The Chimera Summoner – Ch 43 (part 1/2) – Nightwish
Ch 43 - Nightwish
The obsidian ice snapped apart like a hundred cannons firing. I hadn't realized how thick it was… the impossible lake must be far deeper than it appeared. The translucent cracks spider-webbed their way into previously hidden depths in a disorienting kaleidoscope.
A sword emerged from the lake above us, cracking through the black ice of the frozen lake.
A long black hilt followed by a wide crossguard.
Solemn grey light swathed a strange blade.
Slipping from the black lake, it was like a shard of moonlight, caught a frozen night sky, and forged into a thing of deadly beauty.
Lorna let out a pulse of icy magic, and the sword answered with a flare of distant light.
Aloof. Cold.
“I think not.” Carmine
Pallid thread shot through the room, tangling around the hilt of the sword.
Carmine gestured, and the bone needle that had been embedded in Lorna’s breast flew to her outstretched hand.
Our bond surged back to life.
Pain obliterated my every sense.
I could taste pain.
It thundered in my ears.
I was breathing in its metallic heat.
Lorna roared like a lioness, and the pain dulled. She was blocking it from me, damming the river of suffering with her own shoulders. She was cutting me off.
Her voice entered my mind.
Soft.
Tranquil.
I pushed myself up to my knees.
“I am sorry, my beloved.” Her voice rolled over my mind.
“Apologize to me when we've won.” I whispered, hoping that no one would hear over the cacophony of the sword’s emergence. “Preferably with no clothes on, and at length.”
I felt a little thrill of potential return to [Familiar bond]. My other girls were almost done remaking their vessels. Minutes or seconds away from being available to me.
Damn they were fast. Good girls.
“I’m going to break a vow. Claiming the sword myself will destroy me, placing it beyond reach, where we can both do no more harm. When I’m gone, you'll be able to call another to replace me.” Lorna’s voice resonated, kind and fond, through my head. “Fairwell, love. And forgive me.”
“You're not going anywhere, princess.” I gritted out, hauling myself toward my goal. “I'm taking you home.”
Even though Lorna was holding back the flood of pain, the trickles that leaked through were nearly paralyzing. It felt like my spine was a rich vein of ore and a thousand tiny miners were chopping away at it.
Lorna extended her hand upward, letting the threads tear at her ghostly body to do so. She was ragged, like a torn painting of ancient glory floating in a spider's web.
“Listen to Serenity.” Lorna’s voice continued. It had a peaceful melancholy to it. “Look after Violette and Lucy.”
“Do not fucking say goodbye to me. You're supposed to be my advisor, so advise me!” I groaned.
I took another agonizing step.
“When I take this blade, I will have an instant before professor Carmine destroys me.” Lorna explained swiftly. “I will use it to give you a chance, but you must be ready. Do not call the others until I am gone.”
“Lorna, wait. Please.” I whispered to our bond.
“Steady your stance.” Lorna instructed.
“Help is on the way, we can–”
“Carmine is right, Eir.” Lorna’s thoughts interrupted mine. “As long as I am bound to you, my war is your fate. We have an unlikely chance to free you of it.”
“I don't want to be free of you. Not ever.”
I felt Lorna’s love wash over me like sunlight on a cool day. It drowned the pain, and I dashed towards Hera.
Lorna raised her hand, letting Carmine's threads shred her to do so.
The dark ice shattered in a thousand spectral shards.
The sword fell toward my Lorna’s outstretched hand, Carmine's threads snapping into mist - unable to hold it.
Carmine launched herself upwards to intercept.
I dove towards the guards surrounding Hera and the gathered Netherim. They flinched, weapons coming up.
[Sleight of Place]
I switched places with Lorna.
Dozens upon dozens of pale threads were suddenly piercing my body.
I couldn't have prepared.
The pain that Lorna had been blocking from me, now hit me in its true, direct fury, orders of magnitude heavier than I had even imagined.
I was sugar-glass on an anvil with the whole sky falling upon me like a cruel meteoric hammer.
It was everything I could do just to close my fingers around the falling sword hilt.
The long, shining sword glimmered majestically in my hand.
I felt something in my soul click into place.
Then the world vanished.
~~~~~~~~~
Soft wind in tall grass rustled all around me.
I was in endless rolling green fields, and with tall white flowers.
Before me, a woman with long red hair, tied in a thick braid.
Strong bare arms. Soot smudged hands, and a scarred leather apron.
Beautiful green eyes.
A thoughtful expression. Curious. Intelligent.
She planted her fists on her hips and tilted her head, chewing a lip pensively.
“I was told there was a trial?” I asked hesitantly.
She shrugged.
I felt her perception rush through me, like the warm breeze had blown away every artifice and every delusion.
I felt myself bared down to the innermost secret selfish, vain, greediness I hid in my darkest corners. My worst insecurities, and my deepest doubts.
She nodded, scanning me up and down slowly.
I trembled like a spooked horse.
Fuck. I had really, really been hoping for a normal test. Just once, let it be a history quiz.
Slowly she stooped and plucked one of the wildflowers that we were wading in.
She extended it, cheerily. As casual as a gift between fast friends.
I accepted it instinctively.
A colossal rush of power, like nothing I had ever experienced coursed through me like I had been struck by a whole storm worth of lighting at once.
I gasped.
Her green eyes sparked with mischief. She gave me a secret little wink. I thought I recognized it.
I nodded.
Her voice was so rough. Like a lifetime of campfire embers still glowed in her lungs.
Her words washed through me like an ocean tide, leaving not one mark on the beach of my mind.
I sensed it was important. I tried to tell her I hadn't understood, tried to ask her to repeat herself, but found my own words made as little sense as hers.
Her gaze was totally serene.
She smiled, a dazzling, hopeful smile.
~~~~~~~~
My animus blazed through my mind, as I gasped.
I felt the sword’s power racing through my soul, igniting my Class - Nourishing. Honing.
Focusing.
I could feel the pain about to return, like waters receding before a tidal wave.
Eir
Human
Lv 12 Chimera Summoner
Body: 12
Mind: 20 (+8)
Spirit: 30 (+16)
Attribute points: 24
Skill points: 2!
Skills:
Familiar bond 4/4: Lucy, Lorna, Violette, Serenity.
Chaos: Sleight of Place – switch places of one or more teammates.
Chimeric assimilation 3/3: tempest strike, spectral waltz, Ember-blossom harvest.
Paramore’s mending (1)
Soulbound focus: Melody’s Nightwish
I raised the sword. It was…unbelievably sick.
And holy crap did I not know how to use swords.
I had wanted to be a pure Healer. Even Tempest strike was only viable for me because it was so wildly straight forward.
The sword must have been – gosh, it seemed FAR too long for practicality, didn’t it? – the blade alone must’ve been a meter and a half long, slender? It was perfectly balanced (Somehow??), and humming with potential.
It was equal parts art and weapon, the center of the glorious blade that looked like it had been sculpted from moonstone, rather than hammered from a metal. And the edges were like the night sky, unfathomable and empty.
The spine groove of the blade was dotted with elegant little circular facets like tiny meteors had fallen on it over the eons.
It was a weapon for a once-in-a-world master.
And I had.
Absolutely.
Completely.
Wholeheartedly.
No fucking idea how to use it.
...I stared.
The sword winked back with a distant, deadly light.