Mystic Heart Odyssey

Part 6: In the Shadows of Kryckwood

Chapter 13

Looong one this time… and didn’t even finish the arc like I’d hoped! Ah well. Would’ve been nice to wrap the spooky arc up on the thirteenth chapter, but alas, couldn’t quite do it. Hope you enjoy it anyway!

-Llox

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“Do you think it was the weave?” Lykou asked. After he’d ravenously devoured some of his lunch and slowed down a bit, Kuna immediately started in on the questions about his experience. It was just as well- he had plenty himself. They were both ever more fascinated by the konuul’s ability now that they had new elements to add to the puzzle.

“No idea,” Kuna replied, scratching his head thoughtfully. “It certainly sounds like it could be, but that’s just a guess.”

“Maybe we should ask Zen next time we see him. Even if he doesn’t understand it, he obviously at least knows a bit about the weave in general,” the canid suggested. “Maybe he’s even seen glimpses of it. He’s got that weird… vision thing he does.”

“He admitted he doesn’t know anything about that ability of yours, but I suppose it’s worth a try,” Kuna pointed out. “For that matter, Aelana and Daisy might be able to tell us something, too, if we tell them what you experienced.”

“True. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to ask them soon,” Lykou said, then sighed and took a sip from his waterskin.

“I’m starting to think maybe one of us should contact them soon regardless. It’s been a little while,” Kuna mentioned. “Don’t want them to think we’ve forgotten about them or something.”

Lykou folded his ears down and frowned. “Yeah, I do feel bad about that…”

“Hey, I’m sure they’ll understand after they hear about everything we’ve been through these last couple of weeks,” the sereva assured him. He paused to think for a moment as he nibbled on his own lunch. “...you know, even if you were somehow seeing glimpses of the weave, that still leaves a lot else to explain. Like how the heck you were fusing two kinds of energy together, when you normally can’t even sense them, let alone manipulate them.”

“Yeah, and now that it’s passed, I’m right back to not feeling it at all. Believe me, I’ve been trying while I’m eating,” Lykou said. “That feeling was just… kind of indescribable.

Kuna smirked and arched a brow. “Pretty sure meditating and multitasking aren’t compatible. Not exactly the type of thing you do while eating or… anything else for that matter.”

“Hey, you do your magic in all kinds of chaotic situations!”

“Yeah, but that’s only because I’ve practiced with it so much and gotten so used to feeling and grasping those energies now,” Kuna pointed out, then fidgeted uncomfortably. “Plus, y’know… the whole… cracked-soul thing.”

Lykou cringed slightly and nodded. “Right, right…”

“Trust me, when you want to focus on that kind of stuff, you really have to focus,” Kuna continued. “No distractions. When Inkari first started teaching me, I had to try and completely forget the physical world even existed just to start getting a feel for it, and that’s even with my, uh… ‘advantage’.”

Lykou tensed very briefly at the name, but decided not to let himself dwell on it. “Hmm… guessing it’ll be the same for this axe, then,” he said, looking down at the weapon at his side. “Which is a shame, I was hoping I could at least start ‘attuning’ to it right away.”

“You can try, at least,” Kuna said. “I’ll make sure to keep quiet so you can focus if you want.”

“Aw, but I like chatting with you,” Lykou said with a small pout.

Kuna blushed and rolled his eyes with a small grin. “That’s very sweet, but I’m sure we’ll have plenty of other time for that.”

Lykou chuckled a bit and gave him a side-armed hug, which the sereva happily reciprocated. “Yeah, but we can’t just sit here in these ruins forever. We need to get back on our feet soon, and I’ll need to help keep an eye out for trouble while we’re hiking.”

The sereva shrugged. “I guess. I can do a pretty decent job keeping watch on my own, though.”

“Sure, but this is the Kryck we’re talking about,” Lykou reminded him. “Tell you what, I’ll at least look it over while we’re walking. Hey, if nothing else, this’ll be even better for cutting wood than that hatchet we lost.”

Kuna frowned and nodded slightly. “I still hate that we lost that thing. And that spear you had. Damn ghouls…”

“Well, no sense dwelling on the past,” Lykou said with a shrug, then rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a moment. “...you know, if you want a weapon to hold onto, just in case, you can have my knife while we’re hiking.”

“Nah, I’m not great with knives at the best of times,” Kuna said with a slightly awkward smile. “Besides, I think I’ll hang into this stick for a while. I can swat things off with it in a pinch, and otherwise I stick to my magic for that kind of thing anymore anyway.”

“Fair. Sure is a nice one,” Lykou said, looking over the walking stick. It may not have been carved in any way, but the way it’d been shaped definitely more than made up for it. The curved top above the hand-hold almost looked decorative. “Was pretty nice of Algrytha to, uh… I assume grow it for you.”

“Probably,” Kuna agreed. “You know, it’s funny, if I didn’t know any better, I could swear I could still feel faint life energy flowing through it.”

“Maybe there is?” Lykou suggested. “She’s some kind of powerful Sylthean… witch or whatever, and she surrounds herself with weird growy stuff. For all we know it’s still a living plant of some kind.”

Kuna arched a brow and looked over the walking stick. “...yeah I dunno how I feel about that. It’s possible, but if it is, the energy’s so faint I can’t even be sure I’m feeling it. No leaves on it or anything either.”

“Well, that’s one more thing we should ask her about when we see her again,” Lykou said.

“Yeah,” Kuna agreed, then looked up at the sky. All the cloud-cover always made it tricky to figure just how late in the day it was, but he got the impression it was a little past noon. “And on that note, like you said, we should probably get going soon. Unless you want to stay in Algrytha’s home another night before we set out for wherever we have to go next, assuming she doesn’t have the stone.”

“I’d rather not. For one thing, I feel like we’ve already relied on her hospitality and kindness an awful lot,” Lykou said, then finished the last bite of salted, preserved fish. “And for another, if she doesn’t have it herself, the sooner we head out to find it, the better.”

