CELESTIA - CHAPTER 62 : Spirit X
The Academy basements smelled of damp stone and rusted metal. Zayn, Yojuro, and Cynthia walked in silence, their footsteps barely audible on the dusty flagstones. The blue torches were sparser here, replaced by a greyish light that seemed to emanate from the walls themselves.
"She went this way," Yojuro murmured, pointing to a trace of ash on the ground.
"Are we going to catch her?" asked Cynthia, her voice tense.
"We're going to try."
Zayn stopped. He raised his wrist. Borealis, the black metallic bracelet with green reflections, glowed faintly in the darkness. The green runes pulsed softly, like a tired heart.
"I need a Primal."
He pressed the artifact. A green light burst forth, spread out, and unfolded into a hologram above his wrist: ten silhouettes, ten Primals he knew well. Water Pulse, Gravoc, Cannonball, Blackhowler... and others, older, stranger.
He slid his finger over one of them. A bluish shape, slender, almost liquid. Citrolle.
"Citrolle."
He pressed.
The light engulfed him.
But his body didn't change as expected.
Instead, he became something else. A floating silhouette, draped in an immense living black cloak. His body was partially liquid, as if made of shadow and dark energy. At the center of his head, a single immense golden eye, a vertical pupil that trembled softly, as if looking through the layers of reality. A dozen smaller eyes were scattered across the long protrusions of his cloak, each watching a different direction, like conscious satellites.
His right hand was gigantic, pale and deformed, ending in long bony claws capable of tearing matter and space alike. The lower part of his body disappeared into a fluid mass of shadow, as if he never truly touched the ground.
Around him floated several black creatures, living fragments of his own body, each with a single eye, moving silently through the air like silent guardians. Space around him twisted, light dimmed, colors faded, as if silence itself had swallowed the world.
Zayn had never felt this. Not like this. He was no longer a boy. He was a presence. A gaze. A will.
Cynthia stepped back.
"Zayn… is that you?"
The voice that emerged from the silhouette was not quite his own. It was deeper, more distant, as if coming from an abyss.
"Yeah, it's me." He raised his clawed hand, gazing at it with a mixture of curiosity and dread. "Borealis gave me Citrolle. Not Spirit X."
"Citrolle?" asked Yojuro, impassive.
"A Primal I know well. But it bugged."
Aurora's hologram appeared beside him, small, luminous, almost embarrassed.
"Sorry, Zayn. A little glitch. I gave you Spirit X instead of Citrolle."
"A little glitch?" Zayn raised his single eye toward her. She looked so small. "You turned my body into something with a dozen eyes and arms that look like nightmare claws, and you call that a little glitch?"
"Technically, you're still alive."
"That's a low bar, but okay."
He floated gently, steadying himself. His body seemed to glide through the air, never touching the ground.
"What does that Primal do?" asked Cynthia.
"Intangible. I can go through walls. Fly. And…"
He hesitated.
"Possess bodies. I can take control of someone."
Yojuro looked at him, his gaze cold, but a faint gleam of interest in his eyes.
"Useful."
"Or terrifying," said Zayn. "Depending on your point of view."
---
They resumed their walk.
But at the end of the corridor, a shadow awaited them.
Hollow.
He didn't move. He floated a meter above the ground, his black silhouette faceless, formless. Around him, the air seemed thicker. Drops of a black, thick, gleaming liquid dripped from his body and pooled on the floor in shifting puddles.
"Naraku sent me to delay you," he said. His voice was flat, empty, without emotion.
"I'm used to being sent ugly things, but you really made an effort," said Zayn.
Hollow didn't respond. He raised a hand. The black liquid burst from the ground, forming thick tentacles that shot toward them.
"I do like making an effort," Zayn added.
He launched himself.
His intangible body passed through the tentacles like a shadow through water. He didn't feel them. He flew toward Hollow, his single eye fixed on him.
"You can't catch me, boss."
He passed through Hollow. He hoped to possess him.
Nothing.
Hollow didn't waver. He remained still, indifferent.
"You can't possess me. I have no body. No mind. Just a will."
Zayn landed behind him, turned around.
"What do you want, then?"
"To hold you back."
The tentacles spread again. Cynthia lunged, a fist charged with inertia. She struck a tentacle. It didn't move. Another. Nothing. The black liquid hardened under impact.
"Yojuro!" she shouted.
Yojuro stepped forward, sword in hand. He planted the blade into the ground. The vibrations shook the tentacles, slowed them, broke them into small black droplets that fell back to the ground.
"His matter hardens under pressure," said Yojuro. "It's a non-Newtonian fluid. The harder you hit it, the more solid it becomes."
Zayn looked at him.
"So… we have to hit it softly?"
"Or disrupt it from the inside."
Zayn thought. He looked at his intangible body, his multiple eyes observing Hollow from every angle.
"I'm going to pass through him until he loses it."
He flew.
He shot toward Hollow, passed through his black silhouette. Then he came back, passed through again. A third time. A fourth. Each passage disrupted the Black Anchor. The tentacles slowed, collapsed, reformed poorly. The black liquid lost its cohesion.
Hollow tried to strike him. A tentacle passed through Zayn. Nothing.
"You can't touch me, because you're just a pile of black slime."
"I can't touch you, but you can't destroy me," said Hollow.
"I know. But I can annoy you."
He passed through him again. Spirit X's multiple eyes observed every movement of Hollow, every tentacle, every drop of black liquid. He saw everything. He understood everything.
He passed through one last time.
The tentacles collapsed. Hollow's body disintegrated, dissipating into a fine black rain that fell to the ground and evaporated.
Silence returned.
Zayn landed, breathless. He returned to his human form, his body trembling.
"Is he gone?" asked Cynthia.
"He's gone."
"Did you kill him?"
"I just tired him out."
Yojuro sheathed his sword.
"He'll come back. Djinns always come back."
"I know. But at least I learned how to annoy him."
He turned toward the corridor. In the distance, a stone door stood open.
Shizumi had already passed through.
Zayn sighed.
"Great. Let's go get her now. And I hope she likes three-in-the-morning conversations."
He stepped forward, the others behind him, into the shadow of the open door.
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