The Achromatic Eclipse of the Psyche, part II.

[Zach Kaiser]

Though Eilert had expected another speech, or perhaps one last effort to convince him of how right he was, he was also prepared in case Silver attacked. It did him no good. Before his eyes even registered that he moved, he felt a hand on his throat, choking him and lifting his feet off the ground.

The next thing he knew he was sailing through the air so rapidly he could not tell which direction he was thrown. He gasped for air, inhaling just in time to let out a scream of pain as he landed arm first, several bones in it snapping with an audible crack. It flailed wildly as he skipped across the ground, only skidding to a halt a hundred yards a hundred yards down.

He couldn't even begin to guess at his injuries. His entire body was in agony, and only the knowledge that his death was certain if he didn't move prompted him to even try. With his free arm he quickly applied the glyphs of Power, Celerity, and Will to himself--he'd need all three just to be mobile now...

[Nayt]

It was in an instant that Silver stood above Eilert. For a brief moment, he paused, not attacking--merely standing there, hesitating? Perhaps not; Silver was merciless man. It had to be something different--something otherwise unstated, something far more difficult to prove.

But it was only a brief moment; a fraction of a second, truly. Without so much as a hesitation, he brought his "afflicted" arm up, hand fashioned open and pointed down, perfectly flat like a blade, towards Eilert. He did not hesitate to bring it down, throwing his shoulder into it as he attempted to skewer Eilert straight through the lower back and stomach--and at the speed he boasted, it may well have been unavoidable.

The attack, however, was not immediately lethal, and if successful, Silver would merely pull his hand out of Eilert and pace circles around him, like a shark waiting for his prey to die. A wound like that would leave someone a couple minutes before ultimately losing too much blood and going into shock . . .

. . . and there were some physics that could not be escaped with the world of the mind.

[Zach Kaiser]

Though the glyphs were starting to take effect, they were not quick enough. Before Eilert could even think about getting up, Silver was towering over him, and without pausing he drove his arm into and through Eilert's stomach. He gasped, and immediately began to cough up blood.

A blow like that should have ended it; he shouldn't have been able to even move. But even as he lay there dying, a reaction was taking place. The glyphs he imprinted on his body began to glow and...spread, it seemed. Eilert himself could only see it happening on his arm, out of the corner of his eye, but Silver would witness as the patterns grew until they interlocked and covered his entire body with glowing lines.

He could feel what was happening, the way the glyphs were not only boosting each other but actually combining...it should have been impossible, but he could not deny it was happening.

It was too little too late, though. With his blood quickly pouring out of him and his body rapidly approaching shock, his fate was already sealed.

Or...was it?

A conversation popped into his head, one that occurred long ago. It was before Silver's betrayal, before the Gold Enigma disappeared...before Sturm was forced out of the organization.

It was a debate over the power of glyphs, and what was possible with them. Glyphs could do some convenient things, but it was often argued that the reason they were a lost art is that they were too impractical; there wasn't much that could be accomplished by glyphs that couldn't be done via more conventional means.

The one place this didn't hold quite true was medicine, which is why it was an interest of Sturm. But even Eilert's Glyph of Restoration had its limits: while it could close wounds and even mend broken bones, it did nothing to prevent infection or disease, making its clinical use limited.

But there was debate over another glyph that could be used, but one that had never been used successfully. If one could create a glyph that allowed a human to regenerate, recoveries that would have previously taken nothing short of a miracle would be possible. Eilert theorized that the problem was that humans could not naturally regenerate very well, unlike plants and some species of animal. Thus, a glyph would need to not only accelerate the normal rate of regeneration, but also grant the ability to humans in the first place. He'd argued to Sturm that it was theoretically possible, but creating it would require more knowledge than anyone living had of glyphs.

Ever since that conversation, he'd continued his research. Having lost his passion for everything else in life, he spent most of his free time surrounded by books and notes, delving deeper into the ancient art he specialized in. At one point, just before the Guardians began to struggle both internally and with outside forces, he thought he may have succeeded in creating the glyph, but he never had the opportunity to test it out.

Testing new anything on humans was risky business, but now, if he didn't at least try, he was doomed anyway. Shakily, he placed one hand on his chest, just above his wound. He put all his remaining energy into focusing, remembering the shape of the glyph, as every single line had to be exact or at best it wouldn't work...and at worst, something cataclysmic could happen.

His hand glowed, and through his ripped shirt the pattern was transferred to his body. Just like before, the glyph spread to the point where it was covering his whole body...and while it was difficult to see under the blood that caked his stomach, his wound rapidly started to close...

