The morning broke with grey light and cold wind.
Kade stirred awake to the sound of quiet footsteps and hushed voices. The others were already up, each absorbed in their own routine.
He first saw Sunny, irritated but focused, swinging down his azure blade in the same vertical slash, Nephis picking apart his form with each swing. Ike sorted out the gathered resources, packing them together ready to travel with, and Sandra helped along, stealing glances at the two practicing their swordsmanship.
While Cassie was sitting down, tracing her fingers down a wooden staff memory, listening to the cohort go about their day. The sight only made him feel more distant, and that irked him.
"Guess I could go over there..." Kade mumbled, using [Unyielding Asura] to pulse a small spike of energy to wash away the morning drowsiness. 'Thirsty as well? Didn't Cassie have a memory for that?' His eyes went to the blind girl, and he paced casually over.
He passed Ike and Sandra. Ike paid no mind, while Sandra eyed him slightly. Kade ignored her gaze and quickly snatched up some crab meat from the stash that she was preparing while walking off.
Sandra's irritated death stare dug into his back, yet he walked off. He just wanted a little breakfast, not another fight.
Sure, he loved fighting, and he didn't mind causing some conflict here and there.
But yesterday had gotten way too personal. No reason to stir that bucket of worms again. Luckily, Sandra seemed to have the same idea. She didn't say a word, just went back to helping Ike.
His heavy footsteps tapped against the stone floor of the outcropping, and Cassie perked up, looking to the origin of the disturbance. Her blond hair flowed in the breeze.
"Kade...?" she offered, a small smile staining her lips, contrasting with her uncertain, unfocused eyes.
"Yeah, it's me, Cas. How'd you know?" Kade said between bites of crab meat. meat.
"Your footsteps are always heavy—like you're pushing against the earth."
"Is that so..." Kade muttered, before planting himself down beside Cassie to her surprise. Next to the blind sleeper, now watching, Sunless practices his sword strikes. There was an awkward air between the two, and Kade tried his best to be rid of it.
"I was just coming over to see if you had that memory that acts like a water bottle. I swear I'm dying of thirst." Kade sighed, trying to put a smirk on his face, even if she couldn't see it.
Cassie blinked. "Oh, yes..." She answered timidly, summoning the [Endless Spring], the beautiful bottle of blue glass shimmering into reality and plopping into her small hands. "Here you go."
"Thanks," Kade received the memory and tilted it to the sky, allowing the endless springs' contents to spill down into his open maw. He drank happily for about 20 seconds. Rubbing his mouth before handing the memory back gently. 'I really needed that.'
Cassie received the memory and dug into silence once again; she fiddled with the bottle between her lap, a slight crease in her eyebrow. Kade figured that she was trying to exit the conversation, but he couldn't allow that.
He had things to say, first being.
"Sorry about yesterday; I just got caught up in the emotion. It's just that I don't like killing people, really at all. And I had lived my life trying not to do so... And when my flaw broke that moral, it just freaked me out, and I took that out on Sandra."
He really meant it. While he was distracted with the whole life-being-threatened thing, he had ignored the feelings of the people around him, especially Cassie. Frankly, recalling the memory of her distant sobbing made him feel like shit.
Cassie was his closest friend besides Dawn, and he wanted to avoid piling onto her stress of being blind in a death zone by causing group drama.
"It's ok..." Cassie spoke softly before turning to Kade. "I can understand why you would be mad..."
Kade put on a brittle smile. "True... But I can do better next time. I promise to make it up to you."
She nodded, returning the [Eternal Spring] back into her soul sea.
-
Kade parted from Cassie, walking slightly ahead to the two divinities. Sunny and Nephis.
The shadow was still practicing his swings, brow covered with sweat, deepening further with each strike. While the silver-haired girl watched silently. It looked like a webtoon where the boy from the slums would go over to some random renowned knight and somehow receive their tutelage.
That narrative was surprisingly accurate to the scene before him.
Though Kade wasn't interested in that, he had something else in mind.
"Hey, princess, where do you think we should head next?" Kade offered. They couldn't sit here forever; they had to try and reach the gate at some point to return. And that meant trying to travel somewhere in this place.
Kade had no sense of direction, so he thought to ask the legacy that was trying to act as leader.
Nephis separated her gaze from Sunless, who also peeked his over from training. The silver-haired girl answered with crossed arms.
"We would be heading eastward in about an hour. Sunny told about a corpse of a corrupted monster that's being consumed by a large number of scavengers. East is the best way to distance ourselves from that force."
Kade nodded, murmuring between bites of crab meat.
"Mhmmm--hm." --"You training Sunless to reclaim the one true throne?"
The two sleepers looked at him in confusion.
"No, I'm helping him train his swordsmanship," Nephis answered with utmost seriousness. Sunny only grumbled further as he exerted himself to swing again. The cutting air whistling into the early morning--
"Do you want to join?"
Kade shook his head with a grin. "No thanks, I don't need any sword. I'm a weapon myself."
Sunny scoffed between rasping breaths.
"Makes sense, you're thick in the head and very blunt... You would make a good mace."
Kade responded by chucking one of his crab sticks at Sunny, the sweet meat smacking softly against the bridge of his nose. Before falling to the ground pitifully.
"HEY, don't do that while I'm swinging a sword! Unless you want me to slip up and fling it at you!
Kade cackled quietly to himself, purposefully avoiding eye contact with the annoyed sleeper. But that's when he saw Cassie instead, alarmingly pale--Eyes wide open, shaking visibly.
