As he fell, the beast locked eyes with him, its hunger palpable. Then it lunged… For his throat.
Vir saw every little detail of the wolf’s maw. The razor-sharp, yellowed teeth. The oozing saliva. Its tongue that sought the taste of fresh meat.
I can’t get away! Being caught mid-fall, he could not evade.
This is bad. Really grakking bad…
Bile rose in his throat. An existential dread paralyzed him—the primal fear of being eaten alive. Vir felt something warm and wet dribble down his pants.
Pathetic, he thought. Just pathetic. I’m gonna die here? Pissing my pants like this?
His thoughts drifted to Maiya and to Rudvik, and the world faded from his eyes.
Then something else took control, robbing him of the sanctity of his own body. Something primordial.
Ekavir of Godshollow was gone. Reaper Ekanai had arrived.
Prana Vision intensified.
With a single-minded focus, the Reaper tucked his legs mid-fall, his boot striking the lunging wolf’s face, sending him spinning. Ekanai turned the momentum into an aerial somersault, touching lightly off the ground with his hands before executing a perfect flip that took him back to the tree.
Vir watched on in horror, no longer in control of his body. Once again, the being who’d treated Maiya as useless dead weight—as an enemy to be killed—had taken over.
Without even breaking his flip, Ekanai picked up a chakram embedded into the trunk and launched it at the wolf. That would have been impressive on its own, except he threw it upside down, in midair, before his hands touched the ground!
Then he did it again, lobbing another chakram.
This was the finesse Vir had dreamed about!
One chakram slammed into the wolf’s face between its eyes, stunning the beast before bouncing off. The second tore into its foreleg.
He wasn’t done yet. Ekanai righted himself and twirled the deadly disk around his index finger, spinning it faster and faster, until it whirred an inch from his face, threatening to cut his cheek open. There was no danger here. Not for the Reaper. After all, he’d practiced with these weapons for decades. He’d felled thousands upon thousands of Ash Wolves in the blighted plains of the Ashen Realm.
The Reaper had earned his title.
He launched the chakram, and it tore through the air with more force than anything Vir had ever thrown before. Despite its blunted edge, despite its many chips and shoddy construction, the training chakram sliced through the wolf’s hide like a blade cutting water. It carried such force that the wolf lost its balance and staggered.
The chakram hadn’t bisected the beast, but it certainly dealt a mortal wound. Ekanai strolled up to the beast, lobbing chakris as casually as one might throw a pebble into a pond.
Every disk hit the exact same spot, expanding the wound caused by the earlier chakram.
The Reaper arrived just in time to see the light fade from the wolf’s eyes.
He kneeled and stared at the dying beast. “The Akh Nara sends his regards,” he said in a voice that was several octaves lower than his own. A voice that spoke of power and experience.
‘You can run, Ekavir. You can hide.’
The Reaper turned Vir’s body toward the abode. Horror seized Vir’s mind when he realized what the demon was about to do.
‘But you cannot avoid Fate. You cannot shirk your destiny. Time is running out.’
Ekanai opened the door to the house, silently stepping in.
No! No-no-no-no-no! Vir thought in panic.
‘Our journey is one of strife and regret. Cease this nonsense. This land is starved of prana—you will not grow strong here. Seek the lost city of the gods. Seek Mahādi! Become the one you were born to be.’
The door to Vir’s bedroom swung open, revealing a blissfully sleeping Maiya, her soft snores the only sound within the room.
‘If you cannot cast aside these shackles that bind you, then I shall reap from you your most precious possessions.’
The Reaper placed the blade of Vir’s katar against Maiya’s throat. Still asleep, she frowned.
Don’t! Don’t do it! Vir thought frantically, fighting back with every shred of willpower he could muster.
‘One by one. Until you BREAK.’
I. Won’t. Let. You!
Vir wrenched his body from the Reaper and stumbled back. Without thinking, he bolted out the room, through the hallway, and out the door, sprinting as fast as he could. Before he’d realized it, he was back at the wolf. Heaving, he collapsed to his knees and threw up.
What in all the realms!
Ekanai had almost killed Maiya. Last time he’d been possessed, the demon had made a threat. This time, he’d proven without a shred of a doubt that it was no mere threat. If Vir let him, the demon would kill Maiya.
It was exactly the same as the Godshollow. The demon had once again taken total control of his body… And it took everything Vir had to control it.
His head swam, consumed by an unending torrent of emotions. The idea of having his body wrested from his control scared him in a way he’d never known. Who else lived inside his head beside him? Would Ekanai one day decide he wanted to take over forever, exiling Vir from his own body?
And yet…
Vir sat down and crossed his legs, forcing himself into meditation. His wounds burned and would need Riyan’s medical treatment to prevent infection, but that would have to wait.
Soon, his breathing calmed, and his thoughts cleared. He forced himself to identify the pattern, and it was obvious.
The Reaper only possessed him when his life was in danger. Ekanai didn’t strike Vir as the type to leave anything to chance. If he could have possessed him continuously, he would have.
The revelation hit him like a falling Godhollow. This was simple. Simpler than he was making it out to be. If he didn’t want that demon possessing him, he simply had to stay out of danger. Or at least, he just needed to avoid life-threatening situations, which suited him just fine. He didn’t have a death wish, after all.
It wasn’t ideal, but it was the only countermeasure he could come up with against someone as strong as Ekanai. The only other alternative was fleeing on his own. That would also put Maiya’s life in jeopardy. What if Riyan punished Maiya for his desertion?
I can manage this. I just need to prevent myself from getting into life-threatening situations.
Yet, even when armed with this knowledge, he found himself entirely unable to get back up and go inside. Unable to face Maiya, whom he’d almost harmed just moments earlier. Instead, he curled up into a ball and sat there. Alone.
When the heat of exertion had left his body and the icy grip of the summer night once again chilled him to his core, he finally opened his eyes and stood up.
There were no more answers to be had tonight. Fretting over it would get him nowhere, but there was something he could do to calm his nerves. Something that would at least allow him to gain from this terrible situation he was in. If he wanted to avoid life-threatening situations, one way was to grow stronger.
Approaching the dead wolf, he gingerly retrieved the weapons lodged within its hide—a task that took far more effort than he’d expected.
Vir hesitantly twirled a chakram around his index finger. He twirled it faster and faster.
He lunged forth and launched the chakram. The disk ripped through the air, embedding itself deep within the nearby tree’s trunk.
No way…
With growing excitement, Vir picked up several more chakrams and chakris, lobbing them all at the tree using different techniques. He twirled some, he launched some horizontally, and others vertically, like wheels. Each and every one hit its mark.