Arm of the Shadow, Part I (Solo)

[Eridanus]

Day 1, Summer of 512 AV
Late Morning
The Streets Below

"Tango at third bell!" Prairie called from behind, and Eridanus leaped ahead, narrowly dodging a dark swirling sphere that sputtered with hate. There was a pause and a grunt, and an unearthly scream was uttered as the blurry, shadowy mess that released that sphere was crushed into the ground by an invisible force, courtesy of Projection.

"Tango down," Dilemma called from behind, his eyes closing for several moments as he retracted his astral limb back to his body.

They were a team of four, investigating a newly opened space in the Underground. Agents were referred to with code-names during missions, and this team was staffed by Prairie, Dilemma, Vicious and the ethaefal himself, Redeemer. It was a stroke of pure irony that he gained the very same code name that he had centuries ago, and he wondered if it was Ionu's idea of mischief when he was granted that name when he joined the Department of Illusions.

"Good work Dilemma," Vicious replied from behind. "Redeemer continue taking point, the rest of you stay sharp."

They were in a twisting, winding corridor full of wooden spikes that protruded from the edges of the corners. The wooden spikes were shaped like cobwebs, and as they traveled some of the walls of the corridors would disappear, revealing a reviling mass of... something within.

They learned quite early on that these creatures were not harmless when one of them struck Prairie with a tentacle, instantly destroying his shield and glancing his arm. The wound had begun to turn black almost instantly, but Eridanus had the quick thinking to cauterize the wound with a low-intensity version of his Warmth Arc spell, stabilized with glyphs from both himself and Dilemma. Bandaging from the first-aid kit that every agent carried along for missions did the rest, and Prairie was back to combat functionality.

[Eridanus]

"What in the world is this place?" Dilemma muttered as the winding corridors opened into a cavern full of yellow, sparkling glass. The rumbling noise that was always in the background, was gone, replaced by an eerie call that resonated throughout the entire cavern. It was like a harp, yet the tonal quality of the sound seemed to emanate from a shell, its whistling properties raising the hairs of all four agents.

"Intel thinks its an off-shoot of the Shadowkin's Domain, but we can't be sure. Just map out as much as we can, and our job here is done," Vicious replied. The Squad Leader took out a complex array of lenses connected to a single copper box, waving the object slowly about as it took in the sights and sounds of their surroundings for further analysis back at headquarters.

"Up ahead," Eridanus prompted, pointing at the ground in front of them.

They were in a cavern made entirely of yellow glass. The land that they were on was connected by a bridge to a little isle up ahead, and the rest of the ground had red, boiling liquid in it. Strangely, the temperature of the liquid was cool, but painfully so if one were to go near them.

The isle up ahead was beginning to shake, and multi-colored embroidered cloth began forming at the base, wrapping against each other until they formed a linen obelisk that, against any law of physics, stood firmly at the center of the isle.

"Explore it," Vicious responded as the rest of the team nodded in agreement. He kept his strange instrument back in his bag, and the team edged onto the bridge.

When they were half-way through, a ghastly shriek was heard, and the yellow glass all around suddenly flashed crimson, mirroring the color of the liquid around them. A four-winged creature emerged from the liquid, but Dilemma was quick to grasp it in place with his astral arm.

[Eridanus]

"Feast your eyes on directed anger, Warmth Arc!" Eridanus cried, thrusting his palm out at the creature that was frozen in place. The fireball rushed towards the static form, melting when it collided and the four-winged creature burst into shards of yellow glitter, returning the entire cavern back to its original yellow glass.

When they finally reached the isle, the team automatically broke into formation, the three of them forming a perimeter around the cloth-made obelisk while Eridanus, the point-man, positioned himself at what seemed to be the entrance of the obelisk. The entrance was a piece of cloth not unlike a tent's flap, with a glass-like zip that vertically on its front.

"Entering," Eridanus called out, and Dilemma nodded, his arm twitching as he sent his projection out in preparation.

