Alter-Grey: Mysteries Beyond The Outer

We are all broken, and that is precisely how light gets in.

Broken does not mean "Bad". Some things are better off broken.

Breaking infers being dragged down to your lowest point, and to me, it's there where we are the most open to change.

We are all broken, and that is how our darkness gets out.

Darkness, which sits and waits deep within, slumbering.

If the heavens truly exist, then this world of ours must be hell's cousin. This darkness will tear us apart, and we will all die lightless.

-N.A.V

It was a rainy day, wet and windy. Her clothes clung to her skin like ink to paper. Her breaths were misty and paced, her eyes focused yet lingering.

She could not shake the feeling that doom lurked nearby. Skulking just beyond her sights; loosely obscured by the thin veil of reality that was the Spacial-Fract.

Her mind raced while looking at that tear in the fabric of existence:

"What category of rift is this? It's the strangest I've seen yet. Usually, these things at least offer some signs of detection before appearing, but with this one..."

Before that line of thought could finish, a giant lanky hand of inky darkness creeped out from beyond the veil.

Clawed and sharper than a razor, its hand dug into the bridge's white stone surface and tried to pull the rest of its mass out from the rift.

As its other hand managed to breach its way through the tear, followed by a black featureless face with long-thick jagged frontal horns, which stretched to the sides.

Its legs were hoofed but hairless and its form was hunched.

The creature itself was as tall as a two-story building at full height. Its body was skinny, yet one could observe it harboured much strength from the strings of muscle fibres visible as it moved its arm to point at her.

At this moment, the only things present were her and the Outer Existial to her centre; it wasn't a hoard of Astrals against a hoard of Outer Existials, charging into a slaughter; this wasn't a disagreement that escalated into a petty squabble; this was a simple prelude to murder.

Not all that different than any other day in the life of an Astral.

Thus, she was ready, patiently waiting for a chance to let her metal sing, when suddenly, she felt a shiver sneak up on her as all sound left her senses, and her vision dimmed with darkness pressing over reality.

Leaving only her shallow breaths and heartbeat for levity; in this hollow expanse.

Her body heat took a plummet as she felt her reserves of Ether rapidly dwindle, at which point her mind was flooded with a feeling not entirely of her own but masquerading as such.

Yet, before it could settle properly within her heart, she leapt into action, tightening her grip on her sword and guiding Ether into her legs for immediacy in speed.

Reacting quickly, the creature bent down to reach for her, its elongated hand clearing much of the distance to catch her, but found itself swiping at air as she ducked underneath and charged straight for its legs.

Like a stream of water, she let her sword flow past both its legs as she cruised by them in one fluid motion, letting her blade glide across their surfaces, slicing tendons and splitting sinew.

Her preferred method would have been to sever its legs completely, but the effort it would take wouldn't be worth the risk.

Conscious not to get greedy; she opted to pull back after her attack. Focusing Ether into her legs, she leapt back to gain some distance.

Only for moments later to feel her Ether be devastated by some invisible entropic force, as a withered finger, moving faster than one could blink, briefly touched her shoulder, numbing it and a bit of her arm along with it.

Without pause, she let loose a slash, only for the creature to pull back, and missed. Landing, she Augmented her legs with Ether, and charged forward, jumped up and brought her blade down on the retreating entity; cutting it at the shoulder.

Her sword bit deep into its flesh but met fierce retaliation as her blade sunk partially into the creature's dense bone, then stopped altogether. But unphased, she pulled herself up by the hilt and delivered a devastating kick to its face, sending ripples through the rain.

Augmenting her other hand, she then used it to push herself off into the air, nimbly pulling her sword free and fluidly manoeuvring her body to dodge a swipe of its claw midair, only to feel a five-fingered hand dig into her side, followed by a minor disturbance to her Ether Network.

Although bold, the plan was to try and subdue any chance of further damage to her Ether Circuits by cutting the problem at the roots.

As whatever the entity had done earlier to her shoulder, she'd realized despoiled a section of her Ether Network, causing lasting damage to her Ether Circuits that would take what she estimated to be around two days to restore.

These metaphysical circuits were how creatures circulated their Ether throughout their bodies in order to augment certain parts of their biology in finite ways that helped to accomplish a variety of effects.

So, as one can imagine, they were rather important, especially for Astrals, who often had to put their lives on the line.

Thus having hers getting damaged in a dire situation like this placed an even greater burden on her predicament.

Reacting almost instantly, she swung her sword at the entity, pumping massive amounts of Ether into the blade, which allowed the sword to evacuate a miniature star from its deep reaches, exploding on contact with the creature.

In the star's temporary but violent outburst, it managed to knock the entity back; as the creature almost seemed to shy away from the light.

Taking advantage of the opportunity with both hands, she easily pried the creature's clawed fingers from her side and used its hand to jump off and land atop a street lantern.

Her side felt like it was burning, from all the blood doing work to keep her from bleeding out, while the rest of her felt cold as the rain washed over her. Although it was obscured by ever-pressing darkness, she had no doubt it was there.