“Yeah… and honestly I’m kind of suspicious now,” the sereva pointed out, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “Why did she leave out the bit about her being the sage that helped Elzhan? Why’d she make it seem like she wasn’t part of the very story she told us?”

“That… is pretty strange,” Lykou admitted, then grunted as he slowly got to his feet. “I have to wonder what else we don’t know…”

“My thoughts exactly,” Kuna agreed, helping him up. “You sure you’re alright to go? We can rest up a little longer if we need to.” He glanced around briefly. “And honestly, as… unpleasant as it is, this area might be one of the safest places to set up camp for the night now, if we had to.”

Lykou arched a brow and looked around. “I’d rather not. I guess it’s worth keeping in mind, but for now I’ll be fine,” he replied, then bent down and started gathering his things up. He let out another brief grunt as he hefted the axe up last and turned it over in his hands a few times. “...yeah, even without the magic, I can see this thing being useful.”

*****

Away from the ruins in her own corner of the Kryck, Algrytha was shuffling around her garden, tending to its various occupants while mumbling and humming to herself. Her cheerful humming and occasional not-quite-singing were at odds with the rather morbid task of feeding stray squirrel carcasses she’d somehow obtained to the toothed flora that Lykou and Kuna were all too familiar with. When she came across the remains of the ones Lykou had ended up cutting down, she shrugged it off and cleaned them up without much thought. When one of the remaining ones hissed at her faintly, she shooed it away dismissively. “Don’t try ta bite off more than ya can chew, then,” she idly chided. “That way ya don’t end up like yer buddies here.”

She finished gathering up the remnants and looked them over for a moment, before musing to herself, “Hmm. I suppose I may as well hang onto these in case them boys come back again. I’m sure they’ll appreciate a good stew after another rough day in the ol’ village.” She paused to chuckle to herself, then absent-mindedly nudged one of the plants with her elbow. “Assumin’ they escape again. Can ya believe they really went back a third time? Wonder if that potion paid off. Wouldn’t that be somethin’? After all these years bein’ stuck-”

Suddenly a large shadow passed over her, and she paused to look just in time to see a large avian visitor perched on her wall, sporting curled horns on its head. She arched a brow and turned to face it fully with her arms crossed after it made an eerie, hollow-sounding hooting noise. “What? Can’tcha see I’m busy? I thought you were s’posed ta be sleepin’ anyway.”

Suddenly an enormous slug-like creature with an equally large maw and two rows of eyes began crawling its way around the corner, dragging itself forward with a pair of broad, webbed claws. When it spotted her, it paused and let out a low groaning, reverberating sound.

Algrytha narrowed her eyes and glanced back and forth between the two visitors. Before she could say anything, a multi-limbed, wormlike monstrosity suddenly burrowed out of the ground right next to her, sporting multiple mouths and jagged claws on the end of each of its dozen or so arms. She nudged it out of her personal space, then looked around at the creatures that’d gathered around her, as well as a few more that started arriving, either climbing over the walls, burrowing up from the ground, or landing from up in the air. Some loud noise signaled the arrival of something that was no doubt making an aggravating mess of her garden elsewhere, and a few moments later, a certain blood-thirsty arboreal menace arrived, peering over one of the walls at her.

She narrowed her eyes. “...right. One’s curious, two’s strange, three’s a mess, more’s a Change. What’s happenin’?”

A creature resembling a cross between a humming bird and an oversized dragonfly, with a scorpion-like tail flew up and landed roughly where her shoulder should be, then leaned in and made a faint whistling sound in the approximate area of where her ears should be. She listened carefully, her eyes gradually widening in the process. Then she slowly grinned. “Well, how d’ya like that. Someone finally went ‘n’ did it.” She turned to look at the creature perched on her. “I take it since yer all here, they’re headin’ this way, yeah?”

One of the creatures warbled at her.

“Good. Wouldn’t want ta have ta send you lot out ta… convince ‘em,” she said, cackling briefly. “Well, guess I better start gettin’ ready. No doubt that other old fool’s runnin’ out ta meet ‘em. About time. I been waitin’ on this harvest way too damn long.”

She looked around her garden, at the various terrors that now lurked around it, watching her intently. “Right. You know what this means,” she said, then pointed at a vaguely bipedal creature seemingly made of twisted, rotten wood covered in vines and large eyes. “You. With me to my house.” She looked around at the others, then waved them off. “Rest of ya know what ta do. Make sure they succeed. Remember, the boy with the axe has ta finish Jingrayl. The rest’a the pests are fair game.” She paused and thought for a moment, then rolled her eyes. “’n’ I s’pose ya may as well keep the other one alive, too. Used some good ingredients to keep ‘im breathin’, no use lettin’ ‘em go ta waste.”

“Yeah, after sendin’ that sorcerous shit-muncher to rob us!” a certain nasty little imp cried out, nudging its way to the front of the gathered monsters. “Ya coulda just asked us directly!”

“I didn’t feel like walkin’ out there. ‘sides, you were gettin’ too cozy without visitors, so I figured I’d send ya one. Made fer a fun story,” Algryth retorted, then snickered. She looked back around at all the others, then cracked her knuckles. “Now go on, git. Run amuck, ‘n’ have fun with it! Let that fool know he was never as in control as he thought,” she shooed them off, then trudged towards her house with a dark grin. “Time at last fer ol’ Dark Aggy ta pull up ‘er roots again.”

*****

“I wonder if it’ll help if I try cutting some wood with it,” Lykou mused aloud as he and Kuna trudged through the woods.

The sereva just rolled his eyes a bit and smirked faintly. “Still not quite grasping this whole ‘meditation’ thing are you?”

“Hey, it’s just not something I used to,” the konuul replied faux-defensively. “Not my fault I don’t have proper ‘mystical training’ like you do.”

“What, you want Ink to train you now too?” Kuna teased.

The canid bristled and frowned at the comment. “Only if I can use her for chopping practice.”

