THE BEACONS (Pt. 7)

Last Part

This time, instead of stumbling to a stop down some slope or crashing into the ocean, Sorano slowly cracked open an eyelid, feeling a headache raging away at the back of her head. Everything seemed to be spinning around her, strange and foreign to her muddled brain. Nothing was clear, and all the colors seemed to blur together into a huge blob of nonsense before her eyes. What was wrong with her vision? Even her thinking was slow and uncertain, her thought process blocked by the pounding sensation that continued behind her eyeballs. Trying to shut down the painful sensation, the letter mage tried to pull her hands up, only to find that both felt stiff and heavy as lead, and near impossible to lift. What the hell was going on? She tried to move her hands again, feeling strangely numb despite the troubling situation she currently found herself in. By now, her eyes were starting to see a little more clearly, but despite the details of objects around her coming into clearer vision, they continued to whirl and spin, not helping at all with the letter mage’s current situation. Nothing seemed to stop for long enough to allow the girl a moment of respite, to recover and get a grip on her surroundings, and thus there was little to do besides lay there hopelessly. Several minutes passed, but the headache only continued to intensify, so the letter mage shut her eyes, feeling sudden relief at some of the pain going away.

Hopelessly trying to come up with ways to recover, Sorano came to the final decision of shifting into another form. Utilizing her final dredges of energy and concentration up, she pushed her consciousness out of her body, forming a black and white body, the mixed swirls of color making up a vaguely humanoid figure made of pure energy. Sorano’s auric form shimmered briefly, adjusting to its new condition, before turning around to look back at her body. Now, the letter mage’s mind was clear and sharp, lack of emotion reinforced by the body she’d been put in. Completely logical and lacking in any feelings to bar her path, the figure coldly analyzed the crumpled body that was sprawled across the ground. They were on a sandy shore, near the edge of a field that led further in to where a giant mountain rose up. This mountain seemed to be the sole source of elevation around them, the rest of the island looking to be covered in flat grasses and occasional shallow hills and dips, or rock formations. It was only when one looked towards the north, where the towering expanses of mountain was in the center of the island, that any drastic change in elevation could be seen.

The main mountain appeared to be split down the middle, marking the place as Divide Island. The island possessing that strange geographical feature was a mystery to scientists and mages alike, and one could only imagine what secrets lay hidden in the geology of this place. But first of all, to ensure survival, Sorano needed to make sure her body was safe. Reaching down and scooping up the prone, limp, and lifeless form of her physical shape, she carried the body into the shadow of one of the few shallow trees nearby, checking to make sure the body was adequately hidden from passerby. This way, she could return later and retrieve it while remaining safe. Why had the teleportation failed, though? It wasn’t like the Magic Council to produce malfunctioning technology, but then again, they had been severely injured upon arrival…them? Blinking briefly, the auric form stood up, remembering the creature that had accompanied them. That’s right – Hoshi, someone who she was very much attached to, apparently. The feline would have to be recovered before anything – she was a priority even greater than the Magic Council’s request. Walking back down the shore, the aural form flipped its vision to see all auras of energetic forms around them, before narrowing it down to mammals. Instantly, the crumpled form of a small animal could be seen a ways down the shore, leading the creature down to see it.

Sure enough, there was Hoshi, looking equally damaged and bashed in as the girl she had left behind. She’d definitely require healing, no? But logic in the spirit’s brain instructed it to carry the tabby to where Sorano was instead. After all, the auric form was not meant to heal. It would be easier and more energy efficient to leave Hoshi there and go off to fight on her own. With that action, the monochrome spirit walked off down the shore, looking for the key to this particular Beacon. It would probably be the most difficult to defeat, being the last island she had been teleported to. It was a daunting prospect, and one that the aura observed coolly and with a reasonable amount of skepticism. It was incapable of even the faintest memory of fear, but even then, it was sure that it could not win against so powerful a creature. Even so, the inner drive that existed in Sorano’s brain highly prioritized this task, and as such, the spirit would carry it out. After all, despite their differences, the mind that resided within this form was still Sorano’s. It was the same person, just with enhanced mental capabilities. After all, it took real effort to fully purge a brain from even the slightest traces of emotion. One could say that Sorano normally had no emotion already, but the instincts her body produced as well as the memories of emotion she possessed caused her to occasionally act in a way that would suggest she did in fact have feeling. The spirit did not feel this, not at all.

