***
Running through the dark tunnel my legs burned and ached. Glancing behind me i checked no one was here before pressing my shoulder into the wall. Letting exhaustion embrace my body entirely as not even the adrenaline in my system could keep me going any longer.
"Haa... Haa..."
My breaths were loud. Echoing down the train tunnels loudly enough to potentially be followed. Thankfully no one appeared.
"Duuu~." A loud horn echoed in the distance followed by the appearance of a distant light. Rapidly getting closer with its blinding brightness.
Sliding my body down the wall i pushed myself as far from the train tracks i could before the bullet train shot past. Flashing light onto my sweat drenched and bloodied body with each train-car.
The train passed, returning the tunnel to darkness as it took the light with it and then a cascade of earthquakes shook the mountain. Furious enough that it should have collapsed but the walls themselves began to glow with magical formulas holding the tunnels pieces in place.
[skill: horizon chain — mental manifestation]
"I'd like to ask you a question."
Appearing without alarm or warning, just standing there under the walls light, Traveler appeared balancing a silver flame between his bandaged right hands two fingers.
He asked. "How many wounds are there in life?"
"Wha...?" too exhausted to think straight I barely registered the sudden arrival before answering with something random. "A lot." Regaining some energy after a few minutes of being sat down i said, "aren't you supposed to be stopping the exalted from finding the ritual site outside the mountain?"
"I'm only here in a spiritual sense." Traveler shrugged being aloof. "I'm multitasking. Swinging whips across continents at super speeds to cut through exalted, and using the connection made between us to talk."
Putting my hand above my chest i knew what he was talking about. The storm of paracausal energy thats been inside and surrounding my heart ever since he abandoned me on a random world a week ago. My teacher was furious when she found me.
"...how godly of you." I said measly.
Jerking his head slightly Traveler was surprised by my phrasing. After an amused scoff he crouched down one knee to come to equal height in my exhausted state. "Yeah, how godly of me. You know, this will all pass eventually, and then some other bullshit will come and take its place. It never fucking ends."
Chuckling like i was mad there was no flaw in Traveler's logic. "Yeah. It's always one piece of crap after another."
"So. let me ask you again as the next jarring piece of bullshit in your way. How many wounds are there in life?" Traveler stayed kneeling as he awaited an answer.
Not with any real answer myself i decided to do the sane thing and ask him his own question back. "How many wounds are there in life?"
Grinning madly Traveler lifted up and the world around us changed to a scene from my childhood. "Ah~, that's a question best whispered, not answered. A question like that doesn't belong in numbers or neat little lines. It belongs in the cracks between heartbeats, in the breath caught between sob and silence."
The illusion showed my younger self in a village with my teacher Sathuna. Her pushing me with her leg into an elf girl with pink hair. Lumine Elgrave, a girl I thought i could only have fantasies about.
"There's a wound for every time you loved and it wasn't enough. One for every truth you bit back until it turned to poison. For every dream that faded without a funeral. For every version of you that didn't survive the growing."
The illusion shifted and now it showed the first time i met Arthur Moonleaf at a place called Goldwheat Academy. I was acting as my teachers assistant when she was invited to host a seminar to the students there. That day i put the arrogant Arthur Moonleaf on his ass and showed him what true talent was like. Shaming his stolen history.
"There's a wound for every time the world teaches you something with a clenched fist. For every moment you reached out with hope and came back with air. For every time someone said, I understand, and didn't. For every time they did, and it hurt worse."
Scenes changed and characters faces swapped until it came to a point during my homeworld's
"There's a wound for every time you laughed to hide the breaking, and one for every time you didn't. One for every moment you realised the world doesn't owe you kindness, and another for the first time you chose to give it anyway."
Changing again the illusion this time showed me meeting Ben Lakes and seizing a treasure from right under his nose. And him afterwards scouting me to become part of his crew with a dumb smile strewn across his face, but i declined.
"There's a wound in every growing. In every letting go. In every almost that never became a yes."
For a final time the scene shifted showing me and Seer meeting in the castle. Becoming friendly far too quickly with each other. Then it showed the two of us meeting again trying to fight against Ben and Arthur who were pursuing the kidnapped Lumine, before Seer got captured pushing me away to safety so i could escape.
"But not all wounds are endings. Some are beginnings disguised as pain. Some split you open just wide enough to let the light in. Some teach you that the heart, though fragile, is a stubborn, resilient thing—that it breaks, yes, but it also builds. Brick by aching brick."
Breaking apart the illusion returned me back to the dark train tunnel. With Traveler crouched right in front of my exhausted self still.
Grinning he said, "So how many wounds in life? As many as there are moments that mattered. As many as it takes to turn a heartbeat into a story. As many that built and broke you. Count the times you've loved. Count the times you've lost. Then count the times you rose, trembling but unbowed, and dared to try again. ...It's enough to almost make it all matter."
Coughing up blood i wiped my aching hand across my mouth, then asked, "why are you talking to me about this?"
"Being weirdly philosophical in my thoughts and wanted to talk to someone about it." Traveler said plainly.
It was such an insane response i wasn't sure of how to respond. Odds were if i responded wrongly this madman would kill me like he nearly did back at the castle. Maybe he did all this just to confuse me before killing me like a cat playing with a mouse. Or a big snake instead of a cat in his case.
Falling back to sit atop the train tracks Traveler muttered, "what a long hard road you've had. Knowing you were being raised to die. And not even flinching when given the chance to die on your own terms."
Disgusted all of a sudden by his words i forced myself up from the floor even though my body screamed in aching pains. Beginning to limp away as i said, "I'm glad i had a dream about fighting you last night."
"How many rounds did you last in the fight?" Traveler asked in mock cheer.
Using the wall for support i kept walking into the darkness even when i shook my head with disgusted humour. "...I have business to finish. Don't distract me."
Nodding approvingly Traveler watched me for a few seconds before mumbling, "now i see where those two got their stubbornness from."
Before i could turn around to ask who he was talking about a train rushed past crushing Traveler's projection. Huffing with bated breath i waited for the train to pass before seeing Traveler had vanished completely. "...weirdo."
Carrying myself further forwards through the tunnels i eventually reached the crack in the wall and floor i was looking for with rainbow lights emanating out of it. Stepping into the crack i dropped from the ceiling into the central ritual site with Sathuna still kneeling at its heart muttering chants and ghosts dancing around her as clock wheels started appearing in the air.
"Is it nearly done?" I mumbled.
"Still half an hour to go." A feminine voice said, and looking at its source i saw Lumine, except instead of her salmon-pink hair it was now a wheat-gold with midnight black under-lights. The way she walked was more arrogant, her every movement demanding attention while constellations trailed behind her. "Its quite a long process by her standards. A full year of incantations now coming to end at this final hour."
Clenching my fist i turned away from my possessed friend, "you're not Lumine."
"It's still her body though." The tyrannical voice wearing Lumine's skin said. "I would have preferred wearing my doppelgänger's skin but she's important in Sathuna's ritual. I'll take what i can take however. Don't worry too much about this one. She'll be awake in the final minutes if you have any last words. Just like your friend over there."
Twisting around my attention focused on a shimmer in space. A purple hand shooting out of it right for me but before it could reach me a pointed star stabbed through the hand pinning it into the floor.
Looking at the possessed Lumine she simply smiled back at me. Badly acting like she hadn't done anything to protect me as constellations faded from her fingertips.
"Dammit! Cayden!!" Shouting through the distortion in space the being on the other side wrenched it open with a corruptive power before extending a much shorter purple arm through. "Come with me! I can't hold the rift open for long! I found the backdoor into
Peeking through the portal a familiar face desperately looked at me. His black eyes full of regret and anger to himself while trying to reach for me.
Smiling pathetically i said, "Sorry, Incursik. This is what i want too."
"Don't give me that shit!" Incursik yelled on the other side of the rift. Forcing it open even wider to see my surrounding now and i his. "We made an oath to be each others brothers! Sure you pissed me off but I'm not letting you die just because you want to! Whatever the witch and the fenghuang have done to you we can find a way to undo in the Outer God's Realm!"
Grabbing my shoulder the entity possessing Lumine smiled sadistically. "Outer God, Incursik. The Zorain of Purple on Daredgt. It's been a while."
"[seraphim: tyrant fenghuang]!!" Incursik roared but before he could force his way through the rift Lumine stretched out a hand and shrunk the portal easily with a starry white light, stopping Incursik from passing through. "Release my oath-brother! Please!! There's no way he can be that important to you when he's just a sacrifice!"
"Did you hear that? He doubts your value." The possessed Lumine giggled before whisking herself away from me. "I'll give you a minute before closing the rift. My script says my husband's former pursuers of his heart will arrive soon, and I'm afraid i can't manage a possession and fight them at the same time."
"...thanks for giving me the chance to say goodbye." Stepping towards the rift i got close enough that i was just out of reach of the purple hands fingers reaching me. "Incursik. You know i only used you to get the anti-matter gene. You said you'd kill me too if you saw me again after i stole it from you. Why are you trying to save me now?"
"Because you're my brother!" Incursik declared adamant. "I don't care if you're a demonic humanoid and I'm an outer god! To me you are my brother, and no blood relation will ever change that! If anyone's going to kill you it's going to be me because of how moronic you're being right now!" Stretching his arm just a centimetre further his finger now scratched my jumper. "Take my hand! Please!!"
Watching closely nearby [tyrant fenghuang] who possessed Lumine waited to see my reaction and choice. She had probably already read it in the script Sathuna gave her. The path I would choose no matter what free-will i tried to establish. But even if it's within my teacher's calculations the choice i make right now is my own and no one can take that from me.
I already understand the choice i've made.
Stepping away from the offered hand i turned my back. "Goodbye, Incursik. Try to live a good life in
"Cayden!!!" The spatial rift began to shut and Incursik was tossed away from it by repelling energies before it shut tight. Leaving behind a flickering white star for an instant.
Watching me with a look approaching the altar with my teacher on it [tyrant fenghuang] said, "i honestly thought you'd choose to escape with him. That was the choice i made back then when i was in a similar position."
Grinning i pulled out a knife from my belt. "It was, was it? Well, i guess my limits and my choices go beyond anything fate had in store for me originally. What a chaotic concept that is." Slashing my hand with the knife i winced as blood splashed onto the circle surrounding Sathuna.
"Thats life, isn't it?" [tyrant fenghuang] said calmly. "Its a wonderful painful wound."
The altar began to glow from its cracks and i felt half the paracausal energy force its way out my body as black blood. That black blood then turned into a pool beneath Sathuna's legs before gushing up into the ceiling as an inverted waterfall completely obscuring Sathuna from sight now.
A spark ran across the black liquid and flying to my safety [tyrant fenghuang] grabbed me by the hood of my jumper before protecting us both with her spectral wings from a detonation of lightning, ice and fire that tore off the mountain peak above and shot up into the sky.
The black waterfall turned into a pillar hailing apocalypse as it continued to climb upwards before separating into thousands of different streams. Going in every direction to create a black dome around the mountain now with obvious gaps anyone could push through.
Staring up at the strange sight both I and Lumine struggled to make sense of it. All i knew now was that when the time came i would need to give my life at the very end.
Twisting her head Lumine grimaced with an annoyed leer. "Hmm. Looks like the two sore losers are here are here to deal with me. I'll need to go now." Slapping me on the face lightly [Tyrant Fenghuang] grinned. "Have fun before the end. So that when you do die, you have a smile."
"What a weird demand." I replied bandaging my right hand.
"Consider it your formal entry into the
Left staring at the black-patterned sky i thought, "the