The Novel's Sidekick



Noyar gasped, looking at Oscar’s figure from afar. She turned towards where the beast fell—it was quite low and still writhing with agony. A sword penetrating to the neck. That’s a serious injury no matter how you look at it. Not to mention, Oscar rammed his sword more than half a dozen times.

Still, there seemed to be something she was missing.

“It's not dead,” Oscar spoke, "far from it, nor is it over yet.”

"How are you doing fine after all that?"

"Told you we're separated from our physical bodies," Oscar said. "Our minds are only tricking us to feel them, but turns out I know a trick or two as well."

He looked around to find the stairs as well as where everyone else was. There was still a distance to cover, different staircases to traverse—the beast won’t be down for long. The faster they reach, the better they will be.

“Noyar, Jon,” he shouted and pointed towards a white blank-like place which should be a floor upside-down, like the one they first dropped. “That’s our destination. Yes, it looks pretty close from here, but not exactly. Follow me together, or it would be hard for you to get there.”

After that, he started running again, joining Yeriel. Oh, there was no blood on his chest, even though it was pierced through the beast’s antler. She guessed it was one advantage of not having a physical body. However, what about the pain?

Noyar was hit a moment ago, and she was still having trouble breathing. It was as if her whole body was shellshocked from the impact. Wait, she didn’t have any physical form here, but she could feel something beating in her chest. Yes, the lack of blood proved that she was separated from her physical body, however, what was beating in her chest then?

Why did she feel such excruciating pain that made her head spin and stomach churn, that she couldn’t even move for some time? Does the soul have a heart?

Was that really what Oscar said about her mind not adjusting to the situation, mimicking the physical reactions? That seemed too far-fetched and convenient to believe, but she had no other explanation.

Breathing in and out, or at least mimicking the feeling, Noyar moved. Her speed was barely anything better than walking while Oscar and Yeriel were running, changing staircases one after another. She followed with her eyes to where her staircase went, but even with the dominion eyes enabled, she couldn’t make out if it led to where Oscar pointed before.

Meaning, she would have to be together with Jon to change the staircase midway with his dominion of gravity. She sought to find Jon shifting through the staircases, coming for her. He had to cover a few more to get there, and the way it looks like, he doesn’t look so good.

She found it more when he came before her. In her dominion eyes, she saw more. Her dominion was working weirdly in this space. Before she saw Jon, she was thousands of threads dividing into thousands more intertwined together in a uniform organised flow, but now it was a lot different. The threads of flow around his body grew disorderly, and it was not stopping.

Noyar didn’t know what that meant, but it didn’t look good to her. Was it because he was relentlessly using his dominion like crazy? Then she remembered unlike her or Oscar, Jon wasn’t hit in a physical fashion. He was thrown with an outburst of spirit aura, that took dozens of staircases away that ran on different points of gravity.

It would take a hell lot of spirit aura to do that, and when a spiritual aura hits a living thing, it leaves a mark. Noyar felt a chill in her mind. Spiritual aura, also known as soul aura—it attacks directly the spirit.

“Noyar, Noyar,” Jon called repeatedly. “Come out of it.”

“Ah, yes,” Noyar came out of her contemplation, and Jon caught her in his embrace.

He pushed against the stair floor and shot up and then to another staircase while she stayed limp in his chest.

“You’d been hit with soul aura.”

“Yeah,” Jon groaned, “I can guess that.”

“You know what that means?”

“Yes,” Jon answered as they crossed another staircase and started running. “It means we’re dead if it hits us with the soul aura. But luckily for us, it didn’t seem all too familiar with attacking with soul aura. The attack that hit me was more like a shield than a sword, meaning it was doing it instinctually, on self-preservation.”

“But if it learns to wield it like a sword, we’re done.”

Just then, the roar of the saint beast resounded throughout the stair maze.

“Oh, dear lord,” Noyar groaned and looked behind to find the beast. It was running around as if nothing had happened. Physical wounds were non-existent here, but Noyar still felt the pain in her chest, and yet, this beast which got penetrated to its neck several times was leaping off through the gravitational pulls.

“We have to hurry. Let’s go.”

Meanwhile, Oscar and Yeriel almost reached the place he told them to go. However, it appears the Winterheart reindeer would beat them to the chase. It was leaping so fast that Jon couldn't challenge that, even with his dominion.

Their lives meant nothing to it if they didn't stand in its way, but they couldn't leave, could they?

The beast came out just before their eyes to shoot for the staircase they were aiming for. Jon let her go and pushed against the beast, trying to push it off from its mark. The beast was flying from upside down to downwards, while they were at the right angle, pretty close to shoving it off its way.

Unfortunately, right at the moment, the gravitational push was about to hit the beast. An abrupt outburst of spirit aura nullified everything and shot them away, shattering through the staircase like clear glass.

They fell from there and were pulled by another staircase to lie upside down.

The Winterheart Reindeer flew towards the other two.

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Next Chapter: Dominion.

Have any idea what this dominion would be about or what it should be called. I gave too many hints already.