Following up (p)

Wandering through the familiar setting of a large forest with pink petals, Solmar found himself where the bigger part of his journey had begun, Sakuramori. While it could be argued that his story had originally started out in the River village, as that seemed to have been the place where he had been born, he knew that it was in Sakuramori that he had first started to truly develop himself into what he was today. Though he wouldn't go as far as calling himself a mage as most of what he did was just using his magically gifted abilities in order to increase his own physical prowess or imbuing his sword with fire, there was no denying that he had the capacity to be one. It made him remember how, some time ago, another mage who was apparently working for the "Council" believed that he had the potential of being a good enough mage for their Guild. At the time, he did not really know what to make of it, even though he had grown to like the woman who asked him for it.

The thing was however that he had been going around much of Fiore, and had not heard a whole lot of good from most of the villages in regards to the local Guilds. One in particular was called the Something Wolves from what he could remember, which was a guild that was located near the Phoenix mountains. As it was there that Solmar had gone through one of his most harrowing encounters ever, he had more or less stopped seeing Guilds as a good thing for a very long time. The same thing went for the Council, who had apparently failed to see the threat posed upon the Mountain village because they believed that it was nothing more than old wives' tales. Told by people as a means of scaring kids into staying inside and not going out at night, it was due to this that the villagers started blaming the farmers and hunters that were living outside of the village for taking the children in the first place. As one might imagine, this created a lot of friction between the people of the Mountain village.

This feeling only grew more whenever so much time passed and another child disappeared, never to be seen again. By the time Solmar got onto the trail of this happening, he had done some looking around and was talking to a lot of different villagers, including those that had lost children. As this was something that wasn't very characteristic of him as he would usually just head out and hope to wing it while in the act, it went to show how invested he was in this job and that he wanted to save the children that had disappeared in this way. He remembered how he had thought it hard to believe that no one had actually taken the time to look into it, as he felt that missing children were one of those things everyone should care about. Within a matter of hours, he had personally come to figure out where these children had been taken, albeit in a bout of serious luck as well as his own skillfulness in searching for tracks and leads. But once he reached the place, it turned out that he was a good fifty years too late.

As the vast majority of these children had been killed in some of the worst ways imaginable, their souls torn from their bodies as a sacrifice to a dark god that might not even have existed in the first place, their bodies had been torn to shreds as a large Yeti outcast was promised the remains. As this was the deal made between the wraith and the yeti, the bodies acted as payment for the creature protecting the cavern in which all of these sacrifices were being made. With the kids that had their lives sacrificed to the dark gods were left as souls outside of their body, which was being devoured in front of their eyes, as well as those of the kids that were still in captivity, their souls were warped by the wraith into mindless wisps that did exactly as she wanted, whenever she wanted it. With every new wisp she created, she became more powerful, her necromantic powers rising as she remained far removed from her true goal, returning to her former mortal body.

Though it had all happened quite long ago, Solmar remembered everything quite well as he found himself drifting through the Mountain village again. While the villagers all greeted him rather happily, considering them to be some sort of hero to them, he only returned a slight wave in response. The way he saw it, he was not fit of the title of a hero, for all he had done was put an end to something horrible that should have ended years before he had even been born in the first place. Things such as these made him sick to his stomach, especially when there was this big governing body that was supposedly overlooking all of the guilds and making sure the country remained safe. However, through them and their own lack of belief in a story told by small time citizens such as these hunters and farmers, dozens of kids had lost their lives, and that felt like the kind of thing he could never forgive for as long as his memory of it would be retained.


(919)

Though he had often dreamed of never coming back to this village again, there was a rather solid reasoning behind him breaking free of this thought and visiting it anyway. That reason of course being the elemental stone that he had recently acquired. Possessing the combined elemental powers of four elemental lords, Interress the fire lord, Terramok the earth lord, Undine the water lord and Hurricanian the wind lord. With their material remains fused into a stone of supposedly untold power, he had come to learn what  was needed in order to bring about the full power of this artifact. One such thing was to let it soak in the misery and darkness from a place where a great tragedy had transpired. As the stone was supposed to drain it out and cleanse the place in the process, there were only two places that came to mind for Solmar. One was the River village, on account of the fact that his own demonic prisoner had come out there and murdered a great deal of people before he was eventually stopped and driven away.

