The Chronicles Of The Finalists

I Could've Never Known

"KREEK!"

The group rush over to their fallen friend, panicked. Getting closer to him, they can see his state more clearly. He's got a deep purple aura surrounding him, and black gusts of air shaped like spirals and runes are shooting off of his body. He's laying on his back, the gem on his crown slightly broken. His eyes aren't visible under his hair and a shadow covering his face, but his expression is that of a grimace.

Tanqr drops down beside him, grabbing his soul gem off of his neck. His eyes widen upon seeing its state. It's not broken, so he's not truly dead, but...

"Kreek! Kreek wake up!" Ashley cries, dropping down and shaking him. It doesn't help.

"What- what happened here? Did his soul gem get shattered in the fight?! What's going on?" Hyper frantically asks while his mind's racing. Did they fail, did he fail, did they fail to save each other? It's poetic, nearly! Kreek was the most eager to do this fight, of course he was the one to suffer the worst consequences. His intensity led to his downfall. Is he dead? Is he alive? He doesn't know.

"That's not his soul gem, is it?!" He points to the gem Tanqr's holding. "What's it look like?!"

"It- it's gone black. Completely." Tanqr holds the circular gem up. "Do we have a grief seed?!"
"We should have one - Hyper, you've got one, right?!" Ashley asks. Hyper nods and starts to look for something frantically in his pocket.

"I don't- know." Tanqr looks down at Kreek, who turns a little on the floor, only seeming to get paler. "I don't know what's happened to him at all. I-" Tanqr stutters a bit.
Ashley's still trying to reach Kreek, shaking his arm.

"Kreek! Kreek, we're still here, hold on, alright?!"

"I don't - I don't think he can hear you, Ashley." Tanqr interrupts, solemnly. "If he's dead, then-"

Hyper's eyes widen.

"I don't have the grief seeds. We must've dropped them in the fight with the rumour!" "WHAT?!" Tanqr yells. He didn't mean to sound so angry, but it obviously scared Hyper a bit.

"I'm gonna get them! Hang on!"

Hyper's eyes flash cyan. He pulls out one of his cutlasses and throws it into the path above them, the one they just got thrown off of. "Ashley, help me up."

She doesn't need to be told twice, connecting a ribbon between Hyper's cutlass and his wrist. He jumps up, using the ribbon to swing himself to the path, before climbing on it, grabbing his cutlass and running off of it.

Ashley and Tanqr turn their attention back to Kreek.

Whom, as soon as they do, says something. He sounds strained and weak, as if he's been fighting an endless fight.

"Help- me-!"

"Kreek!" Tanqr quietly shouts back, dropping Kreek's soul gem back on his chest, glad he spoke but terrified at his words. "Kreek?!"

"Tanqr, step back!" Ashley calls out, so he does.

It's then he notices the..substance leaking out of Kreek's back. It's surrounding him, spreading out towards Tanqr and Ashley. The substance starts dripping out of his head too, covering his face. A black liquid which slowly seems to be becoming thicker the more that drips out.

Tanqr carefully touches some, but immediately pulls his hand away. That stung.

And that's when it hits him.

"That's- that's the ink that his doppel uses! The ink that his doppel's wings are made out of! And of course his soul gem just turned black..." He tells Ashley, turning to look at her. She immediately gets it too upon his explanation.