We are all broken, and that is precisely how light gets in.
Broken does not mean 'Bad'. Some things are better off broken.
Breaking infers being dragged down to your lowest point, and to me, it's there where we are the most open to change.
We are all broken, and that is how our darkness gets out.
Darkness, which sits and waits deep within, slumbering.
If the heavens truly exist, then this world of ours must be hell's cousin.
This darkness will tear us apart, and we will all die lightless.
-N.A.V
It was a rainy day, wet and windy. Her clothes clung to her skin like ink to paper. Her breaths were misty and paced, her eyes focused yet lingering.
She could not shake the feeling that doom lurked nearby. Skulking just beyond her sights; loosely obscured by the thin veil of reality that was the Spatial-Fract.
Her mind raced while looking at that tear in the fabric of existence:
"What category of rift is this? It's the strangest I've seen yet. Usually, these things at least offer some signs of detection before appearing, but with this one..."
Before her line of thought could finish, a giant lanky hand of inky darkness creeped out from beyond the veil.
Clawed and sharper than a razor, its hand dug into the bridge's white stone surface as it tried to pull the rest of its mass from out the rift.
Then came the horns.
Jagged, thick, and curving outward like obsidian blades, they framed a black featureless face. The creature was tall—two stories at full height—its gaunt frame packed with corded muscle, sinew twisting with unnatural elasticity beneath its void-like flesh.
Its legs were hoofed but hairless, and its form was hunched.
At that moment, the only things present were her and the Outer Existial to her centre; it wasn't a hoard of Astrals against a hoard of Outer Existials, charging into a slaughter; this wasn't a disagreement that had escalated into a petty squabble; this was a simple prelude to murder.
Not all that different than any other day in the life of an Astral.
Thus, she waited, patiently searching for a chance to let her metal sing, when suddenly, she felt a shiver sneak up on her as all sound left her senses, and her vision dimmed with darkness pressing over reality.
Leaving only her shallow breaths and heartbeat for levity; in this hollow expanse.
Her body heat took a plummet as she felt her reserves of Ether rapidly dwindle, at which point her mind was flooded with a feeling not entirely of her own but masquerading as such.
Then came the horns.
Her grip on her sword tightened as she channeled Ether into her legs, forcing warmth into her limbs. The second the silence snapped, she moved.
The creature reacted instantly.
It lunged, its massive claw streaking toward her like a guillotine. She ducked low, twisting her body to the side, the sheer force of its swipe sending ripples through the rain. A near miss.
She surged forward, her sword whispering through the storm as she aimed for its legs. The blade glided across its sinewy flesh, severing tendons and carving deep through muscle.
"Not enough." She thought
Her preferred method would have been to sever its legs completely, but the effort it would take wouldn't be worth the risk.
She pivoted sharply, ready to strike again. Narrowly avoiding a claw swipe with a horizontal spin and countering with another slash.
And for the time, all seemed well—
—when suddenly an invisible force slammed into her.
Her Ether collapsed in her veins, flickering like a dying flame as a withered hand grazed her shoulder—just barely—but the damage was immediate. Numbness spread down her arm, cold and alien.
She snarled, shaking it off. "A soul attack?"
The creature's other claw shot toward her, faster this time. She vaulted back, forcing Ether into her legs to gain distance, but pain exploded in her side—another hand had struck her. Not a slash. Not a blow. Just a simple touch.
A corruption laced through her Ether Network, something dark and entropic, disrupting her flow. Her circuits sputtered, bleeding power into the void. She gritted her teeth.
It was crippling her, or at least trying to.
Without pause, she let loose a slash, missing the creature by a hair's breadth as it pulled back.
Urgently, her sword pulsed with deep-blue energy as she lunged back in, this time going for the shoulder. She jumped up and drove the blade down—hard. The edge bit deep, cutting through flesh until it stopped—met with dense, unyielding bone.
But unphased, she leveraged the hilt, swinging her legs up and slamming a foot into its face delivering a devastating kick that sent ripples through the rain, forcing the creature back.
Augmenting her other hand, she used it to push herself off, flipping backward through the air and nimbly pulling her sword free while fluidly manoeuvring her body to dodge a swipe of its claw midair, and parrying the other.