Feeling like he could not just leave a stone of such unprecedented power in such a place, he believed that the caverns where over a hundred human children had been sacrificed would be better. Not knowing the full extent of what the stone was actually capable of, he felt that it would be safer for everyone if he just left it there to soak in all of the darkness that dwelled in that place. If it did end up doing something volatile such as explode, at least it wouldn't end up hurting anyone other than himself, or so he had reasoned. Taking a momentary break by the time he actually made his way over to the cavern in the mountains, he could still feel the miasma seeping from inside. Though the average human being would not be able to tell, someone with the same enhanced senses that Solmar possessed, things like his increased sense of smell, would most certainly pick up on it. Taking a deep breath, he ventured inside in hopes of him just getting used to the feeling.

Making his way inside, he could still feel the echoes of the children that were roaming about after he had freed them from their grasp. Figuring most of them had gone to wherever it was that souls went, he was quite certain that some of them had not managed to make their way out. After all, what he was experiencing as he passed through the caverns couldn't have just been his feelings as some of the shimmers and glimmers he saw seemed all too real. By the time he made it into the center of the cavern, he saw how very little of the place had actually changed. Part of him had hoped that, after he had gone down to the village with stories of what had happened, the people would have taken it upon themselves to clean the place up and maybe put it to different use. Figuring that this was too much to ask, he saw how the large, rotting remains of the Yeti were still laying exactly where Solmar had left it at the end of their battle.

Funnily enough, now that he witnessed the altar where all of these children had been sacrificed for exactly no reason or purpose, it seemed that the elemental stone he had brought would be able to rest there perfectly. Though he knew better than to believe in such things, it was almost as if all of this had been planned out by fate. Striding from his place to where the altar was, he took the stone out of his pocket and held it in the palm of his hand. What had once been but a single pebble sized ruby was now a stone that fit exactly into his hand, possessing one fourth ruby, one fourth diamond, one fourth sapphire and one fourth emerald, fused together perfectly as if it had always been a single piece of rock. Looking down at it, he could feel the pulsing humming reverberating through the stone and his fingers alike. Wiping some of the dust and ash that had accumulated on top of the altar, he placed the stone on top of it.

Figuring that he would be just about done now and that the stone would do its work, he planned to leave the cave and sit by the entrance, keeping anyone or anything from entering the place while the stone did what it was supposed to be doing. This however did not exactly turn out to be what the stone had in store for him at all as four differently colored lights started shining from the four corners of the stone and into the room. As if driven by magic, which was likely the case, the four colored lights were starting to move up along the cavern wall until they all met on the ceiling above. Taking on a dark purple hue, the light shining up from the stone started getting more intense and thick, almost becoming tangible. Not willing to touch it, the light touching the ceiling started creeping across the walls, covering it in a thin screen of purple light that just screamed "Do not touch".

By the time it touched the ground, the whole inner sanctum of the cavern had been covered in a magical dome that was not interested in letting him out. Though he should have known better by now than to believe that anything would ever be as simple as just putting a stone down on an altar and waiting for things to just take care of themselves, the fact that he hadn't made him somewhat upset with himself. After all, he was now trapped with no way out and no knowledge on what the stone was trying to achieve by locking him up like this. Patiently waiting where he stood, he looked around as he scanned the room, looking for anything out of the ordinary or some way out. After a few minutes, it became clear that nothing like that was going to happen, meaning the only thing he could do now was to walk back up to the stone and see if there was something there for him to do. Doing so relatively quickly as he had no intention of remaining trapped for a second longer than he needed to, feeling like a cornered animal, he brought his hand to the stone.


