'I feel like shit.'
Elizabeth thought as she stared at the horizon. She sat in the center of the stone platform with her knees pulled to her chest. The events of last night still replayed in her mind, their lingering effects coursing through her body.
'Just what is it with this recurring habit of ending up in places inhabited by beings beyond comprehension?'
She let out a long, weary sigh. It was as though her luck had twisted itself inside out, sending her hurtling toward the worst possible situations. After all, she had just survived a Great Titan attempting to possess her body.
How did she know it had been a Great Titan? Because, for a brief fraction of a second, they had almost become one.
She had barely absorbed a liter of that dark water before she felt something violently invade her mind. Thankfully, she had reacted instantly. Having experienced a similar sensation before, she immediately severed the connection between her two brains. Then, without hesitation, she expelled the dark water from her body.
Unfortunately, because of how her Aspect worked, she could still sense the water even after expelling it. That was when she felt something awaken. A moment later, the gaze of that dreadful being fell upon them. Through the strange connection she still shared with the expelled water, she instinctively understood what was happening.
A Great Titan... was looking directly at her.
'Just why do all these unfathomable beings keep trying to turn my body into their new home? Go seek someone else's insides, damn it!'
She was lucky she had acted fast, or she might have succumbed to corruption. She had felt the dark, ugly water already mixing with the water of her soul sea, drawing closer to her soul cores. She had reacted instinctively, doing something she hadn't even known she was capable of; expelling the corrupted water from her soul sea.
That was why she felt weak and hollow now, as if strength had been drained out of her. It was only after she checked her runes that she understood what was wrong.
Fragments of Heaven: [3/2000]
Her Fragments of Heaven had dropped all the way back to three. She had quickly entered her soul sea to see what had changed, and all she found was a barren desert with a few scattered ponds, lit by two glowing blue suns. The mist and the sea were gone. The hollowness she felt was even more crushing than before.
That was why she was in such a foul mood. She would have to reabsorb fragments of heaven again to fill this emptiness, but at least corruption hadn't touched her soul core. Things could have ended up far worse.
She sighed again. Behind her, she could feel Sunny giving her strange glances. It was clear he wanted to ask what had happened that night, but he was giving her space, which she was grateful for, even if she felt a twinge of guilt for having nearly gotten them both killed.
He was currently looking out at the horizon with a frown, having sent his shadow to explore the surroundings and map out the area.
'He's waited long enough. He deserves an answer.'
She got up and dusted off her armor's tattered strips of dark fabric before joining him. Sunny finally turned to face her fully. It was funny how their roles had reversed, and now it was her looking up at him.
"Ask your question," she said. "Your lips are practically begging to shout it out."
He looked at her, then sighed.
"What happened back there? What exactly did you wake up?"
Elizabeth shrugged her small shoulders.
"A Great Titan. That's what I woke up. It tried to possess me, but I reacted quickly enough to stop it. Then it woke up fully, as though it had been asleep for an unimaginably long time. Because of how my Aspect works, I could faintly sense its emotions through our brief connection. It was happy. Happy that it had awakened. And when its gaze fell on us, I felt an overwhelming desire burning inside it. It wanted my body."
Sunny stared at her as though she had suddenly grown a second head. He blinked several times before raising a pinky to scratch the inside of his ear.
"Wait. My ears must be playing tricks on me. Did you just say you woke up a Great Titan, and that it tried to possess you?"
Elizabeth gave him a strange look. "Yes. I don't believe I stuttered."
Sunny opened his mouth as if to say something, closed it, then frowned.
"Hold on. How do you even know it was a Great Titan? It could have been a Fallen being, or a Corrupted creature. Not that either option is any better."
Elizabeth shrugged.
"Partly because of the faint connection I shared with it, and partly instinct."
She hesitated before adding, "The moment its gaze landed on me, I just knew."
Sunny sighed. "Damnation."
"Damnation indeed."
They stayed quiet for a while as Sunny slowly digested everything she had told him.
Elizabeth, meanwhile, found herself surprised again by how well he was taking the news. There were flashes of fear and uncertainty in his eyes, sure, but beneath them, hope still endured.
Most people would have broken by now. After feeling the gaze of that unimaginable being, many would have surrendered to despair. Some might have curled up in a corner, waiting for death to claim them.
Truthfully, a small part of her wanted to do the same. It whispered in her ear that resisting was pointless, that she should hide somewhere and quietly wait for the inevitable. But she refused to let those thoughts take root. She hadn't survived everything she'd endured only to give up now.
"You're taking the news surprisingly well. I can't tell if you're fearless or stupid."
Sunny turned toward her again and raised an eyebrow.
"I could ask you the same thing. Are you stupid, or fearless?"
"Well, no one's fearless....I guess you could say I'm stupid, because even with these odds, I still believe I'll make it out of this hellhole alive."
He smiled and turned back to the horizon.
"Guess we're both stupid, then."