Kuna snorted and snickered a bit in response. “Doesn’t sound like a very ‘honorable warrior’ response, you know.”

“Don’t care,” the konuul grumbled. “Maybe I can ‘convince’ her to take us home with this thing.”

“Easy, Kou,” Kuna replied, a little concerned about the sudden tone shift. “I get it, believe me. What she’s put us through… well, I have no words for it. But uh,” he said, then gestured to the axe. “That thing’s sensitive to your attitude, remember? Don’t want to get obsessed with revenge or something.”

Lykou looked sidelong at the sereva, then sighed. “...I know. I won’t. Just...”

Kuna gently wrapped an arm around him. “Yeah, I know.”

“I hate her so much, Ku,” the canid said after a minute, returning the side-hug. “I know there’s supposedly some… ‘greater good’ angle to it and I don’t regret helping the people we’ve come across, but it’s just… not fair, you know?”

“It isn’t. You know I’m completely with you there,” Kuna agreed. “Just… try not to let your resentment overwhelm you.” He gave the konuul a gentle squeeze. “You’re a sweet guy. I’d hate to see you eaten up by negative thoughts.” He smirked. “Leave that shit to me. I’m the experienced expert, afterall,” he joked with a wink.

Lykou smiled faintly. “...hey, you can’t hog it all the time,” he retorted, then chuckled. “But point taken. It’s probably better if we both try to stay positive.”

The conversation fell into a lull as they continued onward. But it was a comfortable enough silence, as Lykou looked over the axe while Kuna kept an eye out for trouble, both physically and mystically. Soon, however, they both started to feel uneasy. The air started to turn chillier, despite the breeze coming to a complete standstill. And whereas they’d previously been startled by the odd dark squirrel darting among the trees or creaking branches overhead, there suddenly wasn’t a sign of movement anywhere as far as the eye could see. The odd plants of the Kryck seemed to be actively wilting as they passed by.

Suddenly, they came to a stop when they noticed something floating down from the sky. At first they thought it might be snow- which was odd. It was chilly, but not nearly cold enough for that. Then Kuna reached out to collect some in his hand, and then immediately tensed up when it didn’t melt. “...ash,” he said in a hushed tone, clearly frightened.

They shared a knowing look, then Lykou tightened the grip on his axe. “Fuck.”

“Y-yeah,” the sereva agreed.

They noticed that the fog in the distance, so common in Kryckwood, had grown denser and darker. The sky overhead was growing darker as well. Lykou gulped. “...get that crystal from Whironui out. I… think we’re going to need it.”

Kuna nodded and nervously dug into his bag to pull his beacon of light out. “Shouldn’t you do the s-same?”

Lykou thought for a moment, then shook his head. “I… think I should keep both hands on the axe,” he said, then looked over at the sereva and took a deep breath. “If… if you-know-who shows up, just keep shining it at him. I’ll try using this thing on him whenever he gets too close, and take out any ghouls that get too close, too.”

The sereva nodded again, then gulped. “Are… are you sure you have enough energy for that?”

Lykou looked around warily. “...much as I hate to admit it, let’s just say we should keep trying to get to Algrytha’s as soon as possible,” he pointed out as he resumed walking, with the sereva joining him. “I’d love to take that bastard out, but as it is, I think a couple ghouls alone are going to be a challenge. This is gonna be all about just surviving...”

“R-right… don’t forget to use y-your bracers if it comes to it,” Kuna pointed out nervously.

Lykou thought for a moment and shrugged. “I… guess,” he said, then glanced over at his companion briefly. “I don’t know if I can even do it again right now, but I think those things interfere with my… whatever that power of mine is.”

“Really?” Kuna asked, arching a brow. “So that’s why you undid them in that fight?”

The konuul nodded. “Seems to, uh… block something.”

Kuna thought for a moment, and was about to respond, but the words died in his throat when he noticed everything suddenly and rapidly darkening around them. His eyes widened and he started to shake as he recognized the unforgettable greyscale effect starting to rapidly cover the world around them. “...f-fuck, I think he’s coming…”

Lykou quickly nodded. “B-brace yourself-”

Suddenly, they stopped again when they felt a presence approaching them. As the shadows surrounded them, a familiar pair of enormous, glowing eyes lit up in the darkness, following by a matching sneer. “Well well well, if it isn’t the two little-” the familiar monstrous voice began, then abruptly stopped as the eyes fell on the axe. They widened in disbelief and the face drifted uncomfortably close. “WHAT?!”

Kuna, initially paralyzed by terror, snapped out of it and clenched his eyes shut as he gripped the crystal in his hand tightly and raised it up, trying to focus on the mental image of the sun high in the sky. It immediately lit up, causing the Wraith to recoil and hiss at the light.

“DAMN your little trinket!” the ghastly entity snapped, backing away. It then glared down at Lykou. “How… HOW did you get that?!”

“N-none of your damn business!” Lykou retorted. “Back off or I’ll start practicing on your ass with it!”

The Wraith hissed some more and narrowed its eyes. “In all these centuries, none of have defeated Elzhan. How have you succeeded where all others fell??”

“Like I said, n-none of your damn-”

“Wait,” Kuna suddenly interjected, his fear momentarily interrupted by confusion. “How… how do you know that name?”

Lykou shot him a sidelong confused expression, but then it slowly dawned on him. “...wait, yeah… I… thought you lost your memories?”

Jingrayl rolled his eyes slightly. “I may have shed the pitiful trappings of the natural order, but there’s no reason to shed my memories. What gave you such a stupid idea?”

Lykou and Kuna shared a bewildered look. “...you… remember everything?”

“W-we thought that w-was part of becoming a w-w-wraith?”

“No, that’s the fate of a lesser wretch, like… well, them,” the Wraith retorted, gesturing with a large shadowy claw behind them.

Lykou and Kuna spun around and stumbled over backwards as they spotted a cluster of ghouls slowly stalking up to them.