(1090 // 2009)

Though it could be that the strange light radiating from the stone might actually kill him or destroy his hand once he made contact, he figured that it was the only thing he could really do now, aside from trying to destroy the stone. Feeling like destroying it would be something to try if this did not work, figuring that this might have far more catastrophic repercussions for the environment, he placed his hand onto the stone. Once he did, the ray of light beaming out of it stopped, though the purple dome remained exactly where it was, showing no signs of weakening or disappearing any time soon. As he tried to pick it up, it seemed that the stone had either grown exponentially in terms of weight, or had somehow fused itself to the altar as there was no way he could make it move. Going as far as tugging at it with both hands, the fact that he was quite strong meant that the stone not budging was because it was not meant to do so. Stopping what he was doing, he let go of the stone, only to see that the thing had taken on a completely pitch black color.

Feeling like this was probably a really bad omen, he took off his coat and tossed it next to the altar. Reaching for his Gladius sword that was hanging from his waist, he held it tightly in his hand as he awaited whatever came next. When a voice suddenly broke the silence, he knew exactly who it belonged to. Turning around, he saw the form of the wraith responsible for the deaths of over a hundred young children, Gindendith. Standing triumphantly in her somewhat human looking form, it was as if she was inviting Solmar to attack him, though he knew that this could not possibly be her. He had already killed her once, for good this time as there was no way that her spirit would have been able to survive being torn to shreds by a demon. Still, the fact that she was standing here meant that the stone was doing something that should not have happened in the first place. Still, there was nothing he could do about that now, aside from seeing what it was this thing wanted from him. When she started talking, it was made clear that this was in fact Gindendith, but some weird version of her.

"Hello there boy, it's been a while."

"Not long enough, Wraith."

"Oh come now, you can't possibly still hold a grudge against me. After all, it was you that killed me, so if anything, it should be me that holds a grudge against you, filthy little mortal animal."

Sensing the same animosity from this thing as he had from Gindendith a few months ago, it made him wonder if the stone had actually managed to pull her from wherever it was that spirits went after being destroyed. Never having been the kind of person that believed in an afterlife, Solmar was having a hard time putting to words what was happening in front of him, because he could not deny what was happening right in front of his eyes. Whether it was some kind of trick or not, all of his senses could pick up on her presence, meaning there was more to this than just her visage. With a flick of his wrist, he sword he was holding lit up with a bright white flame. Last time he had faced Gindendith, he had nearly died due to her having her undead Yeti to thrash him about. Had it not been for Vetis, chances were that he would have ended up dying. Because the demon had broken free from the prison Solmar's mind created around it, it was actually Vetis that killed the Yeti and Gindendith in the worst ways imaginable.

Watching as she wandered closer to him, it became quite clear that she was aiming to pick a fight with him, but also had a thing or two to say to him still. Whether she hadn't gotten around to it the last time they met or simply thought up some things while she hovered in the place she had been sent when her ghastly body destroyed itself. While Solmar had little to nothing left to say to her, or it, he still wasn't entirely convinced that he was really dealing with the actual Gindendith as that would mean that there was actually an afterlife one was sent to after they died. Preparing himself as he intended to cut the wraith down again, for good this time, a crooked smile appeared on her face as she started talking about what was going on and how things were going to go from this point forward.

"Before you break your simple little head over it, yes, it is me. The stone recreated me, composed me of all the dark magics that lingered in this place and gave me form using your memories of this place, your memory of me. So while it is not actually the Me you killed some time ago, I am still the same Me you remember. I hope your feeble brain was at least slightly capable of understanding that, and if it didn't, it does not matter to me as you'll not be around long enough to put things together."

Having listened closely to what the wraith had told him, he could not help but feel like she did not even understand things properly herself. That said, he understood most of what she meant as small portions of the story made some kind of sense to him, oddly enough. While he actively tried putting things together, he saw how Gindendith's fingers started turning into large claws, her mouth turning into a maw with many rows of sharp teeth while her feet started to hover above the ground. It seemed that the time had come for him to see exactly how much he had grown since the last time he had seen her. This time, he would not have Vetis to rely on in case he was going to lose, having no intention of bringing the beast into the world this time with one of the most powerful artifacts he had ever laid eyes on being so close to them. He shuddered at the thought of what Vetis might do if he ever got his hands on the elemental node, feeling like that was something that could cost hundreds of people their lives if he figured out how to leave the dome cast around them.


