Chapter 62: A Crisis Within And Without

  Jessie woke back up with a start, though relaxed when she saw her sister in the front of the car. Holding Jessie up in a seated position were Angela and Emma, sharing the back seats with her. Each of them was as bloody as she was, though Jessie was physically unharmed, her mobility and close-range wide area attacks enough to keep plenty of monsters at bay and away from her—her Jet even more so.

  The pair of sword-wielding women on each side of her was another story; the pair were still out of breath. Jessie was uncertain how much time had passed, but judging by the small amount of energy she had regenerated, it couldn’t have been more than an hour at most. It was still hard to tell whether her aura trait remained active when Jessie herself wasn’t.

  The Witch started healing her companions by grabbing hold of them, prioritising Emma as she had the most grievous wounds. Her ‘Restore’—the water elemental spell from her Core ability—had only one viable target at once, but she used ‘Replenish’, the wind spell, on Angela. It didn’t heal, but it refilled the woman’s stamina, which was better than nothing.

  She switched targets of each spell before Emma’s wounds finished knitting themselves back together, focusing more on closing their wounds than healing them one at a time. She fell asleep soon after, once more bottoming out her energy.

  “This is horrible,” Sophie said, looking at the massive piles of bodies strewn about on the road. “Where’s Erik?”

  “This is where we left him,” said Dunham, looking out of all the windows he could in search of the Titan, driving as slow as he could while still getting over the monster corpses.

  “If there were survivors among the Hellhounds, they would’ve followed us again, right? So they all probably died,” Angela guessed.

  The group had backtracked back to the initial battlefield, having to cross that to continue on towards their destination, anyway. Their previous retreat worked well, all things considered, but now it seemed Erik was missing.

  Hesitant, Sophie said, “Do you think…” but could not finish the thought as she looked around on her side of the car. Her eyes were moist and had been ever since the start of the ambush.

  “Let’s get the car across this massacre and check on foot. He could be lying underneath anything here,” Angela offered with a grim tone.

  Dunham had to increase their speed in order to get over the final heap of flesh. When well over and back down on clear, unbloodied asphalt, everyone except the sleeping Jessie left the car behind to wander through the stench and the horror of the battlefield in search of Erik. The party spread out and searched, yet had found no trace of Erik even an hour later. After an abrupt break, they repeated their search. Again, this yielded nothing.

  “I hate to say this,” Angela started with a tired sigh.

  “So don’t!” Sophie said with a firm yet cracking voice.

  “I’m sorry, Sophie. We have to at least consider the fact that there might not be anything left—”

  “Stop!” Sophie shouted, covering her ears with her hands and squatting down.

  Angela continued a little louder, hoping the younger girl still heard her: “Or…” The young blonde looked up at Angela with hopeful and teary eyes. “Or he’s been taken.”

  “Why would the monsters take him?” Dunham asked as everyone had left the battlefield and walked over to the car again.

  “Remember, they are somehow controlled by who we believe is Erik’s uncle. It should be obvious that there is at least a slight chance that he wants to recruit Erik to his side,” Angela explained her theory.

  Finding a crack in her theory, Dunham then asked, “Isn’t he the one who supposedly killed Erik?” He looked over at Emma holding Sophie.

  “Well, yes, but what if we got the reason wrong? What if it were recruitment rather than maliciousness? Having another, maybe even two other Titans at your side while taking over the world would probably make it a lot easier, wouldn’t you think?”

  “That…does make sense.” Dunham had to agree. “And if they wouldn’t join him, he’d just kill them again.”

  “Yes. Erik has got powerful, much more so than when he came back to life. Still, his uncle has three more years of experience—of gaining power. The fact that the Hellbeasts might just be one ability is what frightens me. If that’s the case, then he’s likely got several more up his sleeve that we don’t know anything about.”

  Sophie eyed her, a thought entering her mind. “Black flames,” she said, her voice calm, almost scarily so.

  “I think that’s one of them. Whatever’s keeping air units away might be another. Remember, Erik and Jessie both have only just started absorbing Minor abilities, so Erik’s uncle might have double their number of abilities. Maybe even more, considering Jessie has more slots than Erik.”

