Re:Cursed

Nyxil loosened the neck of her robe and tugged at her shroud. To any observer, she simply adjusted her neckline in nervousness. None would consider anything further.

It was really one of the most helpful things about Ta'Stralanov'r's armband; she could use her third eye all she wanted as long as it wasn't obvious. Only by being observed, or seeing the damage it caused, would someone suspect. Now, she only needed to improve her perception. The film hid her eye perfectly.

She hadn't been certain the gem would actually help her discern what was going on with the protective dome around her token, but there was no harm in it. And she was glad she did. Under the minimal weight of her gaze, the three layered barrier was revealed to her. Without increasing the intensity of her focus, her sight wasn't perfect, but she could see enough.

Besides, she didn't want to raise any questions about how she shattered the barrier without any physical act.

The first dome was a simple physical barrier. As the girl's demonstration with her handfuls of seeds showed, objects would hit the dome as if it were a wall. With the exception of a few holes large enough for a person to step through that shifted across the surface.

Nyxil decided to ignore why the girl had bags full of seeds in the first place.

Beyond the solid barrier was a second dome. Like the first, it had holes shifting along its — invisible to normal eyes — surface. This one reacted violently to anything detected. It violently threw all physical objects outward. No. Not outward, but specifically towards that corner where the boy was finally getting to his feet. Was there a reason for that? Well, it wouldn't matter as long as Nyxil avoided it entirely.

The last obstacle wasn't so much a single obstacle as the last two, but a collection of them. A kaleidoscope of lines twirled at random, albeit slow intervals. It didn't take much to assume she would need to avoid those as well.

Stepping forward, Nyxil jumped. She tucked her legs and passed through the first barrier. When her feet touched ground, she bounced, slipping to the side and passing through the next hole. Her hand touched ground first, and keeping an eye on the moving lasers, she flipped over a dozen and landed on her feet.

Again, the desire to bring out her wings and dance through the tight space struck her. But with so many eyes watching her, she suffocated the thought. Not that a single wing would make much difference.

Nyxil still found it enjoyable to stretch her body to angles that would have been impossible a year ago. A combination of Ossuul and her extensive practice in the Dark Star.

Compared to the crossroads, the difficulty of this token was on a different stratum. Anyone willing to take the risk of timing the trolleys could have gotten the last, but this token required much greater capabilities. A way to see the effects of the ritual. The flexibility and coordination to slip through. Either that, or have a way to deactivate the ritual itself; something not easy, as proven by the previous team's attempts.

Were some of these challenges intentionally more difficult than others, or were they just testing different capabilities? This was a team exercise, after all. Maybe they expected teams to work together? But when most teams would consist of people like Dan, Ari, Tru and Kal, she didn't know how they would surpass this sort of challenge.

The gap between no evolution, and first was massive. Even more-so for the second.

Nyxil snapped up her coin and pocketed it. She turned, half expecting the barriers to have come down with the collection of the token, but it was not to be. Shrugging to herself, she got back to work sliding through the obstacles. The lack of second arm was really getting in her way. Not that her mechanical leg was much better. Regardless her disabilities, she made her way out without so much as the cloth of her robe touching a barrier.

The team that was here before them was disgruntled at having lost their coin… until they discovered another had appeared on the altar. Kal remained so. The boy looked like he ate something sour. He said nothing, but his thoughts were clear on his face. He hated that Nyxil hadn't failed.

She smirked his way.

The sour expression turned foul. He suddenly looked murderous, and by the way his hand clenched around the handle of his blade, Kal was close to lashing out. The only thing holding him back being the rule against fights.

Maybe I should pull back a little on the mocking. Wouldn't want to get caught up in a fight and fail alongside him.

Nyxil had considered him nothing more than a bully until now, and treated him as such. In her mind, he was an ass, but not an irredeemable one. Kal, shunned by the cults, still had time to make things right. So long as he took his own path, and didn't become their slave; always desiring the strength they couldn't achieve, as K'tan had.

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But, should he attack her with malice, Nyxil would respond the same as she would any cultist.

A scream of frustration turned her head. One of the girls in the other team had tried to mimic Nyxil's motions to reach the token, only to fail and be thrown to the corner.

If even a couple of these challenges were as difficult as this one, then Nyxil no longer had any doubt about what was expected of them. The main task in this Trial was to gather information. If they knew where all the token locations were, they could pick and choose the challenges that suited their team. That was the most effective use of a team's time, rather than continue to throw themselves at a challenge they didn't have the skillset to accomplish.

Though, that did make it somewhat unfair to the groups that didn't have a Nyxil or Grif of their own. Unless there were challenges designed to be unwinnable, she doubted she would have many troubles.

