Startling the creatures with an outward burst of Essence, Lavinia whirls to her feet, hopping away and blinking rapidly to adjust her unused eyes to the strange milky light illuminating the hill.
The creatures organize themselves quickly, pacing with soft growls but keeping the distance Lavinia put between them. Four legged, green furred wolf-like creature, no, that’s not right, the only resemblance they bear to a wolf is their four leggedness. Instead of a soft, fluffy coats these creatures barely had enough of their green fur to reach their ankles, it lays on their skin like a short bed of grass. Their heads are diamond shaped, flat faces soured by hunger and riddled with three-inch horns jutting down their temples all the way down thick necks and torso, even their tails seem to have some.
All three stand as tall as Lavinia, sunken eyes examining their woken prey in detail. On the other hand, Lavinia concerns herself with her location first and foremost, idly channelling Essence through her gnawed shoulders and bitten off right hand— she wouldn’t be regenerating that for a while.
Squinting, Lavinia searches the earth, finding track marks from where she was dragged and turns to that direction. Sure enough she finds a patch of hill grass flattened and stained red— where she remained for weeks as her body recuperated from Hera’s beatings. Noting the spot for later, Lavinia glares at the creatures watching her. The fact they haven’t given up and run away means they still believe hunting her worth their while.
Time to change that.
From her limited pool of Essence, Lavinia summons a spiralling ball to her one hand as she bares her fangs, “One of you ate my hand, I’ll find it in your stomach! Wave Shot!”
The creatures disperse as the ball zooms towards them but it’s too late for one. Lavinia’s shot explodes outwards in an arc of superheated air, slicing into all obstacles, tail, torso and screaming mouth. The unfortunate creature tumbles stumbles mid-death, the top half of its skull and torso slide off and its brain and guts spill from the open bottom.
The two other observes this with wide and now frightened eyes and refuse to give up their flank on Lavinia, positioning themselves on either end of her, narrowly escaping her [Wave Shot] radius. To her left, the creature yawns, somehow extending its jaw down the length of its neck to its chest. It’s red, wet insides quickly fill with an energy that has Lavinia fuel her feet with Essence. The creature to her right does the same and a suspicious wind billows over the grassy hill.
Wait…this place is—
Their mouths bulge with a blinding light and driven by instinct Lavinia , “Crimson Blink!” materializing above one of the green fiends as they belch out a scattering blast of air from the depths of their gullets. Their individual blasts churn the earth to meet in the center, grinding a crater where Lavinia stood.
Lavinia drives her elbow into the beast’s thin skull as she freefalls into it. She straddles its neck and sinks her fangs in before it has a moment to comprehend. Drinking of its blood confirms her suspicions as clumps of earth and rock rain down with dust from what would have been a devastating attack. These creatures wield Mana like a Caster. Having spent a fair bit on [Crimson Blink] Lavinia hesitantly commands, “Inspect!”
Eyes filled with Essence and powered by all the strength of her [INT] attribute, Lavinia sees the creatures for they are— [Kaze-Kuime]— and more importantly, the world.
There’s no doubt about it, this is the same Reais Lavinia was born— ambient Essence swirls in abundance in the air but so does Mana. It’s in lesser quantities and the two natural forces do not mix with each other like Hera managed to do in her staff. As this is the first place in Reais where Mana lies in such wealthy quantities, Lavinia is curious but her eyes scour more than that.
A strong blue glow stands out within the covers of the slow settling dust. At first she’s confused but as she lays her blood drained prey to rest and shifts, the blue glow follows her movement and she understands what she’s discovered.
Grinning widely as the delicious blood of prey nurtures her soul, Lavinia extends her claws, licking her lips as she scolds herself for misusing [Inspect] all this time. She kicks out after the last Kaze-Kuime and in wisdom, the creature flees, she watches with fascination as the monster manipulates Mana around itself as she would Essence. A stride of wind follows and propels it in its run, daring to outrun Lavinia as it yelps and barks in terror.
Lavinia stops herself from getting too excited and giving chase. It isn’t worth losing her spot. She watches it escape into a thickening of tall hill grasses and even through them she observes its strong blue hue for some moments before it escapes her range.
Hungry, Lavinia returns to her would be devourers, hoping one of their stomachs has her hand in it. She isn’t sure if reattaching it will actually work but it’s worth the attempt. More importantly, what is [Inspect] and its what are its capabilities?