But persisting the creature managed to breach through her counter and dug a five-fingered hand into her side, followed by a minor disturbance to her Ether Network.
As whatever the entity had done earlier to her shoulder, she'd realized despoiled a section of her Ether Network, causing lasting damage to her Ether Circuits that would take what she estimated to be around two days to restore.
These metaphysical circuits were how creatures circulated their Ether throughout their bodies in order to augment certain parts of their biology in finite ways that helped to accomplish a variety of effects.
The moment the creature's fingers pierced her flesh, she reacted.
With a snarl, she pumped Ether into her sword, its deep-blue glow flaring like a dying sun.
A miniature star erupted from the blade's depths—detonating on impact as light consumed the bridge.
The creature lurched back, recoiling as if the very radiance seared its existence. Smoke and flickering embers danced through the downpour, rain sizzling as it collided with the lingering heat.
Her grip tightened. Using the creature's still-extended fingers as leverage, she wrenched herself free. Pain flared in her ribs, her vision swaying for a split second. But she ignored it.
Springboarding off its clawed hand, she flipped midair, landing atop a street light.
The world tilted for a moment.
Her side burned, a deep, throbbing ache beneath her rain-drenched clothes. Blood pooled beneath her skin, working overtime to keep her from bleeding out, yet her fingertips were cold—a telltale sign of Ether depletion.
But there was no time to focus on that.
Her eyes snapped back to the entity.
It stood still, its featureless face cracked from the explosion. Fractures spiderwebbed across its midnight-black skin.
Her sights never left the entity; calculating her best method of attack, she observed something; its featureless face was cracked and withered, seemingly due to her attack, and for her, its significance was obvious.
"That's its weakness. Light, it's 'Meaning is light."
She inhaled sharply, rain sliding down her face as she calculated her next move.
Then, she acted.
Ether surged through her legs. The ground cracked beneath her as she propelled forward, streaking through the downpour at imperceptible speeds.
Shockwaves rippled through the storm as she closed the gap, blade poised.
She slashed down the middle—a clean, perfect cut. No blood.
Not hesitating, she pivoted off her right leg, twisting into another strike. A second miniature star flared to life and exploded against the entity's form.
The light's intensity turning blinding for a heartbeat.
The entity seemed to pause for a moment, but then, as the orb exploded on its navy black skin, the girl's vision was obscured ever so slightly by the intense light.
Without question, it threw itself into the depths of the attack and reached out to pierce her with its many clawed fingers.
A hand burst through the brilliance, clawed fingers lancing through her abdomen.
Her breath hitched.
The second hand followed immediately, burying itself into her chest, breaking ribs as skeletal fingers closed around her still-beating heart.
Her vision blurred, the cold rushing through her veins not of this world. She choked on a breath, her blood turning to ice.
The Ether within her wavered, flickering like a candle in a storm. This was deeper than physical pain—the creature was reaching beyond flesh, past muscle and bone, toward her very soul.
And it knew it.
Though faceless, the sensation of triumph radiated from the Outer Existial as it clenched its grip, waiting for some abstract spark of energy to drain from her eyes.
Unfortunately, however, try as it may, her heart proved rather tenacious in its duty to keep her alive as it refused to tear, burst, or even skip a beat at her expense. This was to be expected after all; Astrals aren't exactly a normal bunch anyway.
They were those chosen and proven by the 'Spire' to possess the necessary aspects needed to brave the 'Outer Mirror'.
Her teeth clenched, a growl rumbling from her throat then with a single, brutal swing, she cleaved the creature's hand clean off undone by the sheer Ether burning through her blade.
The entity recoiled, its remaining arm retreating—
She did not let it escape.
Lunging forward, she drove her blade toward its throat—but at the last second, the creature twisted gracefully, narrowly evading her strike.
Her slides scraped against the slick stone as she landed, spinning to face it again.
Frustration curled in her gut, threatening to become rage. She tore the creature's lingering fingers from her chest, the wound gaping but ignored. Then, in a rare show of irritation, she threw the severed hand at it.
The Outer Existial caught it. And… paused.
Tilting its head, it studied the limb—as if fascinated by its own dismemberment. Slowly, it pressed the hand back to the raw stump, and its flesh re-knitted instantly.
