'Is there such a thing greater than love, I wonder,' Orvus wandered the Gargantuan Forest, bloody steps behind him and little signs of life. 'If there is, I don't think I want to know about it. Love makes me ambitious and gives me reason to pursue my goals.'. He was covered in black furs, claws were sewn around his neck in order to intimidate any predators, and bones clattering in his hands, tied with the gut of a beast to announce his presence. 'It is because of love, that I am now pursuing their bodies, which I feel so many laying underneath the ground. Broken and ripped as they are, they can still be of use to me.'.
As Orvus made his way through the forest, he noticed the smaller population of shadow lurkers and other predators. 'I figure they must've hunted plenty of them, and have been hunted by them. Should be why I feel so many lights faintly calling to me from the ground.'. Looking around, he finally found the first body. It was one of the siblings he killed during his battle against them. Lying where the wopede parasite killed it. Orvus felt sorry that his sister had to endure the cold forest all alone, where nobody could find her or had the time to.
"I'm sorry sister," Orvus spoke to her, "I can't hear your voice any longer, but I can tell which one you were, most of your light is still with me. So here, have it back for a moment, so we can help each other.'. Orvus pressed his hand against her skull, funnelling his light into her body. "Rise now, we have to save our brothers and sisters.".
And so she did. With a small twitch, then limb by limb she started to move. The light was finding all the abandoned pathways through her veins and bones, making her body come back alive once more. Her eyes had lights in them, but they were lifeless, not moving with her body, fixated forward.
"I can finally speak with someone other than myself," Orvus amused himself, "but I'll put your soul back in its place, once you tell me what upsets you so much you won't speak with me. Or the others.". Orvus waited a few moments, hoping that the light he gave to the body would bring about an answer. But nothing, just silence.
"Very well, if you don't want to talk with me, maybe one of the others will," Orvus told the lifeless body of his sister. "I need all of you either way, whether you talk or not.". And so Orvus went to the next body, and then the next. So on until he soon assembled three hundred Lightborns.
Some he managed to find parts of their lights left, thus only pulling it back into their bodies was enough. Others he had to share from his limited supply with.
"I only need one, so you can have the rest," he spoke with his dead siblings. "This took me a few suns, but I find it worth the hassle. Soon we'll see Kilon and Manna, and unlike last time, I won't be alone fighting them. I'll have you to show!". Orvus was excited by what he accomplished, believing his siblings to be there with him, just not speaking for some reason.
"It's just a shame you're not able to do much, I have to move all of you around, which will greatly weaken me," Orvus was saying, as he did, an idea went through his head. "Of course, wind manipulation, how did I not think of it? Did I just forget? Hopefully it will work with this body.". As he tried to manipulate the winds, it didn't work at first, but then he found his knack for it after a few more attempts.
"Yes, there it is. It's a different sensation from before, but I can grow accustomed to it rather quickly," he said, after which he started to practise some more.
The sight of him manipulating wind as the hollow husks he called siblings watched over, was nothing but sad. Their disjointed, messed and broken bodies had no will of their own. Much like plants, they were working off of the inner mechanisms alone, the light just searching for a way out, trapped inside.
Another night came by, hollow winds and terrible colds with it. Orvus was starting to feel the cold getting closer to his bones, a sign that the weather was changing inside the forest. 'I won't have much longer,' he thought, 'I must leave and find the Link before the cold becomes too much for this body.'. Looking around, only the giant trees remained. Not even the wopede parasites would linger below the crowns. 'Even those critters retreated in some holes elsewhere.'.
It took him a couple suns, but he remembered fully how to manipulate winds with efficiency and power. "This should be all," he announced on deaf ears, "it is time we left. Hopefully we'll never see this forest again.". As he started to leave, he had a lingering sensation of loss. He felt that a piece of him remained behind, but thought little of it, thinking it must've been his flesh body that was longing for its original host.
And so, he began walking towards the Frozen Passage once again. Unlike the first time, he knew what to look for. 'The cracking of the rocks,' he thought, 'the speeding winds. There's a couple foretellers for the events that may follow. None are present now, so we can move forwards without issue.'. With a large step, he left the Gargantuan Forest, small thumps following him, bodies with a lingering resemblance of what they once were stumbling about.
