The town's help came, strangely enough, from the Albatross Spirit. It was an Anchor Spirit that called its home to some rather open communities down in both Hawaii and New Zealand… however that worked. While not everyone agreed to leave, it was at least a majority of the townsfolk who followed their elder's leads and left alongside them. The Albatross Spirit itself didn't look very miraculous, but something about it struck DeMain as prideful despite the trash bag wrapped around its right leg. It screeched at him, then perched higher in the trees in preparation to set off and guide the villagers to a safer homestead.
DeMain, Kaiyo, and Yolanda, despite their disagreements, all agreed this was the best they could do given the situation. Kaiyo seemed to have let off the brakes a bit and cut DeMain some slack for the whole disaster, but he honestly would have understood even if she didn't. Before they set off, he managed to catch her packing the few things she had in a backpack with hipster pins and extra black pockets sewn in.
"Hey, listen, I wasn't trying to be stupid on purpose—"
"I know, DeMain. But it just… god it fucking sucks. I still miss him and I don't know if I can just let that go. I know it's not your fault but it feels like the universe is giving me a big 'fuck you in particular'" Kaiyo huffed, setting her packed bag down and landing herself on the old bed she probably shared with Kurt not even a few hours ago.
DeMain sat down on the floor, he didn't really feel comfortable trying to mosey on in next to her. She'd probably stab him. Actually she definitely would, DeMain had partially heard the very colorful plans she had for Avery when she got to him during her conversations with Yolanda behind closed doors. It wasn't like he was creeping in to listen, she was just very vocal. Kind of hard to ignore a girl spouting things DeMain wouldn't wish on the worst of people while he carried people's bags nearby.
"What was Kurt like? I only knew him for a little bit, but he seemed cool."
"He was, in all the good ways." Kaiyo reminisced, watching the webs wrapped around her hands with empty eyes. "Kurt wasn't afraid to stand up for things, even if it got him in trouble. Lots of trouble. I… I guess weirdly enough, I knew he wasn't going to last very long. Twice as hot, twice as short type of guy, but I loved him for it. It pulled me out of a lot of dark holes I didn't think I could keep digging for myself, much less climb out of. He told me all the time he thought his soul was pretty boring compared to mine. I could do all these things with runes and silk and he just… got cooler fists. He 'basically just punched hard'."
DeMain listened. There wasn't much else to do and frankly he didn't feel like doing anything else in the first place. He could feel Curiosity staring through his eye, giving DeMain a facet of attention he never thought possible given his difficulty with schoolwork. Kaiyo seemed a little happier that she could fill the silence with adorative memories, even if just to talk to herself.
"I liked Kurt a lot, and I know that sounds kind of dumb since we were dating but he was… simple. I liked it. I knew what would make him laugh and how he would approach things. I guess I would have tweaked his fashion a bit, but you can't have everything."
Kaiyo began to falter and break into tears, sinking deeper into what would never be again.
"Kurt was… he was my friend when I didn't really know what a friend was. We started dating because I really felt like I could be myself and do things with him. I found out about his Awakening and… I don't know. I felt like I wanted to help stitch a bunch of tears back together in my favorite teddy bear. It's… a stupid analogy, I know."
She put her face in her hands and shook as tears overtook her, deeply set doubt and shame clawing at her from within. DeMain could feel it radiating off of her, a cold that raised your hairs and consumed you from inside. He realized he could see Kaiyo's soulform, but he wasn't sure if he should look at it. Yolanda had mentioned it was a private thing. DeMain averted his eyes.
"Kaiyo… do you want me to see you?"
Kaiyo quickly stiffened and readjusted herself, the sight disappearing from view. DeMain wasn't disappointed, but he was a little saddened she felt the need to hide herself from him. Still, he—
No, he already had hidden in the dark like Kaiyo. He was lost because there was nothing he could do for her. DeMain couldn't use his spiritblades to cut away the sadness, or to cut Kurt from the clutches of death. DeMain was sad because he felt his mother's hands around him, powerless as he watched disaster unfold. He understood, even if he didn't know how to convey that.
"Sorry. I'm very emotional." Kaiyo said, as if all that had happened was some misunderstanding.
"What? Kaiyo, that's fine. I don't care if you cry. I'd rather you do that than be totally emotionless like…"
DeMakn wanted to say Avery, but if he told Kaiyo he knew about him then she might actually tear him asunder right here.
"…some other people I've met."
"No. It's fine. I'm done being sad anyway." Kaiyo remarked, wiping her cheeks and putting on a serious face. She grabbed her things and carried them out to meet Yolanda for their departure. Yolanda was at the edge of town aiming her wand threateningly at any spirits that got too close, and Kaiyo feigned a smile for her when their eyes met. In terms of belongings, DeMain had… not a lot to retrieve. Most of the townsfolk had left, and any stragglers were firmly rooted in a refusal to leave. He trudged back to Malik's place and grabbed anything useful he could find, though it was mostly murky booze bottles and half-eaten leftovers. There was a kitchen knife, but that felt sorta useless seeing as DeMain could already make really big kitchen knives from his arms.
Dragging his own things behind him, DeMain set off with the other two girls on the beginning of what was probably a very dangerous, stupid mission. DeMain wasn't optimistic with how Avery had managed to worm his way into surviving every ordeal so far.