[Nayt]

Eilert's last ditch effort was in no way a minor task; in the world of magic he knew, it would have taken an immense degree of energy out of him--if it even worked at all. As it was, there wasn't quite enough mana in the surrounding area, or within himself, to power such a glyph, a factor which played into a wide variety of glyphs he wielded at this exact moment--it wasn't that he didn't have the potential to use them outside of this broken world of the mind, it was that he simply wasn't capable yet, for environmental and physiological reasons.

But that had no bearing here. Here, a vast number of glyphs he had read about and heard of over time, that he may or may not have even attempted before, had powerful and practical applications, and those that he was aware of and capable of using as is were much, much more powerful than before.

Silver stood with his head hunched down, shoulders raised, moving only to exact heavy breaths, as if waiting for Eilert to arise, prepared to face off against the Silver enigma wielding the potentially most powerful Gaiasoul to have ever been conceived. It was up to Eilert when he was prepared, but it seemed as if Silver was willing to wait . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

It was working...and far better than it had any right to. This exceeded even his wildest expectations of the glyph, to the point where he had to wonder: just how much mana was in the air here? He was certain that he didn't personally possess the mana to support such a grand effect, and from his calculations it should have taken a greater concentration of mana in an area than he'd ever found...just what was this place?

But now was not the time for scientific inquiry; Silver had thus far waited, still circling. Eilert did not know if he was oblivious to the glyphs or was just confident he could defeat him anyway, but he would make him regret not ending his life when he had the chance.

Trying to move as little as possible, he turned the hand that wasn't on his body over, so his palm was to the dirt. Just as Silver stepped near it, he placed a glyph--the Glyph of Eruption, one of the first glyphs he'd ever learned.

He simultaneously rolled away as he activated the glyph; he was prepared for some backlash for being so close, but the force that sent him skidding wildly across the ground was greater than he would have thought. It wasn't just using glyphs that wouldn't work before...the ones he could use normally were more powerful too?

Stunned for a moment but not truly hurt, he quickly climbed to his feet and looked for Silver, though the expanding dust disturbed only by fairly large chunks of rock that rained down in the aftermath of his glyph.

I will have to give that one a wider berth than usual, he noted to himself.

[Nayt]

It seemed, at first, that Eilert was simply reaching for the ground as a means of pulling himself up. Silver did not react; he merely continued to pace around Eilert--enigmatically enough. He could have been confident in his victory, indeed--or, perhaps, he was expecting Eilert to die from his wounds. There was simply no way to be in his head, though; when he did not speak, it was impossible to discern what he was thinking. Likewise, when his hood was up, his eyes couldn't be seen--and expressions with the eyes and face generally helped one understand another's thoughts and feelings better, too.

An explosion was let off. Dust immediately filled the air as debris burst in all directions like grenade shrapnel; fragments of stone from the floor of the "arena" were scattered instantly, some small, some larger; the larger hit, the smaller lingered in the air, and the smallest became the dust which temporarily clouded the entirety of the area.

It would, inevitably, give Eilert a moment to stand and recompose himself. Silver had been in the blast radius; Eilert had let it off right by his feet. There were, perhaps, very few ways that he could dodge it without a leap, and as it seemed, Silver was no bursting through the thick cloud of dust. Likewise, there were even fewer ways to discern that there was even to be an attack on his person . . .

Moments following Eilert's inevitable standing and gathering of himself, the smoke would begin to clear, at which point he'd be able to assess the true level of damage he had done: the blast radius was nearly seven feet, leaving a fairly large crater behind, which was still settling--and would likely continue to settle for some time. Still, though, there was no trace of Silver whatsoever. No body or blood or cloak were left behind after the clearing of the dust; nothing dead, nothing alive; nothing there at all. And yet . . . it would still feel as if a threat lingered . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

He disappeared? No, he's still around here somewhere. Eilert knew that his attack, even with it having increased in power, was not enough to totally obliterate Silver; without being able to see him, he couldn't even tell if he was hit or had managed to dodge just in time. Unlikely as that possibility seemed, at the speed which he'd been moving before it couldn't be ruled out...

After a brief look around (including up) to ensure that he was truly out of sight, he realized that while Silver might very well catch him off guard with whatever his next move, he'd given Eilert a bit of time to prepare, something that could prove to be a costly mistake.

He leaned down, setting another of the offensive glyphs at his feet. If given time, he would begin to set more around the area, but he didn't think he'd have much--Silver was undoubtedly aware that the longer he left Eilert to prepare, the more dangerous he'd become.

