Ashborn Primordial

Chapter 236: The Reaper’s Wish (Two)

Vir found himself sitting on a stone bench. A long hearth fire burned a few paces away, its smoke rising to a circular hole cut in the top of the thatched yurt. The warm glow filled the dwelling with a sense of peace and security, something so foreign that Vir had nearly forgotten what it felt like.

A precious luxury, soon to be missed, Vir thought. The thought was not his own but rather came from somewhere else.

Vir tried to move but couldnt. He had no motor control, nor could breathe, or even choose where to look.

Oddly, however, panic did not well within him. The opposite, actually. There was a certain calm serenity to the whole scene. Vir felt warm, happy, and content. And a little anxious, though it was the anxiousness one felt when dreading the future.

Vir lookedor rather, was forced to lookup to find the room full of demons. All Ghaels.

Displayed across the far wall was a flag. A gray-bordered purple flag with an icon of a white eye and a brown iris at the very center.

The flag of Clan Iksana. While Vir had never seen it before, he immediately understood it as such. It was knowledge the person in the vision possessed.

Dont leave us! a ghael boy rushed up to Vir, tears in his eyes. His gangly limbs looked less hideous than Zorasthe adult ghael Vir had seen in the Pagan Order.

Virs eyes lowered, and he found that his own body was all wrong. His arms were long, gangly gray limbs that reached almost to the floor. His legs were also misshapen, and he noticed he sat with a hunched back.

Im a ghael?

The boy crashed into Vir, who grasped his shoulder and ruffled his wispy gray hair, smiling gently.

Dont leave, Ekanai! Youre the Akh Nara! You cant leave!

Ekanai!? This time, Vir did panic. Im in the body of Ekanai!? Is this his memory, then?

Who do you think youre talking to, boy? Ekanai said with a warm, hearty laugh. You know what they call me?

Yessir! Youre the Reaper!

A title bestowed upon me. A title earned. You understand? I will delve deeper into the Ash than any demon ever has. And I shall return. For the Iksana. For demonkind!

If I only knew what the gods want of me

For a moment, Vir didnt understand why hed thought that until he realized itd come from Ekanais mind.

The other ghaels cheered, and the boy looked up at Ekanai in wonder.

What kind of sick joke is this?

This wasnt Ekanai. This wasnt the same being who considered Maiya dead weight. Whod violated Virs control over his own body to make attempts on her life? What right did Ekanai have to smile like that?

The difference wasnt one Vir could chalk up to the ravages of time. The person in this memory was someone else entirely. As if some gentle soul had possessed the body of the most heinous of demons.

But why am I even seeing this? Shardul said Id never receive their help again

Though, this wasnt quite helping. Virdespite the sorry state of his bodywas confident in his pranites ability to heal him up. With the amount of prana in his body, he didnt have to worry about them running out of fuel, either.

And thus far Vir doubted hed gain some new insight from this memory. It looked exactly as it wasa warm, cozy scene. Just with Iksana ghaels. And Ekanai.

At least, it would be cozy, if it werent for the emotions flitting through Virs mind. Not his emotionsEkanais.

Confidence. Bravado. Ruthlessness. Vir had expected to be drowned in those emotions, yet there was no trace of them.

Instead, what he felt more than anything else, was terror. Not for his own safetyEkanai had long understood the perils of his upcoming questbut that hed die without fulfilling his destiny. It was the fear of total, absolute failure.

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Vir didnt think Ekanai rightly knew what fear was. Nor did he ever believe in his wildest dreams that the demon was capable of feeling such insecurity.

The scene abruptly shifted, and now Ekanai stood in a blighted landscape, gray and barren, fighting off Ash Beast after Ash Beast. It was, without a doubt, the Ashen Realm.

Vir moved with the demon. They were his own movements, but they were also Ekanais. It was as if Vir was a puppet manipulated by strings.

Despite the awkward sensation, Vir understood one thing. Until that moment, Vir had believed hed mastered his form and perfected his combat over the past year, fighting within the Ash.

He now understood that hed been wrong. He hadnt attained perfection. Ekanai had.

The demon was old. Centuries-old, like Cirayus, and Vir was once again shown just how much of an insurmountable advantage that wealth of experience was. When applied to Ekanais Balancer of Scales, Dance of the Shadow Demon, and his other Iksana Bloodline Arts, it became an absolute, unfair advantage.

Ekanai didnt fight Ash Beasts as much as he annihilated them. He only fought a small fractionthe rest he killed simply with his Warrior and Crown Chakra attacks.

Vir could feel the Chakras fire from Ekanais body, though how the demon managed it was beyond Vir. It was akin to watching a master artisan as they worked. Any layman could marvel at the spectacle, but if asked to replicate it, theyd be entirely unable to.

