Mystic Heart Odyssey

Part 6: In the Shadows of Kryckwood

Chapter 12

Time to put that potion to the test! Will it be enough to take on a centuries-old undead guardian- assuming it even works?

-Llox

___________________________________________________________________________________

With a loud crack, the battered, cracked wooden shield Lykou had been holding shattered as his skeletal opponent slammed a club into it. He winced as Elzhan’s main body cut him a moment later with a long knife. Fortunately, the canid also had his bracers active, so the angry red line quickly began healing as he backed away from them. Now down a defense and momentarily disarmed, he quickly retreated to the other side of the courtyard with the corpses in hot pursuit.

So far, the potion didn’t seem to be having any noticeable effects, much to his chagrin. He’d been trying to stall for time, hoping to feel some kind of change any moment. And unfortunately, the revenant didn’t appear to have as much patience as before; he’d started using two bodies at once early on. With all his focus on biding his time and protecting himself, Lykou hadn’t even tried to smash a single skull yet. He was worried the revenant would become suspicious of his entirely defensive tactics, so finally he lured the skeleton into closing in on him, then suddenly spun around and dropped to the ground, sweeping its legs out from under it.

Even as it fell, the skeleton took a clumsy swing with its club, narrowly missing the konuul’s knee. The moment its skull hit the ground, Lykou slammed his foot down on its skull with all his might, causing it to crack severely, but not quite shatter. He suspected that the dark magics animating the thing made it stronger than usual, though he didn’t have much time to ponder it. Elzhan’s main body managed to stab his shoulder through a gap in the armored pieces of his padded shirt, just as he was turning to face him. The woody natural armor covering his body limited how deep the blade sank, but it was still a successful stab, and caused him to cry out in pain as he quickly stumbled away.

Lykou sucked air in through his teeth as he tried to continue backing away from the advancing revenant. He nearly tripped on a spear laying on the ground. But rather than falling over, he instead feinted doing so, only to tumble over and grab the spear just as his opponent was closing in on him. With a quick swing of the spear, he knocked Elzahn off his feet momentarily. Rather than taking the opportunity to press the attack, he quickly bolted away to the other side again, trying to keep some distance from him as he clutched at his wounded shoulder with a grimace.

The bracers’ magic was quickly healing the wound, but pain still lingered. He had no doubt that if it wasn’t for the enchanted Sylthean artifacts, he would have had to admit defeat right there. As it was, he was getting frustrated with how long it was taking for the potion to kick in. As the skeleton whose skull he’d nearly crushed started shambling towards him again, he braced himself and prepared to fend it off with the spear in his hands. His instincts barely saved him as a second skeleton suddenly burst out of the nearest alcove and charged at him with a pair of hatchets. He blocked both swings, but one managed to cut the spear in half in the process.

Across the way, sitting on the wall, Kuna was watching the battle with an increasingly anxious look. Other than occasionally shouting warnings at the canid, he was trying to stay relatively quiet. For one thing, he didn’t want to risk distracting him or throwing him off, and he didn’t want to inadvertently give Elzhan any warning about what the konuul was already planning on doing. He also had to struggle not to tell Lykou to quit after the stab wound. It was obvious that the revenant was attacking more aggressively than their first encounter.

Lykou backed away from the hatchet-wielding skeleton as it advanced on him, flailing its weapons at him repeatedly. He could sense the other skeleton advancing out of the corner of his eye, but did his best to make it seem like he hadn’t noticed. He knew that if he tried to dodge any further backward, he’d end up getting cornered in another alcove. When it swung its club down at him, he instead bolted down low at its legs, flipping it over his back just in time for the other skeleton’s hatchet’s to lash out again, causing them to hit the club-wielding one’s arm and ribcage.

He had no time to celebrate the deception though. Elzhan’s primary body caught up to him and he immediately had to dodge away from several knife-jabs. He tried to grab his arm in the middle of one of his attacks, but as soon as he managed it, the revenant kicked him back with a shocking among of force, knocking the wind out of him and sending him tumbling a few yards backwards. If it hadn’t been for his woody armor, he was sure he would’ve broken a few ribs.

