Shades of the New World

Chapter 112: Birthing

"Arza's in one of the dorm rooms with a private training area. I'm going to be staying with an instructor, since he offered to teach me about magic privately," Evin answered.

"Is that so? Congratulations, then," Ssatsko said.

"Well, I just came here to tell you to keep an eye on Arza. Oh, and also, you'll probably hear rumors about me killing an instructor," Evin said as calmly as he could.

"Wait what? Is it true?" Ssatsko immediately turned serious.

"Yes but it was an accident," Evin said and wanted to continue, but Ssatsko's eyes widened and he leaned in closer.

"Are you trying to run away?"

"No-no-no. I just came from a meeting that included Zorrik and some two other bigshots. Their names were Nasst and Deminte. I explained what had happened, and they deemed it an accident. Anyway, the elder named Nasst got interested in me and decided to train me personally. Do you know anything about them?" Evin asked.

"Not really Do you know how he looks like?" Ssatsko asked.

"It's an elderly-looking man with two horns, World of Space and the Heavy World," Evin said.

"Doesn't ring a bell, do you want me to ask around?" the old man offered.

"Nah, it's fine, I'll be meeting him now, so I'll ask him myself," Evin said and bid his farewells. 

He then headed back to the area designated for mages, while taking a considerable detour around the coffee stall he had just visited.

But as he walked through one of the less occupied narrow streets, he could feel someone's eyes on his body, faithfully following his every move. His instincts would spur up randomly like this ever since he had received the Blood's will from the Vulpine Mother.

'Who could it be?' Evin wondered as he stealthily absorbed World energies from his Channeling artifact. He had kept the thing filled with energy throughout the day, since he didn't wish to be met with sudden surprises unprepared. He had enough lodestones for the thing, anyway, so why not?

Filling his eyes with Life energy to make it a bit sharper, he stealthily surveyed the surrounding streets. 

The hidden threat did not make him wait long, as the shimmer of a long dagger materialized above Evin's head and stabbed down. Evin dodged to the best of his abilities, and took a glance at his assailant, trying to guess at who they were. 

It was a pointless move, since whoever the assailant was, he or she was covered in black, leaving only their eyes open. On their helms, there were two protrusions with the shape of a horn, to presumably hide the color of their horns. Evin debated just running away, but Rith's state inside his shadow was telling him that he could win this fight.

[Do you have anything?] he asked Rith. 

[Nope, but I can tell that he's quite weak,] the Cosmic replied lazily.

Evin pulled out his favorite spear from his storage and tried to wake up Karan. But instead of the sleepy voice of the skinshifter, a painful groan resounded from inside his shadow.

[Oh fuck, I think I'm giving birth,] Karan said suddenly.

[What?] Evin asked, confused.

[The man's gonna stab you in the face~] Rith's words forced Evin to focus on the man in front of him.

The man's figure shimmered slightly as he dashed, making it hard for Evin to focus on the person.

Evin tried suffocating the man, but somehow, the man wasn't affected in the slightest and kept dashing without issue. 

'They know what I'm capable of,' Evin didn't bother with the spell anymore and focused on keeping the man at bay. Since he had a spear against the man's knife, he had an overwhelming advantage over the man. He only needed to make sure that the man wouldn't close enough that the spear's length becomes a hindrance to Evin.

Making himself slightly heavier, Evin stabbed at the incoming man. The assailant dodged, but Evin swiped with his spear, aiming at the enemy's neck. Evin's spear was a bit special since instead of a spear-tip at the end, it had a short blade, so Evin could also slash with it, instead of just stabbing. The man couldn't ignore the attack, so he blocked with his dagger and grabbed Evin's spear.

After which, the man tried to pull the spear and alongside with it, Evin.

'Shit,' the boy cursed and let go of the weapon. Instead of creating distance, Evin pulled out another dagger and closed the distance. Since the unwieldy spear was now in the hands of the enemy, Evin could get up close and personal without worry. 

The enemy was a bit shocked, but instinctively raised his hand with the dagger. After a few exchanges of blows, the two realized that Evin had the advantage in battle. Evin's spear was also on the ground, since it was just a liability in super close combat.

Evin's biggest advantage was that his size was much smaller than the man, while also being extremely powerful thanks to the World of Life. It was extremely hard for the man to strike the boy successfully because of that. And instead, one by one, wounds appeared on the assailant's body.

Evin also noticed that the man was not using any magic, so Evin could tell that it was a normal person, or a Hornbearer of some sorts. Judging from the fact that the man appeared out of thin air in the middle of the street, Evin guessed that one of the horns was from the Dark World.

'Or perhaps there's a special magical device used to cloak its users. The man didn't use Darkness at all since then, after all,' Evin thought.

Realizing his situation, Evin decided to press on to his advantage. But before he got to that part, the man pulled out something from his chest pocket and threw it to the ground. Evin didn't know what the object did, and he didn't wish to test it out on his body, so he promptly dashed away.

After a loud bang, brilliant light filled the small street, forcing Evin to fall into his own shadow, as he didn't wish to be attacked by the man, while he was blinded.

A few seconds later, after realizing that the man had run away, Evin got out from his shadows. A crowd had gathered nearby, intrigued by the sound of fighting. Some had seen Evin's fight from the beginning and were impressed at the child's skills. 

Evin didn't bother with them and went to pick his spear up from the ground.

[Karan, you okay?] Evin asked.

Evin could hear sounds of the man grunting and groaning occasionally during the fight, which was honestly a bit distracting, but since the man was allegedly "giving birth" Evin didn't wish to bring it up. 

[P-please give your shhadow more m-mana. I don't want to give b-birth outside,] the man stuttered through some sniffles.

'Is my shadow a goddamn birth room?' Evin complained, but did as the man requested. 

[Please don't look] the man then pleaded.

Evin sighed and floated upwards. He then flew away towards the Tribe's outskirts. Exiting the town under the surprised gazes of others, he found some remote place and put down his Shadow Zone, making it slightly smaller but extra thick. There were no pulses or anything that seemed living inside the shadow, since Evin was just using the spell to guard from scrying eyes. Rith also got out of Evin's shadow, since she was starting to feel very awkward.

'Ah, maybe it wasn't the best idea to get to a deserted place right after I was attacked,' Evin thought, but hoped that the enemies would get confused and think it's a bluff. Besides, he still had Karan to worry about. 

He asked if he could help with something, but was only asked to stay still and don't do anything.

After two hours, the groans had stopped, and Evin asked Karan if he could look inside.

[I'll get out myself to show you,] the skinshifter said and appeared beside Evin with another metal skinshifter that seemed to be made entirely out of some black metal.

Evin could feel traces of the Dark World running through the metal, reminding of the Luminous Sorbothium veins that the City of Nevernight had. 

"Was it created with some Dark affinity because it spent most of its time inside my shadow?" Evin asked.

[I don't know, man... I still can't believe I split into fucking two,] Karan said with a shiver. 

"What's it gonna do?" Evin asked with confusion.

[It's a completely separate entity from me, so I can't really tell. Try touching it and creating a connection with it,] Karan answered.

Evin picked the skinshifter into his hands and the mass of black metal turned into a slim black spear that was identical to the one that Evin was using an hour ago. 

He then tried to send his thoughts to the skinshifter, like he would usually talk with Karan. In reply, he received a set of vague but familiar thoughts.

[Mother]

[Bright]

[I'm scared]

[Safe in mother's hands]

[Want dark] 

The thoughts also had the voice of a little girl.

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