EPISODE 63: CONTEST OF WILLS

"This is quite a surprise, Vash." Zakarias continued, hobbling past the massive Nightscale without apparent concern. "I was quite certain that you and your friends had perished days ago. That will show me to make assumptions when I have not seen a body." V

ash felt his stomach lurch at the twisted creature that Zakarias had become: the bent and twisted spine, the angry red cysts that grew on his newly formed hunchback, the way half his face sagged and stretched. Nevertheless, Vash still recognized the skeletal scholar that had caused all this trouble. "Zakarias, I have to say…you've looked better."

A thin smile stretched Zakarias' lips. "There is a price to being entrusted with the power of a god."

"The Drae aren't gods." Vash said, trying to catch sight of Galia or any other Wayfarers. "Just demons with delusions of grandeur."

"God, demon, drae, spirit…" Zakarias shrugged with his one good shoulder. "All semantics."

Next to him, Vash felt Sister Clea stiffen. He glanced down at her, and she seemed stricken, confused.

"Don't expect much help from this lot," Zakarias said. "The heartstones are already bound to their Cores. The heartstones will feed off their Cores, then their spirits, and when they have gorged themselves, we will see something amazing."

"Not if we stop it first." Vash said, locking eyes with Zakarias and lifting his sword into a ready position.

"And how are you planning to do that?" Zakarias asked, an amused smirk on his deformed face.

"Killing you seems like a good first step." Vash said, striding forward, weapon raised.

Zakarias merely watched Vash approach with a bemused expression. His hands twitched in a series of motions, similar to what Vash had seen Galia do.

"Vash, watch out, he's—" Galia called a warning, but whatever she was going to say, Vash didn't hear it.

A thrum of mana came from Zakarias and his eyes glowed a strange yellow color. In a voice almost too low to hear, the sorcerer intoned his spell. "Kalaevo Aenir."

The world dropped out from beneath Vash's feet. His head spun and he could no longer tell up from down. A spear of pain lanced through his mind, filling the space that Cass left behind. Darkness swallowed him, dragging him down into an abyss of nothingness. Vash flailed about, looking for anything to latch onto, but he couldn't see his own hands and arms, let alone anything around him. In desperation, he reached out with his aura, feeling it stretch to its limits, searching for something solid to grab onto.

There! He thought, as he felt his aura brush against something. It was soft, yielding, like wet clay. If he grabbed too hard, then it would slip away between his fingers, but he had no other choice. Vash formed a kind of scoop with his mental image of his aura, digging into the strange, soft material and pulling with all the strength he dared. He felt himself moving, slowly at first, then faster. It was hard to tell with no references around him, but the thing he'd latched onto was moving closer and picking up speed. When he collided, pain shot through his mind, turning his vision from black to white and blocking all sensations except the pain. Slowly, the pain receded and other sensations returned.

The first sensation that returned was that he was lying on a stone floor. Vash could feel cool, smooth rock beneath his cheek. The air felt thick, wet, like a swamp or a marsh. He breathed slowly, trying to center his mind, even though the spear of pain remained in his temple, pulling his attention away at every opportunity. Opening his eyes, Vash saw a bleak, barren stretch of gray stone, unmarked but dull. He could only see about twenty feet in any direction. A thick, gray mist swallowed up anything further away than that.

Vash pushed himself to his knees, feeling weak and disoriented.

Where the hell am I?

The place was eerily silent. Not the quiet of the Underlands, which still had a variety of noises, but a silence like the world itself was absorbing all sounds. Vash slowly got to his feet, still trying to keep himself steady.

Zakarias did something. Did he teleport me? It didn't feel like when I used Shadowalk.

"You continue to surprise me, Vash." A voice boomed, breaking the silence. It seemed to come from everywhere at once.

Vash looked around, feeling for his sword while trying to pin down the source of the voice.

"Don't bother looking for your sword." The voice said, amused. "You have no weapons here. And certainly none that would hurt me."

The mists parted, and a figure stepped out of the gray nothingness. It took Vash a moment to recognize Zakarias. The deformities and scars from a moment ago were gone. Still thin, the sorcerer looked healthier, more vigorous. The dark shadows beneath his eyes were gone, and he walked with a strong, confident swagger.

"I am tiring of this game, however. There's work to I need to get back to that I can't leave to the Scalebacks. So, I will have to deal with you quickly." Zakarias said.

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Without warning, two bolts of reddish light streaked from Zakarias towards Vash.

I didn't feel any mana. Vash thought, dodging quickly to one side. The first bolt streaked past, scorching the ground just behind him. The second clipped his shoulder and Vash cried out in pain. He looked down, expecting to see a burn or abrasion. But when he looked, he saw that part of his shoulder had burned away, leaving a divot of flesh carved away from his body. Vash stared in horror. Beneath a thin covering provided by his clothes and his skin, there was nothing but the strange gray mist that roiled at the edges of this little world.

"Now you see," Zakarias said, voice mocking. "The physical means nothing in this world. And, strong as your spirit is, Vash, it's nothing compared to mine."

Zakarias raised one hand, and the stone beneath Vash's feet shot up, forming a claw-like hand that mimicked the movements Zakarias made. Vash rolled to one side, avoiding landing on his wounded shoulder, barely evading the stone 'fingers' that slammed together with the grating sound of stone on stone.

