The lightning hit me square in the chest, the impact of the hit throwing me down, ears ringing. My spear was sent flying. The burst of movement in the periphery of my vision indicated that Esau had simply…moved out of the way of the lightning blast aimed at him. The ceramic that lay over my armour was the only thing that had kept the electricity from reaching my heart. Without it, I would have died.
I stood up as soon as I could and saw Esau run towards the left hand corner of the room where the kid was cowering in-between two pods. At moments he was a blur, dodging blasts of lightning. I was amazed. The speed that suggested was almost impossible to comprehend. Lightning moved at a considerable fraction of a speed of light. I ran forward as soon as the woman turned most of her attentions and frustrations to Esau.
It was likely that the lightning this woman was throwing around was moving at far slower speeds, but even speeds at one tenth the speed of lightning were far too quick for any biological organism to handle, much less the human body. I reached the lady at full sprint, cocked back my fist and was sent spinning at full speed into of the side walls. The movement and impact was so sudden, I only realized what had happened after I registered the pain of my shoulder breaking.
Lightning continued to arc from the woman to any errant piece of metal in the room, though it seemed primarily focussed on Esau.
I blinked away the black spots in my vision. So she had both electrokinesis and telekinesis? Wonderful. I'm not one to talk but having one, let alone both should be impossible. At the very least it was at least a bit unfair.
Whatever the telekinetic effect was though, it seemed to have been automatic because if it wasn't she could have sent me flying into any of the many hooks and blades lining the room. I shuddered as I realized that I could have died again. I turned my attention to the ongoing fight.
Esau was holding the kid in his arms, deftly avoiding the lightning. I realized what was happening. Esau could theoretically get close to the woman at any time he wanted to and end the fight. Ignoring whatever telekinetic effect sent me flying anyway, though from his thoughtful expression, Esau had figured something out about her defences. Problem was, the kid in his arms would be at risk if he let him go or if he was able to get close. He also couldn't direct the drones to do anything because he had the kid in his arms, and manoeuvring him so that he could manipulate his omni-tool would remove the support around the boy's neck. Meaning that the next time he dodged, the boy would have his neck broken by the whiplash.
I searched myself for my omni-tool. Maybe if I could access the communication features, I could direct the drones. I couldn't find it; it must have fallen when I was sent flying through the room. I looked around and saw it in the middle of the room, in between the woman and the exit.
It was a bad idea to try and stand up after what was likely a concussion but I had no real choice. I stood up and was hit by a wave of nausea and pain from my shoulder. I waded through the waves of nausea and after what must have been ten minutes, finally reached the omni-tool. I opened the omni-tool up and began the handshake protocols between the omni-tool and the drones which were idly floating just in front of the entrance.
I didn't have a real plan for what I would do with the drones. The defensive element of her abilities meant that I couldn't just have them directly attack her. Esau had figured something out, but I wasn't him. For all I knew, she really was invincible, but I had to try and figure it out too anyways. I sent the first drone flying into her from behind.
It flew at her at just below running speed. Not very impressive but a piece of metal the size of your fist hitting you at that speed was sure to hurt. As it flew, I formulated plans on what I would do if it failed. To my surprise, it hit her square in the back knocking her down. She rolled with the impact and turned to face me, her face a rictus of rage.
Her eyes glowed a deep blue, almost purple colour, and I smelt the ozone in the air being replaced by sulphur. Geometric lines appeared on the floor, with her as the origin before ending in a circle around her, illuminating the room in an eerie blue glow. The hair on her head started to move, animated as if they were snakes. I felt goose bumps along my skin; it didn't take a genius to figure out that I was in deep trouble. Still, she had made a fatal mistake. She had taken her eyes of Esau.
Just behind her, Esau jumped up, the kid still in his arms where he kicked a hook hanging off the left wall, where it broke off and fell. He landed on his feet, and then kicked the air, where he connected with the hook, sending it flying into the woman's back from behind, knocking her down. As if she was a puppet with her strings were cut, she just collapsed. The lines surrounding her continued to glow.
It was without a doubt, the coolest thing I had ever seen. I held my breath for a moment before I realized that she was still breathing. Whatever happened, she was still alive.
"That was awesome, son." I found myself saying.
"Thank you Father." He said, not quite keeping the smug look off of his face. He set the boy down. "This is Kov."
In the light, I had a better look at the boy. He was near skeletal, with his eyes surrounded by black circles. He was pale too, with unkempt hair that was a deep auburn colour and reached just past his ear. He was shaking, the adrenaline visibly leaving his blood stream.
