The following morning, Saiya cured Rayna and Phoenix’s hangovers first. Dousing all of them in a deluge of Magical Water that cleansed them both inside and out.
Phoenix decided that, despite the odd feeling of being spshed without getting wet, she much preferred this method of cleaning to the shudder-inducing mental image that came with using a Golden Shower Potion, not to mention that it was much cheaper.
Ability: Cleansing Stream
Type: Spell (channel, elemental, water)
Cost: Low mana per second.
Cooldown: None.
Current Caste: Crystal 8 (62%)
Crystal Effect: Channel a stream of water that thoroughly cleans any external impurities from a single target and grants an instance of [Flowing Waters] if the target is an ally.
Flowing Waters (boon, cleanse, elemental, water, stacking): Slowly cleanses Elemental Banes for a short duration.
Phoenix debated about trying to make the party portal back to the city to inform Paul that Murinah had tried to repce her, but she didn’t want to try expining the situation to the others or make them worried about something they couldn’t really change. She’d make sure that when their mission was over, she would take the group straight to her mentor’s home to inform him in private and hopefully convince him to let her tell her other secrets.
It would be another week at least until they reached the st fortress city, depending on how many monsters they ran into along the way. Phoenix had been slightly frustrated with her [Guide Book] recently as it seemed to be giving her quests less and less often. She wondered if there was something wrong with it or perhaps it was just part of its nature.
If it was supposed to be guiding her, was it trying to tell her that she didn’t need to fight monsters anymore? Or was she just so accustomed to fighting monsters now that she didn’t need the book to nudge her in that direction anymore? She’d have to ponder more on that after seeing what it did give her for quests in the future.
King’s Dream often found themselves walking in different pairings and talking about random topics and interests between fights. This morning, Rayna was talking about avals again with Uriel and Saiya, the particur topic being about how the uncommon condition Phoenix talked of st night could show up in creatures that could alter their own biology. However, she didn’t really want to get into the discussion after getting borderline emotional while confessing her insecurities.
Phoenix found herself walking ahead of the trio next to Dazien in silence for a while, trying not to focus on the conversation behind them, and he seemed to realize this as he said, “I’m sorry about the turn the conversation took st night. It was meant to be a fun evening, and we brought up some painful memories, it sounded like.”
He gave her a sideways gnce and said softly, “I am gd you told us, however. It helps us understand you better and gain a new perspective.”
“New perspective?” she asked absently.
“Of course. Our worlds are so different; we take a lot of things for granted that you had to struggle with daily. I’m sure there are some things, like those video games and guitar you mentioned, that we are missing out on, but it sounds like you got the short end of the stick.”
She gave a short, unamused ugh, “That’s an understatement. Even by my world’s standards, I was born into a pretty crappy situation.”
“Then this world really is like a whole new life for you?”
She gave him a questioning look, and he expounded, “No sickness to keep you from exploring, no soul-body dysphoria to chain your heart in fear, nothing left behind to make you want to go back. New life, new adventures, and best of all, new friends.” He gave her his most charming smile, and she couldn’t help but return it.
“That’s a nice way of looking at it,” she said but hesitated as she watched her party leader and prodded, “So, you and Uriel are… what exactly?”
His grin turned wicked, and his eyes got a mischievous sparkle. “Are you interested in knowing if either of us is avaible to court?”
“What? No! I mean, um, I just, well…” She flushed with embarrassment, made even more obvious by her softly glowing skin, but was unsure of how to expin her curiosity.
Instead of saving her from floundering, Dazien simply ughed softly and said, “Well, when you figure out why you want to know, then come ask me again.”
She decided to heed his words and changed her question, still feeling a bit awkward, “Is what Rayna said st night about the after-moon parties really how it’s like?”
Dazien shrugged, “I’m not sure. I was only four at the time of the st one, but if the stories are to be believed, then it is much wilder than she described,” he said with a chuckle. “The liquor flows, and the clothes vanish as a feast of relief and indulgence commences in the weeks following.”
Her face scrunched as she asked, “Why? So many lives have been lost, and there will be so much reconstruction needing to be done.”