Her sights never left the entity; calculating her best method of attack, she observed something; its featureless face was cracked and withered, seemingly due to her attack, and for her, its significance was obvious.

"That's its weakness, light, it's 'Meaning is light."

Seeing a path to victory, she opted not to waste the opportunity; she propelled herself toward the entity at imperceptible speeds, sending shockwaves through the rain as ripples marked her path.

She slashed the entity down the middle, yet no blood was drawn. Quickly pivoting off her right leg she let off another miniature blue star.

The entity seemed to pause for a moment, but then, as the orb exploded on its navy black skin, the girl's vision was obscured ever so slightly by the intense light.

Without question, it threw itself into the depths of the attack and reached out to pierce her with its many clawed fingers.

Not expecting this desperate of a manoeuvre from the creature, she paled as its hand plunged deep into her abdomen and lifted her into the air, skewered on its bony fingers.

The other hand soon followed, sinking into her chest and grabbing at her beating heart as it watched intently, waiting for some abstract spark of energy to drain from her eyes.

Her skin turned a shade paler, instantly, as her blood ran cold. Whatever the creature had done seemed to have somehow reached the very depths of her Ether Network, bordering on touching her soul.

The entity, although faceless, seemed somehow gleeful at her shock, but did not linger as it tightened its grasp, trying to crush her heart.

Unfortunately, however, try as it may, her heart proved rather tenacious in its duty to keep her alive as it refused to tear, burst, or even skip a beat at her expense. This was to be expected after all; Astrals aren't exactly a normal bunch anyway.

They were those chosen and proven by the "Spire" to possess the necessary aspects needed to brave the "Outer Mirror".

In less than half a second of it happening, she put all her strength into an upward swing.

Gathering Ether into her sword, its glow deepened and in one decisive action, she cleanly severed the entity's hand that was holding onto her heart.

Then went for the other, only for her blade to whistle in the empty rain as the entity drew back its elongated limbs.

She jumped at full force toward the entity but missed as the creature rather gracefully danced around her and moved back still.

Growing frustrated, she urgently but carefully pulled its severed hand from her chest and threw it at the unusual creature. The creature caught it and seemed to linger on it as it tilted its neck inquisitively. It put it's to the stump and the flesh conjoined almost as if it was never severed to begin with.

She winced in pain; clutching onto her now cavernous chest cavity. Her sword grip was tight enough to break any normal weapon, and with a gaze cold enough to freeze the world's oceans over ten times, she briefly almost looked monstrous herself.

A deep frown found its way onto her face as violent murderous thoughts flooded her mind. She did not believe herself to be a violent person, but this thing, something about it made her blood boil.

She couldn't help but start to get a little serious. Readying to charge the creature again, she froze when, in the corner of her vision, she saw something unheard of.

From the Spacial-Fract emerged a figure of short stature moving at almost imperceptible speeds, rushing at the Outer Existial.

Like a speeding "Arcane Missile" the figure leapt up and pierced a blade entity's heart from behind, or rather where a heart should have been.

The Outer Existial seemed puzzled for a moment not sure what just happened, although it was hard to tell with its featureless face.

However, this did not last long as it quickly snapped out of it and curled an arm back to reach for the mysterious humanoid.

Seeing a chance at victory, the girl dashed toward the entity. Side-stepping an earth-shattering slam that sent cracks snaking through the bridge, she side-flipped onto its arm, using it as a sort of ramp.

The entity tried to shake her off but it was too late. She'd already scaled up to its shoulders letting her blade sing once, as she reached for its neck.

Before she could reach it, she jumped up, easily dodging a slash to what would have been her abdomen.

With that, the entity had successfully thwarted her chance at a swift victory, or so it would seem.

For little did it know that the girl had been plotting, scheming, patiently waiting for the most opportune moment to attack; the moment when the entity was most sure of victory.

For as she descended back down, it made its move; simultaneously clutching onto the figure on its back and reaching out a bony finger to pierce her through the heart.

But faster than one could blink she slashed at the air while also focusing Ether into her blade. An ethereal arch of light formed and carved through its hand and cleaved cleanly through its neck. Cutting through the rain and disappearing into the stormy clouds above.

Seconds later a horned head with a featureless face rolled onto the ground. The creature was now presumably dead, decapitated, as its lumbering mass fell to the floor its head rolled over to her feet.

In the aftermath, the mysterious figure stood on top of the headless entity's lifeless body, hunched over with what looked to be a black blade with an outstretched raven's wing on its crossguard.

The sword quickly faded in a flash of indigo light, and not soon after that, the figure collapsed.

Slowly after that, the darkness receded and a familiar voice found its way to her ears.

"Existial Felled: Night Defiler"

"Existence Type: Catagory 1"

"Existence Rank: Ascendent"

"Existence Tier: 1"

"Remembrance Claimed."

Ignoring it, she made her way up the entity's cadaver. With a single jump, she landed next to the unconscious figure.

The figure was lying on his stomach but was obviously lean with subtly musculature, and covered in dried blood and ichor.

Tired and aching profusely she clutched at her chest and side. She thought to herself:

"What kind of day is this?

