The sound of rustling feathers behind me caught my attention and I felt Ikuye approach the two of us.
"Red hair, pink eyes, and an artifact from the Celestial realm. I'd heard Virgo's beloved fire bird took a liking to a new human. You're my newest sister's mate right?"
I nearly collapsed from her last statement. "Ikuye! I—You—Gah! You can't just say something like that abruptly."
"Oh. Is her association to the fire bird a secret? Whoops! My bad. And hey, didn't I say you should call me Ikki?"
A wave of unease washed over me.
I tried my best to recompose my own thoughts before starting again.
"That information is being kept on a need-to-know. But that wasn't the part I was concerned about here! People don't just go around saying… That bit at the end. We don't use the word mate and we certainly don't talk about it so tactlessly."
I stammered a bit and turned towards Hailey looking for backup—but what I found was a red-faced and confused mess.
Instead of aid, what I got was blasted with rapid-fire questions, "What in the Goddesses' name is going on here!? Who is this? Why do you look like that? What in the Aether happened to your face—not just your face, your whole body?"
My face?
"What do you mean my face?" I turned to look at Ikuye, "Iku—Ikki, did something happen to my face? I was pretty sure I deflected your swing that had come close."
"Hmmm," the angelic woman leaned in close and inspected me, "I don't see any scratches or cuts, your skin looks fine to me."
"Looks fine!?" Hailey interjected, "Her whole body looks as if its dyed dark with stain! Not even mentioning all these marks. You call this fine?"
Ikuye blinked rapidly at Hailey.
"Marks? Oh, you mean the Feyndirian runes? Those are normal whenever channeling chaos magick through your circuits. They're the base of the spell coding, the magick wouldn't work if they weren't there. The runes fade away after a while. So there is nothing to worry about. Surely mama would've explained that?"
Glimpses of the Goddess flashed around in my head as I tried to recall if Capricorn had ever mentioned something like this, but haunting memories of unceasing courses of degenerate magick lessons caused me to cut them off.
"She may have mentioned it briefly, but my introduction to this magick was a crash course when my soul was plucked away after I died. So, there may be a few key points I missed or have trouble recalling."
"Died, huh? That's a new one. Hmm, I wonder…"
Ikuye's right eye suddenly went black. Completely black. As if her pupil had dilated impossibly wide—transforming into a small void.
Her hand swiped up in front of her and a series of runes appeared in the air and I felt a spell being cast over me. Ikuye weaved a spell I'd seen Capricorn use once before.
She was inspecting me with an advanced form of my OMNISIGHT spell.
Color returned to Ikuye's eye as it changed again. Her iris returned, though it was an unsettling orange like the Goddess herself.
"Yep! I thought so." Ikuye beamed at me and dispersed the open status window.
"Something you can share? Last time Capricorn looked at me like that, she said there was something about me I'd have more fun with if I found out myself."
"Well~" she drew out in a singsong way, "I'll think about it. It wouldn't do any good to try to explain it in words, you have to experience it in a more personal way. Fret not, dearest little sister, I will take it upon myself to teach you the ways of our kind. So let me stick around!"
Ikuye's smile remained, seemingly from a genuine happiness—her overall appearance marred by the mismatch of her eyes, which gave her an unnatural presence.
I had yet to give her an answer on whether she could 'be included' as she had asked after the duel ended, and now the potential pros and cons began weighing on my mind.
If she could give me insights on my new magick then of course having her around would be a benefit—but just looking at the state of the soldiers who had been watching our fight when she triggered that aura…
She's also much stronger than I am. I know she was holding back the entire fight, slowly adding more pressure on me bit by bit to force me to adapt.
That alone is a boon to our power, and also a frightening possibility that she could cause us harm. Intentional or accidentally.
While my mind wandered in thought, a blood-lust crept its way around my senses. A chill ran down my spine and my attention locked to the source—Hailey was staring daggers at the two of us.
"You're shrugging this off too lightly. Airis, you look… demonic. I can't believe that these changes won't affect you in other ways, not just physically but mentally too."
Hailey paused, seeming to consider something to herself.
"This Celestial magick may be twisting your emotions. I couldn't even imagine you doing what you did last night… But now, seeing you like this, it makes so much more sense."
Her expression turned sorrowful, and she turned away to head back to the gathered soldiers.
Hailey's parting comment left my mind reeling. I began to wonder if the chaotic magicks were actually altering my mental state as much as physically.
My introspection was short lived though, as a hand slapped my shoulder. Our lively new companion seemed eager to get to business.
"Well my new ᚳᚩᚻᚪᛁ, wanna learn some new things now or did you need to get back to managing your humans?"
"For starters, I'd appreciate it if you didn't refer to the people here as if they were my belongings."
"Why? You're a daughter of Virgo, are you not? Then these creations of hers are basically your inheritance. You may look like them in outer appearance, but the differences are quite distinct on the inside."
Daughter of Virgo? Am I part of a commune now? I don't need any more mothers. I'd like to have my earthly one returned safe and sound…
"That may be true, however I see these people as compatriots in arms. We've fought together and still have many battles to face. Therefore, if you wish to participate, I'll consider it on a trial basis. So long as you get along with the people here, we'll accept you with no qualms."
