Chương 52: Midday
After our short conversation, I followed the Keeper into the home I had spent most of my time in after I had managed to get myself interdimensional-ly teleported to Virsdis, and found it distinctly different than normal.
Instead of the regular casual and relaxing atmosphere, it was now almost a place of sacrosanct worship. The Keeper and I walked quietly through the corridor and into the loungeroom, where both Mayer and Rethi were, sitting on the floor, having moved all the chairs and other furniture aside.
Mayer sat across from the younger man, his eyes closed and expression stiff, like he was fighting off pain. Rethi looked similarly, thought the grimace seemed like it was more due to his discomfort than any pain he might be feeling. It occurred to me that, for the good part of the few days the Keeper had allowed himself to wait, all they had been doing had been meditate.
It was clear enough to me that they were participating in a ritual of some description, fitting for a divine blade like Hindle was.
The blade was nowhere to be seen, as of yet, but it probably would show itself soon enough, especially now that the Keeper himself was here and was fixated on the ritual in front of him. I looked deeper, trying to see what he was, but came up empty. I don't know if he has the ability to see ether, though I hadn't had it mentioned that it was at all possible, but I certainly wouldn't be surprised if it was possible.
Mayer, prying himself from his meditative slumber, stood and turned towards the fireplace behind him, and moving a few logs around, revealed the cloaked form of Hindle itself. Thinking about it, it made sense. The longs never needed changing because Mayer created the fire that heated the lounge out of his own shifting, so it was hardly surprising that he'd hidden Hindle in there.
A bit on the nose if you ask me. Hindle was a blade of light, not heat or flame, but still. I almost chuckled but felt that it'd be wrong to do so. Everyone was taking this very seriously at the moment. It might be why Rethi hadn't deigned to tell his girlfriend that he was going to come into possession on a Divine Blade of Light and invite her to the ceremony. She probably would be able to stop herself from asking about everything they were doing, straight to the extremely powerful Keeper.
Mayer moved back towards Rethi, slowly unfurling the cloth from the blade, being inordinately careful around the edge of the blade. I could only assume that it was extremely sharp, otherwise it being a Divine Blade kind of lost its purpose. If it wasn't sharp, it may as well be a club.
As soon as the full blade of the sword was revealed, if began to shine softly, but there was no mistaking it's radiance. Rethi opened his eyes to look at Mayer, who seemed to search his pupil's eyes intently. Though, whatever he did or didn't find, he was pleased with, and nodded towards Rethi's eager visage.
Rethi gently reached out towards the blade, placing his hands underneath the older man's as if ready to catch the blade from falling, which just so happened to be the case, as Mayer dropped the Divine Sword into Rethi's hands.
Though, despite physical appearances, this was something that I felt in my very core. In a way it was similar to what I had experienced not even an hour ago. The forming of a soul bound contract. Instead of forming, though, Mayer was unmaking his.
The unmaking of this contract was not without its own fanfare, as a light surrounded the man similar to how it had earlier for me, and less intensely than he had shown when he had revealed the blade to Rethi and I. Though, as soon as it had appeared, the light surrounding him shattered like a stained glass window.
The man slumped backwards, letting out a soft groan as he fell back, having to support himself with his elbows. I almost moved forwards, concerned for the old man, but the powerful arm of the even more ancient Keeper held me fast, a short shake of his head enough warning. I held fast and simply resigned myself to observe what happened next.
Which wasn't much at first. Rethi was deadly still, unnaturally so. You'd swear that he was a statue, and if not that some macabre puppet. But, without even so much as breathing, holding the sword like you saw mortals holding divine items or children in renaissance paintings, almost lazily allowing the cloth that had surrounded the sword to drape over his arms.
It wasn't until the boy started to pulse with divine energy that I realised that he was offering himself to the blade, his soul and all. Which, obviously, immediately worried me, but Mayer knew what he was doing, and questioning him right in the middle of something of this magnitude was just about the most arrogant thing I think someone could possibly do.
The boy before me, now pulsing, started to also flow faintly in a similar light, though it was distinct from Mayer's earlier light. This light held the heat of a hot afternoon sun.
Armament reacted…somehow. I wasn't sure how, but I know that he did. My natural empathy told me so, just not what. He seemed somewhat impervious to my emotional sensing. I couldn't tell if it was a good or bad reaction, just that it was a reaction at all.
Rethi's light continued to grow, slowly leeching into his skin and his body as a whole, infusing its power into him. I had expected something like this, but when the power started to manifest as tearing skin, and flame spewing forth from within the boy's body, shock took over.
I desperately tried to get a mental read on Rethi, but I came up with nothing. He was immune to my empathic senses while in whatever state he was in currently, which just meant that I had no idea if he was in pain or needed help or not.
Mayer, who had managed to recover himself, if only slightly, now looked like he had been stabbed…
Wait, Mayer was bleeding from his stomach, the blood soaking through his simple shirt. His body covered in a thick coating of sweat, only just holding back gasps of pain and exhaustion.
How had he been stabbed? And why? I thought, before I almost hit myself on the side of the head from how dumb that train of thought was.
Of course it was the not-so-damned sword, exacting its own revenge for abandoning it to another master. I wondered, then, if Hindle was sapient or just sentient, to the level of a dog or something similar.
