GREY

The Death Lycan

Grey’s will had no effect on the witch. Like Ryssera, Grey had developed an affinity to everything that had killed him during his trials. He could manipulate sun fire to vaporize the knights and Ryssera, but she would just use it to strengthen herself upon her resurrection. Grey realized he had not thought things through, possibly because some emotions had distracted him.

“Did the Sentient ever tell you about me?” Ryssera asked, pulling back the cowl from her face. She did not look young, and neither did she look old. Her face was grim and pale, her hair a fiery red. One of her eyes shone an ominous purple, the other was a bright silver that sparked with life. She had strange inscriptions on both of her cheeks, and her nose was pierced with a silver ring.

“I was a harbinger like you,” Ryssera explained. “I was part of the Sentient’s will, until I broke free and became my own being. You do not have to do what he asks. You have the power over death, you can do whatever you please without consequence.”

“Can I?” Grey asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow. He evoked a rotting spell, at which Ryssera just laughed. It did not affect the corrupted knights either, but they did not attack him.

“I offer you a chance to work with us. I will not take away your will. Whatever you desire, I will grant it.”

“Can you kill me, then?” Grey asked, though he knew the answer to that.

The question took Ryssera by surprise, but her face betrayed nothing.

“So you are him,” she said, stretching her arm forth. Something writhed under her palm, and within that very instance, a powerful force hurled Grey away and through the far wall, breaking the masonry and crumpling his body to a pile of broken bones. Ryssera walked into the street, and her puppets followed. A few people had opened their doors to see the source of the abrupt noise.

“Saves me the trouble. I won’t have to hunt for you now.”

Grey reconstructed his body, mending his broken limbs and ruptured organs. It barely took a blink to do so, but after reviving s***h and Sight, his strength had weakened significantly. Ryssera dug her nails into his neck and lifted him off the ground with little effort.

“Unleash that beast,” she said. “Make this more challenging.”

Grey’s body shivered. Ryssera was siphoning death essence off him. Before this, he had never thought that such a thing was possible, and the more the woman took, the more he felt her power growing. He had few options to go with. He was certain morphing into the death lycan would obliterate his foe, but why did she want that? He held on to his form and endured the mild discomfort that was quickly turning into pain.

Ryssera sifted through his mind, manipulating his thoughts to drive him to anger. Grey gritted his teeth. Visions of his first death flashed in his mind, along with the deaths of the children he had tried to save that day. He saw them screaming in the scorching flames, crying for the help that never came. Even so, he held on to indifference. Ryssera tossed his powerless body on the cobblestone.

Grey felt his ribcage breaking. Blood trickled out of his nose and mouth. He felt vulnerable and weak. He felt… mortal. The other part of his existence growled from within, demanding release. He had nothing to lose if he allowed it to exist, but a part of him still cared for humans. If he lost control…

Slowly, his body repaired itself. He managed to get to his hands and knees, then, with laborious effort, he stood. Ryssera confronted him. In her grasp she held Liara, who was bound by a strong evil spell that she could not even speak. Why had she stayed? Liara was a reaper, not a fighter. She could fight any forms of natural death, but beings of another existence could easily overpower her with skills that she could not comprehend. Ryssera sucked death essence from the poor girl. As Grey watched, Liara’s form started to shrink.

“I thought you could use some inspiration, but it’s no use,” Ryssera said, at which she snapped Liara’s neck and released her. Liara’s body stiffened, and she fell to the ground, her form shrinking into a charred corpse that quickly decomposed to bones. Before long, the bones withered into dust and blew away in the night breeze.

Grey could not believe his own eyes. Was it even possible to kill a harbinger? He felt something strange stirring within him. He found it hard to breathe. His vision was starting to blur, and the world was slowly spinning around him. He fell to his knees.

“How could you?” Grey said quietly, feeling the hollow of Liara’s absence consuming him from within. Liara had always followed him. She had been there from the beginning of his life as a harbinger. He never told her, but to him she was a guardian angel, a glimpse of sunlight in his world of never-ending nights. She had not grown yet, and she needed more time to know more about life. Ryssera had deprived her of that chance. She had no right.

“How could you?” Grey yelled on top of his lungs. The smile that played on Ryssera’s lips fueled the long-buried hate within his being.