“That’s exactly why. There will be plenty of time to grieve and rebuild. What the people need at the end of all these dark times is a reminder of what we were fighting for in the first pce. To celebrate the lives that remain and for some,” he gave her another wicked smirk, “Begin the repopution effort.”
She blushed again and looked away. He chuckled at her reaction and patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry, Phoenix. Rayna might want to try to help you meet some new people, but none of us will pressure you into doing something like that if you’re not comfortable with it. Like I told Rayna st night, how close someone gets to another is between them, and it is nobody else’s business. Feel free to share your experiences or not. Whatever you’re comfortable with sharing.”
Phoenix raised an eyebrow at him, “And you’re not comfortable with sharing details about your retionship with Uriel?”
“It takes both parties to be comfortable with how much is shared outside of the retionship,” he expined, becoming more serious as he spoke, “As far as the public is concerned, Uriel is my best friend and closest confidant. It would be both dishonorable and disrespectful of me to share something intimate that I shared with any person if they were uncomfortable with that knowledge being known.”
She nodded, “I guess that makes sense. It’s like my own secrets,” she observed, touching the spot on her chest where they both knew her Soul Mark y, “I think the fact that you won’t tell me actually makes me trust you more.”
He grinned, “As I said, give me a compelling reason, and I might let you in on some of the details –after talking with Uriel, of course,” then teased, “If there’s even anything to tell.”
Phoenix gave an annoyed huff, and Dazien ughed as he pointed out, “You know you seem like Lord Waynd when you do that? I think his habits are rubbing off on you.”
She rolled her eyes at him, then asked, “Does that mean I should beat you into the road like he would, too?”
“Is that a challenge?” Dazien retorted with a grin.
Phoenix took a few steps ahead of him in the road and turned to face him, conjuring Caustic Floe as she asked in a mock taunt, “Think you can take a student of the Weapon Wielding Warrior?”
He ughed again and pointed to the sword she was holding as he continued walking forward while she continued to step backward, keeping their distance, “You know that thing is venomous, right?”
She gave her best impression of his own impish grin, “Scared of getting cut a lot?”
Dazien’s smile turned predatory at the challenge, “Oh, you’re just asking to need Lady Saiya to heal you now,” he warned and conjured his own sword.
Passive Ability: Armory
Type: Utility (construct, magical, dimension)
Current Caste: Crystal 4
Crystal Effect: Construct a doorway to a personal dimensional storage space that contains the sword [Excalibur]. You can don or doff armor and weapons directly from this space without needing to construct the doorway.
Excalibur (construct, divine, radiant): Attacks made with [Excalibur] can affect incorporeal targets and inflict an instance of [Ailing].Ailing (bane, divine, radiant, stacking): Decreased health and stamina regeneration.
She chuckled, gd for the distraction of battle, “Bring it, kid,” she taunted, using the nickname that Paul always did. She raised her sword into a guard position, then felt the ground slip beneath her, and she tripped, falling backward.
“Phoenix!” she heard Dazien call out and realized she was falling further than where the road should have caught her. She was about to be swallowed by the pit that had appeared when she felt a hand grasp the wrist of her unarmed hand, and she reactively clutched onto it in order to halt her descent.
As she hung there in the air with Dazien holding her arm, she heard a commotion behind him, and her book chose that particur moment to appear for her.
New Quest: Road Ruffians
You have been ambushed!
Objective: Help defeat the bandits.
Reward: Rare Crystal Caste accessory.
She groaned in annoyance at the book, despite her happiness at the new quest, then used [Ruler of Retivity] to push herself away from the floor of the pit as Dazien stood to help their other teammates meet the new threat that had attacked them.
They were surrounded by enemies, and she felt twin voxen auras wash over them, which in turn reminded Phoenix to expand her own, causing her suite of benefits to appear around them all.
Dazien stood in front of her and conjured his shield and armor from his own dimensional storage in a shimmer of golden glitter.
With her aura being projected, she could tell that only three of the bandits were Crystal Casters but that the others all had a bit more magic than the average Mundane. Half-Casters, she remembered Miles calling them, perhaps only having one or two Aspects unlocked each.