Filling his senses with djed, Eridanus focused on the obelisk, summoning his energies in an attempt to see through the cloth to gain an informational advantage. Waves of information crashed into him as he desperately attempted to process it, but all he received was static. Meaningless, nonsensical information from auras that probably did not even belong there.

That was the problem of the underground, things rarely made sense. Shaking his head, he disabled his use of auristics, muttering, "Auristics failed. Physical Breach in progress."

"Ready!" Vicious called out, and Eridanus reached down, pulling up the zip as the unearthly harp in the background swelled to a crescendo. A large, fluid-like red arm came from within, grasping Eridanus by the waist as he gasped in pain.

"Redeemer!" Dilemma called in surprise, and reached forward with his astral arm. However, it all happened too late, and the red arm pulled the struggling vantha into the linen obelisk.

[Eridanus]

Tumbling through darkness, Eridanus struggled as he pushed away wisps of smoke that called his name seductively, dangerously. Voices that started from a high, demure pitch that gradually descended to a low, warning growl.

He tumbled forward through pitch black darkness, and eventually there was a beam of light from above that illuminated the stone cold ground below him, and he dropped harmlessly on it.

Looking about in disorientation, he realized that he had dropped his long swords when he got grabbed earlier on. While he had the knowledge that his team mates would retrieve his weapon, there was no satisfaction in knowing that he was unarmed.

A figure ahead appeared and rushed away, the vantha found himself suddenly awash with the primal feeling of fear. It was instinctual, and non-rational. Something about that figure crept him out, and he was in no position to know why. For all he knew, he was further stuck in this complex illusions that formed this city.

[Eridanus]

He walked in that strange corridor that somehow reminded him of how the Ionu's Mercy looked like. The architecture, the design, and layout of the place. Even down to the textures of the wall and floor; it was all too similar. Yet, as he blinked, a wave of disorientation hit him and he stumbled, putting his hands on a nearby wall to steady himself.

Despite its physical appearance, the wall felt like it was made of living, breathing flesh.

Recoiling his hand in disgust and surprise, he opened his eyes, finding himself in Ionu's Mercy, but one in a severe state of disrepair. Rusty walls, unwashed floors, grime throughout. Cobwebs hanging, and various chairs and tables that were half-broken and scattered about.

Still, there was no one.

The vantha gingerly touched the wall again, finding the cool feel of stone instead of the feeling of flesh, and walked ahead apprehensively.

[Eridanus]

Crash.

Up ahead, there was the sound of a chair being upturned. It was followed by a scratching sound that made Eridanus want to cover his ears. Stumbling up ahead, he passed by a room on his left that seemed to be missing its door.

Well, more like the door was completely torn off its hinges and lying on the floor nearby.

In the room was a weary human shambling against a wall, scratching his three-foot long nails against it. The legs of the chair was somehow entangled with his left leg as it trailed after him.

"H-hello?"

The human ignored him, continuing to scratch pitifully at the wall.

"Hello? You alright?"

[Eridanus]

At the second greeting, the man's weary eyes lit up in some way, and he turned his head slowly towards the source of the sound - Eridanus.

His breathing intensified, and he suddenly screeched as he rushed towards Eridanus at full speed, the chair languishing behind as he reached forward with his three-inch nails.

Surprised, the vantha brought his arms up in reflex, then winced in pain as the nails clawed away at his forearm, bringing away flesh with it.

"Son of a-"

Eridanus slammed a kick forward, pushing the feral man away as he stumbled backwards to gain some space. His arm throbbed with pain and a quick glance revealed a superficial wound, but it was deep enough to cause blood to streak from the laceration.

"Wait, what are you..."

The man wailed again, rushing forward while waving his arms with those dangerous nails attached again. Eridanus reached backwards for his longswords, feeling the discouraging feel of air before realizing that he did not have his blades with him.

Curses and damnation!

Instead, he ducked, kicking off the wall behind him and going into a low tumble as he repositioned himself to the man's rear. Recovering quickly, he attempted to strike the man, but the exhausted-looking being somehow turned around with supernatural speed.

