Across Godgrave and beyond permeated the flow of some strange energy. Its origin was right at the point where the domains of the sovereigns collided. Right now, a terrible battle had to go on over there. Waynie sensed a type of familiar soul essence, which was echoing between the glass shard Florian was holding and Waynie's bones. "The lord of shadows." Had he grown even more powerful since Waynie had last encountered him? For a moment Waynie was glad to not be in Godgrave. Then he remembered the harrowing owl-harpy, the Corrupted Titan he was facing.
An Fai hacked her way through most of the hounds and then chopped off a foot of the second harpy, when it was harassing Rayne and Ouze. But only a moment later the Titan descended upon the camp and the entire group scattered in all directions. Rayne noticed the owl too late and tripped over a sand hole. The owl left him with no time to escape and crushed Rayne with her massive body. His terrified screams were a reminder to the rest that this was not the right time to be idle. Waynie looked at the owl. The bird part of the body did not look easy to penetrate, but her upper body was human. Perhaps there was a chance of hurting her there. Then again, there was a way for him to even penetrate thick armor. Waynie summoned the 'Phantom Grasp' and phased it incrementally through the bird's belly. The sword did terrible damage but not nearly enough to kill the creature. The bird tried to flick Waynie away with its wing but An Fai jumped in between them and the wing swipe crushed into An Fai's shield. The shield crushed into pieces under the impact but An Fai and Waynie were still pushed back considerably.
An Fais gaze shifted to the air on the left and she pointed her finger. "Waynie, look!"
More dots were in the air on the horizon. A whole swarm of harpies was coming. "This isn't good. We should give up on the bird and escape now."
Ouze came running around the owl from the other side at this moment, but he had heard enough of the conversation. "Come on, lets hurry! Let's get out of here!" At this point it really didn't matter if they wanted to wait, or not. If they were, they were going to die.
The bird flung a wing again and this time slashed into Ouze back. The Awakened fell flat on the ground and started moaning in pain.
"Someone has to carry Ouze." It was An Fai who interjected.
Waynie frowned. "You're the one who isn't injured."
An Fai simply shook her head.
'Dammit.' Waynie gazed at the severely injured Ouze, then back at the owl and raised his sword. If An Fai wasn't going to help him, he'd protect Ouze on his own. It was time to kill that Titan.
Just as Waynie had made his decision, a voice echoed in his head. "Archers! Shoot!" A warm fuzzy feeling overcame him like the world was suddenly drenched into a subtle peace. The reality of the situation couldn't have been further from the truth.
A number of arrows hit the approaching harpies in the distance. Below them was the army of the Mourning Saint clan. A few of the harpies fell onto the ground but the others were still approaching. Then Waynie heard the strange voice again.
"I suppose you're Waynie."
Waynie looked around but he couldn't pinpoint where the voice was coming from.
"Apologies, I should introduce myself. You may know me as the Mourning Saint."
At this moment all of Waynie's thoughts reached a stage of clarity. This strange woman was not present in a physical sense, but he could see her stare right at his soul. Or rather at a closed door. Politely asking to enter and let her see Waynie's deepest secrets. This woman was an ally. He had accepted her call as early as Barren Castle. He had left his soul completely exposed to her and there would have been no way of stopping her, even if he had wanted to. "You're the one who is corrupting the youth with thoughts of Nephis."
"My my, did you read that in my memories? But you haven't exactly behaved either. You have made some powerful enemies."
"What are you talking about?"
"There is no need to pretend. I see it in your memories. And now you're in desperate need for help."
Waynie looked around. He still couldn't see the woman anywhere. "Where are you anyways."
"This type of communication is part of my aspect. I can command those that accept me as their leader. Will you accept me Waynie?"
He did not need to hesitate on this one. He was about to die senselessly, trying to save another awakened. "Of course."
"Tsk tsk. A deserter. You have some nerve revealing yourself to me."
"But if you can tell that about me, you can also tell that I didn't mean for things to play out that way, right?"
"If for nothing else, I can see that you're still loyal to the queen."
"And that's why I'm not happy about you advocating people to follow Nephis."
" I have never done such a thing."
"You're broadcasting it right now. Your thoughts are open to all your followers. "
"Nephis had sent message to us a while ago that she does not wish bloodshed. But although you can read my thoughts and feelings, I have never advocated anyone to follow her. Do you believe me."
Waynie nodded. "I do." Of course he did, since he could read her thoughts. "But even so. I think you should know that Nephis is very dangerous."
Indeed, the Mourning Saints ability was no one way street. It had the huge disadvantage that her thoughts were open to many people right on a platter.
The entire dialog only took a second or two. Everything felt just like pure imagination. Waynie paused.
"Guys, it's time to fight! Come out again!" Florian, who was holding the mirror shard with one hand now and Waynie's glass shard with the other, suddenly started yelling into the mirror. Although he was still holding it with the back to his body.
"What are you doing?", screamed Waynie.
Florian just pointed at the sky and then Waynie understood. The mourning saint was talking to him and had taken command.
Waynie shifted through her memories at could see that the Mourning Saint had been ordered away from the frontlines to save Ravenheart from the amount of nightmare creatures that were to inevitably overrun it after they had dealt with Waynie and the others.
"What an interesting flaw." The Mourning saint seemed to make an investigation into Waynie on her own."
"Hey! That's private. Don't you dare to tell anybody."
"Your arm. I will show you what it looks like." The Mourning saint projected an image of circles, hexagons and triangles into Waynie's head, and he realized that the patterns he saw were the patterns of his bones that he had tried to and failed to understand. "Focus, Waynie!"
The flow of soul essence in Waynie's body suddenly slowed. Almost instinctively he picked up his sword and in the next second he had to use it to parry a strike from the owl Titan.
The soul essence that flowed into his arm to reinforce his parry was suddenly tremendously effective. 'Could I have used soul essence this sparingly and effectively the entire time?'
The Mourning saint's abilities didn't seem limited to mental communication but had also physically enhancing effects. To have her away from the war zone to take care of the original song territory must have been a great sacrifice for the queen. But it made sense to use someone here who could get everything out of the troops that were present.
The owl lifted off again in what looked like an attempt to engage Waynie in a one on one. It had identified Waynie as an easy target and was trying to flatten him.
Waynie tried to think of the structure of his bones, then his right arm but then almost when he thought he had the knowledge in his grasp it escaped him like it never had been there in the first place. Waynie exhaled frustrated. "It's because of my flaw. I can't figure it out."
"No, it's…" The Saint rejected the idea. "It's because your bone structure just changed. I'll show you."
The Mourning Saint projected another picture into Waynie's head.