The saviour's identity

"Wait, wait please! I swear I'm not the person you're looking for"

The woman screamed.

I was standing in the shop I had just seen Vulpes leave. I had felt a strange energy earlier and decided to make sure he wasn't dead. I had the shop owner by the throat.

I turned to my ring and allowed a small amount of mana to go into it.

"Is she telling the truth?"

I said.

The room went silent before finally releasing a deep red light.

"Of course I am!"

She said.

I moved my mask to the side sightly, allowing my gaze to leak through. As far as I could see, it was a child. Just on stilts and wearing oversized robes. But for a child, she held an incredible amount of power.

"Don't lie to me, You can't hide anything from me"

I started

"So tell me. Who are you?"

She struggled for air before saying

"Nobody worth strangling"

I tightened my grip and created a few spikes in my palm with consruct.

"Name. Now."

I said.

"Is it really worth killing a child over"

She screamed.

"Last chance"

I said.

"Fine! Hastur. Happy now"

She finally let out.

I dropped her onto the ground.

"Wasn't so hard, was it?"

I laughed.

I was just leaving when I heard the brat say behind me

"Just you wait until I find Cassilda"

I made a sharp turn backwards.

"Cassilda?"

I said.

"Shit"

She wheezed.

I got the information I needed after a reasonable interrogation. Firstly, that little girl was over a thousand. Second, Cassilda is somebody incredibly important to the king in yellow. That was about it though.

Just as I walked out of the shop, I felt a familiar presence. A very familiar presence. I jolted to my left and saw a very tall woman with a hammer. She was the source of it.

I walked past her, and just when I left her field of view, I created a spear with construct and pointed it at her neck.

"Name. Now."

I said.

"Threatening my life isn't a good greeting"

She said.

"People like you are lucky to still be alive after what happened"

She went quiet.

"Name. Now."

She said.

"Tell me who YOU are."

I replied.

"I said, Name!"

She shouted, the air around me starting to melt my skin.

We locked eyes for a moment. Even their personality was similar. But it couldn't be, I thought.

"Last chance"

We both said in unison.

"Ok, fine. Clams. Happy now. Metalinn?"

I said.

"I knew you were one of them. But why are you here and not in the village?"

She asked.

"You have no right to ask about them after what you did"

I replied.

"Please... I'm just concerned"

Begrudgingly, I answered her

"We got balanced. Is that enough"

She gasped and went silent.

I knew it. The same habits of going silent and stubbornly asking for someone's name. I already knew of her. The village in the wasteland knew of her too. The defector and god of the seventh generation, bubbling death. Magnesia Metalinn. She was from my home. She left during th earlier stages of the villages creation though. Many, many years before I was born.

I turned and tried to leave.

"Where are you going?"

She asked.

"I've got things to do"

"Did you never bother to look past what they told you about me?"

In the story I was told about her, she had left the village after they began to harvest the natural resources of the wasteland. She didn't agree with ruining a continent.

"I know what you've done and I'm tolerating you. That should be enough"

She tried to stop me.

"You can't hate me that much just for that!"

"I hate you because you left, not because of the reason. If you stayed, everybody could've...

"Everyone could've what?"

"We never met here. Got that?"

The construct liquefied and returned back into my hand and I started walking away, back to Syllvester's bar.

I sat down, already tired even after only being awake for a an hour or two. There was a persistent dripping sound from somewhere. Syllvester sat down next to me. The dripping continued.

"What's up with ya'? Don't you usually prefer a bed than a bottle for calming down?"

He said.

"Don't act concerned, I'm usually like this. It's just that a nuisance came up."

I answered.

The dripping continued.

"Do you hear that?"

I asked Syllvester.

"Hear what?"

He asked back.

I was about to say something when the door burst open and a thin person in a cloak walked in with a large transparent blade.

"Hey, the door's fragile!"

Syllvester yelled to them, not bothering to stand up.

The figure threw off their cloak as water began to gather around them and formed into a large suit of armour. It was then that I recognised the person who had appeared.