"Hi! My name is Isaac. You've already met Esau. We're not going to hurt you alright?" I said, keeping my palms up, facing forward to keep him calm. This kid had obviously been through a lot. Presenting myself as a threat would help no one. His blank stare was enough to inform me that we likely spoke different languages. "Esau?"
He told the boy and with some gesturing between myself and himself, likely to indicate that he was my son and the boy relaxed, slightly. It was understandable, from his perspective, he had just woken up after going through-who knows what-and saw a random man and his son fight a woman who was throwing lightning around. No part of what was happening was normal.
"Does he know who she is?" I asked, indicating towards the woman. Esau talked to the boy again. After an animated conversation between him and the boy, Esau shook his head.
"He doesn't know."
"He doesn't know her?" I was sensing a theme here. Either no one knew anything or Esau was awful at asking questions. He shook his head again.
"No. He doesn't know her. He along with all the humans on the ship were taken from their homes by what he called the 'Dark Ones'. They were taken from different parts of the city he came from. When he was dragged onto the ship, he was isolated with some of the other people he knew and was put in this room. They didn't say why, beyond laughs when he struggled. When he was brought in, the woman was already here."
"Did he tell you were he was from?"
"He said that he's from 'Home'."
"As in he doesn't actually know?"
"No, as in it was a city called 'Home' by the settlers that made a home there. Apparently the planet started as a penal colony but after something called the 'Dark Night' collapsed and was reformed into a city."
"Ah." I nodded. Not exactly the most creative of names but that made sense. Places have been named for sillier reasons. "So they were taken from different places. Could have been from a different planet altogether."
"Yes."
"I see. I had hoped he knew what the hell she was doing and how the hell she was doing it."
He looked at me askance.
"You didn't feel it?"
"Feel what?"
"The moment she left the pod and set her eyes on us, I felt an…ominous feeling. It was like an ocean of power-of maliciousness made manifest."
"And she was connected to it."
"Yes. She was drawing from it. It was the source of her power. I do not know the mechanism of how she was doing what she was doing but she somehow turned this energy into electricity."
In a world with Orcs and Elves, Magic shouldn't have come as a surprise but somehow it was. Magic. It was insane, the only evidence I had regarding the existence of it was Esau, but I trusted Esau. It was insane but my life has been insane since I found myself wherever the hell this was, so the smart play was to believe him.
"That's a shame. I had hoped that whatever mechanism was behind her abilities would be something we could harness but it would be wise not to."
"What do you mean? For the scant few moments I felt a connection to her, it felt like she was drawing from something great. Something infinite." Esau said, gesturing to work through his thoughts. "If we could figure out how to draw from it-"
"That's probably a bad idea." I said, interrupting him.
"Why?"
"You described it as an ocean of malice. That doesn't sound like something we should try to figure out."
"I admit the point, but you didn't feel it. The malice felt like it was coming from her end, not her source of power. Like how a white light can be split into different colours by refracting it through a prism."
"You're right, I didn't feel what you felt. What I did feel was the malice she was giving off near the end there. My only experience with anything like what you say you felt; is magic in fiction I've consumed. Before you say anything, I know that that's not a reliable source. But-" I put my finger up, to punctuate my point.
"The thing about magic in all the media I've consumed; is that it's unknowable. You can study it and predict it sometimes but you can never really know it. Thus, it is dangerous."
"By that same logic, the Forge is dangerous as well." He retorted. Touché.
"True, and it still may very well be. But it hasn't brought harm to us yet. So far, everything it has given us has been lifesaving. What has this magic given us? Nothing, but mortal peril."
"Moral peril at the hands of this woman. It may not all be like that."
"Perhaps it may not be. But we know nothing about this magic force. We would be working from observations of a person who tried to kill us. Besides would you really risk all our lives over something you yourself are not sure about? Especially when the Forge might potentially grant us more advantages?" I said. I knew I had him. Esau was willing to take chances but he was also good at weighing the stakes.
"No, I would not." He said. I decided to throw him a bone.
"It's not unlikely that the Forge might give us a way to interact with magic. If that ends up happening one day and if we can get the lady to calm down and cooperate – we may revisit this conversation, alright?" He nodded, satisfied.
"Alright."
After a minute, I nodded over towards the lady who still hadn't moved. She was still breathing, but she hadn't moved a single muscle.
"So, now we have to approach the lady." I said. "Except we have no idea what kind of effects she may have laid upon or around her body. I have no wish to get sent flying into the wall again."
