Gulp!
The boy stood unmoving, barely able to see the figure sitting on the huge boulder towering over him. He felt his hair stand on end, like a prey facing its natural enemy.
"Y-you… what do you want?!" gritting his teeth from the intense pressure and weight his body was feeling, Lawkey managed to let out a question.
The figure simply raised an eyebrow under its eerie mask.
"Well well, what do we have here? You managed to speak in my presence rather quickly. You really are a curious one."
Lawkey finally managed to look up directly at the figure, his eyes finally adjusting to the light that began to dim. Casting his gaze upwards, he could make out an outline of a man, which he had more or less guessed from the sound of his voice.
For some odd reason, the multi-layered rainbow wings were nowhere to be seen anymore, as if they had completely vanished from existence.
The boy continued to study the figure of an Undying Elder, a being most people consider to be myth, let alone get the chance to meet them face to face. Speaking of, Lawkey tried to steal a glimpse on the face of the deity, but all he was met with was the sinister and eerie mask, donning its usual creepy wide smile.
That's when he remembered.
He had heard of someone wearing a smiling mask a few years back…
Right before…
"Yoooouuu!" Lawkey snapped, his voice so loud it started to echo in the surroundings.
He planted his feet on the ground and stood up straight, his sword drawn and aimed at the one watching him from above.
"Were you the one?! Did you give him that card?!" He bellowed, forgetting all the constraints his body was under.
The man leisurely sitting on the boulder didn't bother to react.
He rested his right arm on his right knee, and with his left hand, he grabbed his other leg and pulled it under him.
He was making himself comfortable in response.
"Hmmm I gave someone a card, huh? So you knew a Hyking, I take it?" He paused, leaned forward a bit and then rested his chin in his right palm.
"..."
"That sure explains the mess back there. They sure never disappoint, always living up to that old saying."
The deity continued on nonchalantly, ignoring Lawkey's outburst and his evident boiling rage.
"How did it go, again? Ah, yes! I got it!"
He suddenly threw his hands in the air in an exaggerated gesture, then resumed.
"Wherever there is war, death, and chaos, there is a Hyking! Oooh! So scawwy!" He mocked, the tone of his voice getting higher, "I mean, they're not wrong, but people are such drama queens, don't you think?"
"Answer me!!" Lawkey shouted back while taking a step forward, fighting the pressure keeping him in place. "Was it you?!"
The one believed to be an Undying Elder narrowed his eyes under the mask.
This boy… He's behaving differently than he should in my presence…
As if…
"Boy, you don't have a mark and I only sense one Sign in you…" The deity began to speak, then trailed off.
"But you reek."
The Undying Elder paused for a second, not even he believed the consensus he was able to utter. His obscured eyebrows were raised.
"You reek of the curse, the one the Hykings carry."
He looked at the boy struggling to speak, to take steps forward, to breathe.
How is this possible? A Hyking without a mark? With only one Sign?
It's completely unheard of.
Who is he?
The Undying Elder tried to make sense of the situation, but even he, with all the knowledge he had at his disposal, was finding it difficult to come up with an answer.
Not unless we delve into the realm of irregularities and impossibilities…
"If you're not… going to answer me…" Lawkey managed to let that out and tighten his grip on Eclipsed Dawn, ready to use his Sign again.
He had exhausted it completely against the Leviathan, but after his condition mysteriously improved upon waking up, he felt it flicker inside his soul.
Call it instinct, if you will.
However…
Huh?!
"You tried to use your Sign just now, didn't you?"
The deity whispered gently in Lawkey's ear, not giving him even the time to blink before suddenly closing the distance between them.
Lawkey instinctively took a step back and tried to retreat-
"STOP!"
He heard it, a command uttered by someone with greater authority.
His body simply did what it was told, it completely froze in place.
Lawkey's eyes were wide enough to touch his forehead, his pupils had contracted into tiny points. He couldn't make sense of anything he was experiencing ever since this person showed up.
When did he get in front of me?! How is he blocking my Sign?! Why can't I move my body?! What is even happening?!