  “All this is based on Erik’s dreams, isn’t it? Are we sure we should believe them?” Dunham asked. Angela had asked herself that several times since her talk with Erik about it before leaving for Bridgefort.

  “It might just be dreams, but it might also be memories resurfacing. His death was traumatic—not just that, but he was then sent to a place where negativity just wouldn’t faze him—I’m certainly no psychiatrist, but that seems like a mental break waiting to happen. Even if this isn’t his uncle, it’s still someone. While less incentive, there are still plenty of reasons to try to recruit more Remnants.”

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Dunham only nodded, agreeing with the fact.

  “Great talk, guys…” Jessie groaned as she slowly, carefully, exited the car. “But he’s over there.” She pointed towards the woods ahead of the car, not towards the battlefield.

  Angela and Dunham looked at each other, nodded, then followed Jessie’s pointed finger. They found Erik further into the forest than their search perimeter ended.

  Erik lay wrapped around a thick tree, its coarse bark dark red with blood. From his location, a quick glance back up towards the battlefield revealed broken branches and brush the entire way there, though it had been much less visible from outside the forest. Dunham sat down next to the still Titan and checked his pulse and wounds.

  “His neck is broken, and so is most of his spine. I can’t do anything for him. He’d be dead if he weren’t what he is,” Dunham said with a sigh.

  “Is his chest glowing?” Angela asked, seeing a faint red glow from a tear in his clothes.

  “Doesn’t that mean he’s using magic?”

  “Usually,” Angela wondered.

  “We should get Jessie over here ASAP. I’m not sure he’ll live through this on his own,” Dunham contemplated, looking back up towards the car.

  “She can’t keep draining herself like this. She has to rest. Mental, physical and magical energy are all the same to them. They might die from bottoming out like she’s been doing.”

  “I know that…fuck!”

  “Dunham…”

  “Sorry. This is just too big for me. I couldn’t help Peter, and now I can’t help Erik. To think magic would make my job obsolete…”

  “You’re not here for them,” Angela said, sitting down next to Dunham with a hand on his shoulder. “You’re here to keep me, Emma and Sophie alive while these two are occupied saving the world. This is too big for any of us. You aren’t alone in feeling like that. But never think we’re not needed or that we aren’t important.”

  “Even then, Jessie was the one who healed you in the car. All I did was drive the fucking thing…but you’re right. You’re right,” he sighed in response, then took a deep breath. “We shouldn’t move him. We should wait for Jessie to recov—”

  Jessie approached the pair sitting next to Erik.

  “I won’t overdo it, I swear,” the Witch said, sitting down beside them. “I’ll just get his recovery started.”

  Jessie breathed as she sat back, releasing Erik from the grip of her hands. She smiled to spur Dunham and Angela as her shoulders relaxed.

  “How are you feeling?” Dunham asked the pale-faced woman.

  “Exhausted. Hungry,” she answered with a slight smile.

  “Once we get Erik back to the car, we’ll drive some distance away and get some food in us,” Angela said. “Do you think we’ll manage without him for a bit?”

  “There were so many beasts here. They must’ve gathered from all over. We should probably be fine,” Jessie guessed. “I’m more worried about what’s going on with him,” she continued, nodding toward the Titan.

  “You’re not talking about his injuries, are you?” Dunham asked.

  “No. His aura is…weird. Weak. He’s also using magic, but he isn’t doing anything with it. It’s like it’s leaking.”

  “You are aware that you are dying, are you not?” asked the armoured Ancestral spirit to Erik, who was deep in concentration while in a meditative position.

  “Do I seem like I don’t?” asked Erik, a bit annoyed. Around him were all the rest of his spirits, also in meditative stances in a circle around him.

  “We can manage this ourselves. You should wake to let your Witch know to focus on your energy regeneration rather than healing you,” Cross Vigor said.

  “She isn’t my Witch. Besides, I’m not even sure I can wake up. I feel a bit disconnected. Might be something to do with the hole in the fabric of my soul,” Erik answered, pointing upwards towards the tear in his mindplace leaking magic into the void.

