The both of them could only stare as a thousands of thoughts ran through their minds— the sky-man, because of bewilderment at the amber-eyed man's unexpected actions and the black mist blade in his chest, while the amber-eyed man... well, the thoughts he was having were too gruesome to expose. In fact, there was no clear thought in Ikky's head, just transitions of scenarios mostly involving the sky-man's guts and his own fingers.
In fact, he could have even ordered his wraith to pick up her other weapon and kill Ivan, but he was too lost in insanity to think properly.
'Was it luck?!' The sky-man thought. But luck had very little to do with the stalemate Ikky had locked the both of them in.
It was the same as when he was faced with the spider spirit. Ikky's mind was as sharp as one could get when it came to making quick decisions.
"There was no need to hesitate sacrificing an arm when one could save his legs to flee." This sentence was enough to describe Ikky's thought process. So before he had even thought about the pain he would feel by directing the spear into his shoulder, his body was already moving on its own. This was all he could do after all, since he was damn sure he wasn't fast enough to just run away from the attack at such a close proximity.
The more baffling feat was the fact that at the same time he was performing that autonomous reflex action, he had already given orders to his wraith protector on what to do— tie himself up so he wouldn't kill himself, and then strike the skyman at the moment the man would let his guard down thinking Ikky was finished.
Of course, Night Chant's comprehension ability also sped up the rate of his thinking, making his mind clear and decisive, for a short amount of time before he completely succumbed to insanity.
However, the sky-man didn't know any of this. To him, Ikky was either lucky, or he had planned a situation where Ivan would let his guard down thinking he had won, before he dropped his own hidden cards.
But the situation had only been improvised during the fraction of the last second, and Ikky's wraith had only been let loose previously to find any Totems the prophets were hiding around. Ivan really had come at him unexpectedly. And it was all because she didn't keep shut when she was supposed to.
Suddenly, the 'devil' herself arrived, her stoic voice reaching their ears.
"May I... help you?"
Her voice was the only thing that had somehow made it through the fog of madness in Ikky's head. And now awake with the tiniest bit of control, Ikky muttered, his voice sounding hoarse and pitiful as he begged, "P... please. Help me."
He had been jolted to a slight state of awareness by Astrid's guiding voice, but he was suffering even more, trying to keep that awareness by pushing his Night Chant's mental clarity to counter its Cost.
Nodding, Astrid placed her hand on his shoulder. "I also found some of the cryptexes you were looking for."
"Now's... not the time." Ikky's eyes shut in pain and disbelief at her casual behaviour at his urgent situation.
With this peculiar behaviour, it was like she herself didn't know what pain was. Blood was literally leaking out the top of Ikky's head.
Realising that the entire fight might as well have been both of their schemes to steal his cryptex, and that Astrid did not seem to abhor any hatred towards the amber-eyed man, the sky-man looked down at the two of them with his eyes wide open as he ordered,
"Get this thing out of my chest, or you're both dead!" Even with a mist blade in his head, the man was still raring to go, apparently unfazed by the chill and fear spreading into his heart and soul.
———
The intense life and death battle Ikky and the sky-man had fought had left them oblivious to most of the world around them.
Ikky stared with an inquisitive expression at the sky, the sky-man mirroring his actions as he sat meters away, with Astrid sitting between the two of them.
"Why the hell?" Ikky spoke, drops of food escaping his mouth as he ate. Ikky was in top shape. If anything, there was just blood on his torn clothes and hair, but he was still well and alive now.
Astrid too looked up at the wide crevice right in the middle of the pitch black sky.
"That crack is from the haven border protecting this region from external evil spirits." She explained.
"Yeah, no shit." Ikky replied.
A Haven, being a safe zone, was still part of the realm of Augury after all. And this red forest region was connected to another region— and that region, to another. So the only thing really making a Haven a safe zone after the evil spirits within it has been cleared, is this 'Haven border' Astrid was talking about. It was a dome of natural energy encasing the Haven, and protecting it from other regions.
"Can you tell me the cracking is a good sign though?" Ikky asked rhetorically, already expecting it not to be.
"How many braincells do you have left hanging in there?" Ivan scoffed at Ikky's stupid voice.
