For a moment time seemed to pause. Feyd had a tired yet satisfied and triumphant expression, a slight grin plastered on his face. Ray's eyes were widened in shock, his now darker pupils dilating slightly and his hair was lifted up slightly by the shockwaves. The rat king's mouth was opened, as if attempting to release an ear piercing screech yet no sound emerged. A floating, golden light above its head, obstructed by one of the Rifts.
And then suddenly the two Rifts disseapeared.
-SHATTER! BOOM!
The sound of glass shattering roared throughout followed by a powerful explosive shockwave. The Rifts had both traveled through one other, into themselves, while transporting a part of the rat king's body to the otherside.
All of this caused the spatial phenomenas to collapse, shattering the spatial frame and mirror like structure it was made of and sending it flying in all directions due to the expulsion of energy that powered the Rifts.
Although these shattered spatial shards, akin to blades, were quite powerful– Being capable of cutting through both space and matter effortlessly– they dissipate quickly while traversing the atmosphere.
However, it doesn't matter when the target was right next to, or directly inside of, the Rift Fracture.
"Screeeeeee–!"
The rat king barely managed to screech out before it was torn to shreds and its body exploded outwards, splashing the cave and Ray with its guts.
However a few, weakened spatial shards managed to cut into Ray causing multiple deep cuts that immense began to bleed.
Feyd took only a moment to appreciate his attack before rushing over to Ray to help him out.
"Hey hey! You good? You alive!?"
Ray looked up at Feyd for a moment before dramatically closing his eyes and sticking his tongue out.
"Blegh, I'm ded"
Feyd's eye twitched for a few seconds before he sighed and gave a slight chuckle. Ray too smiled and snickered.
"Well I'm damned! No way this quest was B rank, might have even been a high A rank or low S rank!"
"Heh, in that case why don't you try asking the old man for more money hmm? Or still feeling altruistic?"
"Uhhhh... How'd you find out?"
"Heh, you didn't even try to hide your traces. Just asked around abit, followed your traces and then I see it. A large pillar of fire BLASTING near a cave. And then... Let's just go back and rest, I'll explain later"
"Yeah I'm also pretty tired"
Feyd slowly picked up Ray and carried him piggy back style. His legs were shaky and arms weak, but he could probably make it to town?
"Ray? Ray? Why aren't you answering?"
Feyd shook Ray as he made his way out of the cave. He glanced back to see Ray peacefully sleeping on his back.
"Sigh... I really gotta ask him what's up with his hair when we get back"
And then slowly, very slowly, Feyd trudged back to the town and into their inn.
...
In a dark, empty abyss an elf looked forward with a cold gaze. His hair was mostly white with a black streak, and his red eyes were slightly dark.
It was Ray.
"Eribos, you motherfu–!"
The void shook for a moment.
[Throwing a tantrum? How childish]
Ray's eyes furrowed as he clenched his hand tight, 'If I could I would kill this guy 10 times over!'
But his anger soon cooled as he took a deep breath.
"Tch as if. Why meddle with me so much?"
[What kind of a stupid question is that? Has your brain been barbecued after being with Feyd for so long?]
Veins threatened to bulged on Ray's temples but he quickly calmed himself down. Getting annoyed would do him no good.
"Why don't you just peacefully wait to die hmm? You seriously don't expect to win over me right?"
[What a fool you are, don't you see how I've already begun to influence you? Sooner or later I'll fully take over your flimsy body and reign over this abandoned world!]
Ray's expression was outwardly wrathful and agitated, yet inwardly he contemplated Eribis' words.
'He isn't lying, he truly is beginning to influence me. If I don't have a way to counteract this or resist I might eventually be take over'
'Also he said abandoned... Abandoned by whom? Jimmy, the Almighty Creator? Or someone else?'
In religious texts it was said that Jimmy, the creator of the world, and its sustained and protector, had thirteen children. Each governing an aspect of the world and its workings. And Eribos, the 13th child of Jimmy the Almighty Creator, had acquired control over the laws of Shadows.
Although it didn't sound as incredible as the authorities of his siblings, such as Authority over Time, Memory and Truth, which Gabriel had. Nor was it as numerous as that of Yonox, who had Authority over a dozen laws, the law of Shadows applied to all laws.
It could be understood as not only physical shadows cast by objects, but also metaphysical shadows cast by the intangible. So the shadows cast by Authorities, concepts, etc.
Thus Eribos could technically use a portion of every Authority, since a shadow casted by anything carry a portion of their owner's essence and properties.