That was probably why they didn't have a finite number of tokens at each challenge. It was easier to see everyone's capabilities if they had to accomplish tasks rather than have unbalanced teams compete. She could only imagine tokens amassing in the hands of a few in the latter case.

Considering that, Nyxil waved Mavi over, and walked to the seeds girl. Mavi had been ready to dash out into the halls to find their next token, but Nyxil felt no such impatience. With two tokens in fifteen minutes, and a whole day ahead of them, haste wasn't necessary.

"You're surprisingly agile for someone without an arm and a foot," Mavi said as she slid in beside her. "We should hit the next location. Strike a lead early and make a name for ourselves."

"I want to confirm something before we move on," Nyxil said. She stopped besides the girl with far too many pouches strapped around her chest and waist. "Would you like to trade?"

"Wha? Trade?" Seed Girl blurted, not having expected the attention. "What do you want? Is that even allowed?"

Nyxil shrugged. "They never said anything against it. Besides, we were told to treat our teams as if they were our cults. The cults trade… occasionally." She pulled out her map. "Our locations for yours?"

"They're different?" Seed girl looked warily between Nyxil and Mavi, before glancing across the room to the observers who made no show of clarifying what they could or couldn't do. "Fine." She pulled her own sheet of paper out.

It turned out, that there was only a single difference between their lists, but it was enough to prove that there were more they would need to find. Pleased, Nyxil and Mavi rejoined Kal and Tru.

"Before we move on, that thing you said about treating the teams as a cult," Mavi said. "I think we should take it more seriously."

Nyxil raised an eyebrow. More seriously? Than they already were?

"It… reminded me of something a fourth creed once mentioned. We should treat our team as our cult, our life, our family; but anyone else is an enemy," she said. "By asking to share location information, you gifted them the knowledge that what they knew wasn't whole. As a cult, we should never strengthen our enemies."

It wasn't difficult to see where Mavi was taking this, but Nyxil didn't like the line of thought. She did not want to follow the methods used by the cults. So what if another team learnt something they found useful as long as she got what she wanted? If anything, it was just a waste of time.

But… this was a Trial designed for cult prospectives. It was exactly the sort of thing the cults would test.

Noticing Nyxil's reluctance, Tru jumped in, almost excited. "I can deal with the negotiations. Fights and challenges… I'm no good at, but this I can help. Leave the deals to me."

Mavi crossed her arms. "What makes you think you'd do better than me?"

"Nothing," he ceded, raising his arms defensively. "But you wanted to get tokens quickly, no? While you take on the challenges, I can talk to the other teams. We'll waste no time."

As long as Nyxil wasn't the one who had to act as a cultist, she was happy. Let Tru do it. At least, despite his weakness, he was trying to help somehow. It was more than could be said for the other unevolved teammate.

She had to hold herself back from looking at Kal… just in case he read her mind.

"So, the Biovault?" Nyxil asked. "I know a way." Not only one. With the time she'd spent hunting there, Little God had shown her plenty of hidden paths into the forest that bypassed the tall arches and the market.

"Lead the way, then." Mavi waved her hand.

The moment she left, heading down a tunnel opposite what most would use to take towards the Biovault, Nyxil noticed their Fleshsmith observer clench her teeth and frown. Her tentacles tightened around her metal leg. It was as she'd thought. K'Sill had likely organised an ambush on the path there. By taking an unknown route, that interfered with her plan.

As they reached the airlock, Nyxil noticed K'Sill eyeing her teammates. Clearly, she was trying to find an opportunity to get her alone. Considering she was a sixth evolution against what were two unevolved, a first evolution and her target, the only reason she hadn't already struck was because she couldn't simply dispose of them. Too many conflicting interests in the Trial?

But if Solan had put her to this task, she would know that Nyxil was stronger than she appeared. Hopefully, they didn't know everything about her abilities, but they most certainly knew she'd killed K'Thorn and K'Caies.

So who had they sent to ambush her? Eighth creed? Ninth? Nyxil was glad she'd avoided crossing their paths, but it didn't help her current circumstances. With K'Sill following her around, they were bound to ambush her eventually.

She needed to strike soon.

Soon would need to be before they left the Biovault. With this little service tunnel now known to the Fleshsmiths, they were likely to be waiting for them to come back out the same way. It was perfect for an ambush. K'Sill would just need to break the airlock to stop the rest of her team from following, and Nyxil would be easy pickings.

While she was thinking up plans for a counter ambush, Nyxil and her team walked through thinning trees until they were at the edge of the old, forgotten biotowers. Their token challenge was ahead. Both observers and a couple of teams were already here.

So much for 'nobody would come here first.'

This was the last place Nyxil expected an ambush, so when it happened, she was shocked.

One of the Trial participants looked her way, narrowed his eyes, and raised his fleshforged gun. The explosion of gunfire rocked the silent forest.

Nyxil was shocked, but not slow to react.