After a couple of suns of travel, Orvus began tasting the salty winds from the sea. While still a good distance away, he was having feelings of expectancy. 'Will I be able to pass it safely? Or should I fear the creature in the depths?'. Thinking back on what he accomplished though, his worries started to vanish a little. 'Then again, it is one of those monsters that I tamed I have to thank for this body,' with a deep breath, he pushed onwards. Despite the fear of death the flesh added on his mind, his resolve was unwavering.
"At last, we're here," Orvus announced to his dead siblings. "Back to where it all began," he stood at the edge of a cliff next to one of the ice portions, which led back to the Shivering Lands. He descended on a gust of wind, wanting to feel the water some.
'Cold, so cold it would be hard to swim around,' he thought, 'hopefully it will offer a good enough advantage if worse comes to pass.". After he took his hand out of the water, he moved his siblings across to the piece of ice.
It would take Orvus five suns to cross the Frozen Passage, during which time he searched for the spot where the disaster occurred. And on the third sun, he found the spot. Two giant pieces of ice that looked odder than the other, "As if turned around" he thought.
Orvus first ensured there were no monsters as before, casting rays of light from his eyes into the water, permeating it deep. While he didn't find a living monster, he found the one Manna defeated, its body still lingering on the ocean floor, thus he presumed some of the bodies of his dead siblings may be around.
'There's at least a few dozen in the waters, possibly hundreds. That would aid me greatly if I manage to pull them all out,' Orvus thought looking at the water. 'Manipulating water, wind and light though, that will prove highly troublesome.'. Trying to figure a way, Orvus looked at his siblings and an idea passed his mind. 'Maybe if I pass on the instructions, they may be able to aid me. Their bodies function without much thinking from them, so it could work.'.
As such, Orvus tested between his siblings various commands and instructions he would imbue into his light and then into them. The lifeless corpses would obey his will in a timely manner, even creating chain reactions that would almost make them seem aware.
'Perfect,' Orvus walked between the corpses, 'a hundred of them, split between wind and light manipulation. All I have to do is bring the bodies near the surface, and they shall pick them up.'.
Orvus then dove into the water, manipulating it around his body while letting his light course through him freely, not afraid of the heat as the water turned to steam around him.
Swirling like an arrow through the cold water, soon the shapes of his siblings turned into specks of light, and then darkness, as he went deeper and deeper. At the bottom, the terrible shape of the monster lay dead, only its head visible as the darkness hid its true size. Orvus saw the wound Manna inflicted on it, which reminded him of how strong his sister can be. How much stronger she must've gotten after they separated.
'It gives all the more reason to me to find those bodies,' he thought, 'and once at the Link, I shall complete them back to their original beauty. All for the purpose of granting eternity to their souls.'. His thoughts were interrupted by the shallow feeling of a light trying to reach the surface from the depths of the water. Orvus followed the sensation until he found one of the dead siblings, their hand reaching still for the life they've been robbed of.
'I'm sorry brother, for the life you could've had,' Orvus thought as he manipulated the water around his body, sending him above. 'But I promise your body shall help the others, that I will ensure.'.
It took Orvus a full sun to find all the bodies he could, a bit over a hundred in number. They were all missing most of their flesh, while their bones were cracked in most places and grinded by the salts and small creatures feeding off of them in the waters. "Not even corpses, these are the mere bones of our brethren," Orvus said with spite, "but bones are what I need to tie flesh to, and then other parts. They are what would take me the longest to make, thus this was very much worth it.".
With a ferocious breeze below his feet, Orvus reached the surface with the corpse of one of his siblings in his arms. The other corpses placed their hands on it, trying to grab it and add it to the bunch, but Orvus got deluded in his idea that his siblings were still alive, and as such, he thought they were trying to embrace his dead brother.
'See? They still love you brother, and I shall help you feel more of that love,' Orvus placed his body on the ground, coursing light through the bones and allowing them to move. 'So let us not linger for long, we move forward.".
Looking into the distance, Orvus had a gut wrenching feeling, what he felt as he passed the Frozen Passage, this time aimed at the Shivering Lands.
'My body can barely hold against the colds of these lands, what awaits before me, is so much worse.'. He was thinking of the winds that could blow one up in the air for hundreds of metres or more, those winds that in the Whistling Valley would grind even stone to dust against the walls.
'Before I was able to use my light at my leisure, now I have to be careful at this body's limits, not to heat it too much or too little,' Orvus then looked at his siblings, 'and I have to ensure they're all going to make it. I don't want to lose a single one of them...'.