“Only those with a strong enough will and ambition can successfully align with the forces of chaos,” Jingrayl continued, hovering over them menacingly. He immediately winced and backed off again when the sereva shined the crystal up at him again. “Damn you!” he cried out swiping at the air in front of him for a moment. “Ugh… yes, my memories are just fine, thank you. In fact, I remember more than you’ll ever know! You think I’m some mindless fool like them?? Where did you get such foolish ideas?”

“Uh… Al… Algrytha?” Lykou hazarded, looking confused. “I’m… starting to guess she may not have b-”

“WHAT?!” the Wraith blurted out, enraged. “THAT wretch?! Of course… I might’ve known she’d have a hand in all this!” He narrowed his eyes and glared at the axe for a moment. “Let me guess, she helped you get your hands on that thing somehow too, didn’t she?”

“Uh… y-yes?”

Kuna winced and nudged the konuul, then shook his head subtly.

“Er, I mean…”

“You fools, you’re playing right into her hands!” Jingrayl snapped. “She’s a manipulator, a schemer… she never helps anyone unless it works for her own goals!” He snarled. “No matter… with the axe, I’ll finally be able to deal with her once and for all! Give it here and I’ll make your end quick!” He grinned. “Who knows? You were strong enough to beat that self-righteous idiot back there, you might just have what it takes to join me and rule over-”

“Yeah, no,” Lykou interrupted, lifting the axe threateningly in both hands. “Not happening.”

“Why you little-!” the wraith angrily growled, lunging at him. But then he winced and recoiled with a growl yet again as Kuna raised the shining crystal towards right in his face. “I… will not… fail… AGAIN!” he snarled, then surged forward through the light as it visibly boiled away at his shadowy form, smacking the sereva aside.

Kuna yelped as he was knocked to the ground, scrabbling to grab the crystal as it fell a few feet away and lost its light.

“KU!” Lykou called out, then turned to the Wraith just in time to block his claws with the axe. His eyes burned with hatred and rage. “...don’t… you dare… lay your FUCKING claws on him!” Suddenly, he felt an intense burning sensation boil up from inside him. The axe briefly shimmered with a red glow along the edge of its blade as he hauled back and swung it with a primal fury, immediately severing a few fingers from the Wraith’s hand.

Yet again, Jingrayl drew back, even further this time, and let out a loud half hiss, half snarl of anger, and pain. “You’ll pay for that!” he snapped, then lunged forward and clawed at the konuul again, his claws sparking against the axe. “GET THEM!”

The ghouls suddenly lunged forward towards Lykou and Kuna. Luckily, Kuna had recovered from being knocked down and raised the crystal with new light. The ghouls stumbled and fell over one another as they winced and hissed against the glow, clawing at the air at their attempt to get past it. Still, despite the protective light, they kept getting dangerously close as they surrounded the two.

Lykou did his best to chop off any clawed limbs that got too close, but between the ghouls and the aggressive, determined Wraith lashing out at them, it wasn’t looking good. Try as he might, despite his burning desire to protect not only himself, but also his dear friend, he was still drained from his fight with Elzhan. He and Kuna pressed themselves together and did their best to keep the encroaching undead at bay. As much as they tried to reassure one another, they couldn’t deny that the situation looked dire, as the ghouls and the Wraith managed to keep getting closer with every swipe of their claws, despite the divine light and Lykou’s vicious swipes with the axe.

Suddenly, it all changed when… something huge barreled out of the woods and chomped down on two of the ghouls at once, then swallowed them up whole. A moment later, an enormous owl-like creature with horns swooped down from the darkened sky and began mauling another ghoul. A fourth ghoul was tossed up into the air as an enormous worm-like creature burst out of the ground underneath it, then snatched it out of the air and began tearing it apart with its numerous clawed limbs as it thrashed and struggled in its clutches.

Lykou and Kuna gawked at the bizarre sight of arguably even more nightmarish-looking monsters than the undead they were facing began showing up and ripping their enemies apart for them. Some of them turned to lash out at the Wraith as well, managing to slowly drive him back even as he repeatedly eviscerated them with his own massive claws. Lykou raised his axe to cut down a ghoul that was charging at them, only for an all-too-familiar kind of tree monster to barrel out of nowhere and snatch the walking corpse up in its clutches, then begin devouring it with an ferocious hunger.

“What the…??” Lykou said, watching the scene unfold around them with confusion.

Kuna’s eye twitched. “I… I’ll s-second that…”

Jingrayl looked around in angry disbelief, then snarled. “So the old forest has gotten uppity, huh?” he shouted in the distance, then slashed his claws through the air, immediately leaving huge, glowing-orange gashes in several of the monsters that had arrived, killing them on the spot. “Need I remind you who’s in charge of this forest?!”

The gathered monsters shied away from the shadowy menace a bit, but continued their war on the ghouls that were clawing their way through the forest in ever-growing numbers. Deranged ghosts began flooding in and squabbling over the bodies of the fallen monsters, making them jerk around awkwardly as they began to rise up from the ground. Lykou and Kuna continued to watch in stunned silence for a moment. Then a weird, disturbing bug landed on the konuul, making him yelp and thrash in a mild panic- until it started speaking to him in an airy, high-pitched voice. “Slay the abomination, free the wood… slay the abomination… free the wood!”

His jaw hung open for a moment, until the strange creature took off and started floating away again on its many wings, staring at him and continuing to repeat the phrase as it left. “Slay... the abomination… free… the wood….!”

Kuna looked around at the chaos surrounding them as he hovered close to the canid. “...could s-stand to be m-more specific there…”

“Pretty sure it means the Wraith,” Lykou replied, then swung the axe at a shambling mess of undead flesh that’d started getting a little too close.

“Well yeah,” Kuna agreed, then eyed the looming shadowy menace that was busy swatting off a dozen or so giant insectoid nightmares. “But… even ignoring the f-fact that you’re not attuned to that thing y-yet, there’s n-no way you can safely get close e-enough to use it!”

