Tread Lightly – Among Monsters And Men

The second that Alexos ends his warning for the battle very, very soon to come, all three of us, Virgil, Earl, and I immediately start moving. I spin around and look for how to escape the ravine. We already have what we came for, so we can leave right now. The only problem with leaving is that Alexos is going to be forced to fake a battle with us.

He said he was going to pull his strikes, but the man is still a 6th Sigiled, an incredibly powerful master of illusions. Additionally, based on what he just did to Virgil, a master of close-quarters combat as well. Fuck that demon for watching over him constantly, forcing the man to act in such a way that will keep him alive and useful to it. Insane and Bloodthirsty is the only way Alexos stays alive under Hura’s thumb.

Any other way will get him killed for either being useless, insubordinate or rebelling.

I realize that I am truly starting to believe his words, and I cannot understand why. But I dismiss those thoughts, they can wait. We need to go. Now.

I curse as for the first few moments of my search I cannot find a way out of the ravine, but then an idea comes to mind. I did just learn a new way to use my Ether. Chainlink Boots.

Immediately after this idea comes to mind I call for Virgil and Earl to group up beside me. Then, I begin to furiously recreate my newest skill. The first one I’ve ever truly made. Stealth didn’t count, it is just a much more powerful version of Sneak.

“Get over here, I have something that can get us out of the ravine in time.”

Both of my companions listen to me and move close but they look at me oddly. Once the Ether spins, twists, and rotates into the cloudy yet tight Ether of Chainlink Boots within my feet, I grab the two of them by their armpits. Then, I simultaneously create another flow of Ether alongside my Chainlink Boots, Strugglers Defiance.

Ether rushes from my core deep in the back of my skull and suffuses my whole body before rapidly infesting and expanding the chains that hold me down like a bloating corpse. I feel every part of me sharpen and focus as I use my heightened strength from my Ether to lift my friends and plant a foot on the sandstone wall of the ravine.

I briefly turn to look at Alexos who is standing with his arms crossed and a smile on his lips. I am still not entirely sure whether what he said is true or not, but I do heavily lean toward it being so. Even if it is, though, can I forgive him? I don’t know. But what I do know, is that this fight is likely to be telling.

My focus turns back to climbing up this incredibly steep part of the ravine. It is incredibly difficult and takes all of my strength just for each step I take, not because my friends are too heavy, but because of the angle I’m moving in. The horizontal steps are activating muscles I didn’t think I had as the two of my friends start yelling at my movements.

‘What the hell are you doing, Wyatt? Oh, what the fuck!”

“Damn, you learned something new already? Hey, hey, hey, don’t drop me!”

Halfway up the sandstone wall, a piece of the wall cracks off and breaks underneath the weight of the chains in my boots that hold me horizontally onto the wall. The fallen piece of stone makes us almost fall the eight or so feet I’ve climbed up already, but I’m able to catch myself with a boot that is quickly replanted into the wall.

The short moment of weightlessness freaks out both of my companions as I tighten my hold on them and continue climbing. I quickly reach the top despite how treacherous it is to walk up a wall with holding onto two people. The weight makes it take so much more Ether to keep the boots on my feet running as I feel the strain in my mind. Making Ether that bears my signature is difficult, and this walk-up the wall is testing my limits.

By the time I reach the top of the wall after just twenty seconds or so of climbing, I am already panting and gasping for air. The second I’m clear of the edge, I drop Virgil and Earl as I start coughing and quickly release the flow of Chainlink Boots. The newest skill I’ve learned takes a lot out of me. Mostly from my mind that was already fortified by Ironheart. It makes me wonder whether or not I should have been able to do what I just did.

I’ll have to bring it up to Virgil. I’m sure he’ll know.

After just a few seconds of us being on top of the ravine, a floating illusory hourglass appears in front of us. Alexos’ hourglass. It shows that roughly half of the total sand has fallen by now. This discovery makes Earl and Virgil move with intense focus and drive as I try to recover from the brief stint of pushing my limits.

Virgil is the first to move as he scrambles to his feet, pulls out his weapons, and immediately starts to prepare for combat. The man swipes several rounds of ammunition with his Necrosis like he’s petting a dog. Casual and lovingly. Then he loads each of the rounds into his lever action rifle.

The Darkstalker then looks around us in every direction, searching for something. It is still the middle of the night with only bits of moonlight, so only Virgil, with his Sigils that delve into the dark, can see far enough to look around. In the end, I only notice what he’s looking for because he calls it out.

“The Nightmare is seven hundred yards southeast. We need to focus on making our getaway. Both because Alexos seems to want to let us go and because we have completed our mission. It’s time to get back.”

I nod to his words and so does Earl as I finally recover enough to move, which is a good thing because Earl is taking his job as a getaway man seriously.

The Gambler is putting bits of dynamite all over the sand where we came from the ravine. Then, I see him pull out a bag of sand that he uses to cover all the explosives with, making them invisible to the naked eye as they are beneath the sand. I try to stay behind him as we move south along the ravine toward the Nightmare to make our getaway. It takes a few moments for me to recover from the climb up, though.