Orvus closed his eyes for a few moments, reminding himself why this was all worth the risk. Seeing Manna, Felemous and Eharel fighting so dearly to survive, his siblings united for the simple pursuit of living. The one thing that made him focus, that made him draw courage once more for what will await him, was the face of Kilon smiling. It was after he returned to the Link, Manna asking questions as all the others, creating theories of what could be out there, what wonders could be hidden.
'It's the face I adore and despise the most,' Orvus said with a smile on his face, that vanished as he turned towards his siblings, as if they could see him, 'it's the face that got my heart trembling, making it wander someplace else.'. With a swing of his arm, all of his siblings started marching forward. 'My heart no longer wanders, no longer trembles. For my-our purpose is not to wander alone, but together as one. That is our purpose: to be one unmoving, relentless and unstoppable...a natural calamity of sorts, one that cannot be topped by any others.'.
His march was brought to a halt after he travelled two more suns, finally arriving at the place he once called home. Seeing the impassable storms before him, he brought back into his body the lights of a few dozen of his dead siblings. 'It didn't take me long to understand it,' he thought as the lights started swimming through his pulsating veins and enveloping his bones and cartilages. 'The nature of the flesh bodies that is,' Orvus extended his right, his skin getting scorched and his blood boiling out of it, 'what I couldn't see were similar ways to perform as I once did with my old body, without realizing this body can perform on its own, just differently.'.
From his palm, lights erupted all around, forming in complex structures on which the flesh rapidly grew. In a gruesome explosion of flesh and blood, his hand became twice the size of his body, and with a short breath, Orvus unleashed the power of his lights, swaying the winds left, right and above to create a clear path.
"Sacrifice means pain, and although this pain is immense, there is a greater one if I fail," his hand returned to its initial size from the broken pieces of his giant one. 'All I have to do is expand my body. It's exhausting and painful, but it enables me to manipulate the winds and make use of my lights as I wish.'.
With his method in place, Orvus entered the Shivering Lands, an unstoppable force waiting to meet two others.
'I am close, Kilon, Manna. I hope to see neither, but if I do, I hope I have the necessary strength.'.
'Hmm, seems like all it's going well with this one,' he was pacing between large crystal structures, each floating and bound by strands of lights to the Link. 'This one needs refinement,' he pulled a tool from his pocket, made of two crystals bound by light with a sharp end, inscribing the larger one. 'There, you can sit a while longer'.
Affrax wore clothes made from weaving the light of the Link into fine strands, not moving with the wind but when he willed them to, something which became second nature after a while. He found those much more convenient, doing what the physical counterparts could and more.
His tools were also made of light, crystalized one that is. He was successful in crystalizing the light, now he had to find a way to bind his own soul to the crystals in order to preserve them. It was outside of the initial scope, which was to conserve the memories of his siblings inside those crystals, like a repertoire of sorts.
'It's been a while since I saw them, hopefully I'll have it ready by the time they will arrive,' Affrax kept his hope, his dreams of a better place. That one day Kilon, Manna or Orvus will return with the good news. 'Tomorrow I'll try to move more of my soul into it,' he thought as he stepped away from the Link, a table made of ice and stone he managed to carve was some thirty metres away from the Link. He had various clawbear skulls and starstag antlers there, testing their parts against the crystals if they were to ever enter the Link's zone.
'Let's do it again today,' since he didn't need sleep or rest, Affrax waited for tomorrow by taking notes and drawing. He would write what little observations he had, and then proceed to sketch and draw what he envisioned his life with the others would be like, leaving small notes on the pelt pages with another, finer tool of his that would burn the pelts a little, acting like a pen of sorts.
On that day, he would draw what he imagine a sunrise under a peaceful hill would look like. It was a drawing absent of cold and winds, a clear stone serving as the hill.
'Looks good,' he assured himself, getting lost in the process of drawing. Then his head turned all of a sudden to his left, 'It can't be,' he thought. 'No, there's something wrong, I can tell from here,' Affrax extended his left arm towards the Link, and a weapon manifested from it. He became accustomed to the ways the light of the Link worked, thus he had learn how to manipulate it to some extent.
"Show yourself!" Affrax cried, his weapon, a spear held in both hands, pointed towards where he sensed his brother.
Then, first one by one, by the dozens soon, glowing dots showed in the storm. Affrax could feel the winds being blown away from them and took a more steady position. 'It feels like Orvus, but something is missing, and those I'm sure are the lights of my siblings, but I can't feel their souls.'. Affrax thought as Orvus split the storm as he entered the area of the Link, some hundred metres away from Affrax.