"Hydros"

I said

"Oh god, oh god. Not again"

Syllvester said in the background.

"Nice to see you again, Clams. Sadly I've got another order to kill the new gods who just arrived. I'll be borrowing your head for a while, K?"

he said, gleefully.

He readied his sword and threw it at me. It hit the wall and the wall began twisting around it. He grasped the air and his sword came flying back.

"Cool skill"

I said.

"I know right?"

He replied.

I leapt over the counter and picked up a large barrel of water. I threw it at him and it broke, shooting water into the air.

Even after being hit by a barrel. He smiled. I noticed the water droplets weren't falling down and were instead gathering in spheres. Hydros put his hand out in a finger gun and pointed it at me.

"Pew"

He said whilst firing the imaginary gun.

A single water droplet shot at me faster than I could see and pierced straight through my arm. The hole immediately closed up and I hid behind the counter again.

"No use hiding! I can just keep shooting until I hit you"

He laughed.

The spheres combined into one bigger circular plate and four smaller tubes jutted out. They began spinning and shooting droplets at frightening speed.

I stood up and pointed my palm at him. I immediately shot a large spike of construct straight from my hand and into his chest.

I retracted the spike back into my hand and stepped over the counter and looked Hydros in the eye.

"Good shot"

He said.

"I know, isn't it perfect?"

I replied.

He put his hand on my shoulder.

"But not perfect enough"

He giggled.

A small whirlpool appeared on the wound and it closed up. I tried to step away but his grip on my shoulder was quite strong.

"Tricked you"

He laughed.

"Little-"

"Taste of your own medicine. Don't you like it, Mr. Perfect?"

He shouted.

His chest, the whirlpool extended to my torso and shot me into the air. I immediately shot out my tongue outside my mask and repositioned myself. I crashed into the shelf with the alcohol on it. My tongue retreated back into my mask as Hydros stepped over my body.

"How was that?"

He asked.

I laughed and stood up.

"Huh?"

He said.

"Do you think before you shoot.

?"

I asked.

Hydros looked back at his armour. It was already turning red like the wine on the shelf.

"How did you even-?"

He exclaimed before tripping over himself. And holding onto the wall to balance.

A little something I picked up after I left the village. A forked tongue, like a snake, able to locate smells. And with my perfection added on, it became even stronger. I purposefully let myself hit the bottles so that he would get drunk and be at a disadvantage.

He fell to the ground

"You got me... good. Ah shit, I'm not old enough to drink"

He said before passing out on the floor.

I was a bit confused about that last thing but I had better things to care about. I picked up his unconscious body and walked towards the door.

"I'll go put this back, clean up"

I said to Syllvester before leaving.

I would've thought finding the location of the royal capital is harder than just asking around, but it wasn't. It was only an hours walk away from Wortse. The entry gates were bigger and more heavily guarded.

"Any identification?"

The guard asked me.

I reached into the pockets of my cloak before realising that my pockets are only for show and aren't actually deep enough to hold anything. The guards were already suspicious about the masked and cloaked individual who just showed up carrying a body on his shoulder. This, in short, wasn't good.

The idea of getting identification hadn't yet crossed my mind until this moment. I shifted my mask to the side and glanced at him with an eye.

He immediately flinched and shakily let me through. I fixed my mask and finally got into the royal capital.

As I expected, it was grand and it was clean. Both things I had missed about my old home. As I was admiring the architecture, a small fist hit my back.

"Let me down!"

Hydros said, just waking up.

I put him down. He was back to his non-armoured form again. He was dressed more like a assasin though. He even had twin daggers at his hips. While we walked to the castle, his steps weren't making noise either. He clearly had some experience. Though I still don't get why all his abilities are so flashy.

We finally got to the castle and got through the gates after Hydros showed his royal guard pin to the guard.

Once in the castle, I realised something. Why was I just walking into the place that ordered my death? I was just mindlessly following Hydros.