"So how are we going to track Avery, exactly?" DeMain asked as he climbed a set of horizontally-facing trees up to a cave system. Rather, he thought it, and an answer was given to him by Curiosity.
"You need only find a member of the Xanthic Courts. Their ordeals all lead to the same place."
"Am I just supposed to… know what a member of the Xanthic Court looks like?" DeMain thought back in tow.
"They are most closely tied to downfalls. A spirit of such things would be your best bet."
DeMain brought it up to the others. It was a bit of a struggle to explain how he was getting this information to Yolanda and Kaiyo, but the two eventually seemed to understand the gist of what he was saying. DeMain had no idea what to look for even with that information, and his remark about the spirit of Moles possibly being a 'downfall' was laughed off even though he was partly serious. At least it disqualified the literal downfalls. Fuck, he was tired.
They traveled through more pieces of the Reikai than they had during the journey to the Knight Spirit, but seeing the actual spirits within their domains seemed rarer than DeMain expected. They found one that seemed to be some kind of… miscreant housekeeper? She said nothing to them, but they quickly left after she glared at them with murderous intent and the hard end of a broom. Another that seemed less than ideal was an impossibly long white horse which whispered to them from within the rushing waters of rapids. The next was more worryingly a rather rabid-looking Caribbean man, clothed only in torn pants and with eyes a little too bulbous to ignore. They wanted to, but it seemed that he was blocking the path and cursing them out in a language none of them could understand, even with their combined insights.
DeMain elected to just cut the spirit with his blade, which proved easier than he expected. As he did, the piece of the Reikai (previously some kind of mud-ridden coast) evaporated. Only now they were back at the brookside with the lengthy horse staring at them. There was a path deeper into the Reikai peeking from behind its pale head, but all three of them knew instinctively that it probably wouldn't let them pass. On top of that, the rushing water might sink them all.
"Come closer, you need to cross. Perhaps I can ferry you?" It whispered, its jaws clacking together with empty bones and teeth despite the oddly lustrous skin wrapped around its body.
"You think we can take him?" DeMain asked, edging away from the brookside's treacherous inhabitant.
"In a fight, yeah." Yolanda muttered. Kaiyo gave her a weird look and none of them talked about it further. Yolanda was busy trying to hold in a laugh, but Kaiyo knelt down on the earth surrounding the river and began producing lengths of spider silk from her fingertips.
"Maybe. I don't know a lot about what it is. Maybe you can ask Curiosity?"
"Oh. Right. I forgot I could do that." DeMain blanked.
It felt like the answers to everything were always on the tip of his tongue with The Spirit of Curiosity, but just out of reach. He wondered if the spirit was trying to taunt or teach him, a question which received no answer. Other visions and memories from past persons flooded his mind, though it was hard to make sense of all of them. Only a few things really stood out among the rushing images.
"Whoa… okay. So, don't ride it." DeMain reeled, his head as fuzzy as the time he'd crammed for an exam overnight without sleep.
"Well, uh doy! I don't feel like being eaten." Yolanda exclaimed, aiming her wand in debate of what spell to obliterate the spirit with. Probably something with fire.
"Yeah but beyond that. I think it's gonna drown us if we try to cross."
"That also feels kind of obvious." The wand-waving girl said.
"I don't fucking know, okay?" DeMain sighed, exasperated.
Kaiyo suddenly let loose a massive net of web across the river, both acting as a bridge and suppressing the spirit below the currents. She stared at the other two for a moment.
"Well? Got any better ideas? The net will tangle it if it tries anything, and we'd get caught in a pretty bad spot if we tried to jump it."
Neither of the other two had any ideas, and DeMain wasn't about to suggest they just hit it hard. The thing looked pretty dense despite its shell of skin, and if the Knight Spirit was anything to go by he doubted cutting through the powerful bones of a spirit was going to be easy. He really needed to figure out how to make his skill work better…
The webbing of the bridge seemed stable enough that Kaiyo could cross with a few graceful bounces, and she readied another covering web just in case the spirit caused problems. It merely lurked just under the surface, paying them no mind now. DeMain was second to cross, but he didn't have the grace to get any good airtime. The result was a weird cross between running and bouncing, like sprinting across a trampoline.
Yolanda wasn't so eager to get to the other side, and seemed very intent on making that clear.
"Uhm… you guys go on ahead, I'll find another way around!"
"What? You're scared of this now?!" Kaiyo exclaimed, breaking concentration on whatever web pattern she intended.
"Well I wasn't before, but you know I know it's right there, and I saw you two cross and now I'm thinking about the spirit ripping out of the water and grabbing me—"
"Just—"
Before either of the two could grant Yolanda more words of reassurement, the winding body of the brook spirit burst from the water and tore through the woven crossing with no signs of restraint. In a grotesque display, its spine lengthened into new segments, each propped up by spindly legs like stilts in the water. There was a flash of white, and Yolanda was gone.
DeMain flew into action before Kaiyo could even untangle her fingers, and he found himself pushing past the surface of the water as his head made contact. Every voice in his head was screaming at him for making a stupid, rash decision, and DeMain knew immediately he shouldn't have followed her so hastily.
