Taken Horizon Origin, volume 2, Descension

Episode 25 : a travelers path

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"Wait, wait, wait, wait. You mean to tell us you dissuaded the machine from wanting kill us all by using the possibly limitless ends of your immortality to challenge her programmed mission?"

Whilst i rested in a hammock with Thorn roosting atop my chest, Raptor tried to grasp the story my feathery companion told him.

"That's about right. I miss anything?" Looking down at my face Thorn asked.

"Other than I'm now Prophet's wanted martyr, and that her mission has been changed to 'unite through fear' you got about everything." Replying dryly whilst the hammock swung side to side gently in the stone cabin, i paid attention to the silver embers flaring off Thorn's body.

Even with my body now rid of Prophet's corruption, my brief time being puppeteered still left my muscles all sore. Thanks to Neveah's pushing i ended up in this wool hammock while i reacquainted with my body.

"I still struggle to get over the fact the machine has called herself 'Prophet' as a name." Injecting his opinion Pettel leaned back against the wooden pillar of the cabin. "Kralscell's are destroyer's, not saviours. The originals all wiped out entire nations easily, the current Kralscell's -minus Etrill, Strife, and myself- are far off from being able to do that."

Acknowledging Etrill's strength despite his lacking wisdom, i nodded in agreement considering how complimentary Thorn was about his aid in quelling my insanity two weeks ago. "True. Even with my lesson's with aether, the rest of you are far too weak considering your abilities. Durvin get's a pass considering he's material dependent, but the rest of you need to step up your training like Neveah has."

while Etrill wiped his nose trying to hide his embarrassment from the compliments. The other kralscell's Elysia, Raptor, Maren, Sofia, and Yun all showed mopey expressions.

"Well, Shogun is a fine example of that." In a bleak tone Maren chimed in as he sat next to the crackling fire burning the chimney in the cabin. "Being the kralscell of control he could manipulate gravity as he pleased but couldn't so much as crush a stone. I know that my shapeshifting with aether has it's limits but we can't all summon armies like Strife could."

"You can, actually." Invoker stated clearly, grabbing everyone's attention apart from mine as i poked Thorn's feather's with my tired finger. "Each kralscell has an army they can call upon, but there are limit's to how they manifest and the aether consumed creating your unit's is by no mean's small. Medea discovered she could manipulate genealogy to craft new beasts from a tiny mouse, and Prophet can takeover entire armies that touch her corruption."

"Well how come we haven't seen Pettel's army?" Making herself clear Elysia huffed her voice as she batted her pink hair back. "He's one of the original kralscell's but I didn't see him summoning his army to help Strife buy us time."

"That's because i require the corpses of humans." Speaking demeaningly to the woman Pettel made his annoyance clear as day. "In <archon hold> where it's impossible to die unless your burnt to dust or eaten alive. It's hardly easy for any human corpses to be left for me to puppet. You shouldn't complain to me when you only require a light source to manifest the kralscell of flowers crystal army."

Being humbled Elysia was now quiet. None came to console her though as everyone looked within themselves to see if there truly was an army to be awakened. Raptor especially given he's closed his eyes to search at the base of his being.

Remembering something, Thorn patted my chest with his wing and spoke mentally, 'when should we let the wood-carving out of your throne-world?'

Forgetting that [unloved warden] was currently within the pocket dimension that replicated my mindscape, i wondered that too. He's not going to be of much help even if we let him out, I thought back. Go and check on him for now then tell me if the leviathan's have eaten it yet.