Essentia Animus

27-Artificial Reveal

Jwyexzn continued to wait for an answer to his plea as Sryine and Vwyx reflected upon the words with a subtle feeling of urgency. Riyxia on the other hand had no memories of the night in question, leaving her even more ignorant of the situation.

Riyxia in fact was totally willing to dismiss the entirety of his statement as more nonsensical babble, much like his normal. However, when her friends started to seem alarmed by the presence of certain keywords, it became obvious that maybe something was different this time. Sryine dove through the notes available to her, looking up every detail available on the Astral Flame. That it was a destructive force from beyond the world, but a flame that should not burn when denied its source for very long. That it was most likely uncovered using a complex portal that gave it access to this world, and that such a portal would give it access to unleash destruction. That the unnatural flame could itself be recognized by its demonic purple hue, and the colorless white ash it left behind. Sryine staggered where she stood, the nightmarish memories flooding back to her once again. Of the portal they had set up in an attempt to reach the stars, of the nightmarish purple flame that reached through it instead, consuming the observatory in an insatiable hunger, leaving behind a colorless white ash. Of their final instructions, to run far enough that the flame could no longer reach them. And certainly, once denied the source of such a flame, the destruction could no longer spread.

Everything, all of it, it all added up far too well to just be coincidence. Vwyx was obvious to this herself, simply looking at Sryine's expression. She turned back to the instrument, itself designed to detect the Astral Flame, even in small traces. It was capable of finding three very similar traces nearby, three familiar traces nearby, all about as intense as the other. This would imply that Riyxia's spectral form was that of an aspect of her own trace, walking around almost invisibly as something that was related to the flame that had consumed her predecessor. That was nightmarish in its own right, but equally so was that the same trace was inside herself as well, that destructive force was not gone, but was still following her even a year later. End of the world, she wasn't even certain that was an exaggeration, not with the ferocity of such a flame. Even at best, to have that flame inside her all this time, just how much of a threat did that present to at least herself, if not those around her. Was there any chance it could just suddenly kick back to life to suddenly consume her again, ending her life otherwise without warning?

Riyxia was keenly aware of how much terror had started to consume the thoughts of everyone else in the room. There were things her friends knew, things they might not even fully understand, but things she herself were too ignorant of. It was this ignorance that was making the whole situation suddenly very difficult to manage. Meanwhile, with Jwyexzn present, how could she trade information? In her fear of letting knowledge spread, ignorance was consuming them. Jwyexzn himself was a fine example of how being left without the facts had spun up a delusion growing out of control. The student present had facts that her friends seem keenly interested in, but her own insistence at keeping the guy at distance was making it a challenge to organize any of the facts. Hyusziq was still out there, absolutely ignorant as to what was going on, still hanging around trying to help out without even having a speck of clarity in exactly what he's working with. Ayzherie.. Ayzherie had even gone to help them, with little understanding of the situation, and still completely willing to lend a hand. Ayzherie.. was probably right. Ignorance was turning against them, this was far too much for them to handle alone.

"Okay, this isn't going to work. All of this hiding and secrecy is just making things worse, not better. It's time for a new plan. Vwyx, Sryine, please put all of the guy's stuff back in his bag, snooping through his stuff like this isn't the way we should be doing this. All of you need to calm down too, even Jwyexzn." Riyxia picked up the bag once it was fully packed and left without hesitation, simply walking out plainly. This startled Vwyx and Sryine right out of their thoughts, suddenly concerned. "Calm? I mean, that might be easy to say for a few destroyers of worlds, but some of us kinda worry about staying alive, you know? To have the world consumed in flames..." "Jwyexzn, if you got burned by such a fire, would that suddenly make you evil?" "What? No, that's now how it works, it's..." "So stop thinking that those who suffer are out to further such suffering to others, some of us are just trying to do our best to get by, alright, to stay alive ourselves. You have no idea what kind of suffering we've been through, and I certainly hope you never have to experience it for yourself. So, please, just stop." Jwyexzn did freeze, witnessing Sryine break down into tears. Suddenly, rather than being as all powerful as they had usually been, the girls simply seemed incredibly alone and vulnerable. Such an impression took him completely off-guard, leaving him uncertain how he should proceed.