Shackled Exalted

Emil

An icy breeze clawed down Emil's back.

Silence.

Every ambient noise in the forest had ceased. The chirping cicadas. The hoot of owls. The subtle sounds of foliage stirred by nocturnal beasts. They all vanished, choked away by the swarm of red eyes gleaning in the shadows.

Emil gulped nervously as he turned his head on a swivel, trying to make sense of his surroundings. The eyes were everywhere. The creature waiting for them in the darkness had them boxed into a kill zone. A sharp bloodlust suffocated the air. The murderous energy felt tangible, like a taut string stretched to its absolute limits. A single misstep and the entire thing would snap.

Van and Diana are fifty meters behind me. I need to regroup with them. We need to break the encirclement and reform our formation with me and Van at the vanguard and Diana at the rear.

Slowly, Emil inched towards his companions. He took a step back, fighting to keep his breaths steady, not wanting to create any noises that would destroy the fragile tension. He had to bet that the creatures didn't have the greatest eyesight. Likely, they were some sort of nocturnal beast that relied on their hearing or sense of smell to—

Crack!

A small twig broke under his foot. The snap thundered in the dead of night. Immediately, the red eyes stirred. A high-pitched clatter suddenly erupted like the rattling of teeth.

"Miles! Give me light!" Van yelled over the cacophony.

Emil activated Blaze. Flames spontaneously burst across his body. He beckoned, directing the fires to spread across the foliage in the vicinity, creating a flaming wall around Van and Diana's positions. The light generated from the blaze casted long shadows from the towering trees, providing Van with ample shadows to make use of his Gift.

Behind the veil of flames, the source of the red eyes was also revealed.

The monstrosities stood at five feet tall. The large beady eyes embedded in their skulls gleamed with a voracious appetite. The clattering of teeth came from a mad hunger that must be satiated. Thick, hideous furs covered their bodies, barely concealing the unnatural pulsating masses of muscles hiding beneath. Spittle dripped from the massive deformed fangs protruding from their jaws. Some of them were still soaked in blood, probably from taking a large bite out of Rohan's men that were lying in the ditch.

Giant rats.

Emil's mind froze, unable to reconcile the terrifying creatures before his eyes. Alone, they were already horrific, but the numbers before him was unfathomable.

A shrill, ear-piercing cry suddenly cut through the air.

Goosebumps shuddered across Emil's body.

The rats were going to attack.

"Incinerate!" Emil cried.

The flames devouring his body bloomed to a colossal inferno. Heat sweltered. His nerves wailed. Emil clenched his teeth as he unleashed pandemonium at the hell spawns before him.

The giant rats squealed at the boiling heat. Without warning, they lunged at the ravenous flames.

Emil couldn't believe his eyes. Monsters, even when twisted into grotesque forms by the machinations of mana, still retained their primal instincts as regular creatures. One of those instincts was the fear of fire engraved in the souls of every animal. The rats should have been cowering and fleeing at the sight of his inferno.

Instead, they rushed in with reckless abandon.

Their fear is being suppressed. The Exalted controlling them must be insanely skilled.

Emil watched as the rats launched themselves through the inferno. Their bodies were instantly set ablaze. The thick, nauseating stench of oil and fat filled the air as their flesh and fur were stripped away. Even when charred and reduced to bones, the rats continued their advance undaunted.

Blaze is not going to stop them.

The realization came late. Emil suddenly found himself in the shadow of a pouncing rat. The claws of the monster tore through his right shoulder. Blood sprayed. Three deep incisions were left in the aftermath, the injuries nearly reaching bone. Emil landed hard on his back as the momentum of the rat pushed him to the forest ground.

The grotesque monster loomed over him. Its mangled body was still burning. It shrieked, the beady eyes filled with rage, its fangs bared, ready to gouge on its new victim.

Let's hope Diana isn't watching.