Suddenly, as he struggled to catch his breath and get back to his feet, a strange feeling washed over him. He couldn’t explain it, but his instincts were telling him to do something that seemed foolish. He looked down at the bracer on his arm as he felt a strange urge to deactivate their magic. It wasn’t a voice, exactly, but it was like something was specifically telling him to get them out of its way. He was so distracted by the thought that he wasn’t aware of Kuna shouting increasingly dire warnings at him. He ultimately decided to heed the strange instinct and deactivated the woody armor. Luckily, he just barely noticed the revenant closing in on him and ducked out of the way just in time for his blade to narrowly miss his now unprotected jugular.

As he tried to bolt off to the side, Elzhan’s leg caught him in the gut, again knocking the wind out of him as he was sent tumbling over forwards, landing on his head before flipping onto his back in a very vulnerable position. He didn’t waste any time getting back to his feet, flipping again to do so, but he ended up stumbling around dizzily in the process. He immediately prepared to defend himself, expecting the revenant and possibly one or more of his skeletal puppets to already be in his face again.

When his vision cleared, he realized something seemed off. The dust and dirt kicked up from his latest fall and subsequent recovery had still not fully cleared out of the air, and while his opponents were charging at him, they suddenly seemed a bit… slow. On top of that, he suddenly felt a lot… better. His injuries no longer hurt much at all, and he felt more energized. And not only did he catch his breath, he felt like the air itself somehow felt more refreshing as it entered his lungs and revitalized him. It was like the crisp, cold air on a chilly morning, waking him up.

But there was more to it than that. He caught a glimpse at his hands and everything seemed to pause for a moment. Kuna had described his strange ability to him after the fact various times before, but this was the first time he caught a glimpse of the faint glow himself. For the first time, he was fully conscious of it in the moment- and more. As he focused his attention on it, he noticed faint focal points of light in different spots, not only on his own body, but on Kuna’s in the distance, as well. There were similar ones in Elzhan’s main body, though they looked dim and somewhat wrong, somehow. They seemed to focus around the same points though- at certain joints on their limbs, and on the hands, head, throat, chest, and belly. He thought he could make a few others out as well, but they were fainter, so he couldn’t discount them being imagined.

And then there were the lines. He struggled to focus on any of them, but he became aware of faint glowing lines of light that seemed to flow through everything around him, especially living things- or things that once held life. It was blurry and he had no idea what he was seeing, and any time he tried to look too closely, the lines would fade. After a moment, the same instinct he felt before told him to just… breath.

So he did. He took a deep, slow breath- slow from his perspective, anyway. Suddenly it felt like he was breathing more than just air. The lines feeding into himself seemed to glow a little brighter, then dim a little more in sync with his inhaling and exhaling. He relaxed his muscles for a moment and things seemed to become clearer. He looked down at his hands and marveled at the faint glow around them, as he felt something flowing through him. After marveling at it briefly, he reached up instinctively as if to shoo away a fly.

But he quickly recoiled when he felt a sharp prick on his finger. He looked up and realized that in his reverie, his assailants had gotten a lot closer, and Elzahn was lunging in for another attack. With a faint grin, he realized it was his time to shine.

From Kuna’s perspective, things looked very dire for a moment, and then even worse. His friend had inexplicably disabled his bracers, only to narrowly avoid being stabbed in the throat. And when he’d bolted to escape again, Elzhan had sent him tumbling. His shouts of warning and disbelief transitioned to demands that he end the fight, worried that the konuul had lost his mind. But then he saw the familiar faint glow as the canid got back up. Only this time, it wasn’t as faint as usual. And he could sense… something. He tried reaching out with his magical senses and could tell something was going on with his life energy, but things were happening too fast for him to try and make sense of it.

The next few moments were even more of a blur than the rest of the fight. One moment, Elzhan was lunging at Lykou again, about to stab him in the chest. Then with a flash of movement, his arm was swatted aside with such force that the blade embedded in the ground over a dozen yards away, and the revenant was somehow trapped in a headlock. A moment later, he’d been flipped around just in time to catch the other skeleton’s club in the face. Then both of them collided with the hatchet-wielding skeleton just as it was bringing its weapons to bare on the konuul. Before the three even hit the ground, the hatchets had gone missing- as did Lykou.