“...yeah, doesn’t look like it,” Lykou said after a minute. “He’s way too dangerous even on his own, and even if these… things look like they’re on our side right now, we can’t be sure about that and I don’t want to find out otherwise the hard way.”

Kuna nodded, shivering nervously as he continued shining the glowing crystal towards anything that got too close. Much to his chagrin, the non-undead monsters didn’t seem particularly bothered by it. Fortunately, even if some occasionally got too close for comfort, they didn’t seem interested in either of the boys. “M-maybe we should use this a-as a chance to get away…”

Lykou frowned and shot a glare over at the raging Wraith for a moment, then sighed. “...as much as I wish we could end that guy once and for all… yeah, we probably should.” He looked around until he found what looked like the safest path away, then gestured towards it with his head and started leading the way. “C’mon, I’ll lead, you cover us from behind.”

“S-sure… the quicker the-” Kuna began to reply, then yelped and instinctively smacked a crawling half-torso that snuck up on them and grabbed his ankle with his walking stick. Its grip loosened, but didn’t release him until Lykou’s axe finished the ghoul off a moment later. “-better.”

They slowly started making their away from the fray. Most of the slavering, blood-thirsty ghouls were held off by the glowing crystal or threatening swings of the axe. One particularly persistent one, however, managed to get closer and lash out at the canid. Fortunately, the claws caught the armored part of his shirt, and he immediately retaliated with the axe. For a brief moment, he thought he caught a glimpse of a faint shimmer along the edge of the blade before it made impact. The strike ended up cutting straight through the ghoul’s torso, slicing it in half. At the same instant, he saw the ghost reeling as it immediately left the bisected body. Its own torso seemed to have a fresh gash in it as well. For a brief moment, the two stared at one another. The wild, deranged look in the ghost’s eyes suddenly started fading into confusion, then recognition, as the rest of its body began disappearing as well. Just before it vanished completely, Lykou thought he saw a hint of a tear form in the ghostly stranger’s eye, accompanied by a faint hint of a smile.

Kuna was too busy watching their backs to notice much about the encounter, as a few others were stalking behind them intently, yet unable to bring themselves to get any closer to the light. But eventually the prolonged stop made him start to worry, so he looked to see what the hold up was. All he saw was two halves of a corpse laying on the ground in front of Lykou, which made him wretch slightly. He turned to look up at Lykou after recomposing himself, noting the thoughtful expression on his friend’s face. “Uh… Kou? W-why are we still stopped?”

“...the axe can… free them,” Lykou murmured, looking over the weapon in his hands. After a moment, he turned to looked back at the sereva. “After… after I cut that one down, it… the ghost, it… they kind of looked normal right before they disappeared. I… I think I sent it to the afterlife or something.”

Kuna blinked a few times, then widened his eyes. “Well that’s c-certainly… good to know. Elzhan did s-say it had some abilities even w-without being attuned.”

“You know what this means, don’t you?” Lykou asked, looking around at the various dead things waging a battle with the most unnerving creatures he’d ever seen, aside from some of the denizens of T’nari’s realm. “I… I could free them, even without taking out the Wraith.”

The sereva eyed the battle nervously, then yelped and swatted away another approaching ghoul with his stick before holding the crystal up in front of him like a shield. Lykou whirled around and dispatched it a moment later, causing its ghost to momentarily come to its senses before fading away as well. Kuna had to admit he could see where the konuul was coming from. But still, that was a tall order. “W-well… yeah, I guess. But… there’s s-so many, and-”

“I have to at least try. At least for some of them,” Lykou said, tightening his grip on the axe. “If nothing else, maybe we can find Marja again and keep her from becoming one of these things.”

Kuna frowned. “I… guess? But- gah!” he started, then ducked as a severed limb from one of the grotesque monsters battling the ghouls went flying past, narrowly missing his head. “-that’s assuming w-we can even find her. And it f-feels wrong to help her by a-attacking her, especially if she’s s-still, y’know, s-sane.”

“Well, it’s bet-”

“I’ll fucking take it,” a slightly familiar voice interrupted, startling them. They both looked over to see a certain ghost they’d seen before starting to manifest in the air a few yards away. She was looking around with a bewildered and mildly frightened expression. “If it gets me out of all this shit, by all means bury that thing in my damn face if you have to.” She turned to face them with wide eyes. “But damn, you actually went and did it. I’d say congrats, but it looks like it unleashed a whole new hell on this place, somehow.”

“Yeah, it’s… kind of a complicated story and we’re not even sure what the truth is anymore,” Lykou explained, then quickly fended off another ghoul as it tried to tackle him. Marja watched its ghost fade away with a mixture of apprehension and strange desire.

“Wow… that thing really works,” the ghost mused. “Guess the legends were true after all.” She looked over at the rampaging Wraith as he slaughtered monster after monster. Somehow, there seemed to be no end to either the undead or the nightmare-beasts. “You, uh… gonna try to take him out? Looks like the forest is trying to help you, somehow.”

“Are you kidding??” Kuna retorted, staring wide-eyed at the Wraith. “L-look what he’s capable of! We couldn’t even get close w-without risking what these… c-creatures are getting done to them!”

“Well, I mean… if you beat the revenant, you must be pretty damn good,” Marja pointed out. “Certainly better than a bunch of wild animals, even Kryckwood ones.”

“I uh… m-may have had some help from a potion that’s since worn off,” Lykou replied with a sheepish grin.

“Oh? Potion, huh? From the witch?” the ghost asked curiously. “What kind?”

“It helped him use some w-weird power he’s got that he n-normally only sometimes uses instinctively and otherwise can’t r-really control,” Kuna explained. “It’s… pretty a-amazing when he does it.”

“Yeah, it was the first time I was actually conscious of using it,” Lykou said, then ducked as a flying monstrosity zipped past. “Wish I had another one of those potions, but I used it all for that fight. Still kind of worn out from it, too.”

