Loki stood at the edge of the grove. He had been preparing for this inevitable confrontation since The Hunter's death and now that the final battle was near he couldn't help but feel dread.
Loki looked at the dark corridor of tangled trees ahead and took the time to breath. His heartbeat was steady, but there was a tension beneath it, a hollow pressure gathering behind his ribs. He wiped a dirty thumb across his knuckles. Looking towards The Cat, Loki thought for a moment then unsummoned it. The Cat dissolved into faint golden sparks, returning to the safety of his soul.
Loki didn't want The Cat, his faithful companion to witness what he was about to do next. Loki knew that echoes weren't living creatures but he couldn't help himself from being a little sentimental now that his life might end in a few minutes.
He exhaled once then summoned his new echo.
The air stirred as golden sparks rippled through the clearing and the hulking form of the owlbear slowly became fully corporal. The owlbear was almost the same as Loki remembered. A mass of fur, muscle and feathers. Its hulking form still as intimidating though its eyes no longer held madness. It could almost be called cute.
Loki stared at it for a long moment.
"…Sorry," Loki whispered, though the creature didn't respond.
Loki couldn't afford to lose anymore time. He knelt, picking up the remaining bombs and stated fastening them across the body of the owlbear. Slowly each bomb clicked into place.One around each shoulder, three across the chest and lastly two along the spine.
Loki stepped back. Looking at the owlbear he felt a little guilt but he crushed it instantly.
"…Go." Loki said.
The Echo turned without emotion and charged into the grove. Branches snapped under its steps and the ground trembled in its wake. Loki watched it until the darkness swallowed its form, then snapped his fingers.
A few heartbeats passed.
Then the forest exploded. The blast hit like a collapsing wave, a surge of heat tore through the clearing, throwing Loki back a step. A heavy shockwave rippled outward, rattling the ground beneath his feet.
When the roar finally died, the Spell whispered in his head as if mocking him.
[Your Echo has been destroyed.]
Loki stared into the drifting smoke, jaw tightening.
"…Figures." he muttered.
----
The smoke was still clearing when Loki exhaled and summoned the cat again.
Tom as Loki had named him appeared at his feet, small and unremarkable.Its amber eyes blinked once.
Loki scooped the cat into his arms. For a brief moment, he held it against his chest, one hand on the soft fur behind its ear, the other steady around its ribs. Tom leaned into the touch, warm and calm, unaware of what Loki was about to do.
"…Listen," Loki murmured.
The cat looked up at him.
"You're going to hide," he said quietly. "And when The Tree and I are having a conversation in my head you're gonna poke the violet core as hard as you can, it should be exposed after the explosion. Hopefully that would get the job done. Our lives depend on you now hahahahahaha "
The cat blinked. It could still somewhat understand what the stupid human was saying.
Loki brushed a thumb between its ears, gentler than he meant to be.Then he put the cat down.
Tom stood still for a moment then disappeared into the forest.
And Loki started walking towards the grove.
----
The forest still smoked from the explosion, branches lay cracked and steaming.The ground was torn open like long scars.
The Tree was still alive.
The bombs had ripped half of its trunk apart, exposing a swollen, luminous core throbbing irregularly. Its roots were shredded, sap leaking like dark blood across the soil.
Loki stepped forward, he wasn't hiding as there was no point in doing so.
He walked into the grove without hesitation. The Tree or what remained of it reacted immediately. A pulse rippled outwards silent and cold. It struck Loki like a falling wall.
The world disappeared. Unlike the last time it didn't happen slowly, it was torn away instantly like someone ripping cloth.
Loki hit the ground in another place in another reality.
He was back in the slums but not as he remembered them.
The streets were flooded ankle deep with blood. The sky sagged close to the buildings, heavy and swollen with faces pushing against its surface. Everywhere Loki looked, something stared at him.
People walked the ground on limbs that bent backwards. A child was drinking from a bucket filled with blood, like it was water. Bodies were nailed to walls with roots hammering through their chests.And everyone slowly turned their heads to follow Loki's movements.
None blinked but they all smiled.
Hands reached out of alleyways and the ground, their fingers too long and with too many joints grabbing at his ankles, tugging him down.
Loki tried to move but his body didn't respond.
Something else formed in the fog. A man with no feature just a mouth carved ear to ear. Then the mouth opened and the voice that came out was unlike anything he had ever heard.
It was like every voice Loki had ever heard was layered together and distorted:
"You think you're different from us?"
Loki's breath hitched. Roots sprouted from the man's mouth, pouring onto the ground and crawling toward him like starving worms. The another figure rose beside the first one.
The original Loki....eyes vacant, fungus grew through the boy's ribs, pulsing softly.
"You took my life," the boy whispered.
Then his neck twisted slowly, painfully until it snapped sideways.
The Hunter appeared next. Half bark half man, fungus squirmed across his face too, pulling his lips into a permanent grimace. His voice scraped through the air like rusted metal:
"You killed me, boy.And you weren't even brave about it."
Loki tried to speak, he tried to scream but no matter how hard he tried nothing came out. It was like his throat had been sealed shut by phantom roots.
When Loki decided to face the tree, he had expected a mind attack similar or even weaker then last time, not whatever hell this was.
Every guilt Loki had ever felt, every doubt and every insecurity was dragged out of him and held up to his face like a mirror.
The street split open beneath him. And he fell down into a pit filled with copies of himself.
Some were rotting, some burned other twisted into blighted men. Some held knives and some even begged for help.
They all whispered the same thing:
"You're one of us."
Experiencing this horrifying sight, Loki's mind slowly began to fracture. Not metaphorically but literally. He felt pieces of himself coming loose his thoughts slipping out of his reach and his memories dissolving slowly.
He couldn't tell which version of him was real anymore or which life was true.
And worst of all, slowly he beginning to believe the Tree.
"Maybe this is my fate."
The pit closed in, darkness engulfed Loki's vision. Hands grabbed at him, slowly pulling him apart then suddenly a snap resounded in the darkness, and a mental scream ripped the illusion apart like it was thin paper.
Reality slammed back into Loki. He had collapsed onto the ground at some point. His eyes, nose and ears bleeding. His hands shook violently and his vision swam.
The Tree jerked violently its core flickering. If someone had looked closely they would have seen something clawing inside of it.
Then the Spell's voice sounded in Loki's head.
[Your Echo has slain an Awakened Terror, The Seed of Evil.]
Loki blinked then slowly and painfully he turned his head.
Tom stood atop the broken stump small and silent. His body was soaked in glowing sap and his claws buried deep into the exposed core.
He had struck while the Seed was fully focused on Loki.
"hahahahahahaha." a laugh escaped Loki's throat.
The cat hopped off the stump, walked over, and pressed its head against Loki's knee as if asking if it did well.
Loki let out a shaky breath, half a laugh, half a sob.
As if on time the spell's voice rang in Loki's head:
[Wake up, Loki! Your nightmare is over.]
[Prepare for appraisal…]