"Agreed." We stood there in silence for a moment before Esau spoke to Kov for a moment. Kov nodded and left the room a single drone accompanying him, though I could see that he was hesitant. I would be too, for all he knew, the elves were still all over the ship. From where I was standing, I could see him curl into a ball just on the outside wall. He was scared. I was about to ask what that was about before Esau spoke.
"Did the Forge reward you for capturing her?" Blinking at the suddenness of the non sequitur, I responded.
"No, it didn't." I said, then it hit me. "The fact that we just encountered and beat a magic user should be significant in some way. Significant enough that we should have seen some kind of reward. While it's possible that the Forge may not consider this a significant milestone, the fact that it didn't means that we haven't yet beat her."
"Yes. This is likely a trap of some kind. She wants us to get close." The circle surrounding her was still glowing an eerie blue. It was likely the mechanism for the trap.
"Do you sense anything?" I asked. Esau shook his head. He likely wouldn't. Even if Esau was immensely talented, she had what was likely years of experience using her abilities. It was likely she was using them in a way that would be difficult to sense.
"Hmm. How many drones do you have left?" He checked his omni-tool.
"Two." The one I had hit the woman with was still functional and one was hovering obediently near the door. The third was guarding Kov. Two would have to be enough.
"Try to get one closer to her." Esau obliged. The moment the drone travelled over the line, it crumpled up and broke. Where it lay, rust began to form on the metal parts. Huh.
If there was any doubt before, we were now absolutely sure that would never attempt to cross that line. We still had a few things we could try though. For one we could see what the field did to organic things. We just wouldn't be using ourselves.
I directed the second drone to find an errant severed limb from an elf that had died on the ship. It was gruesome but it was much better that testing the field on ourselves. We could have used one of the dead humans in the room but if I could, I wanted to give them a proper burial. It was callous perhaps, but I didn't feel that the elves from this ship deserved the same respect.
The moment the arm touched the field, the blood drained from the limb and it shrivelled up. The blood floated in the air in morbid globules before the blood dropped unceremoniously out of the air, splashing down onto the floor. The glow of the circle briefly dimmed before it lit up again. The circle was after blood specifically but this specific blood apparently didn't meet whatever requirements that the circle needed. Was it the fact that the blood was alien?
No, that didn't make sense. The woman was likely taken from her home by her the elves. She likely hated aliens. It wouldn't make sense for any of her abilities to not work on them. So what about the alien was different from us, besides the fact that it was an alien.
"It's not alive." Esau said, suddenly.
"Ah. That makes sense." I said. He was right. "It would trigger the moment we walked into the circle and drain us of our blood. The reasons don't particularly matter but it seems that our options are even more limited." Getting the lady out of the circle was looking more and more like a lost cause.
"Maybe." He said. He pointed to where the blood landed. "The circle dimmed when the blood splashed down there. Would it dim more if we supplied it with more dead blood?"
That a suggestion like that would come from him was both unsurprising and troubling. After this, I would have to put Esau on research and build duty. No more fighting. It was more or less impossible for him to have a normal childhood but I'd be damned before gave up trying.
The worst part about his suggestion though, was that it was our best shot to get to her. I directed the drone to get more alien body parts. With each limb fed to the circle, the light dimmed and eventually after exactly nine limbs, it had fully lost its glow.
We tried to feed it a tenth when we realised that the circle had fully deactivated. Slowly we approached, careful to stand outside the circle. When we reached the edge of the circle, it lit up again. Another trap. We waited for our blood to be drained and for us to die a gruesome death but our death never came. Instead, the light washed over us and we watched the woman rise up into the air as if a puppet pulled by its strings. Suddenly she froze, she cried tears of blood and she screamed.
Strangely, the scream wasn't particularly loud. It was almost muffled. If anything, that made it even more disturbing. The woman didn't pause for breath and the scream was continuous. It was if it wasn't her who screaming per se, but something else was screaming through her. After what felt like hours, the sound stopped and she collapsed onto the floor face first.
She was still alive.
Cautiously, we approached her after verifying that there was no other anomalous effect surrounding her. We turned her over, the process slow and painful as I was reminded of my shoulder injury.
She had no eyes. There was no sign of injury. It was as if she never had any in the first place. All that was left were sockets. She opened her mouth and-
I was watching a group of kids play ball in the middle of streets torn up by the constant fighting between gangs. They fought for territory, for men, for women, for drugs and for food. They fought for everything, and they fought for nothing. There was no safe area on Tectum, so the children played wherever they could.
