Cyrus Solaris
Something wet splashed onto my face, making my eyes crack open.
It took a few moments for my eyes to adjust, and I soon found myself alone with my moon, resting in the shade of a world tree.
My body felt sluggish, and my mind foggy. I sat up and leaned against the trunk of the tree, whose gigantic leaves swayed in the cool breeze that swept past.
The last thing I remembered was being paralyzed and thrown into a pit to be buried alive.
Remembering the events was like reliving a horrible nightmare.
A nightmare that was real.
Was my mom really alive?
Was Gula somehow present in my first rift?
Does Gula have my mom trapped somewhere?
How could I have been so dumb? I know what echoes are capable of.
I knew why. I wanted to believe something was going my way. That I finally had someone in my corner. I wanted it to be true, and Gula knew that.
I slammed my fist into the soggy dirt, creating two large divots next to me. The impact hurt more than I expected, sending pain through my body from the two gashes in my sides.
Why are these still here?
I have more than enough cosmic energy for the relic to make use of.
I traced my right arm, searching for the hydra's smooth scales that had manifested there, but they were gone.
I rubbed the rest of my shoulder, wondering if they had simply moved somewhere else. Then I searched my entire body.
It was no longer in my position.
Damn it.
I've lost my relic; I don't have my mom, what do I really have?
At this point, I didn't know what to do. Everything seemed hopeless. My head throbbed as the different gravitational forces flowed into my psyche, becoming too overwhelming to process.
As I tried to block out the flow of information, something was coming closer.
Do I have enough in me to fight off something else?
I clenched my fist, preparing myself for the worst, if that was even possible at this point.
"Calm Down. It's me." A flat and cold voice said, coming from behind the world tree.
I turned and looked behind me.
It was Sora.
Her combat suit was shredded; cuts covered the exposed parts of her body, and her white hair was wildly frizzed. Yet the look on her face remained stone-cold.
The tension built in my body eased.
"So you finally woke up." She said, handing me a wooden bowl of water.
She picked up a log lying on the ground, plopped it down in front of me, and sat, staring at me with impassive blue eyes.
"Yeah, it appears so."
"Hurry up and drink. We have to get to the celestium mines. It won't be long until the rift guardian is back on our trail," she said.
I was hesitant before drinking. I didn't want to fall for the same trap again, accepting a kind gesture only to have it backfire on me. But I was also shocked that she had casually mentioned they'd had a run-in with the Rift Guardian.
"If I wanted to kill you, I would have just shot a bolt of lightning through your heart."
I took a preemptive sip.
The cool water soothed my parched throat. I hadn't felt something this refreshing in what felt like a lifetime.
"So where have you been, and how did you get stuck under all that rubble?" She asked me, crossing her arms.
I paused, then took another sip before speaking.
"After the tsunami hit, I got washed away to part of the rift where I was surrounded by nothing but behemoths. I fought my way through it all. Until I met an echo… that took the form of someone from my past.
It had information on how to defeat the rift, and how I was going to find the behemoth that attacked me at the academy. But the echo needed me to do something in return."
I took another sip.
"It wanted me to dig up a body from a grave site on the east side of the rift. I found it strange at the time, but since I was alone, I figured it was my only way to defeat the rift. Later, I discovered that the Echo had tricked me into giving it what it needed to rebuild a new body. By the time I challenged it, it was too strong. There was nothing I could do.
Then Gula disposed of me into a pit and destroyed the pyramid."
Sora's eyes widened.
"Gula… Voen said there was an echo at the central pyramid named Gula, who appeared before the Rift Guardian. There was also a time later when the echoes started acting strange, yelling out that the king was coming."
I bit the inside of my cheek, in response to remembering some of Gula's weird quirks.
He really is mad.
"They are the same person. This being can control Echoes."
"He was probably an advanced Harmonic user when he was alive," Sora said.
"But why go through all that trouble? Sure, he clearly had a thing for theatrics, but why make me retrieve the body for him?"
Sora blinked a few times and exhaled.
"It could be because Echoes cannot interact with things that lack cosmic energy."
So that was it? I was nothing more than an errand boy, sent to retrieve something Gula couldn't touch himself?
"But I do have a question for you, Cyrus."
I nodded.
"Did you ever think about the cluster or the rest of the students? Ever thought about solving this together?"
Her words probed my mind, like a thin, unexpected needle.
I hadn't thought about them at all. I only thought about saving my mom, clearing my name, and escaping this place.
Was I selfish? Maybe, but in a place like this, alone, who wouldn't be? My actions were the most logical and fastest way to save everyone.
But then again, I failed.
I got carried away and lost sight of pretty much everything else.
I even dipped my toe into this well of madness.
I took a deep breath and looked into her striking blue eyes.
"No, I didn't."
"Figures," Sora said, nodding.
Something was different about Sora in this moment. Normally, she would involve herself in my business and everyone else's. But usually I knew where it was coming from. Her words were emotional, personal, and raw. There was genuine care behind them, even though I didn't like what she was saying or agree with her.
But now that was missing. She was cold and matter-of-fact. It was unsettling.
What happened to her?
"Wonder what Voen and Simon would say if they heard that response. After all, they are the ones responsible for saving you."
I frowned at the names.
"Yeah, Voen, the guy you ditched during the totem games. He was responsible for identifying your groans, and Simon, the guy you left to fend for himself during the final exam. If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have been able to save you in time to get you out from underneath that rubble.
"Without these two, you would have been left to die. Everyone who remains in the rift decided against it and went ahead to the mines already. They didn't think you were worth the trouble."
Sora stood up.
"As far as Gula goes, that will stay between you and me."
She held my gaze for a moment, her expression unreadable.
"And Cyrus, why do you think Gula was able to deceive you?"
I didn't know.
Maybe Echoes were just good at deception.
Neither of us said anything for a moment. Then Sora turned away and started walking.
"Let's get moving. We have a rift to defeat."