Chapter 49
A Maniac inside my head
It was decided that we were to head towards the north, not sure why, perhaps the primal instincts of someone else’s judgement. After that weird encounter with Jorporel, and his reaction to Nepycros, I decided to be on the lookout for him, it would have seemed he was hiding something from us, but now I’m not so sure.
We were at least twenty kilometres from the crater, we had walked a great distance, along the desert plains.
It was very tiring, especially since we never knew what we were doing. What was our purpose? Why did this group form? Why were we following this path? It all seemed strange, as though we were born yesterday and never knew what to do with our new lives, at least it was mostly the case with me. Having being alive for only a week.
I wanted to learn more of our group. I barely knew these people, and yet here I am, in their pack.
Nepycros was strange, he was basically a shadow that walked alongside us. He had a peculiar personality, being the obnoxious but intelligent one.
EmeraldTiger, he seemed timid for a person of his size, as though he possessed a gentle nature, even when he tried to attack me alongside Zblader.
Zblader was mysterious, he had excellent swordsmanship, was mostly calm in some situations, and knows what to say to people most of the time. Yet he was very sensitive, emotionally, and especially to subjects about his lost sister. I had woken up one night due to some people arguing. It was Nepycros and Zblader.
Apparently, Nepycros had made some very harsh comments about Zblader’s sister, which caused Zblader to react aggressively, I don’t blame him.
Jorporel was new to me as well as to everyone, yet he already demonstrated his hatred to Darkness Elementals. But due to what happened, I knew there was another side to it, another story.
And myself, I had no clue. It seemed I knew more about these people than I did of myself. Years of life have given them their outlooks and first impressions, but me? I was just born, with no identity. I felt strange about myself, especially about my appearance. It was intimidating to others, or at first anyway.
The very fact I existed was unknown, from what I gathered, these people had parents. I wasn’t sure about Jorporel, he basically fell out of the sky. Though from the fact that he attacked Nepycros, and his expression of his hatred for Darkness Elementals, I gathered that he was taught those ideas by someone else, perhaps parental guidance. So that only left me. The amnesiac that rose from the earth.
After such long thoughts, I decided that I didn’t care anymore and lived on with the facts.
I realized that we had stopped in a small bushy area. The plants seemed dry but would suffice for a good camping ground. The sun was falling and the night was near.
We did the usual, make camp, make a fire, cook a meal, shared stories with each other. Even Jorporel had mentioned that he was a Light elemental that fell from the heavens, strange if you ask me, but strangely it made sense. We all shared information at the end of the night. Condor flew to a branch with a piece of meat and ate it, the branch had folded a bit due to his weight. Damn that bird was getting bigger and bigger by the days. He was almost a meter tall!
The night was getting rather cold, causing everyone including myself to say their goodnights and go to bed.
I lay down on a leaf bed tailored by EmeraldTiger, surprisingly it was really comfortable, I was grateful to him for such kindness.
I was wide awake, thinking some new thoughts, when suddenly I felt a strange pressure in my head. It was small so I ignored it. But then it started to get a little stronger.
I was worried, Suddenly what seemed to be my view of the trees had now turned into a view of just pitch black.
Then objects and light started to appear.
I was standing on top of what seemed to be a huge and thick pillar or column.
A few hundred feet below me, was a sea of some metallic looking liquid, as though it was a sea of liquid metal. There were huge buildings that rose out of the metallic sea.I looked up at the sky, it was red. I could see some metallic liquid waves hitting against the pillar.
Then I focus my gaze infront of me and see a man standing thirty feet opposite of me, he was looking at me.
He was clad in all white. He was very tall, perhaps slightly taller than I was. His Sliver-white hair was brilliant in the light of the sky. He had White eyes, the irises were more white than the scalera of his eyes, making them stand out more. Again I was impressed by my very good vision and intrigued by it.
The man held two swords. He held the same Arsenic blade I held against Zblader. In his left arm, he held a blade that was fairly longer, bigger and simpler than the arsenic blade, except for some shimmering symbols along its blade.
The man commenced walking towards me. His gaze locked on me, was very intimidating.
He came within ten feet of me and then stopped. He examined me from top to bottom.
“So…We finally meet…Flayne”
Said the man
“How do you know my name!?”
I was surprised at his knowledge of my name, I also felt that his voice sounded familiar somehow.
“It took me a long while to get you here Flayne, to drag you into your own conscience”
“What are you talking about?”
I was getting confused already.
“First is first, let me introduce myself…I am Aznaraex, the voice in your head”
In that moment everything had made sense, the voice from the beginning, the person who saved me from Zblader’s sword tip.
“I can tell from your face you have finally understood everything, that’s good, it makes things quicker. Your much more interesting in person, rather than just in mentality”
Most of the things he had said in those moments were either metaphorical or of a strange reality, I was utterly confused, especially from what he said in that particular moment.