She nodded and turned to look at the horizon, still not quite believing that a few hours ago there had been a titanic sea here. If not for the black seaweed hanging on wet rocks and the scarlet pillars of coral, she might have doubted it had ever happened at all.
"So, what have you found out about this place?"
Sunny shrugged.
"This place might actually be hell," he said, pointing toward the coral labyrinth.
"It's vast and multi layered, with more dead ends than I can count. Incredibly hard to memorize too. It's a tangled maze of narrow corridors and crumbling chambers, with almost no recognizable landmarks. Mapping it is next to impossible. The tunnels twist back on themselves, and entire sections look nearly identical."
He sat down and let his legs dangle over the edge.
"Also, this stone platform we're on? It's actually the neck of a gigantic, headless knight statue. It was clearly carved by man, I've also searched the surrounding area and couldn't find its head anywhere. Anyway there's a good chance the ruins of an ancient civilization exist somewhere in this hell... just not anywhere nearby."
Elizabeth nodded, absorbing the information.
"What about the Nightmare Creatures?"
Sunny's face darkened.
"There are a lot of them. At first I thought the labyrinth was empty, that monsters only came out at night, but I was wrong. There are hundreds upon hundreds of them, feasting on what's left of that beast that was chasing me last night."
She sighed. Just their luck.
"Can you get close enough to describe them?"
He nodded.
"They have four pairs of long, segmented legs ending in scythe like protrusions. At the front, they look almost human, with a torso protruding from the carapace, clad in thick chitinous armor. The head, if that's even the right word for it, sits directly on top of the torso with no neck in between. Two narrow eye slits, and a vicious looking mouth with several slimy mandibles. Instead of hands, they have two enormous pincers."
Elizabeth frowned and walked over to a puddle of mud pooled in one of the stone's dents. She used it to sketch out what Sunny had described.
Sunny raised an eyebrow and moved closer to see what she was doing. His eyes widened slightly at the almost lifelike drawing of the monster he'd just described.
"Wow. It looks exactly like that. More intimidating in person, but still, nice drawing."
She smiled slightly.
"When you have too much time on your hands, you develop a lot of interesting hobbies. Picked up a few skills here and there."
"Must be nice."
Elizabeth frowned and glanced at him. She could have sworn she heard a hint of envy in his voice.
'Ah, right. He said he was from the outskirts. I must have sounded like some smug, sheltered kid.'
She pushed down her shame and examined the drawing more closely, trying to determine where the monster's weak points might be.
"Do any parts of it look weak to you?"
Sunny studied the drawing with a thoughtful expression before shaking his head.
"Guess we'll have to actually kill one to examine its body more closely," Elizabeth said. Sunny nodded in agreement.
"Keep observing them from a safe distance for now. Best we learn their habits before we start hunting."
He nodded again.
Her stomach suddenly growled. She was extremely hungry, but she pushed the discomfort aside for the moment. She walked back to the center of the platform and sat down. There wasn't much she could do to help Sunny right now; his Aspect was well suited for navigating the labyrinth. She was, for the moment, mostly useless.
"Going to take a nap," she said.
Sunny turned to look at her, eyes slightly wide.
"You're comfortable sleeping with a stranger around? Aren't you worried I might have bad intentions?"
Elizabeth laughed.
"Sunny, I know you're smart enough to understand why killing me would be pointless."
She turned around and met his gaze.
"You don't have a weapon memory on you. I do. Or, you could have lied to me and actually be carrying one. Either way, you don't have real combat experience. I do. If you killed me, all you'd accomplish is lowering your own chances of survival."
Elizabeth shook her head.
"I'm not trusting you. I'm trusting your intellect."
Her expression stayed unreadable as she added, "If you decide to prove me wrong, well....I'll make sure your death is as painless as I can manage."
Sunny stayed quiet for a moment before nodding.
"How can you tell I have no combat experience?"
Elizabeth lay back on the stone platform, dismissing the armored gauntlets covering her hands before folding them beneath her head as a pillow.
"It's the way you move. Someone trained in combat can usually recognize another person who's trained. It shows in how they walk, how they stand, how they carry themselves. Heck, even in how they breathe."
She glanced at him from the corner of her eye.
"Combat training changes the way your body acts. After enough repetition, certain movements become instinctive. You stop thinking about your posture, your balance, where your weight rests, or how your eyes scan your surroundings."
A faint smile crossed her lips.
"All you have to do is know what those habits look like. And you don't have them. Unless, of course, you're an expert at controlling your body language."
She could see his face twitch slightly at that, and she smiled to herself. Her back was turned to him, so he probably assumed she wasn't looking.
"But somehow, I doubt that very much."
Despite her words, she wasn't actually planning to fall into a deep sleep. She would stay in a state of awareness.
'Life in the outskirts must have been rough. What kind of life must he have led, for him not to have even an ounce of trust in someone facing the same problems as him?'
She sighed and let herself drift toward rest. The night would definitely be long, and she wasn't at all sure the sea wouldn't try to kill them again when it returned. Because she was certain it would.