TBATE- A force to be reckoned with

Fallout

"Excuse me, WHAT?"

How could he still be alive?

He nodded, "Due to my affinity with Vivum, I can sense when someone dies. I can feel the very life seeping away from their bodies. In Reynolds' case, that did not happen. He just simply disappeared. The ring tried to transmit something to you, but your emotional state was too chaotic to interpret it. And that fire wasn't nearly strong enough to burn someone to nothingness."

"The ring.... tried to transmit something?" I echoed.

"Yes, likely a location."

"A location... yeah the ring was supposed to teleport him to a safe place." I muttered, realizing that he might have actually survived.

"Don't get your hopes too high, for all we know the ring might have sent him to Alacrya." And just like that, my good mood vanished.

"It won't, it's supposed to send him somewhere safe." I protested.

"Do you really think anywhere in Dicathen is safe anymore?" he retorted, rolling his eyes.

"..."

"..."

"Fuck."

"Yep, you should have been more specific when you made the ring."

I sighed, "I can hardly do anything about that now."

"Yeah, you need to accept it and go looki-" he stopped abruptly, "Who's there?"

"I come in peace," a voice called back, a very familiar voice.

"Erebus." I acknowledged, "Surprised to see you here."

"How could I not come after the stunt you pulled?" he defended himself, "Especially since you managed to keep it stable this time."

"What was that form anyways?" I decided to ask, why hadn't I been told about this before?

"A mugetsu is what that was." he muttered under his breath, and before I could question any further, he continued, "That was you using more of the Key's power, think of it as a... Phase 3."

"So, does that mean I can use it again?" I asked hopefully.

"Fuck no, I'm not sharing your backlash again."

I turned to face him, "Wait, you did what?"

"You heard me."

"To answer your question," Erebus began, "not anytime soon. Unless your friend decides to help you control it again."

"Not gonna happen, that hurt like a bitch."

"What about the... more primal phase 3?" I asked, referring to the form I took during the attack on Xyrus.

"You can try using that form, but the backlash will be much harsher than normal Shadowsoul," Erebus answered. "Personally, I wouldn't recommend it unless you have no choice."

"I see..."

"Erebus," the voic- you know what? I'm gonna nickname him Markus, better than calling him 'the voice'.

Anyways he asked Erebus, "What are you hiding from us?"

"There's a lot of things I haven't told you, you'll need to be more specific." Erebus replied, shrugging.

Markus scoffed, "Something connected to us, something we have the right to know."

"..." Erebus didn't answer for a while.

"You'll know in due time."

"..." I stared at him in deadpan, "Why do all of you Marchosias need to be so cryptic?"