Chapter 3

  Lioren’s back rested against the old brick wall of the dark alleyway he found himself in. His breathing borious as he recalled the events that nded him there.

  The pain in his chest where that woman had kicked him had abated somewhat. That strike had knocked his lights out for a time, and when he opened his eyes, he’d almost wished he hadn’t.

  If it weren’t for this renewed body of his, Lioren was sure that a hit like that would have been his end right then and there.

  After waking up to the storm abating, he saw the armored chimera limping away and the cat-like girl he’d failed in protecting ying in the ground, a serene expression on her face despite the mangled state of her body.

  A pang of guilt assaulted him as the memory of his actions struck him like a brick to the head.

  Not only had he failed in protecting her as he’d said he would. But as soon as he heard those strange sounds approaching, his instincts ordered him to flee like wounded prey.

  A series of erratic teleportations ter, he found himself completely drained of energy. Falling unconscious for a second time.

  What a shameful excuse of a mage you are Lioren. He chastised himself. Your master would have been disappointed…

  The memory of his st time seeing her exploded vividly in his mind, causing another wave of guilt to wash over him. And a headache to form violently in the back of his head.

  Lioren was gd that he was already seated as he closed his eyes and pinched the top of his nose.

  His previous dream intermingled with his memories, turning them fuzzy, hard to visualize, making remembering them a fight in itself.

  ***

  He saw himself surrounded on all sides by that ever present mist. Always shifting both in shape and color.

  It was becoming one with him. Remaking him, over and over. Unmaking and reassembling every atom. Every time the mist swirled, every time it changed in hue, so did him.

  The only constant was change, since the moment he was taken by that force his master conjured. He’d been remade hundreds, thousands, millions even billions of times.

  Lioren remembered it sting for an eternity and an instant at the same time. Then…

  Then he felt his body stop to change. And for a fraction of a second, he was allowed to think, to actually be himself, floating in an existence between worlds where time and space were mere suggestions.

  And during that fraction of a second, Lioren felt at peace. No worries weighing him down for the first time in a thousand million eternities. No guilt, no pain, no regrets.

  Sadly, it was just that. A fraction of a second. After which, a familiar force took hold of his renewed body, and with a violent pull, he was taken away from his peaceful cocoon.

  The first instants were the worst. He couldn’t remember how to speak, how to move, how to beg for help. All he could feel was the cold ground under him, and the torrential rain pouring over him.

  “Where…?” His hoarse voice felt as if it belonged to someone else. The tongue he spoke sounding both alien and familiar to his ears.

  Lioren was absolutely certain that this was not the nguage he spoke before being taken by the mist. Yet he could also feel himself thinking in this new strange dialect.

  A chill ran down his body as he noticed his naked condition.

  Before he had time to even feel ashamed, the pinkish mist he’d come to consider as a part of himself materialized all around him. Moved by his own subconscious. And in a familiar flow of energy, Lioren marveled as it dug in the background of his mind, taking from his memories the images of his old combat uniform from the Order of Magi. The color representing his range as an advanced level mage, and the golden engravings a commemoration of every accomplishment he’d achieved.

  One instant he felt naked and vulnerable, and the next, he was once again cd in familiar robes. For a moment, the nostalgic confidence Lioren always felt when patrolling streets of a city he could barely remember came back to him.

  Is this nguage a result of the same process? Just in reverse? Did the mist pnt it in my memory? The young man wondered.

  Lioren closed his eyes and focused on the sensation of his mana flowing through his body. But something was wrong. No, not wrong, different.

  His mana was still there,of that he was sure. But instead of the warm tickles he felt every time he channeled it, there was this… sound. Like a resonance vibrating all inside himself. Unfamiliar.

  He tried to activate one of the most basic spells he could remember from his training, a communication skill to any member of the Order in a retively wide radius.

  Nothing. But not a normal kind of nothing. It didn’t really feel like the spell failed to reach anyone. Although his mana certainly moved at his command, he wasn't sure if the spell even managed to activate at all.

  That’s unsettling… Lioren pondered, as the weight of the possibility nded on him.

  His ruminations were interrupted by the sound of a deafening roar.

  For an instant, Liorel felt the cold cws of fear grab onto his soul. The gruesome memory of an obsidian monstrosity making itself present in the back of his mind.

  But he waved it off almost as fast as it came. This sound was nothing like the one he remembered.

  In fact, it was it’s opposite. This roar defied death, it didn’t celebrate it. It was a challenge, a statement, and a plea for help.

  So Lioren moved, for the first time in eons, for the first time in minutes, he pushed himself forward with a speed he didn’t remember having before.

  When the wind of the storm temporarily dawned, he instinctively pushed forward the pinkish vapor from within himself. And like with the nguage, Lioren knew with absolute certainty that wherever the mist reached, so would he. For he was the mist.