The underside of the river was a dark, dusty expanse of water in which the light drifted down into complete darkness below. He saw the endless, white body of the river horse coil into the dark as it sank, small flashes of lights and colors emanating from the depths where Yolanda had been dragged. He could dimly see the reflection of her wand as she haphazardly slung it around, becoming only dimmer as she sank.
DeMain attempted to swim deeper, kicking his legs frantically. He even summoned his spiritblades in an attempt to use them like flippers, but they proved useless.
He wasn't an awful swimmer, but the problem wasn't his skill. The water actively repelled him, pushing him back to the surface and away from the muffled screams Yolanda gave out for help. Another flash came and then… nothing.
The surface of the water broke as DeMain found himself on the shore once again, clambering up onto the ground with only fear in his eyes. Kaiyo was dead silent, and her hands covered her mouth in terror. Neither of them could find words, and the pale head of the Brook Horse rose from the water again a few short seconds later.
"Come closer, you need to cross. Perhaps I can ferry you?"
DeMain and Kaiyo sat on the river's edge, both thinking of dozens of things to do but unable to find a proper path to take. Panic overtook both of them as time ran out for Yolanda. DeMain turned to Curiosity, who could provide no real answer. The Brook Horse wasn't supposed to burst out of the water and steal someone, much less someone unwilling to enter the water. The bony horse head taunted both of them, hanging just above the surface with eyes a little too human in shape. Its mantra had been repeating the entire time, driving them mad.
"Come closer, you need to cross. Perhaps I can ferry you?"
DeMain couldn't hope to fight it while it was in the water, especially if it moved that fast. He was at a loss for words, but Kaiyo spoke first.
"Fine."
DeMain turned and saw desperation in her eyes. It'd only been a little while since they left the camp, and they'd already lost their friend to the first obstacle to challenge them. He could see the shame and doubt welling around her face, ready to sacrifice herself just to try and return Yolanda's corpse. DeMain grabbed her arm before she could step towards the riverbank, and Kaiyo didn't fight him.
"DeMain, I know it's stupid, but if anyone can get her back it's me. I've made up my mind. I've got my threads--"
He felt her weight yanked from his grasp, so quickly he could feel the burn of her leathery sleeve in his hand. The gaunt Brook Horse had taken her too.
DeMain froze with his arms still outstretched. The water of the river was deathly still, and he wondered only briefly if there ever was a creature lurking below. He didn't wonder for long, as its head surfaced once more and uttered its abysmal phrase.
"Come closer, you need to cross. Perhaps I can ferry you?"
He was running out of time and this thing was so fast there was no way he could fight it. People could survive around like…three minutes of time underwater safely, but they were both approaching that limit quicker than DeMain wanted.
"What do you want? Huh? We can make a deal, just give them back!"
The creature only stared at him blankly.
"Come closer, you need to cross. Perhaps I can ferry you?"
"The fuck you will. Fuck off. Fuck you! Godamnit. What the fuck do I even do?"
Mentioning wanting to go or thinking about what the spirit would do seemed to trigger it, but admittedly it was hard not to think about something right there in your head. DeMain realized there was something he could maybe both distract himself with and offer up.
"You! Horse… thing! I present— The Black Cat Spirit!"
DeMain held up the cage, ignoring the incessant mewling and slurs of British origin from within. The Black Cat spirit had been staying quiet and out of mind intentionally, but DeMain had been keeping his mental eye on it since he got it back inside. He was mostly afraid it would pull some spirit bullshit and disappear, but it seemed unable to claw through whatever made up the iron bars. He'd have to ask Malik why when his friends weren't busy dying.
Before the Brook Horse could mutter more about ferrying DeMain, a thick tangle of webs wrapped around its neck and the length of its body before tightening like a thousand vices. The spirit struggled, and the river's length began to twist and turn until it turned its attention to the depths of its own domain. DeMain took his chance against the agitated and restrained entity, dashing forward and bringing his spirit blades down upon its neck. Like he'd predicted, the solid bone underneath was far too dense. All he'd managed to do was chip it, he needed somewhere more vital…
As DeMain continued to strike, the spirit's reign over its piece of the Reikai was exerted. The river twisted and bent into two pillars of roiling water on either side of its hovering knot of a body, rising and stretching upwards until all of the deep blue innards were flushed out. At the bottom, DeMain could see Kaiyo holding the spirit like a kite with a thousand threads of silk. Yolanda was beside her, heaving air and barely hanging on. He couldn't hear what Kaiyo was shouting, but she was clearly looking to the barely-conscious Yolanda for help.
DeMain needed to act, and with desperation closing in his heart began to race. Adrenaline flowed through his veins like boiling water, forcing him to think of solutions he never had before. The spirit was about to drown both of them for good, and his spiritblades were useless. All of the voices in his head deliberated over courses of action, but they had almost nothing to go off of. Even Curiosity seemed unwilling to assist, and DeMain sensed this time his inability was voluntary. Curiosity was… curious to see what would happen. Fucking bastard, he'd promised to help and to share all the knowledge he had.
The cage rattled again, and DeMain noticed the cat was attempting to claw its way out.
"I'll let you out but only if you help me!"
