It was shaped like a kitchen knife with a flat handle, its translucent white surface pulsing with pale light as it stayed lodged in Ikky's head. But strangely, the amber-eyed man was not down yet.
A portal of darkness suddenly appeared out of thin air, arms stretching out of it to wrap Ikky in its embrace.
"It's certain death for you..." A voice spoke from behind the the trees where the campfire couldn't reach.
The ghostly dagger lodged in Ikky's head soon vanished , then reappeared in the sky man's palm, its form becoming solid and physical.
"... You've been marked."
Tossing the knife up in the air, he caught it by the thin handle and whipped it out of his hand towards the shadowy figure.
A sky piercing shriek sounded, the air, and even the fabric of space around the stoney blade seemingly tearing apart like cloth.
No sooner had the blade left the sky man's hand, than it flew right through Ikky's head. It had passed through the same spot the first phantom knife had, but this time, with so much piercing force that it sliced a perfectly clean line in Ikky's head.
The Prophets didn't know what the amber-eyed man had done to deserve their comrade's wrath, only that he was surely dead.
But that too was a mere speculation amongst others. Ikky's body suddenly burst apart.
———
'Shoot! shoot! shoot! shoot!!! Holy heck!'
That had frightened the pee out of Ikky's bladder.
He was sure he was dead when he noticed the first dagger in his head. But it turns out, the blade wasn't made of physical matter. How did that thing even get there without him noticing?
Ikky didn't have any special inhuman senses, but the regular ones he did have were sharp and perked up to the max when he decided to approach the ten Prophets. Yet he did not even hear a whistle of an approaching weapon. It was as if the thing had just popped into reality right in the middle of his head. And this was probably right.
Then there was the second knife... or rather the same, but with a feasible form. Unlike the first, this one had made some kind of terrible sound, as it seemed to slip through the tiniest resistance existing in the concept of space itself and forcing through the smallest matter around it.
Yes, the sky man had thrown the weapon with force, but not with a reality shattering amount such as to make the dagger close the large gap between him and Ikky in just a tenth of a second. The amber-eyed man was only alive because of this strange process his body went through when he summons his totem.
Ikky would have liked to stay in this incorporeal state for a while to ponder what to do about the sky-man's dangerous ability, alas, these things were out of his control.
His shadowy form soon became solid, the colour fading into flawless white, leaving his cold fair skin with a snowy appearance, and his clothes even darker than night.
The rest of his scrawny body had been molded into a more reliable looking figure, the lines of his chin, nose and eyes becoming more apparent as his body looked to be carved to shape. His form was perfect, however, it's flawlessness strangely kept a certain deviation that made him look further from human.
A thin white bracelet was worn loosely over his left wrist. It was helping with maximising Ikky's use of spiritual essence, so he could do things he was normally supposed to be capable of if he had good control of his Mark himself.
While Ikky's body quickly reformed, the rest of the prophets had stood up with anticipation. And as soon as the sky man had confirmed Ikky was somehow still alive, he advised the prophets to get out of the area.
An infeasible dagger suddenly appeared in Ikky's chest.
"Seriously?! No friggin' dialogue at least to give me a chance to stand straight?!" Waves of cold air blew violently away from Ikky's body, night flowing out of him to quickly form a small black wall.
'Here it comes!' He braced as he watched the infeasible dagger disappear from his chest.
In no time at all, the sound of space being ripped violently apart, whistled.
Ikky had barely managed to move an inch when the shrill knife dug a space into whatever matter the wall was made of and stabbed mercilessly into his chest.
Ikky forced the scream from escaping his mouth as he scratched the small bleeding spot the knife had just struck. His impenetrable body was supposed to dissipate attacks that hit him, however the point of impact of the knife was so small, it had connected with the entire brunt of it's force on one single area, and too quickly for Ikky's body's to respond.
Ikky stumbled, dispersing the night mist wall.
'Blocking was a failed attempt.' Trying to ignore the lingering pain but failing, he opened his mouth and sucked in the night mist around him, before exhaling visible frosty air.
"You're quite hard to kill... for a Seer." The sky man finally spoke to him, his calm voice radiating mercilessness.
"And you're one of this year's Seers who were lucky enough to make it out of their first omen. What hierarchy of evil did you have to face to get such a pesky totem?"
Ikky cursed under his breath, trying to buy time to let the pain of the unworldly knife's sting subside. He glanced at the wide blue disk floating below the sky-man's hand.
That disc was most likely a totem, as it had a white cloud marking drawn at its translucent center. And from it's versatile use, and the fact that it wasn't shaped like a conventional weapon and inanimate, Ikky guessed it was an Instrument totem with the ability to produce the knives the sky-man was throwing.
"You're one too, aren't you?
From the moment I received my prophecy, I realised, there must be other unworthy people who had also managed to claw their way out of their first omen, holding similar gifts that are beyond what they should be entrusted with."
He paused, his next words carrying a more deeper tone.
"The omen should have killed off those unworthy people... I had thought. But here you are, a man who'd been sneaking the decapitated body of a woman around this dark forest, like a devil!"
"Ah, that's really the kind of person you are?" Ikky scoffed, getting the reason for the sky man's sudden outburst.
The sky-man was angry because of the misconceptions he had about Astrid's situation, but most of all, he thought himself to be an enforcer of the heavens.
"So you're a righteous saviour! Classic! They're always delusional! But for every piece of scum you'd be bothered with, many more grow out from the shadows your holiness casts.
And if you somehow manage to kill me, you'll face the same fate the moment you step out of this haven, dying and wasting your life on worthless ideals. Did you even think things through?!"
It was in the rules, killing a Prophet on purpose was a crime punishable by death. Nevertheless, the sky man replied,
"I'm not going to disregard that light just because it ends up casting a few dark shadows. I am aware of the balance. So even though it results to nothing in the end, I am the light that has to exist, and purge the darkness from this world... darkness in the form of people like you."
"Even if your actions will cause more problems? Hatred? Huh. Sounds like a terrorist to me." Ikky couldn't be bothered with explaining anything further to this thickheaded man. He would crack that head open and shove his words into it.
Although, what Ikky was saying did not really apply to himself. If Ivan kills him here, no one would cause any problems or show that hatred he spoke of to Ivan. In fact, he wasn't even certain that Ivan would be punished with death after murdering him. If someone like Simon was allowed to roam free, then who was to say that Ivan wouldn't?
What Ikky was trying to do with his rambling, was trying to shake the extremist ideals of the sky-man and sow a form of doubt into his mind, and hopefully, into his movements. Alas, it was a fruitless attempt.
'And to think there might be ninety seven more like this monster.' Astrid, somehow equipped with this classified knowledge had fed it to him. Almost nobody came out of this year's omens. And the ones who did, were likely with as screwed up mentalities as Ikky's and the sky-man's.
Not a single drop of night mist had been discarded, as it was put to work within Ikky's blood stream, flowing through his veins and enhancing his body.
A long infeasible white javelin suddenly appeared poking through Ikky's stomach.
But just as the spear re-materialized into the sky man's hand, the black sky above their heads suddenly cracked.