"Food, water, clothes, everything we need can be gotten by hunting sprites. So all I gotta worry about is not getting my cryptex stolen in these first few days."
Yaga, holding Ikky's cryptex in her hand as she sat on her plate, nodded. The rules of the exams were such that, those with zero cryptexes practically had no rights in the Haven. But those with higher numbers had a much better chance at finding really good people to join them, since they got to peep into a summary of the powers of every foe they defeat/ steal from.
Ikky had every logical reason to fight to join an official group, rather than jump from one group of strangers to another per omen as a Solo prophet. Solo prophets were subjected to more risks in the short and long run, because of this. They were mostly used as additional hands anyway, just like the three hired men from the group Ikky had met in the Kailash.
But if you asked Ikky why he was merrily participating in the exam, it'd because of the excitement he'd get from running around in this realm of legalized violence.
BOOM!!!
He had thought it was that excitement that had made his body land heavily on the ground of red grass, but then Ikky looked at the tall tree beside him. Even Yaga was barely the size of a fly in front of his eyes.
"Oh." His eyelids fell in disappointment. He had been cursed again.
"Motherf—" He exclaimed with annoyance, as a strange creature shot towards him from out of nowhere.
The creature was bathed in white light and a yellow silhouette. It was much like the sun if it had a slender humanoid form, and was a lot dimmer. One could see its golden slit eyes clearly. The large white wings behind its back looked out of place due to its strange asymmetrical appearance, shapelessness and colder hue.
This spirit certainly didn't look evil at all, but his curse begged to differ.
"Good morning."
Ikky was able to make out those words from the spirit's indifferent feminine voice as it stopped right in front of his face.
"Ah, it speaks too." Ikky said indifferently, much to Yaga's bewilderment. The amber-eyed man was surprised, but he'd run out of expressions of fear at this point.
Fortunately,
"I am not an it."
"Well my body seems to think otherwise." Ikky tried moving his arms, but his entire body definitely had the weight of a giant. Despite that, his strength didn't seem to have improved at all, so he couldn't move an inch to protect himself.
'This is wack. Can the Virtue really do this?' Ikky was genuinely surprised.
Yaga replied, 'Well, it has made you a virtual immortal once before. Gigantifying is a much lesser feat when you think about it.
"Your body...?" The spirit asked, trying to draw out meaning from Ikky's words. She figured that he might have a virtue that could sense spirits after all.
"You know, you shouldn't have your cryptex out in the open like that." She pointed at the cryptex floating beside Ikky's ear, being carried by his Augur spirit.
"It would take me an instant—" The spirit stopped as she watched Ikky's cryptex suddenly fall into his ear.
The sun-like spirit looked Ikky in the eyes for a while, with Ikky reciprocating the stare.
"That was disgusting." She suddenly broke the silence. "I need that totem clean when I take it."
"... Uh. The idea was so you can't." Ikky pointed out as he continued to stare.
"Did you bring along a bar of soap, detergents, sanitizers, and clean water?"
"The heck would I have those?" Ikky blinked curiously. The spirit seemed really restless by the fact that Ikky's cryptex had gone down his ear. It didn't seem annoyed by the fact that Ikky had kept it, but more about where he had kept it.
"Are you some kind of clean freak spirit?" Ikky had already shifted the fact that she might be a dangerous spirit to the back of his head. This thing had a mental disorder only a human would bother with.
"Well, your submission is inevitable." She declared.
"You're being delusional."
She continued, "Can you shrink? Your current form will only attract attention from other prophets."
"Ha! Jokes on them then. This form is a side effect, rather than being anything useful." His initial plan was to stay hidden and steal someone else's cryptex, but then his curse made him the easiest target to spot, leaving him with no way to fight. How ironic.
"May I help?" The spirit suddenly asked.
Ikky chuckled mockingly. The curses were deeply rooted in his being. It was the basic foundation of his entire block of existence and something only the gods could find a solution on how to deal with.