Grey's spine arched forward, causing him to fall on his hands and knees as the beast within him took form. His muscles rippled and twisted, and some thick black fur sprouted out of his skin. His forehead receded inward and his nose stretched, forming a lupine muzzle. His clothes ripped off to shreds as his stature grew.

Slowly, the death lycan rose, letting out a splitting howl that chilled the blood of anyone within earshot. A lot of souls were separated from their bodies within the village, and since Liara had been killed, another harbinger had to be sent to harvest them. Ryssera could have contracted the souls, but she had so much on her hands.

The lycan pounced at her. She never blinked, but in that very instant it had closed the distance. Using her swift reflexes, she dashed aside, but not before her arm was ripped off by a rake of wicked talons to the shoulder.

Pain gnawed into her flesh, and her blood poured out freely. Ryssera's eyes grew wide; she was not regenerating.

The lycan turned towards her once more, its fiery red eyes hungry for life. Its sharp canines flashed as it snarled, preparing to finish its prey. Ryssera unleashed her entire reserve of power. Dark essence filled her veins, and it formed dark scales on her skin, creating an armor that no earthen blade could pierce. A narrow longsword writhed into form in her hand. She channeled her essence into it, lighting up the strange inscriptions that ran up its surface a deadly violet.

"Fine then," she said. "Let's dance."

The lycan charged. Its speed and agility was far beyond the measure of time. If not for Ryssera's ability to teleport, she could have been decapitated instantly. Even then, as she materialized within a fraction of time, the lycan's maw snapped at her neck. Once again, she warped away, but the lycan was not giving her enough time to react. If she allowed the creature to kill her, there was a good chance she would fail to resurrect once the core of her soul was destroyed. She had to think, and fast, for the next moment was going to be her last if her reflexes responded an instant too late.

Ryssera had provoked something that she could not contain. The lycan was not a creature to be tamed or reasoned with, but all she needed was one clean strike with her blade, and that immense power would be hers. Yet, if she attacked, she would open herself to assault as well. That was a transaction she could not afford to pay. The lycan drove her further away from the village, into a woodland of pines, following her swiftly each time she used spacial magic to teleport out of harm's way.

A brief moment was required to channel enough power to teleport a relatively safe distance, but that momentary pause was all the lycan needed. Ryssera was cornered. Feeling somewhat desperate, she released infernal instance, turning the forest into living hell and cremating everything in her sphere of influence.

The death lycan walked through the searing blue flames, absorbing the heat to strengthen itself. Ryssera felt claws ripping her stomach open. Before she reacted, her fibula crunched. The lycan had latched its teeth into her shin, poisoning her with death essence. It nullified her dark essence, severing her ability to channel it and leaving her a mortal being. Her resurracts, who had struggled to keep up with the fight from the very beginning, collapsed where they stood as their souls were abruptly released from their contract.

For the first time in her existence as the emissary of the Fallen, Ryssera faced certain death. The lycan liften its head. Her knee socket popped and the flesh surrounding it stretched until it tore as the lycan ruthlessly pulled at it with its jaws. Ryssera could not stifle an involuntary cry that tore from her lips. She was in pain, and it was only just beginning. The lycan was going to tear every limb from her body and devour her alive.

I'm sorry, she thought. I failed you once again.

A powerful light flashed across Ryssera's vision. A heavy force hit the lycan and hurled it back, but it quickly recovered and rolled back to its hands and feet. It growled as it stood, assessing its new adversary.

There was nothing much to see. A body of light moved closer to Ryssera and seemed to look down at her incapacitated form. It reached down, just as the lycan advanced, and clasped her remaining arm. The lycan charged, mouth wide open, and in a flash of light — even faster than the lycan — the form warped Ryssera out of death's way.

Ryssera lay on a cold floor, coughing on her own blood. Two of her limbs were missing, her intestines spilling out. Her power had been consumed by the death lycan, thus she could not heal herself. She was as good as dead.

The form of light that had saved her dimmed, and in its place was a slim young woman. Her eyes were a clear blue and her hair was so white, like a celestial being's. But as Ryssera watched, a magical veil turned the woman's hair black, and all her radiance was replaced by a dull aura.

"I am impressed you managed to survive that long against such a fiend," the woman said. "You've earned my respect. The empress will see you now."