#SpriitofAdventurer

[sarijrahzersyn]

Three Missing Tsukumogami: Spirit of Battle

What a battle to let linger as a pleasant dream in my slumber. I am Senso no Seishin, elder brother to Takara no Hako. I am the spirit of war and battle, second of the Boken no Seishin. I was stirred by members of the Ketsueki Clan eager to stoke the fire of war once again between the Yuki and  Ketsueki clans, but I was far from home when I woke.

At first I watched my younger brother parade around as a golden pig eager for treasure and wealth. He took some mortals of a company known as Astral Advent around on several mad jumps throughout Eorzea. Takara no Hako was quite fond of these mortals, giving them loving nicknames and showering them in wealth. The Yuki Clan, those who failed to guard our slumber, had hired the ‘agents’ to help return my brother to slumber, but as I watched they were too kindhearted and let him go mad and turn his lust for treasure into greed.

Once my brother had fallen to his fault, it was my responsibility to intercede on his behalf. I took the Astral Advent to battle and judged their merit. These mortals proved to be acceptable fighters and embodied the drive for battle. When my brother came to his senses to return to his slumber I saw in them as chance for a glorious battle to carry on in my own. However, the Pauper’s Lode in Gyr Abania was far from a good site. It was one of failure… not glory in combat. I gave the Astral Advent my challenge and headed east, back toward my birthplace.

In my travel over the Ruby Sea the howling of a soul desperate for battle caught my ears. Beneath the waves I found the soul of a Garlean soldier deprived of her desire to die gloriously in war. Vanas Kir Titus perished along with the rest of a garlean vessel’s crew on their way to reinforce their comrades in Doma. Their airship was shot down and all aboard and all their magitek found early graves upon the sandy ocean floor.

Unlike her fellow soldiers, her spirit clung to this world unwilling to accept a death were she did not have a chance to fight. A heart such as that cannot be denied and I granted her the means to seek that fight. I bound her soul to the rusted remains of a large magitek reaper and granted her power to carry out her longing. It did not take long for her to begin sinking ship after ship crossing the Ruby Sea. It was a challenge. It was a battle-cry. I knew it was only a matter of time before the sullen soul would find battle once more.

I had not expected it would be the Astral Advent by chance to be the ones who were sent to answer her challenge. Joy for the reunion filled me, and it took patience only normally reserved for my brother to not jump into the fray of men and women. However, the Ruby Sea did not possess the spirit of war I needed to find that battle to offer me pleasant dreams in my slumber. Still, I could not resist testing these mortals. I sent four to battle Vanas Kir Titus’s soul directly while the rest fought her weapon. It was a glorious fight of blood and bone. Many of the Agents nearly fell to the uncompromising will of the Garlean, but in the end in a brilliant explosion of violence and fire, both spirit and body fell silent. Vanas Kir Titus accomplished her desire to fall in battle. Once again, I issued my challenge to the Astral Advent and returned to my journey.

The Azim Steppe…. My birthplace. Here battle and violence was born in this world and here words are second to feats of strength. Here the blood of warriors watered the earth for grass and beasts, which fed each new generation. Here is where I could find a battle worthy enough to slumber once more. The Au Ra, sadly proved far too weak for that. I had hoped to challenge the Sun but the man refused as he did not recognize me as a warrior of the Steppe. The arrogance of such a child was almost amusing, but I remembered how a warrior is born and made my way to Bardam’s Mettle.

Regardless of their failures, the Yuki Clan has ever been shrewd. They could not meet me in battle due to their failure, but since they had discovered the Astral Advent had become entangled with my brother and sister, they once again sought their aid. According to Takara no Hako the Yuki Clan’s blade himself, brother of the head of the family, traveled to the Advent Hall to ask them to meet me in battle and offer them what aid he could. My vessel… my old armor…  He offered it to them as a tool to help bring me down. Those terrible drums… those drums that beat the rhythm of the death of war he gave as weapons against me. Though, I suppose without them the mortals would not have had a chance. 

Finally, the Astral Advent’s answer to my challenge would be answered.

I forgot… mortals cannot travel so quickly. While I waited, I defeated Bardam’s challenge a hundred times and eventually even the gates would no longer open for me. The Sun would be nothing more than a dying ember if I challenged him, and so I waited. I waited. I waited.

The moment the Astral Advent stepped foot upon the blood fed soil of the Azim Steppe, I could feel my heart beat again. Soon I would have a new vivid dream to keep my slumber steady. I could not help but call out to them and let the very mountains know blood would feed the land once more on that night.

Mortals take a while to get places though.

FINALLY they arrived, with their weapons, their anger, and their lust for battle. I could taste it. I could feel it. I COULD HEAR IT. Their hearts beating in readiness to have steel meet steel, bone break bone, and blood mix with blood as it fed the land. The fire was so tempting I ignored the drummers and the fool with my vessel.

In a ball of fury and feathers my steed and I crashed into the Agents and scattered them like birds. One was defeated on the spot, but the rest quickly took to striking my steed down. Clever mortals, but it did not save them. My fist and my club sang the bloody song of war… until those damn drums.

Their songs were poison to me. The death of war. The death of me. I even tried to kill the drummers, but the damnable Ticklestrong sang his own homeland’s song of battle to strengthen his allies and they stopped my rage. Despite the coward’s song they fought hard and bled me just as I bled them. Lightning, ice, water, fire, blade, fist, ax, fang, and bullet rang against my armour and soul. No doubt they believed the battle was in their favor, but only a fool believes you fight for an end of battle. Their foolishness led to their fall, as one by one I brought them to their knees and crushed their bones. Even an accursed drum fell to my spirit. Then there I stood, victor over all. It was not enough.

I would take my vessel and seek out another battle. The Astral Advent had their chance and now they could wallow in their defeat and blood just as the Yuki Clan. A fool believes a battle is over with their foes fallen. I was a fool.

Mortals are a curious type. Stupid enough to seek peace so they can ‘relax,’ but stubborn enough to continue fighting when they have lost the battle. In what could only be called an child’s desperate flailing, wind, ax, fist, and blade tried to stop me from taking my vessel. I lost an arm and much of my armor… but it was the fangs that stopped me,

No mortal weapon brought me down, but the fangs of an war dog. An animal. It is no surprise. Animals understand the instinctual need for conflict that mortals fight so hard to prevent. I claimed the animal as my own. Though I cannot rob him of his battles in this life… so I shall wait. When his body gives out, he shall join me in my slumber and dreams.

It was a quiet end. But the battle the Astral Advent gave me shall be a vivid dream that shall keep me dreaming until it fades and I stir to find a new battle. Though all who met me in the field of blood fed grass shall long since passed… by time or by my sister.

@astraladvent