Waynie's bones were always as strong as the crystalline material he could produce. But when he tried to visualize his bone structure in his mind, it would enable him to change the way he was constructing crystalline materials. And thus, the moment Waynie thought about it, the bones themselves had changed.
"Try to focus not on what your bones are like but what your bones are going to be." Again, the voice of the Mourning Saint resonated in Waynie's head.
"An Fai, can you buy me a minute, I'm gonna try something?" While they were still fighting the owl, Waynie called out to An Fai, who had left him to support the other Awakened.
She reluctantly abandoned her position and ran over to him. "I better hope you have some genius idea to take that bird out."
Waynie nodded, then thought about what he wanted his bones to be like, but again perhaps because the bones couldn't become that structure, he failed again.
The owl slashed at Waynie again, but he dodged it and An Fai deflected the brunt of it.
"Waynie, your crystals are a mess. Perhaps think more regular structures. Hexagons, heptagons, that type of thing."
Waynie who had heard the Mourning saints word was bummed out. What was he even supposed to picture as a hexagon? He gave it another shot anyways, but this time he succeeded and all of a sudden, he could feel how something was growing inside his arm. Then he lifted his right arm and turned his hand to a fist. It was working.
'What the Spell.' Waynie moved his sword from his left to his right and swung it.
"Are you good?" An Fai asked, worried that Waynie would not pull his weight after moving her to help him.
"He's fine." It was the Mourning Saints voice. She seemed to have some control over who could hear her and who couldn't. And in this instance, she wanted both of them to hear her. "Waynie attack!"
Waynie balanced the sword in his hand for a moment longer. His body felt different. Heavier actually. Perhaps there was never a perfect solution to any situation.
The bird swung at Waynie again with her wing, but this time he was prepared. He dropped on his ass but kept the sword in the air. It phased in and out and severed the wing of the mighty creature from her body. Then he jumped up again and charged at the owl.
A few of the Awakened that had left into the pocket dimension were now slowly returning. "Create a path for him!" It was the voice of the Mourning saint. But this time she wasn't addressing Waynie but the other Awakened. The owl took into the air and then crashed into the group of people. But this time everyone scattered, well-coordinated with the Mourning saint.
The owl was about to take off again, but Waynie leapt and managed to catch hold onto some feathers. He climbed up, stretched out his arm and caught hold of something. Then he used to unevenness in the owl harpy's body to bounce his way further up and grab onto her shoulder. From this perspective her face looked like that of a perfectly normal blonde woman. Except that the face was about the size of a human.
The bird had already lifted off and they were quite a bit in the air, when Waynie rammed his sword in the owl's face, right between the eyes.
[You have killed a Corrupted Titan.]
[You have received a memory. The 'Feather of a bird'.]
The giant body was just free falling onto the camp. Everyone was screaming down below. Waynie just held on to the body and used it as a cushion when they hit the ground. Then it was over.
He climbed from the back of the dead bird.
There was hardly any time to take training. Ordered by the Morning Saint, everyone took a place on the battle line as more Nightmare Creatures were advancing, the horizon filled with black dots.
But a large group of human Awakened was coming as well. The Mourning Clan was steadily approaching the group around Waynie.
"If the reinforcements arrive, they will still outnumber is six to one. "It was a remark by An Fai.
Waynie shrugged. "Mourning Saint, can we actually beat this many Nightmare creatures?"
There was a long pause.
Meanwhile Waynie's soldiers were still fighting. They had taken a double row formation and were now cooperating like clockwork. One of them would incapacitate a hound and another slash it. There was always one Awakened picking up the slack for another. No second got wasted.
"I will be arriving on the battlefield too. You just must hold them off for that long." Finally, the Mourning Saints response came.
"I think it's still too many."
"There is no choice. If you flee, it will put my people at risk."
"Ok, but you know. I'm loyal to Ki-Song. But actually, not that loyal that I want to die for her. Or become one of her puppets. If you know what I mean."
"You're very strong now, Waynie. You can make a difference here. It's time to take center stage."
