Blood Vision

The darkness John saw was only broken by flashes of dark red lightning, revealing decayed forests, rotting fields and a large city surrounded by a great stone wall. Figures seemed to be moving along it, shambling around it like on some patrol. Beyond the wall, a tower loomed from the central point of the city, larger by far than any of the other buildings. A constant crimson light glared from within, as if a great lamp sat at its center.

Something seemed to move in the top chamber of the tower and John felt himself lurch forward towards it, flying over the dark town, unable to make out anything below him. In an instant he was in the tower’s top chamber, the red pillar of light sitting at the center blinding him.

He looked away and noticed several silhouettes arrayed around the light. All were cloaked in shadow despite the light before them, but John recognised the one immediately to his left. After all, it was hard to forget someone one was just fighting.

John tried to speak, to demand to know what was happening, but no sound escaped his mouth. ‘What’s going on?’ he thought as he tried to make out more of the chamber and its occupants. There were three others besides who he was sure was Bill: a lanky man and a tall woman holding onto something long and thin that stood right behind him by each shoulder and a shorter woman to their left, hunched over with her hands on her head as if in pain.

A little ways beside her, another male figure stood, though oddly he seemed less solid, as if he was made from fog. Even trying to look at him was odd, as if focusing on him caused his form to waiver and seemed to cause him great strain. John looked away and to his right, which was far less crowded with only two besides him.

Both looked to be women, one old and wizened, hunched over and supported by a gnarled staff, and the other spry, with what looked to be some kind of armor encasing her left arm, giving it a bulkier appearance compared to her right.

‘What the hell is this?’ John thought. ‘Bill was getting a power boost and then my sword and ring got all hot.’

The commonalities between his ring and sword were obvious. Not only were they both wood, but both came from the same barrier and referenced the same Kingdom, Amarlis, an elf dominated Kingdom with a preference for growing their arms and armor from trees.

Does that mean that power was coming from Amarlis?’ John pondered as he looked around the chamber as best he could from his fixed location. ‘Is this Amarlis? Doesn’t look very tree-y.’

Before he could ponder on it more, a faint purple light flashed to his right and the elder shade began to twist about, her obscured face swinging to face him. For a second, John felt her aura wash over him, as calming as resting on a patch of grass to watch the clouds pass over.

‘Can you hear me?’ John asked, trying to project his thoughts to her. He got no response and felt her aura pass over him and focus on Bill and the people around him. They remained still, except for the faded man. He turned jankily towards them, tilting his head in a confused manner.

‘He didn’t react to me,’ John thought. ‘What is she doing to get that reaction? And why does it seem like only I and that guy are affected?’

John couldn’t ponder it any further as the light flashed and an oppressive weight seemed to press in on him from all directions, forcing him to look forward at the red glow. Out of the corner of his eye, John could see the elderly figure shudder, as if she was fighting against the pull. The light then dimmed slightly and a figure stepped out of the pillar.

It was tall, easily a head and a half taller than John, and thin in an almost emaciated way. It moved with the languid grace of a cat and sauntered over to the young woman to John’s right. It seemed to inspect her, tendrils of red light arcing between it and her like the feelers of some insect.

It only spent a moment examining her before it moved to the older woman. The sparks grew more intense and were joined with purple bolts from the woman, doing their best to block the red lightning, though they were far too few to protect her from the invasive probe.

The woman buckled under the ****, her purple counters failing and giving their captor free reign to examine her. After a tense minute, the lanky shadow ceased its actions upon the wizened woman and stalked over to John. Its head tilted as if it was curious about him and John could feel piercing unseen eyes rake over him. Then the lightning shot out.

It felt as if icy needles were prodding through him. More than just the physical sensation, John could feel as if his very being was being dissected. His sight flashed back through the last week and beyond. His early years passed in an instant, but the events of the last week lingered in his vision, especially the fights against the Woads.

John tried to push back, but while he could feel his mana, it was slow to respond and any slip of his focus caused whatever defense he was building to collapse. In a last **** attempt to fight back, John put all his effort into one last push, willing his mana not into a wall, but a spear.

When the next wave of memories began, John **** that spear of mana and willpower forward. There was a flash of white and instead of his past, John saw what he presumed was his tormentor’s. A city not of stone and metal but of shaped trees and green canopies, a verdant hall with a proud elven king sitting on a wood woven throne while someone knelt before him, a battlefield with some dark thing looming in the distance.

