by B L Barkey
Two more dark ones appeared from the waters, arising on pillars. They must have created the water-walls, she thought. They must have understanding of water and its phases. She killed them both with one void, spawning it in between them to crack their skulls together. As they faded away, their walls collapsed and crashed into massive ocean waves.
She caught herself with void pairs and continued forward. Yet now there were five dark ones surrounding her. She slayed another and another. Four more took their places, keeping the momentum of their relentless assault. They had tracked her down, anticipating her escape. Which was exactly what she wanted. Poor fools, she thought, grinning.
Many would die by her hand, sent to their chosen eternities of torment. She was walking the fine line of duty and enjoyment. It felt good to use her powers without restraint. Even so, she held back her greatest technique, for to use it would mean breaking a promise to herself. The technique was dangerous. It was powerful and effective, yes. But more than this, it was addicting. It had remnants of the old world. It held within it the ancient ways of temptation.
Though these ways will return as Morningstar grows stronger, I must resist it as long as I can. The old desire rose up within her, speaking kind words of weighted reason. This might be my end anyway, she thought. Why shouldn’t I use it?
Far ahead, she spun an atmospheric torrent. She created a void, then displaced this pressure to another point nearby. She held this differential, creating a vortex as the atmosphere sought equilibrium. She did this with two pieces of her segmented mind, initiating the first phase of her forbidden technique.
She had learned to liken this to playing musical instruments. When she was a mortal child, it had been difficult to play two parts of the same song at once, using two hands and two parts of the mind. Yet she had learned and practiced it relentlessly. Now, it was like she played ten different songs, each with a different hand of her mind, all with perfect tone and timing. Unique. Unbridled. Unified.
And as she picked up speed, her mind split into ten parts, weaving amidst one another with coursing elation. Two parts built momentum in the vortex. Four parts followed the movements of the strongest dark ones on her tail. The remaining four parts each followed three lesser dark beings. Sixteen beings were following her now, and more were coming. So many… she thought. Morningstar is growing strong.
She fought a wave of despair, keeping it from clouding her mind. She segmented the feeling to an eleventh part of her mind, then snuffed it out. I am quickly approaching that which I swore never to do again. Every piece of mind is one step closer.
She continued to create voids at her front and back while a third one sustained the void armor encasing her crystalized body. This allowed her to move past velocities that would shatter mortal bones. Vibrations coursed within her sinews, yet her body held strong. At the same time, she saw the bodies of the lesser beings collapse, tumbling and then disintegrating into the storm.
She whirled within her element. She was the wind. She juked side to side, up and down, avoiding attacks from the lower beings. Some of the dark ones were only aiding in the movements of the other dark puppets. Each used their own strengths, their teamwork commendable despite their loathing for one another. For no dark being could truly care for another.
A lightning bolt struck her from behind, ripping at her cheek. It cut through her void and crystal, summoning blood from her veins. She cried out from instinct, then reinforced her protective void. A wielder of energies, too? I’m flattered.
She spotted the one who had struck her. Within his group, he was second strongest in his understanding. She could feel a stronger being hiding behind the others. Gwen searched as she twisted through the air, then found her. The woman was the one moving them and protecting them with her own understanding of voids. The master puppeteer. She would be the one rewarded for the killing of another Litiguh, should they succeed. So Gwen would first destroy this one’s puppets and toys. She would be incredible with this Stone, Gwen thought. Too bad she chose the wrong side. As well as the wrong Litiguh to mess with.
Gwen increased her speed and veered towards her atmospheric vortex. It was coming along as predicted, opening an eye in the atmosphere to summon the void of space. The dark ones had limited foresight. Gwen knew this from experience. It was all happening too fast for them to notice the vortex. Even the master puppeteer was too focused on her prey to sense it.
She took another hit, crying more loudly than warranted. A being of wrath shrieked with pleasure, using gravity to increase Gwen’s weight. Her time became warped, allowing the dark ones to close the distance. This will work just fine, she thought.
Closer they drew to the vortex. She split another part of her mind, causing a sharp pain in her skull. She was reaching her limits. Too close to breaking my promise. She used the new part of her mind to summon her own understanding of gravity, which was the realm of the Fourth Creation Stone. She counteracted the increased gravity on herself, allowing her to accelerate and lure the dark ones further.
Another being burst from the waters. It was a great leviathan ripped from the torrential depths of the abyss. Its natural plating was miraculous, covered with dead coral it had collected for years. And fused in its head, pierced into its flesh, was a wielder of animals. One who understands the Stone of Dominion. The worst of their kind.
The beast had countless fins, all which now spanned outwards and filled with air, puffing up like leather balloons and slowing its descent. But no, she thought. It’s not falling at all. She noticed three others focusing on the leviathan. They were holding the beast in place with their understanding of gravity, and possibly voids.
She knew that wild beasts were only wielded spirits, lacking the desire to do evil, while still used for such purposes. This included the leviathan before her, though its cold and cracking flesh seemed to ooze with malice. Its appearance is also a sign of its wielder. A physical manifestation of a corrupted soul. Renewed strength poured into her, driving her thoughts and momentum forward. I must free it.