Elzhan recovered quickly and spun around, searching for the konuul. He only spotted him when the hatchets flew across the courtyard and buried themselves violently in the skulls of the two skeletons rising behind him, knocking them off their spines in the process. The revenant narrowed his eyes and picked up another knife laying on the ground nearby, then began stalking towards the konuul.

“Finally taking this seriously, I see,” Elzhan remarked. Suddenly, the two remaining caskets opened in their alcoves, releasing their skeletal inhabitants to join the fray. One was near Lykou and immediately charged at him with a heavy war-axe.

The konuul dodged out of the way right in the nick of time, tripping the skeleton along the way. Paired with the weight of its weapon swinging down, it went tumbling over forwards and lost its grip on the axe in the process. Lykou spun around just in time to catch Elzhan’s arm as he was coming in for another stab, then jerked him to the side just in time to use the corpse to catch one of the hatchet’s being thrown back at him.

Over the next few minutes, all five corpses swarmed him. But despite being outnumbered and out-armed, he managed to smoothly dodge every attack, often manipulating them into one another’s path. After one such redirection, he sprinted out through the gap he created and made for the box holding the mythical magic axe.

But when he was halfway to the box, a torrent of bones flew through the air and reformed into all four of the skeletons, standing guard around it. Elzhan leaped impossibly high into the air and flipped over, then landed squarely on top of the box, brandishing his blade at the konuul. “Impressive, but not impressive enough.”

“Guess I’ll just have to try harder, then,” Lykou retorted with a grin. Just as the skeletons were starting to charge at him again, he suddenly surged forward himself, directly into the fray, without a weapon in hand. Again, time seemed to slow down from his perspective. He watched as the lines of light seemed to pulse and move subtly around him. Following subtle cues he was only barely aware of, he weaved between the skeletal limbs and weapons closing in on him without ever receiving a scratch along the way. He moved in a whirling, fluid-like motion, blending evasion and retaliation together as he made his way towards the Revenant’s main body. Bones popped loose, fractured, and shattered along his path. When he emerged from the chaos at the other side, he charged at Elzhan.

For a brief moment, Kuna got a metaphorical glimpse of what was happening. Everything was moving so fast, his physical senses struggled to keep up with the fight. So instead he began focusing on his mystical ones more, intrigued by the odd change that seemed to be happening within his friend. When he couldn’t figure it out, he’d realized he’d been meaning to try sensing others’ soul energy more as well. And that’s when he made a stunning discovery- they were fusing. Or at least, that’s what it seemed like. He only just started to feel it build up as he was approaching the revenant again. But both energies were strengthening and flowing together through his body and soul, forming something new and different.

Lykou didn’t know any of this, but he could definitely feel something flowing through him and building up. It seemed to be growing stronger as he followed the shifting lines that he kept catching glimpses of. Something was gathering inside him, and getting harder and harder to hold onto, and he had no idea what it was. And then he felt the moment arrive. As he neared the revenant, he spun around just as the blade was being thrust at him again. He moved deftly around the attack, feeling like he was being carried by the wind, and landed his own, slamming his fist into the corpse’s chest.

All that strange energy he’d been feeling build up inside him suddenly seemed to flow out of him all at once through his hand and into his target. The result was a blinding flash of light and a brief, but thunderous burst of sound that echoed all the way out of the ruins to the edge of the bog, sending the few crows lingering nearby flying off in a blind panic. For a brief instant, before the light temporarily blocked his vision, Lykou saw what looked like an ethereal blur fly out of the corpse and vanish into the air.

The other skeletons immediately fell limp. When the light and dust faded, he saw Elzhan’s limp, devestated corpse laying on the ground in front of him. Somehow, it was still intact, although the clothing and rags it’d been wrapped in were completely shredded. Any preserved flesh had been completely burned away, and the bones underneath were riddled with numerous cracks. And, importantly, there was absolutely no soulfire light in the eye sockets. The ground below the point of impact was cracked and looked slightly charred. The canid stood there silently for a minute, panting to catch his breath. Although he still felt that charged, incredible sensation of having his senses and speed increased by… whatever it was, he was also starting to feel worn down again.