"Of course! It's a deal my most gracious, generous—"
DeMain pried the cage open and flung it at the spirit. The impact of the cage seemed to hurt it more than the cat that flew out and onto its pale hide, but it drew its attention. The dark eyes of the horse's head turned to DeMain, only for the small flicker of the Black Cat Spirit to claw its way into the creature's socket. The Brook Horse shrieked and dropped the pillars of water, flooding Kaiyo and Yolanda. DeMain dove in while it was distracted, finding the water unable to push him around this time. Even better, he could use his blades to help with swimming, though it was a weird angle.
DeMain managed to grab and assist Kaiyo and Yolanda with their rise to the surface, all three of them coughing and gasping on the bank of the river. As they did, the figure of the Brook Horse crashed on the shore next to them as it turned and shook itself free of the Black Cat Spirit. The small feline landed on its paws close to DeMain before sprinting and clawing his back, hiding behind him like a meatshield. The Brook Horse looked very annoyed, the water of its domain already surrounding it like a large cyclone of murky, salty depths. DeMain regretted throwing away the cage, chain and all. Even if it wasn't great, the creature was still affected by it.
A typhoon of rushing water separated the group as it blasted through the landscape, immediately carving a new route for itself as the rest of the Brook Horse's Reikai piece reshaped itself around the new river. Yolanda took the opportunity to cast 'Heartthrob Blastaway' from her wand, but the river spirit merely shielded itself from the predictable flames behind a curtain of the dark loch.
"We need something to hurt it more than just fire, Yolanda. Anyone got any ideas?" Kaiyo shouted, shooting bursts of webbing at the Brook Horse more to keep its eyes blinded than to actually harm it.
"My blades won't cut it!" DeMain said, keeping a low stance just in case it tried to sweep him away. He could feel the Black Cat Spirit shivering and mewling on his back, it had clearly overestimated itself here. Kind of a dumb idea to put a cat up against a river spirit though, but that was on him.
"Curiosity! You got any ideas?" DeMain yelled internally, hoping it would rouse some kind of response this time.
"Oh, you want my help? Why I am helping. I know nothing that can change any outcome of this. Figure it out yourself." It said, sneering and retreating back where his mind couldn't grace it. Wonderful.
"Think we can make a deal with it?" DeMain called at Kaiyo.
"No! It's not developed enough to know what a good deal is! It might just kill you!"
"Well shit. Yolanda?"
"I got nothing either, it shrugs off my spells like they're nothing!" Yolanda responded, her small fireballs sizzling away into the spirit's river water like drops of rain into a lake. It reminded DeMain of a cutscene from one of the games he played over at Avery's, but that in itself gave him another idea. Avery had shown him a combo of spells in the game that worked as a cheap tactic to overcome one of the various hurdles, and DeMain felt himself cringe for even considering something like that right now. He had no better ideas though.
"Yolanda! Kaiyo! Make some fire threads and wrap it up, I'm gonna distract it!"
"What?!" They both shouted.
"Just do it, it's all I can think of right now!"
Without skipping a beat, DeMain hurled the Black Cat Spirit back at the Brook Horse. They'd made a deal, and he hadn't delivered to DeMain's expectations. As the river spirit lashed about to free itself of the cat swimming around in its aura of water, DeMain charged in with his blades at the ready.
The water surrounding the elongated horse wasn't cool and calm as it was before (if you could consider a rushing river 'calm'). Now it felt closer to a cold breeze in winter, the very movement stealing your breath away. DeMain felt as though he was drowning just by getting close to the Brook Horse. His lungs burned for oxygen that had been stolen from them, and his limbs were becoming numb and unresponsive. The black teenager's eyes stung, but through the salty water he could see—and hear—the words of the Brook Horse once more.
"Come closer, you need to cross. Perhaps I can ferry you?"
"I-"
DeMain realized his mistake all too soon as the entirety of the river began to surround him, trapping him with the muddled image of the horse's face in front of him. Water poured into his chest through his open mouth, clogging his airway and filling his stomach with the taste of mud, clay, and riverweed.
He struck the side of the Brook Horse's head once with his arm, his spiritblades barely chipping at it. Everything burned, and yet at the same time DeMain was overcome with the undeniable urge to give in and sleep forever.
As he was about to do just that, a sharp pair of claws dug themselves into his scalp and brought him back to the liquid hell he was suffering through. He bashed again and again at the horse's skull, but it was unresponsive. The Brook Horse stared into his eyes, and as DeMains slowly lost their light he could see himself standing in the midst of a rushing stream. Pine trees clumped the wintery landscape around him, a bleak and dark world. He'd been born of clay, why not return to it?
DeMain collapsed into the stream's rushing waters and saw his legs, hands, and arms begin to slop away as wet chunks of earth that sank to the bottom of the current. He could make it so much faster if he simply…
His nose met the surface of the stream as soon as he was ripped away from it. DeMain realized he could breathe again before he did, vomiting out a few gallons of muck that had been left inside. His eyes stung, but he forced them to see the blurred shapes in front of them.
Yolanda and Kaiyo had worked together to net the creature in a massive web, only Yolanda had set Kaiyo's webs ablaze to keep it in a constant state of pain and torment. When it attempted to extinguish the flames, they both applied a new layer. DeMain could only hack up more roots and old tangles of leaves, but by the time his stomach felt cleared there was only a burning heap of bones and leathery skin leftover.