Gwen threw a strong void ahead, casting herself sideways just in time to escape the jaws of the possessed leviathan. She placed another void, tossing herself towards the flesh of the beast. She landed on one of its outstretched fins which stood firm and bulbous under her weight.
Her feet were bare as they touched the leviathan’s skin, reminding her of crusted sponges. She held back disgust as she angled her body with voids and ran along its skin, passing fin after fin. She knew where best to strike the beast. She had slayed possessed leviathans before.
As she rushed forward, several other dark ones stood in her way. Another dark one who understood energy appeared behind her, then connected the spaces between raindrops with lightning. Simultaneously, several sharp rods hurtled towards her. She identified them as bits of iron ore, taken from stone by those who understood metals. They are trying to spear me with these metals, then connect the amplified electricity with raindrops, she thought. Impressive.
She did several things at once then, splitting her mind into four more parts. This limited her foresight further, while granting her greater insight in the current moment. It was something she had first learned to do as a human, to use when things became… challenging.
She placed small voids on the outsides of the iron rods, pulling them off their course. They whipped past her, the metal cold on her flesh. She swiped kicks at two of the rods, sending them back towards her pursuers. The spears pierced two separate beings, pinning them deep into the flesh of the leviathan.
At the same time, she used her own heightened understanding of phases to freeze the surrounding water droplets into solids. They pelted against her like hail, tinkling on her crystal form. They would have torn at the void-shield surrounding her, but she had already lowered that defense. Here is my chance. She focused her understanding of gravity upon herself, slowing her perception of time.
A lightning bolt connected with her crystalized form. Just then, within a time windo
w of one-millionth of a second, she reshaped her void-shield around her body. This contained the electricity within the space directly around her, channeling it like a ferocious river.
Naturally, this was far more dangerous than any river by at least a thousand-fold. Pure energy was difficult to control. But with little to lose, she pulled it off with reckless confidence and imagination, causing it to course around her. She flashed a menacing smile as lightning bolts sparked between her teeth. The look of the two dark ones before her confirmed what she had hoped. She was truly a sight to behold.
She held the electricity around her, bouncing it between crystal and void, while taming it with her own understanding of energy. She took back three pieces of her mind, containing the electricity into a steady, pulsing blue. She felt a spike of confidence, a side-effect she knew often accompanied the power of energy. She dispelled it with humble thoughts as she drifted forward.
She felt a tug on her electric body. The dark wielder of energy sought to take back the electricity coursing around her. Gwen allowed him to pull, launching her body in his direction. She connected a sharp kick to his jugular while creating a void within his gasping mouth. His head imploded as she bounced from him.
She was close. She could feel the thrumming of its leviathan heart. And then, she saw it. The mark of where the darkling was controlling the leviathan. A dark being with understanding in the dominion of animals and plants. This was a rare skill amongst dark ones, for to understand dominion, while simultaneously using them for darkness, could only be done by a truly evil heart. She felt both impressed and disgusted as she hurtled towards him. She gathered bits of water around herself, further increasing her momentum voids.
She crashed against the head of the leviathan which held the infused dark being. She channeled the electricity within her void-shield into this one point, while condensing her gathered water into a liquid spike. She opened up the void around her to let the energy out, all while increasing the protective void around the rest of her crystal form. She pressed herself further into the creature by placing three more voids above her.
At the same time, several iron spears approached from behind. She seized them and directed them into the point of energy, amplifying the blast. Her head screamed as her mind split further to reach sixteen parts.
Sound collapsed at this same point, then expanded in a massive physical wave that ripped limbs from lesser dark beings. The leviathan rippled in its flesh from this singular point, as if a meteor had crashed into a lake. The dark one controlling the leviathan disintegrated within the organs of the beast. The monster let out a screech that pushed many of them further back, including Gwen. She allowed it to happen, arcing herself into the air.
She apologized to the leviathan in her heart, wishing it a gentle transition to the next realm. All of this had required her devoted concentration. It had caused her to lose sight of the next wave of attacks.
A spear of ore pierced her left calf, then shocked her nerves with amplified energy. She cried and bled, yet tightened her fists and pushed on. To the vortex. It is time. My promise reaches its end. Two more spears flew by, scratching her protective shell. She spotted those who had thrown the weapons, then tossed them back using voids. It looked as if she didn’t want them to follow her.
This would make sense to even the strongest dark one there, that puppeteer of voids. Her hold on them is incredible. Perhaps she is possessing the animal within them as well, wielding both voids and dominion, she thought. The puppeteer held a tangible craving for the kill. She followed Gwen with relentless fervor, a burning hunger to devour a creature of radiant light. With a flourish, she closed in on her prey.
Gwen smiled. It was her last smile in her mortal body. The master puppeteer saw the expression, and faltered.
It is time to break my promise. Her thought echoed in the sixteen pieces of her mind. She released the final barrier on her power. It would destroy her. She knew that. In the past, her Creation Stone allowed her to traverse between the spiritual and physical realms. She even walked between the realms of dreams. But using her full power now would weaken her bond with the Creation Stone.