Beasts flopped over and died, seemingly at random, having been touched by Chakra. Ekanai melded with the shadows. Each time his blade departed the Shadow Realm, a beast died.

He executed one after the other with brutal efficiency, barely a second between kills. Sometimes, he traveled hundreds of paces within the shadows, sometimes he assassinated a half dozen beasts from a single position.

It put Virs own usage of the ability to shame. Vir had to remind himself that, unlike Ekanai, he was making do without the actual tattoo, and that hed only had a couple of years to learn it.

Despite this, Ekanais finesse was in another realm entirely.

Virs only solace came when Ekanai used Balancer of Scales on his enemies. His lack of experience wielding the ability was immediately obvious. Where Cirayus handled the magic like a scalpel, Ekanai used it more as a hammer to lay suppression down upon an immense field of foes.

Useful, to be sure, but incomparable to Cirayus when he reduced Sikandars weight, multiplying his own before finally making Sikandar as heavy as an Ashva before the moment of impact. The effect was oftentimes comical.

Sometimes, the beast was hurled away with such force that it looked like a rag-doll. Sometimes, the giant cleaved right through as if it were made of paper.

While Ekanai could do none of those things, his particular combination of tattoos showed Vir exactly how hed earned his name. In less than a minute, hundreds of Ash Beasts lay dead in a ring around him.

How am I supposed to defeat such a monster? Vir thought in awe. Awe that quickly turned into worried concern. He hasnt even used Clarity yet. Or Yumas Embrace.

As if triggered by Virs thoughts, a flight of Shrikes dive bombed Ekanai from behind. The speed at which they plummeted was truly awesome. Even with all his progress, Vir still had trouble detecting and avoiding them in time. It usually ended in broken bones, which hampered Vir significantly as he fought off hordes of beasts over the next hours while his pranites healed the injury.

Ekanai jumped lightly.

Hes too late! Vir thought. But then, something impossible happened. Reality seemed to bend over itself. The Shrikes that shouldve impaled him were now under him. Ekanais gangly arm extended, and the Shrike flew into it as if guided by Fate itself.

No, time hasnt rewound I was simply living the reality that Ekanai saw when he used Clarity.

Then, that reality exploded into a million possible futures. Vir was so overcome with dozens of scenarios, he begged for the sensation to cease. In some, Ekanai was impaled. In others, Ekanai jumped atop the Shrikes backs, and yet others where he lopped off their heads before they dive-bombed him.

Just when Vir felt like his head would explode, the variants all collapsed into one reality, and again, events seemed to flow according to Ekanais will. He stepped onto the Shrike, crushing its neck, and then jumped into the air, swinging his katar in a large arc.

There was nothing but air where he jumped, and Vir was sure hed fall, or worsebecome an easy target for the swift birds.

Nothing of the sort occurred. A Shrike suddenly appeared right under Ekanais boot. The demons katar cut cleanly through the bird as he jumped off it, cleaving another Shrike in two before his boots finally hit the ground.

What in the Realms did I just witness?

It was, of course, the Iksana Ultimate Bloodline tattoo Clarity. The ability to gain a limited prescience, glimpsing the immediate future of the area around the caster. But it operated so unlike anything Vir had ever imagined.

Hed hoped that witnessing the Ultimates might give him an edge when he obtained them. Cirayus said it took decades, if not centuries, to truly master, but Vir was optimistic he could shorten that by leveraging his prior incarnations, even if his command wouldnt be as strong.

After seeing Clarity in action, however, Vir began to wonder if it truly might take as long as hed feared. There were no simple abilities. Not even close.

Ekanai landed again, and this time, he was truly alone in the field of corpses. The demon took a single, deep breath, and soldiered on. Deeper into the Ash.

Through it all, Ekanai felt no glee at having destroyed his enemies. He felt no pride. All that came through was his growing worry that he still didnt know what the gods wanted of him. He didnt know how the power at the heart of Mahdi was supposed to help him fulfill his destiny. Nor even how to go about obtaining that power, assuming he survived the Mahdi plane.

The demon clutched his chest, heaving. While Vir couldnt feel Ekanais pain, it was obvious just how much misery the demon was in.

But he hasnt taken any injuries. Whys he in pain!? Vir suddenly understood. Prana Poisoning.

Ekanai appeared to be in a deep area of the Ash, and the prana density was obviously affecting him.

Hes going to die if he continues like this. Why? Whats driving him? Why does he sacrifice himself?

The scene darkened and shifted. Perhaps with this next memory, Vir would understand. Perhaps hed uncover the darkness that Ekanai had hidden all along.

The scene cleared. Ekanai had arrived at Mahdi.