Waynie almost involuntarily moved to the front line. Did the Mourning Saint exert some type of control over his body? He wasn't exactly sure. "Guys, I'm moving to the front." Waynie figured he might as well declare it to his troops when he was already going to risk his neck for them.
"Waynie, what happened with your arm?" It was Ouze voice. He wasn't the first to notice that it had healed but the first to actually comment on it during the battle. An Fai had of course immediately noticed as well.
Waynie stared at his healed right arm he was using to hold his sword now. "I learned a few new things."
It was Ouze again. "I thought your weakness was that your bones are brittle like glass."
"How original." Waynie heard assumptions like that all the time. How was he going to comment on that? His glassy bones had long been a handicap to him. They were not his flaw, and they felt great right now. But people weren't completely wrong to presume that either. There was certainly a way to hurt him there. But why did Waynie have to explain these things to anyone?
People should just stay out of his business.
"All right, I'm gonna take them on."
An Fai followed him as he moved out ahead of the formation and through the sand towards a group of approaching hounds.
"I'm actually fine without you now."
"Let's just stick to our roles" An Fai hissed back.
The death of the Corrupted Titan had driven the nearby Nightmare creatures mad, and they were now approaching in cascadingly escalating cycles, smashing into the formation of Awakened. Meanwhile the battalion of Mourning Saint soldiers was still fighting a large group of harpies. No longer were singular small groups of Nightmare Creatures approaching. Instead, a formation of humanoid armored knights was approaching. The death of the owl didn't seem to have broken their structure. Each had a massive dog chained to their arm. They seemed almost as well organized as Waynie's own troops were. Waynie could not tell without his glass shards what class or rank they were, but they had to be strong.
Waynie pushed An Fai to the side, leapt right in between the soldiers and started firing glass shrapnel at them. Only that for some reason Waynie was longer able to produce glass shrapnel. Instead, tiny metallic needles shot forward, ripped through the nightmare creature's armor and devastated everything around them. The enormous damage got accelerated by the needles that hit the ground and then become foot traps for the armored enemy.
Waynie dodged a sword slash at the last second, but the attack had allowed a hound to hold of Waynie's right arm. He kicked the dog into its face and robbed his arm free, then phased his sword through the creature's body and it fell dead on the battlefield.
[You have killed a…]
[You have killed…]
There were eight, twenty, hundred. After a while Waynie stopped counting how many enemies he had killed. He could no longer see An Fai or any of his soldiers. He was just surrounded by the enemy. But he knew it didn't matter, because the Morning Saint was watching over them.
Waynie had long fought beyond his limit, but he was also long past the point of no return. There was nothing he could do anymore but fight to survive.
Just then, when he struck down another hound a different message rang in his ears.
[You have received an echo.]
Waynie had no time to pay attention to it, dancing through the enemy lines, swiftly cutting and breaking movements and blasting metal scraps before anyone could react.
His initial enthusiasm soon gave place for dread, then desperation, then despair. But he did not budge and kept fighting. There was nothing else he could do.
It had only been a short time, but to Waynie it felt like it had been hours. Darkness had fallen over the camp. Then finally a massive army rammed into the flank of the knighted formation and decimated it to pieces. To his right, he could see his own people utilizing ropes as lassos to get the final few harpies down.
A few minutes later all of the enemy was overwhelmed and slaughtered.
Then silence fell onto the battlefield. Over a thousand people had gathered in the desert. There were still enemies on the horizon. But all creatures that were too close had been annihilated.
When Waynie left the battlefield, he was surrounded by corpses. He could not tell anymore how many exactly he had killed or what had happened. But it was a gruesome sight.
Waynie looked over at Florian and Ooze and saw that their eyes were sparkling. Really all his soldiers were. Unlike Waynie, their morale seemed to be quite high. Then lady Skyworld locked onto him and Waynie gasped. There wasn't anything scary about Skyworld except that her gaze was very determined. She smiled. "Waynie." But it wasn't a nice smile. It was more of a smile like she was going to bite him. "You had some problems with the government, didn't you?" She wasn't referring to the government of the waking world. Instead, she meant Ki Song.