Earl also pulls out several vials of different liquids alongside minerals as he drops the minerals into the vials. Instantly, the few vials he pulled out begin to bubble and emit smoke before he tosses them carefully between where the bits of dynamite are. The precise throws keep anything from exploding prematurely while the vials he mixed together start to emit huge amounts of white smoke.

At this point, Virgil has finished loading his guns and I’ve prepared all my Ether, Adrenaline Surge is now active alongside Strugglers Defiance, and I feel full of power. Every movement I take is effortless and quick. It allows me to pick up Earl as he is distracted with his hands and run toward Virgil who has also begun the sprint for the Nightmare.

Alexos is fast, inhumanly fast, and that means we need every second we can get from him. Earl resists me picking him up, but quickly relents and just focuses on doing whatever Alchemist’s crazy shit he’s doing.

As I haul ass as fast as I possibly can without just using Struggler Gasp and making me useless after it’s run out, I hear stone crumble ominously behind us.

The sound makes me slightly turn my head to look at our rear, and I see the illusory hourglass has disappeared and now stands a man in its place. One that I know is Alexos, but the entire face and outfit are different, the illusions the man uses constantly have returned. He is back to protecting his appearance. The smoke that Earl made only slightly obscures the man’s presence, not enough to truly help, though, sadly. It doesn't seem as though the smoke is all that useful.

He turns and faces us with a laugh as he returns to the facade of insanity he wears for Hura. The Phantom Pain has returned.

“Ah, where are the little ones going? Do you not know that I will catch you? That little trick of hiding from me won’t work again. I see you all now.”

The master of illusions begins to walk toward us as a crunch resounds from beneath his foot. Shock spreads across his face like a lightning bolt for a split second as a huge series of explosions rumble across the sand dunes. Instantly, his entire visage is covered with sand, clouds, and rock as explosions go off constantly.

The pounds of dynamite that Earl carried with him almost knock me to my feet, but the trusty precision from my Philosopher Sigil keeps me on my feet and running just barely. The same cannot be said for Virgil, however, as I see him fall straight onto his face from the quake.

I speed up as much as I can as I feel my entire body ache in exertion. Then, I quickly catch up to the Darkstalker, and in one clean motion, I pull him to his feet and make him restart his run. Virgil nods thankfully at me as he runs alongside me.

Earl who is on my shoulder is still throwing random shit backward that I turn slightly to check on. I see that now after the explosions, whatever Earl threw to create smoke has increased its output exponentially. The entire area behind us is covered in white smoke that blocks vision entirely.

Only now am I truly thankful we brought Earl. I take back my nag on the smoke. He was right, his knowledge and skills actually do help a lot even if he can’t directly fight. I also notice that the objects that Earl through are small little things that resemble firecrackers. I’m not sure how they’re gonna help, but at this point, I think he knows what he’s doing.

We get about halfway to the Nightmare before I hear Earl curse from my shoulder. I follow his audible curse with my eyes and see Alexos stumble out from the smoke unharmed. The illusion doesn’t trick me though. I’ve seen the man do this before. Fake injury or exhaustion with illusions.

Alexos is surely hurt from those explosions but he’s hiding it behind many layers. Like he does with everything. He is truly good at hiding injuries, however, as the man doesn’t pause for a moment before finding us with his eyes now that he’s out of the smoke. He then begins to sprint at us with incredible speed, sand disappearing beneath him twice as fast as it does beneath me.

Fuck. I stop looking behind me and solely focus on making it to the Nightmare. I need every ounce of strength I can gather. I consider shifting my Daydream, but I toss that thought aside as I settle on just focusing on my Ironheart. I prime my mind's reinforcing strength on my tendons and muscles within my legs as well as using it to make my heart beat faster. I cannot handle an injury or not moving at my best. That and I figure a faster heartbeat will give me more energy to move.

My assumption is proven correct as I feel a rush of adrenaline flow through me that blocks out all the external noise. I can still hear it, but it no longer garners my attention, allowing me to look at my destination with rapt attention.

I am able to completely block out the sounds of the firecrackers exploding beneath Alexos which are causing him to slow and stumble. I am able to block out the sounds of Alexos cursing and mocking us. I am able to ignore the shock and surprise from Alexos as Earl pulls out a slingshot and fires small explosives at Alexos.

It’s at this moment, this brief period of clarity, that I realize how to beat the master of illusions. You have to make it so that his illusions don’t matter. That his win or defeat doesn’t depend on the perceptions or minds of men. Only the preparations that were already laid. He cannot stop a trap from slicing his head off if he doesn’t know it’s there.

The truth he makes with his Ether is only a facade for the minds of people. Not the reality we live in. No matter how he tries, Alexos cannot change the true world with our illusions. The Phantom Pain appearing out of nowhere now makes sense. He doesn’t ever give people the chance to prepare for him. When he does that, he’s invincible.

Someone like Earl is his perfect counter. A highly intelligent man capable of creating a wide variety of traps, contraptions, and preparations that can aid in felling just about anything. The minute Alexos gave us to prepare is special, I can feel it. He didn’t just give us a chance to escape, he made himself vulnerable.