We stopped at a small greenhouse.

"Hey, Phytos! We got a challenger"

Hydros yelled.

The door swung open and a man with long green hair and his shirt around his waist stepped out. The smell of many, many illegal substances following him.

"You actually found someone willing to try that?"

He asked.

"Yup"

He replied.

"Might I ask what I'm trying here?"

I interupted.

"You're trialling to become a royal guard, that way you can meet the king"

He said.

"Can't I just meet him"

I asked.

"No chance, he's quite the greedy man. For power that is. We aren't really the richest kingdom. But we're rich in enthusiasm!"

Phytos said, a fire behind his eyes that I hoped woukd go out before he found a way to use it for whatever was in that greenhouse.

"So what do I even need to do?"

"Complete the challenges given by each royal guard, starting with me. Wait... here you go"

He handed me a flyer.

____

Royal guard test

-approved by captain Pyros Everburn-

Hydros' test of adaptability

Defeat the most creative royal guard in a one on one fight, or last for over ten minutes.

Phytos' test of identification

Figure out the name of the herb the most knowledgeable royal guard gives you without any help

Cosmos' test of magic

S̶h̶o̶w̶ ̶o̶f̶f̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶m̶a̶g̶i̶c̶ demonstrate the limits of your magical prowess. Ps. Hydros stop making light of my challenge

Captain's test of compatability

Test your compatability by trying to absorb monster souls of different elements

Nekros and Noxi's test of endurance

Survive an onslaught of attacks from the strongest royal guard and his sword

____

I stared at the flyer for a moment.

I pointed at it and looked at Hydros.

"Who wrote this?"

"I did"

He said, beaming.

"We gonna do this or can I get back to my... work..."

Phytos said.

"Sorry, let's get on with it then"

I replied.

He held up what appeared to be two roses and tried to hand them to me. I declined as I could already tell what they were.

"Godflower"

I said.

A very rare type of flower. It just started growing one day. Gave regular old mortals half as much power as an ascension. And an imitation of an unchained form. The full power of a god. I say imitation, but the only thing similar is the concept.

I could tell that it was a godflower because it was draining the chaos from me just by it grazing me. Hurt like hell. Made me feel like my blood turned solid and spiky.

He let out a small murderous grin but it was quickly covered by a large smile.

"Correct! Cosmos is in the tent over there"

He pointed.

I walked over and peeked in. There were two people inside, one child who wasn't wearing any armour, and a black haired man who wore armour that looked like it went on forever. There were what appeared to be stars and planets in that void.

I would've, no, should have realised that the person with more than a sentence of description is the actual royal guard. But from my experience with little kids in this place, I had a right to be cautious. You never know with people like Citrus running around. The kid walked out of the tent.

The man in armour raised his hand and called out

"I'm Cosmos not the child!"

I walked in and sat down opposite him. He pulled out a large orb.

"I believe you're familiar with these"

He said.

"No, never used one before"

I replied.

"But you said you were a magic engineer"

He added.

"Magic engineer, alchemist..."

I started.

"Berserker, torturer, overall bane of my infinite existence"

Urge added on in my mind.

'Pipe down' I said to him. Urge, spirit, monster, familiar thing. No clue what he actually is. He never bothered to tell me. But I know that I hate him, and that's enough.

Cosmos sighed and put his and on the orb. It immediately began glowing black.

"The darker the colour, the more mana you have, and don't use me as the standard. I have unlimited mana"

That piqued my interest. I placed my hand on the orb and it glowed a bright white.

"Pathetic"

He scoffed.

I put a little bit of force into my fingers and shattered the orb.

"Whoops, looks like I'm too strong~"

I said.

He stared at me. I could practically feel the disappointment in his eyes.

"Just go"

He said, motioning to the castle.

I walked through the large wooden door and into a room with a man in heavy red armour. Yet again with gold separating the plates.

"What would you do if somebody blocked you from entering here?"

He asked.

He was holding a small orange marble.

"Easy, ask them to move"

I replied.

