Book 1 Chapter 24: Choosing paths and yet lost

Chapter 24: Choosing paths, and yet lost.

'Carbon wing skeleton: Your wings structure is light, and highly durable.'

"Carbon…" Jaeger thought for a moment, and actually looked back over to a orb of glass. It wasn't a lot, in fact it was a crystal ball meant for Tao to use. Jaeger knew however through Tao's description of it, that rare bits of jade as well as magical sands were used to make the glass.

Jaeger absorbed the large orb, creating a Window like rune on his hand. His back tingled, and after a wait he dispersed the orb into a blob and looked back at his watch. The words slowly shifted themselves.

'Cryscarbonite wing skeleton: Your wings are highly durable and extremely light. Cryscarbonite is in essence a structuralized pattern of carbon structuring. Much to the alikeness of a crystal, and yet metal, because of the previous design your skeleton wings can hold blessings and magic'

"Okay…okay I think I know where to start" A faint lightning rune appeared on the wings finally. It wasn't that it couldn't appear there, but was unable to do to the new design of the wings. Jaeger looked around once more and his eyes fell upon several different items he had harbored. He shook his head though soon after, half of this stuff was the rest of the groups items left to him, mostly it was yet unusable currently.

*WARP*

Jaeger landed on the ground in front of Frog. With a toss, several magical crystals landed in front of his reptile familiar. It looked up at Jaeger once more and back down at the crystals before this seemingly insatiable glare became evident. The frog leapt forward and latched onto the first crystal, it slid it in its entirety through its mouth. The whole thing disappeared like a fat kid eating a twinkie! Then the next, and the next. Frog then sat on its butt, and rubbed its tummy.

"You…" it was then that frog began to glow, and in turn it gained a cm in height. Little jutting crystal points came through its back like an armored ridge. Frog then lowered its body to the ground, and hopped into a small patch of mist before disappearing.

It may have been the energy within or maybe the crystals themselves but either way a cm in height was massive.

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'Travel to 145.56.968 and acquire the flag.'

Jaeger looked at the watch several times before looking west. The coordinates were in fact the demolished fort or rather specifically the swamp next to it.

Travelling through the forest in the darkness of eternal night was not an easy feat. A mist had permeated the surroundings, but with a light strum the Lyre parted the mists like a knife with its sound waves.

'Gruhhh…' The telltale sounds of undead swam throughout the mists, and every once in a while an undead would be revealed by the parting mists. Before it could alarm others, its head was already severed soon after, it disappeared in Jaeger's wake.

So far, only undead had appeared and nothing stronger or deadlier like the werewolves and vampires. Jaeger started to question whether or not those creatures were a byproduct of the quest, or the boon of mystery itself.

Something heavy stomped the ground nearby. It was the type of stomp that sounded like 6 people slamming the same spot on the ground at the same time, that kind of heavy.

Jaeger controlled the sound of the lyre as best he could to be quite while still manipulating the mists. The mist slowly fell to the ground, creating a layer of rolling grey across the forest floor. What was revealed from the knees up was a monstrosity.

One specifically called an Amalgam Undead.

The reason for this, was the mutated body it possessed. If one undead was to some folk bad enough, an Amalgam undead was the combination of several undead into one body. Like Frankenstein except it wasn't a patch work puzzle to make one person whole again. This one had several arms jutting out from its back, 3 heads pointing in several directions and several massive swaths of disproportionate muscle.

It was one ugly son of a bitch.

One of the heads spotted or rather sensed a presence amongst the mist. The amalgam wasn't as dumb as its smaller and quite litterly singular kin, no; it was far smarter as if the minds of the undead upon its body were linked together.

The head to its right had no eyes, but evidently to make up for this impairment it had the nose of some unknown creature. It smelled the air several times as it swiveled its head, before the largest of the heads looked over in the same direction as the first. It began to slowly move in his direction, barreling through brush and bush alike. Each step let off the same noise Jaeger had picked up on before, that '6 people' were stomping the ground at the same time and now it truly made sense.

*Fuf*

A little light danced off adjacent to Jaeger and on the other side of the Amalgam. It turned around to the source of light only to see it blip out. Even Jaeger didn't know what that source of light had been, it was a strange milky white light glow.

The Amalgam approached the space where the light had momentarily been but found nothing even with its 3 heads constantly sensing or surveying the area. That's when the rhythmic stomping began, and why when Jaeger had found it, it was just standing there looking around.

That means the light was coming from a source, but the Amalgam couldn't find it. Was it a trap? The fauna around?

*blip fuf*

A glow of light approached the amalgam, like a fairies aura. As this was the direction the blinded head was facing, the other heads didn't notice until the mist around its knees glowed slightly. It whipped around, but the light vanished even quicker. It began to grind its teeth and swing at the mists around it, stomping heavily in several points crushing countless sticks and stones.

*fuf* *fuf* *fuf*

Several lights blipped into existence from the air, slowly swirling around the Amalgam. One floated towards its chest, and seemed to pass straight through it without pause. Jaeger however almost gasped, because this 'little light' had just carved a 4 inch hole through the creatures chest. The lights began to swim around the Amalgam one by one, tearing chunks of flesh out of it continually. It didn't seem to notice however, and watched the lights intently.

It was only when it collapsed and struck the ground sending out a wave of mist to the left and right that Jaeger noticed several plants moving towards its body.

'What the hell are these things…'

The 'Lights' were in fact tentacles so thin they were almost invisible. The light at the end of them gave off a certain type of light that the tentacles seem to just disappear into and thus the floating lights looked as if they sprang into the air magically.