Over on the wall, Kuna gawked breathlessly at him, trying to make sense of the situation. Being farther away from the point of impact, he’d caught a slightly better glimpse of the revenant’s spirit go flying out of his body before disappearing. On the one hand, he was amazed at whatever Lykou had done, and struggling to make sense of it. But on the other, he had a bad feeling the fight wasn’t as over as it initially appeared. That feeling was reinforced when he tried to hop down and hurry over to the canid. A familiar invisible barrier blocked his way.

“What the-?! ELZHAN!” he shouted angrily, fear growing inside him again. “I thought we had an agreement!”

The barrier muted the sound, so Lykou didn’t hear him. Still, he did feel something was off after a moment. He ducked just as a stream of bones whipped over his head and formed a swirling torrent in the air in front of him. The sky seemed to darken a bit more and the wind whipped up all around the courtyard. All the bones flew around in a vortex around the revenant’s tattered body as it began to lift up into the air. A hazy apparition started to re-form above it.

For the first time, they got a glimpse of what might’ve been closer to Elzhan’s original form. He was definitely canine-like in appearance, albeit with a dark mask-like marking across his face. The colors were faded, as with most ghosts, but it seemed like most of his fur was a dirty brownish-yellow color, aside from the black bands on his face, ears, and arms. However, there was a large glowing red mark across his throat. There were unnaturally long claws on his fingers, and a hazy dark aura surrounded him. And his eyes were still deep black voids filled with those familiar soulfire pricks of light. And they were staring intensely down at the konuul.

“Well done. You have come farther than anyone else,” Elzhan said, his voice even more distorted than usual. “Surrender now and go with my respect and admiration.”

Lykou narrowed his eyes and smirked, clenching his fists again. “Nah.”

The revenant glared at him. “...a true warrior’s death it is, then.”

The bones all splintered into sharp fragments and started hurling themselves at the konuul. He ducked and weaved with the amplified grace and agility that he’d displayed before, but even with his enhanced abilities, several managed to leave cuts and scrapes in their path. He managed to ignore the pain, but it made him realize he wasn’t going to be able to win by just relying on raw power that he didn’t even understand. His mind raced as he took in his surroundings while dodging through the grim storm of bones.

After a minute of pelting his opponent, Elzhan brought the fragments back together around his body, which his spirit then returned to, wearing them like a thick suit of armor. A flickering white light manifested around his hand as he knelt down by the box containing the axe. When he touched the top, the lines all lit up and the lid slid open, allowing him to retrieve the axe. The lines on the axe similarly began glowing as he tightened his grip on it.

Kuna began beating on the barrier frantically, desperately calling out to both of them. But Lykou couldn’t hear his words, and the revenant ignored him. He tried using his magic, but again he couldn’t find any plantlife to latch onto. And in any case, he felt like he couldn’t even touch anything beyond the barrier with his mind any more than with his actual hands.

“Consider yourself fortunate. I have not had to use this axe’s actual magic in centuries. You’re the first in generations that will bare witness to its power,” Elzhan declared. “When it strikes you down, your soul will depart from your body before it even hits the ground.”

Lykou seemed to realize the weight of the situation and began backing away as the revenant slowly started to advance on him. But then he got an idea and smirked again. “You know, I didn’t care about it before, but now you’re kinda making me want to give it a try.”

“Forget it. You will never wield it,” the revenant declared, then swung the axe through the air towards him.

Luckily, even though they weren’t actually close to one another, Lykou’s instincts saved him. A nearly invisible blur in the air was projected from the axe in mid-swing and soared right past where his head had been a moment before, then left a thin, clean hole in the wall behind him, all the way on the far side of the courtyard, by the entrance.

“Oh I’m gonna use it alright,” Lykou taunted. “On you.”

Again, the revenant took a swing at him, and he leaped out of the way just barely fast enough to avoid having his arm likely severed. Just then, the bone pieces clustered on his torso unraveled themselves and formed an elongated arm, reaching out to grab the konuul as he was dodging away. It just barely missed him, but then inverted itself to snatch him up in the opposite direction.

