'Of haloed horns. The King of Dreams.' I turned the paper over in my hands again and again. The man from the night before was tied up at my feet below me. I had reclothed myself in maríft wool and was waiting for him to wake up. I couldn't turn him in or I'd take credit for saving the majority of the church.
"I'd consider this a victory though, Victor?" I said to myself.
Looking down at the man he finally stirred awake. His body immediately jerked awake. He panted and sweated, his pupils contracted hard.
"Alright lets get this over with." I picked him up by his throat. "Give me one good reason I shouldn't kill you for almost killing the entire town?" I said playing up my intentions.
His body shook violently, his mouth opened as if he was going to scream but nothing came out. Then suddenly his chest exploded, his magic coating me like blood.
"GODS!" I dropped the man and staggered back. "FUCK!"
His body was thrown around the room. His magic was spread like paint around the room, his body the brush. He was pulled and pushed around as if one giant invisible beast yanked him around like a chew toy.
I stepped out to avoid the magic from him. My body was already decently covered in a light rainbow hue. Within the house multiple thuds and smashes resounded. Glass shattered and magic was sprayed out the house. I kept walking back, the excessive slamming of the man slowed.
Then the slamming stopped. My feet staggered forward. I opened the door to the house expecting to see something I wouldn't forget. Inside sat nothing out of place. It looked exactly like how it did when I walked in a few hours ago.
No magic, nothing broken, the man wasn't even there. He was gone as if I was dreaming. I rechecked the entire house, the glass I thought broke outside hadn't actually been touched.
I walked out and shut the door. Expecting to see something else I reopened the door, but it was truly fine inside. Everything was as it was left just missing the owner to the house.
I looked at the rows of houses on the spiralling up road. All of them as abandoned as the last. The church was still burnt but the man who burned it didn't exist any more.
I never even knew the guy's name. The magic on me was still there, slowly seeping into me. The only thing left of the man. I poured water magic on me to get rid of him. My hair which was done with the clips Āpala gave me came out under the water.
The sun was just now rising, giving me some light to see myself. I could smell the shampoo and conditioner in my hair, along with the smell of magic.
Walking my way back down the hill, my eyes searched each home individually for any sign of life. I didn't see a soul. I got to the park and it was as silent as it was when I came up.
My feet wobbled back down to the intersection. Opening the door to the inn the old man raised his head and looked at me.
"Whats wrong?"
"There was a man by the c-church-"
"No one lives up that way."
"But-"
"No one in this town even believes in the blackhole gods. We're mostly Noxstavian anyways."
"I- I'll be done with hunting the marífts by tonight. I'll be gone before tomorrow."
"Ok…"
"Whats your name by the way?"
"Its Connal"
"I'm Heo."
I laid down in bed to rest a while. It didn't matter if my eyelids were closed or not because I saw through them. I didn't fall asleep.
…
Stella Estellé's point of view
I'd been awake for a few minutes or hours unmoving. The room was dark, and I quickly realized that I was in my room. Heo wasn't here, nor was my family. My eyes felt shut but I saw my entire room. It was dark but I still saw the room.
Sitting up I shivered constantly. I felt horrible in my body, like I was a parasite to a human's body. As if I was a seed growing within a girl and slowly causing her excruciating pain from within.
I touched my eyes just to confirm they were shut. I felt the frozen skin over my eye, reliving one of the moments from Baydí. I quickly flinched away from myself. Not only could I see in the dark I could see more around me. My second set of eyes had been opened, meaning the first part of what happened truly did happen.
My feet slid over the bed as I stood. A mirror in the corner of my room showed me perfectly in the dark. My horns were mostly ripped away, only leaving a small stub where they came out of my head. My eyes were more red than orange. Sitting over my pupil was a small bright red cross for each eye.
I was changed into simple pajamas with my jacket over me like always. I ripped the center of the pajamas open revealing a giant scar in the center where Baydí's sword went through me. The rest of the scars were gone from my body since I was a full dragon after that point.
I felt my pirate jacket. It was different than normal. The same material, same shape, same size, it was my jacket but…
By itself the sleeves I didn't have my arms through lifted and waved at me in the mirror.
…
Heo Estellé's point of view
Even though I didn't sleep I couldn't help but relive that day between me and Heo. Whether it happened or not I couldn't tell. The chance it did gave me this boiling sensation on my stomach. My hands that moved on their own that day or nightmare were tied tight.
I need to get back out and kill those marífts so I can get out of here. I swallowed hard remembering the man exploding in my hands. How the hell can something like that happen then not… Was he a ghost or something?
I shook my head. No, it can be explained with magic easier. I sat up and reached for the door. My hand pulled the door open. In the same moment I was punched backwards.
Staggering back into the room I saw who hit me. A man walked out from the doorway. His body was painted with blood from his own wounds. Two slashes at his hair line dripped blood down his face. A skull of a maríft rested on the back of his head. The teeth shooting out the top of his head. His chest had maríft's black wool stitched to it with the ulnarah wood, sharply pointing out. The maríft wool was also stitched around his waist. The blood from the wounds leaking down his body. Around his arms and legs the blood was drawn in patterns, most likely magical. At the ends of the maríft wool were goat eyes.