  “It isn’t a hole in your soul,” Cross argued, not for the first time. “It is your magic core.”

  “My magic core is a part of my soul, isn’t it?”

  “Partially. It connects both your soul and your physical being,” she once more explained.

  “I still have to get the car to the garage if the fuel tank is leaking, you know.”

  “I am not saying it isn’t critical; I am just saying you should stop exaggerating. Also, if you won’t wake up, you should focus rather than talk,” Cross said, her tone hiding a minuscule laugh.

  “Cross Abigail Worthington Vigor! Stop this nonsense you’re doing at once,” Erik said with a grin and refocused on his efforts of healing the tear in his core.

  “You know, Ancestor…there is a way to fix this that wouldn’t reduce us all in this way,” Leviathan said moments later.

  Erik lost his focus again, and asked, “What way? What ‘reducing’?”

  “Leviathan Caress…” Cross gasped like a mother disappointed in her own son and looked at the beast-like spirit with a strict gaze. The beast spirit’s tail waved from side to side, though its eyes were filling with shame. “If he cannot wake up, that is unfeasible either way.”

  “I hate when ‘that’ is used in movies or books without any context from earlier. It’s only to keep the audience too busy guessing to realise the plot hole of not using that much earlier. If it’s foreshadowed in any meaningful way, sure, have at it. But don’t start doing this with me. We don’t have an audience right now,” Erik said in a huff.

  “The Ancestor can surely do it?” Leviathan asked.

  “Oh, you’re ignoring me now?”

  “It goes against the Accords. You know this, Leviathan,” Cross said, shortening the name of the spirit like Erik used to do. It seemed to be uncomfortable for her to do.

  “Yes,” the four-legged spirit said matter-of-factly.

  “Will anyone tell me what we’re talking about here?” Erik interjected again.

  Glom!

  “Except you, Gloom. Thanks, buddy.”

  “The hole can be filled by…absorption,” said Licious.

  “Ignoring the innuendo, all I’d need to do is absorb another spirit?” Erik said, looking up at Cross’ taller figure as she started emanating…something.

  Cross Vigor yelled, “No!”, releasing an aura burst fuelled with a deep-seated rage. Erik grew pale by the power behind it, but more so from the feelings she usually kept to herself.

  “Woah! What’s so bad about it? And how can you do it?” Erik asked, remembering Leviathan’s words.

  Once Cross seemed to have calmed herself somewhat, she answered herself:

  “Absorbing a spirit to fix this kind of damage means sacrificing that spirit. It will have no choice. That is strictly against the Accords, which give all spirits free will. To do it, seeing that you seem incapable of waking up yourself, I could take over your body, for only a few moments. This is also directly opposed to the Accords.”

  “I see. And what do you mean by reducing yourselves by fixing it this way?” Erik gestured at what they all were doing.

  “Repairing this damage will take much from us. It would result in dormancy for quite some time.”

  “Dormancy?”

  “We would…sleep,” Leviathan answered.

  “It would make little difference to you, all things considered. Your power is your own. If this had happened to the Witch, she would never even have noticed,” Cross explained.

  “But you won’t be here?”

  “Correct,” the armoured spirit nodded.

  “Isn’t there a third option? One where no one else gets hurt?” Erik asked, unwilling to harm the spirits that were his friends, nor a stranger spirit who was completely innocent.

  The entire crowd of spirits was silent.

  “Can’t Jessie help heal this?” he asked.

  “She heals the physical body. There is usually no way of healing the magic core except from within it. There are ways to heal the physical, and there are ways to heal the soul. The magic core that acts as a bridge between them is…unreachable,” Cross explained.

  “So get her in here,” Erik suggested. Again, the spirits went silent. “What?” he asked. “Is that possible?”

  “You and the Witch are…close?”

  “Yes?”

  Sovereign looked at Cross, who met his gaze with a nigh imperceptible nod.

  “If this works…” Cross started before pausing for an excruciating amount of time. “Well…” she then said, and vanished.

  “What?” Erik yelled, a tinge of despair in his voice.