(1103 // 3112)

But as he thought about it, this time, Gindendith did not have her Yeti to do all of the dirty work for her either, which was something he personally believed would even things out a bit. After all, the Yeti had been really strong physically, at least more so than he was at the time, that much was certain. And in terms of magical power, he was certain that Gindendith had been more powerful than he was too on account of how she had been alive for about five or six times as long as he had been with his relatively short eighteen years. But as time had passed and he had gotten stronger, he no longer felt like the gap that had been there at the time was still there. It wasn't so much that he was cocky or overestimated his own abilities, but rather felt like he would not be needing something like Vetis to power him through things as the wraith was on her own now. This time, she wouldn't have any tricks to pop open on him as he knew exactly what she was made of.

In her case, she had no idea that Solmar was different now, that he had been honing his skills through facing different enemies aside from the wraith and her pet Yeti. Since their encounter, he had faced various elementals and their lords, had faced monsters that seemed like they had come from a different dimension entirely and did battle with a creature that had come up from the deepest ocean abyss in an attempt at swallowing them whole and subjugating them for its aquatic god. Compared to those things, all Gindendith really had on them was that she murdered tons of innocent children, though her powers could not compare to those beings, only her wickedness and evil nature could. Feeling like those things alone would not save her from what Solmar was about to bring to the table, he did not even intend to summon Sunvaar Kriid, his most powerful weapon as he had done at the time.

Feeling like using Dyrnwyn would be plenty, the smaller and less sturdy gladius was perhaps not as magically blessed as the Kendovian masterpiece that had the size of a human being, though it was a lot easier to move around with and a whole lot faster. Figuring that speed might matter given how the wraith attacked with her magically enhanced claws, the large slab of metal would only do him so much good as long as he maintained a decent distant. If she moved in past that, he would not have the speed or the power to swing the weapon before she could get to him. As such, using the gladius seemed to be the better alternative. Bending through his knees a bit as he placed his feet further apart, he prepared himself for the upcoming battle. Already planning as far ahead as he possibly could, the fights he had endured and lived through up until this point had taught him how to do exactly that, though it only worked if he knew what he could expect from his opponent.

In this case, he was more or less aware of everything that she could throw at him, though he figured she might still have had some things up her sleeve that he had never gotten the chance to see. Feeling that the time for talking was over, Solmar uncharacteristically made the first attempt at killing his opponent. Still holding a lot of rage against her in his heart, he struck at her with his burning white blade, getting countered by large claws imbued with cold magical winds. Reminding him of his fight with Hurricanian the wind lord, he realized what someone who could manipulate wind could do, but figured that such powers would be heavily muffled when this deep inside of a cavern where most natural winds would never reach. Using his physical strength to push against the blade, Gindendith put both of her hands together in an attempt at holding back his advance. However, physical strength was not exactly the thing she was excelling at, unlike Solmar who took quite some pride in it.

Bringing up his right leg, he imbued it with fire as he kicked the wraith in the side, sending it towards the hard earthen floor. Using fire to empower his attacks as always, he rarely used it to enhance his unarmed strikes anymore as he had grown accustomed to using it solely with his weapons, though that clearly did not mean that he could no longer do it. Putting some distance between the two of them, it seemed as if his attack had actually hurt the wraith quite a bit as she was reeling even after getting back up. Feeling that this would be the best time to just keep attacking, he closed the distance yet again, only to be met halfway with a concussive blast of wind. Releasing fire from his blade to meet the blast in motion and keep it from blowing him off of his feet, Gindendith appeared beside him. Using the blast as a distraction, she sent his claws at him, countered only because of how agile Dyrnwyn was due to its size. Stopping the sharp claws from meeting with his flesh, he activated the fire from his blade to send a crescent wave of flame outward.

Catching the wraith at point blank range, the blast of fire enveloped her and sent her flying along with the wave of flames. Lifting her up as the wave moved up towards the dome, she got smacked into it rather violently. And as the flames had nowhere else to go, they exploded upon meeting with the solid surface, adding insult to injury as it sent the undead creature plummeting back towards the floor. Using her wind magic to cushion her fall, Solmar could hear her panting all the way from his side of the room, meaning she most likely did not have a whole lot left in her. Not willing to take that risk, Solmar started building up his magical power inside of his gullet as he inhaled deeply. Thanks to his previous attack, he knew now that the magical dome was not volatile but just a really solid surface, meaning he did not have to hold back with his attacks in fear of starting some sort of magical chain reaction.