"Brother!" Orvus exclaimed enthusiastically, Affrax not sharing that feeling. "Why are you holding that...what is that?" Orvus never thought, or rather didn't find it useful, to make a weapon out of light like that.
"It doesn't matter, I'm here Affrax! You should have come running towards me, instead you're scared? Why is that?" Orvus stepped closer with those questions.
"Do not approach me Orvus! Or whatever in the Creator's name you are," Affrax's eyes became engulfed by sparks, funneling great powers from the Link inside his body, shedding light almost as much as the Link did, as if he was a spark the Link had by its side.
"Oh, my appearance, I see," Orvus said looking down at his body, his ears covered by the fleshy parts and in his hand the spear made of spikes and tendons and muscle. "I have changed, but it's still me, you can tell by-".
"There are parts of you, yes, but you're missing some too," Affrax's eyes looked at his siblings' corpses. He wanted to cry in pain at the sight, destroy whatever was responsible for it, not knowing his own brother was partially responsible for the grim view. "Something is terribly wrong with you, to drag their corpses here like this.".
Affrax's words seemed to have awakened a sudden rage inside Orvus, as if they were insults and not a fact of reality.
"Corpses?!" Orvus said enraged, his flesh glowing a little as he lost control over his light, "These are our siblings Affrax!". Orvus spread his arms, moving his dead brothers and sisters around the Link, husks making creaking and rotten noises as they struggled to move through the cold.
Affrax gripped his spear with intensity and grunted, then threw it through the skull of one of his dead siblings. The spear passed through without issue, but the corpse was still standing, Affrax feeling like it proved his point quite well.
Orvus, however, took it as Affrax trying to insult his understanding of things.
"I know they're not like they used to be, but it's still them," Orvus insisted, "their souls are in place, they're just silent to me, but maybe they will speak to you. So stop this, and let us rejoice for meeting again.". Orvus stepped closer, to which Affrax responded by forming and throwing another spear before his feet.
"I will not hesitate next time, I will pin you down and find out why they're all dead, and why you're this way," Affrax threatened, forming more spears, this time they were floating all around him.
Orvus hoped he could talk some more with one of his siblings, but was also glad. 'Neither Manna nor Kilon are here, so all I have to do is fight and save him,' Orvus thought, moving his fingers in a manner Affrax couldn't see, puppeteering his siblings all around to launch an assault.
'Although, he grew rather strong during the time we were gone, and then there's those large crystals.'.
Orvus paced himself to the left and right, looking for angles and ways to attack him. Affrax could tell he had something in mind, so he used his light to enhance his senses as best as he could, using the Link to spread his light in various places. And he found more of those corpses, surrounding the outer edges of the Link.
"Is there no other way, Orvus? No explanations you're willing to give me? Just...fighting after so long?".
"We can talk plenty after Affrax," Orvus established his plan in his head, "as long as you're not going to be silent like all of them, as long as you can see why this is for your own good.".
Affrax was confused by his words a little, then a creeping thought went through his head. 'Is he the one responsible for this?!'. And, because of that moment of uncertainty, Orvus took it as an opportunity, using his flesh body to layer muscles on his legs, he leaped forward like a wild beast. Affrax quickly tossed his spears one after another, Orvus, by enhancing his mind with light, avoided left and light, one spear managing to scrape and burn some of his flesh.
Enhancing his own mind with light, Affrax kept his awareness to a full, looking for all the corpses' positions. After noticing a few approaching from behind and his right side, he called to him one of the crystals, Orvus some fifty metres away as he did that. And, by putting his hands on it, the crystal started to crack down the middle, soon broken into smaller pieces.
Orvus realised at once what he was going to do, covering his head and body with his hands, stretching skin, bone and flesh to form an organic shield.
Then, Affrax fragmented one of the broken pieces and launched them in a straight path towards Orvus, Affrax's light trailing behind as it continuously sped them up. Orvus' defence, while good, was broken and pierced instantly, Orvus feeling those fragments passing through his body like a thousand little spears.
Affrax broke down another few pieces, doing the same towards his dead siblings that were sneaking up on him. So sharp and strong were the fragments, that the ten corpses approaching him broke down into small pieces, disjointed and cut through.
