Chapter 33: The First Time Teaches
Maddox
The flurry of Lefts didn't attackthey simply ran in circles. Their hollowed eyes had strange, burning glares aimed at me.
Then his voice echoed:
"Maddox… see, I am simply disper. I exist to make others break."
Behind me, a mirror formed out of the ground.
"And in all my years, I have never failed to do this. In all my years, I have broken the spirits of all who dared step on these grounds.
But in all my years, I have never met one like you.
I tried, and I tried,I looked deep into you, and what I found was sick.
This world has truly broken you.
Yet… you remain unbroken.
"So I asked myself how do you break something that is broken, yet refuses to fall apart? It's funny to me,so funny it makes me sick.
"The only answer I could come to was to use cheap tricks and underhanded tactics.
If I can't break you, then I'll break your friends.
The only true pain I can guarantee will break you… is the pain of losing those you love."
These were the words Good spoke to me that day he made me watch the trials my friends were put through.
It's funny. That day, I was proud. Even without me, my friends could succeed and grow,fight and win.
But this was nothing new.
The Codex told me that day, but I don't think I truly understood its words.
I'd seen it time and time again. Magnus. The Keeth. Good. Vermouth.
Each and every time, I'd seen it… yet I could not understand.
Then, through the shadows he formed, he appeared in front of me,breaking through the illusions….. Good.
A giant,bigger than Stello or Stella, who until this point I thought were the largest beings I'd seen in this world.
But that's not what threw me off.
No,it was more than that.
As he formed, his skin seemed too big for his body. Like it had outgrown him. Like a jacket, or clothes ten sizes too large.
It flapped as he moved,different shades of skin as if taken from different people. Where each shade met, it was held together by stitches and staples.
Some skin looked old, decaying, rotted. Others were pink and raw, like they were fresh from a corpse.
Along some seams, if you looked closely, you could see bone and traces of muscle,some charred, dry, dead. No blood.
Something out of a horror story.
He stood towering before me…. Maximus Good.
"Ah, there it is,the face I always get when one lays eyes on me for the first time," he spoke.
Yet his face didn't move. The overgrown skin just wobbled lifelessly. It didn't belong.
"Do I scare you, boy?" he asked.
"My "subjects" he pointed to the skinless, spider-like Lefts"do you know how they got their name?"
"It is tradition. For a giant of the Skylands to undergo a rite of passage. A ceremony.
They must sacrifice their skin to me.
Painful, yes,but it proves loyalty.
And when it ends… what is left is truly mine.
"Thus the name:....Lefts.
All that is left after the ceremony.
Poetic, don't you think?
Beautiful, even."
He smiled. His face didn't.
While his body,him, as a whole,revolted me, the smell beyond comparison, that wasn't what shook me.
At his center, where one's core should be, a large, violent red circle of energy pulsed from his chest. I'd never seen anything like it before.
He was strong.
"Oh… so you've seen my Vail after all, haven't you?
Is that where your despair lies?
In the face of someone lightyears stronger than you?
"We'll meet soon, Maddox very soon ."
He laughed. Then vanished.
Notes
A Vail, more commonly known as an Ethervail, is formed when one manages to compress and refine the state of their magic core, allowing for more power and enhanced abilities.
The color of the Vail doesn't directly correlate with strength—it reflects the soul and will of its wielder.Once someone is able to refine their core to its breaking point, the spark begins to bleed through, allowing it to be seen with the naked eye.
No. The truth is… I did understand.
After that night,when Ola and the others died.
But that day, when Mel spoke on the carriage, I wanted to believe that if I placed my trust in those I hold dear, there'd be no way we could lose.
But deep down, I knew that was cope.
Faced with the thing in front of me, I knew,if Mel or El were by my side in this battle…
I couldn't guarantee they'd survive.
Watching that mirror today showed me something I'd seen countless times.
They would always be in danger.
If not today, then the next psycho we met,or the one after that,would try their luck.
And if not them, the next. And the next.
Until one day… even their strength would fail.
And when it did… it would be just like that day again.
The red flash.
And they'd be gone.
I can't allow that.
A lesson learned once is experience. Twice, it's a mistake. Three times it's foolishness.
Those words rang through my head.
I can't be blinded by the feelings my friends have.
I can't worry about how they feel about me protecting them.
It had been a while, but now the Codex appeared once more.
"So you managed to learn this before another died. That's good.
There may be hope for you after all."
And just like that,it disappeared. That stupid book.
"How disappointing… and sick. Truly sick," the voice said once more.
"I have never failed to break the wills of anyone.
And now three times in a row I've been disrespected.
Fine."
The room disappeared.
And we stood at the front gate of the Skyland once more.
"How are you all feeling?" I asked.
There was a slight pause… but then, like nothing had happened, they shifted back to their old selves.
"Good. We won't let some dumb sky freak get to us!"
In that moment, I smiled.
They truly are strong.
But I don't want them to have to be.
The Hollow Step,an ability I've been trying to master,was made for moments like this.
It's almost like the gods themselves wrote this one into fate.
Out the corner of my eye, I saw it.
A massive explosion tore through the sky,erupting into black ash that bled from the heart of the sky island.
The clouds split wide, spilling ash like ink across parchment.
It spread fast,a translucent black dome crawling over the sky, swallowing light, sealing the island inside a void of shadow.
"I'm sorry," I whispered.
"Wait…..what do you mea-"
With a flick of my wrist, I pulled it from the depths.
The Hollow Step.
A ripple of black, liquid shadow swirled beneath my feet, stretching and snapping upward like a wave.
It wrapped around Mel and El, swallowing them whole
and then, in an instant, they were gone.
It took them a moment to understand.
Down below, beneath the edge of the floating island of the fray, they reformed.emerging from the ghostly shadow imprint of someone I had once touched.
Stella.
The guards nearby stumbled back, wide-eyed, shouting"What the hell—what are you doing back down here?!"
"Damn it, Maddox.not again!"
Mel said, she was hurt.
"When I see you again, I swear I'm going to kill you!"
Above, the sky cleared just enough for the full shape of the island to be seen.wrapped in a perfect black sphere, still leaking black.
No one was getting in or out anymore.
But at least… for now…They were safe.