“Flayne, you owe me a serious debt, I have saved your life once, which means you owe me a life,
and… a body”
“Huh!?”
I was officially lost in his words at that point, there was no point in trying to figure it out. In that moment, I thought either he was mad, or he was just part of some weird and meaningless dream.
“Let me explain…I once had a physical body, in my past life. I was to be resurrected somehow by someone.
At least that’s what I thought. But someone or something had apparently killed me, then someone else tried to resurrect me. But suddenly instead of having my own body, your soul somehow intercepted the placement of mine, and dragged mine with yours; hence you developed your own body, with me stuck inside your conscience. Though, when I see him again, I will make him suffer. Deimex will pay for turning me into...
Aznaraex had murmured something I couldn't hear.
"What?"
"Nothing, the main thing here for you to understand, is that you have ruined me.”
“What? Look I don’t know what you’re talking about, all I remember is that I just materialized out of the ground and that’s it, I’ve got nothing to do with…”
“YOU HAVE EVERYTHING TO DO WITH IT FLAYNE!!! Don’t test me, ever!
Its because of you that I’m stuck here in your pathetic excuse of a conscience. I want to get out, and the only way for me to do that, is to propose something. I know that you had no control of where your soul was going, of course most elementals know that souls go to the death realm, but that’s a topic for another time.
Flayne..Im going to propose something to you, to make this whole unfortunate event a simple past”
“Yeah? And what do you propose Aznaraex?”
“As I have discovered, we both want one thing…a life. But in order to satisfy those two needs, we have to work together, as much as it disgusts me. The first factor we have to consider is your survival.
If you physically die Flayne, I also die along with your conscience. If you die here, your physical body on the outside is shut down forever. Meaning I am trapped until your body itself dies out.
The physical form you have here is basically the prime representative of your own conscience.
But that may come as confusing for you, so ignore that.
Now, for me to get out, of your conscience, I have to either remake my body, which could take an eternity, or, I have to take control of another body. I Haven’t figured out how to control your body without unbalancing my own existence…yet, since I can’t take that risk, you should be glad.
In the meantime, I’m going to give you a chance to prove yourself to me. To see that I can trust that you can survive until I find a suitable body donor, that closely matches my energy level, my previous physical form and my intellect. Once I find that body donor, I can then figure out how to jump in there and take control of their memories, which gives me the power to control their bodies through muscular-recognition and memory methods, its complex, but you don‘t have to worry about that.
Since I have recently figured out that you’re an amnesiac and have no memory whatsoever, you are useless to me as a donor, don’t be offended, at least you get to keep your body”
Aznaraex waited for my reply
“What am I supposed to prove to you exactly?”
Though I already had a feeling of the answer from seeing the Arsenic blade in Aznaraex’s hand.
“Flayne, if I die, you'll still live on, but if you die, I die aswell, so in that case, you are more important.
Im going to test your abilities to the limit, I warn you, It won`t be easy. If I kill you here in this place, I basically kill myself. The real question is…Are you going to let me die because of your errors?”
Aznaraex lifted the Arsenic blade and threw it towards me.
I barely caught the heavy blade.
“What are you doing!?”
“If I kill you, I kill myself! Are you gonna let me die because you didn`t have the courage to defend yourself!? Like that pathetic performance you showed against Zblader? I helped you that time, what if I can’t help you again? Then were both done for! You are going to prove to me… that I can rely on you to stay ALIVE!!!”
As soon as he had finished his last word, he was instantly next to me, with his blade tip flying to my neck.
In shock, I barely dodged and fell over. I was stumbling to my feet again as he flew at me at an extraordinary speed. I saw his blade swing down towards me, so I tried to block his strike.
My arms felt like they were shattering, literally. The force and strength of his strike was just crazy.
This was a whole lot different from fighting zblader. It felt as though a mountain of steel had clashed against my blade.
Suddenly I felt my arm was cracking. It all happened so fast. Aznaraex’s blade came whistling up towards my throat. I barely dodged again, but with a small cut to my jaw.
The utter wind force of his swing sent me flying into the air. I realized I was falling off the pillar, I thought I was finished. Suddenly I feel myself begin to flap my wings, I didn’t know why, it felt like such a natural reaction. Though it barely did anything due to the fact I had one feathered wing and the other was just bone.
Yet my falling speed seemed to have slowed a bit. I braced myself for impact on a building…I rolled to prevent damage done to my legs, though I ended up injuring my arm severley. The fight had only started and yet I knew I had already lost. Suddenly I look up and Aznaraex is already a meter away from me, diving towards me and ready to crush me with his blade. I moved only a fraction away from his blade. An explosion of dust and ruble had filled the air, sending me flying towards the edge of the building. I found myself half hanging off the edge, with the metallic sea only fifty feet below me.
I struggle to get myself up again and quickly. I suddenly find myself clashing blades again with Aznaraex. I wondered in that moment, how was he so damn fast?
“C'mon Flayne! You did a lot better against Zblader! What happens when you face an opponent far more stronger than I am!?”
