Irwin's Journey 514: One beat

Greldo hovered in the shadows of the towering mountain peak, staring at the clash between six Chained ships and a host of Shadow Oculithar. It had started evenly enough, with the Chained managing to dispatch a dozen of the monsters and only a few appearing from the shadows to replace them. 

Not any longer. As the ships tried to fly back out of the Graboul's Teeth mountain range and the sprawling shadows, more and more Shadow Oculithar appeared.

There goes one, Greldo thought, watching as a ship's barriers faded away and four of the Shadow Oculithar rushed onto the deck, grabbing for the different crewmen. Instantly, the battle changed from projectiles and energy beams shot through the barrier to people dodging around, blades slashing at tentacles, and panicky screams.

There's a weird form of irony here, Greldo thought, as he watched one of the Girdaim caught by a tentacle. The Shadow Oculithar ripped the small, purple being from the chest of its host before drawing it towards the point where its tentacles connected. The Girdaim vanished with a shriek. 

As the Shadow Oculithar fed, a few of the Chained tried to reach the other ships, only to fail and be dragged into the shadowrealm by the devouring demons. Greldo grimaced as he saw and felt how some of the regular Chained were eaten, some still alive.

'Think we should help them?' 

Greldo glanced at Dahlia, hovering in the shadows beside him. Her look was one of disgust mixed with anger. 

'No, but if one fails to flee, we should try and help it get away,' Greldo said, turning back to the battle. 'The more that manage to flee, the bigger the chances they will stop sending in scouting fleets.'

Dahlia didn't respond, but he knew she was upset. 

'Love, we can't unchain them, which means that to us they are the enemy,' Greldo said softly, trying to keep his own annoyance out of his voice. 'I know they are technically innocent, bound by those Guidar. But right now, they are the problem, and having them too afraid of these monsters to enter Graboul's Teeth means we have at least one area that is somewhat safe.'

Even if I'd rather wipe out these filthy things, Greldo thought, glaring at the Shadow Oculithar, as they mindlessly ripped into another ship whose barrier shield failed.

The battle raged for a few more minutes as the ships began heading back out of the mountain range, but in the end, only two managed to get away. 

'Those were Girdaim, weren't they?' Dahlia muttered. 'The same purple squids.' 

Definitely,' Greldo muttered. 'Still don't like those, even if Zeek wasn't that bad.'

'Let's hope these weren't the Faithful he spoke about,' Dahlia muttered.

Greldo grimaced as he recalled how Zeek had explained that part of his species devoured the consciousness of their hosts, instead of living in symbiosis. 

He tried to detect a sign of that, but after a few minutes, he gave up. It was too chaotic, and they couldn't risk getting close enough. Besides, no matter who they were, there was little they could do to stop it.

Greldo and Dahlia watched for a short while longer as the Shadow Oculithar dispatched the remaining people on the crashed ships. When the monsters finally faded into the shadows, and Greldo could sense them disappear to where they came, he shot forward.

'Let's see if they had anything useful,' he muttered, limiting his speed so Dahlia could keep up.

'We should look around a bit more after this,' she said, flying through the shadowrealm beside him. 'They just fed, so perhaps some more survivors managed to get in?'

Greldo nodded, realized she couldn't see him as he could her, and sighed. 'We can, but we should return soon. We've been gone for over a day, and the others will start to worry.'

'On the way back then,' Dahlia agreed. 

Greldo shot into the first ship, keeping his senses as wide as he could to pick up any more Shadow Oculithar before they could sneak up on them. They had been coming from deeper in the shadowrealm lately, making it take longer before he sensed them. Worse, he had no idea how they were even doing it, or how deep they could go.

There were barely any bodies, as those had been dragged away, but blood splatters covered the destroyed husk of a ship as Greldo drifted through it. He moved any foodstuffs he found into his own pocket of the shadowrealm, and, finding nothing else of interest, moved to the next ship.

Three shipwrecks later, moving through the captain's cabin, he pulled open a drawer in an opulent desk and let out a startled hiss. Dozens of cards, perhaps hundreds, covered the bottom of the drawer, seemingly tossed in without regard for their value. 

That's a whole lot more than we found so far, he thought, hesitating before pulling the entire drawer out of the solid wooden desk and moving it into his shadowrealm pocket. 

Wondering what kinds of cards there would be, and hoping Dahlia could tell him later, he floated into the final cargo area to stop a second time. This time, he didn't feel any joy at the sight that awaited him, but almost lashed out in anger. Chaos Whale eyeballs hung from chains, their pupils dilated as they stared into nothing, while a layer of goop covered the boarded floor.

