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70.27% Astrum Irae / Chapter 26: Interventus; Luna

Chapter 26: Interventus; Luna

A lone, naked figure traversed across rocky, hostile terrain in a careless manner. A single misstep would lead to a perilous tumble into jagged rocks, but the figure didn't seem to care. Climbing at a 45-degree angle, the figure did eventually stumble. It rolled through gravel and bounced off erect rocks pointing out from the gravel until its crumpled body lay still at the base of the hill.

"Kuhuh, kuh," Rigel dully coughed, ejecting some stray dirt and dust from his lungs. He didn't move for a few minutes. Suddenly, in a fit of raw anger and aggression, Rigel burst like a bomb, literally. The ground in the vicinity around him flew into the sky from the power that erupted from Rigel.

Rigel, once again as tranquil as the water of a pond early in the morning, made his way up the hill and fell over the top. He tumbled back down the backside and continued walking northeast through the arid wasteland. Each step he took embedded his feet an inch into the powdery dirt lining the surface of the ground.

Rigel, at this point, had a very clear understanding of why there was so much loose dirt in this area. He had been attacked by a many of nature's wind-based weaponry, be it dust devils, twisters, full-blown tornadoes or just very fast winds. The everlasting drought was also extremely apparent to him. He couldn't recall any moisture since the transition between grassland and… desert? He was unsure of the proper naming conventions involved.

On his trek across the continent, Rigel had seen some pretty cool things, in his opinion. Most of his time was spent mindlessly walking, but every once in a while, powerful creatures radiating regal authority appeared. He wondered if they were the so-called "Sovereigns"- category 4 beasts. The first he saw was a massive flying whale the size of a zeppelin. It wasn't very "fantasy-like"- it was just a normal looking whale- but it was undoubtedly powerful. Rigel also saw a majestic bird far, far up in the sky. He was unsure of its size or any physical features aside from color- which was a cool royal blue, but he could still feel its overwhelming authority from so far away, so he was impressed. He casually wondered if that bird was a Monad.

"Monad- a singular entity, above all others. How envious." Rigel often mused over the subject of Godbeasts, actual demigods, monads, and their respective power structures. While he had been absent-minded for most of his journey, under the surface level exhaustion and carelessness he had been thinking very hard about his current situation. Mostly unproductive, bitter thoughts, but he had seen through most of what he felt a need to do a long time ago. The Great Plains were vast and he himself wasn't in much rush to get anywhere, so he had time to ponder over nothing.

"Although," he had to wonder, "is this still the Great Plains? There are quite a few hills."

He made his way up another steeply sloped hill and perched on a large rock. He gazed deeply into the distance and analyzed the upcoming terrain. A haze of airborne dust obscured his long-distance vision, but he could still make out most of the nearby hills and valleys. He noted nothing of interest and collapsed; falling down the hill like a ragdoll.

Rigel continued walking until he approached the edge of a proper canyon.

"Wowie," he muttered sarcastically. "Practice time…"

He drew mana into his body and stretched his body across the Z plane and teleported a few feet past the opposing cliffside edge and dropped down. Upon collapsing, Rigel had a passing thought.

"Is gravity under the dominion of space, or is it an independent force? I never took physics back when I was… Me?"

Rigel groaned a bit and concentrated on his memories, to the point where he forgot to keep walking.

"I was… someone before Rigel?" He continued to talk to himself. "Rigel… Rigel. Rigel, Rigel RigelRigel. What a fucking worthless name- appropriate for such a worthless person. Is Rigel even a name? Am I even a person? Hmm. Hmm. Hmm? Hmm... I think I just wanna die."

Rigel abruptly teleported his head individually 15 feet above himself. The head fell atop Rigel's crumpled body with a soft thump. No blood oozed out of his lifeless body, but at the stump of his neck, red mush was prominent.

Rigel blinked and found himself in the white void once more. He sighed mournfully and said, with tears in his eyes, "Just let it end, please."