Stumbling to his feet, Vash looked wildly about for something he could use as a weapon. The only loose stones formed the claw that had nearly crushed him a moment ago.

Hand to hand, then. Vash thought, charging at Zakarias.

The sorcerer scoffed and swept his hand towards Vash, contemptuously. The stone claw shot towards Vash with incredible speed, leaving a furrow of broken stone behind it. Vash reached for Enhance Ability, wanting to boost his agility and vault over the approaching hand. The form came to mind easily enough, but when he reached into his Core for the mana to power it, he felt nothing. It wasn't the sensation of his Core being empty of mana; he had felt that sensation many times, rather there was a strange nothingness where his Core should be.

He was so shocked that he completely forgot about the stone claw sweeping towards him. The fingers closed around Vash's body, and the thing's momentum carried him off his feet. Zakarias raised his hand and brought it to a halt, fingers curled in the same position as the stone ones that held Vash.

"Nimble." Zakarias said with a mocking smile. "I'm sure those abilities have served you well in the past. Too bad that's the only thing you have to rely on. I was hoping for more of a challenge."

Zakarias slowly closed his fingers. The stone around Vash constricted, the rock fingers trying to close the same way as Zakarias' flesh ones. Vash cried out as the stone pressed in around him, pressing hard against bones and organs.

"I wish I had the time to savor this," Zakarias said, his voice thick with pleasure at the sight of Vash's pain. "I would tear you apart, bit by bit."

Vash cried out again, struggling against the stone fingers, reaching again and again for a Core that was simply gone. Desperate, he flung his awareness all around him, seeking the shadows and pulling, as he would with a Shadowalk.

A sharp tug told Vash he had a hold on something. Not caring what it was, Vash pulled with all the strength of will he still maintained. Instantly the pain was gone, the crushing sensation vanished, and Vash stood less than ten feet away from Zakarias.

The sorcerer stared at Vash with a mix of surprise and fury.

That wasn't supposed to happen, was it? Vash thought. Wait, what did happen?

Vash… A faint voice on the edge of his hearing said, like someone calling from deep down a well.

Who is that? Vash thought, surprised, looking around for another figure in this empty, mist-shrouded land.

"Fine, we'll do this quick." Zakarias snarled, releasing the stone hand and letting it crumble to the ground. The stones did not fall apart, but spread into the ground like water sinking into dry earth. Clapping his hands together, Zakarias focused intently on Vash. A red and purple glow surrounded the sorcerer. His shadow lengthened, spreading like an oil slick across the ground until it touched Vash, where it engulfed him quicker than thought.

Darkness swallowed Vash, flowing into his eyes, nose, ears. When he tried to scream, it filled his mouth and the sounds of his own torment vanished like a candle being snuffed out. He felt the shadow digging deep into his body, searching for something. Vash floated in freezing silence, trying to scream but unable to make noise. No light, no sound, no warmth or color. Only the sense of a tiny pinprick of light somewhere far away, buried deep within Vash. The darkness was flowing towards it, swallowing everything else as it went, coating each thought, smothering each feeling.

You could have had a merciful death. Zakarias' voice reverberated in Vash's head, like someone shouting in a cave. If you had just stopped fighting, then you would be dead and spared this part of the process.

The darkness surrounded Vash's inner light now, pressing in on the feeble glow.

Is that my soul? Vash thought, mesmerized by the faint light so far away.

Vash… the faint voice came again. This time, Vash sensed its location. The crevice that had held Cass felt just as empty as his Core, but that was the source of the voice. It was weak, faint, but still calling out to him. Vash turned his attention away from the darkness surrounding the fading light of his soul and turned it to the faint voice somewhere in the darkness of his mind.

Cass?

Vash felt a pulse of recognition, of awareness. Something blossomed within his mind, filling that void that the Shadow Temple had left behind. He felt her stirring, like she was awakening from a long, dreamless sleep.

Cass… Vash called out in his mind. He felt himself fading, his sense of self eroding as the light within him smothered. Help…me…

Darkness engulfed him, the light of his Core, his soul, disappearing beneath a sea of nothingness.

For a moment, it was quiet. Vash was content just to let his mind fade into oblivion, but he still held out that connection, reaching for Cass, even though he did not know how.

NO!

Cass' voice was like a crack of thunder. It was so loud that Vash felt the entire shrouded realm around him shudder from the sound and fury. The darkness retreated like shadows before a bonfire. The shadow poured out of Vash, leaving him gasping and heaving on his knees on the stone floor. His eyes hurt and he squinted against even the wan light of this place. Everything was a blur.

"That's not possible!" Zakarias shouted, rage making his voice rise to a near shriek. "They said they destroyed you! There was nothing left!"

Vash looked up, blinking away the haze and tears. Zakarias stood where Vash had last seen him, though the red and purple aura had dimmed slightly. Between Vash and the Sorcerer, stood another figure. She was tall, almost as tall as Vash, and she was beautiful, despite being slightly transparent and suffused with a soft blue glow. The woman had the olive complexion and night black hair of an elani, but her clothes were of a cut and style that Vash had only seen in paintings from the Malconian era.

Cass looked down at Vash and gave him a smile, then turned her attention to Zakarias.

You wish a contest of wills, sorcerer? Cass said, her voice still sounded ethereal, rebounding within Vash's head. Then, by all means, try mine.

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