Greldo barely realized he stepped out of the shadowrealm when the stench hit him. He gagged, stepping back into the shadowrealm as he glared at what lay in the realm.

'Greldo?'

He looked up to see Dahlia streak towards him, only to stop when she reached the hull.

'No…' she whispered, her voice a mixture of disbelief and horror.

'Why would they do this?' Greldo ground out, shaking his head.

'Soulforce,' Dahlia said, instantly. 'I can sense it from the eyes, resonating in waves.'

Greldo felt his lips curl up in a snarl as he glared at the eyes before shaking himself.

'What use is this?' he said, barely managing to keep his anger from spilling over in his question.

'I think… they might eat them?' Dahlia muttered, sounding utterly disgusted. 

Greldo turned to her in startled shock, wondering how she got to that conclusion, only to see her pointing at the other side of the hull. Following her pointed finger, he saw a table with large butchering knives and slices of eyes in bowls, almost reminiscent of fruit.

'This-' Greldo couldn't finish his words as he felt the same wave of anger from Coal. His summoned friend sent him questions that he didn't know how to answer.

I think they don't see it as hunting, he finally thought back across their bond.

'What do we do?' he asked, turning to Dahlia.

She shook her head.

Fine, Greldo thought, glaring at the hull, and thinking about those who had done it. Even if they were chained by the Guidar, the way they chose to obey was still on them, and this?

 'Let's hope these were the Faithful that Zeek told us about,' he said, glaring around. 'Because otherwise, my opinion of the Girdaim just dropped significantly.'

'What do we do with these?' Dahlia asked.

Greldo hesitated for a moment before making up his mind.

'Burn them,' he said, floating back. 'Let's just destroy this ship and the others.'

Dahlia didn't say anything, just followed him back to the deck. 

A short while later, they hovered high above the ships, in the shadow of a mountain peak, watching the column of smoke travel up. Fire rippled across the downed shipwrecks, quickly spreading.

'This is going to draw attention,' Dahlia said softly. 'Let's stay for a while to see what shows up?'

Greldo nodded, then pulled her into his shadowrealm pocket and gave her a hug. 

Dahlia blinked, then looked around before frowning at him.

"I'll pull us back out if anything happens," Greldo said. "Instead, why don't you take a look at these?"

He pulled the drawer filled with cards to him and held it out.  

Dahlia frowned as she picked up one, while her silvery Ganvil, Juul'rish, appeared beside her. 

"Oh! These are really good," she exclaimed. "I think… the bottom, look at those in the bottom."

Dahlia raised an eyebrow but began moving the cards aside on Juul'rish's instructions until her hand froze.

"What did you find?" Greldo asked, trying to see what she was staring at.

Dahlia took out a yellow-bordered card, slowly angling it so he could see it. The image showed a fish-like outline.

"Is that… a Chaos Whale?" Greldo whispered. "A summon!?"

"I think it is," Juul'rish piped, sounding incredibly excited. "Oh, I wanna see the expression of that old metal-bound oaf when he sees what we found!"

"Uh… who?" Greldo asked, still staring at the card and trying to understand its implications. 

"Ambraz! He's always so high and mighty, but now we will have finally found something before he has," she piped, flying around excitedly.

Dahlia ignored her as she looked at Greldo. "What do we do with it?"

Greldo cocked his head. "Do you want to slot it?"

Dahlia instantly shook her head. "No, besides being a summon, it also deals with soulforce in a way none of my cards do. I'm already barely able to form my heartcards as it is."

"Then we give it to Irwin when he shows up?"

Dahlia nodded, thinking Greldo could see her looking at the card with longing. 

"Or did you want to do something else with it?"

Dahlia sighed, shaking her head. "No, besides, I owe Irwin too much. I'd feel bad if I just kept the card for its novelty, while he would probably want to either slot it or gift it to one of his children."

"Likely to Zannia," Juul'rish piped. "Remember how she sang with the Chaos Whales, long ago on Mudball?"

"We should template it," Greldo suddenly said, shaking his head, wondering how he could have forgotten about that part. 

"Before we do that, we should see what Ambraz can get from the card," Dahlia said after a while. "His ability to analyse cards is far greater than either mine or Juul's."

"Ugh, not that much better," Juul'rish piped, only for Dahlia to shake her head.

"Let's go and examine the rest of the cards," she said. "This one has to have been from a Chaos Whale, which means others likely are too. I can't wait to see what we find."