“Laughable,” Elzhan retorted. “You aren’t attuned to it.”

“I’ll make it work,” Lykou replied, struggling in the bony grasp.

The revenant just shook his head, then brought the axe down at the konuul again. At just the right moment, Lykou suddenly managed to twist around, lurching the bony limb into the path of the axe’s swing. The blur projected from the blade subsequently not only severed the arm attached to the hand holding him, but the magic holding the fragments together in the first place- for a moment, anyway. Without the magic to bind them together, Lykou quickly broke free and darted off to the side.

It took Elzhan a moment to recollect the bones with his magic, though he continued periodically hurling deadly axe-swings Lykou’s way as he did so. Luckily for the canid, without the bones to worry about, he was able to more easily dodge the nearly-invisible projectiles with his enhanced abilities. Still, he could feel himself starting to wear down, and knew he couldn’t keep at it forever. He tried gathering together whatever strange energy he’d felt before again as he tried circling in on the revenant.

The undead warrior was keeping a close eye on him, however. Suddenly, when Lykou was within a half dozen feet of him, he lashed out with another bony tendril. Halfway to its target, the bones suddenly split up and turned into a cloud of sharp projectiles again. Lykou winced as they stabbed and cut into his flesh. He managed to avoid any serious injuries, but it still left him bleeding and in pain.

He pushed the pain down as he circled around the revenant as fast as he could. He narrowly avoided another pair of ranged attacks from the axe, with one of them shaving a small tuft of hair off of his head. Finally, he caught up to Elzhan and reached out for the hand holding the axe. But with a sudden burst of speed, the revenant instead grabbed him by the throat with his other hand, lifting him up with an immense strength that defied his frail, skeletal appearance. Lykou grunted and gasped as he felt his windpipe being choked off by the bony grip. He frantically grasped at the arm, but it was no use- the revenant was not holding back at all anymore.

“Farewell, Lykou,” Elzhan said as he hefted the axe up in his other hand. “It has been an honor.”

But just as he began swinging the axe, the panicked look on Lykou’s face suddenly vanished. “...likewise,” he choked out. He may have been struggling to breath the air around him, but his soul had been drawing in a deeper breath of sorts. And this time, rather than using it to strike him, he instead pulled him straight out of his body and, with the fastest movement he’d managed yet, twisted around and brought the specter right into the path of his own axe swing.

Again, there was a bright flash of light- albeit without any thunderous sound this time. Everything was deadly still for a moment, with Elzhan’s body frozen in place with the axe seemingly somehow wedged into his very surprised-looking incorporeal form hanging in the air, its lower half still slightly attached to the corpse’s torso. Then the bones whirling around in the air dropped to the ground, the light in the axe faded, and finally his body slumped over, lifeless for the last time. Lykou slowly lost his grip on the revenant’s soul as the last of the strange energy he’d managed to harness left him. The change caused him to stumble back slightly as he felt the weariness begin settling in.

Elzhan’s ghostly form floated slowly down to the ground, where he then stood silently as the aura faded from around him. The claws faded as well as he stared at Lykou with a shocked expression. Gradually, his eyes transformed as well. The voids filled in and the flames vanished, leaving behind normal, even somewhat pretty green eyes. Overall, his form became a lot less intimidating- almost natural, even, other than the semi-translucent appearance, and the large, ornate axe wedged into his chest. After a moment, the axe suddenly fell and clattered to the ground as the apparition started slowly fading from his feet up.

“I…” he said faintly, then slowly smiled as a ghostly tear formed in his eyes. “I… yield.”

“Damn right you do,” Lykou said, panting a bit and rubbing his sore neck. Despite his close brush with death at the hands of the very being he was facing, he couldn’t help but grin. “Told you I’d beat you with it.”

“So you did,” Elzhan replied, then crossed his hand over his chest and gave a small bow. “Thank you.”

“Y-”

Lykou had no time to form a reply, as he was suddenly unceremoniously tackled to the ground by a very distraught sereva that finally no longer had an invisible barrier keeping him away. “HOLYFUCKLYKOUPLEASETELLMEYOU’REOKAY!”