Lady Skyworld, the Master in charge of the Ki Song battalion, had been confronted with a group of Ki Song soldiers at the barren fortress, who wanted to arrest Waynie. Back then she had sent them away. But now that she saw how this man had put the lives of their troops at risk by being out here, she was rather huffing and puffing.
Waynie scratched his head, not sure how to respond and then finally went with the most appeasing rebuttal. "I already worked that out with your boss, the Morning Saint. So, you don't need to be concerned about it. Where is she anyways? I thought she was with you."
Skyworld's gaze shifted back, scanning the sand dunes. "No, she wasn't there yet when we left. We just came into her communication range when she returned to the tower. I suppose she should be here soon enough. But we should retreat as quickly as possible."
"Are your troops ready to move out?"
"Ouze, are you guys ready to move?" Waynie looked at Ouze, who was busy now dissecting some dead harpy nearby. S
Ouze eyes were still sparkling. "Boss, that was so amazing! You have been hiding how strong you are."
Skyworld seemed to agree with the statement, since she was nodding excessively.
Waynie just tried to ignore It and continued speaking to Skyworld. "Where do you want to flee anyways? These Nightmare Creatures will overrun all of Ravenheart."
"We should make our stand at the Barren Castle."
For the next half hour or so they were discussing what to do next. In the end they started digging out trenches and fortifying the camp. The battalion would not be enough to defend the entire region. The Saints at Ravenheart would have to stop them. The fortifications would only serve to protect the over thousand people until they could enter the pocket dimension without being disturbed by the nightmare creatures. The evacuation took place throughout the entire night and into the next morning. Diverse tents and wooden planks served as a weak makeshift fence behind the ditches. A few Awakened were using ranged weapons to keep the attackers at bay.
Then Waynie saw Marx between the woman soldiers of the Mourning saint. And Waynie called out to him relieved. Both brothers were glad to be united. But there was too much to do to discuss it now. Them catching up with each other had to wait. Instead, they both had to work on the reinforcement of the camp.
Then the next morning when the sun became a bit visible again, there was the Mourning Saint standing at the entrance to the base.
Her long, dark hair tumbled in effortless waves, catching the light like silk spun from the morning light. Her eyes, deep and unreadable, held the quiet mystery of a story only half-told, framed by lashes that cast delicate shadows against flawless skin.
Her lips, full, expressive, and always on the verge of a knowing smile, were painted in the color of crushed berries, a contrast to the cool elegance she carried in every movement. She walked with the grace of someone who knew the world would part for her, confidence woven into every step. The scent of something soft and intoxicating lingered in her wake, a whisper of jasmine and something uniquely her.
There was an allure to her that wasn't just about beauty. It was in the way she looked at you, as if she already knew all your secrets and might just keep them.
Most of the Awakened had already left to the pocket dimension and the few Awakened who were left, gathered around the woman. Nobody doubted that she was in charge.
Florian had long realized that there was no way for him to enter the other dimension. Since the other dimension was only visible when he himself stood behind the mirror shard that served as a portal. The Mourning saint sighed and finally declared that she would be taking Florian into the Waking world with her. The rest would escape into the pocket dimension.
Then she would return to her anchor in Ravenheart and organize the defense of the city from there.
Waynie on the other hand had a much different idea. For days he had tried to leave the Dream Realm now and enter the Waking World and right now in front of him was standing a woman who could just bring him there. In before Waynie had tried to get there to find a way to desert to Anvil's side but now with the Mourning Saint on his side, he had an actual chance of survival on Ki Songs side. So, should he even still leave? Worst of all, he had lightheartedly opened his mind to the Mourning Saint and easily revealed all his thoughts to her.
Perhaps it was because of this that the Mourning Saint trusted him. And in the end, it wasn't An Fai or any of the Mourning Saint troops who would leave with her. Instead, they all disappeared into the pocket dimension. Then the Mourning Saint, who didn't seem to mind Waynie's dark secrets at all, took Waynie, Marx and Florian back into the Waking world.