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edelorion · 1 year ago

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pso2 chess headcanons because i felt like it!!

this will contain a bit of spoilers so do finish episode 6 maybe -w-

okay so.

Afin: he's a beginner. he knows how the horse moves but if you throw an en passant on him he'll be very confused. leaves pawns and pieces hanging constantly. but he's a good sport about it! "Aw crikey, didn't see that one! Good game, mate!"

Matoi: okay so as klariskrays 2 she never had the time to play and even now after the defeat of the primordial darkness she never really has an interest in chess. however, she's not bad at it. her playstyle is very defensive and while necessary sacrifices have to be made sometimes if she can avert the taking of a piece or a pawn on her sideshe usually does.

Quna: like matoi, as zelsius quna AND an idol she never had the time to play but after the defeat of tpd i think she's probably taken it up as a hobby. and just like her former assignment as zelsius she's completely unassuming until she suddenly ICBMs your queen and there's nothing you can do about it.

Casra: okay he's actually taken the time to learn how to play chess. and he's good at it. he could win against anyone in the Oracle fleet with a bit of effort bar from anyone whose name starts with x. he's fancy and unconventional to stump players whenever he knows they can't handle it, but he's very defensive and by the book whenever he's playing against an actual competent opponent. CAN'T resist an en passant.

Zig: really good. picked up chess in his downtime. can hold a candle against casra. his philosophy while playing is that diamonds are formed under extreme heat and pressure and as such he's super offensive in his play. he breaks you down, so you can build yourself up. and if he finds the opponent survived his trial he's okay with... letting them win a bit. as a treat. especially does this with matoi. he's really good at blitz chess in particular.

Io: best girl BEST GIRL how does she perform?? pretty alright! but she breaks down easily whenever things don't go as she planned. she's very bold in her plays but whenever she's threatened she's internally screaming. probably taunts a little -w-

Pietro: failboy. does the bongcloud unironically because he genuinely doesn't know it's a bad opening. anytime he plays it's like a trainwreck that you can't look away from

Zeno: not that great. tried picking up chess after the defeat of tpd but never got the hang of it. at most he plays a casual match against echo or matoi but he's not that great.

Echo: comeback queen. she knows the openings, but her midgame is a little weak, however she's good at persisting after pieces are lost. probably won a few times against io after io took her queen and was SO assured of her victory

Risa and Hariette: do i even need to say it. risa would rather be shooting things than be playing chess but every game is HELLISH NIGHTMARE. she's more offensive than Zig and plays EXPLICITLY to see the doom in people's eyes as she trumps them at every aspect. and hariette? she knows this. and she helps. whenever hariette's in full control though she plays a good, clean, and strategic game on her own, and her decisionmaking skills really shine through. xiao's pleasantly surprised to see either of them play like this.

Pati: does not care for chess. but every time someone else plays she commentates and makes up random names for the attacks and gambits and defenses like "The Tyrell Defense, Rico Variation" and "The Flowen Gambit" to make it seem more exciting to people and to make herself seem smart until Tia calls her out on the nonsense.

Tia: actually knows alot of chess theory, but has very little practice. a pretty good commentator with quite a bit of insight however. can't help but backseat play a little though... until pati starts shouting about a "Kireek Method Attack" or something like that.

Melrandia: actually learnt chess from melfonseana, her sister, who probably won an arks chess championship one time. as for melrandia herself, she's also rather good but kinda shy about it. focuses alot on defense, and doesn't do anything fancy bar for a scholar's mate sometimes since that's the first thing melfonseana taught her. she pulled it against io once and she made her cry

Maria: she's pretty good. as non-CAST she picked it up as pastime whenever she's not busy, but nowadays she has little time for it. but when she plays, she's a menace. she especially strives in high-speed, high-stakes scenarios like blitz or bullet chess. she knows most of the good openings and knows how to make the best of them and carries that momentum all the way to endgame.

Regius: bold and brash when he first picked it up, but has since quenched it, and now as a CAST, he's just pretty good... but does like doing the more unconventional tactics sometimes. but against maria, he's super serious. he'll beat her one day.

Xion: beyond stockfish. any move she plays is the best in its situation. she has never lost a game. she will never lose a game. she knows everything about her opponent and WILL play the perfect game each and every time. she is a menace. cold. calculated. an utter destroyer. may the akashic records have mercy on your soul, since its librarian has none to spare ゴゴゴゴ

Xiao: almost on the same level as xion. but he's much less player as he is teacher. each game he plays he invites the opponent to improve. he lets them figure out their flaws, lets them improve on them, and then decimates them. often leads on casra into thinking he's winning against him before pulling the rug right under him

Xiera: cheater. she's decent but any time she's losing she taps into xiao and uses his processing power to completely decimate her opponent. she thinks she's sneaky about it but she really isn't. it's gotten so bad that xiao personally comes down to shame xiera each time she does this.

main character: lemme paint you a picture for this.