"Cassie?" Kade spoke, ignoring the duo, and rushing over to the blind sleeper. Nephis followed closely, with practiced steps, summoning a shimmering great sword to her side. Sunny took the opportunity to ditch his practice and ran with the two.
Nephis leant closer to the blind sleeper, diligently prepared for danger.
"Cassie? What's the matter"?
She finally heard them, and they turned to the three of them—a wide smile on her lips.
"A… a vision! I had a vision!"
'A what now?!'
Nephis scanned the surroundings with sharp eyes.
"Are we in danger?"
Cassie energetically shook her head.
"No, it's not that! People… I saw a castle full of people!"
She smiled and pointed with her finger.
"I don't know how far it is, but I'm sure that it's in that direction!"
The trio stared at each other, unsure of whether to be alarmed or happy.
Her delicate finger was pointing confidently west.
'Guess we're going the fun route...'
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The cohort prepared themselves, packing up before heading to the edge of the rocky outpost. With Cassie's vision, plans had changed. Now everybody was set to go out westward, straight to the closest outpost there, and day and night, they would travel and then rest.
Until they arrived at the citadel that Cassie had described.
Everyone started climbing down the outpost, except for Cassie and Kade. The blind sleeper was waiting patiently until she could tie the rope down. And climb down that instead, while Kade was occupied with a potential experiment.
In the hour before he left, he received the chance to skim over the memories he had recently received, and the one that caught his eye by far was his Legacy Aspect gift. He summoned the memory.
[Embodied Wrath]
Stone shimmered to life around his shoulder blades, lengthening into two rough, jagged outlines of arms. Orange energy pulsed through the gaps, binding the fragments into living limbs.
The appendages immediately connected with his nervous system, his brain firing to process the new stimuli. Kade flexed his palm open and shut, testing the stone arms with small motions. The connection was seamless, like they'd always been his.
It was just the other parts that he had to skim over again. The memory was a lot to remember.
'Don't want to misread something and accidentally kill myself.'
That would be an abrupt ending for the brawler, so Kade summoned the ruins.
Memory: [Embodied Wrath]
Memory Rank: Dormant
Memory Tier: I.
Memory Type: Weapon<> Armor
Memory Description: [The Unyielding Asura dived into the hellfire; he burnt with his enemies, yet while they screamed in pain and melted away, the Asura burned with even brighter fury, tearing them limb from limb. The world succumbing to his anger, the Asura-Embodying Wrath.
Memory Enchantments: [Stone Flesh], [Fight or Flight], [Hierarchy], [Eternal Anger]
[Stone Flesh]
Enchantment Description: [The hands of the Asura are connected with its soul; whether flesh or stone, they are considered the weapons to distribute his destruction. They are considered one and one with the Asura's body, mind, and rank.]
[Fight or Flight]
Enchantment Description: [The Asura has an everlasting thirst for combat and can decide whether to don his fists for wings or his wings for fists. For he had retained his wings that he had claimed from the heavens, as well as the hands that he manifested from the depths. While the Asura's hands aid combat, the Asura's broken wings can aid in movement among the lower plains.
Fists [Provide durable connected arms.
- Wings [Provides a slower fall and a dash with each pair]
[Hierarchy]
Enchantment Description: Wrath will evolve over time, and when the Asura climbs the hierarchy, they will bloom with new rage. The more cores means the more arms or wings; the more, the merrier, each to assist the Asura further with their desires.
- Beast: 1 pair
-Demon 2 pairs
- Tyrant 3 pairs
Titan 4 Pairs.
[Eternal Anger]
Enchantment Description: [The Asura's rage is never ending; it cannot be lost forever and will reemerge like a phoenix, for the cycle starts and ends at destruction.]
There was much to be said about the wordy memory, but what interested Kade right now was [Fight or Flight], specifically the section that described him 'falling slower.' If that was the case, he could just jump down from the top instead of having to climb down like his peers.
'Well then, lets flight--'
He commanded the memory, and the stone arms shivered rapidly before splintering apart. It crackled violently, the many rocks that had formed the limb suspended in the air, the orange energy sparking with renewed light and spiking from his shoulder blades.
The energy pulsed anew, and the gathering rocks formed conjoined into two small angular wings, pitiful, lacking any feathers or webbing, just obscure shapes imitating so, until the energy surged again, surging through the cracks between the pebbles and shooting out from the wings.
A singular jagged construct of energy jetted out of each wing, symmetrical, like inverted blades, that hummed quietly with kinetic potential.
He exhaled slowly, glancing once toward the jagged rocks below. Wait awaited him if he failed.
Then smirked—and jumped.
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[Author's note]
Mostly just an in-between chapter, it provides a little leverage from the drama and leads into the start of their journey to the WEST! I would probably write more, but I honestly just collapsed after eating a full pizza and taking my sleep medication, along with the exhaustion of going heavy at the gym. And ended up napping away some of my writing time.
But I hope you've enjoyed that. If you have any questions, I'll be ready to answer, especially about [Embodied Wrath], since I can't really tell exactly what it does in the story without it seeming a little bit too system-dumpy, which I already kind of crossed the line with.
It's mostly there to give him more autonomy during big fights, like if he was with the group in the original where they faced the spire messenger--Because even though he is strong against weaker enemies and humans, against bigger beasts....
What is he going to do? Punch it, and that wouldn't really do much of anything, lol. Either way, I'll promise to cook.
Thanks for reading; your support means everything.