Pat, pat, pat.
The deity patted Lawkey's head, as if to comfort the poor boy he was tormenting.
"You shouldn't be so reckless, kid." The Undying Elder said calmly, "or impatient, we're still getting to know each other here. First, tell me your name."
The one behind the mask asked in a gentle tone, all the while keeping his hand plastered on the top of the boy's head.
Lawkey felt it in his bones, the gesture alone was meant as a threat.
Move and you die, that's what it was meant to relay.
Lawkey grinded his teeth, he didn't care who this person or deity was, if he is the one he heard about…
The one that started it all, leading up to the recent tragedy…
Then I'm going to kill him! Undying Elder or not!!!
{…}
{I'm glad to see you aren't afraid despite your situation. Undying Elder or not, a deity or not, I won't let anyone threaten you!}
…?!
Suddenly, he heard it again.
The ethereal sounding voice that spoke to him before he lost consciousness…
The voice that prevented his nightmares and mended to his wounds…
The very voice that saved him!
Then he was immediately ripped out of his thoughts by a striking pain in his back, as if a needle was directly forced into his spinal cord.
Nay, as if it was directly inserted into his very soul.
"AGHH!!!"
Amongst the horrible striking pain that was miles apart than anything he had ever experienced, he felt a little warmth forming underneath it all.
A surge of power rising from his very being, an aura combined with his own.
Before he could make sense of what it could be, he didn't want to waste another second.
If I can use this to fight… Then I don't care what it is!
He gripped his beloved sword and swung it upwards at his enemy.
"...!!!"
The jester-like deity, eyes wide in shock, barely managed to take a step back to dodge the attack, but he couldn't stop his mask from being cut in half.
He felt the wind on his face, his skin finally able to breathe. As one would expect from a deity, his young features that looked around early to mid twenties weren't bad by any means, but what stood out the most, was a pink mark outlining an I over the corner of his right eye.
His medium length hair was a mix of pale blue at the top and reddish pink on the edges. With his glowing yellow pupils surrounded by a tinge of purple and pink, he watched as the two halves of his mask fell to the ground, not believing what his own eyes were witnessing.
"You kept on talking and talking, my body fell asleep."
Shadows erupted around the boy, as Lawkey took a fighting stance. He planted his feet firmly on the ground and held his katana to the side, ready to swing it again at any second.
Some kind of emerald emblem was forming and hovering in front of his forehead. Although he had no way of knowing what it was, he felt that it was related to his higher Sign output he was exuding. Even so, he ignored it for now.
He let the surging aura crawl up and cover his entire body, giving him strength.
The deity stood in complete and utter shock, almost in a daze.
What is this kid?! He's not normal, not for a human, not for a Hyking!
The Undying Elder tried to find some kind of conclusion to what was happening. There had been no precedent to it, not that he knew of.
He quickly sprouted and flapped his multi-colored wings and launched himself in the air, putting distance between him and the new threat.
But Lawkey didn't wait.
"I've never gone parrot hunting before, but I guess it's never too late to start!"
Gathering his newly obtained powers together, the boy quickly swung his sword once more, this time launching a shadow wave forward that was in itself covered in an emerald aura. It quickly cut through the air, aiming at the flying opponent.
He's even able to use his Sign now?! With an upgrade too, it seems! He's too dangerous…!
The deity thought to himself as he slapped the shadowy wave away from him, causing it to cut the boulder he was sitting on not so long ago in two.
"..."
Despite the Undying Elder easily deflecting it, he sensed the little tingling in his arm from what he assumed was the emerald aura.
Lawkey didn't stop at that, he rushed forward and jumped up, trying to catch up to the flying angel.
Or as he put it…
"You're not getting away, you dumb oversized parrot!"
He quickly followed by swinging his sword upwards, this time not stopping at just one, and relentlessly kept swinging it, sending waves of shadows covered in that emerald aura.
There was but one thing to aim at in the air.
But, he might've forgotten who he was up against, because behind all his slashes and attacks, he saw a wide grin forming on the Undying Elder's exposed face.
How interesting!