John got no further context as his vision returned to normal as the dark figure took a step back from him. It seemed to stare at him for a moment before moving on.

‘I was able to reverse whatever it was doing to me,’ John noted. It was odd; none of those scenes had any context but it felt as if he knew what each meant to the observer. A people content in blissful ignorance of a wider universe, a leader unwilling to offer aid, and the fight against the horror that the king had brushed off but this shadowy person took seriously. There was something more to that, but John struggled to draw up that impression.

John strained his vision to his left as the shadow repeated its observation on Bill. Unlike the examination on him or the women to his right, this time the arcs of red lightning struck not only the hound summoner but the two people standing behind his shoulders. All three took the shocks and John noticed thin, wispy fog linking the three. A similar series of tendrils reached from the two behind Bill to the pained woman beside them, giving John the impression that she was a part of their group.

‘So why is she separate from them?’ the nagging, inquisitive part of him wondered. There was something far more at play than just some scum going around and killing people for their blood. ‘Is this place connected to why they’re going around gathering blood? Is this shadow like their boss or some kind of being they’re making offerings to? Is that what that red aura was?’

‘But how did I get here?’ was John’s next avenue of inquiry as the shadow finished with Bill and company and moved to the cowering girl. But then, breaking the pattern, it moved past her and to the odd man at the end of their assortment. The man seemed to react like the old woman and stood to challenge the shadow, his posture straightening as the red lightning began to assail him.

A shiver grated down John’s spine, akin to the one that happens when someone runs their nails over a chalkboard. The air seemed to thicken and the pressure holding him in place grew more intense, pressing into him from all angles. Straining to watch the interplay between the shadow and the fuzzy man, John saw the red lightning fly, but not all of them traced their origins to their captor.

A number flew from the distorted image of the last man, though they didn’t seem to bother the shadow. If anything, the resistance seemed to entice it to stronger action, if the increased amount of lighting was any indication. Those enhanced bolts seemed to actually harm their target, the man buckling under the attack, his form beginning to disperse like mist in the wind. A similar effect happening to the cowering girl beside him.

Even as his body was being torn apart, the man did not falter. Instead, he managed to lift a dissolving arm, crimson light gathered in his clenched fist. With what looked like a great effort, he thrust his hand forward, letting the light shoot out in one great blast, as if he had a spotlight suddenly in place of his hand.

The blast got the first negative reaction from the shadow and it stepped back, its attack faltering. The very ground began to shake and the **** holding John fluctuated, some areas getting tighter while others grew looser and the areas switched at random. The pillar pulsed and John found himself thrown back, his vision overtaken by red.

John flinched and was back in the barrier, Bill and the charred hounds before him, Aeolia and Brenda close to him and Senka to their rear, still contending with her pack of hounds. The last echo of the far off cry still rang in the air and Bill was still coated in red light.

Aeolia shifted, her head swiveling around. “Did someone else get pulled in here?”

John blinked and was about to ask if all that took place in an instant when Bill let out the shout, his head thrown back. John watched in horrid fascination as the burly man’s body began to heal, his ruined skin rapidly knitting together, though the regeneration left scar tissue running up and down his arms . His cry morphed into a manic laugh as he moved his healed arm up to his head and touched his ears.

“Did his ears get pointy?” John asked incredulously. “What the hell’s going on?”

“Don’t know but I’m not going to let him power up for free!” Aeolia exclaimed and swung her glaive in a cross pattern, releasing two arcs of green wind. The first, a low horizontal sweep, cut through the charred hounds, cleanly cleaving them in two. John ignored the experience notifications and watched as the wave continued on undeterred, followed by the vertical slash.

Before either attack could reach, the red aura flashed and Bill jumped, vaulting over Aeolia’s attack before landing hard a meter closer to them. He grinned manically at them as vines began to spring up around him, weaving into new hounds.

“Not sure what all this is about, but I like it,” he said, sounding like he was intoxicated. “Try not to die before these boys get a good test run.”

The three new hounds were larger than the ones he had summoned before and John recognised the small changes that marked them as Alphas.

With five levels up on the previous hounds, John felt their chances of winning dim, especially with his mana precariously low. His pessimism must have shown on his face as Aeolia lightly nudged him with the butt of her glaive and shot him a grim but determined smile.

‘Right. Can’t give up now. Mom’s counting on us to win and get out of here.’

John gripped his blade tightly and squared his shoulders.

‘Vivian, Beth and Teri are going to get here soon. Just have to hold out until they get here. Can’t be too much longer, right?’

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