Emil cocked back his left arm and conjured Bulwark. Mana engulfed the limb, surrounding his hand in a stone gauntlet that was double its usual size.

Squelch!

Stone bashed into the rat's jaws. Spittle exploded from the monster's mouth, drenching his face in caustic ooze. Angered, the rat squealed as it opened wide to unleash a bite.

Emil followed up immediately. This time the stone gauntlet smashed against the rat's protruding fangs. He briefly felt the pressure of the rat's jaws began to crush his hands before the fang shattered from the strike. The rat finally recoiled from the blow, offering Emil the tiniest bit of reprieve. Somehow, the monster was still alive despite the ravenous flames consuming its body.

At the edge of his vision, Emil noticed a faint trail of mana tethered to the top of the monster's skull. It must have been its connection to the Exalted. He swung again while channeling mana. Before his punch landed, the edge of his stone gauntlet suddenly extended outwards into a sharp blade. Flesh tore as his makeshift sword carved through the rat's jaws until it protruded out of its skull.

Emil broke off the stone blade stuck in the rat. The monster fell backwards, finally dead as the remains of its corpse continued to burn.

The dreadful confrontation lasted barely a few seconds. Emil had no time to rest as more rats leapt past his inferno. He rolled onto his feet and stomped the ground, erecting a forest of stone protrusions to slow down the monster's advance. The hell spawns were everywhere, carrying with them the disgusting smell of burning flesh as they continued their attack. Emil wanted to throw up.

"Miles, we need help!"

Van and Diana were getting overwhelmed. Diana in particular was struggling. Since her Gift was non-combative, she could only rely on Mana Arts to keep the monsters at bay.

She swung, delivering a devastating punch that sent one of the rats reeling. Two more monsters immediately filled the void, brandishing their fangs, eager to feast. Diana looked slow to react, still off-balanced from the earlier punch. She threw her body to the side instead, bending with an astonishing flexibility as one of the rat's jaws chomped empty air.

Squelch!

The other rat swooped in. Its fangs tore through Diana's shoulder in an instant, slicing through flesh and bone like butter. Dismembered, her right arm flopped onto the ground. Hints of sinew were still attached to the stump, stretched to its limits, refusing to fully let go.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Emil screamed.

He was already on his feet. Sprinting. Mana erupted out of his Azurite pendant like wispy tendrils, latching onto any shattered earth in the vicinity. Before he even realized it, dozens of stone chunks were under his control, levitating in the air, spiraling in his proximity.

"Fragment!" he yelled, hurling the stone projectiles at the rats swarming Diana.

An unintended effect occurred. With his subconscious still powering the flames from Blaze, Emil inadvertently mixed up his two Gifts. The phenomena produced by Bulwark and Blaze required two different ways of weaving mana to materialize. Emil understood this difference on an instinctual level, which usually gave him enough control to separate the two Gifts. In this midst of his panic, however, he forgot about this distinction.

The stone fragments flashed red. With a shrill cackle, they spontaneously ignited. Scorching fire coated its surface, turning the fragments into molten rock. They sped through the air with a high-pitch wail as they rained down upon the cadre of rats.

The outcome was devastating.

The molten projectiles tore through the rat's skulls like paper. Any monsters that didn't die immediately from the shower of rocks was drenched in scorching flames. Harrowing squeals resounded throughout the forest like a madman's giggles.

Emil arrived at Diana's side. With his empowered stone gauntlets, he knocked aside the remaining rats nearby. The woman looked like she was in a daze, her eyes wide with fear, aghast at the insanity unfolding around her. She was staring at him in disbelief while clutching onto the stump that remained of her arm. Emil wasn't sure if she was shocked from her dismemberment or the sight of him using two Gifts.

"Miles! I think you're going a little overboard there!" Van cried out to him. He wasn't talking about the destruction. Van was warning him about revealing his secret.

"It can't be helped!" Emil yelled back. The alternative was to let Diana die. That was never going to happen. Not in front of him. Not when he had the means to prevent it.