She grimaced. "Of course."
Pain throbbed through her ribs, her Ether burning dangerously low, but she refused to waver.
Her grip on her sword tightened. Her cold gaze sharpened, turning nearly monstrous in her intensity.
This thing—this abomination—was testing her patience.
It would not get another chance.
From the Spatial-Fract emerged a figure of short stature moving at almost imperceptible speeds, rushing at the Outer Existial.
Like a speeding 'Arcane Missile' the figure leapt up and drove a blade through the entity's heart from behind.
The Outer Existial seemed puzzled for a moment not sure what just happened, although it was hard to tell with its featureless face.
However, this did not last long as it quickly snapped out of it and curled an arm back to reach for the mysterious humanoid.
Seeing a chance at victory, the girl dashed toward the entity. Side-stepping an earth-shattering slam that sent cracks snaking through the bridge, she side-flipped onto its arm, using it as a sort of ramp.
The entity tried to shake her off but it was too late. She'd already scaled up to its shoulders letting her blade sing once, as she reached for its neck.
She leapt, spinning mid-air, dodging cleanly, what would have been a slash to her abdomen.
With that, the entity had successfully thwarted her chance at a swift victory, or so it would seem.
For little did it know that the girl had been plotting, scheming, patiently waiting for the most opportune moment to attack; the moment when the entity was most sure of victory.
For as she descended back down, it made its move; simultaneously clutching onto the figure on its back and reaching out a bony finger to pierce her through the heart.
But faster than one could blink she slashed at the air while also focusing Ether into her blade. An ethereal arc of light formed and carved through its hand, cleaving cleanly through its neck. Cutting past the rain and disappearing into the stormy clouds above.
Seconds later, a horned head with a featureless face rolled onto the ground.
The entity's lumbering mass followed, collapsing with a dull, wet thud against the rain-slicked bridge.
For a moment, there was nothing—only the howling wind, the rhythmic patter of rain, and the distant echo of thunder.
Then—
A figure stood atop the corpse. Hunched over, a black blade in hand, its crossguard shaped like a raven's outstretched wing.
The sword flickered. Then, with a flash of indigo light, it vanished, and the figure collapsed.
She barely had time to react before another shift rippled through the world.
The Spatial-Fract quivered.
And, as if reality itself had blinked, the fracture folded in on itself—collapsing into nothingness. The world suddenly didn't seem so bleak, as the darkness receded.
Echoing through her ear, the voice came. Flat. Mechanical. Absolute. The same as always.
"Existial Felled: Night Defiler."
"Existence Type: Category 1."
"Existence Rank: Ascendent."
"Existence Tier: 1."
"Remembrance Claimed."
Ignoring it, she made her way up the entity's cadaver. With a single jump, she landed next to the unconscious figure.
The figure was lying on his stomach but was obviously lean with subtly musculature, and covered in dried blood and ichor.
Tired and aching profusely she clutched at her chest and side. She thought to herself:
"What kind of day is this? I'm an Astral, I know, and I should expect things like this on a daily, but it feels like today has been especially... strange. First, a Spatial-Fract appearing out the woodworks, undetected, and now this?"
She frowned a bit deeper as she glanced over the figure form:
"People cannot usually interact with Spatial-Fracts much less exit from them. So what's really going on here?"
Looming over him, she used her foot to gently nudge him onto his back. Her eyes widened as she silently stared at him in confusion and frustration.
The boy had a familiar heart-shaped face; only now, without the darkness and distortions cloaking its form, he had an oval shape.
His face was a mix of soft and subtle sharp features and black dreadlocks that stretched near to his shoulders.
Her sword shimmered brighter with each passing moment, her grip tightening around its hilt as her grey-coloured eye turned golden with a small displacement in purity as it yellowed at the edges.
Her mind started flaring as the thought of being used rummaged around in her head. She felt used, a small part of her felt betrayed somehow. But betrayal never comes from your enemies.
The hole in her chest was slowly closing and getting replaced with new flesh and bone.
Her hair tossed and turned in the winds of the storm, mimicking her as she was truly in her heart.
Looking up into the tempestuous sky above, she sighed deeply and turned her sights toward the boy, her sword in its dream-like construct fading into a ghostly light of rose gold.
