He felt his lightning retracting into his body as he landed on the ground with a sharp "pop," echoing from his fractured shoulder.
Gradually recovering his footing, he groaned in agony, "UaaHH!" Rising despite the pain, Orion hurried to Saria's side, fearing the assailant was still on the attack.
His worst fears appeared to be validated when he noticed a presence halting near Saria. Looking closer, he was forced to kneel due to the sheer brightness, pain, and stress. He caught sight of a blinding, whitish, flame-like wisp suspended in mid-air.
The wisp advanced once more, prompting Orion to sigh in relief as he observed it moving away from Saria's location. "Thank goodness," he muttered, standing up again, only to pause as the wisp shifted, reversing its course to confront her once more.
"NOO!!" Orion's scream reverberated. Although he was unaware of what it was going to do or what he was looking at, his legs surged forward as he approached it. But he was suddenly blown back as though repelled by an invisible wall.
Feeling his eyes growing weaker by the moment, Orion watched as all the light that was spread around the narrow cavern withdrew back towards it and Saria, causing the Vylkr Vines to emerge from their cracks.
This led him to activate his gift once more, forging it into a giant fist and throwing it, only to watch helplessly as the lightning-forged fist scattered into fragments of lightning strokes, disappearing into the air. He could only helplessly watch the scene unfold.
"I.. Said... NO!" Orion's voice echoed with an unexpected strength and vitality as he deactivated his gift. He controlled the raging Vylkr energy in his body, guiding it to seep into every corner of his flesh and bones.
Rising from the ground, it was as if the energy itself was lending him support. Blackish strands of Vylkr energy erupted from his body and began to float upwards, as though borne aloft by an invisible breeze. His eyes shone with a blackish hue as he charged forward.
"Booom!!"
He activated his gift once more in this form, and with a resounding "Crackle!" he forged an electric blade to slice through the invisible barrier that held him back. However, just as Orion was about to strike the barrier, his body immediately froze in place.
In the next moment, he found himself hovering above the ground, the flame-like wisps that had left Saria now faced him.
Feeling his body gradually being torn apart from the inside out, Orion became painfully aware of the forceful ignorance regarding the repercussions of using the Vylkr Warrior's form.
He felt his skin splitting apart, and a searing, mind-numbing headache overwhelmed him, forcing him to open his mouth and scream out in agony.
"AHHHHHHH-----"
…....…..
"Will you stop screaming? You're beginning to make me want to pluck my ears out... at least if I still had one," a strange voice interjected, cutting through Orion's chaotic thoughts.
He snapped his eyes open and looked around, only to discover that he was in a pitch-black, confined space with no sense of up or down, or even walls.
He searched around for the source of the voice, and suddenly, Orion snapped his head sideways, his gaze darting as he continued to look around. He began to sense that he was being held somewhere and that somehow resembled the way he felt when the Village Chieftess used her gift on him.
'Even the injuries are gone,' Orion thought as he examined his body, then he shifted his attention to his tulga, which looked as new as the first time it was sewn. Casting another glance around, Orion parted his lips and screamed "Who are you?"
"It seems you've quieted down," the voice replied unhesitatingly. It sounded like a strange mixture of an arrogant, emotionless tone and vibrating frequencies that seemed to reverberate through his body.
"Strange... Strange indeed…" the voice muttered again, as though deep in thought.
Orion then felt as if a thousand eyes were staring at him, piercing through the darkness. The voice continued, asking, "Who are you?".
Orion's brows furrowed in response to his question, an immediate urge to retort welling up within him since he had asked the question first. However, he quickly regained his composure, reminding himself that Saria was not present.
This once again led him to the realization that his current experience was no different from when the Village Chieftess had used her gift on him. Which meant that his actual body wasn't here; instead, it was a projection, with his true self outside with Saria and that mysterious entity.
Connecting the dots, Orion's mind started to race, weaving together a believable lie. After all, the worst-case scenario was that his entire physical body was trapped in an alternate space, implying that this entity possessed far greater power than he had ever imagined.
"I am Silvester. I'm trying to reunite with my family after our uncle suddenly attacked us and threw us down the mountain. He wanted to see us die slowly for his own satisfaction," he lied, smoothly. The silence of the darkness lingered before suddenly erupting around him.
"LIIIIEEEESSS!!!" The Voice's response boomed, and a dim light bathed the surroundings as the landscape brightened. Before Orion stood the wispy, burning flame-like entity, its flames now burning brighter than before. Regardless, he could still observe it clearly.
"I'll ask you again, and this time, tell the truth," the Voice's command resonated. Orion nodded, his eyes fixed on the pulsating flame that seemed to have a heartbeat as it spoke, "Where do you come from?"
"Down the mountains," Orion responded almost immediately, offering a vague reply. He didn't wish to reveal the truth or tell a lie, especially since he still didn't know the identity of the person he was conversing with. He had no intention of endangering his wives, the village, or risking his own life.
"Hmmmm!!" The flame resonated in silence, its flickering dance resembling a probing gaze scanning his entire being. Then, reappearing before him, the flame continued, "And by the looks of you, you're still quite young. Boy, do you have any idea who I am?"
....
A/N: Trust me, I know what you're thinking, and it's not it.