Lykou gasped as he tried to regain his breath. “Gck! Ku, I’m f-fine jus-”

“And YOU!!” Kuna said, whirling around to face the fading specter with an intense, fiery hate in his eyes. “WE HAD A FUCKING DEAL!!”

Elzhan stared at him with wide-eyed surprise, actually somewhat thrown off by the sereva’s intensity. “I…” he started, then hesitated for a moment. Then he sighed and lowered his gaze shamefully, rubbing his arm. “I apologize. You are right, I acted dishonorably. This long undeath has clearly tainted me after all these years.” He glanced back up at Lykou after a moment. “All the better that the axe finally has a new owner.”

“Uh, Ku?” Lykou spoke up, grunting slightly as he tried to sit up with the sereva on top of him. The glow had faded from around him and he was suddenly feeling a lot weaker- not to mention the pain from all the cuts he’d suffered was starting to catch up to him. “Mind uh… scooting back a bit?”

Kuna spun back around and glared at him with his arms crossed. But eventually, his expression softened and he rolled his eyes as he slid off to the side. He tried to mask it with frustration, but his eyes were slightly teary again. “I guess I can’t be too mad under the circumstances, but dammit Lykou,” he grumbled. “I swear you’re trying to worry me to death.”

The konuul frowned and wrapped his arms around him after sitting up. His grip was a bit weak, however, and he felt slightly dizzy. “Hey, c’mon, it worked didn’t it? I had things more in control than it probably looked.”

Kuna side-eyed him for a moment, then sighed and embraced him back. “I know, I know… but I can’t help it,” he replied, then noticed the cuts on his arms. “Uh, need me to patch you up?”

“Um… yeah, that’d be nice actually,” Lykou replied, wincing a bit. “I… don’t think I’ll be going anywhere anytime soon. That… took a lot out of me, to say the least. And now that the… whatever it is, is gone, I’m starting to feel…” he paused to suck air in through his teeth, tensing up a little. “...everything.”

“About that,” Elzhan chimed in. “I must say, I’ve never seen anyone do anything like the things you did. What was all of that? I’ve never seen such magic or skills.”

Kuna shot him another glare. “Shouldn’t you be faded away by now?” he snapped, arching a brow. “You know… from the magic spirit-slaying axe to the chest and all?”

“...I used powerful magic to bind myself here, and I’ve lingered here for centuries. My soul is still tangled up with the weave here,” the revenant replied flatly. His legs had largely faded away, but the rest of him was still floating there. “It’s going to be a few minutes at least before I can actually pass on. Believe me, I’m more than ready to be done with this place now that my duty is done.”

Kuna eyed him for a moment longer, then returned his attention to Lykou with a faint ‘hmph’ and started using his magic to patch up the worst of the canid’s cuts.

“To... answer your question,” Lykou chimed in. “I… really don’t know what it is. It’s just kind of something I instinctively do sometimes without thinking about it. This was the first time I’ve ever been fully conscious of it at the time, and I still couldn’t begin to explain what I was actually doing… or seeing,” he explained, then looked over at his companion. “Ku, it was amazing… I actually felt it this time, and there was more to it.”

“Obviously, given that whole… magic-punch, soul-grabby thing you did,” Kuna responded. “I was trying to sense things a bit more this time, and… I don’t know how to explain it, but I think you were somehow combining your life energy and soul energy into something else.”

“Amazing,” Elzhan commented. “You could do all that, and it was all… instinct?”

“Well yeah, but like I said, somewhat less so this time,” Lykou said, then grinned a little sheepishly. “I uh… had a special potion that helped.”

Elzhan arched a brow. “...the sage?”

Lykou nodded. “She’s also the one that gave us the potion that let us get by the other, uh… ‘guardians’ out there the first time.”

“Oh, yeah… those things won’t be a problem anymore now, right?” Kuna asked, glancing back at the revenant for a moment.

“That’s right. They’re just ordinary bodies now. Nature will… take its course.”