"Is that really what you'd do? Even if you were desperate to get in. Every second worth more than anything. Would you really just talk it out?"

He continued.

"Maybe I'd push them out of the way, but that's it. Anything more would tire me out"

"If you were well rested then, how would you meet the king?"

I laughed and said what he wanted me to say

"I'd turn the city to rubble and drag him from the ruins"

"There we go. Wasn't so hard, was it?"

He handed me a large stone that was emanating a dark aura.

"What is this?"

I asked.

"Monster soul, the king compresses them down so we can absorb them and get stronger. You need to be compatible though."

He answered.

Many, many years ago, I used to write little books on my research into souls. Thought I might give them to somebody I thought was worthy enough. But this soul compression, was what I did to get abilities like a snake's tongue or enhanced regeneration.

"What's this one made out of then?"

I asked, hiding my intrigue.

"A dullahan"

He said.

I had hear many stories about dullahan. Headless horseman. Harbingers of doom. Some called them reapers. But I'd never seen one before. The dullahans, not the reapers. I'd seen them before

"How do I absorb it?"

"Just grip it tight and-"

He clenched his fist and made a bad cracking sound. His technique wasn't bad. But it wasn't the perfect way to do it. Whoever the king was, he clearly hadn't read the full thing.

I gripped the stone tightly and it began to crack. The moment the man in red blinked, I stretched my finger out and pierced the stone. It immediately lost its shone and aura and crumbled to dust.

"Seems like it worked"

He said.

"Yes, it worked perfectly"

I replied.

"Pyros"

He said.

"What?"

"My name is Pyros"

"Clams"

I added.

He motioned behind him towards a large door that led deeper into the castle. I opened it and was immediately hit with what looked like a large cathedral.

It's walls were a dark blue and a chandelier hung just above the throne.

"Welcome, old friend"

The man on the throne said to me.

He was wearing a red waistcoat and had eyes that glowed yellow. His crown was balancing on his head, just about to fall off and, even though he looked harmless, every movement he made looked fake and preplanned. His sleeves were too long and somehow flowed in the air without falling.

"Just going to stand there and not greet me back?"

He asked.

I took a step in and the door closed behind me.

"Hi"

I said.

He leaned closer raising the glasses closer to his eyes. His pupils didn't move. They just stayed still. Lifeless.

I put my hand behind my back and readied an attack with construct.

"No need to be on guard, I'm not going to bite"

He said.

He raised his sleeves and a massive red talon shot out of each one. He moved each finger past his face as if he was inspecting them. He began sniffing the air loudly.

"You"

He pointed at me with a claw

"You don't have the soul of just one do you?"

I created a spear with construct and launched it at him. He stood still until it was just about to blow his head off and then he vanished.

"Oh, good shot"

He laughed, standing right beside the newly opened hole in his throne.

I opened my hand again, preparing for another attack. He raised the front of his foot and tapped it against the ground, making a high pitched noise that echoes throughout the room.

"How many"

He said from behind me

"Twenty? Thirty?"

He sniffed again

"I've never seen anyone with this many before"

I twisted around and tried to hit him but he had already dissappeared.

"Missed me"

He laughed, his talons changing to a hand and pointing at me.

It was then I pieced it together, a body of no real shape. The ability to create new limbs. This constant talk of souls. He was just like me. But he was imperfect. A copy. A failure. His construct still had deviations in the colour whilst mine was a solid gold. His had to be focused on. His was red. His. Was. Wrong.

When you're all alone, the biggest problem you have is a lack of test subjects. So I used myself. Remove some here. Put it back there. Polishing my excellence whilst purging the imperfections from my soul. Cutting away anything that hindered my progress like a diseased limb. Eventually I lost the fear of making a mistake, after all, I was finally perfect.

Without realising, I had monologued long enough that the king began to notice.

"Come on, old friend. Don't say you don't recognise me. Would you rather I called you what I usually do."

He continued.

I launched another spear at him.

"Saviour"