The Black Cat Spirit lept towards the pyre of remains, but DeMain yanked it back by its tail.
"No eating it unless you obey our commands. Me, Yolanda, and Kaiyo."
"What? That's not how deals work you inconsiderate—"
"I'm not letting you go until you agree."
The feline grumbled for a bit.
"Fine. It's not like your talentless lot could survive for very long anyhow."
The smaller spirit wandered forwards as it flicked its tail from side to side. The three of them watched as it pranced around and caught the flaky ashes of the Brook Horse's remains, then shoved each one into its maw. Eventually no ashes were left, and the Black Cat Spirit began to rip off rolls of leathery skin and crack bones between its mouth where it couldn't have managed to before.
"You sure it's a good idea to let him gain all of that spirit's power?" Kaiyo asked, still unsure.
"He agreed to follow our orders. If deals with spirits are restricting, that means he has to follow anything we say from now on."
"Just be careful not to say something really vague then, he might take any opportunity to kill us."
"Yeah. I kinda got that vibe when I first met him. Man though, I wish we could meet a spirit who's just like, nice. Y'know?"
"Oh there are plenty of nice ones!" Yolanda chimed. "I guess bad times aren't great times for them to show themselves in though, so we're mostly just seeing bad, murderous spirits."
"Why are the spirits trying to kill us exactly? DeMain asked. Kaiyo began to dry out her hair and clothes as she spoke in return. Yolanda took to gathering stray things from her packs, and any that had been flung about in the meantime.
"They don't need to kill specifically, but they do gain power from causing fear and inspiring strong feelings around themselves. It's like campaigning, but for death threats."
"So even if they don't kill anyone, they get stronger?"
"Yeah, essentially."
"That seems pretty unfair."
Kaiyo shrugged. "Spirit hunting is a respected profession for a reason. When they get strong enough to kill without concern, then they're a problem. But people tend to ignore things unless it's worse than they can handle, so it happens a lot. It's not as much of a problem in the real world though, since the Veil filters out anything too big for its britches."
"Was Malik a good spirit hunter? I only saw tiny ones in his home, so I don't know if it means anything."
"It's good to keep fodder for rituals or offerings, and other spirits are better than offering anything of yourself. He took down a lot of pretty bad ones. I wasn't around for long enough to see him in action, but he told us stories of his tangle with the Hair Spirit and an encounter with the World Wars Spirit at some point."
"Whoa, World Wars Spirit? There's no way he beat that thing."
"He didn't, he said they just… talked. About life and stuff. It might have been a pretty bad spirit in its heyday but by the time Malik met it, only the memories of veterans and history books were what was left of it. It wasn't much more than either of those at that point, so he left it alone for the most part."
"What if another World War crops up? I would have capped it there so it doesn't cause trouble." DeMain argued. Kaiyo sighed.
"Even if you did, the feelings towards a third World War would probably create a new one anyway. Malik left it as it was because the memories and despairs of the old vets might hold it back for next time."
"Oh, yeah I guess that does make sense. So spirits can be… compounded like that? I'm not really an expert on them, sorry."
"Nah it's fine, we would have had this conversation sooner or later anyway."
Kaiyo took off her overshirt and wrung it into the dirt, only for the piece of the Reikai to cease. Immediately it was replaced, and they all found themselves on the peak of a plateau in a rocky, cliff-ridden landscape. The heat here was arid and flat, perfect for drying out their clothes. DeMain was a little glad he wouldn't have to strip anymore than the shirt he'd taken off, and he was sure the other two were just as glad.
He was not glad seeing the new chimera the Black Cat Spirit had morphed into upon finishing its snack. It was strange to see a cross between a cat and a horse, especially one with the worst features of two spirits. The single yellow eye of the cat had split into three conjoined eyeballs in the center of a horse head, the pale leathery skin of the Brook Horse now darker and healthier with sleek black fur all over its body. The spindly hooves which sprouted from its body like a centipede's legs ended in hooked points like cat claws. This wouldn't have been super unnerving, but the whiskers sprouting from around its nose and the human set of teeth locked inside its mouth brought DeMain some uncanny concern. Well everything about it was concerning, actually.
The new spirit swished its lengthy, bristly black tail back and forth in front of the three witches. It looked between them, grinning to itself.
"Well? No fanfare for my new and entrancing form, no ticker-tape parade for my personable presence?"
The three witches stood around in confusion before DeMain feigned an excited clapping. The other two followed hesitantly, the disturbing nature of the new form reflected plainly on their faces. Anything to get the Black Cat Spirit to listen. Though, it wasn't a cat so much as it was a horse now, if a horse could have such alien features to it. What would he call it now? Black Horse Spirit seemed dull and indescriptive, and Brook Cat just sounded dumb. The whispers of his ancestors and the Reikai agreed on one thing.
Dark Horse.
He supposed it fit, though he wasn't sure what the implications of a Dark Horse Spirit were.
The Dark Horse's body extended to fit the three of them on its back, inviting them to saddle up as it flowed freely like a black ribbon in a gentle breeze.