He punched at me again and I dodged to the side and retreated further into the room. The man's blood made no sense because it was a full dragon. Specifically the old man down stairs.
"I can't wait till tonight. I'm not gonna let you kill our marífts any more!"
My foot fell into the floor and his leg shot toward my undefended head. I caught it barely and pulled him down. Wherever I fell it kept falling under me. Me and the man were now trading punches against each other.
My hands would go across his face but he would show the slightest grimmace of pain. He got a grip of both of my shoulders and head butted me. We were still falling but he pushed me back. I smacked into the wall of the inn's room.
He walked, the bed sliding and trapping my feet against the wall. He grabbed a vase left in the room and threw it at me. I blocked it with my hands. The vase shattered and scarred my arms where I defended. I lightened the bed and kicked it at him.
He was thrown across the room. If he bled he would have sprayed blood from his mouth. The man was old but he was stronger than me. The bed shattered at the touch of his hand and so did the room. I pulled the Segmented Sea out. Now in the middle of the red forest.
I quickly restated the chant and swiped at him. The trees around the tail of water were ripped apart. That should have killed the tree yet I got no magic from it.
He reacted fast enough and didn't try to block the water. Instead he crouched to dodge. Once it went over his head he lunged towards me. I pulled the blade up to defend. I lost balance right as he hit me. The floor under me being literally pulled out from under me.
I spun and pulled the segmented sea close to me. The tail of water ripped around the air, causing the man to step back instead of following after me. The man pulled the ground I fell on apart, almost causing me to fall again into that void. I jumped up on one end and defended against another attack from him.
His arm charged back up to hit me, but I was smacked in the back of the head by a tree. Dazed, I was hit again and thrown backwards by the man. I pushed gravity onto the man to paralyze him, but he simply endured and continued to attack me as I lacklusterly defended.
I changed the gravity of the forest around us. I forced him to fall to the left and I came down after him swinging the segmented sea. He hit trees trying to escape my attacks.
He looked to head straight for a tree but at the last second he moved out of the way. I twisted and cut the tree in half with the tail of water.
The old man jumped at me from on top of a tree. He hit me in the chest. I pulled the blade up and shot it at him. The man tried to dodge but I switched the way we both fell to the other side of the forest.
I nicked part of his arm off with the attack. Magic spewing from the wound as we now fell back the way we came.
I landed on a few trees and jumped faster towards the man with Paukena's sword. He would block with the only thing he could, which were his hands. Sometimes the ground would come up and block the attack.
With the red sky I'd never seen what the rest of the world looked like to make it red, but we were quickly reaching the edge of the forest. The man tried multiple times to hit me back, using the ground to come up and hit me or a tree to fall over on top of me.
Each time some unnatural thing would happen to attack me I would grab the ground and pull myself to safety. Learning from the tree I never let my eyes off the man, even if that meant allowing something to hit me.
My left arm was hit so badly that I couldn't move it up to pull myself away. Right as he pulled the ground up to hit me, I crashed through it with my right arm that held my sword.
Once I could see again we were falling out of the forest and into the mountainous region of Mila. The sky was a bright red, black text hung around the space saying things like exit or home. There were black arrows pointing in multiple directions seemingly meaning nothing. The mountains in the distance were actually blurred. One had text saying out of limits.
When I got this slight glimpse of this red world it all shattered as I landed on the old man in the inn. I quickly pulled the sword bag and stabbed it into him. He grabbed the blade too late as it was stabbed into him.
Silently not wanting to but being given no choice against someone who could heal any wound I gave him I put my hand in the wound. I was gonna have to destroy his body in one attack so I used gravity to split him down the middle. The gravity fought against the man's magic reserves. I poured all I had in, fire unconsciously coming out of my magic.
My magic quickly dried up. The last of my magic working in front of me. His body teared lightly but I couldn't completely tear the full dragon in half. I pushed deeper, going into an extreme headache trying to rip him apart.
He tried to keep himself together, overworking his own magic causing himself to leak magic unconsciously into the room around us. My nose bled as I gave one more push.
His hands which locked around my arms trying their best to push my hand out gave out themselves and he was torn in half. Magic flying all around me.
I quivered, my magic being restored from the man I killed as well as increasing in my overall amount.
"Gods!" I slammed my hand against the floor.
The way everyone looked in this town differently had the same wood going through their skin.
I turned and sat on the ground. Some of the magic lingering from the man. The light hue of white and other colors slowly faded in a few minutes. I nervously pulled out my phone, ignoring calls and messages from family, I scrolled to the trashcan icon on my phone and called Rex.
My phone rang once, nothing. twice, nothing. He didn't pick. My left arm was dislocated and bleeding heavily. I used more magic to force my blood from leaving my body. Fortunately none of my wounds required a tourniquet. I relocated my arm with one big push.
I dropped my hand back down to the ground. For a second I waited. Flipping my phone back over, I read my last notification hoping it was Rex but being pleasantly surprised.
From Stella. "Where are you! I wake up and you're missing? You better protect your ass when I see you again! Love, Stella."
I laughed a bit and swayed up. I get it. I need to just leave. I went to the door but I turned and saw something on the bed. A white square note from earlier.