"I wonder if it's possible to sideways reforge a Chaos Whale to become a Shadow Whale," Greldo thought out loud. "I mean, those Oculithar seem to have been able to adapt… either now or long ago?"

Dahlia hissed, turning a burning gaze on him. 

"What?"

"I… If Irwin can do that, I want one!" she exclaimed. 

"But you are the one who has Shadow cards," Greldo said, scratching his chin. "I thought you needed overlapping types?"

"Only to create cardseeds," Dahlia exclaimed, a pained look on her face, as she had yet to successfully create any. "He is the best cardsmith I know of, and even with my type advantage, I don't think I'd be able to sideways reforge any card just like he can."

Greldo smiled, shaking his head. "I feel you are underestimating yourself a bit here, but whatever. Well, let's keep it safe then, and we can use one of the new template cards on it later."

He glanced up at a signal from Coal, looking through the boundaries of the shadowrealm to see that a single ship was floating towards them through the mountain peaks. 

"Survivors from one of the smaller worlds," he said, moving all the cards back to safety. "Let's get them out of here before trouble arrives and bring them back to Mudball."

--

Irwin reappeared, landing on the rocky ground of one of the smaller sections of the Portal Gallery. It had three paths leading out of it, each barely fifteen feet across, too small for any ship he knew that could also travel what lay beyond.

Ambraz appeared almost immediately on his shoulder, humming happily while Irwin felt a sense of anticipation.

"Alright, let's do this!" Ambraz exclaimed, landing on the ground before them.

"You are sure we shouldn't do this in my soulscape?" Irwin asked, summoning the healing card and his hammer. 

"Definitely not. Pur'am's mere presence would influence the outcome," Ambraz grunted. "That's saying nothing about all of the people constantly moving around. You would be distracted, even if you didn't notice it. Now, you can split off one of your selves to handle everything in your soulscape, leaving you free to ignore it and work on something more important!"

Irwin laughed, shaking his head as he looked around. "Well, we do have the option of running into issues out here."

"Highly unlikely," Ambraz said. "We are weeks away from any world, we are off the normal path towards any known world, and neither of us can sense anything within a short distance. Besides, we only need an hour to sideways reforge it once. If something appears after, we can just leave."

Irwin nodded, glancing at the cursed healing card before putting it on Ambraz's back.

"Then let's see if we can change only part of the curse. Also, what would happen if we accidentally remove the curse?"

"We won't," Ambraz exclaimed. "You don't just remove a curse like that, but if we did, it would become a simple, rather lackluster healing card. Right now, it's only special because it's linked to the cursed fire part. If that is gone? Bah. Useless."

Irwin hummed as he examined the card. Ambraz had already shared the resonance song he wanted to try, but he also knew that it was only the starting point. They both had long since realized that sideways reforging was both reactionary and based on intuition, something Irwin excelled at. 

"Let's start with your suggestion and see what happens," Irwin said.

Ambraz didn't answer, but instead began humming, and Irwin followed along. Halfway through, he summoned an aura clone holding his soulstrum guitar. When he felt ready, he slammed his hammer down on the card, causing the image to appear. With it, he felt a powerful resistance from the card, as if the current resonance wanted to remain as it was, instead of being changed. 

Irwin ignored it for now as he began resonating his own soulcards to force the card towards the direction Ambraz had indicated was where the heat part of the curse sat. It took far longer than normal for the card's resonance to change enough for him to strike again, and as he did, he felt the resistance increase. 

'It's like with the Titan Sliver card.'

'I know, kid. Just keep pushing. It's barely hard yet,' Ambraz replied.

Irwin grinned as he moved from humming to singing nonsensical sounds. 

Two dozen strikes later, the resistance had become enough to make him have to resonate all of his soulcards, but even then, the card's own resonance was slowly changing, a part of it weakening while another part became far stronger.

Four strikes, that felt like lifting a very heavy boulder later, the card shuddered and settled. 

"That wasn't too hard, right?" Ambraz said, while Irwin felt a sense of joy from the Ganvil.

"Not easy either," Irwin replied, though he had to agree that, compared to creating a cardseed or reforging a diamond rank heartcard, it hadn't been that difficult. "Now, was your prediction correct?"

"Why don't you check for yourself?" Ambraz replied, sounding smug.

Irwin rolled his eyes, summoned a notebook, and put it on Ambraz's back. A moment later, it flashed, and he opened it on the newest entry.