"Shall I ferry you? Not to the bottom of the river of course, I still loathe the smell of that suspiciously salted water."
Kaiyo stepped up, clearly stating her orders so nothing funny happened.
"You're going to take us to Avery, since you seem capable now. No killing us or worming your way out of our future orders too, okay?"
"Of course." The Dark Horse grinned, his three eyes staring the group of witches down as he wrapped the length of his body around the rim of the plateau. Kaiyo seemed hesitant, more so than the previously-afraid Yolanda and DeMain, who would rather not stick around for anywhere too long. Kaiyo sat in the front, with DeMain behind Yolanda who was behind her.
They traveled for what felt like a few hours, wandering around various domains within the Reikai in the hopes of finding something that stuck out. Most weren't any different than regular swamps or forests, with a few caves here and there. The one cityspace they found had a singular, impossibly tall slit-mouthed woman that Yolanda hurried them away from. No help from her, that was for sure.
Just as the Dark Horse Spirit began to kick off to who knows where next, the entirety of the Reikai around the four of them began to shift and fragment apart. An endless rift appeared from the pieces of the world around them, rapturous and ungodly screams echoing from sources unseen as it tore itself open and apart. The rumbling rollercoaster that was the Reikai forcefully arranged itself into some kind of grand passageway of worlds and domains, the very end dominated by a single, massive figure. The shifting put the group at an inverse to its current stance, looking dead at its upside-down face.
It had once been concealed behind countless spiritual expanses and landscapes, but the Reikai and its spirit inhabitants practically bowed to its desire to leave once and for all. Even now, DeMain could see cracks in the very fabric of the Veil which tore themselves open wider and wider for it, preparing for its departure like curtains rising for a show.
The figure was the largest spirit DeMain had ever seen, large enough that he could view it across the endless expanse of lakes and mountains without needing to focus or stare any deeper like he had done before. It was gaunt and white, its face a horribly misshapen skull which was pierced up through the center by an arrow. A bow of bone and sinew strangled its neck, tied tightly around its grayed skin. Atop its skinless head, the arrow merged with a single golden crown which arched to the top of the Reikai. Its royal shape was dotted with gems and hanging flags of fallen nations as a concealing tapestry that obscured the spirit's eyes.
Below, the hideous bow-strangled spirit devolved into a fleshy, organic carriage made up of countless decrepit bodies and souls, hands and feet acting as spokes to two white wheels that could only drag themselves forward by the fingers. From inside the carriage, the spirit was merged at the hips with the front half of a terrified mare, her pristine coat and hooves dirtied by the landscapes she was forced to venture through and trample. She brayed and screamed, fear overtaking her as the rider of the two sank its gnarled, talonlike hands into her eyes and drove her forward. With crawling footstep after lurching movement, the spirit began to wriggle itself forward not unlike an inchworm on a twig. Each foot of movement was dominated by the screams of those damned to its path, cheers from smaller, onlooking spirits, and wretched cries of fear from the helpless mare.
"What… what is that?" DeMain spoke. Nobody answered. Nobody knew how to. Even Curiosity held his tongue, something DeMain was beginning to tire of.
"Surely even you, an old spirit, have an idea of what this is?" He posed mentally.
"Perhaps I do. But does it help you?"
"I just want a name or something to work with."
"But would it help you?"
"Yes! Fine! Whatever! It'd help me to know."
"Very well. It is the Spirit of Conquest. Old scriptures dictate it the first sign of a great change!"
"What kind of change?"
"What other great change? The Rapture, the Apocalypse, Al-Sa'ah, Armageddon, Mappō, Yom HaDin—"
"I get it!" DeMain exclaimed verbally. The others gave shifty glances but dared not to take their eyes off of the stumbling carriage rider.
"Curiosity says it's the sign of the Apocalypse! What the fuck do we do about that?!" He continued, relaying the clusterfuck of useless imagery the fiery spirit was giving him.
"I'm not sure we can do anything. It's a spirit, and look how large it is." Kaiyo chimed, pointing ahead.
It was true. The spirit was massive, emphasized by the sheer distance between where the group was and where it was now. DeMain could estimate miles of traversal, and the Spirit of Conquest seemed half-unwilling to march forward any further.
"Maybe we can stop it? There's a lot of time, it looks like. Do we still go after Avery?" Yolanda asked. An awkward silence came between the rest of them, but it hung itself most heavily on Kaiyo.
"I'd be willing to bet he has to do with this. He was a Xanthist, and they're pretty hellbent on ending the world for their god. Even if we get nothing out of killing him, maybe he has cronies we can get more information out of." She replied, digging her heels into the Dark Horse to spur it forward with haste. The other two held on tighter as its speed took a crescendo, diving and weaving across the now mostly-straight path deeper into the Reikai.
"What is a Xanthist?" DeMain asked. It'd been very briefly explained to him before as a bad thing, but it'd been neglected as to what exactly that meant. He heard whispers of Xanthe while in the camp, but who he was other than a gross Old Witch God eluded DeMain. Kaiyo was knowledgeable enough to fill him in.
