Idemay leaned just enough that her body tipped over the edge, her feet scrabbling on stone at the cliff edge. The drop before her was further than the eye cared to follow, so deep that details were lost to nothing.
Her fingers curled at her sides.
'Why put myself through this torment...? He could be with someone better....someone who knows the right stuff to say...but then....'
Her breath stuttered midway through her sentence, then a voice cut through from behind her, a rough and raspy familiar tone.
"He'd be alone, woman."
She didn't turn because she knew the voice as well as she knew the weight of a blade.
So she said, "I…can't leave him alone," she said, her voice steadier than her current mental state, her eyes still locked on the empty space before her. "But I can't afford to betray him. Ever since Torren died, I turned into a total wreck, nothing was easy anymore and Torren knew the right words to say to Brill when I didn't. Since then I had to force myself to learn to say things that made sense; he did all the talking for us really, I just spoiled Brill, and taught him fighting. I really lost myself without Torren, before then though you knew it all, how I was, I was so happy and so ready for everything."
Behind her, that familiar tone was Knight Captain Galahad, and he had stopped a few steps away, and he didn't look like a man who thought things over.
Spiky white and orange hair tied into a messy tail, scars traced on his face and neck without order or reason but all clearly ancient and each probably belonging to a loud story; he wore heavy metal armor that looked as though it was designed to eat damage rather than deflect it; it was fitted and black and dense with a textured plating that resembled a wall.
His hazel eyes looked over Idemay's form, down the cliff, then back up to her, and standing at his side was Alfiindr, the Divine Beast.
The Three Horned Griffon was small but was a tense and compact mass of muscle. The orange and white plumage across its body was thick over its chest and shoulders, tapering towards its wings to an impossibly pointy and narrow edge and the three horns on its head, one raised like a centaur above its eyes, the other two curving back alongside its temples, rounded at the base and grooved toward their points as though they had been worn down.
There was a moment of silence then, before Galahad's voice echoed again as though he could care less about breaking it.
"You had a miscarriage before though but you didn't give up, you cherished Brill when you got him after you'd already lost the first; that level of stress is understandable, you wouldn't want to lose this one too. But now you realize you were gonna lose him just now if you would've jumped off like a lunatic. You weren't thinking, your mind was clouded by so much chaotic crap, wasn't it? You don't really wanna die, you just wanna be able to close your eyes and feel alright. I guess I know that feeling."
Idemay gave a dry sound that almost resembled a laugh. "I despise that you are right, even though you've been irritating me for ages. What in the hells was I doing... Thinking I'd throw away the only thing left reminding me why I'm still living, and my one remembrance of Torren... I need help...."
Galahad scratched the side of his neck, moving his feet.
"You could always come back to the Knight Captains, you never really were into overthinking there as you always had something to do. And as for Brill, I can take him under my wing and make him an absolute monster."
Idemay responded with a chuckle, "No," she said, shaking her head slightly without turning her body, then she got serious. "I have to worry about Brill and just him, possibly me too if I get the chance. I haven't the luxury of killing shit anymore when Brill depends on me and I need to remember who I am on my own time. Besides, not all of your Captains are fond of me, I doubt I'd receive the warmest of welcomes."
Galahad snorted.
"Like I am? But then I'm talking to you anyway."
"Shut up."
"Make me." Galahad said with a grin.
There was another span of quiet that didn't feel the same. Galahad cracked his knuckles, then glanced at the treeline before he spoke again.
"However I did hear about Brill fighting a Crowbear, you know how nasty they can be? He must've fought well enough in all regards so he wouldn't die, and it's all anyone's been talking about lately."
Idemay answered, "He did it so the world would treat him equally, be liked by people; so that the Divine Beasts may elect him in the next Choosing at the Ephilm Divinity Gate."
Galahad let out a deep chuckle. "He's going to be something in a few more years but; do you know what's coming next?"
"Yes," she answered, her voice changed, now higher as she stood up. "I do. I need to take my mind off of this."
Her body followed, and her skin toughened from her fingertips, spreading as something hard had taken over her flesh to be replaced by literal grey stone, the veins on her stone arms blazing red, her shoulders then neck, face hardening until even her face itself seemed carved from stone, her eyes now pure white, red glowing veins all over her face and body.
Galahad laughed, "Haha! That's more like it! Alfiindr, you know what the hell to do!"
Alfiindr was quick to react, he compressed and pulled in its feathers until its body folded into itself, transforming and shifting and morphing, until it became a thing with steel wings, three horns morphing to become a weapon's haft of a battle axe whose head
was broad and curved and edged with a sheen.
Galahad scooped it up, his fingers closing around its hilt as its form finalized, an expression splitting his face as it transformed; Alfiindr had transformed into a battle ax.
Thus confirming his rank: Alfiindr - A relic type Divine Beast, at a Level 4 dominance level, and a stage 3 Awakened form.
"You know that I find enjoyment in beating you or anyone else down, it's just my calling!" He grinned while hefting the axe and his stance widening. "Let's beat that stress out of you, Idemay!"
The grass bent where their feet would fall before they even moved, as if the ground knew and didn't want in on whatever they were about to do.
Galahad kicked off first, his body slicing through the distance in one stride, cracking the ground beneath him and his axe falling with an impact against her guards in a diagonal slash.
Idemay didn't flinch back, she pushed into it with her forearms, stone skin ringing when her arms caught the incoming weapon and the impact jolted through her body and into the earth beneath her feet, flattening the grass for several yards around her in a perfect circle.
