PreCursive

  I stood alone in the darkened shadow of my home that Rhazal had jured into being, with Tzo’s staff as my only panion. Creeping in from out of the er of my eye, a dense fog of thick bck smoke was rolling along the empty hills beyond the copy of my neighborhood that Rhazal had created. Within that murk, I saw tless familiar forms of Revenants f from the corrupted Aether of their progenitor, stalking bad forth. Faint howls echoed out of the gloom that skulked along cracked asphalt.

  But I wasn’t afraid.

  The Lich could talk as much as he wanted about how my as were foolish, and I just might have doomed myself.

  But I didn’t regret them one fug bit. Anyone, or anything, that wanted me to it betrayal on a pary scale could go and die.

  And I inteo make that a promise.

  I grit my teeth and picked up Tzo’s staff from where I had dropped it during my attempted camitous assassination, and gripped it firmly in my one remaining fist.

  Something odd happehen.

  Even though I had discarded my dagger after my atta Rhazal, I hadn’t dropped my mental hold on The Stilnt Bde. I wasn’t expeg anything to happen when I touched the stave, as the Skill explicitly only worked on bded ons.

  But not now.

  The minute my hand touched the Liches ebony staff, the amber sto its apex lit up in a familiar cascade of rainbow fire. Startled, I didn’t even think to let go of the fming staff as the bze on the cap began to grow and grow and GROW.

  For the first time, The Stilnt Bde was w on something other than a bde.

  And it was only growing stronger.

  In moments, I held a staff upon which a massive tower of prismatic fme rose like a boo the sky wisping bad forth. It lit up the darkened surroundings of the facsimile around me like a lighthouse pierg the storm. The Rhazalian smoke that had been writhing dowreets of this wastend ceased moving, and the suddenly illuminated forms of the Revenants within uedly shied away from the stilting light that I cast.

  Through the fmes, I saw the core of the amber glow a familiar green. “What…is this?” Tzo whispered into the sileny mind. “I feel…I FEEL…for the first time in decades. A warmth that pierces the f chill of death.” He paused for a moment. “I don’t like it.”

  “I…don’t know,” I said over the roar of the fmes, fused. “I’m just as lost as you. This Skill…it’s not meant to work with staves.”

  I didn’t get to marvel at my own oddly behaving Skill.

  Rhazal was not to be stymied.

  A rumble echoed through the murk of the dissolving Texan neighborhood, and the Godbound

  YOUR FLAMES WILL NOT AVAIL YOU, PRECURSOR.

  THEY ARE KNOWN TO ME.

  The great crimson eye in the sky that had repced the summer sun suddenly shined. A crimson sheen suddenly wisped its way through the smoke of Rhazal’s darkness. The screams and cries of the Revenants that stalked inside of it transformed, growing deeper and more humanlike. Revenants that had padded on four scaled feet within suddenly stood upon two legs, evolving rapidly. Where before had been the familiar forms of the winged beast that had been assaulting Elderwyd Ttec, suddenly they were more than that.

  All of them to the st had transformed into the elevated forms of the Revenant that Baldric had sacrificed himself to kill. The form of the beast that had takehing from a turies old master assassin.

  Through the smoke suddenly illuminated by an ominous sanguine light, I could see hundreds of them. I don’t think even Grey could handle a force like this, not even with the help of Honoka.

  But…

  I still wasn’t afraid. I knew I couldn’t hope to fight these off on my own. I would have to be suddenly strohan my owaining hundreds and hundreds of levels in an instant.

  Luckily…I wasn’t alone.

  Anht suddenly shown through the darkness from behihe silverly light that cast my own form in shadow before me was a familiar one, after all.

  I turned, and beheld what I knew was going to be there.

  Pierg through the murk of the Godbound, on the opposite side of the sky from the crimson eye of Rhazal, was shining silver moon. Not just any moon, though.

  Elys.

