when she felt an ominous presence behind her.
Mechanically turning her head she stared dead into a murky purple figure which floated just a few feet away from her.
Emmia felt her blood run cold. Terror seized her as she gazed at the nightmarish figure that she had seen all those years ago.
"I-it can't b-be," Emmia stuttered when she realised something else. Her voice had become much more high-pitched than before.
Before she could find out what was wrong, the murky figure rushed at her.
Flinching backward, Emmia found out that there was nothing behind her to catch her fall except for the empty expanse.
Finding herself falling, Emmia screamed in fear. She looked at her outstretched arms and found herself that she was small again.
The terror just kept increasing. Her heart just kept beating faster and faster until it reached the point where Emmia was finding it hard to breathe.
'It-ts just a d-dream. A d-ream. N-nightmare...' Emmia kept repeating it in her head like a mantra to try to wake herself up.
But no matter how hard she tried, Emmia wasn't waking up. And she was nearing the surface of the water at a dangerous speed.
Now fully immersed, Emmia could no longer tell reality from a dream.
"ICAAA," Emmia screamed in fright a few feet above the water. Emmia shut her eyes in despair and fear and waited for the inevitable impact.
But just before the impact, she felt a warm embrace envelop her just before she hit the water. Without even having time to feel relief, Emmia felt the impact and she blacked out.
-----
Emmia woke up gasping. Coughing, Emmia spat out a good amount of water and some blood. Looking around, Emmia didn't know where she was. Still a child, Emmia felt an uneasy feeling engulf her just before she caught sight of a prone figure next to her. Her heart caught in her throat as she fell to her knees.
"I-ca..." Emmia forced out as she stared at her bloody and battered twin laying still. Taking the fall for her, his legs were bent at weird angles. But the weird part was that there were cuts, bruises, and scars all over his body. And each one was bleeding profusely. The worst part was that his eyes were open and glazed over.
In her current state, Emmia didn't even question the anomalies. All she knew was that her twin brother who had accompanied her throughout her life was dead.
Emmia's heart was stretching itself to its limits. Hyperventilating, Emmia was shivering.
"I-ca...wa-ke...up," Emmia whispered weakly. Repeating it over and over, Emmia didn't even notice the tears fall.
Her heart was beating erratically and Emmia finally collapsed next to her brother.
"..I-ca.." Emmia called out again and again. All she wanted was that him to respond to her words. It was all her fault after all. All her fault for being useless. For letting him do most of the work to save them just moments before.
Emmia's breaths slowed down, and her heart rate was all over the place. The blood to her brain was no longer carrying any oxygen and Emmia was feeling faint.
No longer able to talk, Emmia just stared at Icarth.
Lights flashing before her eyes, Emmia's vision started turning dark. Struggling to stay conscious, Emmia knew she couldn't give in to the dark.
After all, she had to hear her brother respond.
Keeping that one thought in mind, Emmia weathered through it all. An excruciating amount of time passed and Emmia was on the brink of death. Fading in and out of that line that separated the two phases.
Her breathing was very shallow and her heart had almost stopped entirely. Yet somehow, Emmia kept going, commanding her heart and lungs to work.
'....contract....'
'.....inhale...'
'....'
'...expand...'
'....contract.....'
'...exhale.....'
Emmia kept repeating a set of thoughts in her muddled brain mechanically, somehow thinking about what was supposed to happen in her body.
Her eyes had long lost their color, and Emmia couldn't see anything. But she could still make out the vague presence of her body.
'...move....'
'...expand...'
'....contract.....'
'...exhale.....'
'.....'
Emmia added a new instruction to her head and slowly her hand shifted over to Icarth.
Slowly but surely, after tens of loops, Emmia felt that she couldn't move her hand any further.
Now knowing what to do, Emmia stopped and just repeated her usual set of instructions. Emmia was still clinging to life. She had already forgotten the reason and just kept doing what she had done previously.
Unknowingly, her attempt to move her hand had been successful. She had actually reached Icarth and even nudged him a few times in an attempt to move him.
And that was all Icarth needed.
Eyes fluttering, Icarth's eyes regained their clarity to a sight that stopped his heart entirely.
-----
Emmia was still sleeping. She felt that she had an awful nightmare, but now it was over. After having a peaceful sleep, Emmia's felt her eyes open slowly.
Finding out that she wasn't in her room anymore. Emmia found a sleeping Seril next to her.
Looking around slowly, Emmia realised she was in a hospital room.
'.....what happened?.....' Emmia thought with confusion, not being able to recall anything so far.