Cyrus Solaris
My lungs burned. With every passing second, panic swelled inside me as the tsunami's powerful undercurrents tossed my body around like a rag doll.
I was too deep beneath the surface. Reaching it had become nothing more than a fantasy, and my abilities were powerless against the sheer force of water.
At the current moment, all I could do was funnel cosmic energy to my lungs, in hopes of extending the amount of air I had left. This wasn't something I had practiced at all, but it was the only thing I could do.
I just needed to outlast the asterism's effect duration or enter another quadrant of the rift where the effect didn't reach. I just hoped to the High Pantheon Solaris that one of those situations would happen soon.
I needed it to happen.
The next few minutes were grueling, as I fought against the pressure of the deep water and miscellaneous objects speeding through it. I had the misfortune of having a large log torpedo into my back. It caused me to gasp, and water filled my lungs.
My body begged to cough, but I fought the urge. Pressure swelled inside my chest, as though a vice were clamped around my lungs, squeezing out the last traces of oxygen.
The roar of the flowing water became muffled. The refracted light grew dim, and everything seemed to fade calmly to black.
When I woke up, I was lying on a mossy bed of grass, my face submerged in a small murky pool of water.
I survived. Thank the high pantheon.
I rolled over onto my back and looked into the sky. The asterism Bronte's Crown was not present in this area of the rift. There wasn't a single asterism in my area, actually.
I sat up and quickly assessed which of my tools had survived. Patting myself down, I realized my staghorn blade was gone. My stress ball, however, was still beside me, its weight pressing a divot into the soggy ground.
I took a long, hard look at the stress ball and recanted how it fared better than my blade against the spider. At this point, it was much more than just a stress ball. It was like my own personal bodyguard orbiting me; it was my moon.
A fitting name for an astronomer's weapon.
I began to check the rest of my tools; my telescope was in decent shape, but it needed to dry out a bit. My astral globe tablet took a few strong taps to turn on, but it worked, and my spectronmeter lens was fogged up but still operational.
Considering what happened, I wasn't in the worst shape at all. But I was alone with no map and no idea where I was.
Then I remembered my clan's age-old adage: the asterism the Solaris Arrow always pointed north. Now all I had to do was find it and find some semblance of direction.
I extended my telescope, shook it a few times, and pointed it at the sky, but I kept getting distracted every time I tried to look at the orange sky.
I sensed countless heavy creatures surrounding me, and in a few moments what I sensed showed themselves.
All types of large, deformed creatures surrounded me, from insect-like creatures to twisted and snake-like beasts, circling from every direction.
I quickly collapsed my telescope and clipped it to my belt. Then I levitated my moon and sent it orbiting around me as fast as I could, trying to cover my blind spots as best I could.
The behemoths crept toward me, stalking me, patiently waiting to see who would make the first move.
I widened the orbit of my moon, giving me a better perimeter to work with. I wanted to dive in and cause havoc, but I knew I had to conserve as much cosmic energy as possible.
Then a giant insect jumped over my orbiting moon and dove straight for me. I sidestepped the creature and used its momentum to throw it in the path of my speeding moon.
The insect had a gaping hole through its center and fell lifeless outside the perimeter I created.
One down, and who knows how many to go.
Then all the creatures lunged for me. Some didn't make it past the destructive orbit, while others sneaked their way through, setting foot into the kill zone.
Inside the circle, my movements couldn't be reckless. I had to pivot, slide, and shift with precision, as if I were performing a deadly dance. Not a single movement could be out of place; one mistake would cost me a limb or my life.
Gravity well was out of the question, because it would take too much cosmic energy to envelope the entire group, over and over again, especially after my run-in with that spider.
This forced me to do something that wasn't second nature to me.
Being patient.
But I kept at it for what felt like forever.
I was starting to make a dent in the swarm of behemoths. I would have made more progress if I still had my blade. Luckily, these creatures were only at the embryonic stage. If they were any more developed, I would have been killed in an instant.
As I continued to blend the behemoths one by one, it seemed the numbers were not decreasing at all, and exhaustion was starting to creep in.
As I threw another behemoth into my orbit, I noticed something shimmer out in the distance.
I shook it off and continued my standoff against the behemoths, my breath becoming more and more labored.
My attention was drawn back to the shimmering object. This time, its form became clearer.
It wasn't just light. It was a massive flame, taking on the outline of a human figure.
The flaming humanoid began walking towards me, silent.
The sound of my heartbeat thrashed in my ears, and my legs were losing their strength.
Then the flaming being spoke.
"Anquaris, I've come to help."
Anquaris? No one calls me that besides…
"Mom!?"
The flaming being began striking the behemoths, flanking them and mowing them down in rabid frenzy.
It wasn't long now before all of the behemoths were taken care of, and I was face to face with the flaming being.
This being had the image of my mother: dark bronze skin, curly hair, freckles, and expressive eyes.
My stomach fluttered, and a big smile tugged at my cheek.
"Anquaris, my dear, oh how I've missed you," my mother said, her flaming hand cupping my face. Her touch didn't burn; it was soft and comforting.
"Is that really you?"
"Yes, my son, it is"
"But how? How were you able to enter the rift?"
"It's a special projection technique, but it consumes a large amount of cosmic energy. I can only maintain this form for short periods of time." My mother's voice weakened as her body flickered rapidly.
"But I have come to relay a message. I can't say all that I want to about where I am and how I am in this state, due to them and their decrees."My mom said, looking towards the sky.
"But I can provide some aid and lead you to someone here that can provide information on how to defeat the rift and find that old and new evil you are searching for."
Old and new evil? Does she mean the creature?
"Who am I supposed to find?"
"You are to find the member of the group known as the Atë. They reside in the Exoskeleton Graveyard, a little farther north from your current location." She said, her form flickering violently, becoming less stable with every passing second.
I felt a surge of newfound energy flow through my body.
"But I would be wary of him; he is a member of the Atë for a reason."
"What's so important about that group?"
"The decree prevents me. Just take heed of my advice," Her form fading away.
"Mom, wait, don't go!"
"I'm running out of energy; I'll return as soon as possible."
Then she was gone.
Should I find others and get them to help?
No, I can get this done faster by myself; besides, I've defeated a rift alone before. I can do it again.
So much had run through my mind, but now that I had my mom's help, I felt more confident in my ability to conquer this place.