I wouldn't put it past the Divine Blade to have some measure of intellect.
Turning my eyes away from Mayer with some difficulty, I looked back to Rethi, whose body was now spewing even more fire. Interestingly, while the fire definitely being present, and it feeling hotter in the room, I had a sneaking suspicion that it only felt that way, and wasn't truly the case.
The flame spewing from the boy's body would have licked something by now, and knowing it's divine origin, I wouldn't put burning something to char on contact past it. Something well and truly terrifying,
Burns are something that cause a lot of damage to the body, and even with healing capabilities as good as mine, it'd always be easier and faster to simply cut out the burned part of my flesh than let it heal back from the extremely damaged state it was in.
Turning flesh into char on contact, especially considering that doing that much damage effectively made the entire limb a write off, just meant that other Champions, if not even I, had to be careful around it.
If used correctly, the blade could easily allow for someone to kill a Champion, especially if you could catch a Champion's entire body in a strike somehow. I'm pretty sure that would kill me.
I watched on in a concerned awe as the young boy I had picked up all those months ago now sat before me, beaming in divine light and flame bleeding from his skin, power radiating like the aura of light that surrounded him.
This intensity only grew as the blade resting in Rethi's hands silently became a mini-sun, emitting flame from the blade in enough quantity to encapsulate Rethi's hands and leave the pieces of the cloth that wasn't in the small sun's radius falling to the floor. Initially I was worried that the ball of flame had taken his hands as well, but as the ball floated upwards and revealed his hands I sighed, relieved that the stupid thing hadn't handicapped its own weilder.
The sword began to thrum its own divine energy tune, at first being discordant with Rethi's but slowly, over about a minute, became in synch as could be, layering over each other in a harmonious fashion, making it sound as if there were a third note being sung with the sacred energy.
Then, in just a moment, the sun split in half, as if cut, revealing the blade forged anew from a new soul, a new flame to be tempered by.
The sword still had its odd blade shape and size, but now it had a hilt, elegant but powerful the hilt was made of a crafter metal and wrapped in a dark leather, bright yellow gemstones that whispered of the sun's light, about having bathed in its warmth for millennia set into the eyes of a fanged dragon's head that served as the blade's pommel.
The gloriously bronze blade itself was almost untouched, apart from a more distinct fuller down the centre of the blade and the polished and maintained. If someone with an untrained eye looked at only its physical appearance, basically myself, they'd assume that Hindle were simply a showpiece blade, commissioned by someone with a bit of wealth because it looked cool. And I definitely would.
But while I couldn't speak about the actual practicality of the blade itself, most of which is probably negated due to it being divine in nature, something I was relatively good at was sensing emotions.
Hindle had emotions, or whoever or whatever lived inside of Hindle was capable of emotions. How could I tell?
Overwhelming joy and pride. It radiated out from the blade exactly like it's light, assailing my eyes and mind at the same time, making it impossible to even close my eyes to the intruding light. Rethi, who had previously been covered in heat and flame, was now simply glowing like Mayer had, his flesh bright and golden, like someone was shining a light through his muscle.
Rethi's eyes opened, and his eyes, which used to be a mundane green colour, were now a brilliant gold. The boy radiated just as much joy as the blade had when it had released itself from itss cocoon of a sun, revealing its newfound form to itss weilder. Rethi himself looked… stronger. Much, much stronger.
In fact, from what I could feel, Rethi's aura was qualitatively different to Mayer's.
Mayer's aura while holding Hindle had been the gentle but warm evening sun, the beginning on the sleepy night waiting around the corner. It held a lot of light, but not much heat or strength behind it. It was the end of the day, the quiet disappearance of the smiling sun.
Rethi, however, was the midday sun, radiant in both heat and light, overbearing but also ultimately benevolent with its power to give life to that which we rely on. Its intensity overwhelming in every facet it could be, for midday is its moment to give its gifts of light and warmth, to spur life to evolve and live on, if only to see the next dawn.
It was intense to look at.
"W-whoa." Rethi said finally, after sitting there like an idiot, staring at his own glowing skin, the faint outline of bone underneath his flesh. I couldn't help myself from laughing.
"Seriously Rethi? You pull that stunt and that's the best you've got?" I chuckled, and the boy turned to glare at me, a blush appearing on his radiant features.
"Shut up!" He said with false anger, but Mayer cleared his throat, ignoring the two of us. Our gazes turned towards the man who was now sweating even further, his silver hair dripping with sweat as well, a look of exhausted amusement written across his usually stoic and stern features.
"Rethi." He said quietly, but with a strange power that made me almost believe you could hear those whispered words hundreds of metres away, "You are now the wielder of Hindle. You have assumed the title Midday, for you are the second to hold the true power of Hindle, unlike I who had only wielded a fraction of its strength, being Evening. Welcome, Midday Orsen." Mayer spoke ceremoniously, bowing his tired and struggling form towards the ground.
Rethi, realizing himself, seemed prepared and placed the sword beside himself and bowed similarly towards Mayer.
There was a powerful thrum through the air, and this time I didn't need to even look at Armament to know he was smiling.
The next Divine Warrior of the Sun was born. Midday Orsen.
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