The demon came through the remnants of the seal I had made and crossed the distance between us in one movement, and one of its limbs caught me across the chest, and I went down again, this time without the crate to stop me, just the ground, which was significantly harder.

I lay there and tried to remember how to breathe.

For a moment, everything was just pain and panic, and then I could breathe again.

When I opened my tear-filled eyes, the demon was standing over me and was so still, and if not for the fact that its body was covered with blood that was dropping down all over my body like rain, I would almost think it was a metallic statue.

I knew my status screen was vibrating, but I could not be bothered to check what I had just gained. What would it matter? I had not emptied my soul, but it was almost impossible for me to pull out any spell.

I was going to die in the next few seconds, here, on the ground at the base of a ten-thousand-year-old pyramid, at the age of sixteen, having accomplished the lattice seal I always fumbled in practice and six Spark casts and very little else.

There was little to be proud of here, sure, I had done better than most Acolytes in my position, but in the grander scheme of things, I had really not done anything special.

I thought of my mother. Of her hands, steady and precise, threading a needle. Of what she would say if she knew what was happening with me here at this moment.

She would say: Get up.

I tried. I genuinely tried. My arms made the attempt, and my body declined to cooperate, and the demon lowered itself toward me in the unhurried way of something that knew there was no more fight left in its prey, and I looked away from it, not wanting to see my death approach, and my eyes turned to the sky above the pyramid.

The grey morning sky had turned gold at the edges while I was not paying attention as the sun was rising, it was so beautiful, and it did not feel fair that I was about to die in such a manner, there was still too much I wanted to discover, too much of life I had not yet lived, so many mysteries and spells that I had not touched.

"Not like this... not like this..."

I held my staff in both hands and poured the last of my Anima into one final Spark cast aimed at the demon’s jaw and...

The limb came down and pinned me down, as it unhurriedly brought another of its long forward limbs and drove it through my chest with a precision that told me it had done this before, since it managed to miss any major organs and pierce through me entirely, ensuring that I did not die instantly.

I could barely gasp as the pain was of a different order entirely from the pain of being thrown to the ground.

That pain had been bright and total. This was something else that I could not describe.

I heard myself scream, and the sound surprised me because I did not know when my mouth opened to scream.

There was no reason I should be so observant over my death; I should allow myself to faint, but I could not. If these were my last moments, then I did not want to miss anything, even if what was left for me was pain.

The demon’s other limb found the sides of my head, and my eyes widened a bit as I understood what it was doing.

By all the lights in the sky, I did not want to understand, but I did. I screamed again as the grip of the demon tightened and the world tilted sideways, and there was a tearing sensation and a sound I will not describe and...

The soul of an Acolyte was stronger than a normal human, and for the next ten seconds, I was able to see my headless body that was still shaking as blood poured furiously from my neck.

Yes, the demon had ripped my head from my body, and it slowly brought my head to its face and...

"Up, up, lazy cur. Elric, I say, wake up!"

My eyes snapped open, and my heart seemed to be beating a thousand times a second. My hands found my chest and my neck, and there was no hole or pain.

"What sort of dream is this? Have I damaged my soul, and am I hallucinating?"

"Up, up, lazy cur. Elric, I say, wake up!"

My shaking hand reached up and grabbed the floating silver orb, silencing the alarm, and I discovered my palm was wet with sweat.

I mechanically tucked the silver orb into the cupboard by the side of my cot and cleaned my sweaty palms on my side as I forced myself to breathe slowly.

Meditation almost activated automatically, even though this was one of the hardest Auxiliary Skills for me to develop in the last two years. Perhaps the state of my mind had been truly shaken, because I sat cross-legged and closed my eyes, and my rapidly beating heart slowly slowed down, and the panic, fear, and pain that had filled me a moment before slowly bled out from my body.

I had always had bad dreams once every month, and they were recurring dreams which my parents believed were due to my Anima Sensitivity, and they had hoped that training as a mage would give me the resources to handle my dreams, but there had never been any dream so vivid as this.

How long did I spend meditating? I did not know, but the sound of the camp had grown louder, and I could hear the voices of the other Acolytes. My status scream vibrated, and the message flashing just below my closed eye, pulling me away from the state of Meditation.

Meditation: 14 – 18 (Initiate)

My eyes flew open at this drastic progress in Meditation. I knew that this skill grew when you could find your center in the midst of confusion, and knowing that I could not put it off any longer, I called up my status screen.

[Name: Elric Voss]

[Age: 16]

[Title: Acolyte]

[Available Titles: Death-Touched]

[Anima Depth: 35 (Acolyte)]

[Disciplines:]

Threadwork 39 (Acolyte)

Surge 32 (Acolyte)

Spark 12 (Initiate) — Surge sub-skill

[Auxiliary Skills:]

Concentration 29 (Initiate)

Anima Sensitivity 24 (Initiate)

Observation 23 (Initiate)

Inscription 19 (Initiate)

Meditation 18 (Initiate) 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Endurance 19 (Initiate)

Cooking 13 (Initiate)

First Aid 8 (Initiate)

Cartography 6 (Initiate)

[Blessings: —]

[Soul Condition: Stable]

The changes in my status screen were so drastic that I dismissed it and brought it back up multiple times, but I could no longer hide the truth of what I had experienced... it was all real.