The walls had been soul-empowered by Papa and then later overridden even more strongly by Mel, so Ibai already knew that he couldn’t simply bust his way out. What Papa and Mel didn’t know, however, was that Ibai’s ability had manifested a long time ago. He’d kept it a secret for nearly two decades now, knowing that it would only upset his family and make them look for a way to counter its effects. And that would’ve sucked all the fun out of it.
He had the layout of Marshrock more or less memorized. He’d probably spent more time here than anyone else in the entire world.
So teleporting out of this room was not going to be difficult.
He stood in the middle of the chamber, thought about where he wanted to be, and then wrapped himself in the brown shadow. It swirled around him and then winked out of existence, taking his body with it.
And for an instant, he could see.
The infinite void.
Everything and nothing. Life and death. A trillion burning stars in the sky and all around him. Souls suspended in space. Eleg, too, spinning and breathing and alive.
And all of them, ethereal. Massless shadows of reality. The universe of zero weight, where space itself was of no consequence.
In a flash, it was all gone, and Ibai reappeared in the next room over, stepping from his muddy shadow onto Marshrock’s dark stone again.
Ibai frowned. No one was around. But wait, no, that was probably a good thing. He was supposed to be sneaky. He jumped through space again, this time reappearing on the next floor up. Still no one. He jumped again, and this time there was a group of strangers looking directly at him, including several reapers. Many of them carried guns.
“Hello!” said Ibai.
‘An aberration!’
“Kill it!”
He teleported away as the gunfire erupted, reappearing in a bedroom a few floors down. “Well, that was unfortunate.” He shrugged it off and looked around.
He saw a girl with four horns on her face. She was staring at him with wide gray eyes.
“Hello,” Ibai said cheerily. “You don’t look like you want to kill me. What is your name, young lady?”
She stood up from the edge of her bed, hesitant. “...Who are you?”
“Oh, my name is Ibai. And yours?”
“...Emiliana.”
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.
Shiiiiiiiiiiii
ReplyDeleteGoddamn abberations. I wonder if he could be contained by a set of overlapping paths of destruction?
ReplyDeleteThat depends on how his teleportation works. If it's simply moving straight from point A to point B, through all other matter than yes, but then the walls should have stopped him due to being soul-empowered. By guess is that it works more like a slingshot. His shadow takes him to the "void", and then takes him back to Point B.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, for all I know, paths of destruction could just be energy or matter emitted into the void, which may in turn destroy matter in the physical plane. His teleportation could be similar to that, which may explain why the air does not seem to affect him.
OHH MY GOD CLIFF HANGER AFTER CLIFF HANGER PLEASE PUT ME OUT OF MY MISERY PLEEEASE
ReplyDeleteGEAAAAAHHHHH. You *********************! Agh gligdf678oilte5.wkf ingxukm. I look like a kid throwing a tantrum, my arms are lashing around and I'm making very frustrated noises and yelling. DANGIT FROST WHY THE CLIFFHANGER.
ReplyDeletewow...... also He stood in the middle of the chambem
ReplyDeleteI assume it should be chamber?
He stood in the middle of the [chambem].
ReplyDeleteYep, fixed now, thanks.
ReplyDeleteGot it, thanks.
ReplyDeleteThis is both interesting and terrifying. Ibai is so innocent, in some ways, and yet so dangerous.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I wonder if it's actually possible that his social conditioning, combined with a bit of friendship with Em, might actually keep him from killing anybody?
ReplyDeleteYeah, no. They're going to be gunning for him, regardless. A power that very much lends itself to running away is going to be good for him, though.
Not killling anybody... I don't see this.
ReplyDeleteMaybe only killing the 'right' people.
I'm a little puzzled how one would consume souls with this. It's an aberration ability, it has to be able to do that somehow.
ReplyDeleteI'm worried that with that ability to "see the universe in soul-vision" he's got... add a bit of power and he could end all those souls he can find. And, since he can find everybody, that's more than a bit scary. *shivers*
ReplyDelete