Death, Devotion, Dissonance

Panicked, the man was trying to gasp for air through his mask, but there was no air to take in. 

The man\'s panic did not last long. Immediately, he activated the gear on his foot and tried to fly away. The two other mages were doing the same thing. 

Endra filled Evin\'s core with Qanatohm energies and made them all heavier. The spell was much more powerful this time. The three could not resist the spell\'s effect, and fumbled onto the ground, clutching at their throat. The man was frantically working a pouch on his waist, trying to open it.

Evin was about to go kick him, but the man finally found whatever he was aiming for and pulled it out. It was an odd-shaped metal device, which had a handle on one side, and a small hole at the other end. Although it was much smaller, it reminded Evin of Endra\'s accelerators a lot. 

His bad feeling was confirmed with Endra\'s desperate shout. <Dodge!>

Evin immediately jumped to the side.. He heard a loud bang coming from his side, and something graze past his cheek at impossible speeds, rupturing his face. Stinging pain assaulted his mind, but Evin knew better than to fall to the ground. He needed to keep moving.

The hectic bangs continued, and Evin kept dodging around the resting ground, praying to the Empress that one of the bullets did not hit his body again. It was a matter of luck entirely, as these bullets were much faster than anything that flew out of Endra\'s accelerator. Either the man hit or he didn\'t. 

The man hit. 

Evin\'s hands slammed into his hip, a searing pain slammed into his head, and Evin toppled onto the ground. Fearfully, he looked at the man. The mask was smiling in Evin\'s eyes, and as the smoking hole pointed at Evin\'s face, the man\'s fingers pulled. 

Evin expected a bang, but he only heard a click. 

The man looked at the machine on his hand, disbelief on his face. His surprise made him lose control over his body, as he tried to gasp for air again. The man was now struggling to stay conscious. 

He had a moment of calm when he was trying to kill Evin, but that was already lost, his body\'s instincts overwhelming his reasoning, trying and failing to inhale air… before going completely limp.

Evin suddenly wondered why the other two weren\'t shooting at him, but when he looked back, he saw the two of them lying limp on the ground, two bloody wounds on their foreheads. 

<They tried to shoot you too, but they needed to remove their barrier to do that,> Endra explained.

Endra sent a bullet to the man\'s head and let loose of his control on the air.

The fight was over.

Evin breathed out a sigh, and his tense mind finally relaxed.

Agony made its entrance in Evin\'s senses, his hands, hip and cheek demanding attention. Evin tried to growl, but only a whimper came from his mouth. He glanced at his palm and found a bloody hole in the middle of it. The pain worsened. A lot. Evin decided not to reach for his hips and his cheek.

Something cold put itself on Evin\'s cheek. He flinched back, the sudden movement forcing his head to throb with pain. The altitude sickness reminding Evin of its presence.

<Don\'t move, I\'m freezing the wounds,> Endra said.

After Evin\'s cheek was done, a block of ice encased his hand. The cold numbed his sense and a bit of calmness washed over his head. Evin wanted to sleep then and there. He knew he deserved it.

<Get up…> Endra ordered. 

Evin wanted to complain back, but he knew Endra was right. Evin\'s day was far from over. 

He gathered his willpower and tried to get up but the soreness in his hip sent him stumbling down. His hand went to it and found blood clotting around his belt. Thankfully, it wasn\'t from his hip. Just the leftover blood from his palm. Inside the blood, he found a small metal orb lodged into his belt. He pulled it out with his good hand and found it was almost identical to the metal bullets Endra made. He decided to put the matter away for now.

He got up again, carefully this time, and got a good look at everything. 

His family was fine. Hunched together shivering… sobbing and babbling. But fine.

Ssatsko was pulling himself out of the wall, shaking his head with confusion. His muddled eyes regained their spark and he anxiously looked around. He looked towards his daughter, then at the three bodies, and then at Evin.

Evin could not make himself say anything, except pointing a chin at Lora. The old man nodded grimly and rushed over to console his daughter. 

Something told Evin it was best to stay away from his mother.

<You need to wrap up your palm properly,> Endra said.

Reaching into his Spatial Ring, Evin pulled out some vodka, some bandages, and some thin plasters made of tree sap that Bella gave him. 