She had done it once before. In her training, she had successfully separated her mind into three parts. This was years ago, when she had first learned the technique. Then she remembered the thought coming into her head, as if a future-self had whispered her the secret. Perhaps it was the future self she had just become. Regardless, the secret was the same. “Double the pieces of your mind, each becoming two more shards.”
The thought had come so swiftly that day, she had obeyed it without thinking. Her three pieces of mind had become six. Before she had felt the recoil, the shards had doubled themselves again, becoming twelve pieces total. All she could remember after that moment was a pinpoint of enlightenment, followed by floods of excruciating pain.
Days later, she was mentally sewn back together and healed by her master. When she regained consciousness, she looked into her master’s eyes, where she found equal parts of fear and anger. “You could have killed yourself. I don’t know how you did it, but you must never, ever do it again.” Having always trusted her master, she swore to herself that very same day never to split her mind by doubling the parts. And that’s why she was smiling.
She saw realization in the eyes of her pursuers. They had spotted her vortex. Many were already slowing and beginning to retreat. If she waited for them to get closer, it would be too late. Some would escape, eventually leading Morningstar to Cephas Island. She couldn't allow this to happen, no matter what. She knew her priorities. She had to protect Cephas Island, even if it meant giving up her own Creation Stone. Therefore, she would break her promise, to serve the higher cause.
And so, she removed the barrier on her mind. She did so with childlike excitement, thrilled to witness the results of an experiment centuries in the making. She reclaimed the sixteen pieces of her mind, visualizing them in a perfect circle around her. Then she prepared herself for the waves of mental flux.
It would be the same as when her mind split into two parts, in that it would increase her perception of the present, while limiting her foresight. Every separation of the mind increased the vividity of the present over the future. To the unpracticed, this was a curse. To the master, it was limitless power. Yet there was no known masters of the ‘infinite mind’, or ‘infinite now’. All who had attempted it, according to her master, had deteriorated and fallen to pieces after dissecting their own minds into dust.
Gwen focused her central mind, breathing in the salty mist. She spread out her hands, then created several massive voids, behind herself and all her followers, tossing puppets and puppeteers alike forward into her vortex. Her voids grew, draining her energy. And so, she made her move before it was too late.
The sixteen pieces of her mind doubled into thirty-two. The doubled pieces reinforced the voids surrounding the vortex, covering the entire sky with translucent, warping bubbles. The thirty-two pieces then doubled to become sixty-four, and then again to become one-hundred-twenty-eight. Triple digits, she thought, finding humor in her dire situation.
All pieces reinforced the voids, pushing the dark ones into the grasp of the vortex. The master puppeteer saw the inevitable outcome, yet started to swim backwards anyway, hoping it wasn't too late. The vortex gripped and shredded every piece of matter within its sphere, creating a black hole that stretched out into the space between planets. The disintegrated matter of bodies and air launched out from the atmosphere of Proelum. Gwen still held form, though her defenses were rapidly diminishing.
The puppeteer abused her hold on the dark ones, flinging them into the vortex as sacrifice as she lurched to the outside of the ring. Gwendolyn saw this and frowned. But it was not a frown of disappointment. It was one of sheer concentration and pure joy. She closed her eyes, feeling even the flowing marrow in her bones. Her awareness in this present space was unprecedented. It seemed there could be no further path. But of course there is, she th
ought. I have not yet reached ‘infinite mind’. She felt a spiritual hunger and thirst for more. Yet she resisted, remembering her prior reservations only seconds before. She had to limit herself before she erased her own existence completely.
She had one more move left. She reached out, touching all one-hundred-twenty-eight pieces of her mind. She held them, then split them in half like tiny atoms. More than two-hundred pieces of her mind became present. The voids exploded in spheres of flame, ripping all to the center of the vortex. The flames themselves licked along, falling into nothingness. The master puppeteer screeched the final cry of those forever miserable, then collapsed in on herself in the vortex.
This was the end for Gwendolyn. She tried to keep her mind from duplicating further, but it was already too late. She was far too weak to maintain the bond between her heart and the Creation Stone. She had saved the hidden location of Cephas Island. She had succeeded. But the cost was high. Morningstar and his puppets would acquire her Creation Stone, for her body would be left in ashes.
As she fell upwards, her perception slowed, as it often would in battle. Except this time, it was accompanied with sudden, comforting realizations. She hadn’t seen her family for a long, long time. She had done much for the side of light.
Even now, she had lured darkness away, vanquishing those who may have sensed the location of the nearest Horizon Island to her own. Cephas Island, the island of matter, would be the last island to stand, as it was foretold.
Though the war was far from over, she would get to see her family soon. She looked up to the Sun where she knew Torin was watching. She opened her heart.
Familiar drops of pain reached through her as the Creation Stone of Voids fell from her body. She reached inside of the Stone, tapping into its power. She said her goodbye to its spirit, then launched it thousands of miles away. There, she thought. No more tracks to this place.
