Decision

As Rethys walked through the familiar halls of the underground complex, he truly got to appreciate just how different things were after the change.

The halls themselves didn't change in his eyes, the stone of this ancient place was nothing if not immutable after all, yet they felt completely different. Just like the change he noticed after meeting Kithil and the following shift in how everything seemed, all changed once again.

His realization of the extent of horror that took place here didn't change, and neither did his attitude of abhorrence and pity towards it. Yet now he felt that he could make decisions solely based on what he thought and what he wanted, not based on what the Origin entity pressured him to do.

Yet could he leave just like that? Leaving suffering and pain unattended just like those before him did?

'But this doesn't have anything to do with me.' He thought.

Yet the Origin element was a core part of him, and was borne of his very own nature, not of the entity's design. And so even without the entity's interference, there was still some innate pull coming from within him, it felt right to want to solve this place's problem. Yet that also bore the problem of Rethys not entirely understanding what the Origin element was about. Sevi herself stressed that understanding of one's element is crucial in unlocking its full potential, yet the young man was at a loss.

'Still, I don't have to listen to it.' He thought, remembering what he had realized these past few days.

If his encounter with Kithil and his awareness of the reality of this place taught him anything, it wasn't that he was some god-sent hero that would clean this place of its horrors, but rather that all of it was beyond the scope of what he could ever address. He did indeed have a deep-seated inclination to want to correct this place, stemming both from his element and his own moral code, yet could nonetheless rationalize the sheer impossibility of such a thing and the lunacy involved in going through with it.

'No.' He thought, deciding that his priorities didn't change.

He would get out of this place and return to a normal life. The normal life of a mage that is, not the struggle and pain.

'Whatever it takes.'

He also thought of Sevi and their current predicament. He still couldn't accept that they were somehow stuck together indefinitely now.

The Blood mage explained that she turned his physical body into an approximation of the blade she was housed in, into a vessel for both the gem and its strange powers. Yet he couldn't accept how she was so... on board with everything. She was too cooperative.

She had accepted their new paradigm too quickly to not arouse his suspicions. And though he knew her to be rational and understanding, he couldn't ignore the possibility of even deeper deception implied by her swift acceptance of it all.

'Did she plan for all of this?' He wondered, only to shake his head in exasperation. 'No, it can't be.'

The emotions she radiated back then were genuine, and Rethys didn't think it so simple to trick his elemental ability to feel souls.

Still, her powers were such that the only things she fell behind were the creatures of the surface, incomprehensible monsters as they were. And though her story made sense, he felt that things couldn't be so simple, not in this place at least.

"Just what are you planning to do?" Sevi finally broke the silence and snapped Rethys out of his contemplation.

"You'll see." He simply said as he combed through his surroundings in search of any living thing he could find.

His frequent excursions into the catacombs have over time turned the area leading up to Sevi's room into a deserted stretch that rarely if ever had anything wander into it. And it took him a while before finding something to test his theory upon.

It was an ethereal creature, a small cloud of Corruption ether taking on a roughly humanoid shape. These creatures seemed to feed on others like themselves and avoided all other physical creatures that dwelt the labyrinths of this place.

Rethys often wondered how these creatures functioned. From what he could tell, they had what seemed to be etherstones housing their souls and serving as their physical bodies. And though that itself made sense, he wondered how a few pebbles of magic stone housed the power necessary to contain and even outright trap souls.

"A ghast, and a lesser one by the looks of it." Sevi noted.

"How come you know all their names?" Rethys asked.

"I have spent centuries here using my scrying abilities, scouting the ruins of the city and... passing the time. It was really only a matter of time before I came to know everything there is to be around here." The Blood mage explained.

"So all this time you knew what I'd run into and never chose to warn me?" Rethys remarked, remembering all the surprises that almost killed him.

"I have never sent you to anything you could not manage, and you know it." Sevi retorted. "As for those, I was only trying to make you realize your limits. I did not expect you to simply ignore them and push through as you did. Do not even attempt to blame me for your own recklessness Rethys."

'She's still trying to pretend that nothing happened.' Rethys noted inwardly.

"Whatever you say..." He shrugged and approached the ghast.

Throughout the duo's conversation, the creature was busy staring at a wall, and didn't even register their presence. Rethys guessed it was because they were not ethereal creatures like it, which prompted it to ignore them.

Ethereal or material however, so long as everything had souls and ether, Rethys would be able to affect them. And pointing his hand towards the creature, released his Enfeeble spell.

The ethereal ghast shuddered for a moment, registering the wave of Origin magic running through it and destabilizing it. And turning slowly around what seemed to be its face, it fixed its assailant with a confused gaze, while its ether began visibly wavering.

But before it could do anything else, Rethys cast a second Enfeeble, causing the creature to lose consciousness.

As it was a being made of ether rather than flesh and blood, it didn't fall to the ground, but rather had its form broken as it collapsed into a vague, loosely held together heap of ether. That ether was anchored to a strangely shaped etherstone that served as its core and heart, and crouching to reach it, Rethys wondered once more about this strange creature's nature.

He had seen these creatures collapse and reform again, and every time their raw ether would take the shape of a humanoid silhouette. Was it a daemon mimicking a human form or was it the human inside trying desperately to regain some feature of its stolen humanity?

