Reshi laughed. Laughed with my own face. Using my voice.
And yet, his laugh, was not mine.
It was higher. Colder, crueler than anything I had ever been capable of doing.
"You are nothing soul thief. Nothing but a parasite, a fake!" it sneered, advancing on me slowly. Sliding towards me like a growing shadow.
And for each flowing step it took forward, I took one back.
Reshi sneered, holding out one hand. His fingernails were long and filthy. Within that gnarled grasp, the darkness coalesced. Growing into a long staff of inky midnight, shifting and flowing as if alive.
Lunging forward, Reshi crossed the impossible distance between us instantly.
My heart seized.
Too late I reacted. The staff shot forward in an obliterative thrust. A web of intricate mana exploding form the strike.
Barely in time, I managed to shield my chest with both arms. Yet the force of the strike was enough to send me off my feet.
Before I could register what happened, I was soaring through the darkness, flying backwards like a ragdoll.
I fell heavily, gasping for breath, sweat pouring down my face. Cold shivers running down my body.
'What the hell was that?'
That move. I had never seen anything like it. It was mesmerizing.
The way the mana had flowed, so intricately, so...perfectly. Flowing through Reshi's body into the weapon, and exploding outwards from the thrust.
It was nothing short of beautiful. Like art.
'Art....'
A long breath escaped my lips.
'It looked like art....an art made by a weapon.'
Reshi surged forward again, attacking with a relentless onslaught.
But it was as if I had been sucked into some sort of trance.
Transfixed by the way the mana flowed through his body, too transfixed to realising what I was doing should be impossible. I should never have been able to see the mana flow within Reshi's body.
I was like a flickering blade of grass, amongst a windstorm. Dodging each blow by the smallest fraction. Bare centimetres away from killing me.
And yet, not one of them landed. My mind seemed to be outside myself. Not focused on dodging. Or surviving.
Just watching.
Studying the way mana flowed through Reshi's body, how it coiled through his weapon. Surging in every strike.
'It's a Weapon art' I realised.
And with that understanding, it all clicked.
Everything came back to me, as if a dam within my mind had finally broken.
This wasn't real I realised.
None of this was.
The trial of hearts. That's what Syar had called it. I was in a trial.
Which meant...
The figure in front of me was not Arthur Gravewalker.
Nor was he Reshi.
He was....nothing. A test. A ghost formed from unformed fears.
And with that understanding, came confidence.
'I am Arthur Gravewalker.'
Reshi roared, as he lashed out. Staff spinning in his hands.
All I did was dodge. Dodge as I stole that intricate mana flow of his. The knowledge of it flowing into my mind as if it belonged.
"Fight me damn you" Reshi growled. Features contorting with rage until he looked nothing like me. His face becoming less...human.
"Face stealer" I whispered back. "That's what you called. But you're wrong. It's not your face I'm going to steal."
Reshi paused. No, it was more than that.
He froze. And in his face I saw a flicker of something else. Something scared.
This time, I took a step forward.
"I'm going to steal your Mana Art...fake."
Outstretching my hand, a staff formed in my hand.
And unlike Reshi's, mine wasn't black.
It was a blinding white, as if I grasped daylight itself within my palm. The light tore through the darkness, beating at it.
Breaking it.
"First form" I whispered, the words popping into my head as if I had always known them. "Shooting star."
Mana erupted from my body, webbing its way through my limbs.
It was unlike anything I had ever felt before.
The mana felt, alive.
Wild.
It strained against my control, each second was a desperate battle for control.
Thrusting the staff forward, mana webbed through it, bursting outwards as I struck.
Reshi dodged just in time, yet it didn't stop him from flying backwards, crashing to the floor, just as I had.
Grinning, I advanced. The light of my staff bleeding into the surroundings. Conquering it.
"Wait right there" I growled, running forwards. "Wait right there and let me devour you."
Sprinting forward we engaged in a flurry of strikes. Dodging, parrying, blocking. Evenly matched as a staffs smashed together with jarring force.
Every move was blocked.
Every attack replied by a counter.
We were evenly matched. Staffs blurring in our hands, moving like a flickering tongue as it each sought the end of the other.
After a moment, Reshi relented, skipping backwards.
Despite being exhausted myself, I refused to allow him to take a break.
Running towards him I thrust the staff forward again, as if I was going to preform 'shooting star.' Reshi tensed, scrambling to get out the way.
At the last moment I spun, whipping the side of the staff around in a powerful side swipe.
He deflected the strike, regaining his composure. Ducking I dodged his strike, spinning the staff around and sweeping his legs.
He felt heavily, staff clattering out of his hands. As soon as Reshi let go of it, it dissolved, burnt away by the light.
My light.
He looked up at me, and this time, instead of rage, I saw a question in his gaze.
"Do you not fear death?" He asked. Voice low, quiet.
"I did." I admitted. "But seeing you. Seeing me, reminded me of something. Death will only have me, when I let it. Because if I can survive, I will. Even if it's out of sheer damn spite." Leaning down, I pressed my foot on Reshi's chest, leaning so my weight pinned him to the floor.
"Listen well, fake. I'm owed a life. A real damn fucking life. And so I'll risk it all if I have to, if only so I can eventually live it."
Reshi held my gaze for a moment. Then he nodded.
In a blink, he disappeared.
The last of the darkness evaporated away.
And I found myself alone, encased in the light.
Slowly, purposefully, I opened my eyes.
Syar sat opposite me, and in his eyes, I could see worry. Yet he hid it so fast, for a moment I thought I might've imagined it.
"Well boy, how do you feel."
A wide smile broke through my face.
"Like a thief."