Xiao: "Oof, you lost a piece there..." MC: "..." Xiao: "Wait, it's the Timestream-- Stop! How far back are you trying to go?!" <AP 2XX, 10 seconds before> MC: "...So I castle instead." Xiao: "hhhh you cheater."

if any of you have more chess HCs esp. for characters i've missed (pso2 or ngs) please reblog and share them!!

#pso2 #phantasy star online 2

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grandestblood · 7 years ago

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Chapter 02: Hello and Goodbye

The end of the month drew near with the moon full and bright overhead. But even with the soft light it graced the land underneath, the oasis was still foreshadowed with unusual darkness as though light will succumb to an unending void at any given moment. A gentle breeze was all it took for me to shudder on this chilly night while a cicada broke the uncomfortable silence. Footsteps befell the earth like silent cries of fatigue. I knew we both needed the relief of a good night’s rest but we proceeded nevertheless. Neither one of us made a sound until we arrived where Sir Neiro awaited together with Sir Theon and a hooded figure. I had no idea why Sir Theon was present, but I followed Casra despite her discouragement because I had to see this through under the grace of the high priest; his still unopened letter weighed as much as the Musæum’s reputation in my hand. If I had let Casra out of my sight, she could have turned back on her patron yet again and that could cause the Musæum to lose a valuable sponsor. We halted a few strides away from the professors and they immediately averted their eyes from each other to focus on us.

“Thank you for entertaining this evaluation, miss Casra.” Sir Theon welcomed us and though his greeting was well worded, he still sounded agitated.

Casra did not so much as pay him a glance much less a phrase of acknowledgement, not even an apology that our mentor would have probably liked, as she walked passed between the two of them making an aisle for herself as if they weren’t standing there. Sir Neiro furrowed his brows together at the display of utter disrespect but if he had anything to say, he kept his words to himself just like always. Casra faced the hooded figure with the same nonchalance she had from the moment we started pacing along the halls of the dormitory until she waltzed between the minimal space our mentors had. She removed her robe and discarded it on the ground but kept her scepter in her left hand.

“I suggest you do the same,” she said…or rather ordered?

After discarding removed her robe, I saw what she wore under it. Strangely enough, she wore a full black armor with intricate gold designs. Was it made from Romania? I had never seen such metalwork before, not even during my travels with my father. It didn’t seem to be either bronze nor iron. Looking at it, I felt like it didn’t even belong to any continent like its maker wasn’t from around here. Were people able to make such designs already? It was made out of metal plates linked together by materials I did not know. Its spaulders made her shoulders seem a bit broader. Even her hands and her fingers were covered by metal one by one. Her knuckles were laid with spikes. I wondered if they could be lethal if she threw a punch. Her thighs were each covered down to her toes by these linked metal plates. She wore a hauberk and red chausses under them all. The components of the armor looked heavy. She knew she will be tested in combat, but how could she move around in that? Since when could mages fight in armors? She looked like she was ready for war.

“Miss Casra,” Sir Theon tried to get her attention. “If you continue such attitude, the patron might fail your evaluation regardless of the results.”

Casra turned to look at him but that was all she did as a response.

“How dare you,” the hooded figure spoke. I could see his mouth from the shadows his hood provided. “What right have you to order me around, unclean woman?”

Unclean? Casra was undoubtedly rude and she could be penalized for that. But to insult her as such was below the belt. I wished I could intervene but the patron might get even more upset if I did. And if that angered Casra, she just might get angrier if I said anyt-

“Excuse my short memory!” she exclaimed, and to my surprise, she was laughing so gleefully. She never laughed when we were around other people. Did she know this man? It didn’t seem to be their first time meeting. “I forgot you already have a master and I cannot buy such fine slave.”