“Damn, that sucks,” Marja said, then shivered as another monster stumbled through her. “Hey watch it, dumbass! Eugh,” she complained, then rubbed her arms a bit. “You’d think I’d be used to these things by now…”

“The f-fact that you aren’t is probably a good s-sign,” Kuna said.

“True, true,” Marja agreed. “So you don’t have any other potions that might help?”

“Not real- WAIT!” Lykou blurted out, then turned to his companion. “Ku! The draught of the dead stuff! It might trick them!”

Kuna arched a brow. “I dunno, I-I think that only w-worked because of the s-specific magic Elzhan used on those corpses…”

“Hey, it’s worth a shot,” Lykou said. “Think you can dig them out real quick?”

The sereva looked around nervously. “Uhh… I w-won’t be able to hold the crystal up then,” he warned.

“Don’t worry, I can fight off anything that gets too close,” Lykou assured him, then looked over at the friendly ghost again and arched a brow. “Actually… kind of surprised it isn’t bothering you.”

Marja eyed the glowing gem for a moment, then shrugged. “It definitely gives me kind of a weird feeling, but I guess I’m still ‘normal’ enough that it doesn’t hurt. What is it, exactly?”

“A gift from a god,” Lykou answered nonchalantly with a grin. “No biggie.”

The ghost blinked a few times and stared at him in disbelief. “...man, you two are really something else.”

Kuna sighed and knelt down to dig around in his bag. The lowered light led to one opportunistic ghoul charging at them, but Lykou quickly disposed of it by beheading it with a quick swipe of his axe.

“So… what’s this other potion do, anyway?” Marja asked. “’draught of the dead’ is kind of a weird name.”

“Well, it kinda makes us look sickly and stuff, and apparently it can trick certain things into treating us like we’re dead, too,” Lykou explained, then grunted as he fought off another shambling corpse. “We used it to get past the undead things outside the ruins the first time, but they were apparently just moved around by magic, not ghosts.”

“Huh… wouldn’t have thought of that,” she said, rubbing her chin. Suddenly she spotted something out of the corner of her eye and became enraged. “HEY! That’s fucking MINE!”

Lykou looked over and suddenly saw a fresher, more familiar looking corpse shambling awkwardly towards them. Marja swooped over and started trying to tug the ghost animating her old body out. The ghost inside was clearly fighting back, struggling to hold onto its find while also trying to reach Lykou to sate its insatiable hunger on his flesh. “Get OUT! That doesn’t -ngh- belong to you, asshole!”

The sight was both disturbing and, much to Lykou’s surprise, mildly amusing in a twisted sort of way. “Hang on, Marja. Let him get closer and I’ll knock him out for ya.”

The friendly ghost reluctantly pulled back after a moment, giving him a nervous look. “Ugh, just… try to make it, I dunno, clean, alright?”

Lykou shot her a dubious look, then shrugged and waited for the clumsy new zombie to approach. When it was within reach, he swiftly planted the axe squarely in the body’s lower torso. The ghost inside immediately evacuated the corpse and stumbled around before seeming to come to its senses. They looked down at the body they’d just left as they began to fade away, then over at Marja as the crazy look started leaving their eyes.

“I… th-that was… oh,” the new specter said faintly. “...s-sorry, I didn’t-”

Marja rolled her eyes a bit and shrugged. “Whatever,” she replied as the other ghost finished disappearing.

“H-here they are,” Kuna announced as he stood back up and passed one of the vials to Lykou. “Y-you sure this is a good idea?”

“Like I said, it’s worth a shot,” the konuul announced as he took the vial and opened it, then tipped the contents into his mouth. Kuna followed suit after him and they both waited. After a moment, the changes began to take effect, and they both shuddered slightly at the odd feeling.

Marja stared at them with a strange expression. “I… you-… what’s with-” she stammered, then rubbed her eyes and tilted her head at them. “...oh fuck ME that’s weird.”

“Heh, it feels weird,” Lykou said. “Definitely not something I would want to have to use often.”

“I dunno, it feels kind of… weirdly relaxing, in a way,” Kuna said, his jitters fading notably as the potion took effect. “You don’t feel as… well, anything, as you normally do.”

“And it’s really messing with my head trying to look at you two right now,” Marja said, rubbing her head as she continued to give them a weird look. “I can see why it’s useful for you guys.”

The three of them looked around and noticed the ghouls suddenly seemed to lose interest in them, other than one or two close ones, that stopped their approach and were instead shuffling around, eyeing them suspiciously.

“Hey, I think it’s working!” Lykou said with a grin.

“No shit,” Marja retorted. “I still have my wits and even I don’t know what to make of you two right now.” She shook her head after a moment, trying to shake off the weird feeling. “So, uh… you going to try to take out the big guy now?”

“...that still seems too dangerous,” Kuna said, shooting Lykou a nervous look.

Lykou glanced back and forth between him and the Wraith. “...I dunno, he has a point,” he replied to the ghost. “But I can at least try and free as many souls as I can before we leave.” He turned back to the ghost and gestured with the axe. “Uh… starting with you, if you want.”

Marja eyed the axe, then her body, then the Wraith in the distance. “...yeah, but… tell you what,” she said, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. “What if I… helped you two first?”

Kuna gave her a surprised look. “Huh? Really? How?”

“Welllll…” Marja began, then trailed off for a moment as she tried to think it through. “...eh, I guess I could help distract him or something? Most of the mindless ghouls around here treat him like some kind of god or something, so he’d probably be pretty thrown off by one attacking him.”

“Uhh, you mean…” Lykou said, glancing down at her body briefly, then back up at her. “You… sure that’s a good idea?”

“Hey, I want to keep any other-” she began, then stopped to snag another ghost that suddenly barreled past her to try and grab her body. “ASSSHOLES from taking -ngh- my body for a walk! Get away from that, you!”

Lykou hefted the axe and stepped forward. “Let ‘em go, I got it.”