(1067 // 4179)

Exhaling all of that stored up magical power, he released a blast of white flame so compressed and hot that it could burn things to a mere crisp in a matter of seconds. Shooting it towards the wraith, a loud explosion resounded within the dome, the noise echoing from side to side constantly as if not planning on ever ending. Causing a lot of dust to get kicked up due to the explosion, it was hard for Solmar to really see anything happening in front of him, though he still had his ears to rely on when his eyes could not aid him. Hearing as small pieces of rubble were falling back onto the ground after getting knocked up by the explosion, he tried figuring out where the wraith might have gone off to. By the time he realized that she could hover above the ground and would therefore make no sounds as she walked about, he felt a deep cut along his back. Turning around and cutting in the same motion, he used all of his momentum to actually hit Gindendith in the neck.

As she had just carved into Solmar's back with her wind enhanced claws, she had not imagined Solmar would have the speed to respond to it and bite through the pain as quickly as he did. But what she did not know, what she could not know, was that Solmar had been through so much pain since their fight, like getting ribs broken, bruising most of his upper body, nearly breaking a leg and tearing a muscle, it was only natural for him to have as high of a pain tolerance level as he did. That, and his physical growth had not stopped after they last met, allowing him to overcome her based on what she thought she knew about him. As his sword made contact with her neck, the flames around the blade got retracted into the blade, causing it to build up so much heat that it carved through her like a hot knife through a stick of butter. Before she even got the chance to let out a shriek of pain, her head was already rolling across the floor in front of him.

Moments later, her body came falling to the floor with a loud thump, allowing Solmar a moment to assess his wounds. Feeling across his back, he used the reflective surface of his sword as a makeshift mirror, noticing through it that the wound was quite deep and made him lose quite a lot of blood in the process. Feeling that there was nothing he could do about that right now as the dome was still up there, a bright light came from the remains of Gindendith as the whole thing turned into a rush of energy that came pouring into the elemental stone. As he had been explained before, the stone would absorb all of the negative energy from a place of great tragedy, but had apparently manifested all of that energy into the form of the one who had inflicted all of that pain upon Solmar, the children and the people down in the village below. By fighting and killing that manifestation, the stone was now doing the later part, absorbing all of that negative energy from the place into itself and converting it into power.

Entering into the stone, the pitch black rock started releasing pulses every two seconds, pulses Solmar could feel throughout his entire being. With every pulse, it was as if his bones were rattling inside of his body due to the tremendous output of energy inside of the elemental node. Feeling as though he was being pulled apart by it, he walked back to the stone, finding that every step he made into its direction made the pulses hitting him that much stronger and that much more painful. Wondering whether the stone was still doing what it was supposed to be doing, which was something about converting negative energy into power, it made Solmar wonder why it made him feel so much pain. When he finally reached the stone and put his hands on it, it was as if he entered into an altogether different place. Looking around, all he saw was this white void that seemed to somehow be alive and moving. Seemingly being some kind of strange liquid, he heard a voice reaching out to him from every direction at the same time.

"You foolish little man, you had to go and touch that stone, didn't you. Act like the problems of the world were somehow yours to shoulder on your own, just like you do with everything else, just like you did with me."

"…Who are you.. Show yourself."

And just like that, the white liquid in front of him started being put together, taking on a shape and size that was almost humanoid, at least that was what it was starting to look like before it grew a tail, horns and clawed hands and feet. By the time it was done morphing, Solmar knew all too well what he was looking at, for it was clear enough to see that this was Vetis as he always showed himself to Solmar back when he was still a boy. This was the form it took whenever it managed to break free from the mental prison Solmar had created around him, a prison Solmar felt like he had somehow been pushed inside of due to the stone. Letting the words it spoke to him bounce around inside of his mind, it made him wonder as to what the demon wanted this time, and why he had somehow been put here to begin with. When the demon started taking steps towards him, Solmar could not help but step back instinctively, even though he knew that there was no getting away from it in this place.