  Shining as brightly as I had ever seen her, she floated full and heavy on the horizon.

  A new voice sang through the gloom. This one was feminine, cool, and familiar to me in a way that was incredibly relieving. Simir to how Rhazal projected his voito the world, this one spoke directly to the soul as well. A, it wasn’t half as harsh as the Camity’s was. It didn’t crush down on my spirit in the way that his did.

  Instead, it was almost soothing.

  You have erred, abomination. You should never have allowed the child into this realm.

  A sun suddenly bzed into the being to the right of Elys, mighty and powerful. It shone brighter than anything else in this realm, casting fiery rays of light into the now much brighter realm. The evolved Revenants that Rhazal had jured into being shied away from this light even more than they had that of Elys, screeg in fear. Another voice echoed through what Tzo had called the cord, strong, mase, and most of all…

  Proud.

  For so many years, you dared to cast your disgusting shadow over that of my glorious form.

  I ot even begin to describe how much I’ll enjoy this.

  That uh…that must be Tarus. I suppose it wasn’t surprising that he was a Greater Spirit just like Elys had turned out to be. The Sun and the Moon were iwined, after all. He sure sounded….

  Well, pissed off.

  Two more forms emerged from the mist that Rhazal had cast over this space. The first was that of a gigantic mountain, rising from the earth to tower between the illuminated forms of the Sun and the Moon. The jagged peak of the thing almost gleamed in the light cast upon it, and that gleam almost looked to be gl out at the world.

  The sed was that of a wave, furious and roiling as it rose to join the mountain. The darkened waters of the wave were painted with a froth that ed endlessly in the flig light of the cord around me. In its depths, I swear that I saw the forms of innumerable titanic fish, gnashing with long, jagged teeth.

  From the mountain came the voice of an older man, tired, ky, a firm as the pilrs that bound creation. It grumbled out into the world, sending shockwaves through the ground I stood upon.

  THAT I SHOULD BE AWOKEN FOR SUCH A THING…

  A tempestuous voice cut in then, feminine and treacherous as the sea. Within it, I could hear a deep, deep rage, bound only by the whims of its owner. It gave the impression that at any moment, it could turn on the world and drown it for amusement’s sake alone.

  E NOW. IF THERE IS ANYTHING THAT WE ARE BOUND TO DEAL WITH, IT IS THIS USURPER AND HIS DOUBLE-CROSSING MISTRESS.

  “Orus and Neris. The Land and The Sea,” Tzo whispered to me, from the depths of the bonfire I was still casting. He sounded shocked. “I thought they were dead. They haven’t been heard from in over a millennium. Not since…” I almost got the sehat the Lich was shaking his head to cut himself off. “If four of the Great Spirits are here, then…”

  As he spoke, something else cut through the gloom. This wasn’t a grand shape that pierced through the darkness like the illumination of Elys or Tarus, nor was it the titanis of Orus or Neris.

  No, this was more subtle.

  Winding its way through the darkened mist was another kind. A soft greehat crept through the murk, almost appearing to dance around it, carpeting the world in its gentle embrace. When it reached me, it curled around my feet almost fondly. At its touch, I felt rejuvenated, almost plete way in defiance of all my troubles over the st few days. It almost seemed like both my weary body and soul were being healed by the mist.

  A voice whispered, then, g and motherly. It wasn’t broadcasting out into the world, and it didn’t seem like it was talking to either Rhazal or the reat Spirits.

  This was meant for me.

  Don’t worry, Nathan. You’re not alone.

  We’ll have this sorted out soon.

  “Great Anima…the Font of Life,” Tzo whispered reverently. It almost sounded like the Lich was as close to tears as he could e. “That you should e now, at the brink of disaster. You DO still care, Whisperer…”

  Whisperer…

  That tickled something in the bay mind, but I had no time to chase the memory. ‘Anima’ spoke again, this time to the Lich. Whoever they were, they sounded almost fondly exasperated with him.