One of the children, a girl with black hair and sharp features watched as a ganger approached them. He waved a knife the size of the girl's arm at the children. Some of the dumber children were impressed but all of them were afraid, the girl could feel it. Gangers were unstable and would kill at the drop of a hat. Newblood like the boy would kill for less. She didn't want to die today. She didn't want to die any day. She wanted to eat and drink and play forever. But on Tectum, that was impossible.
The ganger sneered at her through yellowed teeth. He knew she was afraid, she could feel it. He walked up to her, talking all the while. She wasn't listening because he wanted to kill her, she could feel it. She was going to die, she could feel it. She just wanted to be left alone with her friends, but now she was going to die. She closed her eyes and heard screaming. Screams weren't uncommon on Tectum, but these kinds of screams were new.
She opened her eyes. The ganger was gone and all her friends were gone. All she saw in the streets, were ashes.
No one wanted to play with her after that.
The scene changed. Now the girl was being looked at, by an old woman with glowing eyes. She was strange. People didn't grow old on Tectum, the gangers made sure of that. The woman had found her one day and asked to 'see if she had the gift'. In exchange she would be given food. So even if she didn't 'have the gift' she would have food in her stomach, so it would be alright.
The scene changed. Now, the girl was a woman grown. The old woman had died. A bullet from a gang that hated wytches had done it. The girl has used her gift to find the man who had shot it. The man had died screaming. She was fighting, along with the other wytches that the old woman had taught against the gangers. She and the wytches were winning.
The scene changed. The wytches had done it. Now all the little boys and girls could eat and play with their friends without fear of a stray bullet like she had to. She was happy, for a time.
The scene changed. The Dark Ones had come. They killed many of her friends. They killed many of her enemies. They killed and killed and laughed, all the while. They found her and laughed as she threw lightning at them. They laughed as she threw fire and they loved it when she threw pain.
The scene changed. She was chained up. She couldn't access her gift, not while she was restrained. They would cut her open, just to hear her scream. She would not, not for them, not for anybody. Tectum had beaten all the screams out of her. They hated her for this. She hated them more. She swore everyday she was awake that she would kill them. She would kill them all.
The scene changed. Now I was looking at the woman as she was now. We were in the middle of the torn up streets of Tectum. She was looking at the distance before she turned at me. She spoke.
"I'm sorry." She looked away. "I thought you were them. Sometimes the Dark Ones would change their faces, make as if they were like us."
"Why?" I asked.
"They would make plans for escape; give us hope, just to see us fail. I am sorry."
"It's okay." I said. I didn't know what else to say.
"It is not, but thank you." It was quiet for a moment before she spoke again. "What will you do? I have put you in danger, almost killed you and the Great One. I do not deserve to live." Great one? Was she talking about Esau?
"It's alright." It really wasn't but I was tired of seeing death. "Would you like to live with us?"
She turned to me.
"After all that I have done, all that I have been?"
I nodded. "Well, we would have to build you a separate house a ways away from ours. But sure, yeah. It would be good to have another adult to talk to."
"Thank you. I will endeavour to repay you for the honour of giving me my life. My talents in wytchcraft will likely be useless from now on but I have other skills I can pass on. I will not be useless, I assure you of this." She said in complete sincerity. It was really creepy to be honest.
"Sure, as long as you keep away from the magic - we'll be fine."
Suddenly, we were back in the room Esau and I had found Kov and her in. Esau was lifting me up of the floor. The woman started to stand up, her limbs shaky. I kept Esau from attacking her. Her abilities were untrustworthy but she was an ally now.
[
Action: Meet a Psyker and Survive the Perils of the Warp
Reward: - Genius-Level Intellect (Bleach - Reborn Remade)
]
I got Esau to call Kov for me from the corridor. Hesitantly, he joined us. Despite the pain, it felt good to have people to talk to. I hadn't realized how lonely I was, having focused on raising Esau, but now that I could interact with more people, a void I had inside me was filled.
I realised that I had forgotten something.
"I'm sorry, I forgot to ask you your name through all that Miss." She smiled. The action looking horrifying on her scarred, bloodied face.
"My name is Kha."
Notes:
5.1. Perk(s) earned this chapter:
Domain: Knowledge: Intelligence - Genius-Level Intellect (Bleach - Reborn Remade) (400CP): On par with the likes of Urahara, or Mayuri, you have an amazing intellect. Managing to reverse engineer specialty soul products in short time periods (like the Squad 0 hotsprings), to accurately predict the exact items you'll need for a battle before it begins.