What are the limits and why is this the first time she’s noticed this particular ability? The answer to the latter comes easy. The last time Lavinia invested EP in [INT] was right before she entered the dungeons. She’d used [Inspect] against Prince the Minotaur inside but didn’t see anything like the strong veins of pulsating Mana stretching from a round core that even spills out of the Kaze-Kuime’s body.
Why is that? Lavinia muses that the monster is so much of a beast that it denies her Perk that information. It’s plausible, though it doesn’t satisfy Lavinia as the most accurate conclusion she sets the subject aside and digs into the pouring insides of the first Kaze-Kuime, shovelling her mouth full of sweet blood and soft, juicy innards.
No hand. She sighs at its empty stomach before taking a consolatory bite, staring blankly at the one she drained of blood. Its skin is shrivelled to multitudes of wrinkles and its muscle and fat are degraded to the point she can outline the creatures skeletal form underneath the blanket of grass coloured skin. It is far from an appetizing image. She’d drained it dry and now the sight of her handiwork dissuades her so much she resigns on searching its stomach for her missing hand.
Blood drips down her jaw as she makes her way back up the grass hill. The spot Hera’s portal threw her out is still marked in her blood, she uses it as a focal point for her search. Corym should be around here.
Lavinia marches up the hill and squints up at the sky. It is different than before, an object hangs weightlessly in it and illuminates everything above and below in a milky white halo. It is the first time anything but dark clouds and demons occupied Reais’ red sky, in fact, the longer she looks and as her eyes adjust to the strange light, Lavinia sees the sky quartered.
Faint but certainly there. Lavinia blinks and confirms that the sky is split in four parts, three of which are various hues of the red she’s come to know but the last quadrant which hung the strange source of the light is a dark sheet of black freckled with minute sparkling spots.
Without thinking about it, Essence flows into her eyes for a better look, “Inspect!” Her vision improves dramatically as the Perk highlights the world clearer than she’s ever seen it. The object in the sky is a round, cratered ball hanging in silence. A hole pierces its centre and particles of what must be the remains of its centre drift in a ring around it— all covered in the serene light that seems to spread among the sparkling spots that litter the black sheet of sky.
Mana. It has to be. Lavinia surmises, studying the rays of its light descending onto the hill’s precipice but only barely as its quadrant abruptly ends at wall of Essence. That thing provides Mana somehow.
Despite having [Inspect] active, it fails to provide any identification of the ringed object, the spots or even the quadrants that seem sewn into reality. Letting the Perk end Lavinia wonders what just what kind of world she lives in.
The [Ruishia Sea] crashes against the hill’s bottom and spreads across, swallowing the horizon and touching the split sky. Is there anything beyond you?
Salty winds billow through Lavinia’s mane, flooding her with nostalgic memories of her fateful meeting with Seraph and Jonn. The beach sits closer to the bottom than where she stands and farther into the reddened sky, at a point where such a clearly divided sky could not be seen. Divided by what? For what?
While Lavinia is curious, her gut says it reeks of human. It can’t be a coincidence that the spot Hera thinks Corym is displays such a sky and is suffused with great Mana. Like the bothersome thoughts of the true extent of her capabilities, Lavinia turns her attention to seeking to Corym for what she hopes will be the final stride in her journey back.
Her shawl— which was already dirtied beyond belief— is nothing but rags clinging to the dried blood stuck on her skin, her shorts are torn in uncomfortable places and her boots must be forgotten somewhere because she stands barefoot, toes wriggling through the grass. Only her waist-length mane provides a shred of covering but the salty sea’s breeze drew a chill as it billows past her exposed skin.
Corym will provide. It will give her clothes, her GroveStaff and all she needs to know about ridding herself of Henry Vanavil’s curse of commandments. Even now, every time she spares a thought to Hera or Mark, an insidious urge to murder swells in the back of her mind. While the scars that stretched over her body have receded back to oppress her face alone, she knows that if she sees Hera or Mark again it would take control and force her to kill.
Lavinia has no qualms about killing Mark and though Hera battered her body, she also kept her word and sent Lavinia back. And so Lavinia can't help but flinch at the thought of devouring the Caster. However, the issue goes beyond whether she's comfortable eating them. What matters is that the choice is hers and Henry’s curse violates that.
She shudders to think what else the horrid human can force her to do with his commandments and begins her trek down the hill’s grassy slope. She plans to stop by the beach just to be certain she’s on the right path— if she is then a forest will be visible from it.
As she treks, Lavinia decides to pull up her RIS. She hasn’t seen the full thing in weeks and in that time she’s absorbed two of the Crimson Crystals from the Kimpe camp and lost the last. There ought to be some EP to spend.