Sir Theon gave me a look as Casra bowed to her patron in jester. I frowned. It was strange that they kept bantering like that, even more suspicious than the sudden change in the way she usually talked. As if it couldn’t get even weirder, the patron took his cloak off and discarded it away. He seemed to hate being ordered around but he complied, anyway. I could recognize the sharp contours of his face, framed by long and wavy dark hair and his intense hazel eyes staring at Casra intently as if we weren’t here. He also wore an armor but it was all white with blue relief carvings and not a full plate like hers although it still looked as foreign and complicated. Compared to how Casra was covered in every nook and cranny, only his shoulders, chest, legs, and feet were armored. He wore a white gambeson that resembled chiton underneath it as well as a pair of white chausses that were tucked inside his greaves. I scrutinized him a little more until I saw his sword hanging quietly in its sheath at his waist. As if on cue, he drew it and got into a fighting stance. His sword was the most intriguing. It was almost five feet long and about four inches wide and surely it weighed heavier than the rest of his armor.

“Eh?” Casra arched a brow. “Do you really want to fight here?”

“That’s what I came here to do,” said the man. “And you? Do you intend to fight me with a stick?”

“This?” Casra raised her scepter, twirled it a few times before discarding it as well with a shrug. Huh? Wait! How will she fight bare-handed? “The truth is, this cloak and scepter are my most hated pieces of decor. I do not really have a use for them.”

“Pick up your stupid scepter!” I finally found my voice to speak in the midst of the tension. “Casra, this is your damn evaluation as a scholar! You cannot fight without your weapon! Are you intentionally failing this?”

Casra did not answer. The patron raised his broadsword to his right side with both hands, putting his left foot forward for good balance, and swiftly brandished his sword, not listening to a single word. Casra didn’t dodge nor did she try to block it. She caught the blade with an armored hand and brought it down together with its weilder so that she could connect her knee to his face. He stumbled backward from the force after Casra let go of his sword before steadying his stance once again and preparing to strike her. But before he could close the distance, she strode to meet his direction, blocked his sword with her gauntlet and punched him in the face, answering the musing I had a while ago. He was sent flying and he hit a tree before slumping on the ground, only bearing his weight by leaning on his sword that he stuck in the soil. So this is why she did not need her ‘stick’.

“What’s wrong?” Casra questioned but her tone was more of a statement. “Aren’t you going to use your magick?”

“Do not order me around,” the patron stood steadily, fortifying his stance. “There are still humans watching us.”

Humans?

That was a very outlandish thing to say, as though the two of them weren’t humans. But somehow, I felt like it wasn’t a joke that someone like Casra was not human. Even the patron seemed inhuman. He did not take damage from the blows he received. I supposed there should be a mark on his face from that kind of punch especially because of the knuckles of her gauntlet. He should have bled, in fact. But he looked totally unfazed, only a little bit thrown out of balance. That convinced me this man was more off an oddball than Casra. But what about her? That strength surpassed earthly limitations.

“Then how about a change of scenario?” Casra smiled, raising her right arm. I had no idea what she’s talking about. She didn’t chant anything but I immediately felt power from her fingertips as she pointed her palm above. “Neiro, I want to show you the result of my research.”

The ground beneath us shook lightly at first I almost couldn’t feel it. Then a crack crept from the woods. My knees felt weak as the tremors began to become violent. The ground moved, destroying our surroundings. My heart hammered in my chest as I finally dropped on the ground – which rose like pillars. The geology mentor did everything he could to prevent us from slipping off until all the shaking finally stilled. We were stranded on one pillar, separated from the two other pillars on which the patron and Casra stood with a great chasm between them and us filled with other identical posts and deadly spikes that gleamed like a sea of smiling needles below. We all rose higher and higher until we reached a deadly height. Sir Theon was already shouting at Casra to stop this madness while Sir Neiro tried to contact the high priest with his familiar. True to her words, the scenario changed drastically from an oasis to one high above the Musaeum where death surely awaited if we made a mistake of overstepping our bounds and plummet back to the earth below. That mistake was horrifyingly hard not to make with what little space we had left to us that I almost felt claustrophobic if not for the open space that the sky air provided.

“Casra, i-is t-this a forbidden magick?” I cursed myself for stuttering when I wanted nothing more than to be angry at her. Whether this magick was legal or not, it was too dangerous to cast. If her ability failed us, our bodies will end up a bloody pulp back in the Musæum in case its foundation was left unscathed by the disturbance of the ground. She didn’t think…of killing anyone, did she? I shuddered at the thought but the devious smile on her beautiful face betrayed any hope I had for our friendship. It was almost as if I did not know who she was anymore. I further lost blood from my face as she stepped backwards out of her pillar. My heart stopped beating for a second, thinking I almost witnessed my best friend kill herself. But she stayed afloat in the midst of pillars and menacing needles. There could only be one word to explain it.