After a brief hesitation, Marja released the thrashing, gibbering ghost’s hand, letting it surge towards the body. Just as it was almost within reach, Lykou swung the axe straight through it, leaving a glowing trail temporarily in its head. The struck specter stumbled around in confusion, then started to fade away as it came to its senses.

“Thanks,” Marja said.

“No problem,” the konuul responded. “But are you sure it’s a good idea to uh… do that? Might start to lose it a bit yourself once you… go back in there.”

“That’s basically how hungry ghosts get started, isn’t it?” Kuna pointed out.

Marja eyed the corpse uncomfortably. “...I’m definitely not thrilled with the idea, but if it’ll help give you two an edge that you could use to kick that bastard’s ass, it’s worth it.” She shrugged. “And hey, if I do start to go all crazy with it, just do your thing like you were planning to eventually anyway. Win-win.”

“I… guess,” Lykou said. “Ku’s right though, the idea of using this on someone as nice as you feels weird, to say the least.”

“Heh… ‘nice’, that’s… not a word I’ve heard said about me much,” Marja said, then looked around. “Although I guess if you’re just comparing me to the locals…”

“Well you certainly seem nice. It’s a shame we couldn’t meet when you were alive,” Lykou said, frowning.

She shrugged. “Trust me, I wasn’t this sociable then. I was a prickly loser with trust issues. Being dead was honestly kind of a relief until I found out I was stuck here like this.”

Kuna couldn’t help but smirk faintly, even under the effects of the potion. “Gee, that sounds familiar,” he remarked, then nudged the konuul lightly. “Ever met anyone like that?”

Lykou smirked back at him. “...once upon a time, maybe. Not a loser, though.”

“Oh come on, I didn’t even know how to start a fire,” the sereva said, then chuckled slightly as he turned back to Marja. “Trust me, this fluffball has a way of bringing the best out in people.”

“Well this is all lovely and whatnot,” Marja retorted as a dozen smaller ten-legged monstrosities suddenly stampeded between them, briefly startling Lykou and Kuna and causing them to stumble backwards. “But in case you forgot, we’re still in the middle of a battlefield of nightmares.”

“R-right,” Kuna said, grabbing his walking stick to steady himself. The whole situation was beyond surreal- he had to keep reminding himself it wasn’t just some wild dream threatening to turn into a nightmare at any moment. “Good point.”

“At least nothing’s paying us much attention now,” Lykou pointed out. He then looked over at the Wraith and narrowed his eyes. “...alright, I say we do it. You two keep him distracted while I try to take him out.”

The sereva sighed and glanced between his companion and their ghost-friend for a moment. “...well, at least if we fail, we’ll die together.”

Marja couldn’t help but grin a bit. “I like your optimism.” She then looked down at her body and stepped closer to it with a more uncertain expression. “W-well… here goes.” She nervously knelt down and started to fade from sight. A few moments later, the body started to twitch and move around eerily, then finally sat up, with Lykou and Kuna watching uncertainly.

Finally, the eyes shot open and the corpse let out a long, raspy croaking sound, then it shuddered and made a very awkward expression. “Fffuuuuccck me thish feelsh… weird,” she managed to say with what was clearly some strange combination of her ethereal, ghostly voice and a very rough, forced earthly voice from trying (and mostly failing) to make her body talk like normal. Even if her body was comparably in much better shape than most of the others around, certain things clearly weren’t functioning the same even with her spirit trying to forcibly animate it. Somewhat clumsily, she tried to get to her feet, wavering around a bit as she did so. She shot the boys a look. “I… cantshee ‘ow othersh puh up with thith.”

“Probably takes… practice?” Kuna suggested uncomfortably. “Can you, uh… walk?”

Marja looked around a bit and tried taking a few experimental steps. At first, she nearly fell over. But after a few moments, she seemed to more or less get the hang of it, though it was clearly still awkward. “I… thinnnk ahm goob. Goob. Nngh... GOOD,” she groaned, then pointed towards the middle of the fray. “Letsh go!”

Lykou nodded and checked on Kuna. “Ready?”

“No, but let’s go anyway,” the sereva replied, taking a deep breath to steel himself. He did at least appreciate that the potion was muting his fears a bit. He looked down at the crystal in his hand for a moment, then tucked it away. When his companion gave him a questioning look, he shrugged. “No need to draw attention before we’re close, you know? Will throw him off more if I pull it out suddenly right in front of him.”

Lykou nodded. “Good idea. Let’s try to blend in as much as we can, as long as we can,” he said, then looked down at the axe for a moment. “...can’t exactly hide this much, though.”

Kuna thought for a moment, then knelt down to dig through his bag again. “Hang on, got an idea,” he said. After a rummaging through his things, he pulled out and unrolled his beat up old makeshift poncho. “Use this to cover it up. S’fine if you tear it a bit.”

The canid looked it over for a moment, then slipped it on awkwardly. It did tear a little bit, but, more importantly, it was long enough to conceal the axe as long as he held it the right way. “Good thinking,” he said, then nodded towards the Wraith. Marja was already a good bit ahead of them, but at her slow pace, they’d overtake her in no time, so it was probably good that she’d gotten a long head start. “Right… let’s do this.”

Both of them started shuffling forward, doing their best to take slow, steady steps and avoid drawing attention as they stalked through the bizarre battlefield of monsters fighting monsters. Kuna dragged his walking stick at first, but then lifted it off the ground a bit in an effort to make less attention-grabbing sound. A few of the hideous monsters fighting the ghouls paused to stare them down, making them nervous. Fortunately, the other actual ghouls were still keeping them occupied, so they ended up ignoring them. It was a slow and nerve-wracking walk, and got even more harrowing as they approached the center of the chaos.

When they got close enough, Marja looked over at Lykou and gestured awkwardly to get his attention. When she had it, she nodded at him, then over to one side of the embattled wraith, then to the other. Lykou nodded in response and started slipping around to the one side while she moved over to the other, while Kuna braced himself and prepared to jump in at a moment’s notice.