"Until this very moment, I don't think I ever truly knew the depths of my own ignorance... What is even reality anymore?"
A scream built up in her throat and died there. For although she wanted to, she could not; the storm was loud enough for the both of them.
Her hair was drenched and stuck to her skin as the storm raged on all around her; no praise, no thanks, no glory, just hollow victory... Alone.
Her golden-tinged eye faded, the light retreating as her gaze dulled back to its familiar gray. Slowly, she reached for the boy.
He was lighter than she expected, far heavier was the weight of exhaustion that pressed down on her.
Her arms ached, her chest burned, and the wounds she hadn't yet sealed throbbed with every movement.
Still, she moved.
Through the rain-soaked streets, through the empty silence of the night, she carried the boy home.
All throughout the minute journey back a flustered heat crept up her neck as she forced herself not to look at his naked form.
"Damn photographic memory." She thought.
Minutes later, she reached her house.
Making her way up the stairs, she passed by the strange door again covered in Runes and Alchemical Symbols that remained slumbering but seemed to shimmer ever so slightly as she passed by.
This was a daily thing for her, but today, for some reason, she could have sworn she heard something.
A sound so faint it shouldn't have reached her ears.
A silent, shallow breath from behind the door, sending shivers down her spine.
Her skin prickled and suddenly she was more aware of her physical state, the dryness of her lips, the ache in her chest, the pain in her side.
Fixating on it for a few seconds, Her hand hovered over the handle.
Locked.
Just like always. With a slow exhale, she shook her head and moved on.
She entered her room and laid the boy out on her bed, then leaning back against the bookcase, her breaths shallow and pained. Reaching for her bedside shelf she grabbed a sleek device that gleamed under the dim light.
It had a cylindrical body crafted from polished white metal with detachable ergonomic grey grips. A transparent chamber along the side housed a glowing vial of green liquid, pulsating faintly like a heartbeat.
The shelf housed multiple of these chambers., another version displayed a fiery red hue.
The cylindrical design had a slender tip extended into a sharp, needle-like point, poised for precise delivery.
She took the red one and self-medicated, carefully inserting the needle into a vein through her forearm. The liquid rapidly circulated through her body and all her wounds accelerated their rate of healing.
Removing the now empty vile from the device, she replaced it with another, made her way to the boy and administered the same treatment.
"Ok, he's in our house... We're both healed. What now?"
Looking down at her hands she noticed a slimy substance of no discernable colour clinging to her skin.
"This is... Echor, why is he covered in echor? Was it from that Outer Existial...? No, it couldn't be; it didn't bleed."
She looked at the slumbering figure of the boy before quickly remembering the boy's vulnerable state and looking away in embarrassment; turning beet red, she sighed.
"I should get him some clothes and clean that gunk off him. Now where's that towel I was using?"
Grabbing the towel from near the wardrobe, she mentally prepared herself for what came next.
After a few long minutes of intense blushing the boy was dry and clean... Well, cleaner cleaner than before, which was more than could be said for the bed sheets and the towel.
Laying the boy down on the carpet she quickly replaced the bedsheets and took a shower as she let the towel soak in the soapy bathtub water.
The sound of rain and distant thunder was muffled somewhat by the relative safety of her house.
Remembering the voice from earlier, she focused her mind, and holographic screens formed in front of her, but oddly, they didn't reflect in any of the mirrors.
The screens displayed:
"Existial Felled: Night Defiler"
"Existence Type: Catagory 1"
"Existence Rank: Ascendent"
"Existence Tier: 1"
"Remembrance Claimed."
Focusing on 'Remembrance Claimed' the following text displayed:
"Rememberance Title: Soul Hook"
"Remembrance Type: Weapon"
"Weapon Type: Scyth"
"Remembrance Rank: Ascendant"
"Remembrance Tier: 1"
"Description: It was night when it happened. It was first light when it ended. It took time to love, but this darkness it could abide. To be heartless meant to keep alive. What else could it do? A whee-lil babe in the calamity. Afterall it filled the heart to devour."
Her breath hitched. Her hands shook. Then, her eyes widened.
"Ascendent?! The fourth rank?!"
Water sloshed around her as she stood up abruptly, heart pounding.