“Levitation?” It was Sir Theon who named it. It was the first time I felt fear gnaw at my innards as I vomit my most recent meal which was only a jug of water at the edge of our pillar. Wrong move. One look at the abyss below and I immediately threw up the rest of my earlier meals as well until I felt like puking out my intestines. When I couldn’t vomit any longer, I staggered to be back on my feet and affixed my glare on Casra and her cursed smile. It almost petrified me on my spot. With the way things went, how could this night end? The glint in Casra’s eyes showed more hidden meaning behind her words and I knew I wasn’t the only one who felt the urge to know more. I could see from the corner of my eyes how Sir Theon was on the verge of dragging Casra back into the lecture hall to interrogate and scold her about tonight’s events if only death won’t be met along the way. Is this what she meant when she said sorry? Sorry because if we got here she’d act extremely rude and confuse the hell out of me? Sorry for threatening our lives just to cheat out of her evaluation with a default win? Or did she apologize for making light of this situation?

“Usmu, you better think up a better excuse than that,” Casra spoke. “Look, I’ve already set up the stadium and made VIP seats for the humans.”

The patron refused to spare us a glance. What was Casra thinking? This way, the patron couldn’t fight her. The fight became one-sided due to her levitation – a spell that I was very certain was considered lost magick. Did she think of making the patron give up this way? And that language again. Why did they call us humans? That made my stomach churn more disapprovingly than before.

“Wipe that foolish smile off from that counterfeit face,” the patron spat venomously, glaring at Casra even more vindictive than I could.

I did not have much time to dwell on those words as a blinding light came from the patron, whose name was apparently Usmu, and I had to shield my eyes from it. The next thing I knew, Casra was moving from her previous lying in mid-air position to a fighting stance, her left hand drawn back into a fist while her right poised in a taunting position, daring any challenger to meet the charging force of her left. Her legs were parted with much of her weight falling on her right foot as she bent it forward with her left supporting her at the back so she could shift her weight freely and change her stance for a counter-attack. How she managed to look stable with her footing while she was still afloat was beyond my comprehension but she caught a blow from a broadsword after slightly titling her torso and deflected it with a punch. What surprised me was not the inhuman strength that came from her fist which sent Usmu swerving to his right but the fact that the patron was flying towards her.

He fluttered about, a pair of white wings that seemed to emit a soft glow of light sprouting from his back and lifting him in the air with each powerful downward flap each time he would be free falling due to the acceleration of gravity. Figuring out that he stood no chance in close range, he leapt away, acutely circling like an eagle before landing on a pillar about forty yards away from Casra. But as his feet landed on the solid surface, more than ten gigantic spikes emerged from below. The spikes would have skewered him right then and there if he had not vanished on time. That’s right. He didn’t evade the spikes. He turned translucent before turning into a faint light. And then he was gone. It happened all within a split-second. He vanished out of thin air like a spectre. I scanned the rest of the pillars, refusing to believe that the spikes actually hit him and sublimated his whole existence because then that would mean that Casra just killed her patron. What would happen to her scholarship? Or rather, won’t she go to jail? I frantically moved my eyes, looking for a dark haired man with white wings. By now, I fully understood that he was no man at all. Their speech was the biggest give away but it was an undeniable display of supernatural power that exceeded the limit of magick to be able to grow wings from his back and disappear out of nowhere. I won’t be surprised if he could cast the lost magick of teleportation but even that didn’t fit how fast that action was as though it was as normal for him as breathing was for us.

“Hey, Usmu,” Casra called as she floated above the dark night clouds, getting into a sitting position with her right leg crossed over her left and her chin propped on her left palm while she rested her left elbow on her dominant knee. “Stop wasting my time. You stormed this place without consideration for its people. And now you’re holding back? You should have thought about this before you made a freak show out of yourself.”

For someone who was fighting quite exaggeratedly a while ago, her words and posture became all lax. Surely, someone who exerted that much power in their punches shouldn’t look so…bored.

It may had been because of his wings and the way they seemed to radiate softly that I saw him materialize in the darkness right behind Casra. I was about to shout her a warning but her reflexes were faster than my mouth. However, that did not prevent Usmu from executing his plan. Quickly, the darkness of the night was vanquished as fire engulfed Casra. The fire was big enough that Casra looked like a setting sun with the way she was burning and tainting the darkness with a tinge of orange.