"Never," God dutifully responded. "You coward, you don't get the easy way out. Stop your whining. As broken as you are, there's no excuse for being a little bitch. Those many years ago, I told you to own a kingdom, and here you still are, pathetically wandering around without direction. What a letdown, really. I had some hopes for you. Despite your fragile mental state and low IQ, you have a real talent for mana manipulation. You even managed to break your own body with space magic. However, it seems like your fragility won out, though. Sigh, and I can't even cheat that much at this stage in the game. Stop making things difficult for me and play along. Eventually, you'll obtain everything you could possibly want, whether you realize what those things are right now or not. Snap out of it and finish your divine duty, damn it."

Rigel found himself lying on familiar, arid ground- back in the realm of reality. He sighed in exhaustion and felt up and around where his neck was reconnected. He felt not one flaw and felt a small amount of awe toward the deity that presumably fixed him. He also noticed that he was now dressed.

"That's a neat trick," a feminine voice suddenly said.

Rigel felt his heart jump a few inches and slowly sat upright. He looked over to the origin of the voice and saw a young girl perched on top of a small earthly protrusion. He sighed and managed to completely calm himself down in a few moments.

"Hello, little girl. Who. Are. You?" Rigel smoothly asked.

"I am Eureka, of course. Your dutiful guide and manager from the heavens. A life coach, if you will," she equally smoothly responded. She spryly hopped up and patted any loose dust off of herself, and walked over to Rigel.

Rigel only smirked momentarily before attempting wholeheartedly to kill her. He tried to take her off guard by keeping his muscles lax, and then suddenly erupted with the ferocious might of all his fire magic.

Rigel pushed an extremely fast fireball out of his hand nigh instantly, only for Eureka to calmly spin out of the way. The abstract bending of her joints and spiral movement momentarily bewildered Rigel, and allowed her to promptly kick him across the face and into the dirt he flew.

"Urgh," Rigel shuddered in pain, simply in too much pain to realize that he shouldn't have been in pain in the first place.

"That reminds me," Eureka said with a cute, childlike smile, "The One True Being wanted you to know that in expense of sending me down here to watch you, he has temporarily taken away your immortality."

Rigel felt a foreboding chill corrode his heart and felt lightheaded. He didn't get up for a few moments and took a good look at his own scenario.

"Girl," he coughed out while slowly getting up, "Protect me with your life. I am a very important demigod... and I won't die to that God's meddling. I'll play his stupid game and win what I desire, whatever it may be."

Rigel took another look at this new person, now with a new sense of awe and wonder. She was a plain looking girl, with no discernible oddities or physical quirks. She had dirty blonde hair that was kept short for a girl, just around ear length. She was short, even for a girl, maybe around 5'3". Her petite frame looked like something that would snap like a measly twig if kicked with some effort.

"Don't kid yourself, Rigel. You aren't important in the slightest- it's just against the rules for you to die now."

"Ughhhh... fuck off. I don't care about your stupid rules."

"God, you're an idiot. Shut up and think about what you're saying for a second, Rigel. You just said that you wanted to win what you desire, so you have to care about the rules, Rigel," she reprimanded in an almost childish tone, and then continued with a bit of a sweeter tone, "Please remember that communication is an important part of a balanced life, Rigel."

"STOP SAYING MY NAME!" Rigel abruptly erupted. "I am a faceless, interchangeable demigod, and nothing more. Happy?"

Eureka only responded with a silent smirk before turning towards the direction Rigel was walking.

"Let's go," she said lightly.

"...Where?"

"Where you need to be, of course."

Rigel sighed and followed behind the strange girl.

The duo walked in silence. Before Rigel even realized, the sun had set over the horizon, the great moon overhead faithfully shining down its beams in the sun's stead.

Rigel basked in the luminosity radiating from the moon, relishing the unique atmosphere provided by such a moon. While it is nice to enjoy a warm summer day, night time's mysteriousness and quasi-gloominess is certainly desirable to those in a foul mood.


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
kaminism kaminism

Intervention; Moon

Here's to a new possible opportunity for Rigel to grasp upon. Looking back at it, he's 0 for 3. Not quite the best of ratios.

All powerstones are appreciated ^-^

Chapter 27: Catharsis; Errat

Eureka led Rigel into a region filled with earthly boils and cavities strewn about with a surprising frequency, making traversal difficult for the pair.