However it seemed that Eribos was always slightly jealous of his siblings, thinking that it was not fair he only had one authority while his siblings had atleast three. He also disliked how the eldest son of Jimmy, Rahn, completely dominated him with his Authority over Light, Darkness, Space, and Energy.
Ray himself didn't know what happened to Jimmy or his children, however go his knowledge there have been no contact with them in the past few centuries. And thus faith in them has been diminishing quickly every year.
However he himself was sure of their existence, due to his memories and the presence of Eribos within him. He could never find out why or how Eribos had ended up inside of him, whether by discreetly testing Eribos or researching about him.
Each child of Jimmy and Kimmy himself was worshipped by people, each having their own church, cathedrals and other religious aspects in the world.
"Yeah right, suree you will. Suree"
[Well it matters naught what you think. Enjoy your last few moments with your friend, and this world]
And then just as Ray was about to retort he was violently sent away from the Abyss.
[My plans to take over him are progressing slower than I expected. How inconvenient are these restrictions placed upon me]
...
Ray got up with cold sweat running down his back, heaving heavily. As he slowly forced himself to calm down while massaging his temples Buena to observe himself and his surroundings.
He was covered in bandages, and though his injuries had mostly healed somehow, his body still ached heavily.
'That was a really though fight... My plans to limit my use of shadows have been failing these past few days'
He then looked at Feyd's sword nearby, and his reflection in the blade.
'A black streak and... Darker eyes. Tch, don't tell me I'll get black hair one day!? Though that thought does bring with it a sense of familiarity...'
'Don't tell me Eribos had tried corrupting me before I lost my memories? What a bastard'
Shadows flowed from beneath Ray and slowly crept up around his fingers, twirling and intertwining in threads.
'My powers have grown stronger again, and by a good amount too. I'm sure after resting up properly my body will have shown signs of growth too. Honestly I'm not sure if all this will end up helping me or Eribos more'
Dissipating the shadow energy he turned to look at the bed on the otherside of the room. Feyd was sleeping blissfully, lightly snoring. He too was covered in bandages, and one of his leg along with his banket was hanging off the bed.
'Seems he booked a double room in the inn, and bandaged both of us before sleeping. Must've been though especially after the fight'
Although he could've gotten up, washed up and eaten something he just wasn't in the mood. He felt slightly sour at Eribos' increasing influence. No, actually, quite depressed, not just sour. Thus he felt like just laying on the bed for a while.
Eventually Feyd woke up and the two began talking. Feyd learned how Ray had found him, which was by asking around and tracing his footsteps and energy traces. And he also laughed when he heard Ray's thoughts when he saw the explosion pillar and the cave.
He explained what he did and his experience with the cave, to which Ray had smacked Feyd's head for since he considered it overly altruistic and reckless.
The two laughed and joked around before Feyd summoned his guitar from its personal spatial pocket, which he wasn't sure why it had one, and played it. It just seemed like an ordinary guitar yet he could always intuitively tell it had its own personal spatial pocket.
He had had it with him since he woke up.
If Feyd didn't enjoy fighting and adventuring so much he might have xonsidered becoming a bard or a musician, since he presumed he had a natural talent for the guitar. Or maybe it was his past self's influencing him somehow.
Eventually the two had lunch and went to the old man for Feyd's money. The old man was extremely grateful, talking about how he was so surprised that the problem was solved in one day, and how he no longer needed to stay up all night to protect the graves of his wife and daughter.
He gave much more money than the quest reward, and though Ray wanted to tell him something, Feyd always managed to cut him off as they soon left.
They went to the Adventurer's Guild and submitted the task completion form and left, buying new things. Ray had also mentioned his experience with the blacksmith and his date, at which Feyd seemed slightly sour at.
Eventually after several more days of relaxation, and after Ray went out for the date, The two began to make their way to the capital.
Or atleast that was the plan untill Ray came in with a sudden idea.
"Hey I coincidentally heard about the bandit group I told you about last time. It should be on our path to the capital so why don't we check it out?"
"Why are you so curious about some bandits? Aren't they different from the ones that kidnapped us?"
Feyd was puzzled, why was the usually disinterested Ray suddenly so interested in this group of bandits?
"Well I just heard that... The bandit leader has a source of elf slaves. So I thought it could be interesting to save the Elves, stop the bandit from trading more, while learning about the Elven forests"
Ray shrugged while he ate his lunch.
"Well that does seem like a good idea. Alright, sure. Anyways, what's the worse that could happen? It's just a bandit camp", Feyd agreed.
Ray seemed to sense a foreboding feeling at Feyd's last few words yet he quickly brushed it off. What trouble could those few words possibly bring?
And thus they set off on a new adventure on their bikes, to a bandit camp!