  He manifested himself a few meters forward, as far as the wind allowed his mist to reach, the faint ring of a bell resonating in the back of his mind after the teleportation was complete.

  He took the world around him as he moved. Alien brick buildings surrounded him, the smell of metal, dirt, oil and a thousand other sensations overwhelmed him.

  The buzzing of strange lights passed him by, powered not by fire or magic.

  Strange metal carriages rested unmoving in various marked spaces. And again, his mind felt the strange sensation of the mist filling gaps in his knowledge. As the name ‘car’, and ‘parking lot’ made themselves present were moments ago were only questions.

  The sound of combat was getting closer. So he pushed forward, leaving sightseeing for ter.

  When he found the building from where all the ruckus was coming from, he started looking around for an entry, only to hear the sound of battle come to a sudden halt. Fearing the worst, he didn’t bother surrounding it to find the main entrance.

  An open window high in the brick wall facing one of those ‘parking lots’ was his fastest option, but with the way the wind was hitting this side of the building, his mist teleportation was not gonna cut it.

  Without thinking, he leaped upwards. His rational mind chastised him for such a foolish attempt, but it was quickly silenced as he felt the ground below him protest at the stress it was being subjected to.

  Almost effortlessly he covered the distance between the ground to the elevated window in an instant, grabbing the edge of the opening and looking inside.

  What he saw confused and terrified him at the same time.

  Two undoubtedly female figures were at the center of a messy battlefield. Pieces of wood, steel brick adorned the bloodstained floor.

  Their figures unnaturally beautiful. Like marble sculptures of ancient goddesses, their muscles intimidating and awe inspiring in equal measure.

  One of them was undoubtedly in a worse state than the other.

  Shaking himself from shock from the scene, he realized something odd about those women.

  Their features weren’t entirely human…

  Humanoid chimeras! Fighting one another no less! Lioren marveled in horrified pity.

  Chimeras weren’t unheard of back home. He remembered as much. But they were nothing even close to the breathtaking beings he was seeing. Mostly the result of mad mages attempting to mix the essence of two or more poor victims into something that may end up useful in war, or as a sve for grunt work.

  But their existence was a short and miserable one. For that reason, they were prohibited.

  And human chimeras? That would guarantee whoever responsible for creating such a thing a slow and painful death as punishment.

  Lioren observed as one of the two beings started walking towards the other. Her intentions clear in her eyes.

  The other poor soul was a wreck. Bloodied and battered. One of her arms twisted in an unnatural angle and one of the ears on top of her head was missing. Blood pumping out of the wound at the rhythm of her heartbeat.

  Trying to remain unnoticed, he started letting his mist fill the inside of the building. He felt his instincts calling to him again and a familiar pull from his energy as the mist responded to his intentions. Changing its color until it was as transparent as the air itself.

  He felt the tug on his mana at this. Apparently making his mist invisible was gonna be an expensive endeavor. But he couldn’t risk it. So, with another command from his mind, and another chunk of his energy drained, he ordered the mist to also have no smell. Just to be sure.

  His pn was to teleport himself behind the armored one and maybe try to take her out silently. But as he saw her raise her cw in front of her fallen counterpart, Lioren realized that he had to act now or all his efforts would be in vain.

  There wasn’t nearly enough coverage for him to teleport where he wanted inside the building.

  He needed to make time!

  So he pulled himself and jumped from the window. His own mist absorbed the sound as he rolled with a grace that almost felt as if it belonged to someone else.

  The same process that made his current clothes appear from thin air before now manifested a mask on his face the instant he thought of keeping his identity a secret before announcing himself.

  Noticing that, an idea came to his mind and he tried to activate an old spell he’d used innumerable times before.

  He concentrated his mana on his vocal cords to try and change his voice to a deeper, more intimidating one.

  I better mask my voice too, just in case.

  To his frustration though, he didn’t feel the familiar sensation on his throat at all. Only a small tingle of energy flowing aimlessly through his body.

  As if noticing his discontent, the now invisible veil surrounding him changed in density in front of his mouth, a faint vibration in the air the quiet guarantee that if his voice wasn’t going to get deeper, it would at least be somewhat distorted.

  Better than nothing. Lioren concluded, resigned.

  “Well, I’ll be damned! The first people I find are some chimera girls beating the crap out of each other. Must be my lucky day!” Lioren made his presence known to the two women, who immediately looked his way, wide eyed as if looking at a ghost. But for a fraction of a second, both of them had something more than just surprise in their eyes. Something… predatory?

  It was gone as fast as it appeared.

  He made eye contact with the colpsed girl, trying to better understand the situation, all the while his invisible mist continued expanding its reach, at an armingly high cost from his mana.

  What he saw convinced him that he was doing the right thing by intervening.

  The eyes of the cat-like girl that y on the ground were nothing like the cold blooded ones from the armored one in front of her.

  Green orbs like spring leaves, radiating life, hope, joy… and fear. A plea.