The sereva watched nervously as the other two carefully moved around under the thrashing claws of their enemy, who was too distracted by relentless monstrosities assaulting from all directions. It occurred to him that it almost looked like the forest beasts themselves were also simply trying to keep him distracted, though it was hard to be sure. He could only imagine how terrifying some of them would be to end up on the wrong side of, given how some of them didn’t even seem to die right away from what at least looked like horrifyingly lethal wounds. Some started visibly regenerating lost limbs after a few moments. The claws, teeth, stingers, and other strange appendages were also as nightmare-inducing as they were numerous. Any more mundane foe would have been no match for even one or two of the things, but the Wraith’s claws, frequently brimming with red-orange energy whenever it struck one of them, were the nastiest of all.

Finally, when she was close enough and in position, Marja suddenly, if clumsily, charged at him. Much to her chagrin, she didn’t contact anything very solid when she tried to bite and awkwardly claw at the Wraith’s shadowy body. It wasn’t quite nothing, but it was like trying to bite onto an especially dense, almost liquid fog. Still, it got his attention.

Jingrayl looked down with a confused expression at the unusually-fresh zombie flailing around fecklessly at his lower body. “What the…?” he said, swatting away one of the wretched wood monsters absent-mindedly as it started charging at him. He then plucked her up in one of his clawed hands to look her over. “Are you just dumber than the others, or what?”

Then, Lykou struck. He leaped at the Wraith’s turned back and swung the axe with all his might. Unlike Marja’s attack, this one had a more solid impact- like a hot knife through butter. The immediately dropped the zombie girl and roared in a mixture of pain in anger as a deep red line appeared down his back. He immediately spun around to face the konuul with a hateful glare. “YOU LITTLE-!” he shouted as he took a swipe at the canid, which Lykpou parried with the axe.

Kuna charged up as the two traded barbs. When he got close enough, he started focusing on the mental image of the sun again, then jumped between them and raised the crystal right in Jingrayl’s face, causing him to hiss and flail around aimlessly. Lykou took the opportunity to strike again, after first parrying a few swipes that got a little too close to both him and the sereva.

The Wraith shrieked again as the axe left another deep red wound on his shadowy form. More of the forest’s monstrosity’s joined in, stinging, slashing, and biting at his semi-corporeal body alongside the awkwardly flailing Marja. By that point, she was practically buried inside of him and surrounded by darkness. Not that she cared- she was already dead, anyway. But all the attacks only proved to annoy him, since only the axe had any real effect.

Jingrayl snarled, then lashed out with a particularly forceful swing as the glow in his eyes intensified. Lykou tried to parry it, but ended up getting knocked back, tumbling several yards away. Kuna intervened again with the crystal just as he was rearing back to try and land a killer blow. The distraction gave Lykou enough time to get back to his feet. But just as he was about to charge back up, Jingrayl angrily lashed out at Kuna, slapping him aside much harder than before. The sereva went tumbling over a dozen yards away, yelping as he finally landed and dropped the crystal.

Lykou was overcome with rage as he held the axe tightly in his hands. But then he caught himself and tried to remember what it was like under the effects of the potion, when he’d been conscious of his strange ability. The Wraith was preparing to strike again, but fortunately several large beasts managed to briefly get in the way and stall him. And although clearly in pain, Kuna was slowly starting to get back up with the help of his walking stick.

Lykou took a long, slow breath to calm himself and focus. He still couldn’t feel the weird energy he felt before, so instead he just focused on his breathing. Then, finally, he felt it at the edge of his consciousness- a glimmer. It wasn’t even a tiny fragment of what he felt before, but it was something. So he took another breath and stared the Wraith down, trying to watch for patterns in the movement all around him.

Finally, he went for it. He charged forward with all his might and leapt into the air right at the Wraith’s face. Jingrayl looked up just in time to see the axe coming down towards his eye. At the last moment, as he frantically tried to reach up and block the canid, a shimmering white light appeared on the axe’s edge. It flickered along the lines on its side and seemingly right into the konuul’s hand before vanishing in the blink of an eye.

The impact was profound. When the axe struck the Wraith’s eye, there was a burst of light and a crackling sound as dozens of cracks began forming and spreading through his body. Lykou, somewhat disorientingly, fell into the flailing darkness of the Wraith’s body. For a brief moment, when he landed, he was in a very frightening situation where he couldn’t see anything, yet could feel a dozen… things thrashing around nearby. But soon, the darkness began shrinking away and dissipating as a deafening roar filled the air.

He stumbled out of the shrinking darkness as the various monsters all around him suddenly turned and began fleeing in all directions, alongside whatever ghouls remained. Kuna rushed over to meet him, having apparently recovered and momentarily panicked at the canid’s situation. After first stopping to check on one another, they looked back into the slowly shrinking, flailing shadow-body of the Wraith, which was covered in glowing cracks. Marja stumbled over a moment later and, much to their dismay, tried to grab and bite onto Lykou. Luckily, she stopped herself at the last moment, just as Lykou was raising the axe.

“Ggh… shorry, uh…” she said, then looked back at the collapsing Wraith. “….we shhhould gebt gonng… going… ugh, ffuck thith!” Suddenly, the body slumped over limply, and a moment later, her ghost appeared. “Eugh. That’s better. Fuck being a zombie.”

Kuna watched the former Wraith as a flickering light started to shine from the middle of the swirling, destabilizing shadow. There was no more sign of the crooked face that once adorned it, and the roaring, snarling, and cursing had faded, replaced with something like a continuous, dull rumble of thunder. “I… think you’re right, s-something tells me we need to get as far from that as possible.”

“Exactly what I was thinking,” Marja agreed.

Lykou nodded and all three of them bolted away as quick as they could. Marja hesitated briefly after a moment to look back towards her body with a mixture of disgust and sadness, but then shook it off to catch up. There was a sudden explosive burst of wind and sound behind them a few minutes later, and despite moving as fast as they could, they could feel a wave of something quickly catching up to them. Then, suddenly, everything went dark.