I couldn’t imagine someone being stronger than this lunatic. Much less me facing that someone.
While we clashed blades, I decided It was time that I striked. I let go of his blade and side winded it. I swung my blade towards his neck. I saw it was actually getting closer to his neck. I couldn’t believe it, my blade was going to hit his neck, it was a centimeter away from it. Instead of feeling my blade cutting his neck, I felt a huge impact on the left side of my ribs. It felt as though someone had launched a canon next to my side. I was breathless, I felt blood gurgling upwards from my throat and out from my mouth as I flew very fast through the air. I hit a hard object and felt it break behind me, next thing I know I find myself on the floor of a chamber, looking at a destroyed wall in front of me. I try to get up, but it seemed as though I broke my back. I thought I could slightly see Aznaraex standing on the building I was on previously on, a hundred meters away. Just looking. Suddenly he vanished, which caused me to frantically get on my feet, despite my back hurting, though I was glad it wasn’t broken.
I was waiting in the darkness of the chamber. With my sword at the ready. Just silence.
Then I hear the wall behind me break and in came Aznaraex swinging his huge sword into an arc.
Again, we were clashing, though his sword tip was already cutting my throat. If I slipped for a fraction of a second and distance, his blade would freely behead me. I found it hard to hold on, my arms were shaking.
This was it, my arms could not hold on any longer, he was too strong.
“Flayne, I know you can do better than that, c’mon, Don’t you wanna live, are you going to let someone die because you were too weak!? It doesn’t matter if it’s me right now, it could be a friend, a relative, or…a loved one”
From hearing the last three words, suddenly I felt I huge energy develop inside of me, and a huge rage.
I screamed and started striking Aznaraex like a madman.
“THAT’S IT FLAYNE!!! C’MON, PROVE TO ME THAT YOU’RE NOT A WEAKLING!!!”
We started exchanging blows, jumping through the air meters high. It was incredible; I couldn’t believe I was doing such things. It all seemed insane. But Aznaraex was still far more powerful than I was; encouragement alone wasn’t going to help me.
Suddenly we both jumped so high, that we passed the pillar from the beginning. Then we clashed and began falling back towards the pillar, to where it began.
Meanwhile we were falling; we exchanged numerous blows, though I hadn’t once hit Aznaraex, while he clipped me in some places. We were only meters away from the ground. A crashing boom resonated through the air, and I was on the ground, on my back. The dust was clearing and I could see my sword on the ground two meters away from me. I tried to reach it but a blade tip had appeared in my vision, I look up and see Aznaraex towering above me with a face full of wonder, pointing his blade at me.
I failed, I had lost. He was going to kill me and that was the end of it all. Again, I was kissing death in the face, with a sword tip as its main flavor.
But then he removed his sword tip from my neck. I was surprised to no end, and bloody confused.
“That’s good enough. I’m satisfied.”
I got up and picked my sword up from the ground.
“What? But I thought…”
“Nothing, is more precious than having the chance to live again. From your performance, I am satisfied that you can keep us both alive for a while. Flayne, the only reason you were able to regain your position from that previous clash, was because I gave you a reason to fight back. All you need Flayne, is a purpose, a purpose to fight for your life. I see that you have no idea what your purpose or main ambitions are in life. Therefore, you wouldn’t make an ultimate effort to fight for one. Because you don’t know it yet; or you don’t have enough ambition to fight for it.
I believe…that there is no such thing as power, Flayne…Only ambition.
That’s the only thing that has kept me living, ambition.
Without ambition, you don’t have a desire, without desire, you don’t have a will, and without will…You have nothing. You’re no better than a mere animal, a part of nature’s hum-drum, to be wasted into nothing.
A warrior without ambition is like a lion without fangs.
That is what’s missing in you Flayne, ambition. If you don’t have any, then for now, fight for one. Fight for an ambition, then fight harder for what your ambition is.”
Suddenly the environment was starting to become distorted, and Aznaraex began walking away.
“Wait!”
He stopped and turned.
“Were you fighting your hardest? Or were you toying with me!?”
Aznaraex laughed.
“If you find your ambition first, then I’ll give you an answer”
With that everything around me just distorted wildly, until there was no form, until I could only see black.
I suddenly open my eyes, get up and frantically look around.
I check myself for scratches, cuts, bruises, broken arm. Nothing.
Then I realized the sun was up, and Nepycros, Zblader, EmeraldTiger and Jorporel were all looking at me.
“What?”
I asked
“Damn you’re a good sleeper; I’ve been slapping your head around till who knows when, and your damn bird keeps pestering me with its worry. C’mon, it’s time to go”
Said Nepycros
“Sorry guys”
I get up and start walking; I could feel their eyes boring into my back with curiosity.
I heard someone ask silently “What’s up with him?”
I didn’t care, I walked on with some new thoughts to ponder, very intriguing thoughts.
To be continued...