At one point, Rigel misstepped due to the low light levels and his foot slipped through the soft ground. He quickly found himself tumbling into one of the cavities. The bottom fell through and Rigel fell another 10 feet, slamming hard onto solid bedrock. He lay still, shuddering in pain. He could feel the jagged rock dig into his skin alongside the resulting damage from slamming into rock at speeds approaching 15 miles per hour. He coughed up some blood and waited for Eureka to help him, growing slightly more anxious incrementally as his thoughts led him back into his days of asylum.

"Hope you had a nice fall." Eureka's voice resounded out from above the pit.

"Very funny," Rigel curtly replied. "I think I ruptured some organs and am bleeding out. Mind lending a hand?" he followed up in a rather calm voice, surprising himself. He had lost his immortality, and yet still didn't fear dying. In fact, the pain perhaps even felt… good? No, no.

"I'm still human…" Rigel muttered to himself. "Pain is to be feared, not lavished."

While he was muttering to himself, Eureka hopped down and nimbly landed on her feet. She approached Rigel and gently placed her hands on his chest. Rigel winced from the contact but kept silent. He could feel a warm aurora flow through his aching body, mending the irregularities it encountered on its journey. The relief from the agony felt extremely blissful; Rigel let out a sigh of pleasure.

Eureka backed off from the collapsed man and sat down.

"You know, Rigel, I am someone you can trust. I have no mortal affairs besides helping you get back on your feet for a bit."

"How do I know you're not just a spy from one of those assholes?" Rigel countered.

"C'mon. The One True Being would never blatantly pick sides like that. His Lordship wouldn't take away your immortality without giving something in return." Eureka spoke with confidence- enough that it seemed as if Rigel's worries were completely baseless.

"He did. My life," Rigel patiently explained.

"..." Eureka had no response.

"Eureka, I am despised by everyone. I haven't had a friend in this world, and in my old one I hadn't had a friend in years before dying. I think… there's something wrong with me." The melancholic subject brought light tears to Rigel's eyes.

"That's what I'm here for!" Eureka lightly exclaimed. "Like I said, I'm a life coach... of sorts. I can help you out."

"Then why were you so impatient with me when you first arrived?" Rigel wryly laughed.

"...I can't help the fact that I'm impatient. The One True Being created me this way."

"Sigh… Well, it's water under the bridge now I suppose. Hear me out, would ya? Perhaps you'll see what I'm obviously missing."

"Yeah, of course."

"I tried… so hard when I arrived here. I was a bit awkward and conversations were quite painful at times, but I thought it was okay. I… liked them. I thought that they were my first friends in years, and that they were my core support I could lean in in my future endeavors. But…" Rigel trailed off and felt his arms shaking in rage.

"They betrayed me." Rigel kept his emotions under control and didn't yell out of rage.

"They didn't trust me. They tried to kill me, and I let the situation completely fall out of control. We fought… and I killed 2 of the 4 people close to me." Rigel couldn't keep the agony to himself anymore and started sobbing.

"I murdered them, and it's completely my fault."

"Hush now. It's okay." Eureka comforted Rigel with a soft voice, barely audible over the sobs. "Everyone makes mistakes. I'm sure the adrenaline just went to your head. You've had it really rough, Rigel. Maybe not the worst out of all the demigods, but at least you've managed to keep your humanity. They're all shells. Now, now. Take a good rest. You deserve it."

Following the allure of sleep, Rigel slowly dazed off in Eureka's arms and slept for the first time in thousands of years after undergoing catharsis.

Rigel woke up with something thick and soft covering him. He felt the warm kiss of fire emblaze his face. Trying to shake his groggy mind awake, he pushed the wool blanket off of himself and turned to see Eureka sitting next to the fire, cooking some unidentifiable meat.

"How long was I asleep for…?" Rigel asked with much effort. He could barely even keep his eyes open from the enervation plaguing him, not to mention the formation of complex thoughts.

"About 2 weeks," Eureka succinctly responded.