"He's the Old Witch God of downfalls, weakness, and diseases. He's been attempting to orchestrate 'The End' for a long time, but I'm not really sure if this is any indication he's gotten close. There are Witches and Spirit Hunters all over the globe, the Reikai having a meltdown and doing… this… is sure to kick them all into high gear. We're not working alone, at the very least. I just hope Avery doesn't have an army of his own in his back pocket."
DeMain couldn't really imagine Avery with friends, but maybe he'd put some other pieces of shit together in his own group since he got away. Still, after all this time, DeMain couldn't really come to terms with Avery doing any of this willingly. Successfully at that. All the time he'd known him Avery had been a coward and pretty easy to push around when it came down to it. Now he was a trained assassin doing the bidding of an evil god? That felt like a terrible plot twist in a C-list film. He knew the guy wasn't morally sound, but his former roommate being the puppet of an Old Witch God was entirely unexpected. Surely there was some misunderstanding, or Avery had been tricked into it. Avery's ability was to put people to sleep and influence dreams, it hardly seemed fitting for what Xanthe apparently represented. It didn't stop DeMain from hating the guy with everything he had, but it was a lot to take in all at once. Avery seemed too spineless and absentminded to be a threat, and yet he had single handedly infiltrated a village and killed two people, possibly many more if they didn't act fast.
As they flew, the structure of the Reikai's surrounding domains became less and less natural as it transformed from hills and valleys to megacities and trash heaps—the more recent spirits undoubtedly. Some domains diverted their contents to landfills, others were sprawling cities full of skeletal skyscrapers or mounds of burning rubble. Being reminded of home this way left a stirred feeling in DeMain's stomach, the scenery was visceral enough that it brought him back to his family's lowest days. Did he even call any of these places 'home', truthfully? He hadn't stayed anywhere for long enough to be comfortable with it, even his earliest memories were car rides and moving vans. How long had he even lived in the last house anyway? DeMain couldn't tell anymore. The last week or so was so jam-packed with new information it felt like several lifetimes despite its total length of maybe a month.
"Do ya think he actually got this far?" Yolanda asked, a question that had begun to form in all of their minds. "We're flying, all he has is his shoes as far as I know. Maybe we should get out and check the buildings?"
"That's a good point. Maybe we check the livable areas first? I doubt he'd choose to stay in an actual garbage fire." Kaiyo spoke, pointing to the various shells of once-cities that permeated the landscape as densely as a forest.
It took some small adjustments to their course, with the Dark Horse Spirit weaving between the crossed patchworks of rebar and steel girders that hung from far above like stalactites. His clawed hooves scraped against the remaining plaster tiles of a poorly-supported roof covering, causing the spirit-steed to fall where his weight was too much to bear. The group tumbled and landed on the ceiling of an inverted office building, where their weight immediately shifted to fit the now altered gravity. The four of them were left bruised and broken as they crashed into various workplace appliances, with DeMain being the most unlucky and landing against some designer filing cabinets that dug into his skin with their odd steel handles. Kaiyo landed in a tangle of wires belonging to phones and computers, and Yolanda landed on an executive's chair--sitting perfectly inside of it. The Dark Horse wasn't fortunate either, his immeasurable length had been sprawled between various desks and computers all over the office's space.
DeMain strained and sat up from the cabinet that had torn up his back mercilessly. He could feel the scrapes on his skin beginning to sting and bleed, no doubt thanks to an awkward landing.
His hands found the ground as he steadied himself to his feet. This section of the Reikai felt sharper, more real, and he had an idea as to why. Nobody liked office work, or the idea of being stuck in a job like this. DeMain himself had never really had the opportunity to consider it, but he knew the work could be grueling based on how his family used to talk about old internships and horribly high-strung environments. Wherever they were was probably the result of that stress and panic manifesting itself, though he hadn't pictured something of this scale. The inside of the building was an endless maze of stalls and plaster that packed itself way too tightly for the thin exterior of the structure itself. Despite that, the walls felt cramped and claustrophobic, closing in on them and looming like gray-pattern gravestones.
"You guys dead?" He heard Yolanda call out through the distracting buzz of pain going through his body. Kaiyo grunted in response as she began to untangle herself, and the Dark Horse gave a half-whinny, half-meow in tow as it unwound itself free. DeMain replied with a 'here' like he was in a classroom, his hand even raised momentarily to show himself more clearly.
They collectively groaned as the dulled aches and discomfort faded, the three Witches working their way back together at a snail's pace. When they finally met in a semicircle in the middle of a cubicle, they all took stock of their surroundings.
"An office? A boring one too. I guess it's not the worst place to land." Kaiyo stated, looking over at their battered method of transportation. DeMain couldn't blame the Dark Horse for landing as poorly as it did, all things considered. The spirit wasn't doing well, with its legs facing the wrong ways and its body spread through various drawers and desks. Slowly, DeMain could see its body snapping back into place instead of healing as a person might, but that still left them stranded with how slowly it was going.
"I wouldn't want to fully split up, but maybe we go on ahead while the horse thing heals?" Yolanda suggested, motioning to a set of wooden double doors at the other side of the interior. DeMain didn't like the idea either, but it wasn't like they could carry the Dark Horse with them everywhere.
He leaned into the equine-feline fusion's ear. "When you're healed and able to move, you will come find us and we'll set off again, okay?"