(982 // 5161)

Mustering up his strength of body and mind, he remained where he stood as the demon came ever closer to him. After a little while, it reached his destination and stopped in front of Solmar, staring deep into his eyes as Solmar was left to stare into the black void Vetis called eyes. After all, eyes were the windows of the soul. Standing there for a moment, it was at that point that they both reached for and grabbed one another by the throat almost simultaneously. Feeling that Vetis's grip was somehow more powerful than his own, likely because of the fact that he was within the one place where the demon had power and control, he could feel the air slipping out of his body and being incapable of coming back in. Trying his hardest to do the same to Vetis, it seemed that his own hands could only do so much towards choking out the demonic entity. In fact, it actually seemed like the being could still speak in spite of Solmar's best efforts at trying to choke it.

"That stone, the power it has now seems like it might be enough for me to come out and take over forever. Once I choke you out, once you pass out, I'll make sure you're going to be the one who remains stuck in this prison while I go back to doing whatever it is I feel like doing… and you'll get to watch from in here, just like I've been forced to watch everything you do for eighteen years!"

"You… monster… stop.."

Trying his hardest to win the struggle, he could barely make out the words needed to tell Vetis to stop, though all of that was to no avail. The entity inside of Solmar's mind had set its sights upon freedom and revenge, revenge on his captor, and therefore would not be swayed from having his moment of victory. Feeling himself slipping away as everything started going dark, he eventually passed out no more than a few seconds later, meaning the demon had won. Or so it would seem. As soon as Vetis started manifesting in the outside world, warping Solmar's body by growing the thick white carapace around his flesh and bones to take on the true form of the beast, the stone responded to it. As if seeing the demon as a form of negative energy, it started honing in on it, focusing its efforts on it once it had fully taken in all of the negative energy from the caverns. Due to that energy now being inside of the stone, it started sending out stronger pulses at a much higher pace than it had done before.

Causing the demon that was in the process of forming to fall to its knees, it started screaming out in pain as the blood running from Solmar's back was starting to pool up with the white carapace matter that formed whenever Vetis took control. Starting to merge together as Vetis was physically coming undone, an unconscious Solmar fell to the ground as all of the white matter was laying in the pool of blood next to him. Continuing to hum and pulse, this pool of blood and white matter started swirling together until it started to harden, growing ever bigger in the process until it turned into what could be considered a cocoon of sorts. As Solmar himself was not awake enough to actually see what was going on and Vetis was nowhere to be found, this cocoon kept growing larger and larger, hardening up more and more until it took on the properties of iron. At this point, the cocoon stopped growing any larger, and in fact completely stopped doing much of anything from that point on.

With a final, powerful pulse, the stone stopped doing what it did, turning from the pitch black color it had taken on into a bright white one. With that last pulse though, Solmar awoke from his unconscious state as it felt like someone had attached a lot of electricity straight to his heart. Jumping up from the ground as he gasped for air, he hyperventilated for about a whole minute as he tried to catch his breath and get a grip on what was going on. Though he had only been out of it for a very short while, the sheer trauma of losing himself to Vetis was something that had sent his entire being into overdrive. Seeing the now harmless stone laying on the altar with a white color instead of a black one, as well as the strange white thing next to him, he eventually calmed himself as it seemed like the threats in the room had somehow been dealt with. Not knowing what had happened to Vetis as he had imagined the beast would have taken over his body by now, the fact that he could no longer feel it inside of his body was a very strange sensation to him, but most importantly, he felt freed.

Picking himself up from the ground, he went to the strange white cocoon thing and placed his hand on it, feeling that it was cold and had the texture of stone. Tapping against it, it seemed that there was very little to it aside from just being a strange rock that had formed while he had been knocked out. Leaving it for what it was, Solmar did not want to stay in these caverns for a second longer, and knowing that he no longer needed to, he grabbed the elemental node off of the altar and started moving outside. Striding out at a rather solid pace and not looking back even once, he wanted to get away from this place and leave the Phoenix mountains behind him for the time being. All that place meant to him right now was pain in different shapes and forms. What he really wanted right now was to go back to Sakuramori and do some more studying on the stone. After all, he had just finished what seemed like the final step towards charging it up, meaning the final phase was within reach.