  “I see,” he nodded.

  After gazing at the hypnotic eyes of the poor girl on the ground for what felt like hours, the third person in the room broke him out of his daydreaming with a dramatic sigh.

  “Fuck me sideways, this job keeps getting worse.” The curious looking armored chimera decred, “killing a hero is one thing, but a cutie? Fuck, I’ll need a raise after this.”

  What? Hero? I mean, I know this entrance is quite dramatic, but I wouldn't go so far as to call myself a hero… Lioren was slightly taken aback by the comment, but after a second his confusion only grew.

  Wait a second, she was going to kill that girl on the ground. There’s no doubt about that. So would that make me the ‘cutie’? Uh?

  Before she could even see his confused expression, she focused back again on her soon to be victim, “I’ll deal with you after I’m done with her, baby.”

  “I promise to not make it hurt.”

  Lioren felt the world suddenly start moving in slow motion as the armored chimera raised her cw with murderous intent against the defenseless feline on the ground.

  What followed was fueled purely by the same instincts that’ve been guiding him since he nded on that cold ground a few minutes ago. Only taken to a whole new level.

  Gone was the muscle memory of years of arduous combat training. This moment required something more.

  He didn't move, he just banished. Appearing just in front of the upcoming devastating attack. The righteous need to inflict justice on those wanting to do others harm yanked at his mana reserves hard, and in less than a blink, he could feel the yer of mist closer to him refuse the cws moving blindingly fast towards his face.

  The moment the attack made contact with his skin, Lioren knew not only how this new power worked, but how to replicate it if need be. The feeling of the mist filling the gaps in his knowledge almost familiar at this point.

  A different bell than the ones he heard when teleporting echoed in the building after the newfound spell took effect.

  Gods! What even was that! Lioren allowed himself the faintest of moments to marvel at his own handiwork as the Chimera woman nded on the ground a few meters away. I’m gonna need to name that spell ter!

  What followed was a shameful demonstration of his own hubris.

  The high of the newly discovered spells, and the sorry state his opponent appeared to be in at the start of their confrontation made him get cocky.

  He didn’t pay attention to his mana reserves as he dodged each attack with a finesse he’d never been able to before. The power of the blows he was able to nd, even without the use of spells made him feel like this renewed body of his was capable of anything.

  So he stopped paying attention to his environment, to his positioning, to his opponent's strategy and obvious taunts.

  Her deceivingly cunning fighting style.

  And ultimately, her breathtaking kicking ability. Literally.

  ***

  Lioren sighed as another pang of guilt assaulted him.

  One hit was all it took to put me down. And there I was, feeling like the king of the world.

  His mental self-fgeltion was cut short by distant footsteps. The mist twirled weakly between his fingers.

  The footsteps sounded muffled as if someone was walking barefoot but unbothered to remain silent. “Hello? Is someone there?” A feminine voice called out.

  He was at an advantage point, hidden in the shadows provided by a broken light in the alleyway, half of his body undercover by a big metal trash container.

  The young mage decided to peek discreetly at the stranger moving his way, as to not give away his position.

  Another chimera.

  What in the seven hells is going on? He wondered. This was getting ridiculous.

  Dog ears adorned the middle aged woman coming his way. A brown fluffy tail swaying idly behind her.

  Suddenly, the dog woman stopped, seemingly transfixed by something. Her head going up and her nostrils opening and closing as if sniffing the air.

  “I-is that a BOY I smell?” Her eyes were now big as ptes.

  Uh? Lioren intelligently wondered.

  Her movement became more frantic, almost predatory as her search resumed, “mmm yes I smell it… BOYSMELL!!!”

  Alright, time to go… he decided, not really wanting to understand what was going on anymore. Besides, the dog woman was starting to get dangerously close to his position anyway.

  Lioren made sure to be as quiet as possible as he made haste out of there. The st thing he heard her say was something about going ‘BOYCRAZY’, whatever that meant.

  He continued running through alien dirty alleyways, until he started hearing the unmistakable sound of people moving in a city. Only magnified a thousandfold.

  He allowed the noise to guide his steps as he approached the end of the narrow passage.

  The moment he reached it, he was faced with an explosion of light and sound like nothing he’d ever seen before. His mouth agape as the mist worked overtime filling gaps in his vocabury for ‘Neon lights’, ‘Advertisement’, ‘Personal drones’, ‘Crowd control barriers’, ‘Smartgss signage’.

  ‘Holograms’ flickered across the skyline, towering women in heroic poses, selling everything from energy drinks to self-defense gauntlets.

  Children ughed as they passed by on floating skateboards, some wearing helmets shaped like animal heads.

  ‘Billboards’ blinked to life as he approached, reacting to his presence. One scanned him and changed to dispy a “Men’s Health” product line, showing floral motifs and soft pastel colors.

  The hell is a ‘moisturizing tonic’? Lioren thought, dazed.