[Nayt]

It was without warning that, following the placement of the first glyph, a hefty weight took hold of the entirety of the arena. It would threaten to bring a strong man to his knees, while a normal man would simply fall down flat, physically incapable of standing. Eilert, on the other hand, was a weak man--but with the glyphs attached to his body, infused with such powerful, potentially limitless, amounts of mana--he'd be able to stand; stumble, perhaps, if he attempted to run for any great distance. He'd experience a grave speed reduction in general, however, with his body inevitably feeling as if it were fifty time heavier than normal.

And then, the attack. From above it stemmed, a wave of energy, pure and glinting with blinding silver light, crashing down onto the stone floor. Were Eilert not to move--or, perhaps, leap away, which would likely carry him swiftly to the floor--he would find himself bathed in a violent ray of silver--

A destructive force, a terror that could tear away at the bindings of stone and magic and flesh and bone--a energy that could draw apart a structure and expel it into the air; what once was one piece would become a thousand, scattered into the air like dust and debris with no desire to land at all, and no regard for the effect of gravity upon the arena . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

Eilert gasped and stumbled, suddenly feeling as though his body was many times heavier than normal. For a moment he was not there, but back on a bed, his body shaking in effort as he attempted to stand on his own, every breath a struggle, until his weak constitution gave in and he collapsed back in a heap, defeated...

What shocked him out of his flashback was the intense feeling of something above him, a sensation so powerful even Eilert, who lacked any extrasensory abilities, could feel it. He did not know what exactly was coming, but he knew he needed to get out of the way.

But the increased gravity kept him from moving as fast as he needed; desperately, he activated the glyph, the blast once again sending him tumbling, but this time he made no effort to stop it. Rather, he tried to roll as far as possible, to escape the doom that pierced the sky over him.

The silver light crashed down, vaporizing everything contained within it. In defiance of the increased gravity, debris rose into the sky, not blasted but rather floating, as though the power of the attack was warping the very fabric of reality.

Numbly, Eilert scrambled to his feet once more, placing a teleportation glyph on the ground as he did. Silver was still nowhere to be seen...if he could continue to use that kind of power without showing himself, then there was little chance he'd make it out of this fight intact, increased glyph powers or not.

[Nayt]

In an instant, Silver was at ground level. He had been up there, far, far up there--in the sky, much farther than Eilert could see, and just as quickly as he ascended beyond it, he returned to the arena. The dash from the sky was marked by a trail of silver energy, which even still continued to pour off of the cloaked body, standing on one foot, his right foot, with his right leg bent at the knee to absorb the impact. The eyes were incapable of tracing it, and even the strongest of magical senses would be hard pressed to have kept up.

When he landed, the force of his descent spread cracks through the stone on which he landed. Silver sunk down into the "earth" by feet as the stone, fragmented around an eight foot radius, caved under pressure, as a crater formed. Silver, however, did not remain there long enough for the stone to sink to the depths that it naturally would under such a force.

Silver lunged forth, kicking off of the decrepit stone and propelling himself towards Eilert. The pulsating arm that never once was remained out by his side, parallel to the ground--either an offensive weapon or a defensive weapon, it was impossible to tell, but whatever the case, Silver was quick, and he'd bridge the distance between himself and Eilert in a flash, and while still running, he would attempt to floor the orange enigma with his afflicted limb.

And if struck, Eilert would find that it was, in fact, an offensive weapon--one which carried tremendous power, enough to shatter bones with a single unprepared jab.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eilert could only assume that Silver descended, judging from the effect he had on the ground around him, but he never truly saw him move. He was fast...too fast for him to follow just yet. But slowly he was becoming accustomed to the level of power he wielded in this world...

He only just had time to get his arm in the way for a feeble block before Silver struck; for all the good it did, he might as well have not bothered. The force of the blow shattered the bones in the limb in an instant and sent him flying backwards again. This time, however, things were slightly different. Even as he tumbled and struggled to regain control of the movement, the wound was starting to heal, the bones reforming from the splinters they'd been reduced to.

As he skidded to a halt he quickly got up on one knee, but when he placed his (uninjured) hand on the ground it wasn't to push back to his feet. Another glyph was placed, identical to the one that was now directly in front of Silver, and then the Orange Enigma would be in front of him again--not so fast to be instant, but truly instantaneous, via the teleportation glyph.

An open handed strike was aimed at Silver's chest, in itself not that powerful compared to his altered limb. The glyph he intended to place if he landed the hit, though, was another matter entirely.

[Nayt]

Silver immediately leaped back, but not fast enough. A glyph had been placed upon Silver's left shoulder--without a doubt one of the worst places it could be, depending on the glyph, of course. A glyph of eruption, for example, with the power it currently boasted, would be potentially lethal if let off there.

Potentially.