“I’m hoping that means any kind of burial or something isn’t necessary?” Lykou asked, his eye twitching slightly at the thought. “There were… kind of a lot of them.”

“No, their souls have long since passed on.”

Kuna glanced back towards the arch at the back of the courtyard. He frowned, noticing the gate still barring the way to it- and the way the walls had been built up around it, there was no way of climbing over it. “And, uh… what about that?” he said, pointing to it. “Gonna lower that for us while you’re still here?”

Elzhan glanced back at the arch, then shook his head. “I was bound to guard it as part of my duty here, but unfortunately I am not the one that put up that gate. Some of our mystics oversaw its construction even before my time. It should have a key stone somewhere, similar to the one at the new entrance to this place, however.”

“What??” Kuna blurted out in disbelief. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”

Lykou frowned for a moment, then glanced over at the axe. “Hmm…”

“I know what you’re thinking,” the revenant said. “And yes, in theory that might work- but only after you’re well enough attuned to it. And given that those bars are also enchanted, it would take you a while to have that level of mastery over it. I suggest you go speak with Algrytha again, she may have some idea where the key stone resides these days.”

“I sure as fuck hope it’s not in the Wraith’s territory again,” Kuna grumbled, facepalming.

“Possible, but I doubt it. Unlike the other one, he’d have no reason to have it. It would have been taken with the surviving mystics all those years ago, among any other nominally magical items that weren’t the axe.”

“So it’s probably… in a village somewhere outside the Kryck?” Lykou asked, fidgeting a bit from the feeling of the magic being used on his wounds.

“Hey, at least it’s better than somewhere in the Kryck, especially the Wraith’s turf,” Kuna pointed out.

“Either that, or perhaps Algrytha herself somehow came to possess it, although I doubt it,” Elzhan said, then rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Of course… you did say you met a more recent ghost out there, correct?”

“Marja, yeah,” Lykou replied, perking up. “Maybe we could find her again and ask her if she knows anything about it. If nothing else, I’m sure she could give us a better idea where we could start looking.”

“It’s worth a shot,” Kuna agreed with a shrug. “I just hope she’s still… you know, herself.”

“It is unlikely that she would have changed to a great degree in such a short time,” Elzhan pointed out. “Do be careful, however. Once I am fully gone, the magic guarding these ruins against outside spirits will begin to fade as well. And I am sure that Ji-… the thing that Jingrayl has become will sense that something has changed and go investigating.”

“Oh. W-wonderful,” Kuna quipped, his eye twitching as he paused in the healing. “Just the m-monster whose attention we w-wanted.”

“Make sure to keep the axe in hand while you are out there. It cannot fall into his hands- and you can use it to protect you.”

Lykou glanced over at the axe and arched a brow. “I thought I had to be, uh… ‘attuned’ to it first?”

“For most of its powers and to truly wield it effectively, yes,” Elzhan confirmed. “But even without those powers, it is a very high quality weapon. And its latent magic qualities will still have some effect on spirits- just not as potent as they will once you are attuned.”

“That’s… good to know,” Lykou said, eyeing the weapon curiously. Prior to their fight, he hadn’t given the idea that he’d become its new owner much thought, and now he wasn’t quite sure how he felt about it. From the sound of it, the thing brought trouble with it- but at the same time, he could see how it’d be a very useful tool for their journey. “Hmm…”

“Do not fear it,” Elzhan said, seemingly reading his thoughts. “The only thing you need to fear is letting it fall into the wrong hands. As long as it is in your possession, and especially once you begin to attune to it, it will be your greatest tool.”

“Yeah, um… exactly how do I do that, anyway?” Lykou asked.

“Hold it in your hands, meditate, get to know it. It’s not really something that can be explained or taught,” Elzhan responded. “You’ll get a feel for it, though.” He glanced down at the axe, then gestured to it after a moment. “You may as well start now, while you’re recovering. Go on, take it. You’ve earned it, after all.”

Lykou glanced between him and the axe, then at Kuna, who was finishing patching up the last of his most egregious wounds, almost as if asking his permission without saying anything. The sereva looked back up at him after a moment, realizing he was being stared at. “...hmm?”