The spirit nodded, closing its eyes. DeMain wasn't sure if spirits could sleep, but the healing seemed to happen at a marginally faster rate after its lids shut.
The three Witches had a collective moment of tentative hesitation before they navigated to the doors leading outward. It was clear that even though the towering building was already too confined to keep within itself the workspace alone, the doors led out to another hallway. DeMain should have opened the door and seen only the outside environment, but instead he found himself in a hallway. A very familiar one…
He'd been here once a long time ago. Concrete tiling, lockers, old gum globs stuck to the backs. The hallway seemed to be the entrance of an old school he'd attended, but there were no stains from old graffiti and the colors seemed a bit too poppy from what he remembered. Everything was clean too, way too clean for what'd been an active middle school. His hands opened one of the half-open lockers and found old books and folders dumped in, but none of the names of the students who actually attended could be found.
Yolanda was similarly curious and tried the steel lockers herself. When they wouldn't open, she quietly muttered one of her girly spells and blasted the lock in two. Inside was nothing special, just more nameless belongings. She bit her lip in thought, worry creeping over her face.
"This place is weird. I don't mean to state the obvious, but I'm pretty sure offices don't connect directly to schools."
"It's definitely weird. It might be the Spirit of Boredom or something." Kaiyo joked. She was a little too nervous to laugh though.
DeMain couldn't find the will to laugh either, though that was mostly because moving at all already felt worse than having someone rake a knife down his back. "Do you think we should try and contact a healing spirit or something? I feel like shit, and I don't know how much walking we'll be doing."
"I wouldn't, at least not yet." Kaiyo explained. "We're in an unknown spirit's domain, sending out a call for help would reach whatever it is first. You're better off knowing what spirits are closest even if distance is weird in the Reikai. You wouldn't want to start shouting that you're injured in the middle of gang territory."
The last comment felt a little profiling, though DeMain wasn't sure if it was intentional or just the best example she could think of. Right now wasn't really the time to argue or start something either, so he had to hold his tongue here.
"Right. I'll tough it out then. Guessing we can't ask for help for The Dark Horse Spirit?"
"The what?" Yolanda asked.
"Formerly my uncle Malik's Black Cat Spirit."
"Ooooh. Right. I thought we were just going to call it Meowhoof or something."
"...Why… why would we call it that?" Kaiyo questioned puzzledly.
"It's cute!" Yolanda reasoned.
The group carried on, eventually weaving their way out of the school with DeMain's help. He hadn't been there long, but he remembered the layout from having to walk from one end to the other practically every day. Even though they had traveled quite far into what DeMain would consider the limits of most domain spaces, they hadn't even glimpsed the spirit responsible yet. It was a little concerning. Was the whole domain the city outside? If that were true, and they had already crossed three buildings' worth of space, how much more was there to go through?
They crossed through more spaces, most of which were similarly uneventful or unimportant. Some schools with layouts DeMain had never seen, a few more workplace offices and warehouses, and most recently an enclosed stadium. They were all pretty pristine, like they'd just gotten a thorough scrub the day before and nobody had gone inside since then. The group also noticed that the meager snacks they had packed were dwindling (DeMain blamed Yolanda, he swore he saw her chewing stuff and staying just out of sight). Regardless, the fully-stocked vending machines made for easy meals after DeMain sliced through the glass separating them from junk food.
Initially there had been debate about whether or not ransacking a spirit's domain was a good idea, but a few empty stomachs vouched that it was probably better to risk desperation over starvation. Again, they had no idea how much they'd be walking, and the spirit refused to show itself even after the vandalism of its snack machines.
The group walked out through the stadium's entryway, and it was there they found themselves in a place much different from the rest. It was a church, lined with red carpet and dark wooden pews. There was an upper level for more people to fill the space, so it was undoubtedly one of the more popular ones. Other than that, it seemed fairly plain for a church layout, if not comfortable.
Kaiyo and Yolanda were checking for any doorways they might have missed, but DeMain's attention was drawn by a service poster for the church. Like the school and the other areas they'd passed through, the names of every person in attendance was scrubbed or obscured. The church's name itself, though, started to make his heart race.
Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church
The name took some digging through his memories to figure out why he was terrified, but he could remember the day he'd heard about it. It had been a pretty controversial moment during ongoing debates about gun control, racism, and other issues that only escalated things on both sides. He was too young to do anything more than be sorry for the victims of the shooting at the time, but now he was actually there. Or rather, the spirit's recreation of the place.
DeMain's tension only rose as he remembered all the paths they'd taken to get here. Stadiums, workplaces.
…Schools.
He realized now why the familiar school looked so clean. A few years before he joined attendance, his middle school had been struck by a shooter's murderous attempts. There were talks of closing the school, but it was essentially the only one available to most students in the area. Closing it wouldn't have made sense for other reasons too, but after a year or so there seemed to be no pressure to shut the doors. DeMain's mother insisted it would be safe since people knew to keep an eye out for the warning signs now. The most threatening the school ever became in that regard was an old rumor that suggested the (jailed, not dead) shooter's ghost would haunt you if you stayed inside after 3 AM.
He was beginning to get an idea of just what spirit could possibly have such power to amass a domain like this, and his hands shook before he gently set the church's paper down.
"We gotta get out of here, guys."