Ikky humoured the spirit nonetheless, "Sure, princess. Knock yourself out."
'Heck! How did I get rid of the curse last time?' Ikky then engaged in a telepathic conversation with Yaga, trying to figure out the conditions he would have to fulfill to remove the curse.
It couldn't have been just to kill the evil spirit that had caused it, since Ikky for sure hadn't killed the creature in the Kailash, yet the curse of paralysis had disappeared.
But before Yaga could word out a proper hypothesis, trees below Ikky's feet shifted with force as Ikky suddenly felt his body turn lighter.
And from the arm movements of the spirit floating below him, it was obvious that she was the one lifting his gargantuan body into the sky. Yes, Ikky's overall power was the same as when he is in his normal size, but not at all his weight. He was very very heavy.
Was the woman a powerful evil spirit after all?
But she had engaged in a sensible conversation with him, so it couldn't be.
This spirit was most likely just a Believer grade prophet, so Ikky's virtue must have sensed something else.
The spirit lady, after placing Ikky in the sky with one hand, stretched the other forward. It was then that Ikky felt an imaginary hand reach into his body, searching for an organ that wouldn't show even if his body was cut open, yet exists metaphysically.
When that organ, or aura was eventually ripped out, the spirit's entire arm burned black before decaying.
"Dirty." She re-grew her arm. The woman had spewed black blood: another cause for confusion.
Humans and spirits derived from humans, like evil spirits and human Sins had red blood, the rest that are naturally occurring like the wild spirits have black blood.
The female spirit had black blood, so she was definitely not an evil spirit. Maybe she is a reborn spirit like the Nian— a guardian? Or maybe she was just a prophet who's form had been totally altered by the Haven.
Ikky soon began to feel his body revert to normal after that ball of black aura had been ripped out of his body. By then, Yaga had already run out of his ear to go hide somewhere else, leaving one of the thin plastic talismans Izel had packed for him.
The spirit flew over to his falling self, gliding along the air with him as he put on the new clothes he got from the talisman.
"You're in your human form?" The spirit asked, surprised that the Haven hadn't changed his appearance like it does everyone else who walks in. Despite Ikky's peculiar appearance, she could tell it wasn't fake.
Ikky, filled with complete bewilderment turned to his side to look her in the eyes. "What are you?" He asked his own question.
"If the Haven changes just the appearances of the prophets, why is your blood black? If only evil spirits can talk, why isn't your blood red. Are you someone else's guardian? And most importantly, how were you able to pluck out my curse?"
The woman with only a second of thought, replied, "I am a prophet."
Ikky was still confused. However, shaking the thought out of his head, he shrugged. They would have all the time he'd need to wring out answers from her... when he drags her out of this haven.
"Okay, Miss 'prophet'. If you're a prophet, then you're going to have to challenge me for my cryptex."
The woman tilted her head in confusion.
"You've seen how powerful I am. Just give me your cryptex and let me handle all the heavy lifting."
She stretched out her hand so she could save Ikky from the high fall. But seeing as the man didn't give her his hand, she sighed and pushed, "Why would you want to engage in something so pointless as to fight, when you will still fall to me?"
"Being powerful and beating me are two different things." Ikky clicked his tongue.
———
Ikky had no friends, no mentor, no family, so who was he planning on fighting the omens for after this? Who was he cleansing the world for? Well it was certainly not for himself. He'd have ended his own life before it had even gotten to this point.
However, there was someone he wanted to talk to; someone he wanted to tell countless stories to, and brag to that person that he was at the focus of all of it! That he had lived a very long and exciting life.
He wanted that person to know that saving his life was the best deed anyone has ever done.
The afterlife was his end goal. But before then, he swore that he'd live through the best and the most thrilling stories ever told.
He definitely wouldn't get all of that by standing in other people's shadows, following along like sheep.
———
The ground wasn't too far away now, yet Ikky was still free falling.
"Your body will break if you hit the ground." The woman warned.
But it didn't.