“STOP!” I screamed hoarsely, ignoring the sharp pain from my protesting throat, tears finally trickling down my cheeks. It barely registered in my mind how desperate I sounded. I was supposed to be angry at Casra but right now, I struggled with my better judgment not to jump into the void between us and help her put out the conflagration. I had no word to describe how I felt as I watched my only true friend getting burnt alive right before my eyes. Sir Neiro had to restrain me before I recklessly tried to jump from one pillar to another in order to reach my friend. Sir Theon started to chant one spell after another to interfere with the fire but to no avail. It kept flickering in the darkness, steadily burning Casra. Then the genius mentor did an unexpected and unlikely behavior for a teacher with as much wisdom as he did. He turned his spells towards Usmu, the Musaeum’s sponsor. He already gave up trying to talk sense to him. Each spell the professor unleashed while vehemently screaming profanities at this murderer had a potential to instantly kill even the wildest beast. But all Usmu did was stand there and let the spells continue their barrage. The mentor’s magic had absolutely no effect on him.

I was still trying to throw Professor Neiro off of my back so I could cast my own spells at this man when Sir Theon attempted to jump. The other mentor had his hands full with a hysterical scholar. He probably didn’t even notice when Sir Theon was already at his flight – and inevitable fall.

“Professor!” I shrieked and the man restraining me finally took a glance at his colleague. But it was too late. The only thing he was able to see from the corner of his eye was a sliver of ash brown hair as the genius started to plummet to his death.

“The…on?” It was all the high priest’s associative could manage to utter. We won’t even hear the body hit the ground from this height. In the duration of all that mess, the darkness once again enveloped us. Casra, or the burnt carcass she had become, was quick to follow the professor down. Of course a dead body couldn’t possibly stay afloat.

“…why?” I knew the patron, or whatever the hell he actually is, won’t answer me even if I threatened him but I still tried to ask. “If only we listened to Casra…if only we didn’t come here…”

I was wailing and sobbing. I couldn’t tell my tears or snot apart. Suddenly, a memory resurfaced to my mind. I stared at Usmu, my face aghast and barely had any oxygen left. It became clear as day to me that Sir Neiro and I won’t live to tell the high priest about this. Casra was right. It was unusual that a patron was willing to fight much less that the army will get involved in this. It was all a fabricated lie made in order to draw out magicians. What we trained for all this time. Why Casra did not fight with her scepter. It all became clear. Magick was useless against the killer of mages. Usmu might just be the one from the stories, the one who was targeting us. And we, all four mages of us, just made the mistake of attending to his audience.

“You are…the mage killer?” I whispered under my breath, feeling as though I’ll die sooner if I raised my voice a few decibels higher.

“No, he’s not.”

The voice was a few tones deeper but I’d know that voice anywhere. I turned around to face the source of it, thankful of the heaven that she was alive, but when I saw her – or him – my mouth hang open. There stood a beautiful man with a long flowing hair of the blackest black who had a bronze skin, warm and sun-kissed. His thin pink lips curled into a smirk as I met his eyes that gleamed like molten silver. This man looked as though he commanded the army of Aegyptus himself. His beauty wasn’t anything I had ever seen. His hard chiseled face had strong pronounced jaws and high defined cheekbones. His eyes were big and slanted. I saw a hint of cruelty in them. But somehow, his long thick lashes that gently touched his cheeks when he closed his eyes as he blinked made the rest of his sharp features soften. And that smile was so familiar. Not only that. He also wore the same armor that Casra had on and it fit more appropriately on him. I once again found myself speechless as my tears dried up. He wasn’t Casra but as I stared at him, I felt a sense of nostalgia and familiarity that I could not explain. I felt more than heard a ringing in my ears as he continued to look at me as though he could see right through my very soul.

/p>

Before I could form questions in my head, I noticed he was afloat as well just like how Casra was and Sir Theon was right behind him. The mentor was trying to speak but it looked like he was rendered mute by a hush spell. Still, it was obvious that all of it was directed at this silver-eyed man by the way he shot him sharp glares one after another. The foreigner motioned his hand and the mentor was moved by an unseen force and was softly landed back on his previous space.

“Sir Theon!” I couldn’t help but exclaim as I examined him closely, looking for any sign of injury.

“Are you alright?” Sir Neiro asked his colleague. The other man could only nod an affirmation.

“How was the fire of Shamash?” Usmu broke his silence. All this time he had been quietly watching us and our agony.

The silver-eyed man in the black armor walked on nothing, as though the air solidified under his each step and approached Usmu with a cynical laughter.

“Usmu,” his deep melodic voice sounded. Again, I felt like it was Casra talking. “If you wanted to get your precious little humans involved in this, you should have just said so. I have a perfect plan to smithen the whole capital to flames and embers.”