Breaking into a run, the spirit ran tirelessly towards the mountains, feeling the dark energy radiating from it already. Whatever she would face would certainly be somewhere around there, and it was likely she’d bump into other things even before that. In fact, upon arriving at the base of the mountain after several moments of magically enhanced running, there appeared a strange humanoid figure. This one was clad entirely in black, with skin that glowed with how dark it was and jagged armor to protect its body. A mask enveloped the creature’s face – it was difficult to tell whether it was female or male – and was clad in strange, stiff fabrics that seemed not too different from the strange armor. It carried a spear, and approached the spirit without any trace of hesitation in its steps. Already, the spirit could sense that both of them were fairly evenly matched in their abilities, and thus she struck quickly, slamming a burst of pure energy into the ground. While Sorano was no longer so pure in spirit as she once was, the form was still capable of isolating certain strains of energy to attack. However, right before her very eyes, the figure seemed to move and inhuman speeds, snatching the bolt of energy in the blink of an eye and hurling it back at Sorano.

Luckily, she was unharmed. The bolt of energy was made up from her own aura, and thus it melted back into the fold with ease. But it attacked her swiftly afterwards, swinging the spear with inhuman skill and slicing a cut through her arm. Instantly, Sorano could feel energy draining from the limb, cleared off by the weapon’s power. Even as the energetic arm reformed itself, it was shorter than before, and she had to redistribute the energy that made up her form to balance everything out again. The figure was fast, insanely fast, and thrived in the environment of close combat. She’d have to end it fast, as fast as she possibly could. But how? Every time she attempted to get out of the way, the creature teleported back instantly, and each of her slashes of energy against his armor seemed to bounce off easily. Occasionally, the spirit did get in a strike or two on bare skin, causing gashes that spilled out black blood that camouflaged against the creature’s skin, but it was not enough. In a rare moment where she managed to get behind the creature, the spirit slammed her hands into the ground, producing a massive blast of energy that slammed the creature away, finally yielding some semblance of results. Blasted out of range without instant teleportation for the first time this battle, the spirit made no hesitation.

Forming a scythe made of pure energy, the aura’s body was left almost entirely dark as all purity was concentrated into the weapon. Slicing cleanly, the spirit managed to get in fatal blows on the neck, continuing by slicing away the creature’s legs with clean, precise strokes. It took a while, but once she’d managed to fell the creature, success had come quickly. Watching as the Chaos Master bled away on the ground, the aura turned away and continued to move toward the mountain. There was still the boss to beat.

Breaking into a run again, the spirit quickly checked its condition. She was damaged, and had to distribute energy around her body again. By now, it was a stronger mix of black than white, after having used so much pure energy on the dark-based Chaos Master before. Hopefully the next opponent would not require so much light energy. She didn’t know if she would have enough power to defeat it. Yet, upon seeing the boss, easily told apart by that signature malefic energy making up its entire being, she wasn’t sure if she should be pleased or not. A massive dragon colored in shades both light and dark, the creature radiated chaotic energy that seemed unpredictable, and thus near impossible to fight. Would it even use strategy? Would it even use logic? Logic and reason was the spirit’s area of specialty, and thus something out of that zone may have devastating effects. She approached the dragon at a slower pace, though it had already seen her. Staring with a mesmerizing eye full of mixed colors, it glared down balefully at the approaching aura. However, compared with the other keys, this one seemed to have a purpose in mind. It was not fighting simply for the sake of fighting for someone else, for something else. Everything this dragon did was for its own purpose somewhere deep inside, and that was something that could be dangerous indeed. The sheer amounts of magical energy radiating off of the thing was no comfort to the aura, either. When she finally stopped, it lumbered over, great paws slamming into the ground and causing the island to shudder slightly on its foundations.

Before the aura could make a preemptive strike, the dragon raised its head to the sky and let loose a horrible roar, causing the aura to instantly stumble back, getting as far away as possible. And good thing, too. Instantly, before her eyes, the area around the dragon just vanished completely, the entire world seeming to warp around the point. Where land and rock and sea had been before, there was just a sheer air of wrongness, the landscape blending together in a way so horrible that it hurt even the aura’s eyes to see it. Instantly, she catapulted herself at the dragon, slamming multiple beams of dark energy at the creature. It brushed it off with ease, however, glowing a dim white color that instantly dispelled the attack. Scales glowing, the dragon swiped a giant claw at the aura, leaving her no choice but to leap out of the way, instead scooping up a massive amount of energy in each limb and simultaneously blasting it at the reptile’s neck, successfully breaking the barrier.

And this would be where Sorano had her lucky break. Now having dangerously low levels of energy left after breaking that barrier, it would have been unlikely for her to win had the dragon attacked again. But it seemed that the destruction of the barrier was greatly detrimental to the chaos dragon, leaving it frozen, paralyzed without being able to attack. Winding herself up, this entire spiritual form into a ball of sheer energy, the spirit hurled itself into the dragon, destroying the key with all the energy she possessed, killing it at the price of what could potentially be Sorano’s life. It would be lucky for her that Hoshi had managed to wake up, and healed the physical body of Sorano just then. For had she not, it would have been that day the letter mage passed away.

12,642 / 12,500 words JOB ENDED