It seemed that Silver paid it absolutely no mind, however. The glyph had been placed whilst Silver was in mid-leap, and once he landed, he again thrust himself forward, once more at Eilert, fully intending to straight-arm him in the chest with the "afflicted" arm. That was a wound that would barely boast any potential for healing--all depending. If Silver were to hit close to the heart, Eilert wouldn't survive it.

Which was something to be concerned with. While Eilert's healing rate and ability was accelerated, amongst numerous other skills, he could still die. If he was beaten to death before his injuries could all heal, then there would be no healing from that--and the same applied to shots that may immediately kill him.

[Zach Kaiser]

Silver leaped, but not quite fast enough; Eilert still tagged his shoulder with the glyph. More importantly, it allowed him to make an interesting observation: either his opponent's speed wasn't consistent, or he wasn't taking the Orange Enigma seriously enough to entirely avoid his attacks.

Which was fine; shaking out the arm he blocked with earlier, it healed just in time as Silver threw a punch straight for his chest. Eilert knew he had to be careful; the regeneration glyph would keep him in the fight, but it would do no good to an instantly fatal would, such as a strike to his heart or brain.

He simply reacted, surprising himself nearly as much as it might surprise Silver. While the Eilert of Utopia was useless in hand to hand combat, the Eilert of Paradise, ironically, wasn't. As a form of physical therapy, he'd been taught martial arts by a Chinese doctor.

His body moved in one fluid motion, moving to the side and grabbing the altered arm, using Silver's own momentum against him to toss him to the ground. Whether or not it succeeded or he was phased by it, as soon as he was a small ways away Eilert activated his glyphs of eruption: the one on his shoulder, and the two he'd placed on his arm as he threw him.

[Nayt]

As soon as he was grabbed, Silver paused. Perhaps he was surprised--perhaps he wasn't. There was no way to tell. Once Eilert threw him, though, Silver rolled, hitting the ground shoulder first, and coming to a stop, sitting on one knee. His right knee touched the floor, while his left was only inches from his chest.

Then, the glyphs went off.

The explosion shook the general around around the man, and alongside splatters of blood which seemingly flooded the cracked stone floor in a slight radius around him, smoke and dust emitted, much like it did with most other explosions. This smoke, however, was tainted red. The sky itself seemed to shudder with the force of the attack, and the vibrant yellow forced behind the open cracks in the sky shook violently for a brief moment and began to flicker all around. The flickering was rapid at first, but as the smoke around Silver began to clear, it slowed.

Nothing remained of Silver's left shoulder--and part of the left side of his head, for that matter. The hood was torn and tattered, and only covered half of his face, which was easy enough, as only half of it remained anyways. He had his back turned to Eilert, and remained sitting just as he had before. Oddly enough, though, his left arm hung in the air, half-gone at the elbow, but it remained in the air where it should have been, as if it was still connected to the man's body. Bone fragments pushed through flesh like shrapnel, and blood dripped from every opening in and around his missing shoulder. He was a mess, and should have been dead--but he wasn't. He hadn't moved an inch, even.

The "afflicted" arm, on the other hand, remained completely unscathed.

In an instant, what remained of his left arm began to pulsate, and the fragments of bone that remained above the elbow began to crack and stretch, just like the sinew did around it. The upper left side of his ribcage began to crack back into place and tissue quickly began to reform. The pace was intense, nearly instantaneous, much quicker than Eilert's rate of healing--but different. Much, much different. The new flesh that grew so quickly seemed already laden with cuts and scars, n the arm, the shoulder, the upper chest, neck, and even the face--cut up skin over muscles that all pulsated as if they had wills of their own. No hair remained atop the half of Silver's skull which had reformed, though the cuts looked the part.

And then . . . Silver was gone, disappearing in yet another flash of blinding light.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eilert had hoped his glyphs would end the fight; even without his power increased, a Glyph of Eruption directly applied to skin was usually enough to convince even the most hearty opponents to back off if they were still capable of standing. But while at first it seemed like Silver had taken a serious or even mortal blow, the skin around him quickly reformed...but somehow different. As though the new flesh was already beaten, cut, scarred. It wasn't regeneration...it was as though the flesh of his weapon was taking over the parts of his body that were damaged.

What was troubling especially was that his glyph didn't even dent the arm of Gaia that he wielded. That was his primary offensive glyph, and he wasn't sure what else to do to damage him. If he only got stronger the more the weapon took over his body, not weaker, he needed to figure something out...

But as Silver disappeared once more, the Orange Enigma decided it was time to play defense again, in case there was another bombardment. He'd use whatever time he had to set up teleporting glyphs--perhaps due to the power increase, these ones weren't disappearing after one use. If he could set up a network of them in the area, he'd be able to make up for the difference in their physical ability.