“Stop it already!” I shouted, my face felt hot as my blood rushed to my head in a fit of rage and anger. “What the hell are you and how are you related to that mage killer? Answer me!”

The dark man simply clicked his tongue. “Tsk, Sid. You should know by now that that rumor was nothing but a farce.”

“What? And why are you-” the words were lost on my tongue as I looked into those silver eyes. The way they curve as the man smiled. The way he lazily lied down while afloat , all relaxed and carefree. And the way he called me by the first syllables of my name. Was he the same person as Casra?

“You see, the Musæum was really strict about their screening most specially among their scholars,” he said with a shrug. “So I spread a rumor and eventually, it served as a leverage for a combatant like me. I have to make myself stand out but that was still not enough. I needed some pedigree. So I disguised myself to be some really outstanding sorceress with great political connections. Simply being a powerful magician was not enough to stand out in the field of experts.”

I felt hollow. My previous vomiting could have had a follow up once again but my stomach was empty and it will remain that way for a long period of time. I didn’t feel like eating even if this turned out to be a bad joke or a twisted nightmare. The apology that she muttered…was it because of this lie? Everything I knew about Casra was a forged identity? I tried to steel my expression as to not give her the satisfaction of seeing myself defeated. But I was. This person crushed me in the worst way possible. I thought of Casra as a friend and she was the only one I had.

“Why did you need to get inside the Musæum?” Sir Neiro asked, facing this infiltrator as the high priest’s associate. Meanwhile, I couldn’t form any coherent thought. I was in a state of shock and panic. Suddenly, I began questioning everything I believed in. I thought that our friendship was something nobody else could appreciate. That we had no boundaries. But the one who couldn’t understand it the most was Casra herself. Because she was just a 'counterfeit face’. I finally understood what those words meant.

“Of course, that has nothing to do with you,” the man spoke once again, his deep melodic voice painfully reminding me of Casra. “Well, now that the cat is out of the bag, it’s the perfect time to bail out. Good night.”

“You are mistaken if you think I will let you go again, criminal fiend,” said Usmu as he began charging at his quarry once again.

The dark man chuckled softly. He raised his hand in the same way Casra did earlier before the air was distorted. There was a flash of light and the fire that illuminated the sky earlier came out of her hand, casting shadows upon us. It burned brightly as a giant fireball over her head. The hard light it radiated let me see the man’s face better. He looked more familar under the light and his bronze skin shone warmly, its tone like that of clay.

“Usmu, this is Shamash’s fire, right?” The man laughed darkly. A chill ran down my spine as those silver eyes bore into me, feeling the vicious killing intent from them. “How do think the sun’s fire will react to a whole structure filled with papyrus scrolls?”

No! I won’t allow that to happen!

“Don’t you care at all about that woman?” Usmu said, looking at my direction for the first time since I got here. “She’s your demon.”

My gaze flickered across to the dark man. The silver eyes wavered for a bit. I thought I saw doubt in them. And then the perfect chiseled face contorted into an expression that I could only liken to a monster.

“I shall make sure you will regret using that on me,” The dark man said and the fire ball above his head came down crashing towards Usmu. But Usmu stood still. I thought he was ready to take the burn when he suddenly vanished just like he did a while ago. The silver-eyed man was in a rush to suck the ball of seemingly inextinguishable flame back to the secret confines in her hand.

Everything was quiet for a moment until I heard Sir Neiro screaming a blood-curling, "No!" that I was sure could only come from a man getting slaughtered. I did not know if I saw it right but the silver-eyed man had the same face as my mentor before I averted my eyes away from him as I coughed up blood. They looked like they just witnessed murder and I knew why.

“Sir-” I tried to talk, already coming up with healing spells, but I started choking on my own blood in a second. I quickly tried to cover my mouth but the instant I moved, I just felt dizzy. It was the kind of dizziness that made one feel like they’re never waking up again.

The last thing I saw was the silver-eyed man hurriedly rushing to my side, an expression of all kinds of fear and anger splayed out on his face – or was it concern – before collapsing into the arms of a blood-soaked Sir Theon whose voice I thought I heard despite the hex of silence placed upon him.

I did not need to be conscious to look at the wound and know that it was a god by the name of Usmu, who almost cut me in half so I passed out, almost too sure I was never waking up again.

#chapter 2 #Hello and Goodbye #grandestblood #Siduri #Casra #Usmu #Theon #Neiro #Immortal Index

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