Her arms absorbed it, then turned it, then stored it, her stance skidding half a foot before she twisted her torso and launched her fist into Galahad's ribs, unleashing everything she had just collected.
Red lightning cracked from her knuckles as the force impacted, jagged and bright on Galahad's armor, filling the space between them. Galahad grinned, baring his teeth as wings erupted from his back with a beat of feathers that sent one sweeping forward and catching the follow up she had already committed to.
He kicked off on the heel, dragging the axe back and swinging it low to break her stance and kick her legs out from beneath Idemay; but she twisted her body at the last second, letting the axe blade skid along her stone coated thigh without digging in. A stone spike shot from her calf where the axe swiped past her, forcing him to yank his arm back or impale it on the sharpened bone.
Galahad retreated, armored boots digging into the ground as feathers whipped around him, slicing through the air at acute directions from multiple sides.
Idemay watched the pattern, the spaces in between them, the rhythm of their movement, and the attempt to constrict her.
'He's tearing spacing, he wants me boxed in so he can drop from above. Same old Galahad. Big headed bastard..'
Her body flickered in speed, to stretch into a literal ribbon of red lightning that wormed between two closing feathers before reappearing a step to the side. She immediately blasted forward, not letting Galahad regroup as her heel dug into the ground and she launched upward with her fist drawing back toward his jaw.
Galahad didn't block at all, he just dropped, wings tucking against him, and in that moment he teleported and switched places with the axe still hanging in the air, where it instantly reappeared in his hand as he plummeted downwards, its edge aligned with Idemay's shoulder as he drove it down with everything he had.
Griffon spirits formed above him in a churning vortex, pressing down with the attack. Idemay twisted at the last possible second, letting the axe blade hit her shoulder instead of her neck; stone cracked as the hit landed and bright red veins glowed beneath the surface.
Pain blasted through her, but her arm immediately caught the continuing strike, locking it into place for just enough time to absorb the second wave of force before she drove it right back into him, fist centered squarely on his chest. Lightning erupted across his armor in a blinding flash of red, sending him skidding across the grass and digging a long trench through it.
Galahad rolled once before springing forward, his body shifting on its own as his legs mutated into griffon limbs, talons grabbing the dirt before launching him toward her.
'Like she always has, she's absorbing everything. Can't let her get clean impacts, I need to layer multiple attacks fast enough to break her focus and stack pressure, she can't handle the full absorption. Her magic is still mysterious, she doesn't have a Divine Beast contract, but she can wield magic, when the gods intended for humans to only use magic through the Beasts themselves. She can control lightning to a very high degree, she's not even going all out. And she can make her skin stone to basically tank almost any magic or physical attacks…'
He swung the axe in circles and curves, not committing to any single swing before immediately following it with an opposite wing sweep then a low kick, the hit landing before the previous one could properly register.
Idemay laughed as she redirected everything: forearms and legs taking direct impacts where she needed to steal the energy for her counter, shoulders and hips taking the rest where she couldn't or didn't need to catch it directly. Her punches landed between his swings, in the smallest possible openings, and each one released stored energy in bursts of red lightning that forced Galahad to constantly adjust his approach.
THOOM!
THOOM!
THOOM!
All of Idemay's hits landed, and one punch caught Galahad square in the side of the face, sending him staggering. Another smacked his jaw, whipping his head to the side before he could react. He responded with a burst of air from his wings and an ascent, griffon spirits coalescing above him in a heavy storm that pushed downward, meant to empower his attacks.
He hurled the axe down and then teleported again, switching places with it, appearing above her hands clasped on the handle and driving it directly toward her head.
Idemay didn't move to dodge, but her arms came up again, angled to catch the strike, but this time she redirected its impact, letting it skate off past her. The ground behind her split open as the energy surged through it.
Simultaneously, those stone spikes shot from her back and shoulders, not toward Galahad but directed into his trajectory, catching his dive and throwing him off just enough.
"Haha! Impressive!" Galahad exclaimed.
Idemay stepped in underneath him, her body flickering into a lightning bolt for an instant before reforming with her fist buried in his stomach. All of the stored energy from the last three trades exploded through him. He folded over her arm as air crackled with discharge and his body slammed onto the ground, kicking up dust and grass.
He coughed, blood splattering the side of his face, his hand never loosening its grip on the axe; he dragged it across the ground and hooked her ankle, yanking her forward as he rose with an uppercut that finally broke through part of her stone shell. Only small stone shards scattered across the grass as she was thrown back, rolling across the earth before she forced herself back up to one knee as her stone form crackled with red lightning.
But they kept going, and Idemay was indeed enjoying this.
The cliff edge came upon them sooner than they were both willing to admit, their fight carrying them across the grass until there was nothing left to push against. Galahad pressed the attack, wings beating, axe driving down in a crushing impact fueled by every griffon spirit he could force into it.
Idemay met him with a little bit more power, arms braced against the attack as she absorbed it directly, her stone shell cracking even further under the force of it and her legs digging deep into the earth under the weight of the impact, and they were falling down the cliff.
The fall didn't stop the attack, their bodies met and crashed, his talons raking across her side while her fist slammed into his face, blows still exchanging even as the canyon walls rushed past.
They landed at the bottom with a concussive thud, cratering the earth around them as dust and dirt billowed, but the fall was broken due to Idemay being in her stone form.
For a long moment, neither of them moved.
Then Galahad gave a laugh flat on his back, axe resting a foot from his side while Alfiindr reformed just enough to twitch.
Idemay was a few feet away, her stone form chipping back into her normal skin in places, those red veins dimming as she stared up at the sky, breathing raggedly and letting her body succumb to everything it had taken.