The vantha barely caught his nails in time, and attempted to twist it to break them, but found them to be as hard as a steel rod.

What in the world is happening?

Ducking into another roll in an attempt to flank the man again just as he narrowly avoided decapitation, he recovered twice as fast, this time pushing up the flux into his upper torso as he did so.

Dashing forward with a step filled with conviction, he slammed forward with a flux-enhanced palm strike, snapping the man's head backwards as he broke his neck from sheer force.

His head lolled at an uncomfortable angle and the he stumbled back, but he did not collapse as the vantha predicted.

[Eridanus]

Why is he not dead?!

The broken neck kept the head swaying at that eerie posture as the man gargled a broken wail, reaching for him again as the vantha ducked yet again and repositioned himself with the roll.

"Strands of light, heed my call. Strike forth with unerring force!" Eridanus gasped as he summoned djed threads from yet more places in his body, gathering them all in one central location. There was no time to be merciful, enemies called for brutality and he would have to go all out to ensure the eradication of this threat.

Blazing forward with supernatural speed granted by flux, he grinned in grim satisfaction when he saw that the man's own unnatural speed could not match up to his own enhanced one. Even as he dashed, the flux threads moved independently through various muscles to concentrate at his upper torso. From there, they streaked to the relevant muscle groups in his arms, shoulders and chest, and he opened his fingers as he slammed his palm into the man's lulled head, the momentum of his dash allowing him to grasp the man's head and slamming it into the ground.

The brutality of the technique crushed the man's skull into a flat puddle of flesh and gore, the skull splintering. Some shards of bone cut into the combatant's palm, but it did not matter as he continued to grasp what was left of the skull and slamming it into the ground, his body holding the man's body on top to prevent him from recovering.

There was yet another unearthly shriek as he continued slamming the head until it was a mince of... flesh and no longer resembled anything familiar, and finally the man was still.

[Eridanus]

Eridanus stood up distractedly, visually inspecting his forearm for the shields that were supposed to be protecting him from injuries. A brief inspection with Auristics showed that the magical trace of the shields remained strong, yet somehow the attack went through. He squeezed his eyes shut as he massaged his temples, recalling the exact process.

...

Earlier that day in the morning, before departing the DoI HQ

Eridanus breathed deeply as he extracted djed from his body. Instead of materializing them as Res, as he might have if he summoned them from his palms, he allowed it to simply flow out from his body in general. Wrapping the djed around him, he made sure that every part of his body was fully covered before proceeding to the next step.

Relishing in his ability to expand on the programming load of the shield, he weaved in a tapestry of commands, namely to absorb djed, a complete biological ban, blade resistance, blunt resistance and projectile resistance. It took a while for him to weave in the last three, but it was a matter of simply tweaking the idea of object-tasking and changing the specifics of the concept.

Finally, he used the instruction template for the part that absorbed djed, and used the djed of the shield to weave glyphs that modified the purpose of the shield. The glyphs would allow djed to leave his body but not to enter, and that would allow him to use reimancy without having it stuck within his his body, unable to leave.

...

Nails are a biological construct! Why would it go through the shields without disabling them?

[Eridanus]

There could only be one explanation, and that was 'all is not what it seems'. The nails were not nails, but something else. It had to be, to be able to bypass his shields so easily. If not, it would have disabled his shields, which was simply not the case.

He opened his eyes, breathing heavily as his body seemed heavier than before. His arm, especially, felt much heavier and every drop of blood that rolled out of his lacerations seemed to be made of heavy metal.

Still, he could not allow himself to fall, and he tried to drag himself forward, but his legs gave way, causing him to stumble.

Suddenly, the world swirled around him, and his surroundings seemed to disassemble on the spot, reassembling again to form what seemed to be the inside of a very tall tent. Around him, he spotted the familiar faces of his fellow agents, and he smiled weakly at them before collapsing.