Despite the devastation caused by the combined might of Bulwark and Blaze, the rat's numbers were still overwhelming. The monsters that fell to his Gifts were immediately trampled over and replaced by more.

"Aim for the head! Decapitate them or crush the brain! There's a mana tether on the top of their heads!"

"Got it!"

Emil and Van stood their grounds with Diana in the center. Shadows and molten rock clashed against the onslaught of rats.

Aoife

"Tell me, have you heard of the Bestowed Project?"

"…No," Aoife muttered, wary at the sudden change in Kleine's demeanor.

The man, who had been fairly composed, was suddenly consumed by a manic fervor. The sinister smile etched on his face was horrific. His crimson eyes widened with a mad glare, the edges quivering as if he was holding back an intense rage. With his long, snow-white hair and pale skin, he looked like a devil under the moonlight.

It didn't help that he held a syringe with a needle in her arm, still withdrawing blood from her veins.

Aoife gulped at the man's intensity as he began to explain. His gentle tone was steeled in ice. Malice clung to every word. His smile grew wider, exposing a vicious set of teeth that was rattling with anger.

"It's a heinous initiative started by the Council of Mana nearly a decade ago. It's set of experiments conducted in secrecy within labs hidden across the Third Sector. Their purpose was to understand the mechanisms of mana and its relation with Azurite and the Exalted."

Kleine removed the filled syringe from her arm and set it aside. Aoife winced as he reached for another.

"It sounds all nice and dainty. Ardair is a society built on this mysterious power granted by mana and the discovery of Azurite. It's logical to want to understand more of the principles that keep this kingdom running. But—"

Kleine stabbed another needle into her arms. The sudden pain and pressure forced a small cry out of Aoife. Tears pooled around her eyes—partly from the pain, but mostly from the fear of what this madman might do next. He was noticeably less gentle than before.

"—it doesn't take a genius to understand what studying mana entails. Humans are the only living beings capable of controlling mana directly. So naturally, the Council had a dilemma. Do they abandon their research? Or do they shake hands with the devil and abandon their morals?"

Kleine pulled on the syringe. Blood gushed into the small vessel.

"Here's a funny thing. Researchers have a lovely way of justifying their atrocities. Every time morals and empathy make them second-guess their sins, they whisper to themselves a simple statement:

"If I don't do it, someone else eventually will.

"To them, knowledge is inevitable. And so, as if disillusioned by the futility of it all, they continue on their warpath, ignoring their guilty conscious, just so they can be the first to discover something new. For that purpose, they'll willingly turn into monsters."

Aoife couldn't take it anymore.

"W-What does this have to do with my mother?" she croaked, desperate to change the subject.

Kleine's expression suddenly eased. The coat of bloodlust around her vanished. With a flick of a switch, clarity returned to his eyes. The madness disappeared. Even the pressure of his hands gripping onto the needle in her arms lessened. The swiftness of his transformation was terrifying.

"Everything," Kleine declared, "In her prime, Layla the Salvo was one of the most coveted Exalted in the kingdom. Everyone wanted a piece of her. Even the miscreants dwelling in the slums would have heard of her name. She was an inspiration, the heroine of a classic rags to riches tale. When she was active, she had a case to be the number one Exalted in the kingdom. She then became the current king's consort. And her daughter is now a legitimized princess. Yet, her name is never mentioned anywhere today. It's strange, don't you think?"

Aoife didn't know how to respond. "…My mother was sick for the longest time. After she had me, she never once left that bed. That's six years of inactivity," she eventually said.

Kleine shook his head as he removed the syringe from Aoife's arms. With a careful hand, he transferred the pint of blood into a glass vial and placed it inside a steel container with the rest of the samples. A frosty mist leaked from the vessel.

