I stood over the ash and glowing bones of the knight, my chest heaving, the last of the attachments finally gone from my body. The cold spot on my neck that Death Touched had been screaming about faded, replaced by a dull ache that was already beginning to subside.
My body was healing faster than it had any right to, the Celestial Marrow in my bones already knitting the wounds left by the attachments. Threads began to emerge from my skin, and in a few seconds, my grey robes settled over my body, and I felt almost alive again.
The fox hopped off my shoulder and landed on the floor, its silver fur glowing faintly in the dim light of the chamber. It sniffed at the ash drifting from the broken armor, then sneezed, shaking its head.
"Gross," it said, in Mel’s voice. "He smelled like old cheese and bad decisions."
I laughed, shaking my head in dismay. "How would you know what that smells like? You have never seen cheese before, and how do you even smell bad decisions?"
Looking at me with its bright blue eyes, it pointed one of its paws towards my head, "The link dummy, I can read your dreams, and explore your memories... there is not a lot going on up there most times, but sometimes," the fox shuddered.
I frowned, "Now, that doesn’t seem fair, the way you are invading my memories."
The fox shrugged, "Don’t look at me; you created the link, and nothing is stopping you from looking into mine."
My eyes glowed at the challenge. I was not too against the idea of the fox looking through my memories. I could not detect a single hint of ill will from it, but it was annoying how it was picking words and using them in such a fluent manner, something I was not even sure I could duplicate.
Equipping the Mythic title had enhanced the link between us, and it would be easy to travel through the link to see what was going on in the mind of the critter.
"I would not recommend that you do this right now," the voice of the Hollow Avatar paused my actions, and I listened to it, "A Heavenly Beast is a fountain of knowledge that would break your mind, even though you are connected to one, at best it would leave you in a vegetative state for centuries as you process the smallest bit of their knowledge... your soul is yet too weak."
"Is it that potent?"
"Your weakness is the reason why the beast is still so underdeveloped. Vrakth is also too weak to house a Heavenly Beast, and it held it with a trick. I only recommend you look into the link when you reach the peak of the Arcanist Tier, or become a Sovereign."
I nodded and looked away from the fox that was looking at me with a playful look in her eyes, "Don’t mind that cold thing inside you, Elric; at most you would be swatted away like a fly... Aaayaah!" The fox made a sweeping motion with her tail, and I rolled my eyes.
I crouched beside the remains of the knight. The armor had been reduced to slag, but something caught my eye in the center of the ash. A small, glowing chip, no larger than my thumb, its surface etched with intricate patterns that shifted and flowed like liquid light.
I picked it up. It was warm, almost hot, and I could feel a faint pulse of Anima emanating from it. An identification chip, perhaps, or a key. I thought of leaving it behind, but decided to take it anyway, so I tucked it into my robes and stood.
"Let’s see where we are."
The chamber was vast, stretching into darkness on all sides, the walls adorned with golden columns and elaborate carvings that reminded me of the temples of the old gods. Hundreds of glass vats lined the walls, each one containing a figure suspended in pale, luminous fluid.
Some were humanoid; most were not. Some were twisted, deformed, resembling the remnants of experiments that had gone wrong.
I walked toward the nearest vat. Inside, a woman floated, her eyes closed, her body pierced with a large attachment that pierced through her spine, which had been in me. Her skin was pale, almost translucent, and her hair drifted around her face like seaweed.
I moved past her. I could sense life in her, but it was very dim. I could not save everyone.
I walked through the chamber, my eyes scanning the vats. The fox dropped down from my shoulder and trotted beside me, its silver fur glowing brighter with each step. I passed a vat containing a tall, slender figure with pointed ears and angular features. I paused; that was an elf. In another life, I would have taken the time to observe this elf, but I moved on.
Another vat held a squat, sturdy creature with a long beard and thick hands. This time I paused for longer; this was a gnome. I thought they were nearly extinct and could only be found in the deep mountains.
After a while, I stopped looking into the vats, because I was becoming almost depressed from the number of creatures held here, and although I did not see any Soul Flayer with them, their situation almost mirrored my own.
I passed a particularly large vat that made me stop. Inside, suspended in the pale fluid, was the head of what I recognized as a dragon from the books that I had read. It was massive, its scales a deep, iridescent blue, and its eyes closed.
Even though it was just a head, I could see its breath coming in slow, rhythmic pulses through the glowing liquid, and there were faint wisps of smoke curling from its nostrils. Even in captivity, even reduced to a severed head, it was magnificent.
A desolate aura was emerging from the head of the dragon, and even if I wanted, it was difficult for me to walk next to the vat, because it felt as if the dragon would fully wake up if I did.
A part of me wanted to see this, would it not be cool to talk to a dragon, who were the first children of the gods?
I sighed, and I walked past, and then I focused on the stele in front of each vat that I had been ignoring all these while, and I walked to one of them. As I came closer, the stele lit up, and the runes etched upon it glowed brighter. I could not understand the etchings, but I smiled when the Hollow Avatar said it could.
"How?"
"All languages have a common root."
"Oh, ok."