Rigel suddenly noticed the empty agony gnawing at his gut and looked pleadingly at Eureka. She chuckled and ripped off a chunk of the meat and tossed it over to Rigel. He caught it- to his mild surprise- and attempted to appraise the mystery flesh momentarily.

"Won't I just throw this right back up?" he grumbled.

"You act like there's plants out here," Eureka mocked in response.

Rigel moaned a bit and then bit a chunk out of the meat block. The tender, savory juiciness conveyed by the rich piece of crude meat seemed more delectable and desirable to Rigel at that moment than any gourmet ever created in the universe.

"Mmm!" Rigel let out a surprised squeal of delight and wolfed down the meal. He lay still momentarily before, true to his fears, he vomited the entire thing up.

"Hahaha!"

In the background, Rigel could hear the feminine laugh of Eureka resounding out. With a grimace, he turned and looked over to her.

"How'd you even get meat if there's no plants here anyhow?" Rigel asked, vastly perplexed towards the matter.

"Ecosystems are really different here as compared to your 'Earth'," she replied. "The sun's energy can be absorbed by most competent creatures these days, I suppose. If they stay still, a lot of creatures can live entirely off of the sun. There are other ways for them to obtain energy, but that's starting to delve into se~~~cret knowledge of the world."

"Hmm…" Rigel murmured to himself. "How would those creatures obtain the basic nutrients and vitamins and minerals and such like that?"

"Se~~~crets I say," was the only response Rigel received.

Rigel scoffed in response to her air of mysteriousness and dropped the subject.

The due sat in silence for a few minutes, basking in the glorious aroma of roasted meat while pondering their own individual thoughts.

"Eureka," Rigel finally spoke. "I would appreciate it if you disregard my previous ramblings."

"Oh?" she replied. "And why's that?"

"It's quite simple. I am a demigod. Demigods have no apparent weaknesses."

"And who says that?"

"I, a demigod, do."

"Seems rather narrow-minded to me."

"Perhaps. Does it matter if it is?"

"I suppose not. But what if I refuse?"

"Then there's nothing to be said about the matter. I'm asking you for a favor, not making a declaration of silence."

"I see."

"Indeed."

The 2 went back to their silence for the better part of an hour. The silence was only broken when Eureka jumped up and said, "So, Rigel the demigod, what is your plan?"

Rigel met her gaze with his own and replied, "Zephledawn. Zephledawn should help me increase my comprehension of mana and magic."

Eureka merely giggled in response and jumped straight up and out of the hole.

"Do I have to teleport out of here?" Rigel asked himself. He felt his ragged, erratic breathing and the inner anxiety claw at his chest.

"...The odds of the act of teleporting directly killing me while in mortal form is low… but it's not zero. I very well could kill myself right now by a stupid mistake. Wouldn't that be funny? A once-immortal demigod killing himself with a magic that he's practiced for 2 thousand years."

Rigel clenched his teeth and steeled himself before initiating the teleport. He could feel the vast amount of mana coursing through his body ravage every cell it touched, but focused his consciousness on the act of commanding the mana to compress his body and shooting him upwards.

As he did, Rigel could feel his body ripping apart and condensing into a minuscule 2d object momentarily before miraculously appearing 25 feet above where he was just before. Rigel felt excruciating pain ravish his mortal frame and wailed out loud in sheer anguish and agony, but he still managed to grab onto the hole's edge and pull himself up onto the surface.

Laid out across the ground, he coughed. With it, blood flew out of his mouth and onto the arid earth.

Rigel writhed amuck across the ground, spasming uncontrollably unintentionally. He couldn't focus his vision on anything around him or inspect his own condition.

"Eureka!" he managed to scream out. "Help!"

With Rigel's last bit of unused energy used, he went back to rolling and flailing like someone who had just received one hundred thousand volts of electricity, then passed out from shock and exhaustion.


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
kaminism kaminism

This is 50,000+ words published ^-^

Now I get a fancy upgrade to my author badge.

Sadly, I have to be at the doctor's for most, if not all, of tomorrow, so I won't be able to get a chapter out. Thanks for understanding.

Title: Catharsis; Mistake/Error

Pretty easy one to guess today.

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