I feel my brain start to overheat as I fix my distraction. My thoughts about how to best beat him transfer to aiding my movement, perfecting every step and every movement on the uneven sand. I get distracted far too easily.

Up ahead of me, I see Virgil reach the Nightmare. Before he can get moving with the Nightmare, he has to unleash it from the rock we tied it to. So in one circular motion, he cuts the lead and picks himself up by swinging his body over the frame of the giant horse.

Virgil makes the horse move in such as way that would pass by us, but not head toward Alexos. The circular motion that the man moves in makes me change how I’m running so that I will reach the upcoming location of the horse, not its current one.

Gradually, I approach the Nightmare with Earl on my back, but I can also hear the inhuman Alexos near us. The sound of Alexos’ boots coming close make me realize that I won’t make it to the Nightmare before Alexos makes it to me.

So, a quick decision is made. One that deep within me, I want to happen even after everything I heard from Alexos. The built-up hate pouring out of me in one fell swoop.

I toss Earl from my shoulder toward the Nightmare, and I face Alexos.

“Go! Get on the horse! I’ll catch up!”

Earl looks at me confused before the sound of Virgil’s yell hits him too as the Nightmare-human duo passes by.

“Listen to him! Hop on!”

Before Earl hops on the horse, however, I quickly draw my daggers and palm my new brass knuckles to meet Alexos up close. Just how I like it. The master of illusions moves to my side and disappears before my very eyes, using his skills to evade my perception. Instead of looking around to find him, though, I trust my instincts. I trust my knowledge of the Phantom Pain.

Instantly, I turn around to my back and swing my daggers, hoping to meet the man’s eyes with the blades. I know he will attack my back. That’s who he is. A coward. And my knowledge proves true, sparks fly in front of my eyes from the blade that Alexos holds in his hands that meets mine.

Satisfaction and righteous anger flow through my whole being as I realize how much I’ve been yearning for this. As the Bloody Palm yearns for survival, I’ve yearned for this man’s head. And the truth that he’s told me changes very little. He is still the reason Edmund is dead, just that he is now one of three instead of two.

Instead of it being both our faults, a third target for my hate has emerged. The Demon Of Storms. Who I will kill, just as I am trying to kill Alexos right now.

My hate becomes a fount of torrential strength as I throw Alexos back with my strength, the man stumbling back from our clash to catch himself.

He snickers after he recovers and darts to my other side, trying to catch me off guard. But he quickly backs off as I strike out at him. He creates sounds that inundate me from all around as he backsteps, creating dozens of identical madmen.

“Been a while since we’ve done this, aye? Last time we crossed blades, you were but a babe when it comes to this world of ours. Now you're a young pup, ripe for harvesting. Oh, how time flies.”

Each word of his comes from a different direction as dozens of him appear around me, confusing me. Indecision grips me as countless Alexos stalk around me, sand twisting beneath their feet, air coming in and out of their lungs, and eyes constantly moving. The illusions are all perfect and I cannot tell the difference between them. I want to trust my instincts, but they tell me he's all over. That he is everywhere. That he will hurt me anywhere.

Out of nowhere, one of the Alexos attacks my side with a wavy dagger. I just assume this one to be an illusion, and instead of dodging, look around for another that is about to attack. This instinct is shown to be a mistake as I feel pain bloom around my side. A dagger now remains in my side, piercing into my liver.

I stumble backward as more grating words caress my mind.

“You learn my habits, and so, I learn yours too. We all have hearts and minds, Wyatt. But oh, I cannot wait to have yours.”

The pain from my side awakens my realization of how much we need to escape. This man is far too much for us. Not enough time was given for us to prepare for his death. I look around for the Nightmare and both of my friends, but the surroundings shock me.

I am no longer in a desert. I am now in the middle of a forest. Back to where Edmund died. As I look around for the true man amongst the crowd, more copies attack me, several of which who actually cause wounds and make me bleed even more.

“You like this locale? I made it just for us, in honor of our first meeting. I figured you’d appreciate it.”

As these words from Alexos reach my ears, I see each and every one of his illusions’ pupils be replaced by pale fire. That must be the sign of Hura gazing through his eyes. Fuck, the man is only going to get more serious from here.

An idea comes to mind. One that replicates something that Alexos said just a while ago. He said that higher Sigils are more resistant to Ether, making lower Sigiled’s skills significantly weaker. That likely because of the Ether that passively flows through them, creating a barrier for foreign Ether to break through to affect them. Was he indirectly aiding me? Giving me a hint based off of what he saw a long time ago? He had to of been. He had no reason to say something like that besides for this specific moment. Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't. Again, I don't care. I just want to kill him right now.

I have a way to completely inundate myself with Ether, no? I take one last glance at the forest of where my teacher died, and I take in a deep breath.

A breath that pulls in Ether to release my bonds. One that The Cabin itself warned me against.

Air that seems almost constructed of Ether flows into me. The vast volume of my ever-expanding and powerful lungs pull in the air from over a hundred feet away.

The second that the Ether enters me, the illusions begin to crack.