Although he had been stabbed in the heart by one of the wraith's scythes, the weapon was fortunately the scythe made of pure dark night mist, used only to burden his soul and freeze his body. He was now taking some time to let the frost in his soul thaw, so he was going to be fine soon enough.
"Oh don't be salty. As soon as I can, I'll find some other unfortunate Prophet to dump you with." Ikky rubbed his chin in pretend-thought.
"Then again, I'd feel much better looking down at you ranked beneath me, you quack saint. To think you couldn't get your aim right from zero feet away. HAA!."
The sky-man clenched the leaf plate in his hand while Ikky cackled annoyingly in response.
After a couple more seconds of Ikky's taunting, he thought out loud, "In any case, that crack shouldn't concern us if we make it out of this place in time."
Astrid nodded before adding. "Easier said than done."
The soonest they could get out of this haven was seven days. And that was only if they were part of at least, a four-man group.
Instead, what they were was a seat of three people who had sliced off their necks, stabbed through their brains and aimed at their hearts and throats. It was safe to say that their current rag-tag group itself was dangling off a fragile thread.
Yes, Ikky had chosen to admit the sky-man into his team.
It was honestly a dangerous and questionable choice. However, Ikky had almost died for the sake of just taking the sky-man's one cryptex . If had to risk his life for it, he had decided on getting more than just one point to his score.
So Ivan was stuck with these two until someone else comes along to beat Ikky up and decide his fate. But he had just lost all his rights in this haven.
"That crack does concern us." The sky-man suddenly said, opposing Ikky's words.
"Ah, I remember. You actually want to save people underneath all that stuffy blood lust you permeate." Ikky laughed. "A good saint if ever I've seen one. But listen, I don't think you know what you're getting into."
The sky-man stared blankly as he tried to read into Ikky's next words. Astrid also turned to look at him as he continued,
"Shorty says the barrier is cracking, see? So spirits from other regions will flood into this place when it shatters. And to enforce this fact." He pointed to the sky.
"It's common knowledge that no matter the realm or world it is, the night and day cycle is a must, yet the sky here is always black! Did you perhaps ignore that fact, thinking it's natural?"
The sky-man's eyes were the same, however in his mind, he begun to fix the puzzle pieces that Ikky had dropped clearly in front of him.
There were certain facts and laws that even hell had to abide by. One of them is the day and night cycle. The Realm of Augury is basically a universe on its own. And that universe had stars, planets down to regions like the red forest.
Habitable planets must rotate around a sun. Ivan knew that too. However, because of the status of this haven as an exam ground for beginner prophets, most people did not bother thinking too much into it, blinded by the thought that Aequus would make the exams as safe as possible.
The night cycle of the planet this haven was on could even have been just long enough to surpass a month's worth of Svarga's time. But if the sky was really just black like night, why was the barrier cracking?
"Because, none of that darkness is atmosphere. Whatever is up there, or how many they are, they're alive. And as soon as that barrier shatters, the creatures pressing on top of it, falls down."
Ikky picked up the pot and slurped some of the leftover soup, like he hadn't just declared an impending doom.
"You knew that too, didn't you shorty? It's like how you somehow always know the time..."
'...And why I got a curse the second I fell into this godforsaken haven.'
Astrid's first sentence to Ikky when they first met was, 'Good morning.' But why did she give that greeting when the sky above their heads was a ceiling of unending darkness, while Mahar was past noon by the time Ikky had jumped into the portal? And she kept on giving this incessant and disturbing greeting every time she wanted to start a conversation.
Was she perhaps a clairvoyant who could predict outcomes like when the sky would eventually fall, or were her thin eyes just that good to see what time of the day it was? Ikky didn't know for sure. But, if she did have the powers of foresight and prediction like a psychic, he would have been the one tied up in a tree.
And as for the curse he'd gotten when he had fallen from the sky, it was most likely due to the immense presence of whatever was sleeping in the atmosphere.
Ikky turned to the suspected 'clairvoyant' as he asked with a squint, "What else do you know, shorty? How many more days do we have left, until the sky falls down on 'our ignorant' heads."