"And there's another topic of contention. How was she sick for that long? Perhaps you're unaware because you're an Ordinary, but all Exalted possess an enhanced constitution. It's an outcome of the Awakening process. Not only are we bestowed with a Gift, but we're also stronger, more durable, and more physically resilient. We heal faster from injuries. We're more pain tolerant. We're less susceptible to illness and we recover faster if we do gain afflictions. Even Ordinary mothers recover from a labored childbirth. So, isn't it bizarre that one of the strongest Exalted in the nation couldn't?"

Aoife narrowed her eyes. Her breathing quickened. Her heart clashed against her rib cage, pounding with a rabid cadence. Unconsciously, she stood up from the stony platform where she laid. Curiosity overtook fear.

"What are you trying to say?" she asked. A cauldron of emotions was brewing in her chest. Fury, fear, disbelief, shock—

Denial.

"That butler of yours—did he ever look at you with eyes of disdain?" The answer must have been written across her face as Kleine's mouth curved into a knowing grin. "Did you ever wonder how a servant as contemptuous as that man could possibly serve your bedridden mother?"

"Fuck you," Aoife snapped. Her head was spinning. A wave of nausea washed over her as she struggled to keep a calm mind. "Just split it out already! Stop speaking in riddles!"

Kleine stepped back at her outburst. He watched her in silence with a strange fascination etched across his face. Aoife glared at him, waiting for a response. Suddenly, she realized that the ruins were quiet. Karni, Nagi, and Melody had all disappeared. Even the crackling flames of the nearby firepit had been smoldered.

She was alone with Kleine.

If there was ever a chance to escape, now would probably be her best shot.

"…Come, I'll show you the answer." Kleine turned around, beckoning for her to follow.

I should run.

Kleine had his back towards her. He was walking away.

I should just turn and run.

The thought thundered in her head. Yet, morbid curiosity gnawed at her subconscious. Her mother. The circumstances of her death. The conspiracy that Kleine keeps alluding to. Before she could fight against her urges, inexplicably, she found herself walking after Kleine.

The surroundings grew dark as they stepped away from the ceiling opening. Kleine led her to a series of dilapidated steps down to the bottom of the old ruins. The walls narrowed. The air grew dank, indicative of the rot and mold proliferating the vicinity as nature sought to reclaim these ancient structures.

As they continued to descend, Aoife began to feel an odd tinge on her arm. The air seemed to vibrate, stirring with a mischievous resonance. The feeling wasn't invasive, but rather comforting. She narrowed her eyes at the bizarre sensation until she noticed a faint azure glow radiating on the end of the stairs.

"Can you see that?" Kleine suddenly asked.

"The blue light?"

Kleine narrowed his eyes with curiosity. "Yes. That's mana. The source of an Exalted's power. There's Azurite beneath these ruins. The source of your family's wealth."

Your family. She flinched at the word. It still hadn't sunk in that she was an official part of the royal family.

Kleine's footstep echoed as he arrived at the bottom. From the blue light of Azurite, Aoife could make the hints of a vast, spacious chamber. Rows of large stone slabs lined the subterranean area. Each had a iron plaque engraved at the end.

…These are tombs.

"This used to be a catacomb. It dated back to the previous royal family's generation who built it on a mount of Azurite hidden beneath bedrock. Now it's defunct and abandoned," Kleine said as he walked down the length of the tombstones.

"Why are we here?" she asked. A viscid dread crawled up her back.

"Your mother. I think it's obvious now that her sickness was unnatural. She was deliberately kept ill. Your servants kept her in that impoverished state, unbeknownst to the rest of the royal family."

Aoife's heart leaped to her throat.

"…Baseless claim."

Kleine scoffed, "Like I said before, Layla was highly coveted. Everyone wanted a piece of her. Quite literally, I might add. So much so, that even in death, she could not escape that fate."

He suddenly stopped before a tomb. The top of the stone grave was slightly ajar, almost as if it had been recently opened.

Aoife glanced at the plaque.

"Here lies Layla Amethyst, the Salvo."