“Er. Just… didn’t want to throw you off or anything,” Lykou said, then glanced back at the axe again. “And… I dunno…”

“Hey, you heard him, start getting familiar with it,” the sereva said with a shrug, then smirked faintly. “But I swear, if you start getting intimate with the damn thing-”

Lykou snorted and snickered a bit. “What, you gonna get jealous?”

Kuna immediately blushed brightly, then dismissed his magic and gave him a light, playful swat on the side. “Right, the rest can heal naturally for that comment.”

“Ouch, hey!” Lykou whined, though he couldn’t help but continue smirking as he rubbed his side. “What, you gonna just me bleed out?”

“You’re not bleeding anymore,” Kuna retorted with a small eye-roll. But after a moment, he gave in and hugged the konuul again. “Better make sure you don’t go changing that again, though.”

Lykou chuckled, then, reached over slightly awkwardly and pulled the axe over with the sereva clinging to him. “Oof… heavier than it looks.”

“It’ll become lighter once-”

“-once I’m attuned, right?” Lykou cut the revenant off, then grunted as he pulled the thing into his lap and started looking it over. “Yeah, I think I get the idea now. I just hope that doesn’t take too long. I can barely lift it right now.”

Elzhan arched a brow. “I do not understand that… ability you were using, but it seems to have left you quite drained. Your mystical energies are a bit faint. No doubt your strength is reduced compared to normal.”

Kuna nodded a bit. “Seems to happen whenever he uses it. Guess it’s just a tradeoff- a short burst of amazing abilities in exchange for a lot of weakness later. One time he straight-up fainted afterward.”

The revenant stroked his chin slightly, though his arms were looking a bit blurry by that point. “Perhaps, but if you could find someone to teach you more about this power, learning to control it more might leave you less weakened afterward.”

“Well, we’ve been told that we should find someone or something that’ll help with that at some point on our journey,” Lykou said as he ran his hand over the axe, admiring the lines and patterns on its side.

“Mm. I’d have liked to hear more about that, but,” Elzhan said, his voice starting to grow fainter as he glanced down at his fading body. “It seems my time is nearly up.”

Lykou glanced up at him, then over at the battered skeletal remains a short way away. “Should we-?”

Elzhan chuckled slightly and shrugged. “After all this time, that thing has no more importance to me than dirt you’re sitting on. Do with it what you will,” he replied, then appeared to take a deep breath and stared into the distance. “For the first time in centuries, I feel… at peace, yet truly exhausted.”

“Wonderful. I’m so happy for you,” Kuna snarked, clearly still a bit bitter. “Enjoy the afterlife or whatever.”

“Hey, c’mon Ku,” Lykou said, gently squeezing him a little.

“I broke my word to him. I would not forgive me either,” Elzhan said, bowing his head again.

Kuna glanced between the two, then sighed and squeezed the konuul back. “Whatever. Important thing is Kou’s still alive,” he said, then narrowed his eyes at the revenant. “I’ll forgive you only because you’re about to be gone anyway.” After a moment, he glanced around the courtyard, thinking about the ruins they were sitting in, and his expression softened a bit. “...I am glad you’re not stuck here anymore,” he said, then let himself smile faintly. “Go on, join your family on the other side.”

Elzhan slowly smiled back, then nodded slowly as he finished fading away. “...finally…”

Once the specter was gone, Lykou and Kuna sat in silence for a few minutes, with the sereva looking around the courtyard thoughtfully while the konuul contemplated his new magical weapon. Eventually, Kuna turned to look at it as well. “So that’s the thing that all the fuss in this area’s been about all this time, hmm?” he mused aloud. “...have to admit it does look strangely pretty, for a weapon.”

“Yeah,” Lykou agreed, running his fingers over the flat of the blade. Suddenly, his stomach rumbled and he grinned sheepishly at the sereva. “Uh… would you mind grabbing our stuff? I think it’d be good to have some lunch now.”

Kuna chuckled and got to his feet. “Sure. I imagine you must’ve built up quite the appetite,” he said, then glanced over at the gate with a sigh. “And you’ll need at least some of your energy back before we go back out there to find out how to deal with that.”