(1029 // 6190)

Moving towards Sakuramori at a pace that was similar to an adult man in sprint, he no longer cared for what had happened to him, believing that the stone might have torn Vetis free from his body and converted him into negative energy as well. That was after all the most sensible thing to go with, at least in his mind. Believing that the only thing he really needed to do now was to get the completed stone back to the earthen structures back in the deeper woodlands of Sakuramori in order to get what he wanted most, the young dark haired mage would not stick around in the Phoenix mountains for a second longer than he had to. With Solmar headed further and further away however, something started happening in the cave. Though it did not happen immediately, it started becoming more and more clear that some kind of new life was taking shape inside of the stony white cocoon. Deep inside of it, the white stuff merged with the human blood of Solmar where it gradually took on a new form altogether.

Like a baby inside of a womb, Vetis's own soul was quite awake, though it had no idea as to what was happening to him right now. Being an entity that had been born at the same time as Solmar and had been locked away inside of the same body, the fact that Solmar had always been the primary "driver" had always infuriated him. So whether he was truly a demon or something very much like it, the simple fact that he was made to feel like a parasite stuck inside of an unwilling host had always angered it. Aside from that, he had been forced to watch as Solmar went about his young life while he could do nothing but look through the eyes of a body that was foreign to him. Having no control over anything, it wasn't until his rage had built up to a boiling point and Solmar had gotten injured that he had managed to break free from the mental shackles and manifested his rage in the form of an ivory white carapace around the young boy's body. From there on, it had started to indiscriminately kill everyone the boy had ever known.

When a fire mage had eventually managed to beat it, Vetis had been forced back into regression as Solmar awoke again as the main personality in charge of everything, thus forcing Vetis back into the furthest recesses of his mind. There, he created a mental prison for it that gained in strength as Solmar aged and got better acquainted with the inner workings of his own brain. Due to his outburst, Vetis had ended up locked away for eleven more years until it eventually managed to rise back up in the same caverns it now found itself in, fighting against an undead Yeti and a wraith. Ripping the Yeti apart with his own claws and biting the face of the wraith right off with his teeth, it wasn't until the wraith detonated the full brunt of her magical power in a suicidal bombing meant to take him out along with her that he yet again got forced back into submission. Remembering all of these things quite clearly right now as his body was forming around his thoughts, much of his anger was gradually subsiding while the hatred he felt was being channeled.

After about a week of sitting inside of the cocoon, dreaming of the things it had seen through Solmar's eyes while it awaited for a chance to be free to the point where he could lock up Solmar himself, it seemed that his body had fully formed. Using the hatred he felt towards his "host", he started violently flailing his limbs around inside of the thick white cocoon, causing it to slowly crack up and shatter into hundreds of pieces. Dropping out of it was a man the same age as Solmar, with pale skin and white hair. Possessing no clothing or weaponry, the naked man sat there on the floor, regurgitating whatever the liquid substance was that he had been floating around in as his body formed. Once he was done throwing up every last bit of it, he looked around at his body, finding that much of it was exactly like that of Solmar. Possessing the same level of physical strength and magical power, he could see in the reflection of the liquid beneath him that his face and hairline were quite different from that of the black haired swordsman.

"Well… this is odd.."

Hearing the voice coming out of his throat being the exact same as the voice he had always heard when he was thinking out loud, which was in fact the only way he could ever hear his voice except from when he had taken over Solmar's body, a grin appeared on his face. Normally when he was capable of moving around as freely as this, his own rage and hatred against everything around him made it so that he was too preoccupied with killing everything in range to actually utter a single word. Now, he could do whatever he wanted. Still feeling somewhat weak as his feet struggled to carry his weight, he gradually wandered towards the exit of the cavern, already planning out exactly how he was going to be going about his new life. For starters, he was going to get himself a set of clothes and a weapon, after which he would hunt down Solmar and make sure he suffered just like he had all those years.


(Exit)
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