There he was, helpless, paralyzed, and not to talk about being headless. With the sword being held merely centimeters away from his face, Ikky felt like screaming already from how much it'd hurt when that blade rammed through his mouth and out the back of his head
If not for the curse he was currently bearing, a blow like that would surely kill him in the cruelest of ways. But wait. From the Augur-spirit's words he should have already faced the pain of being pierced into by a sharp blade earlier on, since such an action would surely cause death.
Yet, all he had was the jagged line running around the path where his neck had been sliced off, and the mark on his chest he had been bracing for to be punctured through. Nevertheless, at least the pain had already passed. It would not hurt him anymore.
Meanwhile, the knight stepped forward and held her greatsword sword in both hands.
"Hm?" Ikky blinked in surprise. 'What's her problem? Wait, is something else behind me?! ... But she's looking at me, so... Eh?'
Pulling one leg back, she lifted her sword above her head and grasped its hilt firmly.
'Why isn't there a mark on my head? Crap! These crappy powers don't even work right... But isn't it a curse? What was I even expecting?!'
As the sword came sliding down through the air, Ikky cried.
"No!!!"
A cold feeling suddenly kissed his forehead, but surprisingly didn't pierce into it like he had expected; the knight had barely halted her sword.
Pulling it back, she placed it in its scabbard and knelt down in front of his head once again.
"Sorry, I wanted to make sure you were just a helpless, headless man and not a spirit." The knight explained.
Ikky's face was awash with nervousness as he yelled internally,
'Just a headless man? Just?!'
She says it like there were others she'd seen lying around.
"I'm leaving you now." She informed.
'Who is this person? Why isn't she freaking out? Isn't she one of the knights? Why can't she recognize me then?'
Ikky thought it was definitely a good idea to choose his words well around this unusual figure.
"Uhh... So... Sorry your knightness? Knighthood? A—Any way, my head has been lopped off, and because of that, it's impossible for me to use my body... Miss madame knight."
Without any hesitation whatsoever, the knight practically kicked his head right into his neck like a toy, causing Ikky pain— a classic amount at this point.
"Ah!" Even though he had felt worse, he still screamed and clawed at the ground.
"There." The knight gave him a thumbs up then began walking away.
"There?! My head is on backwards! And it's gonna fall off when I get up again, you armoured rabbit!" Suddenly realising he was being rude, Ikky shut his mouth.
But the knight continued walking into the darkness, sheathing her greatsword as she repeated, "I'm leaving you now."
'What in the sin-filled hell?'
That knight was so weird, she had made Ikky forget the situation he was in for a second .
Calming down, he then thought back to the slice the knight had made at the spider spirit. Although from behind and while it was distracted, the blow she had dealt was quick, precise and strong enough to cleanly decapitate the spirit before it could react at all to the sound of the blade cutting through the air. Such form of power should definitely not be accessible to a human as 'compact' as that... Or even a Sin for that matter.
Holding his head above his neck, he stood up and walked over to the already decayed spirit and blew away its ashes.
"I can move. Well, the Augur spirit did say I could sew my head back on."
Taking the crystal in the spirit, he bit and held it in his mouth for later.
'Hm. Those crystals worked by stopping me from losing blood. But I guess healing won't apply here.'
Well, it was true that Ikky could regenerate by eating crystals now. But that was from wounds he takes while being alive. Something like curing a wound that can cause death would be practically leaning towards resurrection.
'Damn trait has so many limits.'
On one hand, Seed of Nyx was keeping him alive, but on the other hand, he was bound to a life of infinite curses and pain because of it. Ikky did not know a lot about things concerning Prophets since there were rarely any roaming the streets of Sumeru. But by his own made up logic, a Virtue like his, with this much restrictions and side effects can't be a good one.
{Are you sure you don't want to eat it now?}
"Hm? I already know I won't heal. What's the point then?"
{...}
"Haa... You didn't hear that, did you? Whatever." Taking off his tattered shirt, Ikky tied it over his neck to prevent the already little blood in his body from spilling further and placed his head over the thin layer of cloth.
"Although I was promised a restored body if I... when I manage to make it out of here, it's still disgusting having my blood continuing to spill over me. I wouldn't wanna look at myself in a mirror."
Squatting, he dipped his hand in the muddy ground and drew, 'Hey'.
"... So, you can't see this, huh?" He sighed. But then the flashbacks of his past conversations with the Augur-spirit came to mind. So lying on the ground while facing the ceiling, he was finally able to use both of his arms, without the need to hold his head himself.
Getting fresh blood on one hand, he wrote on his other arm the same word, 'Hey'.
{... Wow, hey?}
"Jackpot!"
The Augur-spirit couldn't see the world around him, but was aware of his being. It knew that his head was unattatched to his body, and could guess a few words from his emotions. So by taking wild thoughts at the phenomenon, Ikky thought it would know what was happening to his body.
But if the blood didn't work, the thought of drawing wounds on his body was not too far from him.
With the rampaging chemicals and even sparks caused by shock clashing around in his brain, Ikky was almost insane at this point. A regular person would probably already have their brain fried from the back to back traumatic experiences, without being able to do anything. Luckily, Ikky had twice the body of a regular person, and both were all too accustomed to pain.
Neither Equinox nor Nox was too happy to meet at first, but being one was its own advantage. Because, in the game of survival, adaptability and learned experiences were even more precious than gold.
'HERE' Ikky wrote the last word of his question.
This omen on its own was an anomaly, and an unfair gamble. Ikky had even died one and a half times, yet was still standing. He was the focus of this story, and his plot armor up to this point was the curses of thousands of suffering people.
'My life is really messed up, huh.' He chuckled in self pity, tears failing to appear in his dry bloodshot eyes.
But, there had to be some sort of edge that he had, something to guide him out of this mountain. Usually, one could only escape omens by conquering their major calamity spirit, but with all his being, he hoped that was not the case for this one.
Why should it be? There were literally seven categories of the regular Sullen spirit one could encounter in an omen, but still, the calamity in this omen just jumped all those seven steps straight to the Deceiver grade.
Who knew how many crystals in that grade the one fighting the Captain had? Surely it couldn't be the same as the one that little girl had struck down.
'HOW TO GET OUT OF HERE?'
The Augur Spirit seemed to pause to think before answering,
{This... Your part of the Realm is something deeper than an omen. It is a catalyst... to something even greater.}
"Another poem?! What does that have to do with anything?! I need answers, spirit! Real ones!"
{... Fortunately, you do not have to kill the evil-spirit...}
'Good news? GOOD NEWS!!! Is there a portal? Where should I run to?'
{You are elated? Yes, you do not have to kill the spirit. In fact, your way out of here is very simple. It just involves you mastering something you've already achieved once before.}
Finally! There was hope of a way out, outside of inevitable death!
But... what was it? What was that thing he needed to learn? What was that which he had done before?
{Remember how you had escaped from the spirit before? You'll need to it again. But on purpose this time.}