Card: Hazy Healing

Type: Heat, Healing, Topaz, Cursed

Owner: -

The owner of this card gains the ability to increase the heat their body gives off while boosting the healing of all those within range of the heat. [Cursed] The heat increases rapidly, but as the owner's body becomes hotter, it causes small amounts of damage, which increases with the heat.

Passive: Minor regeneration increase

Passive: Minor area regeneration boost

Active: Boost your body's heat to radiate outward, increasing the area regeneration

"The wording changed," Irwin muttered, flicking back a page where the original text stood.

The owner of this card gains the ability to increase the heat their body gives off while boosting the healing of all those within range of the heat. [Cursed] As the owner's body becomes hotter, it slowly damages itself.

"So, the heat is definitely increasing, while the damage is now small amounts," he muttered. "Still, it now says the damage increases with heat?"

"Probably added because the heat now increases rapidly," Ambraz said. "I don't sense anything anywhere, so let's do it again. At this speed, it should take three more reforges to get rid of the damage completely."

Irwin hoped he was right, and he removed his booklet and placed the card back. 

Three reforges later, he felt like he'd been reforming for a week while it had barely been a few hours.

"Almost," Ambraz said, sounding weary. "It says minute now."

Irwin nodded, rubbing his head to try to get rid of the headache. The resonance song was floating around his head, and if he closed his eyes, he could almost picture the ripples in the air.

"It feels like very little has changed since last time," he said. "I thought I had it this time, but the damage part just won't dissipate."

Ambraz didn't respond, but Irwin could sense how the Ganvil's soulforce flowed around the card. After a few minutes, Ambraz sighed.

"I think each step closer to removing it makes the resistance stronger. We are going to have to make a more rigorous change, and I fear we can only do that while reforming it. But…”

"But if we fail, the card will be even harder to reforge," Irwin filled in. "Let's take a short break, then just try. If we can't fix it, the card is useless either way."

Ambraz didn't respond, while Irwin summoned a chair from his soulscape and sat down. Eyes closed, he went over the soulforce resonance of the card. After a moment, he pulled his Tablatures into his hand. With a flip, he opened the last pages, reading through the song as it had been and as it was now. It was a thing he only did when he wasn't able to find the answer to a reforge, or when he was working on cardseeds.

So, this is the melody that is the damaging part of the curse, he pondered, tracing his finger across the original song. Flipping to the next page that held his first change, he could see how the melody had been reduced in intensity and duration.

There's something I'm missing, he thought, moving to the third and fourth songs. As he examined the fourth, he cocked his head, noticing something. Flipping back to the first page, he hummed thoughtfully.

"What?" Ambraz exclaimed, landing on his shoulder.

"Look, the melody of the curse counterplays with the healing part. Removing it would mean changing the healing, which isn't what we want. I think…" Irwin stopped talking, his mind rapidly flowing through the songs' different permutations until he realized what he had to do.

He jumped up, barely noticing how Ambraz had already returned to his working state, or how the Ganvil joined his hum. Putting the card on the flat surface, he struck it, ignoring the tension that immediately started while listening to the part of the song he'd mostly ignored. The non-cursed, healing part.

Here… this part, he thought, focusing on the interplay between what remained of the damage part of the curse and the healing part. A few crucial beats of the melody, if they were to disappear, the entire healing resonance would unravel. Changing his focus to the heating part of the curse, he began searching, humming, changing it slightly. Time lost its meaning as dozens of permutations came and went until he finally found out.

"Here," he muttered, before taking a deep breath and singing a song while forcing his soulcards to resonate along. He struck the card, but this time he focused solely on the cursed heating part, slowly reshaping a single element, adding a beat that the healing required, and overlapping it with the one existing in the other part of the curse. The tension increased, but only from one side- the damage part. It remained until Irwin struck again, and the heating part of the curse changed to do as he wanted. The resonance spiked, and as Irwin removed the same beat from the damaged part, he felt how that entire section of the card's song began untangling.

'Reforge it up, or it will dissolve,' Ambraz snapped.

Irwin just nodded, sensing the card's original desire, before the curse had somehow taken hold. It wanted to heal. To knit flesh, skin, and bones. Regenerate that which was broken and damaged. There were other paths, one towards personal regeneration, but Irwin ignored it. Between the curse and his own tampering, the card was forced to balance on the tip of a needle. He'd barely realized how close to destruction it had been, so he helped the card, letting the resonance flow where it wanted. As it did, he noticed the increase in the heating element, an almost direct correlation between the increase in healing and the increase in the curse.