Phoenix wasn’t sure what the ruffians wanted or how she and her companions should react as a party of Adventurers. She had never fought other people like this before and wasn’t sure what they were expected to do. Did they try to negotiate? Take them into custody? They were kinda like a police force in this world, right? Wait, no, that was the city guards. She knew there was a legal system, so they were supposed to bring them in… right?
The bandits didn’t give her party a chance to try talking as they attacked en masse, and Phoenix found herself shocked by the sudden csh of weapons. She only felt confusion as her teammates engaged, punching, stabbing, sshing, and casting. They were supposed to be helping people… not fighting them… that’s what Adventurers were for, right?
Even the little furball, Snowbelle, was a flurry of feathers and sharp teeth. The sweet, belly-rub-loving creature pelted enemies with spheres of water that seemed tainted with acid as it melted through their armor. The Seagull would then deal rending blows with teeth to tendons, bringing bandits to their knees or clutching limp arms.
She felt someone grab her arm and turn her to look at them. Saiya had made her way over and was looking at Phoenix with worry as she said, “Phoenix! Snap out of it! You need to fight!”
Phoenix felt her shock subside, but all she could respond with was, “I– I can’t. This isn’t right! I don’t kill people!”
Dazien turned to Uriel after he ran his sword through a man who had been barreling toward the two women and shouted, “Uriel! Huddle up!”
Both Rayna and Uriel made their way over to the others, surrounding Phoenix and Saiya, and the Mage calmly replied, “I’ll need the time. I can buy some, but then you know you need to keep them off me.”
He was close enough to all of them this time that Phoenix could actually feel his aura now as it slowly sliced into them, causing small papercut-like sshes all over their skin and clothing. Registering his words of needing time, Phoenix cast her [Lunar Dream] to conjure distracting birds as Saiya cast her own [Boon of the Banced] on all of them.
Uriel then stomped a foot into the ground to trigger his ability.
Css Ability: Scorch the Shaken Earth
Type: Special Attack (elemental, earth, fire)
Cost: High mana.
Cooldown: 5 minutes.
Current Caste: Crystal 5 (2%)
Crystal Effect: Sm the ground to trigger a seismic attack inflicting Earth damage, rippling out in a circle around you, scorching the area with fire, and knocking back enemies in its path. Anyone within the area gains [Burning].
Burning (bane, elemental, fire): Inflicts ongoing Fire damage.
The bandits were all stumbling now as the attack spread outwards from the grouped-up Adventurers. Fming shards of cracked stone jutted out like stagmites protruding outwards from the ground as it passed. Then Uriel began to cast his next spell that Phoenix hadn’t seen before, “Let the sky wail. Let the world tremble. Let my enemy cower. For I am the eye of the storm.”
Css Ability: Eye of the Storm
Type: Spell (elemental, earth, fire, water, wind)
Cost: Severe mana.
Cooldown: 10 minutes.
Current Caste: Crystal 4 (5%)
Crystal Effect: Create a violent storm centered around you. Targets in the storm take a low amount of ongoing Earth, Fire, Water, and Wind damage and periodically gain an instance of [Scorched] and [Chilled].
Scorched (bane, elemental, fire, stacking): Decreased Fire resistance.Chilled (bane, elemental, ice, stacking): Decreased Agility.
A wild storm whipped up around the party, with only their immediate surroundings remaining still as chaos erupted around them, and the thugs started yelling in panic and anger.
Uriel then targeted one of the Crystal Casters and cast yet another Spell that would slowly but inevitably take out the enemies, “Be the bearer of the all-consuming pgue.”
Css Ability: Pgue Bearer
Type: Spell (magical, death)
Cost: Moderate mana.
Cooldown: 1 minute.
Current Caste: Crystal 5 (34%)
Crystal Effect: Inflict a target enemy with low Death damage and an instance of [Pgued].
Pgued (bane, magical, death, stacking): Inflicts ongoing Death damage and slowly spreads instances of [Pgued] to nearby enemies.
He then turned to the heavily wounded bandit leader who had been shouting orders and was making her way against the storm towards him. Uriel raised a hand and chanted, “Your days have come to an end.”
Css Ability: End of Days
Type: Execute (spell, divine, void)
Cost: High mana.
Cooldown: 1 minute.
