Glass or Diamond: Fairy's Wish

Episode 5: Nightenmael

Darkness of the day, swallowing the sun and consuming light; this is the meaning of an eclipse. And any who say the eclipse has no spirit incarnation has never met a nightenmael.

Wings that summon maelstroms, a body that blots out the sun, and talons that can carve the world itself.

Colossi are not a new thing, not in this world. But, it's one thing to know they exist, and another entirely to see them in person. Their size is breathtaking and daunting, their calls are deafening, and their aura is nearly palpable. They are harbingers and arbiters of chaos and destruction wherever they appear.

And more stunning than all of that is watching a tiny speck of a being charging headlong for a towering mountain of a monster with the sole intent of slaying it.

For Murtoa of Lakia, the novelty wore off long ago. He slays colossi as his life's mission, singularly focused on ending the chaos and destruction as if such things can be ended by one man alone. And, if such things can be ended by one man alone, he seems to be the very one.

Lykha, the fairy, has seen first hand this warrior's skill in action. He is fearless, driven, and skilled, going where no one would dare choose to go to put himself where he needs to be in order to achieve his goal. Some monsters can only be killed from above, some can only be poisoned, and some can only be killed from the inside. Whatever the method, however long it takes, Murtoa will do it, risking life and limb regularly for people who may never know he exists.

Of course, stories are told of the knight known as Murtoa of Lakia, but Lykha has a hard time connecting this warrior to that legendary knight, defeater of an entire army AND a colossus singlehandedly after his allies were all wiped out. THAT Murtoa is said to be a kind and noble knight, whom princesses swoon for and young maidens pray just to glimpse.

Lykha prays Murtoa won't forget to wake her up in the morning.

But as she watches him sprinting up the length of an outstretched wing, she can't help but remember what she saw that very first day, when a man walked into the mouth of a monster and saved her in the process.

Coco, the teen former-captive Lykha partially rescued alongside a handful of other women and girls, remarks in amazement, "'Usbando mindin' on doin' this, i'n't he?"

Lykha can't answer. She's entranced by the tiny speck of a human warrior as he stalls at the wing's elbow, twirling his polearm in a flurry of quick, shallow, and familiar slashes. The nightenmael flinches, shrieking in pain. Of course, the sound of the shriek takes a second to reach them, and it's still deafening, causing all of the women and the fairy to cover their ears and flinch in pain.

Murtoa uses his grapnel end to hook feathers and flesh and anchor himself when the nightenmael stumbles. As soon as he is balanced, though, he resumes slashing. He has seemingly no regard for how far below him the ground is now, nor how fast it moves each time the gigantic avian moves even a little. When it flaps its wing relatively slowly, it still launches the warrior into the air.

Lykha gasps, watching helplessly.

Murtoa is not defeated, however. He skillfully uses his polearm's blade to scrape the wing and slow his descent, before flipping the weapon to the grapnel end and using the hook to catch himself. He's now on what equates to the bicep of the bird's wing, putting him on top of the wing as it folds its wing in, looking around in anger. A few more gunshots go off from much bigger weapons, and the avian spins violently, demolishing the area with its vicious and powerful beak once it locates the source.

Lykha's gaze never leaves Murtoa, though. He dangles desperately by his polearm as the bird whirls and bounces, clinging to his grip on a ride he has no control over. But, he never falls. Instead, he uses one particular bounce of the nightenmael to catapult himself up even higher, and he skillfully lands himself on its back.