Why does the curse part get designated as such? he thought, striking again and feeling the card flow towards a local equilibrium. It's… not like it's bad for everyone? Any Ignitzian or fire elemental would be fine with this. It's more of a benefit than anything else!

As he pondered this, he mechanically continued reforging the card, sideways first, then up as the card began to stabilize. 

He had no idea how long it took, but when he finally finished, the card was humming happily, and a sense of perfect equilibrium returned.

"Well… that worked," Irwin said, grinning at the card.

"Kid, do you have any idea what you did?" Ambraz asked.

Irwin sighed, shaking his head. "No, and like I said last time you asked me something like that, how do you expect me to? So, what happened this time?"

Ambraz barked a laugh. "Just get me that booklet."

Irwin did as asked, feeling a slight curiosity grow as he watched the now green-bordered card.

Card: Radiating Regeneration

Type: Heat, Regeneration, Emerald, [Cursed?]

Owner: -

The owner of this card gains the ability to greatly increase the heat radiating from their body, increasing the surrounding temperature. All those within the radius gain greatly increased regeneration. [Cursed?] The wielder's body becomes hotter with the heat they radiate.

Passive: Minor regeneration increase

Passive: Minor area regeneration boost

Passive: Slight increase in heat resistance

Active: Boost your body's heat to radiate outward, increasing the area and power of the regeneration

"It changed from healing to regeneration," Irwin said, his eyes widening as the implications settled. "That's great!"

"I know," Ambraz agreed. "But keep looking?"

Irwin nodded, pulling his gaze from the name and letting it flow over the rest of the card's text.

"Slight increase in fire resistance," he muttered, before noticing the question marks. "So… what's with the question marks?"

"Don't ask me! This is what my skill makes of it. It's like the card itself doesn't know if it's a negative thing anymore! Stop pulling these crazy stunts, kid. If I had hair like you fleshies, I'd have pulled it out by now!"

Irwin laughed at the image of a Ganvil with hair before focusing on the card.

"So… I'm slowly seeing a pattern for my next heartcard," he said, tapping the card.

"Which is?" Ambraz grunted.

"Area, heat, regeneration, all things my first, third, and fourth cards have," he said. "If we use this one as the base, when we get to the worldcard part, we can blend it with the steam, or perhaps take the steam parts and integrate them with the heat radiating part."

"It's not a bad idea, but what about the elements of your second card? You are starting to specialize yourself towards fire even more like this."

Irwin nodded, pocketing the card and looking around. He sensed nothing, making him wonder if there was even anything in this part of the Portal Gallery.

"What we need is something that increases soulforce capacity based on heat," he said. "If we can get that, it will create overlap between those elements."

What he didn't add was that he still didn't have a way to fix his sound and aura parts. He had ideas, but nothing else. 

It doesn't matter, I'll need this either way, he thought. It will allow many elements of my cards to overlap. 

"So you are going to reforge this up?" Ambraz said. "To Ruby or Diamond?"

"Diamond," Irwin said immediately. "It has enough overlap with my own soulcards."

"So, what do you want to add to it?"

"More range, more regeneration, and perhaps a way to not burn everyone that is near me, as that would defy the point," Irwin said, humming thoughtfully. "But let's do that later. I need to think and rest. We are going to continue forward, and hopefully we will reach Greldo in a week."

"I'll try and find a card that has the potential to increase soulforce and heat," Ambraz said, vanishing in his soulscape. 'Or combining sound and heat… Is there even any overlap with that?'

Irwin didn't answer, but looked around. He could sense from his other body that Scintilla and the children were waking.

I'll see if Scintilla knows anything about heat and soulforce cards, he thought.

He flicked his fingers and vanished into the soundwaves.

--

Days after the powerful waves of soulforce resonance had left the tiny section of the Portal Gallery, a ripple of oily black liquid rushed in through one of the entrances. It spread out, growing to a large flattened drop, and a dark figure stepped out, covered in the dark liquid. After a second of looking around, the dark liquid flowed from the figure back into the drop before fading.

The figure changed from its black-covered shape into a woman with purple hair, pale skin, and squarish eyes. Silver chains hung around her neck, connected to a necklace and from there to her wrists. 

She walked forward, stopped, and sniffed. 

"Definitely here… But days ago," she muttered, her voice as oily as the liquid had been. "I'm closing in, though. I just hope he doesn't move to another Main Branch. Lord Slaudi will not be happy."

Shaking her head, her eyes turned an inky black. The black liquid flooded out around her, covering her back up, and then a black drop reappeared behind her, and her entire figure vanished inside, followed by the drop streaking away.