Evin had to break the ice on his hand and pour vodka on it. But just as he was using Ivelisi energies to melt the ice, the pain intensified on his palm. As Evin held the bottle of vodka over his hand, he suddenly wanted to throw the bottle down the Cataract. 

<You do it…> he said to Endra. <Please…>

Endra did not argue and took control over Evin\'s body. 

Stoically, Endra ripped part of the bandage and poured vodka over it. Using it, he gently wiped at the wound. The gentleness did not help. Evin would\'ve fainted from the pain if not for Endra holding his body firm. 

Soon, the wound revealed itself fully. The back of his hand had a huge hole on it, but the bullet\'s entry point was at least… clean. The problem was with his palm. It was a mix of skin, flesh and blood turned into a mess, hanging dead from it. Miraculously, the bullet had missed his bones saving Evin a ton of pain. Evin just had to close the wound and leave it be. 

Endra poured some more vodka on the wound, applied the plaster on both sides of his hand, and wrapped it with a bandage. 

<Are you going to do my cheek too?>

To this Endra answered by wiping at Evin\'s cheek with another vodka-soaked bandage. 

<I think it\'s okay to leave it alone since the wound\'s already clotted.>

The pain was still persistently assaulting Evin\'s head, but he felt like he was slowly turning numb to it. Tiredness swept over his mind again. 

"Are you okay, lad?" Ssatsko\'s voice came from behind him.

"Fine," Endra replied for him.

"We should get moving," Ssatsko said. "We\'ll be safe when we get up there." 

The old man spoke with confidence, but Evin could see the fear and uncertainty in his expression. 

"Take the others and get walking," Endra said, "I\'ll do something about these three and follow. You should be fine for now."

"What?"

"I don\'t want those three seeing me," Endra growled near Ssatsko\'s ear.

Something about the emotionless tone coming out of Evin\'s mouth convinced the old man. He herded the other three and after putting their tents and things in Evin\'s Storage Ring, soon got to walking the stairs. Evin expected Lora to protest, but none of the three uttered a single noise. Even Sasha was silent throughout the whole thing. 

\'I\'ll explain everything later…\' Evin promised himself.

Left alone, Endra got to work. One by one, he removed the devices on the three mage\'s bodies and put them inside the Storage ring. Some items, like the cannisters on their backs, were too big to fit through the circle, so Endra wrapped them all up in a spare sheet.

When Endra removed their masks, Evin saw three humans that looked very different from how he himself looked. These humans had pale white skin, snow white hair, and also glowing white eyes. Their physiques were the same as humans, but Evin couldn\'t help but feel something alien from these people. 

<Who are these people?> 

Thankfully, sending thoughts did not expend much energy.

<No fucking idea.>

<Weren\'t they using the same Accelerator as you?> Evin couldn\'t help but ask. 

Their shapes were different, but Evin could immediately notice the similarity. And since Evin was familiar with other worlds, he couldn\'t help but think of them.

<Yeah… but these guys definitely aren\'t from my home World. Even albinos back there don\'t look this pale, and we definitely don\'t have glowing eyes…>

It didn\'t sound like Endra was lying.

<But they don\'t come from Alvox, you think?>

<Yes. These guys are most definitely otherworlders.>

Evin nodded thoughtfully, before he noticed something. 

<What\'s happening to him?> 

Blue spots started appearing on the man\'s perfectly white skin. The same thing was happening to the other two. Evin jumped back holding his nose, as a terrible smell engulfed the area.

From afar, he saw the man\'s body caving in around the blue spots, which looked soggy. Small bubbles appeared on the blueness, a slight sizzling sound accompanying them. Evin had to look away, as the men\'s bodies started melting into a disgusting blue liquid.

"Empress\'s fucking horrors! What\'s going on?!" Evin screamed.

He soon hunched over, the pain, the tiredness, the disgust getting the better of him. 

<The mana in the air\'s doing this,> Endra said. <It\'s practically dissolving them.>

<Why?>

<Who knows? Maybe mana\'s poison to these people. Or acid, in this case. An impossibly potent one… Well, we don\'t have to worry about cleaning their bodies with this, so let\'s leave.>

Endra pushed away the liquid using the World of Water and after making Evin and the sack of spoils weightless, started floating towards the others.