The mists slowly crept back over the creatures body, blips of light flashed several times in the mist before stopping. Jaeger held his breathe, maybe there was more to the forest then he was originally aware of.

Jaeger leapt up a tree, keeping his wings hugged tight over his shoulders in its cape shape while his spectral arms and true arms constantly danced about until he reached the top of the tree line.

The forest seemed even gloomier from up above, strange waves of fog in the distance washed over the trees like a wave. More sounds came to Jaegers unobstructed ears, letting him know that just within a 1000 foot radius there were countless enemies. Fluttering lights were dancing everywhere too, which meant sadly the ones below him weren't some rare occurrence.

Jaeger sighed and lit his smoke, it had been a fair amount of time since he had smoked last and having it enter his lungs his muscles became less taught.

The cape fluttered in the presence of the draft of wind above the trees. Putting out his ciggarrete Jaeger touched the wings before flexing his back and spreading them out. The wind caught the wings like a kite and almost sent him tumbling off the tree.

"Shit!" The spectral arms grabbed the thin trunk at his back and held him fast. Jaeger gave a thought and the wings went horizontal allowing the wind to pass under and around them. With a deep breathe, and a very hasty dumb strategy, Jaeger leapt out to the air with a rough kick to the tree. The wings caught air and to Jaegers amazement kept him gliding through the air. The only thought coming to mind was that of a bird.

*flap* *flap*

It wasn't easy, and felt like lifting a heavy weight but with great tenacity Jaegers mind quickly raced to figure out the use of the wings.

"Lightness…fuck me…would it actually be useful?" The wind slowly formed towards Jaegers hands, his body slowly becoming lighter as the rune for wind formed in the last slot. It became far easier to lift himself, the wings the main focus of the weight.

The boots of mercury in this regard were priceless. They increased his ability to control his movements, and with such delicate but intricate movements needed for flight, it was indispensable.

*flap*

*flap*

The wind carried Jaeger's much lighter body up through the air as his wings became steadier, positioning them constantly to keep him horizontal.

100's of feet passed by just in mere seconds. The constant flickering of lights below the canopy a testament to the mysterious and dangerous path he was going over. Constant howls and grunts plagued his ears, 1,000's of creatures throughout the forest hell bent on killing any and all things.

'Am I cheating?' Jaeger didn't care to kill off whatever was below; it was both a hell and a curse to delay the process of ending all this.

After quite an arduous and long flight Jaeger had saved quite a few hours of travel. The constant adjustments in the air left his back sore beyond belief but this still made it well worth it. He had to learn anyway right?

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Touching down on familiar stone, the first thing to be noticed was the crumbled debris everywhere. Jaeger had been carried away after that fiasco so he had only received second hand accounts of the aftermath.

The swamp had countless stone fragments jutting out of it, some still slowly shifting down into the earth due to their weight.

'What would a flag even look like?...like a flag litterly or?'

Jaeger looked around as a strange feeling crept into his bones, as if many things were watching him. Out of the corner of his eyes were countless little red dots but with a glance in their direction they would seemingly disappear.

'Something isn't right…I cant fire at them while looking away because I would then expose my awareness of them, or worse yet call forth whatever is beyond the zone of the fort'

Truly, Jaeger wasn't able to see the countless things calling out into the night as he flew overhead, and he was in no rush to find out such observations. Yet, he wanted to still see what it was that cast its gaze on him from the corner of his eyes.

A frog appeared from a mist beside his foot, with a quick bend a small mirror was deposited from its mouth before it disappeared again. Jaeger picked it up casually, and pretended to 'look' at himself, but obviously looked beyond.

'Oh fuck…'

A group of 6 people looked at a screen displaying a horrific scene surrounding Jaeger. Although jaeger wasn't able to easily see what was around him, they could.

Even the shop keeper was rubbing his chin, "Should be soon…lets see…"

The holier then holy Tao didn't feel like he could muster any strength in the same situation Jaeger was in, he sighed and laughed sadly. Ito consoled him, "Its okay…he might still make it, he is a smart one."

The 4 others sitting next to them however didn't at all feel it was possible.

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Ghosts.

Countless ghosts, floating and hovering amongst the trees like hung bodies with piercing red eyes.

Jaeger quickly spun the bracelet and all 3 runes for lightning unfurled upon his hand. Time slowed to a crawl, and his gaze swept as his body moved 360 degrees before arriving at its original orientation.

'They aren't as fast…' Jaeger muttered in his mind as he recalled exactly how many pairs of eyes were around him. His mind moving at a speed inconceivable to a regular man, countless plans ran through before they were discarded over and over.

"Fuck" Jaeger couldn't help but say out loud.

'Wait…what if they aren't hostile…or rather, not until I pick up the 'flag'?'

This made sense, much to the alikeness of the field of roses, they never withered until a sequence of events was made to be.

As Jaeger flicked the screen of his watch, displaying the 'boon of mystery', unknown to him a certain shop keeper was nodding his head in approval. The first 5 words contained many thoughts as Jaeger read them.

'Boon of mystery: That in which is, isn't. That in which was, can never be again. The past is an ethereal concept to those that remember it, but what if the past was never forgotten and merely contained in the minds of those beyond. Repeating its events, reaching the same result.

Decay and sorrow, change and hollow.

Quest: Change that in which was, to never be again.'

Jaeger slowly lifted his eyes to meet the countless glowing red dots slowly moving towards him like a tidal wave of grey and black mixed with the light of dying stars within it.

Slowly Jaegers vision turned dark as all senses disappeared from him, without anything to stop it.

Silence, in the forest of death.