'This doesn't have anything to do with me.' He concluded, remembering what he came here for.

"Now what? What is the purpose of all this?" Sevi asked.

"I should be feeling an urge to excise its soul now that it's right in front of me. But I'm not..." Rethys mused.

"Then it is decided, the entity controlling you simply lost the ability to pinpoint your location now that my soul signal has superseded yours. The immaterium is not like the material world Rethys, it is incomprehensibly ever-shifting. Without a concrete signal, one cannot hope to ever keep a handle on things, and it is only natural for that entity of yours to also be subject to this phenomenon." Sevi repeated her explanation.

Rethys nodded as he covered his hands in his ether emission, instilling them with at least some magic resistance before reaching inside the blob that was the ghast's broken form.

Grabbing the etherstone that contained the creature's soul, he peered intently into it, trying to see if it could spark a reaction inside of him. He saw the soul trapped inside, twisted away from its natural shades of humanity and into something it was not meant to be. Yet within himself, nothing stirred, nothing noticeably foreign in any way.

'Nope, still nothing.' He concluded, feeling nothing out of the ordinary.

He then sent his magic inside the stone and released the creature's soul, permanently setting it free from the confines of the cursed city. And once again his feelings remained neutral, with no trace of the elation instilled into him by the creature upon exorcising souls or the feeling of accomplishment that accompanied it.

'Does this mean I'm free of it?' He thought, some excitement managing to appear inside of him.

Being free of the creature's noise and interference was already a fantastic feeling, especially after being forced to endure it for so long, but the true prize lay in the peace of mind that came with knowing he wasn't in constant danger. If Rethys truly could be free of the entity, then he wouldn't mind even tolerating Sevi's intrusions.

"Sevi is there a way to hide my soul from the entity like this on my own? And permanently?" He asked.

"There are many ways to achieve such an effect, with each having their own set of problems. Yet for one bearing a strange element such as yourself, you would probably need time and help to find a method that satisfies you. And it goes without saying but you will not be able to accomplish such a thing here." The Blood mage explained.

"I see." Rethys responded absentmindedly.

He spent a while mulling over this new information and all that it entailed, only to find all his thoughts looping back to one singular point.

He had to choose whether to cooperate with Sevi or not, with the knowledge that she is probably still feeding him half-truths and may in the future turn on him again.

But even though she seemed unwilling to trust him, she had shown an inclination not to harm him. Their interests also aligned, as they both wanted to get out of Yvtar. And just as she had shown her willingness to sacrifice him to guarantee her freedom, he too could adopt a similar policy.

'But she's so much stronger than me.' He pondered. 'But she also can't force me to do anything.'

Convinced that he had covered all his bases, Rethys made his decision. He would rely on her help for now, armed with the conviction that he would prioritize his own freedom and survival over hers, just like she had shown herself willing to do.

"So, what's our plan now? Or rather what's yours? You must've had something in mind, after getting out of the sword, right?" He finally asked.

"Hm? Oh." Sevi snapped out of her own pondering. "Uhm... My first step was to strengthen us, firstly using my Blood magic and secondly by finding tools of power, anything from normal weapons to ancient artifacts. The old city waterways, that being the two floors directly above ours, contain many bases for both the cultists and the resistance of my time, those should have no shortage of curios to search through.

"We could also try following the underground passages to homes of high-class mages throughout the city, from manors to mage towers and workshops belonging to Archmages and Mage Lords. We could even try to find a way to the Yvtari High Council's tower, which should be rife with powerful arcana of all sorts."

Listening to Sevi's explanation, Rethys just stood there, dumbfounded, before eventually gathering his wits and blurting out what's on his mind.

"Why try to do all of that? Can't we just get the runic lexicon and use the teleporter? You yourself said that nothing down there could pose a threat to you."

"Yes, that much is true. But using the teleporter should be our last resort. I have already told you that it is almost guaranteed to be a death sentence unless we either calibrate it perfectly or have a stroke of unimaginable luck get us through safely. I am not relying on whatever the spatial weather would have planned that day, so we should first try our best to get out some other way. Even escaping through the surface of all things is probably a sounder plan than trying our chance at the teleporter.

"That being said, we should still go the ritual rooms to investigate what truly became of the cultists, and especially their leaders." Sevi explained.

Rethys stood there, thinking of what Sevi said. Her words sounded convincing, and her suggestions sounded reasonable, as they always did. Yet he couldn't for the life of him listen to her words.

"We have much to explore of the underground complex that lies underneath the city. These catacombs are but one part of them, and an ancient and useless one at that, taken by the cultists to perform their deeds away from the eyes of those above. Once we head upwards, we will be able to find the truly helpful things, weapons and tools that will help us survive. Wasting time here does not help us in the slightest." She continued.

"We'll do all that after we secure a way to get the teleporter working. Consider it our way out in case things go south, and I'd feel much better going on these adventures of yours if we get it squared away first." Rethys stated.

"But Rethys we cannot ju-"

"We can, and we will. You said it yourself, that you can manage that place's creatures. Now let's get moving." He declared as he began navigating towards the western end of the catacombs.