I'm an Astral, I know, and I should expect things like this on a daily, but it feels like today has been especially... strange.

First, a Spacial-Fract appearing out the woodworks, undetected, and now this?"

She frowned a bit deeper as she glanced over the figure form:

"People cannot usually interact with Spacial-Fracts much less exit from them. So what's really going on here?"

Looming over him, she used her foot to gently nudge him onto his back. Her eyes widened as she silently stared at him in confusion and frustration.

The boy had a familiar heart-shaped face; only now, without the darkness and distortions cloaking its form, he had an oval shape.

His face was a mix of soft and subtle sharp features and black dreadlocks that stretched near to his shoulders.

Her sword shimmered brighter with each passing moment, her grip tightening around its hilt as her grey-coloured eye turned golden with a small displacement in purity as it yellowed at the edges.

Her mind started flaring as the thought of being used rummaged around in her head. She felt used, a small part of her felt betrayed somehow. But betrayal never comes from your enemies.

The hole in her chest was slowly closing and getting replaced with new flesh and bone.

Her hair tossed and turned in the winds of the storm, mimicking her as she was truly in her heart.

Looking up into the tempestuous sky above, she sighed deeply and turned her sights toward the boy, her sword in its dream-like construct fading into a ghostly blue light.

"Until this very moment, I don't think I ever truly knew the depths of my own ignorance... What is even reality anymore?"

A scream built up in her throat and died there. although she wanted to she could not; the storm was loud enough for the both of them.

Her hair was drenched and stuck to her skin as the storm raged on all around her; no praise, no thanks, no glory, just hollow victory... Alone.

Slowly her eye returned to its more golden hue before returning to its grey splendor. Hesitantly she reached down at the boy with both hands.

It takes her a minute or two but she manages to carry the unconscious boy back to her street and into her house with one hand under his knees and the other on his back.

A flustered look plastered itself across her features as she did her best not to look at his naked form as much as possible.

However, it didn't help that she had a photographic memory. Minutes later she reached her house.

Making her way up the stairs, she passed by a familiar strange door with Runes and Alchemical Symbols that remained slumbering but seemed to shimmer ever so slightly as she passed by.

This was a daily thing for her, but today, for some reason, she could have sworn she heard a silent, shallow breath from behind it, sending a shiver down her spine.

Suddenly she was more aware of her physical state, the dryness of her lips, the ache in her chest, the pain in her side. Fixating on it for a few seconds, she reached for the handle, but it remained locked; shaking her head, she continued on her way.

She entered her room and laid the boy out on her bed, then leaning back against the bookcase, her breaths shallow and pained. Reaching for her bedside shelf she grabbed a sleek device that gleamed under the dim light.

It had a cylindrical body crafted from polished white metal with detachable ergonomic grey grips. A transparent chamber along the side housed a glowing vial of green liquid, pulsating faintly like a heartbeat.

The shelf housed multiple of these chambers., another version displayed a fiery red hue.

The cylindrical design had a slender tip extended into a sharp, needle-like point, poised for precise delivery.

She took the red one and self-medicated, carefully inserting the needle into a vein through her forearm. The liquid rapidly circulated through her body and all her wounds accelerated their rate of healing.

Removing the now empty vile from the device, she replaced it with another, made her way to the boy and administered the same treatment.

"Ok, he's in our house... We're both healed. What now?"

Looking down at her hands she noticed a slimy substance of no discernable colour clinging to her skin.

"This is... Echor, why is he covered in echor? Was it from that Outer Existial...? No, it couldn't be; it didn't bleed."

She looked at the slumbering figure of the boy before quickly remembering the boy's vulnerable state and looking away in embarrassment; turning beet red, she sighed.

"I should get him some clothes and clean that gunk off him. Now where's that towel I was using?"

Grabbing the towel from near the wardrobe, she mentally prepared herself for what came next.

After a few long minutes of intense blushing the boy was dry and clean... Well, cleaner cleaner than before, which was more than could be said for the bed sheets and the towel.

Laying the boy down on the carpet she quickly replaced the bedsheets and took a shower as she let the towel soak in the soapy bathtub water.

The sound of rain and distant thunder was muffled somewhat by the relative safety of her house.

Remembering the voice from earlier, she focused her mind, and holographic screens formed in front of her, but oddly, they didn't reflect in any of the mirrors.

The screens displayed:

"Existial Felled: Night Defiler"

"Existence Type: Catagory 1"

"Existence Rank: Ascendent"

"Existence Tier: 1"

"Remembrance Claimed."

Focusing on remembrance, the following displayed:

"Remembrance Type: Weapon"

"Weapon Type: Scyth"

"Remembrance Rank: Ascendant"

"Remembrance Tier: 1"

"Description: It was night when it happened. It was at first light when it ended. It took time to love, but this darkness it could abide. To be heartless meant to keep alive. What else could it do? A whee-lil babe in the calamity. It filled the heart to devour, afterall."

Her eyes went wide with shock as she stood up in the tub:

"Ascendent?! The fourth rank?!"