"I have a hundred crystals placed all around the Link, each of them supply me with power, information and can become, as you can see, tools of destruction when I wish so," Affrax stated proudly as he closed the distance between him and Orvus, not realising what he was capable of. "If you want to die a miserable death brother, I can provide that," Affrax stated, feeling a dozen or so more corpses moving around, but were at a safe distance for the moment. "Or you can tell me what happened, and maybe I'll even spare you, but you'll have to let go of them and their lights, let them rejoin the Link as they're supposed to.".
Being a mere dozen metres from Affrax, Orvus could almost grasp for it, his light that is. 'Deception is not my strong suit,' Orvus thought, 'but I have their lights, so perhaps I can fool him in some other way.'.
"I am weak, Affrax," Orvus seemed to admit, Affrax watching the way his light and soul were responding to his words. "I led our siblings into death, made them suffer more than they should've.". Orvus let the corpses hit the ground, allowing the lights of his dead siblings to flow back into him. Affrax prepared for anything he may try, but then saw Orvus simply extending his hand towards him.
"I cannot defeat you, nor is there a point to it," Affrax watched intently, and couldn't see his light waver, or his soul. "So here, take them, you can take care of them now. And one day, when the others will show up, you can take care of them too.".
Affrax was hesitant at first, but took a few steps closer, seeming to trust him somewhat. He was thinking on his doubts earlier, that his brother may have been the one who killed them, but that was swayed by the image of a family he no longer had. Imagining that maybe there was a chance for it. Although, after he got closer, he stopped when a thought flashed his mind.
"What do you mean take care of them Orvus? You truly think their souls are present-" before he had time to finish, Orvus jumped forward, bones breaking as he was bleeding from all over. Affrax was caught off guard, so by the time he could regain composure, Orvus got close enough to drag Affrax's ligth into his body.
Affrax felt his control over the crystals fading, as his strength left his body and his clothes made of light started to fade. He managed to just barely put a bit of distance between them, but the corpses came back alive, running towards him and throwing themselves at him. Affrax was looking for a solution as fast he could, and only one seemed in sight.
Before he knew it, Affrax was below rotten corpses, then held up by them, Orvus almost completely having taken over his light. "We didn't have to fight Affrax," Orvus said as he stood up, closing the holes in his body and expelling all the blood filling his lungs. "But it was necessary in order for me to pursue my goals, and save you.".
"Save me?!" Affrax found it preposterous, "This is not saving me Orvus, and you should know it. This is dooming me to death!". Affrax managed to grasp his attention, using the little light he had, he formed a connection between him and one of the crystals.
"I'm sorry you can't see it either Affrax, but I promise you, there is salvation through my actions. You just have to let me take control, place you in the right place and make use of your powers and knowledge as best as I can.". Affrax was listening only so much to what he was saying, feeling his light fading from his body, he had to focus on the light attached to the crystal.
Affrax only managed to tell Orvus that "You can take control, you can have my body, my light and even my soul...but my knowledge? I will not allow it, for I know only doom will follow for my brethren," Affrax's eyes lost their lights the next moment, Orvus looking at his light realising what he had just done, as Affrax's soul carrying all his knowledge moved inside the crystal. The crystal then seemed to attract all the others, forming a cluster at the center of the Link and fusing together.
The product of that fusion was a perfect, giant crystal, serving as a prison one cannot break out of or into.
Orvus instinctively tried to reach for it, only to be reminded that his body was made of flesh and not light any longer, as his hand got molten as he tried to reach inside the Link.
'You have defeated me brother,' Orvus admited to himself, 'but I also won.'. Orvus sat down, looking at his hand that he was tying back together with muscle and flesh. 'It will only take longer, but I will see this through, and reach the end of this painful story. And the Creator's power is what will fuel that ambition.'.
Orvus gathered the corpses of his siblings around him, and so he began a slow process of rebuilding their bodies properly. He first had to learn how to manipulate the lights from inside the Link properly, something which he thought impossible until he saw Affrax, 'Which means it's all a matter of time,' he thought. Then, he had to make the bodies act almost out of their own will, with his orders in mind, 'Something which also will take some time.'. After which, he only needed to regain greater degrees of power, 'Which requires me to understand the crystalization process better,' he thought.
And when all the pieces would come together, Orvus would become a 'Natural calamity, one which cannot be stopped or tempered with. One which can fight the world and grant eternity...one eternal storm to destroy them all.'.15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIJDtExbair
