"Calm down, Cyclops."
The power in that voice. It was the same, no, it eclipsed the power that'd led to them to the western shores of Limgrave, every sense Melina had ringing at their maximum. Instinct demanded she flee or fight, anything better than standing helpless still before whatever was producing all that power.
But she found herself slowly craning her head back. "Onyx?"
"Yeah, just give me a moment." The armored figure said. Then, before her very eyes, the hulking frame began to shrink. The same height as the trees, just a little below them, and eventually to a size similar to her own, still standing several heads taller than herself. Just like Onyx. Then, as if to confirm that thought, the spiked helmet around their head shimmered before vanishing from neck to tip in a wave of dark blue flames. "I didn't think we'd end up here of all places when you took my hand."
Short black hair. Dark eyes. Curiosity. There were key differences, lacking facial hair, a sharper shape to the face, the dark blue light resting within his eyes, and a similar blue light cresting the edge of his hair, but she was certain that was Onyx's face she was looking at. Or some variation of it at least.
Which didn't make much sense.
"Want to tell me why we're here?" The Onyx look alike questioned, armor clinking as he crossed his arms.
"Where…where are we?' She questioned, unsure of what to make the entre situation.
"You don't know where we are?" He questioned, sharing in her surprise. Though unlike her, he quickly got over his, shaking his head. "I guess that makes sense. You didn't strike me as the type who made a hobby out of manipulating others. Those runes and power you spoke of, it requires you to interact with my soul, doesn't it?"
Right. All of this had taken her by surprise, but she'd been in the middle of imbuing all the runes she'd been collecting in Onyx's company into him. Did that process have something to do with how she found herself here?
"That is how it works." She admitted.
"I thought so. Well, you managed to do just that it seems." He said, raising one of his crossed arms and clenching and unclenching that hand.
"Then-"
"What you're seeing now isn't my physical body but my soul. My true form if you've got a flair for dramatics."
Melina lowered her dagger, her senses all still operating at their best but her instinct for danger settling.
She could scarcely comprehend it.
Power.
There was no better word to describe what she felt from him. He was power and no matter how she tried, she could find no limit to the overwhelming force that made him up. If anything, him making himself smaller made the power seem all the more incomprehensible. How could someone remotely similar to her hold so much raw power?
"What are you?"
"Wow. That's cruel cyclops, real cruel." He said, shaking his head with a smile. "I'm your friend. The one you've been stalking."
Was that his way of avoiding an answer? Either way, she wasn't foolish enough to think she could press a being like him for one.
"Where are we?" Melina asked, finding her eyes drifting towards one of the fish swimming past them. There was something about this place that rendered her clear minded. At the same time, she felt no need to make use of that fact, completely at ease now that there were no visible threats around. She was almost tempted to-
"Its pretty peaceful here, huh?" Onyx questioned as he took a seat beside her, Melina only noticing she'd sat down on the shifting grass at the sounds of his shifting armor. "It's a space that exists between mind and matter. It's easiest to think of it as a world born from my soul. It and all within it can be considered an expression of myself. You're the first to ever see it like this."
All of this, the water around them, the blue colored vegetation, the many animals, was all him? A confusing prospect that all the power he exuded made seem perfectly possible. Why wouldn't someone like him be responsible for the creation of an entire world? As things stood, without being enhanced by the power of runes or possessing any shards of the Elden Ring, his power eclipsed that of all she knew.
Melina found herself closing her eye.
The wind here was…odd. Cool to the touch and smelling of all at once.
Both foreign sensations to her.
"We're friends and this wasn't intentional, so I'll let it go this once." In an instant that fleeting sense of danger roared back to life, her lax body going stiff. The water around here gained the slightest weight. It was no mere decoration but a weapon. One poised to suffocate her if he so wished it. "But never trespass here again."
The water's weight vanished. As did the unique air and the sound of running animals.
All that remained was the distant crackle of flames.
Melina opened her eye.
She was back at Onyx's campsite, the Erdtree's light shining down upon them once more. Torrent was still curled to a sit, lazily biting at a pile of berries laid out for him and Onyx was still before her, her hands wrapped around his.
He was the being they'd felt that day. She was sure of it.
"That was jarring." Onyx said, voice no longer quite as deep or carrying with it any of the power she'd felt moments ago. She didn't stop him as he pulled his hand away. "You can keep that power you spoke of to yourself. I'm not interested in any that affects my soul."
"I understand." Melina said, lowering her hands. She wasn't sure anything less than the great shards of the Elden Ring would do much for him in the first place. The power Finger Maidens used was meant to take one strengths and weaknesses, then improve upon them by expanding one's capabilities through the use of runes. It was not without restriction, however, each person bearing inherent limits that nothing less than the biggest shards of the Elden Ring could overcome.
How does one go about expanding a power that was already limitless?
"I am afraid there is little else I can offer in exchange." Melina admitted. That had been the key bargaining chip at her disposal. He might've have been an odd man but the possibility of power like that could motivate anyone. Anyone other than someone with such a frightening degree of power already at their disposal.
It was difficult to connect Onyx as he was now to the being she'd seen before moments ago.
"Don't worry about it." Onyx said, already picking back up his own skewer and rotating it over the fire. "If its that tree you want to get to, you're welcome to stick around and keep following me as long as you don't mind a few hundred detours. I'll be heading there eventually so I don't have any problem bringing you along."
…this was to be expected. He did not operate off the give and take mentality most in these lands now adopted but acted according to his whims. And it just so happened that one of those whims seemed to include helping her for the moment.
"I am Melina." She introduced herself, bowing her head to him slightly.
"Oh? Nice to properly meet you then, Melina." He said, offering her a smile. "Its good to finally put a name to the face."
Melina quietly nodded before stepping back and returning to her seat beside the fire, half eaten skewer picked back up. Despite that abrupt revelation and what should've been a turning point in their journey, she no longer following but accompanying him, the night carried on like any other though she did find her gaze shifting to him every so often.
That world. In it she'd felt sensations she thought impossible for her.
Who and what were she and Torrent traveling alongside?
XOXO
(A/N: Perhaps the shortest chapter yet but as Melina said this is a turning point. It doesn't smoothly connect to the chapters I'm preparing after it but it does all it needs to and is far too important to get cut so it stands on its own. We got a glimpse at what could be considered the first outright defensive/aggressive gesture towards another person that hasn't tried to attack him from Onyx and a bit of mentions for a plotline for Melina.
Chapters with a focus on dialogue are looking to be the bane of my existence now that I got a bit more experience under my belt. I like all the character interactions and the things I could slip in them like ticks that might never be noticed but all that control makes it easy to fuck up the portrayal of a character. One badly phrased statement can absolutely shatter the image of one. A doubled edged sword I guess.
Anyways, I don't want to make a habit of including drawn out ANs like this so lets cut this short. Peace.)