Current Caste: Crystal 5 (86%)
Crystal Effect: Surround the target in the void, suppressing all physical senses and inflicting ongoing low Void damage for a short duration. Damage is scaled based on the amount of health missing from the target.
It was the same Spell she had seen annihite the yeti during their Adventurer trials and a few times since then. As the void of darkness consumed the woman, the screams rang out through the cacophony of the storm before halting as the enemy vanished from existence and the Spell ended.
Quest: Road Ruffians
Objective Complete: Helped defeat the bandits.
Objective Reward:
[Drifter’s Umbrel] has been added to your collection.
Completion Reward:
10 [Crystal Mana Bits] have been added to your collection.
Uriel dropped to his knees from the overuse of mana, and Dazien was by his side a breath ter. “Phoenix, your Familiar regen,” her leader commanded over his shoulder while kneeling next to his partner. With a comforting hand on his back, Dazien whispered softly into Uriel’s ear, who simply nodded a few times in response.
Phoenix triggered the release of her stored-up [Starlight Q, and they all began glowing softly. She noticed Uriel rubbing one of the golden cuffs on his left ear as though trying to comfort himself, and she remembered what Paul had mentioned about them helping to calm the wearer.
Looking around at the mess of bodies now strewn about, she could understand why he might want them. She felt her nausea rise at the sight of all the blood… the blood that belonged to people who didn’t turn into ash when her aura looted them; their confusing belongings were now sitting in her collection. Belongings that didn’t speak of abject poverty and desperate times.
She started having trouble breathing, and Saiya’s hands gently grasped her cheeks to make her turn to look at her, “Sweet flower, eyes on me. Just breathe.”
Phoenix felt Saiya’s aura surrounding her, its tranquil effects slowly working to make all of them calm down.
Rayna wasn’t happy, though, and asked incredulously, “What was that, Phoenix? You totally froze!”
“I-I’m sorry,” she began, stumbling over her words, “I-I just… I couldn’t—”
“You’ve been fighting monsters for months now!”
Phoenix scrunched her face as she angrily retorted, “But these were people!”
“No,” Dazien said firmly as he stood and helped Uriel to his feet, before turning to stare at her and stating firmly, “They were monsters preying on the people they saw as weaker than them. Even Half-Casters shouldn’t need to stoop to this kind of banditry when they could easily get work in one of the cities or by hunting other monsters. I know this from experience myself.”
“If someone attacks you, Phoenix, you fight back! You don’t just roll over and let them hurt you and the people you care about. You put them down. No hesitation. No regrets. No remorse,” the Shatter Bard said with determination.
“That sounds cruel and heartless. That’s not someone I want to become,” Phoenix argued. She shouldn’t have to become a remorseless murderer to be an Adventurer. She didn’t want to be like Murinah or that assassin, able to kill someone with a smile on her face.
“Monsters are not deserving of remorse!” Rayna shot back, obviously still on edge from the fight despite her sister’s aura attempting to calm them all, “I’m not saying go on a killing spree to get whatever you want! If you find yourself in a position where you need to kill, that means the person in front of you is not deserving of remorse, otherwise, you wouldn’t need to kill them.”
Before Phoenix could even attempt to argue, Saiya interrupted with gentle concern, “Surely you’ve seen people kill other people before? Lord Waynd told us he cleared out a Reality Rift shortly after meeting you.”
“What? No. There weren’t any people there, just these monsters called Caged and Reapers,” Phoenix denied, trying to expin what happened, “I didn’t get a close look at the whole group but I fought one of the Caged and it was definitely a monster.”
The rest of her party all exchanged looks with one another as if searching for what to say. Dazien stepped closer to her and carefully said while watching her reaction, “Phoenix… Soul Reapers are people. Sapient and intelligent people from other realities that have come to destroy our world.”
The concept of thinking and feeling people being behind the invasion was borderline absurd to her. She had been picturing horrific aliens that were like something out of a sci-fi movie this whole time since Paul had called them monsters and expined their goal of destruction. Something like giant bugs or parasites that annihited worlds without care… not people like her.
She blinked at him in confusion, “What? No. I mean… Paul said they were monsters.”
Dazien gave her a sad smile and said softly, “They were. Just like these bandits.”