  I will always e, Rafael. Even for those who have cast off their flesh.

  Tzo sounded he took a deep breath then, even though he was just a disembodied spirit. “Fet you heard that name,” He said to me almost warningly. “It has long since been cast off.”

  Already fotten, ‘Rafael’.

  Almost absently-mindedly, I finally let go of The Stilnt Bde, causing the t spire of rainbow fme to wink out. Whatever had happened with the Skill…it seemed to have do’s job.

  Besides, it wasn’t nearly the brightest thing in this spaymore.

  Rhazal finally respoo the appearance of the Great Spirits, here in his very own realm. A note of pure fury entered his voice, and the single enormous crimson eye in the sky pulsed brighter.

  INTERLOPERS!

  YOU DARE CHALLENGE ME IN MY OWN DOMAIN?!

  Tarus was the oo answer him.

  Of course we do. You still dare to exist, after all.

  And you fet yourself, abomination, Elys tinued.

  Your mistress and her ilk thought to blend the camitous and the spiritual when they crafted you.

  That rightfully pces you under our purview.

  However, the gods were always so careful to keep your kind from our reach. But now…

  YOU’VE PLACED YOURSELF RIGHT IN THE PALM OF OUR HANDS.

  AND SO WE SHALL PASS JUDGMENT.

  Neris and Orus sounded out, sounding delighted and grim, respectively.

  Rhazal actually growled, an almost lizard-like sound that emanated in waves across the realm, rattling my bones.

  HOW ARE YOU EVEN HERE?

  MY MISTRESS SAW TO IT THAT MY DOMAIN WAS LOCKED TO YOU!

  Anima finally pitched into the greater versation, her voice mog Rhazal in trast to the f tone she had spoken to Tzo and I in.

  You still haven’t guessed, abomination?

  It was the child.

  Their fmes, amplified by the soul-stave of another, acted as a bea. Without him, we would have never found our way in.

  But now…

  Tarus fihe exge, sounding maliciously excited.

  It is the end for you, shadow.

  At that, all of the Great Spirits acted at ohey surged in power to aent that I would have been crushed, if I wasn’t being shielded. Anima had covered me in her green mist, shielding me from the colossal powers fring before me, even as she attacked as well. Surges of pure, destructive Aether emanated from each of the Spirits, maing as representations of their selves.

  Sc silver moonlight from Elys and scorg hot rays of fire from Taru impacted the eye of Rhazal, sending him reeling back with a chiropteran screech of pain. Great spires of stone from Orus, taller than any tower, speared into the rapidly coalesg full form of the Godbound, while razor-sharp whips of sea brine flehe scales from his spiritual bones. At the same time, the mist that Anima had coated the world in swallowed all of the Revenants that Rhazal had birthed, dissolving them instantly. That same mist, what seemed to be a direct ter to Rhazals own, began to creep up and devour him as well.

  But Rhazal wasn’t done.

  A shockwave echoed from the fully maed form that I’d seen t over Elderwyck, knog away the strengths of the Great Spirits. In the brief moment of respite that he was granted, he bellowed out into the void.

  ENOUGH!

  YOU SAY I AM UNDER YOUR PURVIEW?!

  THEN I ACCEPT IT!

  I KNOW YOUR RULES, WISPS! I KNOW HOW YOU ARE BOUND!

  I DEMAND MY RITE!

  Instantly, the attacks against the Godbound from the Great Spirits ceased. But it didn’t seem to be voluntary. I could almost feel the strain that they were under, as they tried to tiag Rhazal. After a moment, however, they ceased, albeit relutly.

  Elys was the first to speak, coldly.

  Very well then, abomination. You shall have your ritual.

  Who do you challenge, for your Rite of bat?

  Rhazal’s great crimson eyes fell ohen, full of furious malice from stories above me in the distance. I shivered at the regard he pe.

  HE WHO LED YOU TO THIS PLACE.

  THE PRECURSOR.