Ikuye's expression furled to a rough grimace.
"Hmmm~" She mused with a melancholy pitch.
"I understand. Deal. I'll do my best to fit in."
I reached for her outstretched hand to confirm her entry to our warband, albeit with a slight apprehension after seeing her initial response.
As her fingers curled around mine in a firm grasp my head began to feel light and I began to tilt over in dizziness.
My vision started to blur and blacken—the last thing I heard was Ikuye frantically calling my name.
-✵-
A series of bright lights in the distance flared over the horizon, drawing my attention.
I was conscious again, but had no clue where I was.
The landscape around me was entirely foreign.
Mountainous chunks of earth and rock were suspended in the space all around. It looked as if the world had been cleaved apart and the broken sky was used as a net to maintain the barest of order.
There were islands in the sky all around me ablaze with the roar of battle—and in that moment I realized there was no ground below me.
I did my best to muffle an internal scream. A disturbing feeling along my back that had been gnawing at my senses became clear. I was hovering in the air thanks to a set of wings.
Ah. One of these awkward moments again.
It dawned on me quickly what was going on. I was having another one of the so called 'psychometric episodes' my runic interface system seemed so eager to tell me about after they occurred.
Judging by the wings and who I had just been in contact with before awakening into whatever this craziness was, I determined I must be reliving some event from Ikuye's past.
A streak of fire soared through the sky directly at me. A young looking girl with wings of flaming feathers and golden hair came into view. She wielded a sword of the same raging orange flames with her left hand, and clutching a large tome tightly in her right.
"ᚻᚪᛁᛚ ᚳᚩᛘᚪᚾᛞᛖᚱ!" The angel approached Ikuye and saluted.
"ᚻᚪᛁᛚ, ᚹᚻᚪᛏ ᛞᚩ ᛁᚩᚢ ᚻᚪᚠᛖ ᛏᚩ ᚱᛖᛈᚩᚱᛏ?"
Ikuye responded back sternly, and I scratched figuratively at my mind.
Now would be a great time for some auto translation skill to manifest itself…
After many minutes of incomprehensible chatter between the two, I admitted defeat and gave up hope on the Goddess' magick coming to my rescue.
Though I couldn't understand the words themselves, I was able to get the general feel from the connection with Ikuye.
A few words continuously sprang up during the conversation: "Lethos", "Gabriel", "Libra" and "Gemini". Notably, the last two were only uttered under cautious breaths.
What the names of two of the Celestial Gods had to do with the fields of war nearby, only the angels truly knew.
I'll have to try to bring it up with Ikuye later if I can.
Before long the golden hair girl, whose name I gathered was Aurielle, delivered the last of her report and saluted Ikuye once more.
Aurielle started to depart, but the sound of a great explosion nearby stole our attention.
A hush fell over the battlefield and I felt a sort of static charge settle in. A rush of concern came over me and I knew the emotion was being relayed through the shared state with Ikuye.
A terrible pain flooded every fiber of my being.
Not a physical one—but one that wrenches at your heart.
One that rends your composure in two, exposing you as vulnerable and weak.
One that accompanies the loss of someone dear.
It was that kind of pain.
My gaze drifted down as Ikuye tilted her head to the greatsword in her right hand. A faint glimmer of silvery liquid dripped down the blade, plummeting down into the abyssal sky below us.
I felt an immense pressure activate around us, and Ikuye rocketed through the sky towards a large floating island which had been the source of the explosion.
Her blood-lust was overwhelming at this point, making it difficult to keep my wits as I watched in dread at what happened next.
As we approached, many figures came into view. Hundreds—if not thousands—of winged warriors were clashing against each other.
A thundering crash echoed through the open plain as she slammed into the ground, cleaving the body of one of those warriors in two.
Silver drops splattered across the landscape and Ikuye gave no pause before bringing her sword to bear. Angelic beings, one after another, fell under the weight of the blade.
In such a brief moment hundreds lay slain, their argent blood pooling in the heavily cratered ground.
The remaining winged soldiers snapped to attention as Ikuye charged past them to a single collapsed body which lay beyond. Her legs gave out, and she collapsed down on her knees.
Gently lifting the body in her arms, both Ikuye and I gazed down at a coral-haired girl. Her body was battered and bruised—seemingly to have been on the receiving end of the massive explosive spell from a moment ago.
I felt streaks of cold run from my eyes, and tears began to stain the wounded woman's face.
Ikuye screamed a blood-curdling cry at the sky. Then her body's tension dropped and she wrapped herself around the girl.
A pool of silver blood had gathered below her.
Ikuye's piercing stare glared back at me in the reflection and my breath caught, my entire soul felt frozen in place.
Extreme malice that I felt behind that twisted expression bore directly into my heart and I began to fade to black once again.
The last thing I saw was a sinister face, a terror far beyond anything I'd ever experienced took hold over me, and the anguish of a million souls cried out in fear.